The Unruly Immortals

When Li Huowang woke up again, it was still nighttime. He had learned from the Monk that he had been out cold for a full three days.

Although he felt extremely hungry, his spirit was much better than right after his skin had been peeled.

Digging out some dry food and a water bottle, he began to eat and drink voraciously as he headed toward his shed skin. To his surprise, Mantou was actually there.

It was curled up, forming a large yellow ball, diligently guarding Li Huowang's skin even while asleep, with two large dead rats lying beside it.

Smelling the scent of food, Mantou immediately woke up and sat squatting there, wagging its tail at Li Huowang ceaselessly.

"The more people I meet, the more I like dogs," said Li Huowang as he stroked Mantou's head, then threw the half-eaten piece of hardtack far away for Mantou to fetch on its own.

As Mantou was gnawing on the hardtack, Li Huowang crouched down and carefully pulled his skin out of the dirt.

Li Huowang had thought about other ways to peel his skin, but without any other help, it wasn't easy to accomplish, and this method was the most convenient.

Moreover, the skin peeled off this way had no damage whatsoever; it was perfectly intact.

Li Huowang first poured out the mercury, then took out the "Great Thousand Record," and after that, he brought it to the side of the cart and began stuffing dry rice straw inside it.

It should be said, looking at oneself like this was indeed a strange feeling.

Next, he lit six incense sticks, inserting three into each eye socket, then snipped off a few strands of his own hair, mixed them with cinnabar, and swiftly began to draw talisman spells.

"Heaven and Earth's profound ancestor, all qi's origin! Cultivate through billions of calamities, Qian Luo Darna! Within and beyond the Three Realms, only I am revered, my body aglow with golden light, enveloping all of me!"

As Li Huowang finished reciting, the talisman spell in his hand was also completed.

Seeing this, Li Huowang couldn't help but grow nervous, "Did it succeed? It should have succeeded, right? I practiced for such a long time."

No sooner had he spoken than Li Huowang immediately saw white smoke billowing continuously from the seven orifices of his shed skin, seeming to ignite the rice straw that had just been stuffed in.

As the smoke grew denser, the entire skin rapidly contracted, and when the white smoke had cleared, a palm-sized human shape lay before Li Huowang.

"Success!" Li Huowang reached out and took the skin into his hands for a closer look. After shrinking, the features were much more blurred, and the skin turned waxen yellow, resembling a little paper figure cut from ginger yellow paper.

According to what he had read in books, as long as he carried this crafted magic artifact with him, it could avert disasters and repel evil spirits. During adverse years, it would help him turn his luck around, and most crucially, in life-threatening situations, it would help him exchange his fate for another's.

Li Huowang wasn't sure how the exchange of fate worked, but what he was certain of was that this thing was indeed a life-saving magic artifact.

And this was not a one-time deal; as long as he recovered, he could virtually have an unlimited supply of such magic artifacts.

With this thing in hand, facing the dangers that lay ahead, Li Huowang now felt somewhat reassured.

It was unfortunate that other magic artifacts weren't so easy to craft, as either he couldn't find the natural treasures needed to craft them together, or he simply couldn't understand what was written about them. Only this one was the simplest and easiest to craft.

"Do I.... have a golden finger now?" Li Huowang looked at the skin in his hand and muttered to himself in self-deprecation.

"Dad? What's a golden finger?"

Li Huowang shook his head and did not answer Li Sui's question. He took the skin in his hand and thought about finding a place to put it away.

This important thing couldn't be left to chance; after pondering for a while, Li Huowang placed it against his belly button, resting on his own skin.

A tentacle reached out, wrapped around the human skin and retracted back. "Thanks, Dad."

"Let's get going," Li Huowang said, turning to board the carriage.

As he drove the carriage, Li Huowang pulled out some cold, dry food and took a bite, chasing it with some cold water. "By the way, it should be New Year's now, right?"

"Oh my, of course, it's New Year's, I've been looking forward to this day for a month now."

Dressed in a silk robe, the dog's pup chatted with Zhao Wu for a bit then sat down and grabbed a chicken leg with his hands and started gnawing on it.

Before he could even swallow, his eyes roamed over to the other dishes of the New Year's Eve feast.

Braised carp, lion's head meatballs, pork belly with preserved mustard greens, sheep tripe dressed with green pepper, Sixi meatballs, spicy pig's feet, stir-fried cured meat with ding's delights, and poached chicken.

Although young Yang couldn't make anything fancy, each dish was a solid, hearty specialty.

Today was New Year's, a day when you couldn't usually eat so many delicious things, and it was his favorite day of his life.

He picked up the tenderest parts of the fish belly with chopsticks and put them in his wife's bowl. "Eat up! Let's try to out-eat the simpleton this year!"

The dog's pup was like this, and the other folks weren't much different, especially the new apprentices from Lv's Troupe who were practically burying their heads in their plates.

"Ah... I wonder where Miaomiao is now, what she's eating." Chun Xiaoman tasted nothing, poking at the bones in her bowl with the tip of her chopsticks.

Zhao Wu put a meatball in her bowl with his chopsticks, "She has Divine Skills and Big Brother Li is with her, don't worry; let's just have a comfortable New Year first."

"Eat." A lion's head meatball abruptly plopped into Chun Xiaoman's bowl, placed there by Gao Zhijian.

As everyone in the hall was enjoying themselves, a figure appeared in front of the Bai Family Courtyard. "My, my, are you eating the New Year's Eve dinner? It smells good, doesn't it? I can smell it all the way out here."

This voice made everyone look towards the door at the same time, and when they saw Bai Lingmiao standing there with a smile, Chun Xiaoman was the first to react.

She rushed over, feeling her up and down, and only when she saw that the other had returned fully intact did she finally take a breath of relief.

Immediately afterward, she complained discontentedly, "You had me worried sick during this time, you should at least say something to me before you go next time."

Bai Lingmiao patted her on the shoulder and then briskly bypassed her, heading into the hall.

There were three tables set up in the hall in total, but she did not look for the other two smaller ones; instead, she walked straight to the biggest table which was also the one facing the main entrance.

Sitting in the seat of honor was Top Scholar Lv, his cheek puffed out by half a pig's foot, staring in bewilderment as Bai Lingmiao approached him.

Bai Lingmiao stood there without saying a word, but the savvy Top Scholar Lv immediately picked up on what she meant to say, quickly breaking into a smile, lifted his tobacco pipe from the table, shifted his bottom aside, and squeezed his son off the bench.

"Hehehe, Miss Bai, you're back? Oh my, while you were away, everyone was so worried about you. That, erm, Taoist Master didn't come back with you?"

Bai Lingmiao picked up a cup of wine, raised it high for the entire table to see, and said with great vigor, "Come on, it's New Year's, I'll toast to all of you!"