After the path was cut off

Chapter 54 Wang the Blacksmith

On a crisp spring morning in Central China, the wind, carrying a chilly edge, swept across the dirt road, raising fine dust.

Wang Laoshi was half-supported and half-carried by Li Jingshan, and he staggered forward step by step. There was no trace of fear or honor on his face as if he had been personally sent back by the "immortal master," only a deathly ashen look of confusion.

Suddenly, a series of fragmented images flashed through his mind.

A burning village.

A heart-wrenching wail.

A familiar face lying in a pool of blood.

In those scenes, "he" simply stood aside, his eyes cold, calmly watching everything.

Wang Laoshi always thought he was lucky to be alive.

He survived the massacres time and time again, crawled out of piles of corpses time and time again, and finally escaped to Baixi Town, where he had a home, a wife and children, and the peace to live until his death.

But now he realized that his so-called good fortune was nothing more than becoming an informant for the evil cultivators. He was nothing more than a blood-stained tool in the hands of demons!

Who...am I?

"Since when... I stopped being myself?"

A profound sense of bewilderment and fear enveloped him, making every step feel as heavy as a thousand pounds.

"Uncle Wang, we're home."

Li Jingshan's cheerful voice broke the silence. He stopped and pointed to the simple courtyard ahead. A wisp of smoke rose from the chimney, thin and light, carrying a hint of rice porridge.

Wang Laoshi suddenly realized what was happening.

He looked blankly at the door of his house that was so close by, then suddenly turned to Li Jingshan, his cloudy eyes filled with fear.

"Baixi Town...is it going to...?"

"Father has returned." Li Jingshan smiled, his voice cheerful and resolute.

"The entire clan will soon be moving to a new blessed land."

"Uncle Wang, rest assured, with my father here and the Li family here, the sky won't fall down."

Wang Laoshi repeated in a daze:

"New Blessed Land?"

Li Jingshan looked up at the sky; the dawn had already painted the horizon red. He gently patted his hunched back.

"Uncle Wang, go back quickly."

"The town is likely to be very busy these next few days."

"Don't think about what happened this morning, and don't mention it to anyone."

His gaze fell on Wang Laoshi's face, his expression somewhat ambiguous.

"The evil that clung to you has been eradicated by your father himself."

"From now on, it will no longer cause trouble."

After saying this, Li Jingshan didn't linger and turned to leave along the dirt road. The rising sun cast a long, imposing shadow behind him, conveying a sense of resolute determination.

Wang Laoshi stood motionless in front of the fence gate, watching his departing figure, without moving for a long time.

"Evil and filthy..."

"Eradicated?"

This should have been great news, but a huge emptiness and a deeper fear engulfed him!

"That thing is gone."

"The thing that had always been hidden inside him is gone."

"Am I...can I still live?"

……

Li Jingshan did not return to the Li residence.

His tall figure moved silently forward in the morning light, his goal clear—

A few hundred meters ahead, a small, solitary courtyard stood out starkly beside the dirt road, its forging shed particularly eye-catching. That was the home of Wang the blacksmith from town.

Wang the blacksmith was a descendant of monks.

In some places, the world is so cruel it's almost fair; those with spiritual potential are one in a million, and their status won't change just because their parents cultivate Taoism.

Therefore, many cultivators are unwilling to have children. Even if they do have offspring, they are often fostered in immortal cities to ensure their well-being for three generations.

But after three generations, the bloodline fades, and so does the affection; or the cultivator himself dies, and his descendants are often asked to leave the immortal city and return to the mortal world.

These descendants of cultivators who have fallen into the mortal world still have some fragmented inheritances remaining in their families.

Wang the blacksmith was such a person.

His fenced courtyard was simple and unpretentious, except for the weapon-refining shed that occupied half of the yard, and the mountains of ironware and semi-finished products piled up under the shed, which highlighted the owner's unique status.

At that moment, Wang the blacksmith was sitting next to a pile of unfinished farm tools, his back hunched, puffing on a pipe.

Fireworks flickered on and off.

The smoke obscured his weathered, hardened face.

His rough fingers rested on a piece of cooled iron billet, the movement seemingly casual, yet a faint golden luster flashed across his knuckles.

"Uncle Wang," Li Jingshan said with a smile as he stood at the courtyard gate.

"Sorry to bother you again."

Wang the blacksmith slowly raised his head. His cloudy eyes peered through the smoke at the newcomer, a stiff smile forced onto his face.

"Jingshan is here."

"I brought Uncle Wang back this morning, and since Uncle Wang lives nearby, I thought I'd stop by and visit him." Li Jingshan stepped into the courtyard, his gaze sweeping over the subway equipment.

"I never expected that Uncle Wang hadn't left yet."

"Let's go?" Wang the blacksmith took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaled a thick smoke ring, and gazed at the hazy mountains in the distance.

"These old bones of mine are all rusted up in this lump of iron, where else can I go?"

Uncle Wang, Li Jingshan, walked to the edge of the shed, picked up a newly made hoe, and weighed it in his hand.

The hoe blade gleamed coldly, and its weight was substantial.

"You've forged too much ironware, and it's been forged too well."

"Even if there were twice as many people in Baixi Town, we wouldn't need this much stuff."

Wang the blacksmith tapped his cigarette ash.

"I'm just idling around anyway."

"When people get old, they always need something to pass the time."

"Everyone says Uncle Wang is a weirdo." Li Jingshan smiled and put the hoe back in its place.

"Good ironware is forged, melted down, melted down and forged again, over and over again, without ever getting tired of it."

"Some people say that with Uncle Wang's excellent skills, if he were to settle down and start a family, his life would be pretty good."

"Many unmarried women in town have been secretly asking about you."

Wang the blacksmith chuckled dryly.

"I'm a clumsy person, always covered in sweat and the smell of rust, so I can't even get a good night's sleep."

"Which girl wouldn't suffer if she married me?"

"I can't bear to part with it, and I'm not worthy of it."

Li Jingshan looked at him quietly. The courtyard fell silent for a few moments.

A morning breeze swept across the pile of ironware, creating a very soft clanging sound.

Ding.

Ding.

It's like something slowly knocking on people's hearts.

"Uncle Wang," Li Jingshan said in a low voice.

"You've been in Baixi Town for over twenty years, haven't you?"

"I remember you were in the same group as Wang Laoshi and the others, fleeing from Heifengkou."

The atmosphere suddenly froze.

The blacksmith's hand, holding the pipe, finally stopped in mid-air. The tiny ember of the pipe flickered and died out silently in the grayish-white smoke.

Li Jingshan's aura also changed at this moment.

The spiritual energy fluctuations belonging to the fourth level of Qi Refining were no longer concealed. Like heavy clouds pressing down from the mountains, they slowly spread out and precisely pressed down on the hunched figure under the weapon-refining shed.

"Uncle Wang."

Li Jingshan said, word by word:

"My father is back."

"You can still leave now."

Shila-

The tobacco pipe was mercilessly extinguished by Wang the blacksmith's hand, the piercing sound breaking the tranquility of the early morning.

Slowly, inch by inch, Wang the blacksmith straightened his spine, which seemed to have been bent by the weight of time.

When he finally emerged from the shadows under the shed, Li Jingshan realized that the usually silent and hunched old blacksmith was actually half a head taller than him.

A deep, heavy aura, like refined steel, suddenly emanated from his gaunt body.

Fifth level of Qi Refining.

"I once thought..."

Wang the blacksmith's voice was no longer hoarse; instead, it sounded like the low hum of metal, carrying a heavy sense of vicissitude.

"I could close my eyes here for the rest of my life."

Li Jingshan clenched his fist, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

"I once thought..."

He stared at Wang the blacksmith, his eyes swirling with complex emotions suppressed for many years.

"We thought our father had long forgotten us."

"Forgot about Baixi Town."

"Forget these mortals who have gathered here because of his name and are also bound by his name."

"But when I saw him this time, I realized I was wrong."

His voice suddenly rose, with a barely perceptible tremor:

"He will come back."

"Even if not today! Someday in the future, Father will definitely return!"

"This is his root! The root he can't sever!"

"Uncle Wang...it's time to get going!"