Chapter 24
Chapter 24
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 24
>Chapter Title: Looting
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Since he had already decided to leave, Li Huowang naturally had to suppress the hallucinations from reappearing. Otherwise, constantly switching between hallucinations and reality would make it impossible to get anything done.
To suppress the hallucinations, the Black Tai Sui that Danyangzi had raised was the key.
When the group arrived at the cavern, they stopped in their tracks. They saw that the Black Tai Sui had actually crawled out of the black cauldron. This was the first time they had seen its true form.
It was a massive, slime-covered black, sticky blob. The things covering its body looked like hair at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they turned out to be densely grown dark, elongated tentacles—or perhaps immature thin filaments.
The entire body expanded and contracted freely, just like a giant python.
Its bloated form also had several orifices, and with each squirm, it spewed out a vomit-inducing stench.
The sight terrified everyone. Their hands and feet went limp, and they nearly turned to flee.
However, Li Huowang keenly noticed something off. The Black Tai Sui had shrunk significantly, and black liquid was continuously seeping from beneath it.
“What’s going on? Could its life be linked to Danyangzi’s?” Li Huowang’s heart sank deeper.
With that thought, he rushed out. When he returned, he was clutching some of Danyangzi’s remains.
Li Huowang dashed to the Black Tai Sui’s side, dropped to one knee, and with great effort scooped up the wriggling mass of rotten flesh from the ground into his arms. He stuffed the remains into the gaps on the Black Tai Sui’s body.
It was fine when he didn’t stuff them in, but once he did, even more black water oozed from its body, and it shrank even smaller.
At that moment, Li Huowang’s face was full of anxiety, as if the writhing, twisted black monster in his arms were his own sick child.
In his panic, he grabbed the Black Tai Sui’s sides and gently shook it.
“ Hey, hey, hey, don’t scare me like this! What am I supposed to do if you die?!”
The Black Tai Sui showed no reaction. None of its organs twitched anymore.
Seeing it shrink smaller and smaller, Li Huowang gritted his teeth, opened his mouth, and bit down hard on the Black Tai Sui.
Li Huowang’s bizarre actions completely dumbfounded Bai Lingmiao and the others. They could only stand there, watching as their blood-soaked senior brother tore into the wriggling monster with his teeth.
In their eyes, compared to the Black Tai Sui, Li Huowang looked more like the monster right now.
Gouwa sidled up to Zhao Wu and whispered,
“How about... we split off and go our own way? Staying with him, I’m really scared he’ll eat me while I’m sleeping.”
Everyone’s gazes toward Li Huowang now carried a hint of fear.
The condensed Black Tai Sui meat was clearly much tougher. Chewing it felt like gnawing on a tire.
But Li Huowang didn’t care about that right now. He swallowed it down in big gulps. No matter how much he ate, though, it couldn’t keep up with how fast the Black Tai Sui was dissolving itself. Before long, all that was left in his arms was a layer of black skin.
“Um, Senior Brother Li, are you full yet? If you are, can we head out now?”
Li Huowang regretfully tossed the layer of foul-smelling, stinking skin to the ground. He had no idea how long this would hold out for—he just hoped to find another Black Tai Sui, or some other method, before the hallucinations returned.
“I’m going to change clothes.”
The remaining items held little value. As for any cultivation techniques or secret manuals, forget it—Danyangzi was illiterate.
Li Huowang stripped off his sticky Taoist robe and changed into a fresh cyan one, instantly feeling refreshed all over.
As he led the others toward the exit, Li Huowang explained to them why he had done what he did.
Once they understood that he was using the Black Tai Sui meat to suppress his hallucinations, the tension in their hearts finally eased.
“Hey, so that’s what it was. I thought Senior Brother Li was just hungry.”
Gouwa joked around on the side, his laughter lightening the mood.
As they walked, a new tunnel branch appeared on the side. Li Huowang inexplicably stopped. The end of this tunnel led to Danyangzi’s quarters.
“Should we go check and see how the three senior brothers are doing in their fight?”
Though he had no interest in their dogs biting dogs, if possible, he didn’t want another new Danyangzi to emerge.
“Let’s go take a look.”
Li Huowang led the group of invalids, elderly, and sick toward it.
At the door, he found that the one he had just shut hadn’t been opened—proof that no one had come out.
“Senior Brothers, you done fighting? We’re heading out.”
Li Huowang called out into the room.
After waiting a moment with no response, he pushed open the door. A pungent bloody stench hit them in the face, and a blood-drenched severed hand lay right there in front of everyone.
As their eyes moved upward, an even more gruesome scene appeared. Xuanyuan was dead, and he had died horribly—his body nearly cleaved in two by a sword.
Changren was dead too, stabbed from behind with a sword. Xuanyuan practiced talismans, not swordsmanship, so the only one who could have done it was his brother, Changming.
And Changming, the last one standing, wasn’t faring much better. Black threads strung with copper coins pierced in and out of his body, sewing him right into the wall. It seemed he had triggered one of Danyangzi’s traps.
Changming wasn’t dead yet. His eyes, filled with greed, still stared fixedly at that so-called Heavenly Book.
“Cough cough... cough~”
Seeing Li Huowang enter, the wall-pinned Changming seemed to want to say something, but the copper coins embedded in his neck had severed his windpipe completely, leaving him speechless.
Li Huowang walked over to him, smiled, and bent down to pick up his sword.
It was a longsword over four feet in length. Under the lamplight, the blade gleamed coldly, looking extremely sharp.
Li Huowang swung it a few times with one hand, struggling with the weight, then said to Changming,
“Nice sword. Looks like Senior Brother won’t be needing it for a while, so Junior Brother will borrow it for now.”
“Though Junior Brother isn’t a sword cultivator, when traveling, it’s better to have a metal weapon in hand than go empty-handed. Right, Senior Brother?”
Changming tried to convey something with his eyes, but clearly, Li Huowang didn’t get it.
Li Huowang took the scabbard from dead Changren’s body, sheathed the sword, and slung it over his back.
Next came the main event: the Heavenly Book.
Li Huowang turned and walked toward the now unprotected Heavenly Book.
Just then, Changming suddenly struggled violently. As he did, the copper coins on the black threads dug even deeper into him. After a few futile jerks, the light in his eyes rapidly faded.
“Senior Brother Li, Senior Brother Changming’s dead.”
Gouwa said in surprise, eyes wide.
Li Huowang looked at the so-called Heavenly Book before him and let out a soft sigh. So many had died because of this thing from who-knows-where.
Li Huowang leaned in closer, examining it carefully. This time, he was even more serious than when Danyangzi had forced him.
But after looking several times, he still felt it was just a scripture. Half-guessing its meaning, it even seemed to be one urging people toward goodness.
Li Huowang stepped back, then reached behind him with one hand and slowly drew the sword. With a sharp “Clang!”, the keen blade that cut iron like mud slammed down heavily onto the stone slab inscribed with the scripture.
(End of chapter)