Chapter 436
Chapter 436
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 436
>Chapter Title: History
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Chapter 436: History
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>> “Brother Zhuge, it’s me! Li Huowang!” Li Huowang pointed at the body controlled by Li Sui nearby and explained frantically. Only then did Zhuge Yuan understand what had truly happened.
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>> Once he accepted the explanation, Li Huowang didn’t waste time on anything else. He shouted urgently, “Brother Zhuge, let’s get out of here first! This isn’t a place to linger! The Bureau of Celestial Surveillance from Great Liang is clashing with the Sitting Oblivion Dao. If you stay any longer, you’ll get caught in the crossfire!”
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>> Zhuge Yuan shook his head, however, and pointed toward the palace ahead. “No can do. We’ve started purging the emperor’s wicked advisors. There’s no such thing as stopping halfway through a purge.”
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>> No matter what Li Huowang had just gone through, from Zhuge Yuan’s perspective, he had entered the palace alongside the others, forcing Great Qi’s walking corpse of an emperor to abdicate.
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>> At that moment, all around him, armored generals from the Military School and various civil officials clustered around Zhuge Yuan, clearly deferring to his lead.
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>> Seeing how anxious Li Huowang looked, Zhuge Yuan said confidently, “Don’t worry. I’ve got everything under control.”
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>> Li Huowang glanced around. The distinction was stark: the golden glow marked Great Liang, while the white snow covered Great Qi. Gold within, white without—the layers were incredibly clear.
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>> Moreover, Great Liang’s bizarre chanting had abruptly vanished, as if blocked outside entirely. Heart Cocoon’s power was truly miraculous; it could even block the influence of the Siting.
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>> “How much longer?” Li Huowang asked again.
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>> “At most the time it takes for one incense stick to burn. Up ahead is the meditation room where the Empress Dowager chants sutras. The young emperor is in there too. We just need him to issue the decree abdicating his throne.”
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>> Li Huowang glanced at the body controlled by Li Sui, thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth. “Fine! I’ll help you! Let’s make this quick!”
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>> Zhuge Yuan pressed onward, and the surroundings shifted with him. Some of those locked in combat got swept up in the change as well.
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>> But at that moment, neither the Bureau of Celestial Surveillance nor the Sitting Oblivion Dao seemed interested in bothering Zhuge Yuan.
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>> Watching these people pass through around him before swiftly turning into fleeing palace maids and eunuchs, Zhuge Yuan seemed to realize something. His brows gradually furrowed.
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>> When the meditation room’s door was flung open, a low chant accompanied by the sound of a wooden fish came rushing forth. “Sa po la fa ye, tuo yi meng a li ye, na mo na la jin chi...”
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>> The entire meditation room was filled with monks in yellow robes sitting cross-legged. They formed circle after circle, layer upon layer. In the center, an old abbot in kasaya robes had his back to them, holding a razor and shaving the head of a child with a deathly gray face.
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>> Li Huowang recognized that child. The Sitting Oblivion Dao had once disguised themselves as him in front of Li Huowang. He was Great Qi’s walking corpse of an emperor.
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>> “Taking tonsure? Have you monks from Zhengde Temple all gone mad? Making a zombie take Buddhist vows?” No one knew who said it, but the monks continued their ritual without a care.
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>> The razor scraped gently until the last strand of hair fell away. “Amitabha, well done, well done. The three thousand threads of worldly vexations are now severed. Your dharma name is Jie Tan. From now on, you are a disciple of Zhengde Temple. If anyone dares harm you, they make an enemy of Zhengde Temple.”
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>> With that, the old monk in kasaya robes slowly turned around. When Li Huowang saw his face, he froze in shock and blurted out instinctively, “Monk?!”
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>> Who else could this abbot be but him?! It was the hallucinated monk from right beside him!
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>> Over here, the monk was just a templeless old monk, but in Great Qi, he was the abbot of Zhengde Temple!
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>> In that instant, Li Huowang suddenly understood so much. This Great Qi wasn’t the Great Qi from a thousand years ago. Coming to Zhuge Yuan’s side wasn’t traveling through time to a millennium past—it was arriving on another timeline.
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>> Li Huowang instinctively looked up at Zhuge Yuan beside him, recalling his nickname of storyteller and the Bureau of Celestial Surveillance’s harsh punishments inscribed on their signboards for privately compiling histories. “Zhuge Yuan’s Great Qi is another history of this chaotic world!”
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>> All these revelations crashed into Li Huowang’s mind like thunder. He had never understood what was really going on around Zhuge Yuan before, but now he suddenly grasped what Heart Cocoon truly was. It was a door—a door to another history!
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>> Those Sitting Oblivion Dao who had come before were the Sitting Oblivion Dao from that other history! And in this history, the monk had become the abbot of Zhengde Temple!
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>> As these thoughts swirled in Li Huowang’s head, Zhuge Yuan said something—Li Huowang didn’t catch what—and the entire meditation room’s Zhengde Temple monks surged to their feet with a roar.
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>> As they pressed their palms together in prayer, sneaky eyes of varying sizes flickered in and out of existence from the scarification marks on their scalps.
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>> Their chanting grew louder and louder, to the point where even the massive Buddha statue on the wall had its lips curving upward ever so slightly.
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>> “Esteemed masters! As practitioners devoted to eating vegetarian and chanting sutras, isn’t it unwise to cling so tightly to worldly affairs?” Zhuge Yuan unfurled a scroll with a snap, and some of the meditation room’s monks vanished abruptly.
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>> He had hidden them away using the heart turbidity within the painting.
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>> “Ya!!” As the monks slapped their palms together, their eyes bulged like wrathful Vajra guardians. Then, like a peacock fanning its tail, blood-smeared thousand-armed forms burst forth from their backs.
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>> Just as battle was about to erupt, the entire meditation room began to quake violently. Then that bizarre sound capable of loosening the ten emotions and eight sufferings rang out.
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>> The instant the sound started, some Great Qi folk around Zhuge Yuan collapsed screaming in agony. Their bodies immediately began to distort chaotically.
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>> “What’s happening?!” Li Huowang whipped his head around instinctively. Great Liang’s massive vertical pupil stood there like a mountain.
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>> “Brother Zhuge!! We can’t stay any longer! Whatever this is, Great Liang’s thing has started affecting Great Qi!!” Li Huowang clutched his ears and screamed.
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>> Yet facing this chaos, Zhuge Yuan merely smirked coldly. “Hmph! Don’t try to fool me! Even if you’ve grown that massive, so what? Fake is still fake!”
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>> With that, Zhuge Yuan pulled an almanac from his robes and began writing furiously. But before he could finish, the giant eye snapped open, and Zhuge Yuan dropped to one knee in agony. Semitransparent umbilical cord-like things flickered in and out on his body, while the clouds overhead churned violently.
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>> At this point, even moving was excruciatingly difficult for Li Huowang. If this kept up, he and Zhuge Yuan would die here!
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>> Li Huowang steeled himself, drew his dagger, and slashed deeply across his own neck.
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>> Splash! The blood-red Great Thousand Leaves spread rapidly across the ground. “Wood Liver! Spleen Earth! Lung Metal! Kidney Water! Heart Fire! Displace the Five Elements!”
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>> As Li Huowang slapped his five organs onto it, his five senses began to merge. He sensed Ba Hui’s presence.
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>> Then the red bamboo slips of the Great Thousand Leaves twisted into wriggling worms, burrowing swiftly into his body. They devoured the shredded flesh, entangled, and multiplied rapidly. In moments, they filled Li Huowang’s hollow chest cavity and began spilling outward.
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>> But despite the horrific changes to his body, Li Huowang felt better than ever. No more pain, no more confusion in his mind.
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>> And no matter how wide that massive vertical pupil glared, the bizarre sound could no longer affect him.
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>> Displacing the Five Elements couldn’t be used lightly—it required sacrificing the five viscera, and a single life could only manage it once. But Li Huowang didn’t care. This wasn’t his body right now; it was Bei Feng’s.
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>> (End of chapter)