Chapter 355
Chapter 355
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 355
>Chapter Title: Appears
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“Hmm?” Li Huowang looked in astonishment at the rusty knife clutched in his hand.
“Where did this knife come from? I clearly have two weapons that are plenty, so why is there suddenly an extra one in my hand?”
Suddenly, Li Huowang’s hand jerked sharply, flinging the rusty knife to the ground. With a very grave expression, he gripped his sword hilt and pointed the tip straight at this item of unknown origin.
“Could this be the power of the heart turbidity? Does he want to use this thing to harm me?”
Li Huowang’s entire body tensed as he warily stared at the rusty knife on the ground, slowly backing away to swiftly rejoin the others.
“Ear Nine, my brother? You alright?” Tuoba Danqing asked upon seeing the tense expression on Li Huowang’s face.
“Somehow, there was suddenly an extra knife in my hand.”
“But isn’t the karma of heart turbidity supposed to hide things? Why is it giving you something?”
Li Huowang thought for a moment. Then, after carefully inspecting his body, he shook his head slightly and turned to look at Shentu Gang, who was busy drumming.
“Four Golden Star Lords, quickly raise the platform! Fifty-five thousand stand in ranks! Black flags, black armor, black banners hoisted! Shining helmets and armor mark the mediocre! Don’t let Brother Horse get stung in the climb! Hurry up or I’ll slap you!”
With the drumbeats, the heavens and earth subtly shifted. In the thin mist overhead, something kept condensing only to rapidly dissipate again.
Seeing the utter confidence on their faces, Li Huowang said nothing more and quietly waited for them to force out the heart turbidity.
For these inexplicable matters, it was best not to cause them any trouble right now.
Drumbeats, the clacking of spinning walnuts, and the snapping of the abacus kept ringing in Li Huowang’s ears. At that moment, Shentu Gang beside him suddenly shouted in a low voice:
“This heart turbidity has gained real power! It made one of us vanish!”
“Erniu! Don’t hold back! Spill some blood!!”
With Shentu Gang’s low bellow, the grim-faced accountant next to him slammed down his golden abacus. Li Huowang instantly felt everything around him grow even more illusory.
Li Huowang looked down at the sword in his hand. Its number was one, yet also two—or perhaps three.
In that instant, all nearby quantities seemed to lose all meaning. One could be five, or just as easily nine.
And at that very moment, Shentu Gang pounded the drumhead furiously with all six palms. The sounds were no longer a chant but some sort of guttural roar.
“One colorful cloud flips up and down! Nangong immortals, come at once! Eight immortals and eight barbarians to your stations! Guard the eight gates and the eight barriers!”
The dark clouds in the sky pressed downward relentlessly, nearly right overhead, with something surging ceaselessly within them.
Right then, Li Huowang suddenly spotted a figure popping up abruptly from not far away.
Her body would blur and solidify by turns, creating a profoundly awkward sight.
The figure wore a dark blue robe, its entire face obscured by clumps of black filth. Sticky mud covered the pants.
“Ear Nine! Strike now! That’s the heart turbidity!”
As the accountant blurted this out in extreme tension, Li Huowang’s own sixteen fingers had already flown forth ahead of him.
As the heart turbidity lightly lifted its hair, more than half of those flying fingernails vanished in an instant.
Seizing the moment while it dealt with his fingers, a ripping sound exploded. Li Huowang tore a massive slab of flesh from his body and hurled it over.
Yet the spinning, blood-smeared human skin faded under the foe’s power. Li Huowang stared fixedly at the heart turbidity’s feet as he whipped his copper coin sword over like a long lash.
Just when dodging seemed impossible, a beggar-dressed man suddenly appeared beside the heart turbidity, blocking the copper coin sword like a shield.
That was the missing Hong Da—he’d been spat out!
Amid the screech of metal on metal, the coins scraped sparks off the beggar.
Seeing all his attacks blocked, Li Huowang’s fury ignited.
He steeled himself and slashed his sword blade across his own abdomen, carving open a gash.
“You can hide things, huh? Let’s see you hide this!!”
With a savagely twisted expression, Li Huowang crossed his hands into the wound and yanked hard, snapping off two ribs raw.
He then flipped the jagged ends of those ribs and—with a wet squelch—stabbed them straight back into his own chest.
As Li Huowang sharply inhaled through the pain, the distant heart turbidity let out a piercing shriek and doubled over just like him.
Amid the excruciating agony, Li Huowang laughed. Their pains were linked now—what came next would be far simpler.
Three barbed spikes jammed into Li Huowang’s nail beds. He straightened his fingers and—with a bend at the waist—slammed them down toward the ground.
The heart turbidity’s body convulsed instantly from the inhuman torment. It seemed about to retaliate, but when it saw Li Huowang slowly drawing out those gore-matted spikes, it finally panicked. Ignoring any counterattack, it turned tail and fled.
In this situation, how could Li Huowang possibly let it escape? He swiftly slapped two talismans onto his knees.
Veins bulging across his face, he hurtled toward the heart turbidity, leaving an afterimage in his wake.
As he kept tormenting it with one brutal method after another, Li Huowang drew ever closer to the heart turbidity.
Yet the moment he burst into another dust-choked house, the heart turbidity inexplicably vanished.
“What’s going on?! Where’d it go?” Li Huowang fumed in frustration. He’d been so close—just a little bit more!
As Li Huowang whipped around to the others who had followed, the accountant replied:
“Sigh, give us a moment to catch our breath. Forcing a heart turbidity to show itself isn’t easy.”
Right now, the accountant’s face was deathly pale, his fingers trembling. Shentu Gang looked no better.
Forcing out the heart turbidity had clearly drained them badly.
“You already wounded it just now. Hit it again after a rest, and it won’t get away. Erniu gathered folks this time who specialize in countering heart turbidities.”
Compared to their first meeting, Shentu Gang’s attitude toward Li Huowang had clearly warmed quite a bit—perhaps due to those earlier events with the two spirits.
Hearing this, Li Huowang nodded slightly.
“Alright then. Once we catch the heart turbidity, I can...”
“Hmm? Can what? What was I about to say?” The previously enraged Li Huowang swiftly calmed, looking around in puzzlement.
This room didn’t look large. Muddy sweet potatoes of varying sizes were piled in the corner.
The patch of sunken, withered grass nearby proved that someone had once lived here.
“Who lived here?” As he touched the ribs in his chest, a stab of pain swiftly recalled those memories that had just vanished.
“Right! That’s it—the heart turbidity! It’s the one hiding my memories!”
Li Huowang had just pulled out some ginger-yellow paper to write on it.
But thinking of the foe’s power, he paused for a moment before yanking a spike from his nail bed and began carving into the inner side of his left forearm.
After simply etching his goal for this outing, along with the dangers of the heart turbidity, Li Huowang finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.
“Look, there’s writing on this wall!” Tuoba Danqing’s shout made everyone whip their heads around.