Chapter 282 – Moon Lake (VIII)

Chapter 282

Moon Lake (VIII)

By the time kids were done, the area looked… pristine.

Honestly, scarily so.

For a moment, I doubted my own memory of there being quite a few dismembered corpses decorating the landscape just a little while ago. Now? Now there was only nature, golden and glimmering.

Why are they so good at this? No, scratch that: how are they so good at this? Did Long Tao teach them?

… he did, didn’t he?

The awkward bit now was Wei and his friends, who were firmly planted on their knees as acts of begging–per their own words–to let them live. They’d sworn an oath not to divulge what happened here, and they’d done it precisely nineteen times now.

Is it sort of like interest? Where oaths compound? Ah, who cares?

Though I tried to reason with them the first few times, recognizing they were a lost cause, I just left them alone, as I had a feeling my head would explode from trying to deal with them.

There was some good news, however–we, and by we I mean the kids, managed to snag all the spatial rings, and, well, there were quite a few things in them. But, most importantly, there were Spirit Stones–lots and lots of Spirit Stones.

I haven’t asked Lao Shun for any, as I didn’t want to fall into the bastard’s debt, and the kids didn’t ask any of me–despite the fact I knew they needed them–but now, I was finally out of the red. I had some wealth to my name.

And before distributing it all, I wanted to do something.

Something I’d been wanting to do for a while but never had the opportunity to.

I wanna ride the chariot.

God, I wanna say it out loud so bad, but I just know these guys would make fun of me. In their heads, yes, but still… I would know.

“For a change of pace,” I took out the small box from one of the rings and injected it with a bit of Qi before tossing it at the open space. It practically flickered into existence, turning into a wood-laden construct with four golden wheels. It was long and curved, with windows peeking inside without any curtains. There were no horses or any other beasts at the front, but there was a rather visible, sputtering array of light laid beneath it.

It encompassed the size of the entire thing–which was about the size of a van, give or take, and which made me worry we’d have to all squeeze in there like rats.

“W-what is this, Master?!” Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao were the first to walk up and investigate, while the others could scarcely hide their shock. Chiefly our three new friends, who looked so pale I was confident they did it on purpose–taking out a handful of white powder from somewhere and slobbering it over their faces.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“It’s a flying chariot,” I explained, turning toward Lao Shun, who also seems to have powdered his face. Huh. Maybe it’s the fashion. “I forgot I had it up until now.”

“… you, you forgot having this?” Lao Shun asked with a rather dry voice.

“Wouldn’t have mattered even if I remembered,” I said. “This thing sucks up Spirit Stones, and, well, I didn’t have enough to make it run. We still don’t, truthfully, but we deserve a bit of a rest, so we’ll take it for bits of the journey.”

Without waiting any longer, the kids yanked open the doors and climbed inside, inspecting it. Even Xing Feng joined them, with only Long Tao and Rayce holding back, as Wan Lan went inside posing as a ‘babysitter’, though her excited face betrayed her intentions.

“… you three, if you keep kneeling like that, I’ll run you over with the chariot.” I said to the still-kneeling trio, yanking them from their daze.

“M-Master Lu, you, you won’t kill us?” I noticed something funny–the way people call me has this mean tendency to evolve. Not an hour ago, I was a Fellow Daoist to him, and he probably even looked down on me a little bit. Now, he was avoiding my eyesight and treating me with more fear than he probably treats his own Master.

“… why me?” I asked, turning toward Lao Shun and Long Tao. “I didn’t kill anyone, did I? So, why is he asking me?”

“You have the face of a mean killer, Master,” Rayce said with a faint smile. “It’s only natural they should fear you.”

“Not just the face, but the voice too.” Oi, old-ass alchemist, why are you joining this crap?! “The kind that would haunt one’s nightmares, even.”