Mutated Tao

Chapter 568: Locate

When Li Huowang crawled out of the well, he was surprised to see that the Great Qin's sun had gotten even worse. A huge chunk of the sun had been blotted out, and Li Huowang could only see the edge of it.

Just then, Li Huowang's mouth opened uncontrollably, and he started coughing, which slowly transformed into the cries of a stork. “God Yu’er!”

Li Huowang unsheathed his sword and swung it before launching himself into the spacetime rift to return to the Liang Kingdom.

On the other side, Li Huowang finally managed to fix his dislocated jaw. He was covered in cold sweat when he realized that the Great Qi was going through another Natural Disaster again.

Li Huowang had no idea whether the Natural Disaster would kill the survivors or not, but there was a high chance that it would happen as the previous one had lasted for such a long time.

Li Huowang could still remember what Zhuge Yuan had told him. He took a deep breath and punched the tree next to him. Then, he started moving toward where he had thrown the young emperor of the Qi Kingdom. He needed to find him!

Li Huowang rode his horse and reached the location where he had sent the Qi Kingdom’s young emperor through the rift. He had mentioned this location to Li Sui and had decided to forget about it. He examined every nook and cranny to find not even a single trace of the young emperor, which baffled Li Huowang. His senses were heightened, but he still couldn’t find anything.

“That’s strange. I stabbed him, and he was bleeding so much. There should be some blood here even if beasts had devoured him."

Li Huowang increased the range of his search and found a set of faint footprints.

He followed the set of footprints, and his sharp senses allowed him to track down the footprints until they became clearer.

Soon, Li Huowang found himself approaching the end of the footprints, and he gripped his sword tightly.

Li Huowang found a figure hunching over before a bush, and the figure belonged to an old man with a bed of white hair.

The old man stood there motionlessly like a statue, and his bizarre antics made Li Huowang immediately wary of the old man.

Li Huowang swung his bronze coin sword, which lashed out like a whip, cutting off a tuff of the old man's white hair.

“Ah!” the old man exclaimed, falling to the ground in surprise.

“He’s alive?” Li Huowang ran forward and realized that the old man was just a regular old man, who had pissed his pants upon getting the shock of his life, courtesy of Li Huowang.

“Please spare me! Please!” The old man didn’t even look at Li Huowang's face as he kowtowed toward the latter.

“Get up!” Li Huowang placed his sword against the old man’s neck. “Did you pick up a baby around here recently?”

“Huh? A baby? I’m here to catch ginseng! What baby?”

“Ginseng?”

The old man pointed at the ground, but Li Huowang saw nothing. All he saw was a small hole as well as a red thread tied to some bells.

“Where’s the ginseng?”

“It ran away. I’ve been tracking it here for half a year! I could have sold it in the city if I had caught it!” the old man exclaimed, and he soon began sobbing at his lost income. [1]

“What nonsense... anyway, are you familiar with this region?”

“Yes!” The old man nodded vigorously as if Li Huowang would cut him down if he answered even a beat slower.

“Is there anyone else here except for you?”

“I don’t know, but I do know that only those in my village will come into this region.”

Did someone in his village pick up the young emperor of the Qi Kingdom?

The young emperor of the Qi Kingdom was a palm-sized figure with translucent skin, so Li Huowang believed that the emperor couldn't possibly walk away in that condition.

“Bring me to your village!” Li Huowang demanded.

The old man dared not refuse him and brought Li Huowang out of the forest.

Li Huowang found himself walking on a familiar path. He recalled that it was the same village where he had exchanged that jade pendant for a horse. He had just reached the village entrance when he saw a naked young child around ten years of age hanging from a tree. The red streaks all over him proved that he had just been caned using a willow tree branch. The child was crying and howling in pain. Several villagers stood around the boy, and it looked like they weren't going to rescue him anytime soon.

“Ah! That’s my grandson! What’s happening?” The old man panicked and ran over. He grabbed the large man, who was in the middle of hitting the young boy, and exclaimed, “Son, have you gone mad?! Why are you hitting your own son so hard?”

“I'm going to cane him to death and make another one! Do you not have any idea what he had done? Three days ago, he pooped into our well!”

“What?!” The old man grabbed the willow stick and caned his own grandson.

Li Huowang swept his gaze across the people at the entrance of the village. He suddenly came up with an idea, and he jumped onto a tree branch, exclaiming, “Everyone! Please listen to me! Not long ago, my sister had an early birth. We thought the baby was dead, so we buried it in the eastern side of the forest, but an Immortal told me that my nephew was still alive! My sister sent me here to find him. I'll give ten catties of gold to those who'll help me find my nephew.”

Everyone went into a frenzy at Li Huowang's remark, and even the old man stopped caning his grandson. He turned to his son, and the two started whispering to each other.

Li Huowang swiftly looked around to observe their emotions, as well as their Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings.

Rather than relying on rewards, he decided to use the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s methods to find the young emperor of the Qi Kingdom.

However, he was disappointed when he found nothing; the villagers hadn't found the young emperor in the forest.

“Sigh. A child unattended in the forest will quickly be devoured by beasts...”

“Yeah. How can we possibly find that child?”

“The Daoist sure is quite attached to his earthly desires. To think that he still cares about his family, even though he’s already cultivating.”

“Hey, wasn’t he the one who took the horse of the Song family? I’ve heard that it was a Daoist in red robes that took it.”

Li Huowang was disappointed. The villagers truly hadn't accidentally picked up the young emperor of the Qi Kingdom.

“Sigh~ Maybe someone with a kind heart has taken the baby away. There are people who yearn for a child but can't pregnant, so I can't believe that there are people who'll throw their child away in such a ruthless way. Wait, I think something like that has happened before here,” the old man said. However, the villagers retreated slowly from the old man as if they had enough of his story. “Why won't you listen to my story? Anyway, it happened thirty years ago. Old Yan really found a bloody baby on the eastern side of the forest. The baby looked like a skinned monkey with a wound on his chest. We told him to leave the baby alone, but what if the baby became a ghost and possessed him in retaliation?”

1. An old folklore that ginsengs can run away like a man since it resembles an energetic man ☜

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