Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 64
>Chapter Title: Drum
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“Please... invite... the gods...” Li Zhi’s distinctive booming voice echoed from within the woods, and the grotesquely twisted Er Shen began trembling in sync.
“Sun sets in the west, sky turns black. Every home shuts their doors tight. Magpies and crows rush to the great trees, sparrows and swifts dart to the eaves. The main road grows short—ah!!”
Li Zhi’s god-inviting chant cut off abruptly like that, clearly catching Er Shen off guard. He jerked his head up in shock, staring at Li Huowang before him and the upward curl of his lips.
“You came specifically to test me, but haven’t I been testing you too? I’ve been fooled by those monks once already—once bitten, twice shy. I have to guard against something like that.”
Just as Li Huowang finished speaking, scattered footsteps emerged from the woods—Gouwa, the Fool, and the others.
They clutched weapons in their hands as they shoved Li Zhi forward, his mouth covered in blood. The old drum he’d used for his shaman dance was gripped tightly by the hairy Xiaoman.
Li Huowang took the old drum from Xiaoman’s hands and, right in front of Li Zhi, tossed it to the ground and stabbed down with his sword. With a “pu-chi,” the taut drumhead was easily pierced.
“Looks like this is your most important thing. No matter which immortal house you call, without it, they probably can’t come, right?”
After these past few days of contact, Li Huowang had realized that no matter how powerful the immortals were, the shaman jumping the great god was still just flesh and blood. Control him, and everything was easy.
Looking at the blades glinting coldly all around him, Li Zhi—whose mouth had taken a staff blow—showed no fear or hatred on his face. Instead, he gave a helpless bitter smile.
“Actually, I don’t have the final say in something like this.”
With a “clang!”, the sharp pitch-black sword blade pressed against the underside of Li Zhi’s neck.
“You’re still trying to deceive me at a time like this? Tell Er Shen to stop resisting!”
Li Huowang’s gaze locked dead on Er Shen in the distance, whose face was utterly distorted. Li Zhi was pinned down, but that ambiguous human-beast thing in the distance was still trouble.
“Heh... You think my wife will definitely listen to me just ‘cause you say so?”
As soon as Li Zhi spoke, Er Shen in the distance threw open his ferocious maw and let out a savage roar before bounding into the woods on all fours like a wild beast.
Er Shen had actually fled, abandoning Li Zhi here alone.
“Master Li, I really haven’t lied to you. We mounted disciples aren’t the same as you people. Some things, I truly can’t decide on my own.” Li Zhi’s words rang hollow as he desperately tried to explain.
“You think I’ll suddenly get a soft heart and let you go if I hear that?” Li Huowang shoved the blade forward a bit more.
“Heh, of course not.” Facing potential death at any moment, Li Zhi seemed utterly calm.
Li Huowang eyed his captive and pondered for a moment before slowly speaking.
“What is a Heart-Su? Why do you call me a Heart-Su?”
This was what concerned him most. They had come after him for a reason, and this “Heart-Su” had come up twice now.
Li Zhi let out a helpless sigh.
“So you really don’t know anything at all. I got fooled by that blood robe of yours earlier.”
“What exactly is a Heart-Su!” Li Huowang gritted his teeth, enunciating each word as the blade drew blood.
Li Zhi looked at Li Huowang before him and chuckled.
“Heh, you’re quick on the uptake, but I’m afraid you can’t outmatch the old immortals.”
The next second, Li Zhi’s eyes bulged with blood and stretched long as hedgehog spines burst from the corners. His nose twisted and extended forward, his entire face warping toward Er Shen’s monstrous form from moments ago.
Li Huowang pressed down with one hand, sending the sharp blade toward Li Zhi’s neck. But beneath the tearing skin weren’t blood vessels—only rows of dense, hard snake scales.
“Kill him!!”
With Li Huowang’s shout, a “whoosh!” cut the air as a massive wooden club arrived first, smashing brutally into Li Zhi’s head.
Blood and flesh sprayed. Li Zhi, half-transformed, was instantly caved in and collapsed to the ground.
“Dong dong dong!!” Urgent drumbeats echoed from the dark woods, drawing everyone’s gaze.
The stunned Li Huowang instinctively looked down at the broken drum on the ground.
“Drumbeats? How are there still drumbeats? I clearly destroyed Li Zhi’s drum!”
“Please... invite... the gods...”
Accompanied by the drumming and the god chant, a figure staggered out from the woods. It was Er Shen—or rather, Li Zhi.
As those things grew on Li Zhi’s face, the ones on Er Shen’s face had completely vanished. The two had effortlessly swapped places—Li Zhi became Er Shen, and Er Shen became Li Zhi.
“Dong dong dong!!” Abrupt drumbeats rose from beneath Li Zhi. When the others looked down, they all sharply inhaled.
His clothes were ripped open, one hand brutally tearing up the skin and flesh of his abdomen while the other wielded a drumstick, pounding away.
No drum? Li Zhi had used his own human skin as a drum! “Dong dong dong!!”
“Sun sets in the west, sky turns black. Every home shuts their doors tight. Magpies and crows rush to the great trees, sparrows and swifts dart to the eaves. Hey, the path to the little hut is cut off, nine out of ten homes locked tight. One door still open—burning incense and drumming, I invite the immortals~”
Just as he finished, the Er Immortal on the ground shot upright, even though most of his skull was now collapsed.
“Pu-chi” sounds rang out nonstop as every weapon, including the longsword in Li Huowang’s hand, plunged into Er Shen’s body.
Li Huowang was absolutely certain his sword had pierced the heart, yet Er Shen stood ramrod straight.
“First invite the Reds, then the Yellows. Invite the Clear Wind and Smoke Clouds to bear the Grief King. Reds as commanders, Yellows as vanguard. Clear Wind and Smoke Clouds hold the line, that Grief King runs the hall~”
A massive force erupted from Er Shen. With a violent twist of his body, everyone gripping weapons around him was instantly flung off.
“No good! We have to stop Li Zhi’s drumming!! He’s the key!” Li Huowang reached into his robes with his right hand, and the copper Daoist bell appeared.
“Ding ding ding!!” “Dong dong dong!!”
The two clashing sounds intertwined throughout the woods.
Various lines rapidly coalesced into a Wandering Lord. Li Huowang shook his dizzy head sharply, and the Wandering Lord split into four, charging toward Li Zhi.
Ignoring his bleeding, flayed body, Li Zhi—forehead veins bulging—flapped his lips furiously as the god chant’s tempo doubled.
“Wine and feast laid out on the table, good food and drink aplenty. So much good eating and drinking, you tell the helper soldiers, you say it to the helper soldiers. Helper soldiers will prepare it all for you. Want fat beef and mutton? Want lean chicken, duck, and goose? Even if you old immortal want that ungrateful meat, the helper soldiers will find a way to get it for you~!!”
Li Huowang felt a sharp pain in his neck. At some point, Er Shen had gotten behind him, and that gaping maw full of jagged teeth bit viciously into the flesh of his shoulder.
(End of chapter)