Chapter 580
Chapter 580
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 580
>Chapter Title: Prelude
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Outside the east gate of Jingdong City, the great battle between the Dragon Vein Dice and the Bureau of Astronomy had fully commenced.
Li Huowang tilted his head back, gazing at the black rain of heavily armored Iron Floaters crashing down from the sky. With his brows tightly furrowed, he slowly retreated a few steps to the edge of the city wall.
The moment those heavily armored Iron Floaters smashed onto the wall, he pushed off lightly with both feet and dropped down behind the wall.
In midair, gripping the hilt of his spinebone sword, Li Huowang spun around swiftly and slashed downward with force. A rift of Great Qi instantly tore open beneath him.
Right then, Peng Longteng's figure suddenly appeared beside him and grabbed Li Huowang directly.
As she hurled him downward with both hands, Li Huowang kicked out at her with both legs and all four tentacles. The combined force sent him streaking into the rift like a blur.
A few breaths later, when Li Huowang steadied himself on solid ground, he had crossed from Great Liang into Great Qi.
Great Liang was locked in a desperate battle for survival, while Great Qi lay in vast stretches of ruined walls and broken rubble, utterly devoid of life and steeped in desolation.
But things were different now—the pitch-black sky of the Heavenly Dog devouring the sun had vanished. The sun overhead still bore a black hue, but no further calamities unfolded.
Great Qi remained dreadfully dilapidated, yet compared to the previous infestation of evils, it was undoubtedly much improved.
“Daoist! Look! After Great Qi's emperor connected to Great Liang's dragon vein, Great Qi is saved! No more deaths in Great Qi! Buddha bless us! Buddha bless us!” The monk's aged face broke into a wide grin as he clasped his hands together and bowed toward the east.
“Buddha can't bless us! Thank Zhuge Yuan instead!” Clutching his sword tight, Li Huowang dashed through the pockmarked bulwark toward the dragon banner he'd spotted earlier.
He had no time now to worry about what was happening in Great Qi. If he didn't stop the Dice soon, Great Liang might be lost.
Approaching the Dice from Great Liang would take tremendous effort, but jumping over from Great Liang to Great Qi and closing in from this side made everything far simpler.
“Almost there—this is the spot,” Li Huowang said in a low voice as he halted. Shangguan Yuting's figure materialized before him once more.
She stepped out from his shadow, glanced around, and nodded lightly. “Alright. The Bureau of Astronomy is ready. Half a stick of incense from now, we move.”
Li Huowang nodded silently, watching the time crawl by. That half stick of incense felt unbearably long to him now.
“Will the Bureau of Astronomy's plan work against the Dice? What if he really becomes... No! I'm a pureheart—I can't let my thoughts wander like this!”
“Time's up!” At Shangguan Yuting's words, Li Huowang swung his spinebone sword with all his might. The rift ripped open, spewing forth severed limbs and gushing blood—the remnants of Great Liang's soldiers.
Great Qi might be empty, but Great Liang teemed with them.
Without hesitation, Li Huowang kicked off the ground with his legs and tentacles, plunging straight into the bloody chasm.
The instant Li Huowang emerged, utter stillness exploded into frenzy. War drums and screams of slaughter flooded his ears, while the suffocatingly thick killing aura set his blood boiling.
“Hey~ Isn't this my Left and Right Gold Guard Adjutant? How come you're only just arriving? How's the inside job going?”
Hearing that voice, Li Huowang whipped his head to the side, toward the Dice's face on Gao Zhijian's body beneath the dragon banner.
The encircling soldiers and the marshals and generals around the Dice didn't faze Li Huowang in the slightest. He drew a deep breath and spoke. “Almost done. The Bureau of Astronomy plans to use me against you, but since I'm your inside man, it's doomed to fail.”
With that, under everyone's gaze, Li Huowang slowly approached the Dice.
The other soldiers moved to block him, but the Dice held them back. Facing Li Huowang's advance, he seemed utterly unafraid, as if backed by some unshakable assurance.
“Come, come—must've been tough putting on the act all this way. Let me toast you.” Gao Zhijian offered a cup of wine.
“How could it be tough, Boss Dice? After all, we're both from Sitting Oblivion Dao—we live for fooling people.” Li Huowang took the cup and tossed it back.
At those words, the surrounding soldiers' commanders' faces shifted subtly—that was precisely the reaction Li Huowang wanted.
“Hahaha~ Enemy at the gates, and you're cracking jokes like that?”
Li Huowang grinned, swiped a hand across his face, and a red zhong tile appeared there. His voice turned mocking and manic. “Boss Dice, how could this be a joke? We've been following your lead all along.”
In the next instant, as Shangguan Yuting stepped up to Gao Zhijian, his square face began morphing into the Dice's.
As dragon vein, Li Huowang's powers couldn't alter him, but the Bureau of Astronomy's illusion arts could deceive every soldier present.
As long as Great Liang's soldiers wouldn't heed him, the rest would be easy.
“Heh heh heh, nice trick, but if you think this little ploy can take me down, you're overestimating yourselves.” Gao Zhijian reached up with a dragon claw and peeled the illusion from his face. The Dice's visage vanished.
“Aren't I a red zhong? Boss Dice, then who am I?” Li Huowang shot back.
“You're Sitting Oblivion Dao! You're the Dice!” As Gao Zhijian's hand pointed at Li Huowang's face, the Bureau of Astronomy appeared behind him. It formed the Heaven-Slaying Mudra with its hands and slammed it down onto the back of Li Huowang's head. “Now!”
The moment the Bureau of Astronomy's mudra touched his body, Li Huowang sensed something different—innate primordial qi! One clump after another!
As a pureheart, Li Huowang could detect the subtle flaws in this qi. This wasn't the Bureau of Astronomy's! It couldn't wield it! This innate primordial qi had been stripped from purehearts one by one!
A pair of skeletal hands clutched a string of prayer beads and clapped together heavily. A low, eerie chant emanated from within that red robe. “！！！”
With the chanting, everything around began to turn surreal. Armor on bodies and dirt on the ground alike had their colors bleed into the air, blurring the world into vagueness as the line between reality and illusion dissolved.
Li Huowang felt the innate primordial qi within him lighten like it was floating in water—now he could wield it effortlessly.
“Hoo~! Hoo~!” With each breath Li Huowang drew and exhaled, the surroundings swelled and contracted, twisting and warping.
“I'm the Dice! I'm the real Dice!!” Veins bulged at Li Huowang's temples as his face gradually shifted into the Dice's.
The chanting droned on as the Monitor of Heaven peered from the empty black void within its robe at Gao Zhijian before it. Another voice layered over the chant barked: “If he's the Dice, and there's only one Dice in Great Liang! Then you are not the Dice—you can only be Gao Zhijian!”
At those words, the Dice's face filled with confusion. “I... I... am... am... Gao... Gao... Zhijian?!”
As Gao Zhijian's expression grew more hesitant, he took a step forward—only for the ground to cave in beneath him. Several dice flew up before his eyes and spun past.
Upon seeing them, Gao Zhijian's demeanor rapidly cooled. He chuckled softly. “Xuan Pin, you're a sly one—trying to hijack my entire existence with a pureheart's powers. Too bad, I'm the dragon vein. That won't work on me.”
“But you're no slouch yourself. How about we team up? We split the stolen Heavenly Dao—half for you, half for me?”
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