The Unruly Immortals

"Oh?" Li Huowang's wandering attention focused slightly at the other person's words.

"Why do you say that? I had heard before that the Liang State is said to be the most prosperous place? In other places, there are droughts, but people in the Liang State do not go hungry."

"Everyone says that Liang State is good, but how would those who have never gone there know that the place simply doesn't treat people as humans!" Wu Yue said excitedly, but she seemed to recall some unpleasant memories, and she covered her mouth in pain as she started to retch.

"Hmm?" The other person's description knitted Li Huowang's brows; it was quite different from what Bai Lingmiao had said. Her hometown, as she described it, was a worry-free paradise.

Li Huowang gave Bai Lingmiao, who was sitting next to Xiao Man and holding an Ox Horn Cup of water, a meaningful look, and she hurriedly set it down and walked over.

Clasping Bai Lingmiao's hand, Li Huowang asked the woman beside him, "Would madam care to elaborate?"

Wu Yue put down the hand that was covering her mouth, glanced at Bai Lingmiao, who had come over, and ultimately shook her hand.

"It was reckless of me; we shouldn't talk about such things during a meal, lest you lose your appetite. Benefactor, if you really want to know, let's talk about it another day."

Having said that, she turned and left, leaving the two of them confused.

"Miaomiao, did you live comfortably in Liang State? Did anyone bully your family? What is the Government Office like there?" Li Huowang started to ask Bai Lingmiao.

About Liang State, where he might possibly live in the future, Li Huowang's understanding was very scarce.

He only knew that Liang State was very large and that its strength was the strongest among these countries. Beyond that, he knew nothing else.

If he really planned to settle there for life with Bai Lingmiao, this would not do.

"We've lived very well! No one dares to bully us! We have many family members; our village chief is my grandfather, and in our village, my uncles and aunts are all very kind to me, as well as cousins who would also give way to me."

"What Gouwa and Xiao Man said about being looked down upon because of one's appearance, that doesn't exist at all where we are!"

"Have you only ever stayed at Niuxin Mountain? What about other places in Liang State? Have you been anywhere else?" Li Huowang touched his chin and asked again.

"I don't know, I've never been to other places," Bai Lingmiao's response left Li Huowang slightly concerned with what Baolu's mother had just said.

He was really curious about what she ultimately wanted to say.

At that moment, Li Huowang saw Sun Baolu vomiting in the distance. He stood up, walked over to him, and once again led him out of the tent.

He couldn't wait until tomorrow; Li Huowang decided to ask Sun Baolu first, being the son, he should know something about his mother's past.

"Stop drinking, sober up; I have a question for you, it's about your mother," Li Huowang asked Sun Baolu, who was leaning groggily against the water bucket.

"Drink up! More drinking!" A foolishly grinning Sun Baolu raised his empty cup and bumped it against Li Huowang's chest.

"Ah..." Li Huowang reached back to touch his Longsword, gripping the hilt and drawing it slightly. In an instant, a surge of murderous aura caused Sun Baolu to tremble involuntarily, his bleary eyes swiftly replaced by extreme fear.

"Clang!" With a sliver of the sword's blade drawn and then sheathed, Li Huowang quickly snatched the empty cup from his hand and scooped up a cup of cold water from the nearby bucket, splashing it directly onto his face. "Sobered up now?"

Breathing rapidly, Sun Baolu trembled and touched the water droplets on his face, nodding repeatedly. "Sober, I'm sober!"

"Your mother is from Liang State, right? What has she told you about Liang State?"

Hearing this question, Sun Baolu's expression changed to something odd, "Brother Li, what's the matter? We're having a nice meal, why suddenly ask this?"

There was no need to hide such matters, so Li Huowang relayed what his mother had just told him, along with his own worries.

"If Liang State is truly as bad as your mother described, then the rest of us need to consider whether we should find somewhere else to settle down."

A very flushed Sun Baolu lifted his head to look at the full moon in the sky. "Brother Li, can I not say it?"

Li Huowang was becoming somewhat dissatisfied, "Does your family have that many secrets? You can't talk about this, can't talk about that, people who don't know might think you're the illegitimate son of the Emperor."

At these words, Sun Baolu bit down hard on his teeth. "Fine! You saved my life and even sent me home. Since you want to know, I'll tell you. How does my mother look?"

"Huh?" Li Huowang was a little confused by the sudden shift in topic. Did this have anything to do with the question he had just asked?

"My mother's pretty, right? Back when she was an unmarried girl, she was even more beautiful than now, a real beauty that could make fish sink and geese fall!"

"That's not the kind of comment a son should be making about his mother. You'd better hold back a bit in front of an outsider like me," Li Huowang advised, noticing that Sun Baolu did not seem completely sober yet.

"Brother Li, then what do you think my mother, being so beautiful, used to do in Liang State?" Sun Baolu asked with a bitter smile on his face, looking at Li Huowang.

Hearing this, Li Huowang's heart skipped a beat. He did not respond to the question, waiting for the other to explain.

"My mother was barely fourteen when she was all dressed up, clean and pretty, and hired by a mansion to be a 'beauty paper,'" Sun Baolu trembled as he revealed a term that Li Huowang couldn't comprehend.

"What is beauty paper?"

"My mother used her *** to wipe other people's asses! That's what 'beauty paper' is!!" Sun Baolu said through gritted teeth.

In that instant, a shocked Li Huowang suddenly understood why his mother had almost retched when she had spoken of Liang State, and why she had said that Liang State treated people as less than human.

The thoughts in his head before, about being someone's concubine or prostitute, that was still at least being human, but for such a beautiful woman, in the eyes of some in Liang State, the only value she was deemed worthy of was to be used for wiping butts.

"You think that's disgusting? Wrong! That's just the beginning! Ever heard of beauty urns? The people in Liang State have a whole range of twisted games!"

Sun Baolu walked away, leaving Li Huowang standing alone in the chilly outside.

After hearing Sun Baolu's story, he felt some regret, followed immediately by an instinctive revulsion towards such a place.

The abbess of An Ci Nunnery seemed utterly pristine compared to them.

But when his revulsion faded, Li Huowang's face showed deep resignation.

He should have realized earlier that in this utterly mad world, there was no such thing as an idyllic retreat. It was simply a matter of being a little less bad, or a little more bad.

"What was the point of running a thousand miles? If I had known, I might as well have taken over Qingfeng Taoist Temple in the first place."

However, such thoughts were just thoughts, since after all, he still had to consider that others might need to return home.

"Brother Li? What's the matter?" Bai Lingmiao poked her head out of the tent worriedly, fearing he might be ill again.

"It's nothing, I'll come in now."

The liveliness inside the tent continued, but as Li Huowang gazed at the feast before him, he no longer had any appetite to continue eating.