Chapter 432
Chapter 432
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 432
>Chapter Title: Mahjong Suits
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Li Huowang tilted his head back, staring at the giant eye in the sky in utter shock.
As the hexagrams in the sky continuously floated and shifted, that massive vertical pupil would glance left, then right, following the clouds as they gradually pressed lower.
There were no emotions in that eye. The only sensation it conveyed was a suffocating chaos.
Chaos shouldn’t be something visible to the eye, yet at this moment, Li Huowang was absolutely certain that what he was seeing was one of chaos’s eyes.
From that eyeball emanated a bizarre chanting voice, causing Li Huowang to clutch his ears in agony.
He remembered this chanting! He had heard it once from over a hundred miles away outside the capital of the Great Qi. Now it was clear—this was the source!
Compared to the faint version before, the sound here was undoubtedly magnified many, many times. The people around Li Huowang who were clutching their ears and dropping dead proved it.
“What is that eye?! A Sovereign? No! If it were a Sovereign, why haven’t I seen it in White Jade Capital?! What the hell is it?!”
“Did the Great Liang Emperor summon it? Is this the purpose of the entire formation? What does that guy plan to do with this thing?!”
“No, no, that’s got nothing to do with me. I’m here to find the heart elemental Beifeng!”
Li Huowang painfully clutched his head and looked toward the ground ahead, where a massive, towering golden tree stood erect.
The golden tree’s trunk wasn’t thick; it looked tall and thin, like a pillar reaching to the heavens.
In Li Huowang’s view, tiny figures were battling around this giant tree.
After glancing briefly for a moment, Li Huowang stopped due to the headache. The sound was simply too loud, so loud that no emotion in his heart could stabilize for even an instant.
“This won’t do! At this rate, I can’t even get close!”
Li Huowang quickly pulled a sharp awl from his waistband and ruthlessly jammed it into his left ear, enduring the intense pain as he twisted it.
He then tore some scraps of cloth from his clothes and stuffed them into his right ear.
It was a bit gruesome, but Li Huowang’s accidental method worked—the noise in his ears diminished greatly.
It was still loud, but at least the emotions in Li Huowang’s heart could stabilize now, without being so easily scattered by the sound.
Li Huowang clenched his teeth tightly and staggered toward the massive trunk with trembling steps.
As Li Huowang drew closer, everything in the distance gradually came into clearer focus. Surrounding that enormous trunk were not leaves, but coiling six-clawed golden dragons.
These golden dragons were not living creatures, yet they appeared to be in extreme agony. Their scales flipped outward, with all sorts of twisted horns and spikes bursting from within. Various reverse swastikas abruptly pierced into their bodies.
The dragons twisted around each other, impaled full of sharp branches in the tree’s canopy, and each dragon’s face was covered by one of those massive faces from the palace walls—as if every dragon wore a human face, creating a thoroughly bizarre sight.
At the base of these dragon-canopy branches, a solemn and majestic altar platform had been constructed. Li Huowang spotted some people there.
He ignored the eunuchs with whisks and the others in various attire, his attention drawn to the man in dragon robes—that was the Great Liang Emperor.
The Great Liang Emperor, clad in bright yellow dragon robes, silently gazed down at the enemies below the tree.
Li Huowang couldn’t see his face, as it was completely obscured by the ceremonial beads of his crown, which draped from top to bottom, shielding the emperor’s head entirely.
“Where’s Beifeng? Where is Beifeng?” The invisible Li Huowang carefully scanned beneath the massive golden tree.
Those people seemed to be trying to climb toward the altar platform at the top, using the golden dragons.
But a group of black-clad eunuchs dangled upside down on threads from their feet, descending repeatedly and swinging various weapons and ritual implements to block those climbing upward.
The faces of those tree-climbers would occasionally twist a few times amid the chanting, revealing their true mahjong tile features underneath, letting Li Huowang know they were Sit-Forget Daoists.
Surprisingly, the battle between the two sides didn’t seem all that fierce, as if both were waiting for something.
Li Huowang lay on the ground, laboriously watching the distant scene. He still remembered heart elemental Beifeng’s ability—he could swap bodies with others.
Now that the critical moment was at hand, Li Huowang didn’t rush. Instead, he endured the uncomfortable chanting and patiently searched among the Sit-Forget Daoists.
After slowly and meticulously scrutinizing these dozens of Sit-Forget Daoists for a long while, Li Huowang finally locked onto four possible Beifengs.
“Wait! Four Beifengs?” Li Huowang almost thought he’d seen wrong, but after careful observation, he confirmed that among those shifting faces distorted by the bizarre chanting, four bore Beifeng’s tile.
“Whatever, four it is then. But how do I find the one true heart elemental among them?” Li Huowang frowned at the distant situation.
Moreover, the clash wasn’t intense enough right now—it wasn’t time to fish in troubled waters. Charging in now would just get him attacked from both sides.
“What to do? They’re all right here... Should I just call on Zhuge Yuan for help?”
Remembering Zhuge Yuan’s face, Li Huowang hesitated. Dragging him into this dangerous situation would be throwing him straight into the fire.
“No, wait a bit longer.”
Just as Li Huowang thought this, the Great Liang Emperor atop the altar platform began to speak.
“You lot still won’t give up? Do you really think I can’t predict you’d come to sabotage things? I’ve foreseen every one of your moves. Today, even if you roll both dice and bring in all those treacherous barbarians, you still won’t stop my plan!”
The majestic, resonant voice boomed into everyone’s hearts present, stirring varying degrees of fear in each. Some with weaker resolve had already begun to turn and leave.
Hearing this, the Sit-Forget Daoists showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, they loudly mocked him, occasionally mimicking his tone and words in sarcastic, effeminate voices.
“Hmph!” A cold snort rippled outward like a shockwave. The Great Liang Emperor slightly turned his body.
“National Advisor, if you would.”
Just as a trembling elderly man carrying a two-handed longsword engraved with the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions stood upon the altar platform, new movement stirred at the western golden wall.
Li Huowang looked over as well. A massive golden wall collapsed with a boom, and Zhuge Yuan, dressed as a scholar, appeared before everyone.
Holding his judge’s brush, his expression grave, he charged forward at high speed, as if pursuing someone in Great Qi.
From ahead of him, people kept popping out like spilling beans.
Without exception, all had mahjong tile heads—they were Sit-Forget Daoists.
As their numbers swelled, Li Huowang’s heart sank lower and lower. “This is impossible! There’s too many! This exceeds a single mahjong set!!”
And some of the tile types were utterly bizarre. Flower tiles like plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, spring, summer, autumn, winter were one thing, but there were even ones topped with the God of Wealth, and cat-and-mouse tiles!
“Heh heh heh, how could there not be? You’ve got no experience, huh? Great Liang mahjong doesn’t have them, sure, but Great Qi mahjong does.”
The hallucination Red Dragon beside him spoke proudly.
(End of chapter)