Mutated Tao

The problem right now was that no one else in the Qi Kingdom was capable of it. Other than the area around the You Capital, which was doing relatively well, the other places were still stricken with famine.

Since it was impossible for another group of people to live in a community outside of the You Capital, Chan Du and the others were naturally the only suspects.

Even though the sun did not move, Li Huowang slowly kept track of the time.

The fourth division had just passed when he heard rapid footsteps outside of the granary. It was Chan Du, but he had returned empty-handed.

Chan Du was unflustered when he greeted Li Huowang. “Benefactor Li, the Gan family has managed to divine where they are and found out where your sword is! Please follow us. You’ll get to see the people who tried to assassinate you with your own eyes!”

Li Huowang jumped down from the sacks of grain. “Abbot, remember that monks can’t lie. I hope you’re not pushing me into another trap.”

Chan Du frowned but remained silent as he led Li Huowang outside.

“If you located the Gan family, why didn’t you tell me before?”

Chan Du remained silent and continued to lead the way.

Li Huowang and Chan Du arrived outside the city and saw the soldiers, the Mo family, members of the Minglun Hall, a Daoist from the Luo sect, and two members of the Ao Jing Sect. Each individual was armed with their respective weapons.

Li Huowang’s body lit up again. “What are you thinking of doing?”

“Daoist, we are naturally here to help you recover your weapon.”

Li Huowang sighed in relief because the worst-case scenario did not happen.

“Let’s go. Where are they right now?” Li Huowang ran first. He was unaware of the situation but determined to retrieve his swords quickly.

“There’s a village to the southwest. They should be there.”

Li Huowang ran faster, but a question popped into his mind. Who else in the Qi Kingdom could do this if it wasn’t Chan Du and the others?

Li Huowang was unable to figure it out.

The Qi Kingdom had fallen, and everyone was busy figuring out how to obtain more food for themselves. Who would run all the way here to ambush me? Did they go crazy from starvation?

Li Huowang only snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed he had arrived. The village lay in ruins and was utterly desolate.

Everyone scattered and surrounded the village.

Li Huowang checked his Shimmer Mirror and saw that there was indeed someone inside the village. They came to the right place.

It was clear that the people inside the village weren’t villagers. The regular villagers were all heading towards the You Capital to find food. They wouldn’t stay here and starve.

With a single order from Li Huowang, everyone stormed into the village, causing the once peaceful atmosphere to be consumed by a frenzy of bloodlust.

Li Huowang had already burned most of the assassins to death during their ambush, so there weren’t many of them remaining. The six people inside the village were overwhelmed, and the battle ended quickly.

“Daoist, your sword!” Chen Yurong gave the spine sword to Li Huowang with both hands.

Li Huowang grabbed the sword but frowned. “This is not Zhuge Yuan’s spine sword! This is my own spine! I need the other one!”

They all turned to the two living assassins.

“Where’s the other sword?” Li Huowang’s lips trembled as he fished out his torture tools.

The two assassins looked at each other and closed their eyes simultaneously.

Sensing that something was wrong, Chan Du stuffed his prayer beads into their flesh, but it was too late. Their bodies exploded.

“Shit!” Li Huowang roared. They were dead, and the trail ended with them.

Li Huowang looked at Chan Du again. “Find them! The Gan family excels at divination, right? Ask them to find out where the other spine sword is! It’s the key.”

However, Chan Du’s answer plunged him into cold water. “Benefactor Li, the Twisted One’s spine sword cannot be divined.”

Li Huowang frowned and paced around, his gaze eventually falling on the corpses. “Do we have anyone from the Fangxian Sect?”

“Benefactor, what’s the Fangxian Sect?”

“Damn it. It’s do or die now!” Li Huowang grabbed one of the dead assassin’s heads and carefully shaved off their hair to reveal their scalp.

Li Huowang closed his eyes and took a deep breath before muttering, “I can see it! I can see it!”

He repeated it before he opened his eyes and cracked open the scalp. He dipped his fingers into the assassin’s brain, searching for the information he needed as if it were a book.

Li Huowang’s intense rummaging made the brain swiftly break down and turn into soup. Unfortunately, no words or images emerged in Li Huowang’s mind even though the brain had been entirely pulverized.

“Fuck!” Li Huowang threw the skull onto the ground and stomped on it. His cultivation could do nothing right now!

Li Huowang was about to fly off the handle when he found something bizarre with the exploded corpse.

“Wait a minute.” He calmed down and inspected the corpses as he thrust his fingers into the stomach of the corpse.

“Benefactor Li, did you find something?” Chan Du asked.

Li Huowang said nothing as he frowned. He checked the other corpses by opening their stomach and rummaging it around.

He did this for all six corpses and became very moody.

One of the Minglun Hall members, Liang Yuxuan, couldn’t hold back any longer when he saw Li Huowang inspecting the sixth corpse. “Daoist, did you find something?”

Li Huowang tore off an organ from the corpse. “Do you know what this is? It’s a stomach.”

He cut open the stomach. The putrid stench made Liang Yuxuan step back as he held onto his nose.

“Look at the contents of the stomach. He was eating really well before he died. Look, this is an egg.” Li Huowang picked off some yellowish goo from the stomach.

He then took a whiff at the stomach. “And it seems that they had drank some wine before they died.”

After explaining that, Li Huowang noticed that Liang Yuxuan was still confused. “You still don’t understand? Something’s wrong with what they’ve eaten!”

Li Huowang pointed at the first corpse. “He ate chives dumplings.”

He then pointed at the second corpse. “This person ate scallion tofu.”

Whenever he pointed at a corpse, he would name a single dish. Eventually, he pointed at the last corpse. “This person ate a scallion omelet. Now, isn’t this interesting? I didn’t bring any of the necessary ingredients into the Qi Kingdom. How could they have eaten such dishes?”

Indeed. Food was scarce here. No one here was able to eat omelets or drink wine.

“Unless…”

Liang Yuxuan had just opened his mouth when Li Huowang cut them off. “Unless they were not from the Qi Kingdom!”

Li Huowang’s body deflated when he said that. He muttered to himself in disappointment. “Yeah, I should’ve known they were not from the Qi Kingdom…”

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