Chapter 434
Chapter 434
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 434
>Chapter Title: North Wind
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Feeling the soft skin in his grasp, Li Huowang's heart pounded with excitement. After searching for so long, he had finally found it!
This person was the key to escaping his hallucinations! He had dreamed of this day, day and night!
His mind was a chaotic mess right now, but his body remained perfectly calm.
In the midst of such pandemonium, not even the dice could notice Li Huowang's actions. They were all busy clashing with the Great Liang National Advisor and the Supervisor of Heaven Bureau.
And so, as the two reached the edge of the battlefield, only Heart Elemental North Wind sensed something was off.
"Wait! Who are you? Why do you have nine Reds?!"
Just as Li Huowang opened his mouth to explain, North Wind looked up, and their eyes met.
"Listen, let me explain."
Li Huowang's words came out in a woman's voice. In that instant, he realized the one supporting him was his own body—he had swapped bodies with North Wind.
Looking at Li Huowang trapped in her own body, North Wind smirked smugly.
"Oh dear, who do we have here? If it isn't the Red. Grown tired of being the Red, have we? Fancy a few days as North Wind? Sure, why not? I approve."
Staring at his seized body, Li Huowang showed no panic whatsoever.
"You think I didn't anticipate this trick of yours? Forgot to mention— this body isn't mine alone anymore. Sui Sui! Now! She's already switched over!"
North Wind's heart skipped a beat. She instinctively moved to act, but a wrenching agony cut her off. The pain was excruciating, as if her pain receptors had been amplified several times over. She could barely endure it.
But that was just the beginning. Li Sui's tentacles burst from every orifice—wrapping around the eyes, plugging the mouth, slithering into the nostrils—swiftly stripping North Wind of all five senses. This was all part of their premeditated plan.
Since they had long known from the Bureau of the Supervisor of Heaven that Heart Elemental North Wind excelled at body-swapping, how could Li Huowang have failed to prepare?
As a bolt of dark lightning crashed down nearby, Li Huowang hoisted North Wind and bolted outward.
Amid the chaos, no one noticed. Li Huowang quickly broke free from the battlefield. The commotion behind him seemed to intensify, but he no longer cared—he had gotten what he wanted.
Tucking into a shadowed corner by a gilded wall, Li Huowang came to a stop, panting as he eyed the Heart Elemental occupying his body.
"Alright, Sui Sui, pull the tentacles out of the ears and mouth! I need to talk to her!"
At his words, the writhing tentacles from deep in the throat coiled up and retracted.
Li Huowang stared at his own body, steadying his racing heart before speaking.
"I don't care what grand scheme you Sitting Oblivion Dao folks are up to. Give me what I want, and I'll let you go right now."
North Wind showed no trace of worry at his demand. Instead, she praised him.
"Impressive. Sneaking in while the Bureau of the Supervisor of Heaven battles the Sitting Oblivion Dao? And pulling it off? Not bad at all, Red. Not bad."
Li Huowang drew a small shovel from under his robes, seized his own hand, and jammed it straight into the nail bed.
With a sickening rip of tearing flesh, the thin nail peeled away. North Wind tried to grit her teeth through it, but her index finger trembled violently, cold sweat pouring down.
"My body has undergone three Cang Qiang ascensions. Pain sensitivity has been multiplied many times over. A mere scrape feels like a severed limb to me. Time's precious for both of us—you surely don't want to endure anything harsher than this, do you?"
As he spoke, Li Huowang plunged his fingers into his own navel, digging around inside to latch onto something slick and slippery.
"Hahaha..."
North Wind shook with pain, yet laughed through it.
"The Ao Jing Cult? You're with the Ao Jing Cult? In trouble and you don't beg your Ox God Ba Hui—instead you come crawling to us Sitting Oblivion Dao?"
Li Huowang swallowed hard, his voice quivering slightly.
"You're a Heart Elemental, right? I want to know how you escaped that identity. How did you break free from those hallucinations?"
"Hm?"
North Wind's tone shifted to surprise.
"So that's why you went to all this trouble to nab me? You could've just asked! Chased me like I stole your wife or something. Turns out you just want cultivation techniques."
"You didn't need to make it so complicated. If you'd asked me straight up before, I'd have told you."
"What?"
Her words furrowed Li Huowang's brows.
"Sigh."
North Wind let out a soft sigh, her voice tinged with sorrow as she began.
"I'm a Heart Elemental too, so of course I know our kind's suffering. That agony of not knowing what's real and what's not? I feel you."
"That's why I'd love to see every Heart Elemental freed from it. Shame there are so few of us."
Li Huowang's borrowed face twitched. He didn't buy a single word.
"Cut the bullshit! If you don't want more pain, tell me the method now!"
"Fine, I'll tell you. But stop yanking, alright? It's your body—you'll be back in it soon."
"Here's the thing. Before you cultivate this technique, you need to understand a few basics. First off—why do us Heart Elementals have hallucinations in the first place?"
"No need to explain that one. I know already. It's the Innate One Qi inside us."
"Oh? You're quite knowledgeable. Alright then. To escape the hallucinations, you must fully control that Innate One Qi, just like I did. But you can't do it alone. You need to borrow the power of its true master. Doumu."
"Hold on!"
Li Huowang cut her off sharply, his face darkening.
"You're trying to drag me into your Sitting Oblivion Dao's Fate Sovereign? Don't think you can fool me! Doumu Taiyin's Fate Sovereign rules over the false!"
North Wind sighed, looking utterly helpless.
"What's real? What's fake? Can you even tell? Everyone says we Sitting Oblivion Dao cultivate the false, but they never mention we cultivate the real too. Doumu's Fate Sovereign is different from the others—like twin lotuses in a pond. One petal, Doumu Taiyin, governs the false. The other, Doumu Taiyang, governs the true."
"The path of yin and yang differs from other heavenly paths. Others either exist or they don't. But true and false are opposites that define each other. No true, no false. No false, no true. Do you get it or not?"
(End of chapter)