Chapter 574
Chapter 574
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 574
>Chapter Title: Dice
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“Red Center! Hahaha!” The facial features in midair were utterly contorted as Gao Zhijian grinned ferociously, staring intently at Li Huowang without so much as blinking.
“It had to be you. Without your help, how could I have snatched this rare hundred-soul transformation body of the Daqi Emperor? Without you, the Daliang Ji family wouldn’t have been wiped out. And without you, why would Zhuge Yuan have followed our plan?”
“Don’t worry, Dice always honors loyalty! Since we schemed this together, what’s mine is yours!” Gao Zhijian slowly descended, extending his dragon claw toward Li Huowang as if to pull him up.
Li Huowang’s eyes burned red as he swallowed hard with difficulty, extending his own left hand toward him.
Just as their hands were about to touch, Li Huowang’s right hand gripped his blade and slashed hard at the base of his left arm, instantly severing his left hand.
The detached left hand erupted with protruding bone spikes, forming claws that lunged straight for Gao Zhijian’s face.
The everted bone spikes scraped across Gao Zhijian’s dragon scales, sparking tiny bursts of fire. The smile on his face gradually faded. “Red Center, that’s not very reasonable of you. I’ve been helping you wholeheartedly—how could you repay kindness with enmity?”
When he saw Li Huowang, gripping his sword, being hurled toward him by a headless woman, Gao Zhijian didn’t block the gleaming Purple Tassel Sword in Li Huowang’s hand. Instead, he spread his arms wide and charged forward.
The moment they collided, “Clang~!” Gao Zhijian lowered his head, his forked dragon horn flicking up to parry. Li Huowang’s Purple Tassel Sword was instantly knocked high, leaving his guard wide open.
The dragon claw etched with coiling dragons and soaring phoenixes, dragging its golden chain from the wrist, plunged straight toward Li Huowang’s chest.
At the critical juncture, Li Huowang gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. Peng Longteng’s towering figure in heavy armor materialized like a massive shield, instantly blocking between them.
Yet in the next second, a “squish” sounded as Gao Zhijian’s twin claws pierced straight into Peng Longteng’s chest.
With a violent twist and shove of his remaining slender body, Gao Zhijian tore a massive hole in Peng Longteng’s chest.
At that moment, the leylines were like a stick threaded through Peng Longteng’s chest cavity, carrying her body as it hurtled toward Li Huowang without slowing.
When he saw Li Huowang raise the Purple Tassel Sword again, Gao Zhijian unhesitatingly threw back his head, smashing his own skull toward Li Huowang’s weapon. His dragon horns were harder than the Purple Tassel Sword.
“This can’t go on—I need to find a way!”
As Li Huowang pondered this, alarm bells rang in his mind. He swiftly gouged out his left eye and crushed it.
Gao Zhijian, lunging from the left, was instantly enveloped in a bizarre color, his movements slowing to an agonizing crawl.
But before Li Huowang could catch his breath, a section of the leylines whipped toward his back from behind with a gust of wind.
Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang leaped high, barely evading the deadly sneak attack. Just then, a dragon claw descended from above, clamping around his neck.
Before Li Huowang could struggle, dragon claws seized his hands and feet from all directions, fully immobilizing him before hoisting him high into the air and spinning him rapidly.
Li Huowang’s vision blurred with the spinning heavens and earth as he felt five immense forces yanking his neck and limbs outward.
With a “crack,” Li Huowang’s neck and limb joints were wrenched from their sockets. But that was merely the beginning—the flesh and skin began to tear under the strain.
“Hahaha! Folks of the capital, dear countrymen! Watch closely! Today, I’ll give you a show of five-horse dismemberment! Those with money, toss a coin. Those without, shout your cheers!” Gao Zhijian’s voice boomed across the skies above the capital.
“Aaah!!” Li Huowang thrashed wildly in agony, desperate to escape this fatal predicament, but he couldn’t halt his body being stretched ever longer.
As blood began to spray from the tearing wounds in Li Huowang’s body, house-sized lotus-shaped Kongming lanterns had somehow floated into position around the leylines.
Seated within each Kongming lantern was a lotus child, and they began chanting in unison.
“Azure sun rises, white sun ignites—Boundless Mother saves all beings. Red sun falls, purple sun perishes—nurture peace in eternal bliss and silent light!”
The clouds overhead roiled, forming indistinct, indescribable shapes. The dragon scales along the leylines seemed to sense something and bristled outward.
Gao Zhijian, who had been tormenting Li Huowang, temporarily released him. Coiling his entire dragon body, he lunged toward the Kongming lanterns.
This was a prime chance to escape. Veins throbbing at his temples, Peng Longteng suddenly appeared before him, wrenching the dragon claws apart with both hands. The battered Li Huowang slid weakly toward the ground.
In freefall, Li Huowang blinked, wondering if he was seeing things. A woman in flowing white robes was approaching him midair like an immortal, and her face looked so familiar.
With a gentle flick of her hands, long ribbons floated over, softly wrapping the plummeting Li Huowang and gently drawing him toward one of the Kongming lanterns.
An ointment like lard was softly applied to Li Huowang’s wounds, and the pain vanished in an instant, leaving him feeling as light and buoyant as if lying on cotton.
When Li Huowang came to his senses, he found himself cradled in a woman’s arms—Bai Lingmiao’s arms.
“Miaomiao?” Li Huowang gazed at the girl before him, feeling a strange unfamiliarity.
A white lotus adorned her forehead, her fair and delicate face expressionless, her eyes bound with long white silk ribbons.
“Miaomiao! It really is you!” Li Huowang embraced her excitedly. Bai Lingmiao hesitated slightly before her arms finally encircled his waist.
“Where have you been all this time? I was worried sick!” Li Huowang clutched Bai Lingmiao tightly, as if trying to merge her into himself.
“Senior Brother Li, didn’t I send you a letter? Didn’t you get it?” Bai Lingmiao’s voice remained soft, but utterly devoid of warmth.
At those words, Li Huowang’s heart clenched. He looked toward Gao Zhijian in midair, who had already dismantled most of the Kongming lanterns.
“Red Center, what did I say? I told you I didn’t tie up your woman, didn’t I? We’re Sitting Oblivion Dao—kidnapping would disappoint the patriarch~”
“But hey~ heh heh heh~ don’t forget our old trade. So I can deceive you, make you think I tied her up.”
“You can’t blame me for that—it’s all in your head. I didn’t actually do anything, heh heh heh~”
Li Huowang glared fixedly at his face. “Aren’t you the one who claims to deceive only with the truth? Is this your truth?”
“Hahaha!! You actually believed words from Sitting Oblivion Dao? Hahahaha!” Dice in midair cackled maniacally.