Chapter 341
Chapter 341
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 341
>Chapter Title: Zhuge Yuan
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Sit-Forget Dao’s Fa Cai was dead, murdered by someone.
“Could it be...” The image of that scholar Zhuge Yuan from before instantly flashed in Li Huowang’s mind. “Possible? How could that be possible?”
“Those after the Heart Turbidity aren’t just your Sit-Forget Dao! Now tell me, who took the Heart Turbidity!”
As soon as these words left his mouth, Ji Xiang’s aura changed in an instant. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and the white powder on his face cracked inch by inch.
He glared death at the three pairs of identical twins standing before him.
Yet the entire hall was deathly silent, with no one responding to his question.
“Not talking, eh? Fine! Then all of you come with me back to the capital! Once we’re at the foot of the imperial city, we’ll see if you talk!” Ji Xiang tossed the head in his hand aside and stormed off in a rage.
No one dared delay at a time like this—they all hurried after him, afraid of being mistaken for Sit-Forget Dao.
The carriage couldn’t fit everyone, so the rest mounted horses and followed Ji Xiang’s carriage toward the capital.
Anxiety gnawed at Li Huowang atop his horse. He only had this copper coin mask—if it didn’t hold up and he was recognized in the capital, what then?
But clearly, someone was even more anxious than Li Huowang and resolved the issue for him.
Suddenly, one of the mounted Li Huowangs flipped off his horse and darted straight into the nearby woods.
The instant he left, another Hong Da and the Heart Obsessed Monk jumped away at the same time.
In the next moment, the carriage roof burst open. Ji Xiang, golden abacus in hand, charged first toward one of the Sit-Forget Dao members.
“You lot grab the other two and bring them back alive!”
With a whoosh, the crowd that had been clustered together scattered instantly, each chasing after the fleeing Sit-Forget Dao.
Heart Obsessed Monk, striding with great steps in hot pursuit, hurried toward the distance.
His massive frame made him ill-suited for the woods, so he was the slowest in the chase.
Suddenly, his ears twitched, and his head tilted slightly, dodging a glint of cold light.
But right after, Heart Obsessed Monk felt his body shudder as he floated up.
Looking down in agony, he saw an arm covered in sharp bone spikes plunged straight into his gut.
“What the hel—” Heart Obsessed Monk’s mouth had just opened when his pupils shrank—he was speaking!
At that moment, a red string threaded with copper coins wrapped around his neck and yanked tight in an instant.
A gritted voice rang in Heart Obsessed Monk’s ear. “You’ve got a small heart? So does mine!”
The red string and coins were thin. With Li Huowang yanking hard, they sank right into the flesh.
Severely wounded, Heart Obsessed Monk’s mouth gaped open, coughing and hacking as he desperately clawed backward with his hands.
Even as he shredded the back of his hand to bloody ribbons, he showed no mercy.
Veins bulging on his forehead, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and wrenched the copper coin string deeper into Heart Obsessed Monk’s neck.
One tentacle after another burst from Li Huowang’s body, binding Heart Obsessed Monk’s limbs tight.
The more Heart Obsessed Monk struggled, the fiercer it grew. At its peak, his body went rigid—then suddenly went limp. He was dead.
Li Huowang flicked the hilt of his copper coin sword, and the coin string embedded in Heart Obsessed Monk’s flesh retracted swiftly, reforming the blade.
With a shake to fling off the blood, Li Huowang had just shouldered his copper coin sword when Hong Da stepped out from the side, eyeing the Li Huowang whose body writhed with black tentacles.
Looking at this unexpected arrival, Li Huowang blinked and pointed toward Heart Obsessed Monk’s corpse nearby. “This one’s Sit-Forget Dao.”
Hong Da glanced at the Heart Obsessed Monk with his twisted features, then slowly nodded.
“But Supervisor Ji said to bring the Sit-Forget Dao back alive. Why’d you kill him? You’ve put me in a tough spot.”
“No control over my strength. My apologies.”
Li Huowang uncorked the gourd at his waist and shook it. The gourd mouth bared its jagged fangs, vomiting out a pile of Yangshou Pills.
Hong Da flicked his wide robe like a sack, scooping up every last pill, then nodded in firm agreement.
“Young folks slip up sometimes—it happens. We’ve still got the other two, so Supervisor Ji won’t hold it against us.”
Li Huowang gave a faint smile and nodded at the words, his tentacles slowly writhing back into his body.
“Let’s go. Time to catch the next one.” With that, Hong Da turned and left.
Li Huowang suddenly understood the dynamics among his Celestial Division colleagues.
The Celestial Division was just a side gig for making extra coin—they weren’t colleagues, more like nodding acquaintances.
When handling cases, tripping each other up or cooperating all depended on whether the benefits were enough and their personal ties.
When Li Huowang and Hong Da returned with the other Sit-Forget Dao member, they found Tuoba Danqing and Ji Xiang already back ahead of them.
The ground was awash in blood, cradling a sheet of human skin, a skeleton, and a pile of flesh.
Judging by Tuoba Danqing clutching his mouth in revulsion, this had been one person tortured apart alive.
Ji Xiang paced back and forth with hands clasped behind his back, his expression grave as he muttered under his breath now and then.
“Brother Tuoba? What happened?” Li Huowang walked up beside Tuoba Danqing and asked.
“Supervisor Ji tortured a name out of that captured Sit-Forget Dao member—Zhuge Yuan. After hearing it, he’s been like this. No idea why.”
“Zhuge Yuan?! He really killed Fa Cai?”
Li Huowang’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.
The few scant words the man had said to him echoed over and over in Li Huowang’s ears.
Celestial Division, Sit-Forget Dao, and now Zhuge Yuan too. Since neither the Celestial Division nor Sit-Forget Dao got the Heart Turbidity, he must have it. Just who the hell was this guy?
Ji Xiang, who’d been pacing, halted abruptly and turned a grave look on the other three.
“Let me ask you—when you went to that Buddha Bone Temple, did anything feel off? Did anyone do something ridiculous yet perfectly reasonable?”
Even as Li Huowang racked his brains to recall the Buddha Bone Temple, his brows furrowed tighter. What was he getting at?
“Supervisor Ji, what exactly happened? Who is this Zhuge Yuan?”
For some reason, Li Huowang felt like he’d stumbled into something huge.
But Ji Xiang offered no answer, just muttering anxiously to himself.
“I should’ve guessed earlier. It has to be Zhuge Yuan’s supernatural ability. No doubt about it. Even he’s after the Heart Turbidity—the world’s about to change.”
After pacing a bit more, Ji Xiang mounted his horse without a word to the others and galloped off.
“Supervisor Ji! Supervisor Ji!!” With Tuoba Danqing’s shouts falling on deaf ears, he turned back helplessly to Li Huowang and Hong Da. “Let’s head back. Sigh, what a mess—no reward in this one, I bet.”
Once Tuoba Danqing rode off too, Hong Da looked to Li Huowang. “Ride together?”
“Thanks, but no. I prefer traveling alone.”
Hong Da nodded at that and mounted up to leave.
With no living souls left around, Li Huowang waited a moment before turning toward the Buddha Bone Temple.