The Unruly Immortals

Since Tuoba Danqing had left, Li Huowang, alone in the tavern, naturally found little interest in staying.

Having learned much today, he needed to go back and properly digest it all.

Just then, the sound of Hong Zhong clapping his hands came from beside, "Not bad, not bad, truly worthy of being one of the great Sanyuan indeed. The way you tell a lie, mixing truth with falsehood and falsehood with truth— even if that old man went to check, he wouldn't find any suspicions."

Li Huowang glared at him, opened his mouth to say something, but then a waiter with a white towel over his shoulder came in.

Seeing the waiter bowing towards him, Li Huowang said nothing and lifted his feet to walk towards the exit, but just at that moment, he heard the waiter's voice behind him.

"Esteemed guest, many of today's dishes have not yet been touched. Would you like to take them away in a food box, as you did last time?"

Li Huowang's expression instantly grew cold, "Take what away! No need for that!"

The waiter looked at Li Huowang's departing figure with an aggrieved expression, "He took it away last time, why not today?"

The next day, Li Huowang rode in a carriage along the spacious streets heading straight for the City God Temple of Yinling City, which was naturally quite conspicuous.

He quickly found it, the tall and magnificent temple located at the crossroads.

Sitting in the carriage and looking up at the panoramic view, the temple was surrounded by green trees, encircled by flowers and plants, with apricot-yellow walls and bluish-grey ridges, making it hard to imagine that such a grand temple wasn't some major religious shrine, but rather the City God Temple present in every city.

"Amitabha, Amitabha," the monk beside him pressed his palms together and sincerely worshipped towards the City God Temple.

The entire temple was shrouded in curling incense smoke, with a constant stream of Yinling City residents hastening to this place.

After standing by for a short while, Li Huowang realized that those who came to worship here most were the courtesans from within the Exquisite Pagoda, their faces marked with dark cyan porcelain patterns.

These women were incredibly devout; they pressed their hands together, raising them over their chest, forehead, head, and then stretched out flat on the ground. Every day they did this, to the extent that many places on the stone slabs had become indented.

Li Huowang, with his keen hearing, took in all of their prayers.

"Lord City God, please, just send any man to redeem me as a concubine," one woman pleaded.

"I beg you, Lord City God, pity me. I wish to be reborn as a man in my next life—please let me be a man!" another entreated.

Li Huowang stood outside the City God Temple, casting a distant glance inside, where three black-faced City Gods with Crescent Plaques in hand sat upright in the center of the temple.

With huge and oppressive Ox-head and Horse-face standing on either side, it was hard to imagine this City God would fulfill their wishes.

Li Huowang struck the horse's hind with his whip, and the carriage slowly headed towards the base of the City God Temple, where several people were setting up stalls. They were either fortune tellers or selling almanacs and writing letters on behalf of others.

Li Huowang quickly found Chen the Blind, whom he had met once before; he was squatting there, divining for a woman.

"Your fate... it's not good—not good at all. They say a woman who 'offends the official' will overpower her husband; a lotus in dry land cannot be cultivated. If she's not dining in two households, she'll be scouring pots in three," Chen pontificated, shaking his head.

Chen's words naturally drew the woman's ire, but he sat there calmly, waiting for her to finish her tirade.

Once the woman left, Chen turned his sightless eyes towards Li Huowang. "Don't stare at me like that, hehehe. I only read fortunes, not resolve them," he said.

Even though he was blind, Li Huowang felt as if he were being scrutinized.

"Hehehe, young man, if I've calculated correctly, you must be the noble person here to deliver my Bagua Mirror, right?" he asked.

Eager to leave without further ado, Li Huowang pulled out the mirror from the ox-cart and placed it on Chen's stall.

Two hands filled with wrinkles reached out, and when they touched the Bagua Mirror, Chen the Blind displayed an unpleasant smile on his old face.

"Not bad, not bad, this is the piece I lost. Right, where is that pretender of Oblivion Path, the one who disguised as my granddaughter? Where is he?"

"He's dead, I killed him."

Upon hearing the delightful news, Chen the Blind couldn't contain his joy and laughed out loud, "Hahaha—good! He died a good death! He dared to deceive me, pretending to be my granddaughter because I'm blind! He got what he deserved!"

Watching this scene, Hong Zhong scoffed with disdain, "A defeated minion!"

"Master Chen, about the matter you discussed with Tuoba brother earlier, please fulfill your promise."

"Of course, of course, I wouldn't dare play tricks on someone from the Astrological Bureau," he said and then bent down to rummage through a bamboo basket beside him.

Soon, a dark blue thread-bound book was handed over to Li Huowang by Chen the Blind.

"This is a cultivation technique that would never have been passed down from my view in the past. Ah... what a pity... ever since the venerable ancestor inexplicably went mad, the clay statue was toppled, and the wills of the people dissipated."

Li Huowang opened the book and flipped through it, finding clear records of how to draw talismans, how to chant, their uses, what kind of blood and what kind of ginger yellow paper were needed.

The functions were also quite diverse: protecting the house and exorcising ghosts, healing and divination, and there were even talismans for settling a household.

The functions were comprehensive, and the only things needed were one's own blood and ginger yellow paper, but he was unsure about the effectiveness.

However, these talismans were a bit strange, unlike the ones from the Luo Sect lad he had seen before. Within every winding script of each talisman, a very subtle and twisted human face was hidden.

Just as Li Huowang was about to ask a question, Chen the Blind spoke. "Young man, one must not joke in vain. The items I give, their usefulness is certainly good, but there are also taboos."

"First of all, any talisman should not exceed three uses within a day. And whether you are drawing talismans or using them, you must not look."

"What if I looked?" Li Huowang asked.

"Looked?" Chen the Blind chuckled twice in a low voice, staring at Li Huowang with his pale, milky white eyes.

"Then the talisman comes to life, and it will set its sights on you. If you want to survive, you can only end up like me, blind to the world."

After weighing the pros and cons, Li Huowang nodded without any change in expression. "Well, that's manageable."

Having said that, he patted the horse's rump with his hand, ready to set off.

"Hmm? That works for you?" Chen the Blind was taken aback, clearly not expecting such a reaction from the other party.

"Hey, don't rush. Since you avenged me, now I owe you one, and I intend to repay it. I don't like owing people, so sit down. Let this blind man calculate your fate for you."

"No need!" Li Huowang instinctively reached for the Copper Coin mask on his face.

However, Chen the Blind suddenly lunged forward, touching Li Huowang's shadow on the ground.

"Hmm... Hmm... Hmm..." He carefully touched Li Huowang's shadow, as if pondering something.

Li Huowang, with a slight frown, watched the eerily behaving Chen the Blind for a moment, and seeing no response, he cautiously led the horse and turned to leave.

Just as he had walked a few yards away, he heard Chen the Blind calling out from behind.

"A round moon waxes and wanes, surrounded by cold stars, the lantern before the door shines bright, while the empty pouch inside endures the seasons."