Chapter 309
Chapter 309
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 309
>Chapter Title: Warmth
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 309: Warmth
>>
> As time ticked by, watching the flames gradually weaken, Li Huowang took off his tattered leather shoes from his feet, dried the surface water, and tossed them into the fire.
>>
>
> With the addition of the shoes, the flames reignited, the temperature spiking once more, forcing Li Huowang to lean slightly backward.
>>
>
> However, even though he had shifted back a bit, strangely enough, Li Huowang didn’t feel the heat lessen—instead, it grew hotter and hotter.
>>
>
> He, who had nearly frozen to death before, was now sweating profusely from the heat.
>>
>
> “Strange, why is it so hot?” Li Huowang began stripping off his drenched clothes. As he did, wisps of black smoke rose from his body.
>>
>
> “Hoo~!” As Li Huowang exhaled, tiny dark red embers sprayed from his mouth.
>>
>
> “Too hot! It’s way too hot!” Li Huowang stood up, about to shed the rest of his clothes.
>>
>
> But in that instant, he saw the small campfire before him suddenly surge, engulfing him entirely.
>>
>
> “Aaahhh!!!” Li Huowang collapsed to his knees in excruciating agony, the extreme torment nearly shattering his will.
>>
>
> “What the—” Li Huowang jerked his head up in struggle, and instantly beheld a mountain peak formed of flames.
>>
>
> Fire—everywhere was fire, not a single inch spared. The entire reed marsh before his eyes had been utterly ignited.
>>
>
> Through the swaying layers of flames, Li Huowang saw people running and screaming amid the blaze. They ran until they collapsed motionless, becoming fuel for new flames.
>>
>
> In the hallucination, Li Huowang had merely lit some plastic, but here, he had sacrificed all the skin on his body to perform the ritual from the [Great Thousand Records]!
>>
> “No, no no no!” In terror, Li Huowang staggered to his feet amid the flames and charged toward them.
>>
>
> Yet as he approached, it was as if the raging inferno on his body could stack multiplicatively. Anyone he neared turned to charred corpses in the blink of an eye.
>>
>
> Li Huowang watched wide-eyed as a woman collapsed before him, her bent fingers clawing desperately toward Oxheart Mountain. “Niangniang...”
>>
>
> “How could this happen?! I was so restrained! Why did it end like this?!” In a hysterical rage, Li Huowang clenched his charred fist and slammed it into the ground.
>>
>
> Li Huowang didn’t know when the towering inferno finally died out. When he came back to himself, all around was scorched earth, and he crouched there like a smoking statue, unmoving.
>>
>
> His body ached terribly, but that pain was nothing compared to the agony in his heart.
>>
>
> He had just lost his family, and now this gut-wrenching feeling would be inflicted by his own hands on Bai Lingmiao, who had been so good to him.
>>
>
> “Tsk tsk tsk.” The wooden mask crept over stealthily, marveling in shock at the desolation all around.
>>
>
> Seeing the copper coin mask on Li Huowang’s face burned dark red, the wooden mask approached cautiously and probed, “Hey, brother! You still alive?”
>>
>
> As Li Huowang slightly raised his head, flecks of black ash sprinkled from his neck.
>>
>
> Seeing this, the wooden mask let out a huge sigh of relief and hurried over, supporting him as they walked across the blackened scorched earth.
>>
>
> “Hey, it’s just a minor job for the Surveillance Division. Why go all out like that?”
>>
>
> “You look like a newbie. Let me tell you, from now on, if it looks like a losing deal at first glance, play it safe!”
>>
>
> “And besides, they’re just a bunch of ordinary White Lotus believers. Was all this fanfare really necessary? Are all you Saojing Cult folks this hot-tempered?”
>>
>
> Li Huowang showed no reaction to the man’s words, walking slowly forward in silence.
>>
>
> “I’m Liu Zongyuan from Moon Gate. What’s your name?”
>>
>
> “What? Cat got your tongue? You practicing silent meditation like those monks?”
>>
>
> Just as they stepped out of the scorched earth, Li Huowang remembered something and reached for the wound on his abdomen.
>>
>
> The spear that had pierced his body earlier was now burned into a chunk of black charcoal, lodged in his belly like a cork.
>>
>
> Li Huowang dug at the edge of the charcoal with his fingers and gently pulled. A walnut-sized hole appeared in his charred abdomen.
>>
>
> He extended a blackened finger toward the cavity, probing inside.
>>
>
> “Whoa, whoa.” Liu Zongyuan grimaced, his molars aching at the sight.
>>
>
> But just as Li Huowang’s finger was about to enter, a withered, cracked tentacle trembled out from the black hole, wrapping around his knuckle. Then a heterochromatic eyeball with double pupils flashed briefly in the cavity.
>>
>
> “Huh~! You’re one weird guy. What’s in your gut? I’ve never heard of Saojing Cult having something like that.”
>>
>
> Li Huowang glanced at Liu Zongyuan and finally spoke. “Nascent Soul.”
>>
>
> “Nascent Soul? I thought those were worn around the neck. How’s yours still in your belly? Aren’t you afraid it’ll turn to shit by accident?”
>>
>
> Li Huowang ignored him and kept walking forward.
>>
>
> “Hey, brother, it’s all over now, job’s done. Why the long face still?”
>>
>
> At these words, a bitter smile crept onto Li Huowang’s face. “Over, yeah, it’s over. Completely over.”
>>
>
> “What, you feeling sorry for them? Brother, do you know how the other villages near Oxheart Mountain vanished? They killed way more people than you did. This was justice for heaven’s sake.”
>>
>
> Li Huowang removed his hand from the man’s shoulder and stopped in place. “You go on. We’re not headed the same way. Let’s part here.”
>>
>
> “Part ways?” Liu Zongyuan stood still, staring incredulously at the charred figure before him. “In your state? Where do you think you’re going? You smell so roasted, don’t get snatched by a tiger on the road.”
>>
>
> “That’s my business. Just go.” Li Huowang slowly and stiffly sat down on the ground.
>>
>
> Liu Zongyuan scratched the back of his head, thought for a moment, then turned toward the woods nearby.
>>
>
> But after a few steps, he paused, sighed, and turned back to stand before Li Huowang. “Fine, fine. Saving a life means seeing it through—send Buddha all the way to the West. Close your eyes.”
>>
>
> “What?” Li Huowang tilted his head up toward the wooden mask smeared with rouge on the man’s face.
>>
>
> “Close ’em if I say so. If I wanted to kill you, would I bother? Left alone like this, you’d be dead in days.”
>>
>
> Li Huowang raised his charred hands and covered his lidless eyeballs.
>>
>
> “Swish swish swish.” Li Huowang felt something moving over his body—soft and fuzzy, like a writing brush.
>>
>
> After two incense sticks’ worth of time, he heard the voice again. “Alright, you can lower your hands now.”
>>
>
> When Li Huowang did, he saw that the layer of skin burned off his body had returned.
>>
>
> But upon closer inspection, Li Huowang realized it wasn’t his skin—it was a layer of pink paper.
>>
>
> The distinctive color inexplicably reminded him of the paper effigies burned at gravesides.
>>
>
> Not just the skin— he was now also clad in a paper garment, the same style as those paper effigies.
>>
>
> Even more miraculously, it wasn’t just for show. The searing pain from his skinless body had vanished entirely.
>>
>
> “Don’t get wet, and stay out of the rain. If it gets soaked, it won’t work anymore.”
>>
>
> “Which sect and style is yours? That ability is something else.” Li Huowang looked toward the wooden mask.
>>
>
> “Didn’t I say? Moon Gate. This is our sect’s Sticky Character Formula. Besides that, there’s Place, Combine, Pass, Moon, Separate, Chase, and Open.”
>>
>
> Seeing Li Huowang freeze, Liu Zongyuan chuckled. “Don’t get it? Heh, that’s the point. Can’t just spill sect secrets to outsiders. You still haven’t told me your name.”
>>
>
> “Erjiu.”
>>
>
> “Alright then, see you around, Erjiu.” Liu Zongyuan turned and leaped into the woods like a monkey, vanishing from sight.
>>
>
> Li Huowang looked down and touched the paper skin on his body again. With a slight press, he tore a hole in the paper.
>>
>
> The stabbing pain stirred no ripples in his heart. He didn’t stand, instead staying put and turning his head toward Oxheart Mountain.
>>
>
> Deep despair filled Li Huowang’s eyes. “I wiped out the entire Bai family. When I go back, how am I supposed to face her?”
>>
>
> (End of chapter)