The Unruly Immortals

"Both donkey carts and all the belongings on them sank into the water, the travel funds for the road must be retrieved from this water fortress."

Li Huowang looked at the meat bubbling away in the pot, calculating in his mind what needed to be done next.

No matter what had happened before, since it had already occurred, it should be left behind, and one must look forward.

The pressing matter at hand was to find what he was looking for in this place and then leave with the others.

"And we must be quick, we can't dawdle here—if there is anything more terrifying than a village full of corpses, it is a village full of rotting corpses. Even if the dead don't move, there are still other ways they can kill."

Li Huowang opened his mouth wide, pulling a chunk of meat off the tip of his sword, and looked at the others devouring their food. "Had enough to eat? If so, get to work."

The others, wearing clothes dried by the fire, gnawed on the meat in their hands and followed Li Huowang, sword in hand, out of the kitchen.

He didn't wander around Reed Village like a headless fly, but headed straight for the Yuan Family Ancestral Temple, this broken place was too big and too chaotic, he needed a local guide.

"Don't... don't kill me!"

The pant-wetting teenage boy from before was cornered again by Li Huowang with a sword, his gaunt face filled with terror.

Li Huowang couldn't be bothered to waste words with him and asked, "Where did your leader hide the stolen silver?"

"The storeroom! My great-grandfather's storeroom! That's where all the stolen silver is kept!" The boy spilled everything he knew as quickly as pouring beans out of a bamboo basket.

Standing in front of him, the blood on Li Huowang still hadn't dried, and just the smell of blood on him was enough to make Yuan Dalang's pants feel a bit damp. He didn't dare harbor any other cautious thoughts.

By this time, the sky had already darkened, and the group, holding fluorescent stones, followed the boy through Reed Village.

Under the dark blue-green glow, everything bloody around them seemed like the Ghost Domain; shaken by fear, the boy's body trembled involuntarily.

Suddenly his body stiffened, and he turned to lay his head on a woman's corpse by the road and began to cry out loud.

Li Huowang leaned over, bent down, and clearly saw the half-remaining face of the woman.

This woman didn't appear to be old, her phoenix eyes filled with fear and despair.

"Who is this person to you?" Li Huowang asked coldly.

"She is my wife!" The boy's voice trembled as he responded. "I adored her! But now she's dead! My father and my mother are dead too!"

As if the sadness struck him anew, the boy began to cry even louder.

Li Huowang's expression suddenly turned fierce with annoyance as his right hand rose and fell.

"Swish~" "Ah~!" The boy, who had been crying out loud just a moment ago, had an ear swiftly sliced off.

"Lead the way!! Did I tell you to stop?" Li Huowang's roar carried a hint of cruelty.

Feeling someone gently tugging at his sleeve from behind, Li Huowang, irritated, shook it off violently.

"You pity him? You think he's a faithful lover? Why don't you ask where his wife came from?"

Seeing those gazes now fixed on him, the boy said, aggrieved, "My father robbed her, but all the other men in the fortress took their wives by force too, even my grandmother and mother were taken by force."

Bai Lingmiao's mouth hung open in disbelief as she looked around at the corpses of the women.

Seeing that the blood-stained longsword was raised again, the boy shivered violently and hurriedly stood up to continue leading the way.

Seeing Bai Lingmiao a bit frightened, Xiaoman walked over to her side and propped her up with his black-haired hand, leaning her toward himself, offering comfort, "All the women in a robber's den are like that. Don't overthink it."

"But why did they join those men to rob others? They were also kidnapped!"

Bai Lingmiao felt disbelief at this moment; she remembered that among the robbers, there were women.

"Actually, humans and dogs are the same, both can be trained."

Upon hearing this, Li Huowang turned his head to look at the other Medicinal Guides behind him, but he did not see who had spoken.

"Ah…"

Following the youth through twists and turns, they stopped in front of a room locked with a tiger head lock.

Seeing that the surroundings were no longer reed huts but wooden houses, this place must be considered an important area within the village.

"Clang!" Accompanied by sparks flying, the tiger head lock was cleaved into two halves.

With a kick, Li Huowang pushed the youth in front of him and burst into the room.

Clearly, this was a storeroom; the wooden cabinets were lined up with large wooden crates on them.

As soon as the youth opened one of the crates, the room became much brighter; this crate was filled with handfuls of Silver Fragments.

One after another, the crates were opened, and with each one, exclamations of astonishment arose from the others.

Besides Silver, there was an abundance of gold and silver jewelry, seemingly robbed from women.

There were also many other valuable goods, such as silk fabrics, iron ingots, and books; this entire room was filled with the pirates' loot amassed over the years.

"My God, I've never seen so much money in my life! How many wives could you marry with this?" Dog Baby's voice began to tremble as he looked at the shining silver, his eyes brimming with greed.

Li Huowang's attention, however, was not on the gold and silver but on a few books.

Flipping through them casually, he found only some enlightenment books for beginners and several Buddhist scriptures.

"The method used by that old man to attract creatures in the water with boys and girls doesn't seem like it was learned from any books. Could that disgusting method also be passed down orally?"

As Li Huowang continued to search, he saw a book at the very bottom, which left him stunned for a moment.

Li Huowang cradled the book in his hands, frowning deeply as he looked at the characters on the book's cover, struggling hard to ponder something.

"What are these characters?"

"Brother Li, should we move all the items from these crates outside now? It seems we can't carry that much," Bai Lingmiao walked over and said.

Li Huowang showed the scripture in his hands to the white-haired girl in front of him.

"Look at the characters on this book. Do you recognize what they are?"

A trace of confusion appeared in Bai Lingmiao's eyes, "Brother Li, I can't read."

Just as her words fell, a stammering voice came from behind her,

"Ava... Ava... Avatamsaka Sutra!"

Li Huowang looked up and saw the fool standing there blankly. "Are you sure what's written here is the Avatamsaka Sutra?"

"Hmm!"

Having received a definite answer, Li Huowang's fingers slowly traced over the character 'yan', and deep confusion emerged in his eyes.

"Is this the character 'yan'? Why can't I even recognize the character 'yan' now?"