Mutated Tao

Chapter 127: Who Is It?

Chapter 127: Who Is It?

“It was me? I massacred an entire town? It was me who killed Yingzi’s entire family?” Trembling, Li Huowang turned to look into the eyes of the dead girl before him.

Her pupils were devoid of any expression, dilated to the maximum. A mocking smile still hung on her face.

“I killed her, a girl who just wanted to seek revenge for the death of her parents? Am I the one who deserves death?” mumbled Li Huowang.

At this point, Li Huowang was starting to feel afraid. It was an extreme type of fear. He pushed Yingzi’s lifeless body and took a big step back before raising his trembling hands which were stained completely red with Yingzi’s blood.

“No! It’s not like that. I hadn’t even transmigrated here four years ago! Even if I had, it’s impossible for me to massacre an entire town! I wouldn’t have had the ability to cause chaos within the Ao Jing Sect. After all, I’m just an ordinary person!” shouted Li Huowang.

“You’re not ordinary; ordinary people wouldn’t have your abilities,” someone interjected.

Meanwhile, Shou San just watched as the red-robed Taoist became more and more terrified before continuing his explanation, “Logically, I wouldn’t want to have too much interaction with you. Who knows whether you will go mad while we are conversing? But since Abbess Jingxin asked us to help you, we are doing her a favor.”

“Shut up! Don’t try to deceive me! Aren’t you all lusting for Strayed Ones? Stop pretending! I’m right here, so come at me!” shouted Li Huowang.

Seeing Li Huowang glaring at him, Shou San backed away. “Little Xuan Yang, calm down. All of us here are trying to help you. You can’t repay our kindness with enmity.”

However, his words did not help. Conversely, they caused the fear within Li Huowang’s heart to deepen; he was starting to slowly feel like they were all telling the truth.

At that moment, Shou San gently waved his hand, gesturing for the others from Ao Jing Sect to withdraw. Then, he turned to Li Huowang. “Little Xuan Yang, while our Ao Jing Sect might not have the best reputation on the outside, we’re at least different from you; we don’t kill people on a whim. There should at least be a justification for a person’s actions.”

Li Huowang glanced down at Yingzi’s corpse, his eyes bloodshot. After a while, he gritted his teeth and dashed out of the tunnel.

Given Li Huowang’s overbearing attitude, nobody from the Ao Jing Sect dared to block his way; they backed up against the walls and gave way to him.

Outside, it was still night time, with the round moon hanging in the sky. The cold wind that blew past helped Li Huowang to clear his head a little. He stumbled beside a tree and leaned against it, covering his face with his hands as he squatted down, his body trembling involuntarily.

Am I really a killing maniac? Someone worse than even Dan Yangzi? Did I really kill Yingzi’s entire family? And then I killed Yingzi, who was just seeking revenge?

The intense pain brought about by this fact weighed down on Li Huowang’s mind like a mountain.

At that moment, Li Huowang suddenly heard footsteps approaching him. But at this point, he just wanted to hide and not care about anything else.

He felt someone gently pat his shoulder and speak in a voice that carried a tinge of worry, “Little Xuan Yang, are you leaving? Then does our agreement from before still stand?”

These words finally managed to break Li Huowang out of his reverie. “Impossible! I’m going to find evidence! I can’t possibly have killed everyone in that entire town!”

Li Huowang stood up and pushed aside Shou San’s hand before directly dashing toward the town at the foot of the mountain.

Shou San watched Li Huowang vanish along the mountain path. Once he had vanished from Shou San’s field of vision, Shou San turned around and respectfully bowed toward a square-faced member of the Ao Jing Sect. “Elder Shen Benyou, please look at this…”

The square-faced man frowned and pondered for a moment, then said, “Follow him and observe; however, don’t get involved with anything yourself.”

Meanwhile, accompanied by the moonlight, Li Huowang once again arrived at the ghost town.

The darkness and deathly silence, as well as the sparse vegetation made the town seem even more horrifying.

However, Li Huowang did not care about all this. He just rushed in and frantically started to search even as he continued to bleed from his injuries.

When he discovered a skeleton on the ground, his eyes lit up. He took out a glowing stone from his pocket and began to examine the body closely.

“The left side of the skull is shattered! This was done by a blunt weapon. That’s not my style, and I don’t like to use blunt weapons anyway,” mumbled Li Huowang, his mood slowly stabilizing as he methodically continued to search through the other skeletons.

“The bones of this corpse are charred, and they crumble easily upon touch. This person died in a fire, something that I couldn’t have done.”

“This one is even more absurd; half its body is exposed outside, and half of it is stuck in the wall. How could I have possibly done this?”

Li Huowang felt more relieved the more corpses he checked. Finally, when he saw a skeleton that had bloomed on the floor like a flower, Li Huowang put down the burden in his heart.

I didn’t kill anyone… I’m not a killing maniac! Yingzi was clearly misremembering!

Li Huowang re-confirmed this fact in his mind.

But, another question leapt into his mind.

Why would Yingzi misremember all of it? Could there have been an evil person that looked exactly like me?

Ah… this is troublesome. This fact might cause more trouble in future.

But I can think about this matter at another time. First, I should think of a way to deal with Dan Yangzi.

Li Huowang was about to leave the rotting wooden house when some of the papers on the bedside caught his attention. He calmly picked up those pieces of paper.

There was quite some blood on them, and they seemed like they were penned by someone right before they died.

Li Huowang could not really make out the contents of the paper; he could not recognize a lot of the words.

Hold on, these three characters are quite familiar.

Frowning, Li Huowang touched the last three characters doubtfully. He touched them for a long time, his brows furrowing even more.

Then, he suddenly realized something.

“Li Huowang! These three characters make the words ‘Li Huowang’!” shouted Li Huowang excitedly. However, immediately after that, a realization struck him that caused him to feel like he was being strangled.

He once again surveyed the skeletons around him, his pupils dilating and constricting repeatedly. Fear gradually started to consume his heart.

“No… Impossible! Yingzi must have made a mistake! I didn’t kill her parents! I didn’t kill all these people!” mumbled Li Huowang to himself hysterically, trying to refute his realization. However, his emotions were slowly going out of control.

He could find all sorts of ways to deceive himself, but the three characters on the piece of paper in his hand forced him to face reality.

In that moment, something inside Li Huowang snapped.

“Li Huowang! You killed them! You madman!”

“No! I didn’t! I didn’t! I didn’t! I’m different from Dan Yangzi and the rest!”

Veins started bulging on his forehead as Li Huowang knelt amongst the skeletons of the people that had died due to various causes while shouting hysterically.

Swoosh~

At that moment, a fur-covered pill flew into Li Huowang’s mouth.

In an instant, the guilt and agony that he had been suppressing in his heart were magnified many times over, almost engulfing him completely.

As this was happening, a person slowly walked in. It was Shou San.

His body was completely charred as he walked in while lightly snapping his fingers. Dense flames surrounded his entire body, crackling as they burned him.

Then, he gently waved his hand, and the burning flames quickly extended along the ground, engulfing Li Huowang’s entire body.