Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 175
>Chapter Title: The Door Opened
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“The Gate of Lu?” Danyangzi stared in shock at the three massive characters carved on the enormous jade plaque.
These three unexpected words appeared right in front of him, making his mind buzz as all sorts of questions flooded his head in an instant.
“How can it be the Gate of Lu? Isn’t this the South Heavenly Gate? Isn’t what lies beyond the immortal realm? Aren’t those behind it the ones who’ve achieved immortality?”
He glanced down at the sea of stars beneath his feet, then up at the pitch-black sky beyond the sky.
For a moment, he had no idea what to do next. It felt like in that instant, everything had lost all meaning.
“Don’t you get it yet? There’s no damn immortal realm in this world at all! You’ve been tricked! Your whole life has been one big joke!”
A familiar voice suddenly rang out, causing Danyangzi to whip his head around. But there was nothing on the side where the voice had come from.
Just as he thought the previous hallucination was about to return, he pinpointed the source of the voice—it was one of his own three heads.
His left head had, at some point, been replaced by Li Huowang’s.
“This is absolutely impossible! The three corpses have been severed! Who the hell are you!?”
Startled, Danyangzi raised the flesh-and-blood copper coin sword in his hand and pressed it against Li Huowang’s neck.
Li Huowang didn’t seem to care in the slightest. He chuckled and said, “Guess.”
“You traitorous disciple who bites the hand that fed you!” Enraged, Danyangzi moved to strike, only to find he couldn’t bring the blade down. Some force within his own body was holding him back.
Suddenly, the hand not gripping the sword shot up and slapped Danyangzi across the face.
As Danyangzi fumed with rage nearly bursting from every orifice, Li Huowang’s face broke into an even broader grin.
Earlier, when he’d seen Danyangzi with the three heads coming to absorb him, the barely restored clarity in Li Huowang’s mind led to one immediate decision: he absolutely could not let Danyangzi have it easy!
As he was pulled into the main body along with the other Danyangzi, a thought popped into his head.
“You dare hit me!?” Danyangzi, provoked beyond reason, went berserk at Li Huowang.
This was Danyangzi’s body, after all. Gradually, Li Huowang fell at a disadvantage, and the flesh-and-blood copper coin sword soon sliced into his neck.
Yet Li Huowang showed no fear. He threw his head back and laughed heartily.
“Baldy! You know what? For a while there, I was racking my brains trying every trick to kill you, to get rid of you for good, but nothing worked.”
“But just now, I realized I was going about it all wrong. I don’t need to kill you. I just need you to suffer worse than death.”
“All the torment and agony I’ve endured these years... it’s finally coming in handy.”
Before Danyangzi could figure out what was going on, other voices materialized out of nowhere around them.
“You little bastard! May you die a dog’s death! Kid! Kill him quick! Avenge your grandpa!”
“Lick-ass old fart, why don’t you drop dead!!”
“Taoist, kill him fast! This guy’s pure evil! You’ve got to do the right thing by heaven!!”
At this moment, whether it was Li Huowang’s hallucinations or Danyangzi’s, they all began to emerge.
The bewilderment that had plagued Li Huowang now descended upon Danyangzi.
In this pitch-black sky beyond the sky, their body twisted into something grotesque and elongated, writhing around the two of them like seaweed.
Li Huowang’s heart’s essence followed his will and manifested on Danyangzi once more—and this time, it was the real deal.
Seeing Danyangzi’s breathing grow erratic, Li Huowang kept taunting the bald man before him.
“How about it, Master? Like it? This is the tribute from your disciple! Even if you kill me, who knows—you might end up bearing the full brunt of this heart’s essence torment from now on!”
“You madman!” At those words, Danyangzi hesitated to strike. Looking at everything around him, he felt an inexplicable fear creeping in.
“Mad? That’s all thanks to your fine tutelage, Master!!”
As the two remained locked in stalemate, the massive jade plaque nearby stirred with new activity.
The horrors inside, which had been devouring something as if through a layer of gauze, pressed closer. They peered at the two through the plaque.
Then, without warning, the jade plaque sank into the darkness. In its place emerged a kaleidoscope of wondrous, bizarre visions.
What Li Huowang and Danyangzi witnessed there was an eldritch horror built on terror and aberration, utterly shocking to behold.
Next, a faint breeze wafted out from those strange sights, carrying sighs that drew Li Huowang and Danyangzi toward it.
“The White Jade Capital in the heavens, twelve towers and five cities. Immortals stroke my head, tying my hair to grant eternal life. Is this the White Jade Capital? Is this it?!”
In the hallucination, an immortal-looking old Taoist gazed at it all, overcome with emotion.
Danyangzi, whose eyes should have burned with resentment, erupted with tremendous potential at the sight. He stopped bothering with Li Huowang and charged madly toward it.
“I’m going to the White Jade Capital!! I’m going to become an immortal! I’m going to become a god!”
Li Huowang, of course, wasn’t about to let him succeed. He summoned every ounce of strength to pull back toward the outside.
“You won’t stop me from becoming an immortal!! You won’t!” Danyangzi thrashed wildly, straining with all he had to push inward.
The two struggled relentlessly, drawing ever closer—close enough now to make out the so-called immortals waiting inside to stroke their heads.
In that wondrous vista, the nearest was a bodhisattva. Her movements were gentle and graceful, her “robes” fluttering irregularly in the air, giving the illusion of being underwater.
A pale, eerie halo enveloped the back of her head, obscuring her features entirely. But as they drew near enough, they saw that the halo was composed of countless white eyes of all sizes.
This was merely the most normal of them. Gazing out, the strangeness only escalated—no bottom, only higher peaks.
Staring at the formless bodhisattva, a baseless fear welled up in Danyangzi’s heart, growing deeper by the second until it consumed him entirely.
Every fiber of his being screamed that this was an utterly perilous place—absolutely not to be entered.
“No, this isn’t the South Heavenly Gate! It’s the Gate of Lu! And those aren’t immortals inside!” Danyangzi, whose mind had been clouded by the dream of immortality, snapped back to reality.
But just as he prepared to retreat, Li Huowang—who was one with him—suddenly spoke up.
“Master! Ready? Your disciple’s sending you off to immortality!!”
The force Li Huowang had been using to pull outward suddenly reversed. Seizing the moment before Danyangzi could adjust, he propelled them both straight into the bodhisattva’s face.
(End of chapter)