Forest Path

"Clang~" The Longsword collided with the Heavenly Book, creating an extremely grating friction sound, causing everyone else in the room to instinctively cover their ears and take two steps back.

"Didn't even leave a mark. Chang Ming's sword is no good. Isn't he a sword cultivator? This sword shouldn't be ordinary." Li Huowang pondered for a few seconds while holding the sword, then gripped the hilt with both hands, swung it around, and chopped down heavily again.

After gritting his teeth and hacking several times in a row, the situation finally changed, but the change didn't come from the so-called Heavenly Book, but from the Longsword in Li Huowang's hand.

With a "clang," the blade split in two at the point of impact, and the perfectly good Longsword became a broken sword.

Looking at the broken sword in his hand, Li Huowang was immediately a little dumbfounded. The weapon he had just obtained was gone just like that.

Looking around, Li Huowang quickly took a few steps and snatched the sword from the dead Chang Ren. "Luckily, there's a spare."

"Swish—" The Longsword entered its sheath, and Li Huowang circled the Heavenly Book, wondering what to do next.

He had originally planned to destroy this so-called Heavenly Book, but now it seemed that this Heavenly Book really had something to it and was likely a treasure.

Since he had made up his mind not to give up on himself, he naturally couldn't discard something so valuable. "No matter what, I'll take it with me first. If nothing else, I can take it to a pawnshop and exchange it for some money."

As for the unrealistic idea of becoming an immortal with this thing, Li Huowang had completely abandoned it. He had already seen the fate of those who had tried before, and he didn't want to be the next one.

Li Huowang struggled to lift it and weighed it in his arms. The stone slab was heavier than he had imagined, but it was within a manageable range.

After wrapping the stone slab in cloth and carrying it on his back, he said to the others waiting beside him, "Let's go, we're leaving here."

The lamp oil was thrown into Danyangzi's stinky cave, and the flames spread along the oil on the ground, igniting everything that could be ignited in the room, including Chang Ming, Chang Ren, and Xuan Yuan on the ground.

The fire was huge. Li Huowang realized only when he saw the scene before him that human corpses were natural combustibles.

They walked back the way they had come, gradually setting fire to all the rooms. The scorching flames swayed, gradually uniting, burning everything that could be burned in Qingfeng Temple, and blackening everything that couldn't be burned.

"Cough, cough~" The thick smoke began to make the others cough, and everyone quickened their pace.

After the time it takes to burn Three Incense Sticks, everyone stood under the sunlight, silently watching the Qingfeng Temple cave entrance, which was billowing with smoke.

The thick smoke billowed and swayed straight up, enveloping all the darkness and evil within Qingfeng Temple, disappearing into the bright sky.

Li Huowang, looking up, chuckled again, carrying the Longsword and stone slab on his back, and turned to walk towards the Forest Path in the distance. "Let's go."

The others carrying food followed one after another. Unknowingly, Li Huowang had become their leader.

Looking at the Forest Path that was gradually approaching in the distance, Li Huowang's mood was no longer low.

"Ah, this place looks very peculiar. I wonder what kind of people and things I will encounter in the future. Suddenly, I'm looking forward to it."

The sunlight shone on his face, and as he breathed in the fresh air, his mood began to change for the better.

"Senior Brother Li, slow down, my eyes hurt."

Li Huowang turned his head and saw Bai Lingmiao covering her eyes in the sunlight.

He walked over, cupped her face in his hands, and examined her carefully. He was surprised to find that he could see the blood vessels behind her eyeballs from the center of her pupils. The pink color was the color of the dark red blood vessels illuminated by the light.

"This... should be some kind of defect, right?" Li Huowang guessed in his heart.

He wasn't a doctor and didn't understand these things, but he could guess some things, because Li Huowang remembered that most of the elderly albinos who did fortune-telling and massage were blind.

It seemed that Bai Lingmiao's condition would cause defects in her eyes, making them much more fragile than ordinary people's eyes.

This wouldn't do. Li Huowang tore a strip of cloth from the hem of his Azure Daoist Robe and gently covered Bai Lingmiao's eyes. "From now on, whenever the sun is out, you should cover them."

"But... I won't be able to see like this."

"It's okay, I'll hold you." Li Huowang grabbed Bai Lingmiao's soft right hand, leading the others as they strode into the forest.

Bai Lingmiao stumbled a few times, then followed Li Huowang, jogging along.

"Tap tap tap~" Lu Zhuangyuan, his face full of wrinkles, vigorously tapped his own dry tobacco pipe against the side of the opera box.

After knocking out all the black tobacco shreds stuck inside, he took out new tobacco shreds from his pouch, and lit them with a fire striker.

Taking a satisfying puff, he shouted towards the forest in the direction of the horse's head, "Hey kid, are you done yet?"

"Almost, almost!" A young boy's response came from over there.

"A lazy donkey has a lot of pee and poop when grinding, taking so long to take a dump, anyone who didn't know would think I was mistreating you, making you eat Guanyin clay." Lu Zhuangyuan grumbled about his youngest son while smoking his dry tobacco pipe.

His gaze shifted towards the back of the cart, looking at his entire opera troupe on the Forest Path. Besides a horse-drawn cart carrying the opera costumes and instrument boxes,

there was also his eldest son's family of three, as well as two distant nephews he had brought from the village. Don't underestimate the small troupe, it was all the wealth he had managed to accumulate over the years.

It was thanks to this small opera troupe that his whole family could eat their fill during these bad times.

"Dad, drink water and eat a bun." Lu Xiucai handed his dad food and a water gourd.

"Eat what eat, it's not mealtime, what are you eating! Do you think food is free? Do you know how much food costs now? Your daughter is already two years old, and you still act like a little kid! Why are you so insensible!"

After being scolded head-on, Lu Xiucai wasn't annoyed, he smiled foolishly and stepped back, letting his wife put away the things in his hands.

"How was it? Got scolded again, right? You're just a cheap bone, looking for a scolding." Luo Juanhua put the food back on the cart, and then teased her precious daughter sitting on the box with her finger.

"A few scoldings won't make me lose a piece of flesh, so just let him scold, ever since Mom died, Dad's temper has been like this."

"Hey, dear, did you tell Dad what I told you last night?"

"Let's talk about it some other time, there haven't been any performances recently, and Dad is tight on money." Lu Xiucai's face turned bitter as soon as this topic was brought up.

"Tsk! Tight on money to the point where he doesn't even have money to buy cloth to make clothes for his granddaughter? She's wearing opera costumes now."

"Opera costumes... are actually okay too..."

"Ahhh! A ghost!!!" A terrified scream interrupted the couple's conversation, and the atmosphere of the entire opera troupe suddenly became tense.

Before long, the others saw a naked young man rush out of the forest crying for his parents, throwing himself into Lu Zhuangyuan's arms.

"Ghost what ghost! Where did a ghost come from in broad daylight! Hurry up and put your pants on!"

Although Lu Zhuangyuan was scolding his youngest son, he still shielded Lu Xiucai behind him, gripped the tobacco pipe in his hand, and looked vigilantly in the direction of the forest.

Figures were swaying inside, it looked like someone was coming.