Chapter 306
Chapter 306
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 306
>Chapter Title: Reed Marsh
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Seeing the last member of the Bai family, Bai Sai, walk into the dense reed marsh, Li Huowang lifted his foot to give chase.
“Wait!”
A giant hand even bigger than his body suddenly yanked him back. When Li Huowang looked down, he realized there was no giant claw on him at all.
He whipped his head around and glared at the Heavenly Supervisor wearing the wooden mask beside him. It was this guy’s illusion again.
Seeing Li Huowang brimming with killing intent, the other man raised both hands high and retreated several steps.
“Lad, I’m helping you out here.”
“Those people all know who you are now. If you charge in there alone, you’re just asking to die.”
Irritated, Li Huowang shook his head forcefully. His mind flashed back to Bai Lingmiao’s descriptions of her family members—every little detail about her parents and clansmen.
In her telling, they were all kind and amiable people, completely the opposite of what this man had described.
“Could it be... Bai Lingmiao lied to me? No, she would never lie to me!” Li Huowang’s hesitant gaze hardened in an instant.
From his previous encounters with the Bai family, they absolutely didn’t seem like the kind of people this man described.
“There must be some misunderstanding. I need to ask them directly and clear it up!”
With that, Li Huowang left the masked Heavenly Supervisor behind in the dust and strode straight into the reed marsh amid the man’s shouts.
The moment Li Huowang stepped into the reed marsh, the sky grew dim in an instant. The sausage-like reed heads overhead squeezed away nearly all contact with the outside world.
He glanced down at the footprints on the ground and slowly followed them.
“Bai Clan Leader! It’s me! Come out! Let’s talk!!”
After shouting for a while with no response from the reeds, Li Huowang glanced at the unbroken expanse of wax-yellow reeds behind him before speaking up again.
“Don’t worry, I share a bond of life and death with your Second Lass! If the Bai family has some unspeakable hardship, I’ll help you with everything I’ve got!”
“I’m on your side! That wooden-masked guy? First time I’ve ever laid eyes on him. As long as I’m here, he won’t dare touch you!” Li Huowang’s voice carried far through the reed marsh.
Moments after he said this, two sturdy Bai family youths leaped out from the reeds ahead, staring at Li Huowang in silence.
Seeing them emerge, Li Huowang let out a small breath of relief and continued speaking to them.
“I know you don’t trust me right now because you think I’m with the Heavenly Supervisors. Truth is, I’m not as tied to that group as you imagine. How about this? Let’s head back to Niuxin Village first. Second Lass is there—she can explain everything to you.”
The two youths said nothing. Instead, they each stepped to the left and right, then tore off their clothes, baring their bodies as they began performing a strange routine.
Li Huowang couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It wasn’t quite a fist technique, since they didn’t clench their fists, and it wasn’t sorcery either, since they weren’t forming mudras.
As their hands traced patterns through the air, the two chanted from their mouths.
“Gods bestow the true divine art! Heavenly soldiers and generals reveal their power! All you immortals heed my command—enter my mortal flesh at once!”
In the next moment, Li Huowang saw a tall, skinny glowing phantom wrapped in black strips rise from the ground and drift toward their bodies.
“What evil is that thing!” Li Huowang whipped out his coin sword, ready to drive it off.
But before he could close in, the two Bai family youths snapped their eyes up, glaring at Li Huowang with sinister menace.
Stunned, Li Huowang froze in place, staring at the two whose bearing had utterly transformed.
“What in the world is this? Spirit possession? Inviting evil onto themselves?”
If Li Huowang had harbored some doubts about the Heavenly Supervisor’s words before, the sight of these two now planted seeds of suspicion in his heart.
“Listen up—I really don’t want to fight you. Whatever you folks did in the past has nothing to do with me. It’s the other Heavenly Supervisors who want trouble with you!”
Swish! The two naked youths streaked toward Li Huowang like blurs.
Possessed by some unknown evil, their movements were utterly bizarre—every part of their bodies seemed to act with a will of its own.
Their fingers splayed wide, writhing like snake heads as they stabbed toward Li Huowang’s neck.
They didn’t look all that strong, but Li Huowang held back from striking. He knew every technique he’d learned was a killing move.
If he fought back for real, these two would be maimed or dead—and that was the last thing he wanted.
Li Huowang twisted and leaped through the reed marsh, constantly dodging their assaults.
Whatever evil had possessed them granted unnatural agility, leaving Li Huowang on the defensive.
“Pa!” Li Huowang’s foot slipped for a moment, and the pair pounced on him. Rather than attacking him directly, they went straight for the coin sword in his hand.
Li Huowang slammed his hand down. Clang! He felt the weight lift from his back.
“Damn it!”
He spun around to see a cold gleam flash—the purple-tasseled sword, radiating baleful energy, thrusting straight at his face.
He tried to counterattack or parry, but both his hands were pinned by the two Bai youths.
In this moment of life or death, Li Huowang twisted his body, forcibly shifting several inches to the left.
“Azna lingguang da she!” The coin sword in his hand burst apart. Under the pull of crimson threads, it effortlessly sliced through the fingers closing in on him.
With a fierce kick that sent the man in front of him flying, Li Huowang quickly put distance between himself and the others.
Just as their eyes met, the man clutching the purple-tasseled sword dropped to one knee, his face contorting in agony as the sinister expression rapidly faded.
The sword slipped limply from his grasp to the ground, and he collapsed to his knees, roaring in frenzied rage.
Li Huowang glanced at the two youths with their severed fingers, then at the other Bai family member still radiating baleful energy, and let out a light sigh.
“Did it really have to come to this? Couldn’t we just talk it out?”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the surrounding reeds began to rustle and sway. Sinister men’s faces flickered in and out of view amid the wax-yellow stalks.
Those lifeless faces sent a chill down Li Huowang’s spine. At least a third of the Bai family had been possessed by evil.
In their midst, the one-toothed elder—propped up by Bai Sai—emerged. Trembling, he began to speak.
His single-toothed mouth opened and closed in rhythmic cadence, chanting something as foul black sludge oozed from the corner of his lips.
“Dān~ tuán lěi~ xiè shí~”
As that familiar yet alien sound rang out, several familiar figures materialized before Li Huowang.
It was the Wandering Lord. Though the figures were hazy without the trembling of bells, Li Huowang could still recognize them after summoning them so many times.
Gazing up at the Wandering Lords flickering ghost-like in the air, Li Huowang recalled the information Bai Lingmiao had shared with him back at Clear Wind Temple.
Why would an ordinary village girl know about evils like the Wandering Lord?
Now, witnessing this scene, it all clicked. This old man must have been the grandfather who told her those stories.
(End of chapter)