Chapter 582
Chapter 582
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 582
>Chapter Title: Secret
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The distant military commanders, upon seeing the White Lotus Cult appear in the center of the battlefield, believed their emperor's words a little more.
The drumbeats shifted, and the dragon-scale soldiers coordinated with one another as they pressed toward this group of cultists.
On the distant hillside nearby, the archers began gradually tightening the strings of the octagonal crossbows.
But in the next moment, flames suddenly erupted on the hillside and at the catapults as the Ao Jing Sect made their move.
Though the pressure on Bai Lingmiao eased dramatically, she still felt immense strain facing the soldier after soldier surrounding her in layers. This wasn't just about her own life—it was also about Li Huowang's survival.
Surrounded on all sides, Bai Lingmiao glanced at Li Huowang, who was lost in his own world. With a fierce and resolute expression, she shouted at the top of her lungs,
“Invoke the possession!”
At her words, everyone around her immediately drew a jagged short blade with one hand and knocked it hard against their foreheads. Crimson blood trickled down amid their incantations.
“Divine possession granted, god descends upon the body. God, why do you bless this altar? To summon the fierce generals of this altar. Honored golden light masters both. Suppress and slay the Five Chang Great Generals, every five steps a binding character wheel appears. Pu'an True God Great Bodhisattva!”
The spirit mediums, having finished their incantation, seemed possessed by gods themselves. With no trace of fear on their faces, they charged at the towering soldiers before them.
In terms of skill, these spirit mediums were no match for the battle-hardened soldiers. Weapons stabbed in and out of their bodies in rapid succession.
Yet the spirit mediums showed no sign of being affected, using their flesh and blood to hold the soldiers back desperately.
Bai Lingmiao formed a lotus seal with her hands and pressed it firmly to her forehead. The lotus there instantly became a double lotus.
“Light and dark shades share beauty, scents drifting apart; east and west divide in splendor, twin stems entwined!”
As soon as Bai Lingmiao finished chanting, her body began to tremble uncontrollably. Half her face twisted in rage, the other half in sorrow, creating a bizarre sight. The shadow beneath her feet started to grow enormous.
Though her form was strange, the soldiers paid it no mind. The ground exploded as a soldier radiating killing intent leaped high, gripping his dragon-horn weapon as he pounced toward Bai Lingmiao.
Just as it seemed he would impale her, her body split apart to the left and right, dodging the attack.
At this moment, Bai Lingmiao's lower body remained unchanged, but her upper body had split like a conjoined twin into two torsos. One face showed compassion and mercy, the other cruelty and ferocity.
“Thump-thump-thump-thump~”
Four slender palms with black nails drummed rapidly on the white drum at Bai Lingmiao's waist like whipping lashes.
With the drumming came a red veil that draped over both heads. Beneath the veil, the two spirits began to sing.
“Treasure steed sprouts wings to the ninth heaven, eight treasures and cloudlight on Iron Brake Mountain! I laugh and the husband laughs, second laugh the wife, third laugh the old immortal loses the Way in harmony! I call the old immortal, and you must come!”
In the next instant, coarse beast fur sprouted from the backs of Bai Lingmiao's hands. Wolf bones protruded from under the red veil, one on each side, clamping down on the soldier's palms. With a simultaneous yank, the hand gripping the weapon tore apart instantly.
While Bai Lingmiao and the spirit mediums were buying time, Li Huowang had already swallowed most of Shangguan Yuting's head. The eye in his forehead was threaded with blood vessels, swollen larger than his entire skull, and combined with the tentacles writhing all over his body, he looked utterly terrifying.
His expression was one of extreme horror now, as if he could barely breathe. Yet Li Huowang felt it still wasn't enough.
“Not enough! Still not enough!”
Li Huowang's mouth split from corner to ear root, stretching to its maximum as he lunged forward, devouring Shangguan Yuting's entire head.
Once the unmoving Shangguan Yuting fully dissipated, that eye swelled to its absolute limit. Li Huowang's scalp stretched nearly transparent.
“I... I see it!!”
As Li Huowang screamed this hysterically, his head first swelled to half again its size, then shrank to the size of a walnut. With a bang, his head exploded like fireworks.
In that instant, through the secrets of the Supreme Apex Pouring Mouth, Li Huowang glimpsed the things hidden beneath this world. Everything once shrouded in mist became crystal clear.
He was Hong Zhong. When Fighting Matron had granted him that identity long ago, his entire past had changed.
The past was not merely the past. When a Si Ming altered someone's past, it equally altered their future!
The Si Mings cared so much about the past because, at its core, they were vying for one another's futures! The Four Qi Bureau of Astronomy had been right—without causation, there is no karma!
These Si Mings did not exist completely. When every trace of their existence was erased, they vanished.
In the void, Li Huowang caught a glimpse of the secret behind the birth and death of Si Mings. Suddenly, he seemed to understand what they truly were.
After learning these secrets, Li Huowang quickly sensed that many things from beyond the heavens had noticed him. But at this moment, he didn't care.
What mattered more was that, through the secrets of the Supreme Apex Pouring Mouth, he had uncovered much valuable information—including what was on Zhuge Yuan's fan back then.
Li Huowang looked up from his kneeling position on the ground, raising his head to the sky.
“Is this your plan?”
At this moment, he saw Fighting Matron's stolen God-Mountain Ghost Eye.
In that sky-obscuring eye, he saw his own reflection. If he became Fighting Matron's heart anchor, then this Fighting Matron was his future self.
And that was its plan. As long as he followed its predetermined path, he could resolve this crisis.
“The Dice played my future self, so I’ll get revenge for myself.” Logically, it seemed sound.
As Li Huowang drew closer to that eye, his flesh suddenly split open on its own. His unhealed scars burst apart, blooming like flower petals.
“Pain. Agonizing pain.”
The excruciating pain yanked Li Huowang back, pulling him farther from the God-Mountain Ghost Eye in the sky.
Feeling that familiar sensation, Li Huowang laughed.
“I’m still so damn popular! Should’ve realized it sooner.”
Ba Hui. While Fighting Matron was scheming, Ba Hui had been scheming too. More precisely, ever since he’d obtained the Great Thousand Record from the water bandits, they’d all been trying to turn him into their heart anchor!
Though it felt like a long time to Li Huowang, in reality, the brain matter, blood, and shattered bone spraying from his head in midair were only just now splattering to the ground.
This sudden sight caused everyone around—spirit mediums and soldiers alike—to pause momentarily, hands halting.
They stared in utter shock as the man before them, headless yet still mumbling to himself with his mouth agape, continued.
Moreover, his body seemed to be undergoing death by a thousand cuts—skin and flesh splitting open to reveal writhing black tentacles beneath.
Li Sui, currently inside Li Huowang's body, had come to understand something: people die without heads.
“Dad, are you okay? Your head...”
“Shh~!”
The two-bodied Bai Lingmiao rushed over, speaking urgently to the tentacles sprouting from Li Huowang's neck stump.
“Sui Sui, be good. Don’t say a word to your dad right now!”
At her words, the headless Li Huowang—now with only a mouth for features—suddenly moved on his own. He charged toward the Dice, who was tangled in combat with the Bureau of Astronomy.
Bai Lingmiao clenched her fangs and swiftly followed. The dragon-armored soldiers tried to block her path, but she and the spirit mediums throwing away their lives held them back.
Seeing Li Huowang's current state, the Bureau of Astronomy and Zhuge Yuan instantly seemed to understand something, saying nothing. But that didn't include the Dice.
“Hong Zhong! What happened to your head?”
Li Huowang roared hysterically at him.
“You Sitting Oblivion fool! You’ll never trick me again!!”
“Your head’s really gone! Don’t believe me? Feel it with your hand!”
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