Head

After Zheng Kun's rough treatment, two of Li Huowang's ribs had been poked broken, and several bruised dents had been left in his body. Luckily, it was nothing serious. With the help of medicinal pills, he could barely treat such minor injuries.

Compared to his wounds, he cared more about his scheme.

On the first day of the lunar month, Li Huowang used another conflict with him as an excuse to casually let slip the information about "Lord You" that he had learned from Bai Lingmiao.

The moment he saw the slight change in Zheng Kun's expression, Li Huowang was overjoyed.

In truth, he had no idea what the other man would do with that information. He only wanted to test him. With nothing else to do, he might as well strike three times whether there were dates on the tree or not. Now, it seemed he had succeeded. The other man definitely had selfish motives of his own.

Days and nights blurred together in the karst cave, and the first day of the lunar month soon arrived. This was Danyangzi's best time for refining pills. He would stay in the Pill Refining Room for an entire morning, and it also happened to be when Lord You was absent.

Though Qingfeng Temple was not large, neither was it small. After living there for so long, Li Huowang had long since figured out Zheng Kun's movements. Yet he did nothing, merely sitting cross-legged in Zhengyi Hall in silence.

"Could I have guessed wrong? Is this guy not that greedy?" Li Huowang lay on his bed, pondering where things had gone awry.

Fifteen days passed, and the first day of the second lunar month arrived. Zheng Kun still made no move.

Just as Li Huowang thought he had miscalculated, Zhengyi Hall, which Zheng Kun often visited, was empty on the fifteenth day of the second lunar month. In the end, Zheng Kun could no longer hold himself back.

The moment he saw Danyangzi open the furnace, Li Huowang hurried toward Danyangzi's residence according to the original plan.

Just before reaching the cave entrance, Li Huowang abruptly stopped. Zheng Kun was standing guard in the distance; he had not gone inside.

Watching him carefully observe the doorway, Li Huowang immediately understood. Someone had gone in for him, while he stood watch. This fellow was even more suspicious than Li Huowang had imagined.

After about half a double hour, Li Huowang saw Xuan Yin sneak out from inside.

Zheng Kun glanced at him, took out a Black Talisman, and stuck it to each of their knees. They vanished as swiftly as a gust of wind.

The door was only left ajar, like a trap tempting people to enter.

Seeing that they had already served as his pathfinders, Li Huowang knew that even if the room had been prepared with dangers, Zheng Kun had probably already dealt with them. He slowly approached. This was his chance.

Danyangzi's residence was quite spacious, but it was cluttered and filthy, with a nauseating stench of dead rats hanging in the air.

Despite the harsh environment, Li Huowang spotted the most obviously valuable object at once: a Stone Slab covered by a net of Black Thread Copper Coins.

As expected, that Stone Slab was the Heavenly Book Danyangzi had spoken of. He carefully walked over and examined its contents through the black threads.

Zheng Kun had certainly come to secretly learn the Immortal Ascension Technique, but judging by the scene, he had failed.

Li Huowang carefully identified the contents of the Heavenly Book. The text was obscure and difficult to understand. He could barely tell that it was pictographic writing, but it seemed to be script from an even more ancient dynasty.

Though Chinese characters had changed the least over thousands of years, he still found it extremely difficult to read.

The more Li Huowang looked, the more something felt wrong. Hadn't Danyangzi said the path to immortality required cultivating both the Inner Elixir and the Outer Elixir? It seemed this fellow had not practiced according to what was written here at all.

"Xi bu pu yin qian ta po... de ru yun guang bu pu yin ze... miao hao shen ling yi qie huo an le jie tuo..."

And no matter how he looked at it, this did not resemble any Immortal Ascension Technique. It was a scripture.

"Heehee." An eerie snicker sent chills down Li Huowang's neck. He swiftly turned around, only to find no one behind him.

In a hollowed-out section of the wall stood only a slender blue-and-white porcelain vase, about as thick as an arm.

"Something isn't right." Trembling with fear, Li Huowang began backing away the way he had come. Zheng Kun apparently had not cleared away every danger.

"Don't move." A sharp, thin female voice rang out behind him.

Li Huowang slowly turned his head again. The sight before him made his spine go cold. Perched atop the mouth of that narrow vase was a pale little girl's head.

She looked like a little girl, yet her skin did not quite resemble that of a living person. The rouge on both her cheeks was especially terrifyingly red.

Staring at the tiny crimson dot at the center of her forehead, red to the utmost extreme, Li Huowang found her more and more unsettling.

In that instant, he understood what Danyangzi relied on to read the Heavenly Book for him: this thing before him.

"You're with that person from earlier? Heehee, you're in big trouble. All I have to do is shake the bells, and my father will come back." Several Copper Bells were tied to her twin topknots with red thread.

At her words, Li Huowang was immediately frantic, but in the next moment, his expression suddenly calmed. "Go ahead and call him. Then your father can come and find out that you deceived him."

When he saw a flicker of panic appear on Vase Head's face, Li Huowang sneered inwardly. He had guessed right. He was not the only one trying to fool illiterate Leper Head. This thing, whatever she was, had been doing it long before him!

When the upper beam was crooked, the lower beam could not stand straight. Everyone in Qingfeng Temple harbored ghosts in their hearts!

"You can't blame me for that! Those characters were written so ugly, I couldn't understand them at all! Father forced me to read them to him. What was I supposed to do?" Vase Head said aggrievedly, tears about to fall.

Seeing the vase girl's utterly flustered expression, Li Huowang considered for a moment before swiftly making a decision.

"Fine. Then let's lay down three rules. I'll leave this place now. You'll pretend you never saw me, and I'll pretend I know nothing about you. That will be good for everyone."

Vase Head swayed, then finally nodded. "All right. Hurry up and leave. I'll pretend you never came."

Li Huowang lifted his foot and slowly edged toward the door. "Since the Heavenly Book is fake, were the Pill Formulas for refining people into pills also made up by you?"

A foolish grin appeared on Vase Head's face. "Yes. I only remembered those things, so I pretended those Pill Formulas were written in the book and told Father. Don't worry, they won't kill anyone if they eat them. I don't want Father to die. I was just afraid Father would find out I'm useless and abandon me. Look, I don't even have hands or feet—"

Just as Vase Head was getting carried away, Li Huowang suddenly raised his right hand, gripped the Jade Pendant tightly, and smashed it down at the vase.

The Round Jade Pendant streaked like a white shadow and instantly struck the vase. Cracks spread across it, and amid Vase Head's panic, she crashed heavily to the ground.

The vase shattered, exposing the internal organs wrapped in black Buddhist beads, mixed with feces and urine, directly to the air.

"Wuwuwu! Father!! It hurts, Father! It hurts so much!" Vase Head's cries grew weaker and weaker.