Mutated Tao

It was once again the Qingming Festival in Cowheart Village.

Even though it was night, the streets bustled with people burning paper ingots and money. Most of the villagers were migrants without ancestral altars to honor their dead. They could only afford to draw circles on the ground, leaving an opening in the direction of their ancestors’ graves.

White smoke floated upwards. The moonlight cast a soft glow, making Cowheart Village look like a paradise.

A lone figure in red walked past the white smoke.

It was Li Huowang. He clutched a large amount of paper money and ingots as he passed through the village and made his way to the Bai family estate, which was now devoid of any residents aside from himself.

He stood still at the entrance and stared at the white lantern hanging from the large door. He saw the two yellow couplets and let out a hoarse chuckle. “Hehe… I’ve truly become… The moon is both full and empty. Several remaining stars circled around the incomplete moon. A bright lantern is lit in front of the house, but the house is empty throughout spring and autumn. Ahh…”

Li Huowang stepped inside and slammed the doors shut. He drew a large circle on the ground, leaving evenly spaced openings instead of a single one.

He tossed the paper money and paper ingots into the circle before setting them alight.

“Qingming… Come… Take your money!”

Li Huowang’s hoarse voice rang out like the lonely cry of an old crow, echoing through the empty Bai family estate.

As the fire burned, he mumbled the words he wanted to say to his dead family.

“Suisui, buy whatever you need down there with the paper money. You can buy as many toys as you want. If they don’t have what you want, you can meet me in my dreams and let me know. I will find some paper dolls to burn so that they can accompany you.

“Miaomiao, are you alright down there? I miss you…”

As the paper money continued to burn, the fire flared higher and brighter. Halfway through the bundle of paper money and ingots, Li Huowang broke down.

He stood up and shouted at his shadow vehemently, “Ji Zai! You liar! You promised me! You promised you’d bring them back! Why didn’t you keep your word?”

The world had survived. The Natural Disasters were gone, and there were no more evil entities. The world had sixteen divisions again. Sanity had returned to the world.

Huowang had achieved his goal of changing the world, but bringing back the dead remained beyond his reach.

“Everything impossible has disappeared. We overcame so many difficulties, so why can’t you revive a few people? What good are you, Ji Zai? You’re useless!”

He refused to admit it, but he knew it was impossible. Reviving them went against the laws of the world. Now that the world was normal again, impossible things couldn’t happen. If he revived them, the world would go crazy again.

His anger dissolved into despair. He slumped to the ground and cried. “Why? Why! Why me? Why am I the only one alive?!”

A wave of despair engulfed him, suffocating him under the weight of a mountain. He couldn’t breathe, and the feeling was more agonizing than death itself.

Li Huowang reached into his bag of torture tools and retrieved a dagger. He sliced open his abdomen. Next, he took out three dolls made from the skin of Strayed Ones and threw them onto the ground.

Raising the dagger, he slashed his own neck, pulling the blade with such force that he decapitated himself. He grabbed his severed head and smashed it onto the ground.

But it was futile. He couldn’t die.

When Ji Zai used the mirror to strip everything away from him, he had taken even Death. Ji Zai had plundered everything, including his status as a Strayed One too.

Li Huowang understood that he was Ji Zai’s Twisted One. He was fated to become Ji Zai. The world had returned to sanity, and the past could no longer be rewritten. Everything in the future had been set.

Just as despair threatened to consume him entirely, Li Huowang’s sharp ears noticed a slight movement from the stool he’d been sitting on.

He stopped and approached the stool. There was something there.

He carefully felt the air above the stool but couldn’t sense anything. Still, he needed to make sure. “Is that you? Is that really you?”

Li Huowang looked around and saw the burning paper money twirling in the circle. He remembered something and ran into the house.

He grabbed an umbrella and opened it, bending down to look between his knees.

At that moment, he saw Suisui’s smiling face. For the first time in a very long time, Li Huowang smiled. The despair in his heart gave way to joy.

“Hahaha! You are all here! That’s good! Don’t go away! Don’t get reincarnated! You might’ve become ghosts, but that’s fine! Even ghosts can cultivate to become immortals! Wait here. I go to the Surveillance Bureau’s archives to find a method for ghosts to cultivate! Hahaha!”

Placing his head back onto his neck, Li Huowang rushed out of the Bai family estate and toward the village entrance.

“There are ghosts in this world! Hahaha! Ji Zai, I was wrong about you! The moon is both full and empty, with several scattered stars circling around! Hahaha! Ghosts are fine too! Ghosts are fine, too! Hahaha!”

Hearing the commotion, Puppy poked his head out the door, his daughter beside him. He sighed as he watched Li Huowang.

“We endured so many hardships throughout the year. In the end, Senior Li still went crazy.”

“Father, what happened to Uncle Li?”

“Nothing. Don’t scold Uncle Li or make fun of him the next time you see him. Let me know if any kids throw stones or spit at him. He’s our Village Protector from now on.”

“Father, what’s a Village Protector?”

“A Village Protector is someone who shields us from disasters. Because of him, we in Cowheart Village can live in peace.”

Puppy was going to close his door when he noticed a light coming from the village entrance. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see what it was due to the smoke.

Though the smoke obscured his view, he soon saw Lu Xiucai running through it with his nephew, Lu Tongseng, cradled in his single remaining arm.

Lu Xiucai saw Puppy and pointed at the village entrance excitedly. “Puppy! Come quick! Look! Master has ascended and become an immortal!”

-End-

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