Mutated Tao

“Hihihi~ Tell me. Do I look like a human or a God?”

The ‘thing’ in the forest shook the branches, her voice growing louder and sharper.

“You look like a human! Please spare us! We are all hardworking people who are just trying to survive!”

Lu Zhuangyuan was overtaken by fear and started groveling on the floor, kowtowing endlessly toward the direction of the voice.

He continued groveling until he saw a pair of feet wearing red-colored embroidered shoes at the edges of the forest.

He felt chills running down his spine as he slowly raised his head and saw a girl wearing a padded flower jacket standing there, her feet looking comically small. Her face was large and white, but her mouth was very small by comparison. Her eyes were like black beads, unmoving and unblinking. Her white face was especially conspicuous within the darkness, almost looking like a floating balloon.

“Hehe, you think I’m a human?” The ‘girl’ with the tiny feet covered her mouth as ‘she’ laughed before walking closer toward the bonfire.

When Lu Zhuangyuan saw her body wriggling around as if ‘she’ didn’t have a skeleton, he knew that he was fucked. It was a real spirit this time!

“A-a child! Everyone! Wake up! I need a boy’s urine!” Lu Zhuangyuan’s horror-filled voice woke everyone up.

Lu Juren grabbed a burning stick from the bonfire and threw it toward the spirit.

However, the burning stick just passed right through the body of the ‘girl’.

The ‘girl’ with tiny feet slowly approached the bonfire before stopping. ‘She’ then turned toward the Eastern direction.

At the same time, the tree branches before Li Huowang shook as he and the rest of his group appeared from the forest while holding a few glowing rocks in their hands.

“Hmm?” Bai Lingmiao, who had already taken off her blindfold, saw that something was wrong. “Senior Li, that ‘girl’ might be a spirit! She has another face on the back of her head!”

Li Huowang unsheathed his long sword and stared warily at the girl with tiny feet. “What are you?”

“Hehe~ Can’t you see? I’m a human!” Her voice rang out once again as ‘she’ moved her body like a centipede, quickly approaching her new targets.

Meanwhile, Li Huowang wouldn’t give up easily. He immediately took out the bronze bell from his left sleeve. There was a dent on the surface of the bell.

As soon as he shook it, the ear-piercing sound of the bell rang out, and everyone, including Li Huowang, had to cover their ears as they started experiencing head-splitting pain.

However, Li Huowang did not stop; he continued ringing the bell. Soon, he saw everything within his vision, including the spirit, start to shake.

At that moment, the padded jacket of the spirit exploded, releasing a cloud of black fumes.

The bronze bell was effective against her!

Meanwhile, the spirit screamed in pain and ran back into the depths of the forest, her body slowly disintegrating. Soon, ‘she’ disappeared from everyone’s field of vision.

The ringing sound of the bell soon stopped, and then Li Huowang examined the bronze bell with a surprised expression.

To think that not only could this thing be used to call the Wandering Gods, but you could even use it in situations such as these.

Unfortunately, everytime he rang the bell, the most he could achieve was to cause the edges of the world to squirm and shake; the Wandering Gods never appeared in front of him. He didn’t know whether it was due to the dent in the bell or if there were some other causes.

At the same time, the more he learned about this world, the more bewildered he was. What were all these monstrosities?

“Savior!! Our savior! Thank you so much for helping us! I was blind not to acknowledge you before! Come! Come and join us by the fire.” Lu Zhuangyuan, tears and snot all over his face, happily pulled Li Huowang toward the fire.

Compared to that scary thing, those weird-looking people behind the young Taoist were much better! With the young Taoist here, at most they just looked scary, but, the spirit from just now could’ve taken their lives!

“Sigh! This damned animal! If it hadn’t suddenly run away earlier, how could I have possibly abandoned you.” Lu Zhuangyuan gestured his smoking pipe toward his horse, tapping it gently.

After tapping his pipe a few times, he suddenly shouted toward the people behind him. “Juanhua, quickly go and bring out some buns and water. Bring the largest and highest quality white buns. Also, bring three…no, five salted duck eggs!”

Li Huowang was not used to such hospitality, especially with how friendly Lu Zhuangyuan was acting toward them. “Old man, there’s no need to go to such lengths for us. Can I ask you some questions?”

“Ask! Ask away! You just saved all our lives earlier! Ask me anything!” Lu Zhuangyuan patted his chest with pride.

Lu Zhuangyuan even wiped the mouthpiece of the pipe he was smoking with his shirt before lighting up a puff and passing it to Li Huowang.

“Erm… thanks old man, but I don’t smoke. Now, can you tell me what it was that we just encountered? What was that thing called?” Li Huowang said as he gently pushed the pipe back into Lu Zhuangyuan’s hands.

Li Huowang still knew nothing about this world. If he wanted to survive here, he needed to learn more about it.

Lu Zhuangyuan was stunned by his question. “Huh? How would I know? Young Taoist, you were the one who chased it away. Shouldn’t you know more about it than me?”

Looking at the old man’s confused eyes, Li Huowang realized that he had asked the wrong person. The old man might not even know as much as him.

“I heard you shouting and asking for a boy’s urine. Would it be able to hurt that thing?”

“Yeah! These kinds of things are afraid of filthy things. I’ve heard that it could work even if we were to use our snot. But the best item would still be a young boy’s urine. It’s filled with Yang energy, and at the same time, it’s considered really filthy.”

“Really? Have you used it before?”

In the face of this question, Lu Zhuangyuan, who had been certain of what he had said until now, suddenly turned sheepish. He chuckled as his eyes darted around. “Maybe? It was the elders in the village who always told us this technique. Since they told us about it so often, I guess it should work.”

Li Huowang sighed.

Why is it another folklore passed down using word of mouth? This place is much too backward.

“Alright old man. Then let me ask you something you would know the answer to. Have you encountered these kinds of things before? If yes, how frequent was it?”

“Nah, if I were to encounter these kinds of things every day, then I would’ve quit running around with my troupe and taken my son back to our village to tend to the fields,” Lu Zhuangyuan said as he placed his pipe in his mouth and took another puff.

“I’ve traveled the lands for so long and have only encountered spirits a total of four times,” he continued.

“I see.” Li Huowang surveyed the forest around him. He had gained a slightly better understanding of the world he was in.

After living with Dan Yangzi for such a long time, he had thought that things like the Black Taisui would be everywhere around him. However, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Even though everyone had heard of these kinds of things happening, from the looks of it, it was still very rare to experience such things.

Chacha and Char’s Thoughts

MC coming in clutch!