Mutated Tao

Chapter 16: Head

Zheng Kun’s attacks had broken two of Li Huowang’s ribs, and he had also received numerous bruises on his body. Fortunately, all of these were injuries that could be recovered from by just consuming some pills.

Rather than being worried about his injuries, he was much more concerned about his plan.

On the first day of the next month, Li Huowang went and found Zheng Kun. He once again taunted Zheng Kun, inciting the latter to hit him again. During the conflict, he let the information about the Wandering Gods slip out, making it look like he had an accidental slip of the tongue.

When he saw Zheng Kun’s expression change ever so slightly, Li Huowang knew that he had succeeded. Zheng Kun must’ve wanted to learn how to become an Immortal.

He hadn’t known for sure how Zheng Kun would react to this information. However, he felt that there wasn’t much to lose, and based on Zheng Kun’s reaction, it seemed that he had succeeded.

Soon, it was once again the fifteenth day of the month. Today was a good day to refine pills, meaning that Dan Yangzi would stay in the Pill Room for the entire afternoon. It was also a day when the Wandering Gods were absent.

Though the Zephyr Temple was fairly large, Li Huowang had long since identified Zheng Kun’s usual route. At this moment, Zheng Kun was silently meditating in one of the halls.

Did I guess it wrongly? Don’t tell me that he doesn’t actually want to become an Immortal?

Another fifteen days passed, yet Zheng Kun did not act this time either.

Finally, when Li Huowang had thought that all hope was lost, on the fifteenth day of the second month, Zheng Kun was nowhere to be found in his usual location at the Zheng Yi Hall. It looked like Zheng Kun had finally decided to act.

While Dan Yangzi was refining pills, Li Huowang followed his plan and rushed toward Dan Yangzi’s room.

Just as he had almost reached the cave that was Dan Yangzi’s room, Li Huowang suddenly stopped. He saw Zheng Kun standing a distance away from the entrance to Dan Yangzi’s room.

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Judging by his behavior, it seemed that Zheng Kun had used someone to trigger whatever traps were present in Dan Yangzi’s room while he himself kept watch. From the looks of it, he was more careful than Li Huowang had thought.

Finally, after an hour had passed, Li Huowang saw Xuan Yin sneaking out of Dan Yangzi’s room.

Seeing that it was safe, Zheng Kun took out two pairs of black talismans. Both of them placed a talisman each on their knees and disappeared like the wind.

The entrance to Dan Yangzi’s room had a door, and currently, it had been opened ever so slightly, luring whoever was curious enough into its trap.

Seeing that someone else had already gone in and come back out safely, Li Huowang knew that whatever traps there were inside the cave should have been disarmed. He silently walked toward the room.

This was his chance!

Dan Yangzi’s room was quite spacious, but it was extremely messy. There was even the stench of dead rats hanging in the air.

Even though the place was vile, Li Huowang immediately saw something quite valuable within the room—a single stone slab wrapped in a net of bronze coins that was held together using black threads.

If his guess was correct, the stone slab should be the sacred text that Dan Yangzi had told him about. He carefully walked over to the stone slab and read its contents without disturbing the net of bronze coins around it.

While Zheng Kun wanted to secretly learn the method to become an Immortal, based on his surroundings, it seemed that he had failed to find anything.

Li Huowang read the sacred text carefully, but it was barely legible. The text reminded him of ancient Chinese hieroglyphics; however, it was more likely that the text was written in a language that was even more ancient than hieroglyphics.

While the characters of the Chinese language had seen a relatively lesser amount of changes over time compared to the other languages, these characters were still extremely difficult to decipher. The more he read, the more he felt that it was wrong.

Didn’t Dan Yangzi say that one must cultivate both the Dao of Internal Pills and the Dao of External Pills in order to become an Immortal? However, this sacred text doesn’t state this.

“Gandharva appears amongst every soul… and out of his own selfless accord… because he feels content, all of the souls will be content too…”

Wait a minute, this isn’t a sacred text. It’s just some random scripture!

“Hehe~” At that moment, a spine-chilling snicker sounded behind him.

He quickly turned around only to find nothing behind him.

Instead, he saw that there was a small hole within the cave. Within that hole was a tall green vase that was the size of his forearm.

Something isn’t right.

Li Huowang slowly made his way back to the entrance of the cave, making sure that he retraced his steps exactly. Based on the current situation, it seemed that Zheng Kun had not removed all of the dangers.

“Don’t move.” A shrill girl’s voice resounded behind him.

Li Huowang slowly turned his head backward and saw something horrifying—there was a pale girl’s head placed on the mouth of the vase.

The girl didn’t seem to be alive. Her skin was as pale as a corpse, yet her cheeks were extremely red due to makeup.

There was a red dot on the girl’s forehead. Li Huowang stared at it and felt that all this was quite surreal.

He immediately knew who was the one who had been reading the sacred text for Dan Yangzi. Looks like it was… whatever that thing was.

“Are you with the guys from just now? You are in quite a lot of trouble hehe~ All I need to do is to ring the bell and my father will immediately come back.” Her braids were tied to several red threads, all of them attached to little bronze bells.

Li Huowang immediately realized the immense danger he was in! He quickly reorganized his thoughts and acted calmly. “Go ahead and call him then. Once he’s here, I will let him know that you’ve been cheating him.”

Seeing the head on the vase reveal an expression filled with nervousness, Li Huowang chuckled.

I was right! Looks like I’m not the only one who wants to lie to that illiterate Baldy.

Whatever this thing was, it was already doing something he planned to do!

No one in the Zephyr Temple was trustworthy! Each and every single one of them had their own schemes.

“You can’t blame me! The words were so complex and so I couldn’t read them! Father forced me to read them, so there is nothing I could have done!” The head on the vase cried.

Looking at how she was almost about to break down, Li Huowang amended his plan and came to a decision.

“Ok, then let’s make a deal. I will leave this place right now, and you should act as if I was never even here. I will also act as if this place never existed. This way, everyone will be able to protect their lives.”

The head on the vase thought about it for a moment and agreed. “Ok, then go quickly. I will also act as if you were never here.”

Li Huowang slowly walked toward the entrance. “Since the sacred text is fake, did you also lie to him about using humans to refine pills?”

The head on the vase smiled. “Yes. Because I remember reading a recipe that used humans as ingredients for guiding drugs. So I lied and told him about the recipe as if that was what was written in the sacred text. Don’t worry, the pills are not deadly. After all, I don’t want my father to die. However, I’m afraid that once he knows that I am worthless, he will abandon me. Look, I don’t even have any limbs—”

Just as she was chatting up a storm, Li Huowang suddenly raised his right arm and smashed the jade pendant at the vase.

The round jade pendant became a blur of white before hitting the vase hard, causing the vase to fall down on the floor and crack.

The vase broke into several pieces, allowing Li Huowang to see what was in the vase. A complete set of organs was tied together using black prayer beads, and covered in feces and urine.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaa! FATHER! It hurts! Father! It hurts so much…” The cries of the girl slowly faded away.

Chacha and Char’s Thoughts

Nightmare time, this is what the girl in the vase looks like. @格子的乱七八糟