This strange and sudden change left Li Xiaofei deeply startled. He’d only casually said so after failing to detect anything before. He never expected it would trigger such a gruesome reaction.
A chill crept up Li Xiaofei’s neck.
So what I had seen on the Heavenly River... was not entirely an illusion?
Just exposing the truth had caused Husi to die. Moreover, his death, where flesh dissolved into bone, was identical to how he had perished in the Heavenly River.
There had to be a connection between the two. Li Xiaofei nudged Husi’s skeleton with the tip of his boot, and a story from a classic legend suddenly surfaced in his mind.
In the tale of The Investiture of the Gods, the Grand Tutor Bi Gan had his heart ripped out by King Zhou, yet didn’t immediately die. Upon leaving the palace, he stopped a passerby and asked, “Can a man live without a heart?”
According to the story, if the passerby had answered, “Yes,” Bi Gan would have survived.
But the unfortunate answer was, “Without a heart, a man must surely die.”
And so, Bi Gan died on the spot, bleeding from every orifice.
Could the same principle apply here with Husi? Or was there something wrong with that ferryman from the Netherworld? What a shame.
He really shouldn’t have killed Fei Lun first. Fei Lun had been with Husi the entire time, and he must’ve known something. Still, he remembered seeing another person dead on the Heavenly River, Song Yu. Maybe he could learn something from Song Yu instead.
After disposing of the remains, Li Xiaofei turned to Chu Xiang and explained the relationship between the metal fragments and the alchemy furnace.
“That shard you had has already fully merged with the furnace. It can’t be removed anymore, so I won’t be able to return it to you. I’m truly sorry. This was my mishandling, so let’s consider this a debt I owe you. If we come across any other treasures from here on out, I’ll make sure to repay you with something no less powerful than that fragment. How does that sound?”
Li Xiaofei said this somewhat awkwardly, a touch of guilt in his tone.
Chu Xiang quickly waved her hands and replied, “No, no, it’s fine. That furnace was meant for you. It’s your fate, Brother Li. You already saved me and Brother Hua just now, that’s more than enough. I’m deeply grateful.”
Li Xiaofei waved it off casually and said, “It was nothing.”
With everything settled, the group continued on their journey. The mute girl was still indicating southeast, so they went in that direction. At the same time, Li Xiaofei noticed something else. The light emanating from Ishihara Masami within the Secret Time Pavilion, the glow that guided him, was also brightest toward the southeast.
They pressed forward. The farther they went, the more collapsed structures and ruined buildings they passed.
Suddenly, a massive stone gate came into view ahead. It had a dignified, ancient appearance. Though the plaque above the gate had long since been destroyed, and one of the two towering pillars lay broken, the remnants suggested that this had once been one of the most important buildings in the ruins. It was likely the most significant building Li Xiaofei had seen since he crossed the Heavenly River.
Fragments of stone from the broken plaque and shattered columns still bore faint traces of ancient script. But the characters were too worn to decipher. The mute girl grew visibly excited. She seemed to sense something.
“Woof! Woof!” Even the Black Emperor began barking.
But Li Xiaofei needed no warning. He, too, had already picked up on a faint but familiar energy lingering in the air. He quickened his pace and stepped past the fallen gate pillar.
There was a wide, lengthy avenue beyond the entrance, flanked by the foundations of old buildings. The buildings were far better preserved as they continued deeper. Some of the stone houses and pavilions were remarkably intact.
Others appeared to be enclosures or pens for animals, arranged in such a deliberate, orderly fashion that it was clear careful planning had once gone into this place. Suddenly, Li Xiaofei understood.
This was a horse stable! A celestial one, used by Heaven to raise divine steeds.
The realization struck Li Xiaofei instantly, bringing to mind a legendary tale. Bimawen. The post Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, had been tricked into taking when first entering Heaven, keeper of the heavenly steeds.
Could this have been where Bimawen worked?
Still, their top priority was finding Huang Dinggou, so Li Xiaofei pushed the thought aside and began searching immediately. Moments later—
“Woof! Woof!” The voice of the Black Emperor rang out.
It was quickly followed by the mute girl’s quiet cheer. Li Xiaofei rushed toward them. There, he saw a ragged, disheveled man gleefully spinning the mute girl in circles, while the Black Emperor was wagging his tail in uncontainable excitement.
“Hall Master?!” The scruffy man spotted Li Xiaofei and rushed over, beaming with excitement.
Li Xiaofei raised a foot and kicked him aside with a look of complete disgust.
“Hall Master! It’s me!” The man cried, brushing hair out of his filthy face. “Your loyal subordinate, your brother through life and death, the quick-witted, ever-brave Huang Dinggou!”
“I know it’s you,” Li Xiaofei replied. “But you stink. Go change before you talk to me again... Damn, did you fall into a cesspit or something?”
Huang Dinggou’s eyes widened and replied, “Hall Master, your insight is truly unmatched! I did indeed end up in a cesspit. But I didn’t fall in, I jumped in!”
Li Xiaofei narrowed his eyes and said, “You starved yourself crazy, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you ate—”
“Ptooey! Ptooey!” Huang Dinggou stomped the ground in frustration. “I did it to stay alive! A calculated humiliation! A necessary sacrifice!”
“You survived... in a cesspit?” Li Xiaofei raised an eyebrow, skeptical.
“Hall Master, don’t let your current suave looks fool you,” Huang Dinggou said with a gloating grin. “Come nightfall, you'll be right in that cesspit with me. When that happens, let’s see who’s laughing. There’ll be no big brother or little brother. We’ll both stink the same.”
“What are you talking about?” Li Xiaofei narrowed his eyes. He could tell Huang Dinggou wasn’t just joking.
Huang Dinggou’s expression turned serious as he finally explained.
Every night, terrifying monsters lurking in the darkness would awaken. They would hunt down any living beings like demons patrolling the land. They would capture them, torment them, parasitize them, or outright devour them. Several of Huang Dinggou’s companions had fallen to those very creatures.
By sheer luck, or perhaps fate, Huang Dinggou had discovered an ancient cesspit in the horse stables. In a desperate moment, he jumped in and miraculously escaped the monsters’ notice, preserving his life.
Later, he realized the monsters seemed to have an aversion to the cesspit. They refused to approach it, didn’t search it, and couldn’t even tolerate the stench.
“Haha! I really am a genius,” Huang Dinggou boasted proudly. “As long as I smear myself with a little ten-thousand-year-old dung, the monsters avoid me completely. As long as I stay within the Bimawen Stables and don’t run into any high-stage monsters, I can survive the night!”
Before he could finish his triumphant speech—
The mute girl couldn’t hold it in any longer. She bent over and started retching violently. “Ugh... You... you need to wash—right now!”
Just the thought of having hugged Huang Dinggou earlier, and what she had assumed was just some grime from not bathing, made her want to throw up her soul along with her guts. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩~𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢~𝔫𝔢𝔱
Li Xiaofei was stunned.
How revolting must this be...
He stared wide-eyed at the mute girl, who had actually spoken.
Huang Dinggou’s face lit with a radiant, self-righteous glow as he declared solemnly, “To survive... for the survival of the human race... not just smearing old dung, if I had to eat a few kilos of it, I—"
Even the Black Emperor couldn’t take it anymore. With a look of utter disdain, he lifted his hind leg and unleashed a jet of urine like a high-pressure hose, drenching Huang Dinggou in a cleansing stream.
Li Xiaofei leaped several steps away, keeping a safe distance, and finally voiced a long-held question.
“Wait a second. I’ve been here for quite a while now, and I haven’t seen it turn to night. Isn’t this place without day or night?”