Chapter 323
Chapter 323
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 323
>Chapter Title: Man-Xiaos
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>Li Huowang looked at Red Middle without speaking, then shifted his gaze to the other three. The Monk, Peng Longteng, and Jinshan Zhao.
These things had been following him ever since they appeared. In the past, he had always thought they were hallucinations caused by being a heart elemental.
But after learning about the man-xiaos from Red Middle’s mouth, he realized that things might not be so simple.
Moreover, on this point, Tuoba Danqing might know something, but Li Huowang didn’t dare to ask, afraid that the other party would judge him as a heart elemental based on that.
“If they aren’t hallucinations, then what are they? Why are they following me?” This was the first time Li Huowang seriously pondered this question.
Next, Li Huowang recalled Jiang Yingzi, who had appeared and then vanished before.
“She arose from the shame in my heart, then disappeared because of the shame in my heart. Could it be...”
Li Huowang felt as if he had vaguely grasped some thread in the darkness, yet it always seemed separated by a layer of paper—the more he thought about it, the harder it was to see through.
Seeing Li Huowang standing there lost in thought, the smile on Red Middle’s face grew even wider.
“Can’t figure it out? Want me to help you think? Do you know what they mean by ‘becoming a ghost for the tiger’? Legend has it that after a great tiger eats a person, the soul of the dead becomes a changui in its belly, constantly luring more people to feed the tiger. Maybe you’re that tiger, and we’re your changui?”
“Changui?”
Li Huowang looked up at Red Middle, who had said this, his eyes brimming with disbelief.
“If you really were my changui, then what have you ever helped me with?”
“Other than getting in my way, you’re completely useless! The only effect you have is that whenever I talk to you, other people think I’ve lost my mind!”
Li Huowang’s tone grew heavier as he spoke.
Red Middle’s laughter became even more exaggerated.
“Maybe you really have lost your mind. I’ve thought for a long time that you weren’t normal.”
Hearing this, Li Huowang glared at Red Middle with eyes that seemed ready to devour him whole, the veins on his forehead throbbing nonstop.
“Yo yo yo~ Glaring at me again? I call you a madman—what can you do about it? Little Huowang~”
Red Middle leaned back, and on his skinless face, strips of red flesh twisted together to form an exaggerated grinning visage.
The other’s mockery sent a surge of hot blood rushing to Li Huowang’s head. His mind buzzed loudly.
With a “clang,” Li Huowang drew his sword with one hand and, his expression twisted in savage fury, thrust it straight toward his own neck.
“Come on then! Let’s walk the road to the Yellow Springs together!”
The moment he saw the bright red blood spray into the air, Red Middle panicked.
“Hey hey hey! What are you doing?!”
Before Red Middle could finish speaking, a long-handled halberd pierced through his abdomen, hoisted him into the air, and slammed him viciously to the ground.
It was Peng Longteng’s Fangtian painted halberd. Brimming with murderous intent, she wildly assaulted Red Middle with her weapon.
The Monk rushed over, his voice laced with urgency as he tried to dissuade him.
“You can’t die, Daoist! Don’t you still want to shake off being a heart elemental? Don’t you want to go back to your wife? Don’t give up!”
At that moment, a wriggling tentacle extended from his navel and coiled tightly around Li Huowang’s wrist, yanking it back.
As Li Huowang sat on the ground, gasping for breath in great heaves, more and more tentacles emerged from his navel, clamping down firmly on the hand that gripped his sword.
The sensation was awful, giving Li Huowang the feeling that the intestines in his gut were churning madly.
Seeing that Li Huowang had finally settled down for the moment, the Monk returned to Red Middle’s side and muttered softly.
“Don’t provoke him anymore. The Daoist’s got nothing holding him back right now. When he turns that on himself, he doesn’t hesitate one bit—like tinder, lights right up.”
Red Middle shot a distant glance at Li Huowang and snorted coldly before ducking his body into the nearby river water.
“Truly a madman...”
Under the Monk’s persuasion and the tentacles’ restraint, Li Huowang gradually calmed down. When he pulled the blade from his neck, wriggling black tentacles mingled with viscous fluid swiftly sealed the gash.
Now calm, Li Huowang looked back on his earlier self and felt profoundly unfamiliar. Why had he suddenly become so extreme? Was that really him?
“Daoist, let’s get moving. Someone’s still refining those kids into pills. Saving a life is worth more than building seven temples or whatever. As long as you keep doing good deeds, the Buddha’s watching from the heavens.”
“Save enough people, and who knows—maybe one day the Buddha himself will descend and pull you out of your misery.”
The Monk’s absurd words drew a laugh from Li Huowang. He slowly slid his bloodied sword back into its scabbard on his back, then staggered to his feet and headed toward the spot where the candle had vanished earlier.
“Monk, you’re not my changui. I didn’t kill you, and it’s not even certain that you’re really dead.”
The Monk’s form flickered ever so slightly, imperceptibly. His eyes widened in shock as he asked.
“I’m not dead? Then who am I?”
Li Huowang didn’t answer him. He walked in silence into the dim, rugged underground cavern.
He hadn’t gone far when a man-xiao with twisted limbs crawled slowly out. It extended its long tongue to lap at the blood Li Huowang had left on the ground, then darted away swiftly.
In his invisible state, Li Huowang moved silently through the darkness, searching for those vanished man-xiaos.
Now that he’d found them, it was time to clean house. He didn’t care about anything else—for the moment, Li Huowang had a fire burning in his chest, desperate for an outlet.
As he walked, Li Huowang heard some sounds—chaotic yet remarkably uniform.
He followed the noise and soon witnessed a profoundly eerie sight. A group of man-xiaos sat diligently in meditation, following along as one clad in a tattered Daoist robe chanted something.
The leader, with a black whisk inserted into the back of its neck, must have been the head of this group—evidenced by the thick sheet of paper laid out before it, from which it led the recitation.
The man-xiaos’ limbs appeared exceptionally malformed, yet they still crossed their legs, long nails and all.
The scene left Li Huowang both stunned and repulsed.
“This is... morning recitation? They’re holding morning recitation?”
Gazing at these man-xiaos who seemed to be conducting morning recitation, Li Huowang’s mind flashed back to Clear Wind Temple. Same monsters, same delusions of immortality. The similarity made him want to retch—an extreme rejection surging from within.
“What kind of bullshit creatures are these, trying to cultivate immortality too?!”
Li Huowang clenched his teeth and charged forward, sword drawn.
“Wait! Daoist! Find those babies first! Think how heartbroken their mothers will be if they can’t go home.”
Hearing the Monk’s words, Li Huowang’s steps slowed to a halt. After a moment’s hesitation, he let go of the sword hilt and groped into the surrounding darkness.
Just as Li Huowang prepared to search the area for the infants, he saw a man-xiao scurry over on all fours and say something to the man-xiaos at their morning recitation.
(End of chapter)
