Chapter 9 - Tangcheng.

Following Hua Erling.

They stepped through the morning dew, arriving at a thicket of rocks and thorns.

Qianyuanzi's mangled, bloody, and later rotten, gruesome remains were carelessly discarded there.

Even some weeds that had originally grown nearby, contaminated by the corpse fluid, began to wither.

"I don't want to bury him; leaving him exposed in the wilderness is good," Hua Erling explained.

Li Shiwu looked, suppressing the pungent, irritating smell, and knelt down to carefully search Qianyuanzi's Daoist robe.

Before long, a yellowish-brown sheepskin scroll appeared in his hand.

When unrolled, it was about the size of two palms.

But after Li Shiwu took one look, an indescribable sense of absurdity surged into his heart.

"Shiwu, what's wrong?"

Hua Erling quickly leaned closer, peered over, and was also stunned.

What was on the sheepskin scroll was a row of crooked small characters, like a child's scribbled joke, looking incredibly childish.

It simply read: "Once upon a time there was a mountain, on the mountain was a temple, and in the temple was soil."

"It doesn't plant flowers, it doesn't plant grass, it only plants immortals."

Below it was even a signature: Qingyang Temple, Huoyan Zhenren.

Besides that, the sheepskin scroll actually had a small Daoist temple drawn on it with a pen, and even simple things like white clouds, a sun, and green grass...

Looking at the childish sentences and drawing style, the first impression was that this sheepskin scroll came from a child only a few years old.

"How can this be? Why?"

"The sheepskin scroll that Qianyuanzi treasured as a precious artifact, is it just a child's random scribble?"

Li Shiwu was full of confusion, unable to understand the reason for any of this.

"Shiwu, don't overthink it."

"Doesn't it say 'Qingyang Temple' on it? If we go there, we'll find out the truth," Hua Erling consoled.

Li Shiwu hummed in agreement; at this point, it was the only way.

After all, he had successfully 'planted an immortal' within himself.

Everything related to the Seed Immortal Temple, he had to actively seek out.

"Erling, let's burn Qianyuanzi," Li Shiwu suddenly said.

"Ah?"

Hua Erling twisted his face: "Shiwu, wouldn't burning this old man be too easy on him?"

Li Shiwu shook his head: "No, I always feel that this world is unusual, which is why existences like Coffin Master were born."

"Look, this old man's remains are decaying very slowly." Read at Novels Haven (novelshaven.com)

"Lest evil arises, it's better to burn him to ashes and be done with it."

"I don't want to see Qianyuanzi turn into some bizarre entity and continue to haunt us."

Hua Erling shivered: "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Afterward, the two searched for dry firewood nearby.

Around noon, the time when the day's yang energy was strongest, a high platform made of rotten wood was built on an open piece of land.

Li Shiwu looked up, seeing the intense sunlight, which was a bit dazzling.

And as a wisp of fire fell.

Instantly, flames roared up, bringing a wave of heat that swept through, incidentally lifting the wisps of hair on the two young men's foreheads.

"Shiwu, only us are left," Hua Erling lowered his head, feeling inexplicably choked up.

"Yes, only the two of us are left."

Li Shiwu's face flickered with the firelight, his voice low.

These people, from childhood, were like duckweed, rootless, and without a home, not knowing where their home was.

They just followed Qianyuanzi, wandering north and south, constantly on edge, enduring hardships, and experiencing bitterness.

It was then that a series of shrill howls suddenly rang out from within the flames, piercing and sharp, as if something was about to awaken.

Instantly, the two snapped back to reality, exchanging glances.

"Erling, add more wood."

"Okay."

As for Li Shiwu, he held Qianyuanzi's kindling knife, staring intently at the decaying corpse in the fire, to prevent any unforeseen events.

"Master, rest in peace."

"This immortal, your disciple will become it for you."

It wasn't until night fell again that the firelight gradually extinguished.

Amidst the widespread mess, Qianyuanzi's body was finally burned clean, mixed with charcoal ashes, indistinguishable from them.

Seeing this, the two finally let out a collective sigh of relief.

And in their hearts, a strong sense of lingering fear arose.

"Bah, if that old man's corpse had really turned into an evil entity, what then?" Li Shiwu cursed with a laugh, feeling exceptionally relieved.

But immediately, he restrained his smile and asked: "Erling, where are they buried?"

"Follow me."

In the night,

Li Shiwu stood before four small grave mounds, gazing for a long time.

It wasn't until a gust of night wind, carrying a bone-chilling coldness, struck him that he took down Coffin Master and pulled out a map-like object from its belly. Read at Novels Haven (novelshaven.com)

When unrolled, it was indeed a topographical survey map.

It wasn't detailed, but it was enough for him.

"Bing Province?"

Li Shiwu murmured, only then realizing that they were currently in a region called 'Bing Province'.

And even with the incomplete map in hand, he could tell that Bing Province was surprisingly vast, with continuous, towering mountain ranges crisscrossing and rising and falling.

"Erling, let's head east."

"In that direction, there's a city, the closest to us."

And this journey lasted for three full days.

On the morning of the fourth day, after crossing another mountain, they finally saw the city marked on the map.

They then retrieved gold and silver from Coffin Master's belly, brushed off the dust from their clothes, and slowly approached the city gate.

Before long.

"Tangcheng!"

Below the city gate, Hua Erling looked at the two large characters carved on the city wall, and then at the bustling crowd constantly entering and exiting.

He couldn't help but mutter: "Shiwu, why don't we leave? There are too many people here; I feel quite awkward."

Having lived in the mountains for a long time, suddenly coming to the secular world was indeed uncomfortable for them.

But just then, a thunderous sound of hooves, raising a sky full of dust, roared from afar.

The common people, seeing this, scattered to both sides of the road, lowering their heads, seemingly not daring to collide with this procession.

A few breaths later.

Li Shiwu finally saw clearly.

It was ten men dressed in white robes and wearing a kind of tall red hat, leading over a hundred horses into the city.

With just one glance, Li Shiwu's attention was drawn to the horses they brought.

These horses were strange, extremely strange.

Each of them was half a head taller than a normal horse, completely hairless, and covered all over with black fleshy lumps that looked like congealed flesh and blood.

Besides that, these horses had no hooves.

Where the hooves used to be, there were five finger bones, just like human hands.

After Li Shiwu successfully 'planted an immortal', his perception was vastly different from before.

He inexplicably felt that the horses before him were not horses.

But rather, they were like people!