Chapter 366
Chapter 366
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 366
>Chapter Title: Sky
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>> Chapter 366: Sky
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>> Li Huowang, who had lost all sensation of pain, stood there dazed, taking in everything around him. With his senses now merged together, he could feel that the previously fused yin and yang had split apart.
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>> It wasn’t because the yang hadn’t arrived, but because the yin had come alive. Only living things could feel pain. When that previously dead heart filth let out an unearthly scream, he had come alive just like those screaming stones and trees.
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>> Li Huowang staggered forward a few steps, but his weakened body instinctively pitched forward. Several wriggling black tentacles reached out, propping him up like pillars on the ground. “Dad.”
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>> Then Li Sui pried open the wound in Li Huowang’s chest and swiftly burrowed inside.
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>> Li Huowang opened his mouth, trembling as if he wanted to say something, but all that came out was a bloody mess of flesh— he couldn’t make a sound.
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>> Li Huowang raised his right hand, devoid of its nail, and shakily pointed south. He could sense the rift there.
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>> Bai Lingmiao immediately understood what he meant. She quickly picked up the *Great Thousand Record* from the ground and hoisted Li Huowang’s second body onto her back as they headed south.
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>> As they walked, everything around them suddenly flipped upside down. The three of them felt their bodies lighten as they plummeted straight toward the cracked black dome below.
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>> When they passed through the gap, the blinding sunlight forced everyone’s eyes shut. It had been pitch black inside, but outside, it was already bright daylight—they were out!
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>> Seeing the yellow earth rapidly growing larger below, the second body swiftly spun around, pulling Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao into its embrace.
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>> *Thud!* A violent jolt rocked them. Li Huowang’s fused senses gradually returned to their proper places, Ba Hui’s gaze upon him faded away, and the lost sense of pain slowly came back.
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>> “Huowang! Are you okay? Pull yourself together!” Li Huowang heard a familiar voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw Bai Lingmiao’s and Yang Na’s faces completely overlapping.
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>> They had merged together, as if they’d become one person. Both opened their mouths at the same time to ask the question.
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>> In that moment, reality and hallucination overlapped, leaving Li Huowang unable to tell which was which.
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>> “Huowang!” Bai Lingmiao anxiously patted his cheek with her slender palm, but he showed no response.
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>> Panicking, Bai Lingmiao grabbed the drum whip and frantically beat the drum at her waist, preparing to summon Great-Grandma Bai for healing.
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>> Li Huowang’s hand suddenly grabbed hers and shook his head slightly. In that instant, he could tell—this was reality. In front of him was Bai Lingmiao. There was no Yang Na at all.
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>> With great effort, he rolled over and lay prone on the ground. As Li Huowang gasped for air, bits of flesh slid from the bloody hole in his mouth, dripping down his chin onto the dirt.
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>> Summoning all his strength, Li Huowang lifted his head and looked around. He spotted the *Great Thousand Record* lying in the mud in the distance. His hands pushed hard against the ground as he crawled toward it with difficulty.
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>> Seeing this, Bai Lingmiao rushed over, picked up the still-bleeding red bamboo slips, and brought them to him.
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>> Li Huowang’s trembling hand reached out and unrolled the *Great Thousand Record* like opening a gift box. His mangled tongue and entire throat lay exposed before them.
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>> The weakened Li Huowang tilted his head back, mouth agape, and held the long strip of flesh upright, letting it drop straight into the horrifying bloody cavity in his mouth.
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>> Soon, slender tentacles emerged from Li Huowang’s mouth, wrapping around his tongue and organs, adjusting their positions and binding them back in place.
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>> “It’s okay, it’s okay. You scared the hell out of me!” Bai Lingmiao hugged Li Huowang tightly, her voice trembling.
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>> Recalling everything he’d endured in the hallucination, Li Huowang forced a weak smile onto his face. He reached out to hold her in return and, controlling his cold tongue, said: “Why… cough cough… why did you do it early?”
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>> He clearly hadn’t killed Yang Na in the hallucination yet when Bai Lingmiao had performed the Cang Qiang ascension ritual ahead of schedule.
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>> “Didn’t you say to do it at the most painful moment? You were about to pass out! Did I do wrong?”
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>> Li Huowang shook his head slightly. “No… just right.” Yang Na was hurt, but she hadn’t died.
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>> “Thank you… Miaomiao.” Li Huowang kissed her neck.
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>> It was her early intervention that had saved Yang Na. Otherwise, with his preparations, that knife would have definitely plunged in. Li Huowang didn’t understand why he cared so much about a hallucination, but the thought of Yang Na still being alive filled him with more joy than anything else.
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>> Li Huowang now understood—Ba Hui craved pain, not death. It was some other si ming that wanted death, perhaps that massive white-boned bodhisattva he’d seen, or something else.
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>> He didn’t need to kill Yang Na. The moment he resolved to do so, that heart-wrenching agony had been more than enough for the Cang Qiang ascension.
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>> “Yang Na… sorry…” Li Huowang murmured into the empty air, lost in thought. “You’ve got a scar on your chest now. Hurry and call 120 to get it treated.”
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>> Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao’s brows furrowed slightly, but she said nothing. With effort, she helped Li Huowang to his feet and led him away, intending to leave this damned place first.
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>> Only now did Li Huowang have a chance to survey his surroundings. But as far as the eye could see, there was only earth—nothing like where he’d started.
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>> “Where are we? Haven’t we gotten out?!” His heart sank as he strained to look up, finally spotting some familiar green woods.
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>> But those woods were high up, on a distant cliff. Li Huowang clearly remembered there being no cliffs nearby, let alone such tall mountains.
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>> “A cliff? Why is there a cliff here?” As Li Huowang looked around and realized towering cliffs surrounded them on all sides, it suddenly hit him—those weren’t cliffs.
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>> The world above was the normal one. They were in a depression, at the bottom of an enormous basin.
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>> When those living and dead heart filths had touched, they hadn’t just hidden them—they had scraped away everything for miles around, digging three feet into the ground.
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>> “Huowang, quick, look! What’s that in the sky!!”
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>> Li Huowang looked up with effort and saw that directly overhead, a cloudless sky was inexplicably missing a chunk—the very black night with cracks they had fallen from.
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>> “Is this the power of the heart filth…” Li Huowang’s jaw dropped in utter shock. “What the hell is this heart filth? How could one living and one dead heart filth together hide the sky itself!!”
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>> (End of chapter)