Chapter 588
Chapter 588
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 588
>Chapter Title: Seasonal Calamity
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Within the pavilion, the Emperor of Great Liang was listening to the Director of the Observatory explain.
“No matter how the National Advisor and I calculate, we can’t figure out whether that dice is dead or alive.”
Gao Zhijian began walking along the long rain corridor, leading the Director of the Observatory slowly forward.
“Let me take a look at exactly what happened back then.”
The Director of the Observatory nodded and extended his bony, withered finger. He pulled something out from his own shadow and flung it forcefully into the sky.
As that mass of black enveloped everything, the heavens and earth instantly changed color. The Director of the Observatory and Gao Zhijian both returned to the intense battlefield from that time.
Gao Zhijian saw his Senior Brother Li. He stood at the center of a blur of blood and flesh, facing the Dice that controlled the dragon vein.
Though Senior Brother Li’s face was completely gone, leaving only a mouth, he was somehow still alive and standing there.
For some reason, Gao Zhijian could feel that if Senior Brother Li had a face right now, his expression would surely be one of calm indifference.
Senior Brother Li scratched at the empty space where his head should be, then approached the dragon vein.
The dragon vein dice seemed to want to flee, but no matter how it flew, it only drew closer to Senior Brother Li.
When it flew fast, Senior Brother Li walked fast. When it flew slow, Senior Brother Li walked slow.
It was as if Senior Brother Li wasn’t approaching step by step, but moving in proportion to the distance between them.
Finally, Senior Brother Li reached the tail of the dragon vein. He reached out with both hands, grabbed the coiled golden chains on the dragon vein, and began climbing up step by step.
He climbed very slowly—even a sixty-year-old man would be nimbler than him. Yet despite the dice thrashing its body desperately, it still couldn’t shake Senior Brother Li off.
The emperors of past dynasties tried to extend their dragon claws toward Li Huowang’s body, but their forms gradually stiffened, hardening like stone.
“This is impossible! Absolutely impossible! I am the dragon vein now! Wherever I am, that’s reality!! You can’t restrain me!” The dice’s voice revealed intense unwillingness.
During this time, the dice dragon vein hadn’t held back from attacking Li Huowang, but it simply couldn’t move. The entire dragon vein had become incomparably rigid, unable even to twist.
“Isn’t it said that the dragon vein, the national fortune of Great Liang, cannot be affected by any other supernatural powers?” Gao Zhijian asked.
Yet the Director of the Observatory had no answer to this question.
Soon, Li Huowang reached the top of the dragon vein. He looked around briefly before reaching out toward Gao Zhijian’s head.
Then, as if performing a decapitation technique, he twisted Gao Zhijian’s head right off. That head didn’t die—in fact, it even spoke.
Li Huowang ignored it and thrust his hand into the head, rummaging inside for something.
“Can we zoom in here?” Gao Zhijian suddenly said.
With a thought from the Director of the Observatory, the distant Li Huowang instantly enlarged before their eyes.
But what troubled Gao Zhijian was that although Senior Brother Li was clearly pulling something out, his hand ended up empty—as if he’d merely pretended to dig.
At that moment, the Director of the Observatory spoke up.
“Perhaps there was something there at the time, but it was no ordinary thing. With my abilities, I can’t manifest it.”
Gao Zhijian thought for a moment before asking word by word,
“Have you truly checked again? Inside my current head—is there really nothing else?”
“Your Majesty, rest assured. I swear on my own head that there is absolutely no dice left in your head now.”
“Moreover, to prevent this from happening again, the National Advisor, Zheng Boqiao, and I have jointly placed restrictions on your dragon robe. This will never happen again.”
Hearing this, Gao Zhijian showed no hint of joy on his face. He continued watching Senior Brother Li before him.
Li Huowang’s actions resumed. He took whatever was inside the head and held it up toward the sun in the sky, smiling happily on his faceless visage.
At that very moment, the entire dragon vein seemed to have its spine extracted, collapsing limply from midair onto the ground.
“Brother Li! Is Great Qi saved?” Zhuge Yuan asked from the side.
Li Huowang turned to him and replied unhurriedly,
“Great Qi is saved.”
At those words, a look of relief appeared on Zhuge Yuan’s face, and he vanished completely from the spot.
Just then, Bai Lingmiao, the Director of the Observatory, the National Advisor, and the soldiers surrounded Li Huowang.
As for whether their target was Great Qi’s dragon vein or Li Huowang standing atop it, that went without saying.
“Senior Brother Li, are you okay?!” Bai Lingmiao, with two upper bodies, anxiously scanned him up and down.
“I’m fine. I’m doing great right now. My illness really is cured. Don’t worry.” The headless Li Huowang replied calmly.
In the next instant, something like colorful glows emanated from within his body.
These things floated out from Li Huowang’s form, rising into the sky and vanishing in an instant.
“What were those things that came out of Senior Brother Li?”
“Probably the Combat Matron’s doing. I was right earlier—he really was targeted by the Combat Matron.”
“Since the dice betrayed the Yin-Yang Combat Matron, I had hoped to borrow her hostility toward it to make them fight first. But the Yin-Yang Combat Matron didn’t act—instead, it was this one who made a move.”
“Who is it?” Gao Zhijian pressed.
“Unspeakable. One of the more special Si Ming. It taught me my illusion techniques. You must know that with several dragon veins propping up this mortal world, Si Ming normally can’t descend. But it’s different.”
“Though it granted me the art of illusion, it’s never paid me much attention. Nor anyone else.”
“Even two hundred years ago, when Great Liang was on the brink of collapse and I begged it to act at the cost of everything, it never spared me a second glance.”
Gao Zhijian felt a bit dizzy from the foggy explanation, which also differed from what he’d heard from the dragon vein.
“Isn’t it true that there are no such things as Si Ming?”
“Since they taught Your Majesty, then Your Majesty should simply believe them. If they say there are no Si Ming, then there are none.”
Hearing this, Gao Zhijian stopped dwelling on it.
“Senior Brother Li should be better now. Let’s go see him in person. Whatever he says directly should clarify things.”
The Director of the Observatory had no objection and followed Gao Zhijian toward Li Huowang’s residence.
Li Huowang’s place wasn’t far—precisely so Gao Zhijian could visit anytime.
Before long, they saw Bai Lingmiao carrying a food box on her way back.
When Bai Lingmiao spotted the Director of the Observatory beside Gao Zhijian, her eyes widened in shock, her white lashes trembling slightly.
“What’s going on?! How did another one show up?!”
“What? Another one?” Gao Zhijian asked nervously.
“I just went to feed him porridge, and there was already one Director of the Observatory inside!”
At this horrifying revelation, the Director of the Observatory reacted first. His three hands formed seals simultaneously as his body blurred into afterimages, charging toward the heavily guarded door in the distance.
Even before reaching it, the Director of the Observatory heard voices speaking inside—someone really was there.
As the Director of the Observatory pushed open the door, he saw Li Huowang, topped with a lotus root head, sitting on the bed and just turning to look at him. No one else was in the room.
“Who were you just talking to?”
Li Huowang furrowed his brows, thinking hard for a while before replying,
“Seasonal Calamity.”