022 The Exit

In the alchemy room of Qingfeng Temple, Li Huowang stood stock-still, his body drenched in his master's blood, clearly in a state of shock. "Do these three pills really pack such a punch? What on earth did I and Danyangzi concoct? Pills or explosives?"

He lay on the ground for a while before getting up. He wiped the blood off his face with his hand and then bent down to rummage around on the ground.

After rummaging for ages without finding a single twitch of moving flesh, and even seeing Danyangzi's copper bell flattened, Li Huowang finally heaved a sigh of relief. Danyangzi was truly and utterly dead at his hands.

"But now that he's gone, what the hell do I do next?" Li Huowang stood there, suddenly feeling as lost as a ship without a rudder.

Li Huowang had thought he'd be over the moon after avenging himself, but when this moment actually arrived, he found himself in a daze, completely lost.

All his plans these days had revolved around killing Danyangzi. He'd never even entertained the thought of surviving himself.

Now that Danyangzi was dead and Bai Lingmiao was safe, he'd fulfilled all his promises. So what was left?

Just as he was racking his brains over this question, the door of the alchemy room was suddenly flung open. Chang Ren and Chang Ming entered warily, each holding a long sword in one hand.

They looked around and, not finding Danyangzi, turned their vigilant gazes towards the blood-smeared Li Huowang. "Halt! What kind of demon are you! Tell us, where is our master?"

"Master? You're standing on him. Besides, I'm Xuanyang, your junior brother."

Hearing this, Chang Ren and Chang Ming instinctively looked down and lifted their feet. Some internal organs were revealed in front of them, and their pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinpricks.

Li Huowang looked around, then picked up half of Danyangzi's face from the ground. "Look, he's really gone."

"I killed him," Li Huowang said to himself right in front of them.

"Logically speaking, he had so much blood on his hands and deserved to die ages ago. But I didn't kill him for that reason. I killed him out of personal grudges."

Just as Li Huowang was about to explain to the two in front of him why he'd done this, Chang Ming and Chang Ren exchanged a glance, then without a word, quickly sheathed their swords and rushed out of the door.

"Hey, wait for me to finish speaking before you bolt," Li Huowang shouted helplessly at them.

After shouting for ages with no response, Li Huowang, smiling bitterly and covering his still faintly aching stomach, walked towards the door.

"The bald-headed scoundrel is dead! He's dead! Come out, everyone! You can go home!!" Li Huowang held the flattened copper bell in his hand and shook it vigorously, shouting at the top of his lungs to the surroundings.

It was the first day of the Lunar New Year. The ear-splitting ringing of the bell didn't attract any wandering ghosts, but it did attract the boys and the medicine ingredients.

When they saw the half-face in Li Huowang's hand, they were all over the moon and fell to the ground, kowtowing in all directions.

Li Huowang walked slowly along the tunnel of the cave. He wanted to spread this news to every single soul in Qingfeng Temple.

More and more people joined his group and started shouting with him: "The bald-headed scoundrel is dead! He's dead! We can go home!"

Just then, Li Huowang felt someone reach out to support him. He turned his head and saw Bai Lingmiao, her face streaked with tears of joy.

Li Huowang smiled at her and waved the half-face of Danyangzi vigorously. "The bald-headed scoundrel is dead. You can all go home. It's the New Year! You can all go home!"

"Yes! Brother Li! You can go home too! We can all go home!"

Li Huowang's expression froze for a moment, then he continued to wave the copper bell in his hand with all his might and roared at the top of his lungs: "Danyangzi is dead! Come out, everyone! You can go home!!"

However, not everyone in Qingfeng Temple was this jubilant. Just as Li Huowang was approaching Danyangzi's residence, he heard the clanging sound of metal in the distance.

Li Huowang led the crowd over. In Danyangzi's filthy residence, he saw Xuanyuan confronting Chang Ming and Chang Ren. Both sides had drawn their weapons, and the atmosphere was as tense as a tightly wound bowstring.

Looking at the so-called heavenly book wrapped in black-threaded copper coins, Li Huowang naturally understood what they were fighting over.

"Junior brother Xuanyang! Come quickly! Let's kill these two henchmen of Danyangzi together! Let's share this heavenly book to immortality!" Xuanyuan, no longer looking amiable, tried to persuade Li Huowang.

Chang Ming took a step forward with his right foot and pointed his long sword directly at Li Huowang at the door. "If you don't want to end up dead, get out of here! Master taught you the art of alchemy. Do you really think you can take on us two sword-wielding experts in this situation?"

Li Huowang let out a soft sigh and looked at the scene in front of him helplessly. "That's not a heavenly book to immortality at all. It's just ancient scriptures. What I said before was all made up to deceive the bald-headed scoundrel."

"Don't believe the bald-headed scoundrel's nonsense. This guy is full of lies. He said it was personally given by Lord Laojun. Given his character, he probably robbed it from somewhere. Three senior brothers, let's go."

Chang Ming and Chang Ren pinched two black talismans between their left fingers and wiped them on their long swords. Suddenly, a cold wind blew through the room, sending shivers down everyone's spines.

"Junior brother Xuanyin, since you don't want to get involved, stop talking nonsense and leave."

Chang Ming and Chang Ren lifted their long swords and said in unison.

Feeling Bai Lingmiao timidly tugging at his Taoist robe, Li Huowang bowed to both sides and then led everyone towards the exit of Qingfeng Temple. "Well, three senior brothers, you can continue. See you later."

Just as Li Huowang closed the door gently, sounds of conflict came from inside.

In the dark tunnel, a group of people eager to go home walked excitedly. The hands of each person holding an oil lamp were trembling like leaves in the wind.

This tunnel was strange and rugged. They had to use ropes to climb from time to time. Li Huowang had never been here in his memory.

But he clearly knew that this was the exit of Qingfeng Temple because he saw the hands of the others around him trembling even more violently.

After walking for about the time it takes to burn two incense sticks, there was a glimmer of light in the distance of the cave tunnel. When they saw the light, everyone's steps became disordered. They started to run instead of walk.

As they ran, the light in the distance grew larger and larger, and finally enveloped everyone's field of vision.

The moment they stepped out of the cave, almost everyone squinted their eyes. After living in the cave for so long, the outside world was just too bright for them.

As their eyes gradually adapted to the light, the scenery outside Qingfeng Temple unfolded before their eyes.

In the distance, the sky was just turning pale. The mountains and the forests in the distance were so pure and refreshing, like a faint ink-wash painting that soothed the soul.

Just then, the first ray of morning light on the first day of the Lunar New Year pierced through the mist and shone on everyone's faces.

Li Huowang squinted at the rising sun in the sky and murmured to himself, "Did I stay in the alchemy room with the bald-headed scoundrel all night? The sun is already up. What a beautiful day it is today."

Suddenly, someone beside him moved. It was a young boy. With tears streaming down his face, he quickly waved his feet and rushed towards a small path leading into the forest.

His running triggered a chain reaction. More and more people started running in that direction. They wanted to run far away from this place of sorrow, as if they could leave all their pain behind.

After a while, only seven or eight people from the material storage room were left at the cave entrance. They all looked at Li Huowang.

"Brother Li, let's go too," Bai Lingmiao, with tears still on her face, said with a big smile.

"Wait a moment," Li Huowang said as he took out some pieces of paper from his pocket and stuffed them into Bai Lingmiao's arms. "These are the last words and addresses left by those dead medicine ingredients.