Chapter 256 - Birth

Lu Zhuangyuan explained to his eldest son, “The Young Daoist is someone who does big things. He won’t be driving us too hard. In fact, he might even be so busy that he won’t focus on us. That’s why we must discern someone’s behavior and temperament before we do anything. Plus, this could be a good chance for us. Didn’t you hear when Xiucai told us that the Daoist taught one of the boys with vitiligo a supernatural power? We should all be physically stronger than the boy and yet, he was the one who was given the power. That’s why we need to think things through thoroughly. Go ahead and think about this when you are alone later and see if you still think I’m being irrational.”

Hearing this, Lu Juren looked at his father in surprise. So in the end it was about the supernatural powers!

“Talk less and work more. No need to think about the useless things,” said Lu Zhuangyuan as he pulled his son back to the ox-cart.

The Lu family soon started practicing their singing and performance once again. Since they would be restarting their performances soon, they were rehearsing the basics so that they could perform well.

After everyone finished their lunch, they resumed their journey toward the Liang Kingdom.

Though they didn’t know the exact location of the Liang Kingdom, they knew that they were close when the grassy plains around them became sparser and were replaced by shrubs.

The sun gradually set on the western horizon, and a sudden scream broke the peaceful atmosphere. Everyone turned around and saw that it was Luo Juanhua screaming while sitting on top of the ox-cart.

At this moment, she was hugging her abdomen in a panic while looking at her wet skirt. Her water had broken!

“Quickly bring her into the horse carriage! Juanhua is giving birth!” Lu Zhuangyuan’s shout caused everyone to spring into action. Their ox-cart stopped too.

Then, the women went and helped with the birth while the men stayed farther away.

“Why are you going there? It’s not like you can help with anything,” Li Huowang asked Bai Lingmiao when he saw the latter was rushing toward the horse carriage.

Bai Lingmiao blushed. “I wanted to see what it’s like to give birth. It might be useful for me next time...”

Seeing her go away, Li Huowang leaped up and landed on top of another horse carriage. He lay down at the top and stared at the beautiful red clouds depicting the sunset.

Li Huowang closed his eyes and took a deep breath while hearing the people scurrying around at the back. Without the hallucinations, he finally felt peace. He no longer needed to get caught up between reality and the hallucination again.

“Daoist, it seems that your hallucinations are no more.”

Li Huowang turned around and saw Monk’s illusion standing in the air. Beside him were Peng Longteng and Jin Shanzhao’s illusions.

Even though his hallucination was gone, he still had to deal with the illusions.

“Yeah, the Black Taisui is working. I will no longer get stuck in the hallucination. Hehe, did you know that I tried pissing Wang Wei off one last time because I had a sliver of hope that the other side was real. It’s a shame that it was nothing but a hallucination,” said Li Huowang.

As he spoke, he looked up and saw a cloud that resembled Yang Na. His voice was filled with longing and disappointment as he continued, “I really wanted the other side to be real...”

“Daoist, what are you saying? I don’t understand you,” asked Monk.

“Hehe, if you don’t understand me, then don’t talk to me again or the others might think that I’m having one of my episodes again.” Li Huowang turned around and stared at the few remaining grassy hills.

After some time, Li Huowang looked toward the back of the other horse carriage. It had been a while, but the baby had yet to be born. He didn’t know if it was normal for it to take that long because he had never been in a situation where he had to see someone give birth.

“I hope the process is smooth, since I can’t help with anything at all. No wait... I learned how to refine some pills while I was in Zephyr Temple. Too bad there’s no furnaces here and I can’t refine some Blood Nourishing Pills,” muttered Li Huowang.

Ssssssiii~

At that moment, a faint sound caught his attention and caused him to sit up. He tried to listen where the sound came from, but it had already disappeared.

Li Huowang slowly laid back down in confusion. “Did I misheard it? Where did that sound come from?”

He thought about it and slid his fingers into his ear to pick out the earwax. He found that there was indeed something in there.

He slowly picked it out and saw that it was an extremely large scab.

The moment he pulled out the scab, his hearing sensitivity skyrocketed. He could even hear the sound of the grass growing underneath him.

“This is too loud. I can’t stay sane like this.” Li Huowang took out a pair of scissors with jagged edges and leaped down. He sheared off some of the fur off a lamb’s body and stuffed it into his ear.

“Whew~ Much better.” Li Huowang kept the scissors back into his sachet of torture tools.

“Hmm? What is that?” Li Huowang saw a black dot standing atop one of the distant mountains, but it was too far away even for him to see what it was.

“Wa~ Wa~ Wa~”

The sound of a baby’s cry suddenly rang out. Hearing the sound, Li Huowang turned around with everyone else and went toward the horse carriage.

When they approached it, everyone saw that Lu Juren was already standing at the entrance of the horse carriage. He was smiling happily. “Hehe~ I have a son now~ I have a son~”

On the other hand, Li Huowang was confused as he saw the baby crying in Bai Lingmiao’s arms.

Is the baby sick? Why is it so ugly? It’s like a monkey without fur.

Chun Xiaoman saw Li Huowang’s complicated look and instinctively knew what he was thinking and explained it to him, “Senior Li, that’s how babies are like when they are just born.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

After a careful explanation from Xiaoman, Li Huowang learned for the first time that he had been having a misconception about babies. He had always thought that all babies looked similar to a three-month-old baby. However, today he learned that it was normal for a baby to look ugly when it was just born.

Li Huowang went and congratulated Lu Zhuangyuan when he came out from the horse carriage.

“Hehehe~ Thank you, thank you.” Lu Zhuangyuan’s wrinkled face was as happy as a blooming flower.

Then, Lu Zhuangyuan addressed everyone and accepted their congratulations. “Everyone, I’m sorry that we don’t have any eggs[1] right now. Once we reach a town, we will give everyone some red eggs!”

Everyone was happy and celebrating the birth of the baby.

While everyone was reveling in celebration, Li Huowang suddenly felt his heart tighten. He instinctively raised his head and looked into the distance.

A small black dot had appeared on the red grass caused by the sunset. The black dot was slowly approaching them from the distant mountain!

Something’s wrong!

Li Huowang growled at what he saw, “Herd the lambs! We are leaving now!”

Li Huowang’s shout immediately broke the happy atmosphere. Even though they were confused, they knew that something was wrong when they saw how serious he looked.

Amidst Bun’s barking, the white lambs, ox-carts, and the horse carriages soon started moving again.

Time slowly passed and the sky became dark. Li Huowang used the last remaining sunlight and saw that the black dot was closing in on them!

1. He wants to make red eggs as a sign of celebration ?