Chapter 433
Chapter 433
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 433
>Chapter Title: Both Sides
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“Hehehe… How could there not be? Great Liang may not have mahjong—but Great Qi does.”
Just as the hallucinated Red Center finished speaking, an old woman rolled out in front of Zhuge Yuan.
Li Huowang recognized her.
That was North Wind—the one Zhuge Yuan had once captured and sent into Great Qi.
After standing up, North Wind’s expression was dazed. But once she took in her surroundings, her eyes sharpened instantly.
Her face began to twist. Wrinkles rapidly receded. First, her face turned into the North Wind mahjong tile pattern—then the edges of the tile folded inward violently.
From a rectangle, it compressed into a square.
The flesh on her face gathered and hardened—
Until it became a six-sided die.
With its blood-red dot facing upward, the die looked toward the Great Liang Emperor perched in the tree.
“You truly anticipated every step? Then did you foresee that I would use the Heart-Disc to pull the Sitting Oblivion Dao from Great Qi over here?”
“Hehe. You can handle one table of mahjong—but what about two?”
Li Huowang’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.
So all along, North Wind and the others—whether seeking Zhuge Yuan or deliberately losing to him—had been acting.
Their true goal had only been one thing:
To have Zhuge Yuan turn them into citizens of Great Qi so they could enter Great Qi and contact the Sitting Oblivion Dao there.
Which meant—
Great Qi was not an illusion created by the Heart-Disc.
Great Qi truly existed.
As that realization struck him, the massive black-and-white vertical pupil in the sky suddenly changed.
The single pupil split into three.
The sixty-four hexagrams around it spun wildly.
Faced with reinforcements from the Sitting Oblivion Dao, the opposing side clearly had no intention of sitting idle.
The strange chanting in the air grew louder—no longer a single voice, but splitting into multiple horrifying roars and whispers.
Li Huowang’s head throbbed violently.
Veins bulged across his forehead. His facial features felt as though they were melting.
That was no chanting—
It was a sound beyond mortal comprehension.
Just hearing it once was enough to loosen the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings within any person.
Bai Lingmiao had only been influenced by baleful aura, and her emotions had shifted so drastically. If someone’s Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings were truly shattered—
The consequences would be unimaginable.
A great battle was about to erupt.
Li Huowang burned with urgency as he endured the agony, desperately searching for Heart-Su North Wind.
But with the arrival of the Great Qi Sitting Oblivion Dao, there were now eight North Winds.
Finding the real one became even harder.
Boom!
The Sitting Oblivion Dao members sat cross-legged in unison around the massive golden tree and began chanting.
The four dice occupied the cardinal directions—east, south, west, north.
The numbers on their faces were four, two, five, and one.
“Fasting of the heart and sitting in oblivion—this is the ultimate Dao!
Preserve the true through sitting in oblivion; preserve form through following form.
Nourish form, and the form becomes immortal;
Nourish through sitting in oblivion, abandon form and enter the True!”
Their strange voices surged upward, scattering the sky’s incomprehensible chanting. The two sounds intertwined in the air.
Under their influence, everything became distorted.
People. Gold. Space itself.
At a mere thought from Li Huowang, the golden bricks beneath him rose and fused into a statue of Yang Na smiling with her head tilted.
“No matter what they’re planning—it will only get more dangerous! I must find Heart-Su North Wind and drag her away!”
His mind raced.
Suddenly, he drew a dagger, tore open his clothing, sliced into his shoulder to expose his collarbone, and pulled out yellow talisman paper.
Though divination did not work on powerful beings—and might even reveal his own position—
Who said it couldn’t be used in reverse?
He stabbed the yellow talisman directly into his blood-smeared collarbone.
Before the bone cracks could form—
One of the eight North Winds in the distance—a female one—suddenly raised her head and looked at him.
“Found you!! It’s her!!”
Invisible, Li Huowang moved across the warped golden bricks as if walking on water, closing in on Heart-Su North Wind.
His approach drew no attention.
Just as he expected.
Neither the Supervising Heaven Bureau nor the Sitting Oblivion Dao had the spare capacity to notice him.
The Bureau’s Astronomical Overseers and Great Liang’s Imperial Preceptor were already countering the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s ritual.
The white-haired Preceptor raised his constellation sword. His Daoist robe billowed though there was no wind. Stars flickered within the low-hanging storm clouds.
Then another figure cloaked in crimson stepped forward, followed by three others—likely the Junior Astronomical Overseers.
Six aged hands with impossibly long nails emerged from wide sleeves.
Upper hands formed seals.
Middle hands drew talismans.
Lower hands shaped mudras.
Three different chanting voices—old, strong, and young—echoed in strange harmony:
“One day, one world.
Within worlds blooms the white lotus.
This lotus is neither Buddha-seed nor mortal bloom.
Ride the phoenix and pluck its essence.
Touch it and it becomes ancient smoke.
Unaware of this body’s lightness—
Already placed upon the lotus leaf’s crown.”
As the incantation rose, the Sitting Oblivion Dao’s voices weakened. The twisting golden bricks stilled. The strange chanting reclaimed dominance. The giant eye descended lower.
Under its gaze, some of the peripheral Sitting Oblivion Dao began collapsing—first blooming like lotus flowers, then dissolving into chaotic flesh.
Just as Li Huowang thought the ritual duel would continue—
The golden tree’s base suddenly destabilized and collapsed with a thunderous crash.
The Sitting Oblivion Dao burst into laughter, leaping up and scrambling toward the treetop.
Lightning flashed through the dark clouds. A crack split the sky. A bolt of dark thunder struck.
The battlefield plunged into chaos.
“Now’s my chance!”
Li Huowang accelerated toward Heart-Su North Wind.
This time, both sides were fighting seriously.
The heavens shifted from dusk to noon in an instant. Under the chanting, even Li Huowang felt his body no longer fully his own.
He could no longer tell who held the advantage.
But nothing around him could shake his resolve.
His gaze never left Heart-Su North Wind.
She glared fiercely at the Great Liang Emperor, guarded by three Junior Overseers, as if preparing something.
Then suddenly—
She clutched her face in agony and dropped to one knee.
Dark golden liquid seeped from her eye sockets.
A bolt of dark lightning descended toward her—
And at that moment, a right hand missing two fingers grabbed her arm and yanked her aside.
“What’s wrong?! Are you hurt?!”
Li Huowang shouted as he pulled North Wind away from the battlefield.
(End of Chapter)