Mutated Tao

“Sigh! You don’t need to worry about these kinds of things. As long as you gather more people when you travel, you should be fine,” Lu Zhuangyuan told Li Huowang based on his experience.

“Oh? Is it because the more people we have, the more Yang energy we would have, and thus those things wouldn’t come to disturb us?”

“Yeah!” Lu Zhuangyuan placed some new tobacco cuttings into his smoke pipe and continued smoking. “Even if they want to eat people, how many people could they possibly eat? Even if we meet one, all we need to do is run faster than the others. Rather than worrying about these kinds of things, I would rather worry about bandits and man-eating insects.”

Li Huowang didn’t know what else he could say. It looked like his knowledge of this world was still insufficient.

“Come, the buns have been cooked. You should eat them while they’re hot.” Luo Juanhua approached them with some buns that were lightly grilled on sticks.

Li Huowang accepted the buns and passed them to some of the young assistants that he had picked up along the way.

These assistants were the children who used to do the menial tasks back in the Zephyr Temple; they had made a run for it without any preparations as soon as they left Zephyr Temple.

When Li Huowang and the rest found some of them, they had already fainted due to extreme hunger.

And so, Li Huowang had picked them up along the way. He didn’t have the heart to let them be on their own.

Staring at the hot food, the rest of them immediately started eating; it was already late, and they were starving.

Seeing Simpleton consuming one bun per bite, Lu Zhuangyuan’s eyes twitched a little.

These are white buns! It’s something so expensive that I wouldn’t even eat it usually. Damn, maybe I shouldn’t have taken out so many of them.

Just then, Li Huowang asked Lu Zhuangyuan about something he knew. “Old man, do you happen to have a map? I’m not from around here and was lost in the forest. I have no idea where we are right now.”

Li Huowang was indeed lost. The only things around them were trees. Without being able to pinpoint their location, they were effectively stuck here. The others didn’t know where they were either.

The rest of them came from places that were quite far away from here. They only knew about the street they used to live on, or which area they had lived in within their town. But when Li Huowang asked them about how to get there, they didn’t know.

It seemed that Dan Yangzi avoided finding guiding drug ingredients from just a single area to cover up his tracks.

“Hm? A map? No, I don’t have one; however, I know the roads around here. Where would you like to go?”

“I need to go to many places. Please take a look at these and see which of these places is the closest,” Li Huowang said as he took out many pieces of paper from his sleeves.

“Huh? What’s this? What are the words written on these?” Lu Zhuangyuan stared at the papers, his wrinkled face scrunched up as he tried to read the words.

Even though the meaning of his name was ‘scholar’, he wasn’t one. If he was, he wouldn’t have needed to organize his own theater troupe.

Lu Zhuangyuan could read only some words. Under Li Huowang’s guidance, he finally understood the addresses that were written on each of the pieces of paper.

Thankfully he knew most of the places written about on the paper. After all, he had traveled the lands for a very long time.

But even if he knew where these places were, it didn’t mean that Li Huowang could get to them easily.

“Wow, you even have to go to a place in the Liang Kingdom? It was the country that waged war with our Qi Kingdom two years ago.”

Lu Zhuangyuan squatted down, using his smoking pipe to draw a rough map on the ground.

If Li Huowang were to describe the map, it looked like a giant piece of biscuit fell onto the ground and was shattered to pieces.

They were currently on the top left side of the map. As they moved to the right, there were numerous kingdoms that they would have to go through.

It seems similar to ancient China when the kingdoms were not united. Li Huowang noted as he stared at the map.

While Li Huowang didn’t have high expectations, he more or less confirmed the fact that he had not traveled back in time to ancient China. Based on the map, it seemed that he was in a much more special place.

“I’ve only traveled through the northern border region of our kingdom. I am familiar with most places around here. But I have no idea where most of these kingdoms are. All I know is that they put on a very different kind of show there, much different from ours.”

Bai Lingmiao felt anxious. Her home was located at the base of the Cowheart Mountain in Liang Kingdom. From the looks of it, her house was very far away.

Li Huowang felt the slight shift in her mood and comforted her. “Don’t worry.”

Lu Zhuangyuan stared at Li Huowang and the malformed people behind him. His mind had started to become more and more active now that they were out of danger, and he no longer had to fear for his life.

“Young Taoist, one of your destinations is the town of Jianye. We will be passing by that place too. How about we travel together?”

“Jianye village? Whose village is this?” Li Huowang asked as he rummaged through the pile of paper.

“Senior Li, it’s my village,” Zhao Wu suddenly said. “There’s an escort service in that town. If you pay them some money, they will be able to send letters to the entire Nanping area.”

Li Huowang no longer hesitated, placing all the papers back into the sleeves of his robe. “Alright old man, looks like we will have to travel together till Jianye village.”

Both the map and the information he had gotten from the old man were not enough for Li Huowang. He needed to reach a place where he could get more information. There was much to do, including the fact that he had to find more Black Taisui to suppress his ailment and send out the letters, and they even needed to prepare more food for themselves. If possible, Li Huowang even needed to find some other sects.

This was a dangerous world. They would all perish if they didn’t have enough strength. Li Huowang didn’t want to get kidnapped by someone like Dan Yangzi again.

Lu Zhuangyuan was happy and immediately waved his hand in front of himself. “No need to be so courteous; in fact, I should be the one thanking you!”

Even though he said that, Lu Zhuangyuan was extremely happy on the inside. With such a Taoist by his side, it was akin to getting free protection!

At the very least, this was enough to recoup the cost of those white buns and five salted duck eggs.

“Yawn~” At that moment, Simpleton yawned loudly. He had eaten and wanted to go to bed.

Seeing how everyone’s eyes were half shut, Lu Zhuangyuan stood up. “Oops. It’s already this late into the night. Young Taoist, please go to bed. I will watch over the fire.”

“No need, let me do it instead,” said Li Huowang. He wasn’t trying to be friendly; he just didn’t want to trust anyone.

Everyone was tired after their journey. Soon, both groups of people huddled near the fire and drifted to sleep. Only Li Huowang and Lu Zhuangyuan stayed awake as they kept watch.

The next morning, Li Huowang was woken up by Puppy, who was in charge of keeping watch in the second half of the night. “Senior Li, they are already packing their stuff.”

“Let’s go, we need to move as well.” Li Huowang picked up his sword and the stone tablet. He led everyone else to follow the troupe.

While they were traveling together, both parties were quite cautious of each other. The two groups didn’t speak to each other, only whispering to their own companions.

On the other hand, Li Huowang and Lu Zhuangyuan were happily chatting away at the front.

Li Huowang needed to learn more about this world from Lu Zhuangyuan, while the latter wanted to solidify their companionship. After all, to Lu Zhuangyuan, praises were free, and more praises were always welcome.

“Oh my. To think that you are so strong even though you are so young. It looks like your future will be limitless. Haha~”

Chacha and Char’s Thoughts

This is Lu Zhuangyuan with his smoke pipe and salted eggs! @格子的乱七八糟