Chapter 324
Chapter 324
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 324
>Chapter Title: Performing the Ritual
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It was as if a pot had exploded. All the man-fiends attending the morning service instantly reacted and scattered rapidly in all directions.
“What’s going on? What did they discover?” Li Huowang’s heart sank. No matter what had happened, the situation was changing, and things were speeding up.
Not only were their activities reminiscent of Clear Wind Temple, but even the furnishings were just like those in a Taoist temple. Li Huowang weaved through the crawling man-fiends, searching for the infants.
As he searched, Li Huowang suddenly stopped. In this dim and damp underground space, sound was the fastest way to pinpoint directions. He removed the cotton from his ears.
In an instant, the sound of surging water, the crawling of man-fiends, the dripping of stalactites, and all sorts of harsh, chaotic noises flooded into Li Huowang’s ears.
Li Huowang closed his eyes and strained to discern something amid the cacophony. Gradually, he picked up some human voices. “Uncle?”
“This voice...” Just as Li Huowang tried to follow it, a cry pierced his ears.
“Found them!” Li Huowang’s eyes snapped open, and he rushed toward the sound.
After pushing through various caves and wading through low-lying puddles, Li Huowang finally found the infants in a cavern lit by faint light.
Some disheveled elders leaning on canes were tremblingly tending to these children, each with a red cinnabar dot on their foreheads.
The white-haired old woman from before was here too. She held a baby girl, her expression no longer joyful but filled with fear and unease.
There were twenty or thirty children. In the nearby corner sat several cradles reeking of rot, their contents self-evident.
Under the monk’s urging, Li Huowang slowly revealed himself and spoke in a hushed voice to the elders.
“Don’t panic. Things will get chaotic inside the cave soon. Stay put right here, and I’ll come back for you once it’s over.”
The elders looked up at Li Huowang. Some of their dull eyes gradually lit up.
One elder, who looked at least a hundred years old, shakily raised his cane and called out in a raspy voice.
“Son! My water boy! Come quick! Someone’s snuck in!”
His words triggered a chain reaction. Most of the elders started shouting too.
“Swish!” As the snarling Li Huowang charged forward, he swung his sword, sending three white-haired heads flying into the air.
But killing them all now was pointless—the man-fiends had already been alerted.
Moments later, handfuls of black glutinous rice trailing black smoke were flung from outside the cave toward Li Huowang.
Li Huowang swiftly dodged, and the rice passed straight through his body, striking an old woman.
With a scream, her flesh melted away rapidly. Soon, she was a smoking, white-haired mummy.
“Go!” Li Huowang raised his sword and slashed at his left hand, shaving off his newly grown nails. They spun through the air and out of the cave.
Amid the man-fiend’s screams, Li Huowang shifted his body, blending its color into the ground to enter a state of invisibility and hide.
Soon after, the black-robed man-fiends crawled in on all fours from outside. They seemed to be searching for Li Huowang but couldn’t find him.
At that moment, some of the surviving elders struggled to their feet and warned the man-fiends.
“Good sons! That man’s body has burrowed into the ground. Might be some earth-escape technique. Be careful, now.”
A surge of killing intent welled up in Li Huowang’s heart. He had never despised anyone’s existence so much—not even the man-fiends. These undying geezers disgusted him even more.
Hearing the elders’ warning, one man-fiend pinched two dried yellow leaves between its filthy, long-nailed fingers and smeared them across its hair-covered eyes.
With a ghostly wail from its mouth, all the man-fiends charged toward Li Huowang, bearing black floating dust, verdigris-covered ritual bells, and dark-red peachwood swords.
“Nan ling na zhen guang ji ji she!!” The copper coins of Li Huowang’s coin sword separated rapidly under the pull of the red string, lashing out like a long whip at the man-fiends.
In an instant, the narrow, dim cavern erupted into a frenzy of flashing blades and clashing swords.
As Li Huowang grappled with two man-fiends—one on his left, one on his right—another seized a wooden umbrella topped with a purple talisman like a shield, attempting a sneak attack from behind.
Li Huowang’s ears twitched. He spun around to face it. In the next moment, a mass of black tentacles shoved aside the bronze mask on his face and slapped onto the man-fiend’s face, ripping off half of it outright.
At the same time, the red-string-bound copper coins swiftly wrapped around the necks of several man-fiends.
Li Huowang yanked hard on his coin sword. Heads tumbled to the ground.
With Li Huowang’s continuous self-mutilation, the number of man-fiends dwindled rapidly. They were no match for him.
Seeing they were outmatched, the man-fiends changed tactics.
An elder’s head fashioned into an incense burner was placed on the ground, with three white candles lined up in front. The black-headed man-fiend who had led the morning service earlier crawled forward.
It first shoved several wriggling pills into its mouth. Then, with its deformed feet tracing gang steps, it began performing a ritual with a peachwood sword thrust through black talismans.
The incantations from its mouth weren’t human speech—mumbled and indistinct—but they rose and fell with a strangely rhythmic cadence.
A four-limbed, blind, protruding-mouthed monstrosity chanting spells like a human—it was a horrifying sight.
What was even more terrifying was that Li Huowang had no idea what ritual it was performing, but he was certain of one thing: it absolutely could not be allowed to continue.
He kicked off the ground with both feet and charged at the man-fiend. He drew his purple-tasseled sword again and slashed viciously at his left hand.
Two fingers flew off, spiraling with bone toward the man-fiend amid a metallic clang.
With two clangs, Li Huowang’s fingers were blocked by the other man-fiends.
The ritual-performing man-fiend spotted Li Huowang and flipped backward, hurling two black banners to plant one on either side of him. Then it slammed its black-qi-emitting peachwood sword into the ground.
The black qi surged into the earth. A circular, bizarre talisman formed of strange script rapidly expanded around Li Huowang at its center.
(End of chapter)