Chapter 67 - Parcel
Regardless of what had happened, with Li Zhi's death, everything came to an end.
Even though it had been quite dangerous, after his near-death experience, Li Huowang had obtained many benefits.
First, Li Huowang now knew why the monks at Righteous Monastery had tried to trick him.
Strayed Ones. In the beginning, everything starts to take form, and when there is form, there is essence, and yet, it is not complete. That is a Strayed One; one who has both form and essence, but at the same time is still incomplete.
This was what Li Zhi told him right before his death. In this world, he was a precious Strayed One.
Li Huowang had never really understood ancient literature, but he still tried to recall whatever he had learned in school, getting a rough understanding of it.
Based on his understanding, there was a certain primordial substance in the beginning, and that substance formed everything. However, Strayed Ones were formed even before this primordial substance was formed.
He deciphered what Li Zhi's words meant, but instead of getting any answers to his questions, he was left with even more questions.
I'm a human. A mortal with blood and flesh. How could I be something that was formed before 'the substance' but still be incomplete? This makes no sense.
This was something so profound, and yet, it didn't sound like it applied to him.
If something wasn't even complete, then how could it move or think?
Facing this question, Li Huowang failed to comprehend it.
However, no matter what he thought, the actions of the cultivators of this world, including Dan Yangzi, Abbot Xin Hui, and even Li Zhi, told him a completely different story.
Ignoring what it means to be a Strayed One, I am a living treasure, just like Tang Sanzang. Everybody wants a piece of me, per se.
Li Huowang thought about it. At this point, he had lost any and all trust he had for the people of this world—anything said by anyone could be fake.
They could be trying to lie to him.
This made him doubt everyone as if everyone who approached him had some sort of agenda.
Even so, he still needed to survive here. He had no choice but to face his problems one by one.
For now, Li Huowang could tell that Li Zhi hadn't been lying to him. Dying men had better things to do than spout lies, so what Li Zhi had said was most likely the truth.
Li Zhi had even requested Li Huowang to burn some money for him during the Qingming Festival. He couldn't have gained anything from lying to Li Huowang about this.
"Hey! Wait up!"
Hearing this shout, Li Huowang and the rest turned their heads and saw an honest looking man catching up to them while holding something in his hands.
"Where are all of you going? Where is my Shaman friend? The one who was with you guys." asked the man, panting.
Li Huowang could never tell him how Li Zhi had died. Thus, he lied, "Li Zhi had something to do and left with his wife."
That man didn't even doubt his words and just passed a heavy parcel to Li Huowang. "Oh. If that's the case, these are his belongings that were in his room. He probably forgot to take them. Please send them to him for me. Thanks."
Looking at the color of the parcel, Li Huowang recalled that it was the item that Li Zhi was carrying on his back when they first met.
After entrusting the parcel to Li Zhi, the man left without even waiting for Li Huowang to say anything.
Back on the road filled with many potholes, Li Huowang checked the items in the parcel. After all, the items would never be returned to Li Zhi, since he had died.
Just then, a sudden thought flashed through his head.
Wait, maybe there's something precious in Li Zhi's parcel?
Li Huowang didn't even hesitate before opening it.
However, there was nothing new inside it; everything was old.
The first thing he saw was a piece of white drum leather; most likely a method to repair the drum used to summon the Immortals.
Li Huowang picked it up and threw it to the ground. He had a bad impression of the Shamans and felt that this item was a source of bad luck.
"Hey, don't throw it away. It's still good leather. Maybe we can use it in the future." Bai Lingmiao picked it up with both her hands.
"What can we do with it? Patching stuff up?" Li Huowang realized that Bai Lingmiao was much more pragmatic than him.
"We don't have any money left. We should save as much as we can," said Bai Lingmiao.
Seeing Bai Lingmiao carefully placing the leather in the donkey cart, Li Huowang shook his head and continued to rummage through Li Zhi's belongings as he picked up a string of coins. The coins were all new and shiny. It seemed that Li Zhi had been saving it up.
Shaking the coins in his hand, Li Huowang sighed.
He didn't know what Li Zhi had been saving for, but it was clear that he had put in a lot of effort.
"Use it to buy some food." Li Huowang threw the string of coins into Bai Lingmiao's arms.
Seeing this, a smile instantly blossomed on the face of Bai Lingmiao who had been worried about their finances.
But her happiness didn't last long. "Senior Li, we still need to find a way to earn money. These coins won't last us long."
"An income stream? What are you thinking of doing? Becoming performers like Lu Zhuangyuan?" Li Huowang asked as he continued to rummage through Li Zhi items.
Bai Lingmiao shook her head vigorously. "My father would kill me if he knew that I had become a performer. I was thinking of something more normal."
At that moment, Li Huowang took out the jade pendant that was tied to a thread and placed it in her hands. "Don't worry about money. Let's find somewhere that's more developed and sell this. Then, we would be able to buy anything we need."
"I have something too! Here you go!" At that moment, Puppy took out a stack of red envelopes from within his shirt before passing them over.
Li Huowang was surprised. "Wait a minute, these are the red envelopes that Dan Yangzi had given to the now dead official disciples. When did you get your hands on them?"
"I took them when we were exiting the Zephyr Temple. I saw that no one had touched them so I took them instead, hehe." Puppy was satisfied with his slyness.
Just then, Li Huowang's hands stopped moving; he felt something spherical in Li Zhi's parcel.
He took it out and saw that it was a gourd twice the size of his palm.
This looks like a gourd used to store pills. Do Shamans refine pills too?
Li Huowang wondered as he examined it.
He turned it upside down and shook it, but nothing came out. Li Huowang closed one of his eyes, intending to look inside the gourd.
Just as he was about to see what was inside, the top part of the 'gourd' suddenly opened. The mouth of the gourd was lined with rows of backward-facing teeth as it lunged toward Li Huowang.
Kachik!
Thankfully Li Huowang reacted quickly enough, otherwise half of his face would've been bitten off.
Even so, Li Huowang was visibly shaken when he saw the gourd reverting back to its original form.
It is a living thing and Li Zhi was using it to store something! Whatever is inside it must be very precious. But what is it?
At that moment, as if sensing something, the bell hanging at Li Huowang's waist vibrated lightly.
"Wait a moment." Li Huowang realized something and entered the forest.
Soon, the sound of a bell ringing was heard in the dense forest and a Wandering God was summoned.
Then, Li Huowang raised the gourd and showed it to the Wandering God before asking what was inside.
The Wandering God hummed in return.
Li Huowang was surprised at the answer and stared at the gourd incredulously. "What? Are you sure the item stored inside is... lifespan?"Chapter 68 - Festival
Lifespan.
The fact that it was limited was a problem that everyone had. And, to think that the answer to that problem was now in the palm of Li Huowang's hand.
Li Huowang completely ignored the question of how it was possible to give lifespan a tangible form. After going through so much in this bizarre world, Li Huowang couldn't be bothered with such questions anymore. Instead, it was more important for him to comprehend what it meant for him to have gotten his hands on this item.
With guidance from the Wandering God, Li Huowang raised the gourd before pointing it toward the sun.
Soon the mouth of the gourd opened up like a flower, revealing six round pills that were rolling slowly in a greenish liquid. At the same time, it was possible to see a golden glimmer on the pills. This golden glimmer was the Chinese character for 'lifespan.'
Li Huowang carefully took out one of the pills from within the fluid, holding it firmly while placing all his attention on it.
The Wandering God had explained to him that the lifespan within the pill would disappear the moment it touched anything composed of the five elements. Basically, it would become useless the moment it fell to the ground.
A single pill contained enough lifespan to grant a normal human an extra year of life.
Under the sunlight, the pill slowly started to dissipate, turning into a yellow smoke.
Then, Li Huowang pinched the pill and it disappeared in his hands.
At that moment, Li Huoawng suddenly felt his body becoming lighter—he had just increased his lifespan by a year.
Wouldn't I be undying if I keep using these things?
However, Li Huowang quickly brushed off the thought.
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Thinking back upon what Li Zhi had said, it wasn't hard to determine that this was the 'payment' that the Immortals wanted for their help.
It must've taken Li Zhi many rituals just to collect these few pills. If they were easy to collect, then there was no way Li Zhi would look so old.
For now, the only use he could think of for these lifespan pills was to help him in controlling the Wandering Gods.
Having thought up to this point, Li Huowang decided to take out the remaining five pills to absorb them. After all, he had summoned six Wandering Gods just to fight Li Zhi yesterday. That meant that he had spent eighteen months of his lifespan just last night. He needed to recover his lost lifespan.
However, just as his fingers were about to touch the lifespan pills, he stopped.
What if I can use these as a currency?
As the saying went, time was money. What if he really could trade money for time or vice versa?
The price of these pills would be astronomically high regardless of whether I sell them to cultivators or to normal people. It's quite a waste for me to just absorb them. I need to use them wisely.
Thinking up to this point, he retracted his hands from the gourd before placing it in the shade of a tree. Soon, the mouth of the gourd slowly closed.
Once it was closed, he picked the gourd up and walked back to the cart. Then, he found a string and used it to tie the gourd to his waist before continuing to rummage through the parcel.
But he didn't find anything else that was worth any money.
Old pieces of clothing, two pairs of worn-out shoes, some needles and threads, as well as a few clay sculptures in the form of Household Immortals. This was all that was owned by Li Zhi, his everything.
Looking through the items, Li Huowang sighed pitifully. Not only did the Immortals not allow Li Zhi to live a better life, it was even worse than that of a regular person's.
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It would be easy for the Immortals to use their powers to amass immense amounts of wealth, using it to compensate Li Zhi for his work.
But the Immortals never did that.
They only ever wanted a slave that would amass large amounts of lifespan for them; they couldn't care less about how badly their slaves were living.
Li Zhi was right. The work of a Shaman was not something an ordinary person could do.
"Senior Li, can you give these to me?" asked one of the assistants as he stared at the clay sculptures, snot dangling from his nose.
Even though the assistants performed quite well under stress, in the end, they were still children, and all children loved to play.
But, Li Huowang shook his head and threw the clay sculptures on the side of the road. "These things are dirty."
The wheels of the donkey cart once again started to creak as they continued on their journey.
While Li Zhi had lied to them about many things, he did not lie about the fact that the journey ahead would be perilous. The roads were uneven and there was not a single village in sight.
They walked on the muddy road for more than ten days before finally finding a medium-sized town.
Even though it was drizzling, it was unable to stop them from smiling.
"We can finally sleep on beds. It's been so torturous throughout the journey," said a man with a single arm. It was not that he had just one arm, but that his other arm was as small as that of a baby.
Meanwhile, Li Huowang raised his head up from his map. "We will rest here for two days. When the rain stops, we will resume our journey."
The donkey cart slowly rolled into the town.
When they arrived at the entrance of the town, they saw many horse carriages and ox carts exiting the town.
Compared to the carriages, there were even more people walking on foot. They were all wearing raincoats made from straw as they carried baskets full of yellow paper as well as bowls of fish, egg, and meat. All of them had expressions of sadness as they walked out.
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"What's wrong? Did something happen in the town?" Li Huowang asked instinctively.
"Senior Li, today is the Qingming Festival. They are going to clean the gravestones," explained one of the assistants.
"It's already Qingming? Time flies quite fast, huh." Li Huowang mumbled to himself.
Inside the town, there were many stores selling yellow paper, paper gold ingots, paper dolls, and even paper ox. Their business was booming.
At that moment, Li Huowang remembered his promise with Li Zhi. He did not want to dishonor it.
However, after getting his hands on some paper money and candles, he suddenly thought of a problem.
How do I do this? How do I burn paper money for Li Zhi?
"Senior Li, leave this to me. I know what to do." Puppy patted his skinny chest with pride.
They soon arrived in the town square. Many of the townsfolk were gathered here, burning paper money for their dead relatives who had been buried far away from the town.
Puppy took out his knife and drew a circle on the ground with it, leaving a small opening toward the direction where they had buried Li Zhi. The yellow paper was then placed within the circle and burned, slowly turning into ashes within the circle.
As Puppy was burning the paper, he chanted, "I'm burning this for Li Zhi and his wife! Whoever dares to take his money is a fucking animal! You will be reincarnated as livestock in your next life!"
"Does it work when you shout like this?" asked Li Huowang as he placed a paper gold ingot within the fire.
"Yes! It will definitely work! My third uncle had taught me how to do this. If I shout like this, then the stray ghosts would not dare to come and steal the paper money we are offering to the deceased!" Puppy was confident when he said that.
Li Huowang stared at the smoke that was slowly drifting upward as he slowly said, "Do you think a human would turn into a ghost when they die?"
"Senior Li, what are you saying? If a person doesn't become a ghost when they die, then what do they become?" asked Puppy.
"Maybe that's it. When a person dies, they leave nothing behind, nor do they turn into a ghost. Humans are quite small and insignificant," said Li Huowang. He had seen many bizarre things in this world, but he had never seen a ghost.
Li Huowang's words caused everyone to feel uncomfortable as they looked around. Puppy was even hugging his arms to his chest as he soothed the goosebumps on his skin.
"Aiya, Senior Li, what are you saying? Today is the Qingming Festival so we shouldn't simply say anything without thinking. A person becomes a ghost when they die. Then, they would arrive at Hell and be reincarnated. This is the truth," said Puppy.
"Why are you so sure about it? Have you seen it yourself?" asked Li Huowang.
"That's... That's because my second aunt's mother told me this. She's ninety four years old, so she knows everything," said Puppy.