Carrying a hoe, Gouwa walked briskly down the mountain. Although he had just buried many corpses, he was not familiar with those dead people and it didn't affect his happy mood.

He now had a house and land, and most importantly, his wife was about to give birth. Everything he had dreamed of was coming true.

"Ah, I, Cao Cao, am truly a genius. I've made every step correctly. If it weren't for my intelligence, I wouldn't have gotten my share of these things!"

If the road wasn't so far, he really wanted to go back to his hometown and tell everyone about his success, to return home in glory.

After taking a quick glance at the people behind him, Gouwa walked a few steps farther and carefully took out a book from his pocket.

Just as he joyfully touched the unreadable words on the book with his fingers, a hand covered in black hair suddenly reached out and snatched it away.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" Gouwa was anxious to grab it back, but was stared back by Chun Xiaoman's eyes.

Gouwa indignantly withdrew his hand, "In the mountains, the monkey is king without the tiger. You look like you're the one who saved us from Qingfeng Temple."

"Where did you get this book?"

"I...I bought it from a peddler, to teach my future son how to write!"

"Don't lie, you've only been to the peddler twice during this time, and they never sold any books!" Xiaoman opened the book and looked at the unreadable words.

After being translated by Gao Zhijian, Xiaoman immediately knew the name of the book. "The Verse of Bitter Practice and Enlightenment."

Even if Xiaoman didn't recognize the characters, she could tell that the book title was obviously wrong, and it felt like some kind of martial arts.

"Tell me, where did you get this thing? I've seen you acting suspiciously since earlier."

Feeling that something was not right, Gao Zhijian, holding a shovel, frowned and stepped forward.

"What are you doing? What have I done wrong? This book was found by me!" Gouwa's voice became smaller. "But it was only found in the cellar of the Bai family ancestral hall..."

"You-!" Xiaoman was about to speak, but Gouwa, who was very nervous, put his finger to his mouth and shushed her.

He secretly glanced at the frightened Bai Lingmiao behind him and whispered to Xiaoman, "Think about it, sister. Why did the Bai family make such a big fuss? Just for fun?""You think about it, Li Shixiong's appearance when he came back earlier, we know about his incredible supernatural powers, do you think the Bai family could have pushed him to that state with their limited abilities? It's impossible, they must have some background!"

"Never mind what they used before, now they're all dead, and everything they had belongs to us!" Gouwa's expression became excited as he spoke.

Upon hearing this, Chun Xiaoman's expression became cold. "What's the use of learning from them? Are we going to learn to use living people as foundation like they did? If you dare to learn that, don't blame me for not showing any mercy!"

"Hey, you're not flexible enough, we just need to learn the methods that don't harm our conscience. We don't need to learn the ones that require killing."

"I'm telling you, there are many things in those houses! And there are many books, there must be immortal skills in there!"

"When we learn the easy ones that don't require killing, who would dare to bully us if we master them?"

Xiaoman looked down at the long sword at her waist, hesitating.

Now that Li Shixiong had really left, would she be able to protect herself with just this sword if she encountered a real crisis in the future?

She reached out and snatched the book from Gouwa's hand again, carefully observing it before speaking. "Don't tell Miaomiao for now, she's not in good condition. Let's figure out the situation first before making a plan."

"Okay, I'll listen to you. This time, we got a big advantage, enough for the three of us to share."

Li Huowang, covered in dust, dismounted from his horse in Yiling City and tied it up in the inn's stable, but was surprised not to see Mantou wagging its head and tail around.

After circling around his carriage a few times, Li Huowang saw the dog with its paws on the feeding trough, stealing other people's horse feed.

"You're still eating when you're this fat?" Li Huowang picked it up. "I brought you along to see the carriage, not to come and eat."

"Woof woof woof!" Seeing its long-lost owner return, Mantou was very excited, wagging its tail and twisting its body like a maggot.

Just as Mantou was about to lick Li Huowang's boots with its tongue, he pressed down on its head.

"What happened? Did someone hurt you?" Li Huowang looked at the cut on Mantou's ear with a slightly furrowed brow.

Mantou obviously didn't understand what Li Huowang was saying, wagging its tail and trying to crawl into his arms.

"Come here!" Li Huowang picked it up by the skin on the back of its neck and carried it into the lobby.

"Shopkeeper, didn't I give you enough silver? Why can't you even keep an eye on a dog?" Faced with Li Huowang's questioning, the fat shopkeeper looked helpless."Ah, sir, I really can't be blamed for this. Your dog ran out on its own."

"You know, your dog is a female. It ran to the street to fight with another female dog for a male dog. In the end, it didn't win, and it was bitten like this by the other female dog."

Mantou didn't know what the two people in front of it were talking about, and it squatted there innocently, looking at Li Huowang.

Li Huowang was at a loss for words in this situation, not even knowing how to get angry. "Where's the female dog that bit it?"

"It ran away a long time ago. That dog is a stray dog, and after mating, it just runs away."

Speechless, Li Huowang gently patted Mantou's head and turned to walk towards the guest room upstairs.

He hurried along the way, barely eating and sleeping. Exhausted, Li Huowang lay on the bed and slept for a whole day and night.

After waking up, he ordered some seasonal dishes from the kitchen. After washing up, Li Huowang started eating heartily.

While eating, Li Huowang pondered over what excuse he should use to approach the prime minister and inquire about Zhuge Yuan's situation.

A quick look at "pawread dot com" will leave you more fulfilled.

Walking directly to the prime minister and asking him who Zhuge Yuan was, Li Huowang hadn't thought of that extent yet.

"I should contact Tuoba Danqing first, and wait until I know the current situation of the prime minister before I act. Judging from his previous appearance, the failure of this mission should be quite serious."

Just as Li Huowang thought this, the cooing sound of a pigeon came from the roof beam.