Lu Family Troupe

"Hey! There's nothing to fear from that sort of thing. When traveling far from home, you just need to stick together and have more people." Lu Zhuangyuan shared his experience with Li Huowang.

"Oh? With more people, the yang energy is stronger, so those things won't dare make a move?"

"What are you talking about?" Lu Zhuangyuan packed his Smoking Pipe with tobacco again and continued puffing. "How many people can it eat, anyway? If you really run into one, just run faster than everyone else. Rather than worrying about that, you'd do better to watch out for bandits who rob silver and kill people, or Big Worms in the woods that eat people."

For a moment, Li Huowang did not know how to continue. It seemed he and Lu Zhuangyuan simply could not get on the same wavelength.

"Come, come, come. The buns are done—eat them while they're hot." Luo Juanhua brought over several white steamed buns, skewered on branches and toasted golden-brown.

Li Huowang took them and passed them to the Apprentices beside him. He had picked all of them up along the way.

The moment these people saw that they could leave Qingfeng Temple, they had rushed straight out without caring about anything, not sparing a thought for what came next.

By the time he had encountered them on the road, they had nearly fainted from hunger.

They had been fellow disciples, after all. Li Huowang could not truly stand by with folded arms and watch them suffer, so he had brought them along.

Seeing hot food, the others did not stand on ceremony. It was indeed late, and they were somewhat hungry. They grabbed the buns and began wolfing them down.

Watching that big fool swallow one bun after another, Lu Zhuangyuan's eyelids twitched. Those were white flour buns! He usually could not bear to eat such things himself. Had he known, he would not have been so generous just now.

Just then, a single sentence from Li Huowang made him forget his heartache. "Old sir, do you have a map? To tell the truth, we're not locals. We've gotten rather turned around walking through these woods and don't know where we are."

Yes, Li Huowang had gotten lost before. Everywhere was the same forest, and he simply could not determine his bearings. Asking the others had yielded nothing either.

They came from all corners of the land. When asked where their homes were, they could explain it clearly enough, but when asked where they currently were, none of them could say.

To avoid attracting attention, it seemed Danyangzi had not been looking for Medicinal Guides nearby.

"What? A map? No, but I know all the roads around here. Where are you headed? Ask me!"

"Mm, many places. Please take a look and see which one is closest." Li Huowang pulled a large pile of slips of paper from his sleeve.

"What's this? What does this say?" Lu Zhuangyuan held the slips farther away, the wrinkles on his face bunching together as he struggled to read them.

Though his name was Zhuangyuan, if he had truly been a zhuangyuan, he would not have gone out to perform opera.

Lu Zhuangyuan could read, but not much. With Li Huowang translating, he finally understood all the addresses written on them.

After all, he was an old troupe master who had traveled far and wide for many years. Setting other matters aside, Lu Zhuangyuan knew geography quite well.

Yet knowing where those places were did not mean Li Huowang could easily get there.

"Well now, why is the Liang Kingdom on here too? Didn't they fight a war with our Qi Kingdom a few years back?"

Lu Zhuangyuan squatted down and scratched at the ground with the bowl of his Smoking Pipe, drawing a simple map before Li Huowang.

If one had to describe the map he drew in a single sentence, it would be like a flatbread smashed onto the ground and shattered into countless pieces.

Their current location lay in the upper-left corner of that flatbread. Moving from left to right, countries large and small interwove with one another.

This looks a bit like the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. There's no great unification, Li Huowang silently thought as he looked at the map on the ground.

Though he had not held much hope, seeing this map finally confirmed it. He had not truly traveled into some ancient dynasty, but to a far stranger place.

"This old man only travels north through this region when taking the troupe around. I know this area well enough, but once we leave the country, I truly can't make heads or tails of what's where. I've only heard that the operas they sing are different from ours."

Bai Lingmiao's heart tightened at once upon hearing that. Her Household was on Oxheart Mountain in the Liang Kingdom. It sounded as though her home was very, very far away.

Li Huowang keenly sensed her unease and gave her a reassuring look. "Don't panic."

As Lu Zhuangyuan looked at the dozen-odd strange and varied people before him, the thoughts he had suppressed out of fear began stirring again.

"Um, Little Daoist Master, look. One of the slips mentions Jianye Town, and our Lu Family Troupe happens to be headed that way too!"

"Hehe, how about we travel together?"

"Jianye Town? Whose is this?" Li Huowang searched through the slips.

"Senior Brother Li, my home is in Jianye Town." Zhao Wu suddenly spoke from the side.

"And there's an escort agency in town. As long as you give them silver, they can deliver letters to Nanping on your behalf."

Hearing this, Li Huowang did not hesitate. He tucked the papers back into his clothes. "All right, old sir. We'll have to rely on you to show us the way. Let's travel together to Jianye."

Whether it was map information or anything else, relying only on this old troupe master's word was truly hard to trust.

Whether he needed to find Black Tai Sui that could suppress his hallucinations or send letters for the others, he should first head to a place like a town where information circulated. Besides, their food was nearly gone.

And if possible, Li Huowang also wanted to seek out the so-called Famous Righteous Sects.

In a place this dangerous, lacking strength simply would not do. Anyone could trample him at will, and he did not want to be casually seized by another Danyangzi.

Smiling with narrowed eyes, Lu Zhuangyuan repeatedly waved his hands. "Ah, ah, ah, you're too polite. Not at all, not at all."

Though he said that aloud, inwardly Lu Zhuangyuan was blooming with joy. With such an expert traveling at his side, this was a free escort guard!

By the end of this trip, he would at least earn back those white flour buns and five salted duck eggs.

"Haah—" The Fool beside them gave a huge yawn. He was full and wanted to sleep.

Seeing everyone else's eyes grow bleary, Lu Zhuangyuan tactfully rose to his feet. "Before we knew it, we've talked until the second watch. Little Daoist Master, you all should rest first. I'll keep watch."

"No need. I'll keep watch tonight." Li Huowang was not merely being polite; one must always guard against others.

After all that commotion, everyone was exhausted. The two groups, each with their own motives, fell asleep around the warm campfire, while Li Huowang and Lu Zhuangyuan sat alone, facing one another in silence.

Early the next morning, Li Huowang was awakened by Gouwa, who had taken the latter half of the night watch. "Senior Brother Li, the opera troupe is packing up."

"Let's go. We should set out too." Li Huowang rose, carrying his long sword and Stone Slab, and led the others after the opera troupe.

Just after setting off, both sides were clearly somewhat restrained. No one spoke. From time to time, they stole glances at each other and murmured something quietly to their companions.

That did not include the leaders, Li Huowang and Lu Zhuangyuan. The two chatted merrily all along the way.

Li Huowang wanted to learn more about everything here from Lu Zhuangyuan, while Lu Zhuangyuan wanted even more to build a relationship with this expert. Fine words cost nothing, after all. Saying a few more could do no harm.

"My, my, Little Daoist Master, you're already so formidable at such a young age. Your future achievements will be beyond measure. Hahaha."