Chapter 689
Chapter 689
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 689
>Chapter Title: Kuocang City
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Chapter 689: Kuocang City
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> The border region between Later Shu, Siqu, and Qingqiu—whether compared to lake-dotted Siqu or sheep-strewn Qingqiu—Later Shu seemed far more barren.
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> Endless jagged rocks stretched out here without end, alongside the dry, cracked Gobi surface. There was some greenery, but not much—mostly drought-resistant plants blending into the wasteland.
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> But Li Huowang had long grown accustomed to the sight. After slaying that cloud-summoning thing from the heavens, they’d left the coast some time ago.
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> By now, both he and the others had completely changed their outfits, dressed like ordinary refugees. After all, Later Shu was still at war with the Dharma Cult—whoever they ran into could spell trouble.
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> Yet even so, amid the chaos of war, troubles kept coming one after another.
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> “Clang! Clink!” Two swords clashed heavily in midair. Li Huowang’s mouth gaped wide as writhing black tentacles surged out, smothering a bandit’s face and ripping it clean off.
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> Lv Xiucai charged forward with his serrated sword. Facing the enemy, he unhesitatingly pried off his two thumbnails with a bamboo splinter and flung them over.
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> Long arrows thudded into the curse-scrawled paper bellyband over his chest, ringing out like strikes on metal or stone.
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> Against these well-equipped bandits, Lv Xiucai showed no fear—only unrelenting hatred in his eyes.
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> Along this road, if anyone had left the deepest impression on Li Huowang, it was Lv Xiucai. He truly burned to avenge his family.
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> Whenever they encountered the Dharma Cult, he always charged at the forefront.
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> Seeing several distant bandits dip their arrowheads in black dog’s blood before taking aim at Lv Xiucai again, Li Huowang swung his spinebone sword hard toward them. “Whoosh!” A rift sliced through the air.
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> The rift didn’t just bisect them—it fused them together into one grotesque mass with the bizarre fluid gushing from within.
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> Though the spinebone sword could no longer serve as a key to Great Qi, in Li Huowang’s hands right now, its killing power had only grown.
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> They were deserters turned bandits—fugitives preying on the land. The powers here weren’t just Later Shu and the Dharma Cult; wretched folk caught in between eked out a living too.
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> But no matter their allegiance, none could stand against Li Huowang’s group.
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> Soon the clash died down. After a quick cleanup of the roadside corpses, everyone pressed onward.
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> Their nonchalant attitude stemmed from one thing: this wasn’t the first time.
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> Bandits lurking just outside the capital spoke volumes about how far Later Shu’s order had collapsed.
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> Li Huowang’s carriage train had shrunk some, as had the White Lotus followers with Bai Lingmiao. They’d been sent out to spread the White Lotus teachings across Later Shu.
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> “At this pace, we’ll arrive in about three hours!” Li Huowang’s words spurred the weary travelers to grit their teeth and push on.
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> As they drew nearer, livestock dung and footprints grew more common on the ground. But alongside the living, the dead multiplied too.
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> Rotting bones lay discarded like trash by the wayside.
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> Bai Lingmiao’s face showed a flicker of pity. She knew she couldn’t bury them all—this was the chaos of war, where lives meant the least, be they Later Shu folk or Dharma Cult believers.
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> “Thump-thump-thump~” Slender hands with long black nails softly beat a goatskin drum. In a mournful tune, she sang, “Holding a stick of incense~ Smoke rises to the nine heavens~ Front gate draped in torn paper~~ Second gate hung with white sails~ Amid clearing winds and clouds, to heaven you return~”
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> As the drum thumped on, chill winds stirred, rustling robes and cloaks, thickening the air with gloom.
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> “Amitabha, Amitabha... Amitabha...”
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> Hearing the monk’s chants for the dead, Li Huowang let out a soft sigh. If only ghosts really existed.
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> With ghosts, the wicked slain by the good could seek vengeance. With ghosts, you could complain to the King of Hell. With ghosts, at least heaven and earth might hold some order, some cycle of rebirth.
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> Many feared ghosts, but in truth, they were humanity’s most beautiful lie.
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> Bai Lingmiao’s dirge never paused, for the bones and corpses never ceased.
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> Amid her song, a massive stone city rose before them, built into the mountainside in terraced slopes from high to low—easy to defend, hard to assault.
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> From Li Huowang’s vantage, a grand mountain fortress loomed. This was Kuocang City, stronghold of Later Shu’s Supervising Heaven Division.
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> The chevaux-de-frise around the walls and the scars atop them told Li Huowang it had endured a siege.
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> Though the walls held, the enemy reaching the city itself proved how dire things had become.
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> Flashing his Great Liang Celestial Monitoring Bureau token, Li Huowang and the others entered the vast mountain city without issue.
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> He had no intention of hiding. Once back in his red Daoist robes, Later Shu’s Supervising Heaven Division knew exactly who’d arrived.
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> To Li Huowang’s surprise, the local officials ignored him at first, approaching Bai Lingmiao and her White Lotus followers instead.
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> But it didn’t last long—soon a guide from the Supervising Heaven Division arrived for him.
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> As elsewhere, Later Shu’s Celestial Monitoring Bureau lay underground—or more precisely, within the mountain, given Kuocang City’s odd layout.
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> “Where’s Xuan Pin?” Li Huowang asked Shangguan Yuting, who’d stuck by him the whole way. From what he’d seen, the crisis here was grave.
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> “Wait here. I’ll go find him.” With that, Shangguan Yuting hiked her skirt and vanished into the adjacent stone wall.
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> Li Huowang sat on a stone bench, tamping down his impatience as he waited in silence, his mind racing through worst-case scenarios.
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> “You’re here? Slower than I expected.” Xuan Pin sat across the stone table, the pitch-black void within his red Daoist robes aimed straight at Li Huowang.
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> Li Huowang ignored how he’d appeared. “If you wanted speed, you should’ve brought me when you first came to Later Shu.”
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> “You were busy with other things back then. You wouldn’t have come even if I’d called.” Xuan Pin shifted aside, revealing the figure behind him.
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> A man wore a bronze mask, its dull yellow surface crammed with two snarling human faces.
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> Whiskered jaws, fangs bared, eyes bulging in rage—the two ferocious visages stacked one atop the other, each vying for dominance.
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> And crowning them like a hat was a ring of egg-sized skulls around the edge.
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> (End of chapter)