Second Half of the Night

"Hm? What kind of nonsense is this?" Li Huowang frowned slightly as he walked into the woods where Fool was.

The moment he entered the woods, Li Huowang's pupils contracted. He saw Fool squatting before a small earthen mound with the old beggar from before, wolfing down food.

Several sheets of yellow paper lay atop the little mound, pinned down firmly by a stone.

Suppressing his fury, Li Huowang rushed over and kicked Fool to the ground. "Get up! You dare eat offerings from a grave? Are you tired of living? Didn't I tell you not to talk to that beggar?"

Fool climbed back up miserably. "I didn't. Didn't. Didn't talk to him."

"Kneel! Hurry up and kowtow to apologize!" Li Huowang ordered sternly.

After watching Fool knock his head heavily against the grave mound several times, Li Huowang reached out and forcibly hauled him to his feet.

This damned place had everything under the sun. He did not dare gamble on it; if it was mishandled, trouble would come at once.

With a clang, Li Huowang drew the longsword from his back and pointed it straight at the old beggar's nose. He said coldly, "I don't care what your purpose is. Stay away from my people! Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude!"

Without waiting for the man's reply, Li Huowang dragged Fool away.

"I'm not a beggar. I'm a monk," the man muttered under his breath, continuing to squat there and eat a dead person's offerings.

Once they returned to the road, the group continued onward. Li Huowang's expression was somewhat grave as he began cautioning the others. "For the next few nights, don't sleep too deeply. Something might happen."

Although Fool had already kowtowed and admitted his mistake, who knew what kind of temper the thing in that grave had? Li Huowang did not dare take the risk.

Hearing Li Huowang say this, the others immediately understood something and nodded lightly.

As the sun sank behind the western hills and night descended, the travelers on the road went into the roadside woods to gather firewood.

Around the two Donkey Carts, Li Huowang built the bonfire high, and he had the others chop enough firewood from the forest.

There was no moon tonight, and darkness blanketed everything around them. Branches swayed in the faint breeze, as though countless things lurked within them, peering at the people around the fire.

As time passed, the surroundings gradually fell silent, and the others all went to sleep.

But Li Huowang did not sleep. He sat quietly, as though waiting for something.

Besides keeping watch on the surrounding forest, he had to devote more than half his attention to that old beggar.

If that thing came looking for them, it would surely go after him first.

Better if it came. This would also give Li Huowang a chance to see what exactly that fellow was.

Under the long wait, the first half of the night passed, and the Second Half of the Night arrived—the time when drowsiness came easiest.

"Senior Brother Li... was there a face over there just now?" Gouwa, who was keeping watch with him, spoke with a tremor in his voice.

Li Huowang swiftly looked over, but he saw nothing in the darkness.

"Are you sure?" he asked in an extremely low voice.

Gouwa swallowed hard. "Not sure. Maybe... maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me."

"Don't talk. Stay quiet." Li Huowang pretended to stare at the bonfire before him, while glancing in that direction from the corner of his eye.

After waiting quietly for a while, under the faint glow of the fire, he saw an ugly face slowly emerge from the darkness, a cruel smile spreading across it.

But what made Li Huowang's scalp tingle was that more heads slowly emerged behind that one. Strips of white light flickered in and out beneath the heads.

"Wait, white light?" Li Huowang abruptly rose to his feet, grabbed a burning stick from the bonfire, and hurled it over. "Stop! Who are you people?!"

Li Huowang's shout was like a thunderclap in the silent night, jolting the others awake from their dreams.

When the tumbling firewood landed beneath those heads, Li Huowang saw that every one of them had feet and shadows. He immediately understood that they were living people.

Li Huowang was not the only one who saw them. The others also saw the massive blades in their hands. "Bandits are here!! Run!!"

That terrified shout instantly sent the crowd into an uproar. Everyone grabbed their valuables and scattered like birds and beasts.

"Damn it! We've been spotted! Bring the horses over!!" Hoofbeats soon rang out as the bandits, blades in hand, chased after the travelers on the road.

"Run into the woods! Their horses can't run in the forest!!"

Hearing the old beggar shout this, the others fled from the main road and charged into the surrounding trees.

They could run, but people like Li Huowang, with Donkey Carts, could not. Donkeys could never outrun horses.

As hoofbeats sounded from behind him, Li Huowang quickly stopped and turned around. He saw a large horse carrying a scruffy-bearded bandit, who was swinging his blade at an old woman.

"She can't dodge it!" Li Huowang swiftly pulled out a Pill and stuffed it straight into his mouth. Heat instantly surged through his entire body.

Just as Li Huowang pushed off with both feet and charged toward the bandit—

The old beggar suddenly rushed out from the side and shoved aside the fallen old woman.

Gao Deqiu looked at the old beggar before him with a trace of disdain in his eyes. Without even raising his blade, he tugged the reins in his hand. The horse beneath him reared up and stomped straight down at the man.

A cruel smile appeared on his face as he anticipated the bloody scene to come. When he played bandit, aside from bedding women, this was his only hobby.

Yet in the very next instant, he saw a figure charge out from ahead and smash a fist heavily into the horse's head.

Bang! Amid the horse's shrill neigh, the charging horse was forcibly knocked off course and toppled to the right.

As Gao Deqiu fell toward the ground, there was nothing he could do but stare wider and wider at the horse's caved-in head.

The next moment, with a dull thud, his head met the same fate as his horse.

Seeing their companion attacked, the other bandits put their fingers into their mouths and whistled sharply as they came to help.

But Li Huowang, having taken the pill refined by Danyangzi, swiftly made them realize that they had provoked someone they should never have provoked.

Dull thuds rang out continuously along the dark dirt road. After losing several men, the bandits hurriedly fled in panic.

"Retreat! This one's tough! He might be from the Celestial Surveillance Division!"

Li Huowang stood there with blood all over his fists, gasping for breath.

He turned and looked at the old beggar behind him. After what had just happened, he could now conclude that this fellow was not a tiger—he was a pig.

Under Li Huowang's gaze, the old beggar rose to his feet, walked over to someone the bandits had hacked to death, then knelt and pressed his palms together as he murmured something.

As Li Huowang approached, he heard clearly what the man was chanting.

"Amitabha, Amitabha, Amitabha..."

He kept repeating Amitabha over and over, though his pronunciation was not quite right.

After chanting it dozens of times, the old beggar walked into the woods to one side and began clawing at the ground with his hands.