Chapter 451
Chapter 451
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 451
>Chapter Title: Gao Zhijian
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Li Huowang abruptly opened his eyes. When he sat up from the disheveled bed and looked to his right, he saw sunlight slanting in through the window. It had been bright outside for quite some time.
“Am I oversleeping again?” Ignoring the bloodstains all over his body, Li Huowang hurriedly dressed and descended the wooden stairs.
“Brother Li, good morning.” Zhuge Yuan held his fan and cupped his hands toward him.
“Brother Zhuge, good morning.”
Seeing the other man, Li Huowang immediately slapped his forehead in annoyance. He’d barely returned to the village and already slacked off. Zhuge Yuan, who had saved his life, was still waiting for him to return the favor. Practicing this cultivation method was far more important than any dalliances with women.
He grabbed a steamed bun and some pickled vegetables from the table, wolfed them down, and chased it with a bowl of plain porridge. Then Li Huowang found a quiet side chamber in the Bai family courtyard, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began cultivating the method.
Following the obscure text of the technique, Li Huowang enveloped the divine fire from his eyes around the innate primordial qi. The next step was to propel this innate primordial qi sequentially through the wheels in his body: the root wheel, abdominal wheel, navel wheel, heart wheel, throat wheel, brow wheel, and crown wheel.
He needed to pass each of his ten emotions and eight sufferings through this formless, colorless innate primordial qi, filtering them completely.
The process was incredibly difficult. Li Huowang felt like he was trying to push a wheelbarrow loaded with an elephant—it barely budged no matter how hard he tried.
But he wasn’t impatient. Cultivation couldn’t be rushed; it required persistence.
If that heart elemental lured by Bei Feng could do it, then surely he could too.
He didn’t know how much time passed, but when Li Huowang finally opened his eyes in exhaustion, the light outside the window had already begun to dim.
The furnishings in the side chamber were now all askew, the floor and walls bulging and dipping in irregular patches.
Seeing this, Li Huowang couldn’t help frowning. Practicing this cultivation method caused strange changes to the surrounding environment. He clearly couldn’t keep cultivating here in Niuxin Village; he needed a place where he wouldn’t accidentally harm others.
Li Huowang stood and walked toward the door. But as he pushed it open, he was astonished to see a young boy standing abruptly on the ceiling right above his head.
When the boy saw Li Huowang, terror flashed across his face. He stumbled backward in fright, scrambling away on the ceiling with hands and feet.
As Li Huowang stared in bewilderment, wondering who this was, Gao Zhijian’s towering figure appeared upside down on the ceiling as well, walking toward him.
Seeing the big simpleton like that, Li Huowang instantly realized: it wasn’t them hanging upside down—it was him!
The thought had barely formed when Li Huowang felt his feet give way, and he tumbled headfirst toward where the boy had been.
With a quick twist in midair, Li Huowang landed steadily on his feet. Still shaken, he stood and glanced back into the wooden door of the side chamber.
The cultivation space had completely inverted. The floor was now the ceiling, and the beams were below. He had been standing on the ceiling for so long without noticing.
This only strengthened Li Huowang’s resolve to find a new place to cultivate. This cultivation method was truly bizarre.
“Li… Li… Li…”
Li Huowang looked up at Gao Zhijian standing before him and patted his forearm. “How old are you, exactly? It’s only been a few months, and you’ve grown even taller. What’s up?”
“Mm.” Gao Zhijian nodded and pointed outside with his hand.
Seeing the grave expression on his face, Li Huowang thought for a moment before leading him out.
“Dry daddy, dry mommy told me to bring you back for dinner.” The boy who had collapsed in fright earlier scrambled to his feet.
“I’ll be back soon. Tell her to eat without me.”
When they arrived at Gao Zhijian’s house, Li Huowang saw him holding out a pile of stone fragments with deep guilt.
“What’s this…” Li Huowang examined it for a while before realizing it was the stone tablet Heavenly Book he had given him—the very one Danyangzi had treasured so dearly.
Through Gao Zhijian’s halting explanation, Li Huowang learned that one afternoon not long ago, the Heavenly Book had inexplicably shattered. Strange words had even emanated from it—something mocking delusions of immortality.
“It’s fine. Don’t feel guilty. This has nothing to do with you. That thing was just a tool for the Sitting Oblivion Dao to deceive people.” Li Huowang explained to him.
He didn’t know when Danyangzi had obtained this so-called Heavenly Book, but given how painstakingly he had gathered heavenly remnants and earthly lacks over the years to refine pills, it must have been at least three to five years.
The “Lord Laozi” he spoke of was undoubtedly a Sitting Oblivion Dao impostor.
Not just Danyangzi—even the man-shrieker in the cave before, and countless others across the world, had been deceived.
A scam this massive in scale, spanning so many years and covering the four seas and eight directions, couldn’t be pulled off overnight. It would take decades, even centuries, to set up.
Such a grand deception could only come from the Dice.
The Dice had gone to all that trouble collecting lies from so many victims just to seize the right moment, summon an incarnation of Doumu, and have it steal the Eye of the Divine Mountain Ghost that the Great Liang Emperor had painstakingly created.
The heavenly dao on that long-dead Divine Mountain Ghost—was it chaos? Disorder?
“It’s just strange. From what I know of them, the Dice were always scheming to lure out and steal Doumu’s heavenly dao, to achieve sainthood in the flesh and take her place. Why would they help Doumu? Unless… she deceived them?”
Lost in thought, Li Huowang was pulled back to reality by Gao Zhijian’s tug. “Sorry, I got carried away. Do you need something else, Gao Zhijian?”
“Yes.” With that succinct reply, Gao Zhijian turned and walked into the house.
He soon returned, holding a military treatise in his hands. Li Huowang remembered it well—it was the one he had taken from Peng Longteng’s corpse.
“This… this… is… the military school’s… cul… cultivation…”
Li Huowang took it in surprise and flipped through it carefully. To his astonishment, it indeed contained a military school cultivation method—techniques for building and controlling baleful aura through physical refinement.
“You’ve been practicing it?”
“Mm.” Gao Zhijian nodded, glanced around, and walked over to the massive halberd in the distance. He clenched his jaw and, with a furious roar, hoisted the heavy weapon onto his shoulder.
A thick baleful aura spread from Gao Zhijian in all directions. The headless Peng Longteng began to stir excitedly, its massive palm clenching and unclenching.
“Hah~!” With another roar, a fierce gust whipped Li Huowang’s hem and hair back. The enormous halberd crashed to the ground with the force of a thousand catties.
The earth shook violently in an instant. The stone tiles shattered inch by inch, and Li Huowang even felt it like an earthquake.
Li Huowang’s heart jolted. Gao Zhijian had quietly cultivated to such a level without fanfare. If he grew a bit taller, his strength might rival Peng Longteng’s at her peak.
Was it Gao Zhijian’s natural genius, or was this military school method simply easy to practice?
(End of chapter)