Chapter 654
Chapter 654
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 654
>Chapter Title: Gone Missing
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Shangjing wasn’t just home to Gao Zhijian; the Celestial Monitoring Division had a presence here too.
It looked like a lot of people had died this time, and the capital had been thrown into chaos, but far more followers of the Faithists had perished.
After this blow, all the hidden abscesses had burst open. It was frightening, sure, but the Faithists of Great Liang were probably done for.
No matter how Li Huowang racked his brains, he couldn’t figure out what their goal had been.
“And… wasn’t it supposed to be a natural disaster? Where’s the disaster? Which heavenly principle shifted? Why didn’t I feel anything?”
Just as Li Huowang was thinking this, the nearby city wall began to emit a faint trembling sound.
The moment he looked up at it, a chunk of blue brick tumbled down from the top amid the tremors, followed by two, then three.
In the next instant, the entire wall split open, and a massive stone statue over thirty feet tall with a tiger’s head forced its way in from outside.
The moment it breached the gate, the statue slammed down onto the ground, and a cloud of yellow mist erupted from beneath its base, rapidly spreading in all directions.
Anything the yellow mist touched instantly petrified, turning to stone sculptures.
Whether living people or the black smoke flickering atop the flames.
Just as the yellow mist was about to engulf the entire capital, some kind of sound rang out from the distant imperial palace.
“……”
As the sound echoed, the yellow mist inexplicably caved inward, piling up in place without being able to spread any further.
Just when Li Huowang thought the Celestial Monitoring Division’s method had countered it, row after row of stone warriors emerged from the yellow mist in perfect unison.
They wielded identical stone spears and halberds, clad in matching stone helmets and armor.
The earthen hue, combined with their synchronized movements, inexplicably reminded Li Huowang of something.
“What the hell is this? Terracotta warriors?”
As one of the war chariot terracotta figures raised its right hand, the stone warriors surged forward, charging madly ahead.
Right Child Xiong, standing amid the crowd, charged first. With a backflip, he hurled the four modao strapped to his back.
The four massive modao flew out and embedded themselves in the terracotta warriors.
As the chains snapped taut and he yanked hard, swathes of the warriors were sliced clean in two.
Yet no matter how many Right Child Xiong cut down, endless terracotta warriors kept pouring out of the yellow fog.
The stone statue was the key! Unless it was smashed, these stone warriors would never stop coming!
Li Huowang took a deep breath and stood. Peng Longteng appeared beside him, grabbing him and hurling him straight toward the statue.
As Li Huowang drew closer to it, he whipped out his spine sword and slashed hard at it.
A rift shot forth. Just as Li Huowang thought it would sever the statue’s head, something unexpected happened.
All sorts of deformed, iridescent metal-colored liquids sprayed out like flowing water.
“What’s going on!? What happened over in Great Qi!?”
Li Huowang had never seen anything like this before. It seemed that during this time, something incomprehensible to ordinary people had changed in Great Qi.
But soon, Li Huowang had no time to dwell on Great Qi.
The iridescent liquids splattered across the statue, causing flowers to bloom step by step and lotuses to sprout everywhere.
But these flowers and lotuses shifted through rotting colors constantly, making anyone who glanced at them dizzy and nauseous.
With most of its body now wrapped in the stuff, the massive statue looked even more terrifying than before.
“Back!” Peng Longteng reappeared beside Li Huowang, grabbing him with one hand and tossing him back.
As Li Huowang retreated, he wasn’t willing to give up just like that. He drew the purple-tasseled sword brimming with killing intent and slashed fiercely at the statue’s house-sized head.
The soaring killing aura sliced into the statue like a curved blade.
The bizarrely colored flowers and lotuses split open, and matching liquids spread downward along the statue’s veins.
As the veins extended across its entire body amid the earth-shaking rumble, the statue suddenly began to move.
At that moment, the Four Qi Celestial Supervisor, Master Boqiao, descended from the crimson clouds in the sky.
Hovering in midair, he pinched a hand seal with one hand and gently exhaled toward the writhing statue. A puff of white smoke sprayed from his mouth, enveloping its head.
Seeing the National Advisor charge over on his sword, Li Huowang knew this was a prime opportunity and rushed forward again.
“Supreme Jade Purity, Sovereign of Heaven, Thirty-Six Ninth Heavens Universal Transformation! Shapeshift through the Ten Directions Realms, disheveled hair riding a qilin, bare feet treading layered ice! Hand grasping the Nine Heavens, whistling winds, whipping thunder and lightning!”
Over a dozen bolts of purple lightning crashed down onto the statue along with the National Advisor’s incantation.
Even so, the statue could still move, apparently unscathed.
Taking advantage of their entanglement, Li Huowang closed in on the statue as much as possible.
But as if the statue had some sense for it, it always shifted slightly whenever Li Huowang got close, keeping him just out of reach.
“Closer! A bit closer!” Li Huowang strained on tiptoe, reaching for the balloon floating in the tree.
When he felt his hand about to grasp the string, Li Huowang kicked off hard, slamming down like a dunk to snatch the colorful balloon.
But the instant he clutched it to his chest, it popped with a light *pop*.
Li Huowang scratched his head and looked awkwardly at the two siblings in school uniforms nearby.
“Sorry, I think I used too much force. How much was the balloon? I’ll pay you back.”
Seeing them walk away wordlessly with aggrieved looks, Li Huowang shook his head, picked up his handheld game console, and sat by the flower bed to keep playing—only to find the game had ended.
In Shangjing, everyone stared at the shattered stone statue head before them, unsure what to say.
Li Huowang looked at it and tentatively asked,
“Ji Zai?”
“Mhm.” The familiar voice sounded in Li Huowang’s ear.
Hearing this, a fire erupted in Li Huowang’s chest.
“You’ve got the nerve to show up! Where the hell were you just now!?”
“I was gone.”
“Gone what!? The Faithists invaded the capital, and you were gone!? Do you know how many people died because of you? The entire Lv Family Troupe is wiped out!!” Li Huowang roared furiously.
“No, I didn’t kill them. The karma lies with you.”
“Bullshit!!”
“Think about it carefully. What did you tell the Celestial Monitoring Division before?”
“I told them—”
At this, Li Huowang froze. He understood why Ji Zai had vanished.
And what the Celestial Monitoring Division had said about the natural disaster—if he wasn’t wrong, the previous disaster had been because Bewilderment was gone.
He’d said Ji Zai was a delusion of his own mind, so Ji Zai had disappeared.
(End of Chapter)