The Unruly Immortals

"Pawn... a broken jade piece, 3 liang..."

"3 liang?! Forget it!" Feeling extremely displeased, Li Huowang picked up the Jade Pendant and headed towards the exit of the Pawn Shop.

In the real world, this Jade Pendant was worth at least four hundred thousand, but here it was being valued at a mere 3 liang. This Pawn Shop was indeed too heartless.

As he stepped out the door, Li Huowang turned his head to give the Pawn Shop's signboard another look, "This place is so unscrupulous, they must have swindled a lot of money. Why not come back tonight and rob them?"

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than Li Huowang was startled, making a fist with one hand and harshly punching himself in the face before striding irritably towards the inn.

Having returned to his room, Li Huowang spread out a map on the bed and said to Bai Lingmiao, who was doing needlework with a drum skin, "Go call Xiaoman over."

Li Huowang's finger slowly slid down the map to the south where Li Zhi had mentioned before his death. He spoke of a group of Nuns in Black who might be able to rid him of Master Danyang.

Master Danyang was currently continuously affecting him, and he had to find a way to rid himself of Master Danyang as soon as possible. This was more important than anything, even Black Taisui could wait a while longer.

Li Zhi said those Nuns barely counted as good people, but Li Huowang didn't believe it. After all he had been through, he trusted no one now.

Wanting to request the Nuns' help in dealing with Master Danyang, he had to offer them a benefit they couldn't refuse while ensuring his own safety.

Li Huowang's gaze shifted to the bedside, to the Heavenly Book lying next to the Yangshou gourd. It was the only bargaining chip he could offer now.

But all that was for later. For now, the most important thing was to find the Nuns Li Zhi had mentioned.

"Brother Li, did you call for me?" Xiaoman arrived, panting. Except for a slight redness near her eyes, her emotions remained unchanged.

"Where have you been?" Li Huowang asked.

"I went to find a courier service and sent them the death note I had for Siqi to deliver back."

"Stuff like that can be handled by someone else. You should lay low for a while to avoid trouble from the constables in town," Li Huowang advised her.

Xiaoman's eyes flickered slightly, and she shook her head calmly. "It's fine." Then she added, "My mother didn't report to the officials."

"Oh, then come help me look at this map. You're a local, you must be familiar with the areas around here, right?"

Xiaoman walked over and looked at the location Li Huowang was pointing at on the map.

"Do you know if there's a convent nearby here? One where the Nuns wear black."

"A convent? In black?" Xiaoman thought for a moment, her fuzzy finger pointing towards a mountain in the southwest.

"It should be here, Henghua Mountain. I've heard that the town's Sun the Merchant went there to worship a golden Bodhisattva."

"Golden Bodhisattva! How much do you know about this convent?" Li Huowang gathered as much information as he could about the place.

"Not much. Our family was poor; we couldn't afford to travel so far to burn incense and pray. I've just heard it's very prosperous with worshippers."

"Hmm..." Li Huowang shook his head inwardly. This was as good as not saying anything at all—Zhengde Temple was equally prosperous.

"Does this convent have any remarkable features? For example, Zhengde Temple is known for granting fertility."

After a long thought, Xiaoman finally said, "I've only heard that the Nuns there are all quite plump."

"Quite plump, is that considered a remarkable feature?" Li Huowang thought for a moment and tapped the location on the map. "Let's set out. We'll take a look at this place."

The meager sum of money from Li Zhi was turned into dry food, thin rice noodles, and a large jar of lard. Li Huowang and his group set off for their next destination.

They were not alone on the road; many people were traveling in the same direction.

From bits and pieces of their conversation, Li Huowang could tell that these people felt war was imminent. Living on the border was unsafe, so they were all prudently relocating inland.

Thus, they walked and stopped, and as they passed by various crossroads, the crowd gradually thinned out.

Just when Li Huowang thought it would soon be just their group left, they were blocked by a vast expanse of water.

A gentle breeze blew across the surface of the water and similarly caused Li Huowang's Taoist Robe to sway softly.

"Is this the sea that my second great-uncle talked about?" Doggie exclaimed in surprise.

The vast expanse of water stretched out before them like a mirror between heaven and earth, with no visible edge in sight.

Li Huowang started looking at the map again. "No, this isn't the sea, it's just a lake, a very, very large lake."

Siqi naturally has a lot of water, so having such a large lake is not surprising at all.

"Senior brother, why does this lake water look a bit black?"

The color of the lake water was a bit dark; even standing by the shore, you couldn't see the bottom, which inevitably aroused fear in people.

Li Huowang put away the map and looked at the other people standing by the water. "Let's wait a bit and see what they do."

When a small black dot appeared in the distance, the heads of the people on the shore began to shift. It was a wooden boat, and the people here crossed the lake by boat.

The wooden boat looked old, but it was also large.

"Come on, come on! All aboard, seventy wen money per head," a boat captain stood on the deck, calling out to the others on shore.

"Why seventy wen now? Last year it was only forty-six," someone on the boat expressed dissatisfaction with the price.

But the barefoot boat captain didn't indulge him at all, glaring at him fiercely with his eyes. "I'm just asking if you're riding or not, if you're capable, swim across yourself."

Seeing the man submissively pay up, the smug boat captain spat toward the lake. "An actual war is on the horizon, and yet there are so many rules; what's wrong with raising the price?"

"Let's go, get on the boat." Li Huowang strode forward, in such unfamiliar territories he wasn't afraid of the expense but of others harboring ulterior motives.

The boat, carrying dozens of people, began to slowly head towards the center of the lake.

Those who had never been on a boat easily felt seasick, but Li Huowang felt alright.

He turned his head and asked the boat captain: "Master, how long does it take to get to the other side?"

"Hehe, just two hours, rest assured, we'll definitely arrive before it gets dark."

Li Huowang nodded, vigilantly watching the water broken open by the bow of the boat in front of him.

The inky-black lake water looked very oppressive, as if something terrifying might emerge from within.

"There shouldn't be anything that eats people in this lake, right?"

Having experienced so many incidents, Li Huowang was like a frightened bird.

"What are you talking about, all those are just stories made up by idle folk. I've been living on this lake for nearly twenty years, see, I'm alive and well, right? Don't worry, there's nothing to it, I absolutely do business for money."

Hearing these words, Li Huowang's heart was somewhat relieved.

As the boat slowly moved forward, the sun in the sky also gradually leaned to the west.

When the clouds in the sky were dyed red by the setting sun, the boat slowly entered a large area of reed marshes.

"We should be close now." Li Huowang looked at the reeds surrounding him and thought to himself.

Just as he was thinking this, "plop," the sound of someone falling into the water came from behind.

When everyone heard the sound and instinctively looked back, they found that the boatman and the boat captain had both disappeared!

"Mama mia! They've been eaten by something in the water!!"

Someone's shout sent the few dozen people on the boat into a panic.

"Everyone sit down! Do you want to flip the boat?" Li Huowang's scolding quieted the boat down a bit.

He turned around and looked at his people. "Who among you knows how to row a boat?"

But what he got was unanimous head shaking.

Just as Li Huowang was pondering what to do, there were rustles in the reeds around them.

Several small wooden boats, carrying men and women, old and young, all armed with weapons, were surrounding the large boat.

On one of the small boats, Li Huowang saw the boat captain from before.

At that moment, he was holding a small dagger, shaving his face, and when he saw Li Huowang looking at him, he said cheerfully, "Young fellow, hehehe, do you want to eat 'rolled knife-cut noodles' or wontons?"