Chapter 653
Chapter 653
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 653
>Chapter Title: Death
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Inside the theater belonging to the Lv Family Troupe, the entire place was made entirely of wood, making it prime fuel.
The red-and-yellow flames roared fiercely, devouring everything in the garden amid crackling sounds as acrid smoke drifted into Li Huowang's nostrils.
The deranged Lv Zhuangyuan paid no heed to anything around him, still standing on the stage belting out his lines as he performed one final play with his son and daughter-in-law.
The scene in the distance etched itself deeply into Li Huowang's mind, stirring a tumult of emotions in his heart.
“Hahaha!!! Good that they're dead! Good that they're dead!!” Laughter erupted from Li Huowang's left. That was Qiu Chibao.
She clutched half a baby's rotting corpse and, as if spurred by some stimulus, bounced and leaped excitedly amid the surrounding flames, eyes fixed on the ignited corpses.
“Wuwu...” Sobs came from Li Huowang's right. That was Jinshan Zhao. Bereft of his lower body, he lay sprawled on the ground, wiping away tears in utter agony.
The moment the monk's sutra chanting for the dead began, Li Huowang strode forward and pulled Lv Zhuangyuan to safety.
No sooner had Li Huowang dragged Lv Zhuangyuan out than the entire theater collapsed in on itself.
Li Huowang glanced at the babbling, mad Lv Zhuangyuan in his arms, then at Lv Juren vanishing amid the inferno.
Truth be told, he wasn't all that close to the Lv family. He knew full well they'd treated him like a bodyguard the whole journey but had simply never called them out on it.
Yet seeing this unfold right before his eyes left a suffocating weight in his chest.
“Master Lv! Hang in there! Your granddaughter's still alive!! Don't give up!”
Li Huowang brought Lv Zhuangyuan and Xiuer to the base of the imperial city walls. He had no other options—the whole of Great Liang lay in chaos, and this was the only safe spot.
The imperial city had clearly mobilized by now.
Beyond the date-red walls, soldiers glared with predatory intent, encircling it in layer upon layer. And that was merely outside the walls—who knew how many defenses waited within.
“Watch them!!”
Li Huowang, choking down his fury, shoved the old man and girl toward the front of the formation.
“If I get back and so much as a hair on their heads is missing, I'll slaughter every last one of you!!”
The words had barely left Li Huowang's mouth when Peng Longteng's towering frame materialized behind him. One hand seized the tentacles sprouting from Li Huowang's body and hurled him skyward.
A howling gale whipped past as all of Shangjing spread out below, its status as Great Liang's grandest city now drowned in pandemonium.
At the gates, swarms of Dharma Cult followers surged like ants toward the walls on all sides.
Inside the walls, uprisings bloomed everywhere—mobs rallied by the Dharma Cult.
They bellowed slogans even they didn't comprehend, unleashing the malice buried deep within.
Shangjing's constables and the entire Sitian Monitor had mobilized, clashing in a chaotic frenzy where one side's assault yielded to the next. The capital had devolved into a seething cauldron of disorder.
Li Huowang had always known the Dharma Cult was a blight. Left unchecked, it could topple the world entire.
In his mind, combating it had been a matter of self-preservation, a duty—nothing personal against the cult itself.
But just moments ago, his view had shifted. Rage and hatred now simmered within.
The Dharma Cult didn't just threaten to shatter Great Liang and the world—it brought agony and despair to countless souls.
It sought to inflict the very torments Li Huowang had endured upon every person alive!
He refused to let that happen. He knew that suffering all too well. One Li Huowang in torment was suffering enough for this world.
“Ji Zai! Do something! The Dharma Cult's storming the city!! So many dead—are you fucking blind?!”
Li Huowang bellowed at the sun overhead from his perch in the sky. Still, no response came.
With no reaction forthcoming, Li Huowang gnashed his teeth in silent fury.
When mountains crumble and rivers run dry, you stand alone.
Peng Longteng reappeared at Li Huowang's side, seizing him once more and flinging him toward the heart of the chaos below in Shangjing.
Li Huowang crashed from on high into the muck, then propelled himself out with a mighty thrust of his tentacles through the wet earth.
Weapons in hand and rage blazing, he charged the Dharma Cult devotees burning, looting, and slaying before him.
He had to unleash this fury, or it'd drive him utterly insane.
Wherever Li Huowang struck, carnage followed in his wake.
Ordinary Dharma Cult followers were no match for him. Neither were the sorcerers lurking among them.
He carved through Shangjing unhindered, killing at will.
His mind held one thought alone: slaughter every last one, leave none alive.
The more Dharma Cult there were, the more tragedies like the Lv Family Troupe's.
When blood had thoroughly drenched him from head to toe, the Purple-Tasseled Sword in his grip became sheathed in killing aura so dense it verged on tangible, resounding with draconic roars.
The blade pulsed as if alive, pumping waves of vital heat to replenish Li Huowang's stamina.
With a fierce swing, he unleashed a crimson sword beam that cleaved a distant man and his wooden shack clean in two.
In that instant, Li Huowang understood: he'd squandered the Purple-Tasseled Sword's potential all along. He'd simply never slain enough.
He wielded it from dawn through dusk, dusk into night, until bloody crust sealed his eyes.
Only when Li Sui's tentacles dragged limply along the ground did the Dharma Cult vanish from sight.
The city fell gradually still. Sitian Monitor agents, badges dangling at their waists, perched atop rooftops like multicolored vultures scanning the horizon.
Murderous intent gleamed in every eye. Any Dharma Cult straggler who surfaced met swift retribution.
Li Huowang stood lost in place, staring down at his Daoist robes caked in gore.
Surveying the corpses littering the ground around him, he sensed victory—but no joy came, only bone-deep weariness.
“Dad, I'm hungry. Can I have some of your flesh?”
Li Huowang nodded and dragged over a nearby three-legged stool to sit. “Mm. Eat.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Ji Zai.”
Li Huowang called to his shadow once more. Still nothing.
He lifted his gaze to the distant palace. Xuan Pin, Zheng Boqiao, and the State Preceptor hadn't intervened—they must've rushed to guard the emperor. Gao Zhijian should be safe.
“Why did they do this?”
Li Huowang stared at the Dharma Cult corpses littering the ground, turning the question over in his mind.
It had seemed brutally fierce, yet only common folk had died. Royals, military clans, and the Sitian Monitor had taken scant losses.
In retrospect, these cultists had might as well marched up to die.
Sorry, the next chapter will be a bit late.
(End of chapter)