Mutated Tao

Li Huowang looked at the oversized mask that covered half of the person’s body. Only a pair of green pants could be seen beneath the mask.

“This is the Chief of Hou Shu’s Surveillance Bureau. His name is Zhang Tan. Since you are here to help, I think it’s beneficial you get to know each other.”

Xuan Pin then pointed at Li Huowang and spoke to Zhang Tan. “This is the one I told you about.”

Li Huowang looked at Zhang Tan before he greeted the Chief. “The disciple of Zephyr Temple, Li Huowang, greets the senior. May I know which sect you are from?”

Zhang Tan uttered a single word, “Nuo.”

“Nuo? As in the Nuo Opera?” Li Huowang was surprised. To his knowledge, Da Nuo was the crazy world itself.

If Da Nuo was crazy, why was someone still worshiping him? It’s one thing to worship Da Nuo, but how did someone from their sect become the Chief of Hou Shu’s Surveillance Bureau?

Is Da Nuo a Siming? Or is he a Greater Siming in the legends? Or is he an imaginary God like the Immortal Heaven of Qing Qiu?

Li Huowang pondered and asked, “Is Da Nuo still granting you powers?”

Just then, Xuan Pin’s voice came from beside Li Huowang. “It’s best if you don’t ask that. No matter where you came from, it’s very rude to ask such a question, especially when this is also your first time meeting him.”

Li Huowang nodded. He was asking out of curiosity, but he was more worried about the situation in Hou Shu. “How is the war going? How strong is the Dharma Sect?”

“We are losing. The Dragon Vein of Hou Shu has been seized. The trail of corpses you saw was the aftermath. To be honest, since the Dragon Vein was taken, the kingdom’s ‘luck’ has been affected too. That’s why we’ve been losing a lot. If you had come any later, Hou Shu would have really fallen.”

Li Huowang frowned. He knew the situation was dire, but he didn’t think it would be this bad.

“Then what are we waiting for? We need to take the Dragon Vein back! Where is it?”

Xuan Pin and Zhang Tan looked at each other and sighed. “We might’ve been able to do so last time, but the situation has worsened to the point where it would be difficult.”

“What do you mean?” Li Huowang realized something else had gone wrong.

“The war is constantly changing. We cannot expect the enemy to wait for us to fight back. Last month, the Dharma Sect of Nanping, Si Qi, and even Hou Shu found an unknown method to merge all three Dragon Veins into one. They then told everyone that they established the Li[1] Kingdom and also had a Dragon Vein. ”

Li Huowang had a terrifying image in his mind. He imagined the three Dragon Veins bundled together like a thread. A single Dragon Vein was already very hard to defeat, much less three.

The Dharma Sect will surely guard the three Dragon Veins as if they were their life!

Li Huowang suddenly felt a pressure on his heart. Ji Zai was so useless that a single thought from Li Huowang would wipe him out of existence.

He pondered a bit before he asked again, “I’ve just arrived here, and you guys have been here for longer. You should have a better understanding of the situation than me, so what countermeasures does the palace of Hou Shu and the Surveillance Bureau have?”

Xuan Pin remained quiet before he said, “We’ve tried a lot of things before you came. Even though we caused some inconveniences for the Dharma Sect, we still didn’t manage to get the Dragon Veins back. The palace of Hou Shu decided to abandon the kingdom and retreat to Qing Qiu.”

“What? That’s it? We give up on Hou Shu?” Li Huowang was stunned at how easily they gave up. How could they be the rulers of Hou Shu like this?

“The Dragon Vein has been lost and our luck has run out. That’s why they came to that conclusion. But don't worry, not all has been lost. Even though we can’t recover the Dragon Vein, we can retreat to Qing Qiu to regroup our troops. Qing Qiu is also closer to the Liang Kingdom so it’s easier for us and the Emperor to rally the troops there.”

Li Huowang frowned and paced around the room. He didn’t want to give up now. He was here to take back the Dragon Vein, not to retreat back to Qing Qiu.

“Wait, what if we still have a chance?” Li Huowang had an idea. “How much primordial breath do you still have? Give it to me and I can use it!”

He was already here, so it was worth a shot. As long as he had enough primordial breath, Li Huowang could fight against even a Dragon Vein.

Xuan Pin’s answer was brief. “I don’t have any left.”

“What? How come?”

“Because I’ve extracted everything from the Strayed Ones that we’ve caught. It’s not easy to find fresh Strayed Ones with how chaotic the world has become.”

“Wait, you mean that the primordial breath you had was harvested from Strayed Ones?” Li Huowang’s pupils shrank from shock when he heard that.

“Of course. Strayed Ones are the only ones who possess primordial breath. Where else would you find it? Regular people think that a Strayed One’s organs or sense of bewilderment are what make them valuable, but what they don’t know is that the valuable part of a Strayed One is their primordial breath.”

Li Huowang couldn’t accept it. He never would’ve imagined the primordial breath that allowed him to become so strong had been extracted from live Strayed Ones.

Just then, someone floated down from the ceiling and whispered to Xuan Pin.

The person was also one of Xuan Pin’s illusions. When he was done, Xuan Pin said, “It seems that we might actually have a chance.”

“Huh?” Zhang Tan finally spoke after being quiet all this time.

“Qing Qiu’s tribal leader is here. He wishes to fight the Dharma Sect head-on rather than wait for them to invade Qing Qiu.”

Just as Xuan Pin finished speaking, all three of them sensed something was wrong and looked up.

Xuan Pin extended a slender hand from beneath his robes and pointed at the ceiling. The ceiling turned invisible and revealed the cloudy skies. Rain fell as thunder roared in the heavens.

Xuan Pin felt something was wrong and quickly did calculations with his fingers. “Wait, the time doesn’t match. We are missing half a division[2].”

“Wait, what did you say?” Li Huowang was shocked.

“We should have eleven divisions in a day, but we’ve lost half a division.”

“Half a division?” Li Huowang recalled something similar had happened before.

“Xuan Pin, what if the Dharma Sect didn’t want to keep the Dragon Vein? What if they wanted to destroy them?”

Li Huowang had just said that when an earthquake happened. The Earth Dragon was moving again.

1. The character for Li here means Black. ☜

2. A division = two hours. So half a division means one hour. ☜