Chapter 624
Chapter 624
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 624
>Chapter Title: Chess
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
“But... these birds, I think I’ve seen them somewhere before.”
Li Huowang frowned slightly as he stared at the vultures on the ground, racking his brain to remember.
Suddenly, his expression froze. He instantly recalled the lamas with vultures he had encountered a few years ago when he left Qingqiu!
“It’s them? The lamas from Qingqiu who worship death? But why would they sneak-attack the Bureau of Surveillance out of nowhere?”
As Li Huowang pondered this, he suddenly sensed something off behind him!
He reached back, and his face darkened instantly. Shit! His spine sword was gone! These vultures were just a diversion! Their real target was his spine sword!
“My sword’s gone!” Peng Longteng appeared beside Li Huowang, grabbed him, and hurled him into the air.
Higher up, he could see farther. Furious beyond measure, Li Huowang scanned wildly in all directions from midair.
If they had just come to ambush and kill him, maybe he wouldn’t be this pissed, but they dared to steal his spine sword! He’d grind that thief to dust and scatter his ashes!!
“Daoist! Your sword’s over there! Look!” The monk behind Li Huowang shouted excitedly, pointing out his discovery.
In the next moment, the monk’s body solidified. Li Huowang grabbed his monk robes, yanked him back hard, and used the momentum to hurl himself toward the direction he indicated.
Closer! Even closer! Li Huowang saw it was a mountain demon wearing a Buddha mask, clutching his spine sword as it fled swiftly through the woods.
The mountain demon seemed to know some kind of technique, flipping and darting through the trees at incredible speed.
“Still running!”
Li Huowang dug out his left eye and crushed it hard. Instantly, the distant monkey-like figure was enveloped in strange light, slowing to a snail’s pace.
Just as Li Sui’s tentacles lashed out from afar to retrieve the spine sword, a flash of cold light sliced through, severing them into pieces.
Strange rhythmic drumming echoed. An old lama draped in black sheepskin stood between Li Huowang and the spine sword.
As he beat the bone drum at his waist, he spun the bone prayer wheel in his hand and began chanting sutras.
“Venerable Uruvela Kassapa, Venerable Gaya Kassapa, Venerable Nadi Kassapa, Venerable Maha Kassapa, Venerable Sariputra, Venerable Moggallana.”
The sky filled with eerie cries as the pus-filled vultures swirled overhead once more.
“No grudge, no grudge between us—what the hell is this about?! You really think I’m still the same pushover from before?!”
Blood streamed from Li Huowang’s eye socket as he roared and lunged at the lama.
At that very moment, a lama dove from the sky, slamming down toward Li Huowang.
“Jump horse, eat your cannon.”
Li Huowang, dressed in a blue-and-white striped hospital gown, sat on a red plastic stool, frowning at the chessboard before him.
His opponent was his attending physician, Wu Cheng, who played while murmuring into a Bluetooth earpiece.
Li Huowang pinched his left chariot between two fingers and slammed it down on Wu Cheng’s pawn.
“Pa!” Li Huowang’s copper coin sword whipped like a long lash across the lama, shattering the bone drum with a crack.
As Li Huowang gripped his spine sword again, feeling its familiar touch, he let out a long breath of relief.
But when he looked up once more, he found their numbers had swelled. He was surrounded.
Not just the black-skinned lama from before—now there were more with white headscarves and black armbands. The Faithful!
“We’re out in the open with no disguise at all—won’t that kid recognize us?”
“No worries. Once we kill him, he won’t recognize jack shit. Quick battle, end it fast.”
“Check.”
Li Huowang slowly raised his head to look at Wu Cheng, who smiled faintly.
“Are you secretly cheating with a grandmaster AI or something? I’ve seen this tired old trick before.”
“Little Li, don’t sweat the win or loss. Calm your mind—this is just a game of chess. Losing’s no big deal.”
“I can’t figure out for the life of me how chess has anything to do with my condition.”
“Don’t overthink it. Maybe I just like chess and wanted someone to play with.”
Li Huowang took a deep breath and continued playing, struggling with all he had to find a reversal.
“Eat horse.” Li Sui’s bloody, mangled head burst from Li Huowang’s abdomen, ripping out the opponent’s guts.
“Move elephant.” Li Huowang’s last eye clouded over with black.
“Hey! Chess! Chess!” Some of the mental patients crowded around curiously, offering advice to Li Huowang.
“Erjiu! We’re here to help!”
The babble from all sides annoyed Li Huowang to no end. “Shut up!!”
In an instant, the other patients remembered who Li Huowang was and fell deathly silent.
Li Huowang kept playing, but it grew harder and harder. Without Wu Cheng going easy, he’d have lost ages ago.
Staring at the board, Li Huowang’s temper flared. He slammed a hand down to flip it—but Wu Cheng pinned it firmly.
“Little Li, don’t flip the table at every turn. Some problems you can solve that way, but plenty you can’t.”
As Li Huowang glared at Wu Cheng, a hand reached over his shoulder. Five fingers gripped a chariot, slid it three spaces forward, and set it down.
Li Huowang glanced sideways in surprise. It was the autistic little fatty making the move.
Drool trickled from the boy’s mouth as he stared unblinkingly at the board, eyelids frozen.
Li Huowang slowly released the board, letting the little fatty play against Wu Cheng.
The boy moved slowly, but he always blocked Wu Cheng’s checks.
Gradually, he started capturing pieces—pawns at first, but soon the tide turned.
Li Huowang tore off the loose, elderly skin from his face, glaring murderously at the old lama responsible.
The lama had changed completely. Now he had three heads and six arms, each head embodying a death: drowning, hanging, stabbing.
As the lama spun his bone prayer wheel again, Li Huowang yanked out his spine sword without hesitation and sliced into Da Qi.
He quickly located the lama’s position in Da Qi, then reopened the rift.
No sneaking up from behind—he dove straight through the rift into the lama’s body.
As Wu Cheng moved his last elephant, Li Huowang’s lips curved up. He slid his king forward, covering Wu Cheng’s.
“King versus king!”
The old lama’s withered, grotesque body swelled violently. In the next instant, tentacles of all sizes erupted from every orifice, writhing in the air.
With a “boom,” his body exploded. Li Huowang, drenched in gore and sprouting tentacles, burst out from within.
He bellowed at the Faithful before him: “Check! Checkmate!!”