Chapter 326
Chapter 326
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 326
>Chapter Title: Sending
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>In the cave, the battle situation shifted in an instant.
At that moment, with most of the man-demons dazed by the illusory feint, Li Huowang naturally wouldn't miss the opportunity.
He had figured it out—this man-demon was indeed powerful, but there was one prerequisite: just like any ordinary Daoist, it had to perform rituals before making a move.
As long as he forced it into close combat, it wouldn't have time to cast spells.
"Jump!" The seven or eight black tentacles suddenly bent, propelling him off the ground with such force that they launched Li Huowang straight toward the Daoist man-demon entangled in flesh.
With a crisp "clang," the opponent's peachwood sword cracked. The weapon given to him by Abbess had exceptional sharpness, far superior to the man-demon's, which couldn't compare to the soldier's blade in Li Huowang's hand.
Sensing defeat, the man-demon immediately used Li Huowang's momentum to retreat backward.
How could Li Huowang let it escape? As it fell back, he pressed forward relentlessly, refusing to give it any space to cast spells.
Seeing their master in trouble, a white whisk with strands embedded with fingernail-sized black talismans was flung over.
The man-demon's slender nails hooked and wrapped it around, the white strands instantly coiling around Li Huowang's weapon.
Overcoming hardness with softness—even though the white strands on the whisk kept snapping, it actually held for the moment.
The two sides were locked in stalemate again. Now it was a race between Li Huowang slicing through the whisk first or the other man-demons arriving from behind.
Yet looking at the terrifying monster before him, a cruel smile crept onto Li Huowang's face.
"Since you had your disciples gang up on me earlier, don't blame me for not playing fair. Attack!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the tentacles beneath him swiftly reached into the torture kit at his waist, pulling out various implements and thrusting them straight into the man-demon's abdomen. Soon, its opened belly was churned into a bloody mess.
As this man-demon clutched its stomach and collapsed, Li Huowang yanked with one hand, freeing the purple-tasseled sword from the loosened whisk, and raised it high for a furious chop. The Daoist man-demon's head rolled off its shoulders.
When the blood-soaked Li Huowang spun around to face the remaining man-demons behind him, the numerically superior foes hesitated, afraid to advance.
"Forward!" Li Huowang roared, his body radiating killing intent as he raised his purple-tasseled sword high and charged at the horde numbering a hundred times his own.
Without their leader, the remaining man-demons scattered. As they turned their backs to Li Huowang, what followed was a slaughter—the only difference was how many he killed.
Two hours later, the entire cavern had been mostly cleared. A few had escaped, but the rest were no longer a threat.
The writhing tentacles crawled like a spider, dragging Li Huowang toward his lower half, left behind at the original spot.
Li Huowang was exhausted, but he forced himself to stay alert, grabbing his waist and pulling on his lower body like donning pants.
The black tentacles writhed, burrowing into the flesh to reconnect the severed bridge of his body.
At first, Li Huowang felt no sensation from his lower half.
Gradually, though, his toes twitched, and pain returned to the instep pinned by the black triangular flag.
The circular talismans on the ground had long dispersed. Li Huowang bent down and yanked out the black flag.
Standing tall once more, Li Huowang surveyed the chaotic surroundings. The place had become a muddy blood pool; finding a clean patch of ground was impossible.
With the enemies eliminated, Li Huowang grinned happily. He realized he smiled more now than before—back then, he hadn't laughed in ages.
After chuckling for a bit, Li Huowang stopped. He lowered his head and touched his abdomen with his hand.
"Thanks. Looks like I underestimated you earlier. You're way more useful than I thought."
Right then, intermittent voices echoed in Li Huowang's ears. After his prolonged training, though the words were still choppy, they could at least convey simple meanings.
Li Huowang figured he could invest more effort into the Black Tai Sui from now on. For some reason, the Black Tai Sui inside his belly seemed far smarter than those outside.
He wondered if this change came from absorbing something within his body.
"Could the flesh and blood of a heart elemental also grant intelligence to Black Tai Sui?"
Lost in random thoughts, Li Huowang's body was covered in wounds, still in agony—but somehow, he was growing accustomed to it.
"Watch yourself. Black Tai Sui isn't being kind; it's burrowed into your gut to ultimately seize your body."
Red's words instantly soured the smile on Li Huowang's face.
"I'm willing! What's it to you, spouting nonsense here?"
"What kind of person are you? Can't tell good advice from bad." Irritated, Red's form flickered faintly before retreating underground.
Li Huowang snorted coldly and began pulling out the Firecoat Canon to heal himself.
Like a toddler learning to walk, Li Huowang staggered in the darkness toward the cave where the infants had been.
The old folks inside were still there—nowhere for them to flee in such conditions.
"Gather up all the children. We're leaving this place," Li Huowang commanded coldly.
The surviving elders complied without a word. Who would dare complain with his Daoist robes still dripping blood?
They had sought water sons earlier, even if deceived—the root desire was simply to avoid death.
Li Huowang counted: thirty-one living infants remained. There had been more, but the earlier chaos had toppled a few cradles.
Staggering on one leg with one arm cradling a child, Li Huowang led the trembling elders toward the cave mouth.
Just as they neared the exit, the headless body of that Daoist man-demon suddenly stirred.
Li Huowang instantly hurled the child from his arms and drew his copper coin sword with a "clang," pointing it at the headless corpse.
Seeing it reach into its robes as if to retrieve something, Li Huowang slashed, severing both its arms.
The arms dropped from midair, spilling a pouch from its grasp.
Lifespan Pills wrapped in black talismans scattered into the half-congealed blood on the ground.
"Lifespan Pills?" Li Huowang prodded one with his sword tip, mildly surprised.
"What does this mean? Was it trying to buy its life with these?"
At that moment, the man-demon moved again. It raised its remaining hand, gathered the bloodied pills from the ground, and pushed them toward Li Huowang.
With that done, the man-demon's body went fully limp, moving no more.
Li Huowang counted carefully: seventy-nine pills in total. Swallowing them would likely sustain him long enough to become a man-demon himself.
(End of chapter)