Chapter 694
Chapter 694
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 694
>Chapter Title: Open
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Chapter 694: Open
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> Those soldier-liberation celestials didn’t seem like Fa Teaching things at all. The more he looked, the more they resembled Military Family workings.
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> This seemed to prove that with the dragon vein’s change of ownership, the Military Families of Nanping and Siqi had turned coat as well.
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> But right now, Li Huowang had no time to dwell on these people. Surrounded by soaring flames, he prepared to join the fray and help the others break the siege.
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> He thought the situation would end quickly, but humanoid figures kept emerging endlessly from the mists. They might not be matches for Li Huowang and the others, but they kept everyone else constantly occupied.
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> “They’re stalling for time!” Just as Li Huowang realized the enemy’s scheme, the ground began to quake violently—the earth dragon was turning over again.
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> The earthquake set the entire marsh flowing. With the shaking, the barely standable mud rapidly turned into a man-swallowing quagmire.
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> Yet even in these conditions, more Fa Teaching followers kept crawling out of the mists. Even if swallowed by the mire, they dragged someone down with them as a cushion.
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> Li Huowang had experienced this earth dragon turning over many times before. He knew exactly what it meant.
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> “How many hours are left?!” Li Huowang shouted at Xuanyin, only to receive a single finger in reply.
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> “One hour gone—that means one of the three dragon veins has already been destroyed!” This bad news instantly filled Li Huowang with oppression.
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> In such circumstances, words were useless. He could only grit his teeth and lead the others charging toward the heart of Yunze against the Fa Teaching onslaught.
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> As they drew nearer to Yunze’s center, the wriggling humanoid worm-things gradually thinned out, while the number of living Fa Teaching members increased, each one extraordinarily powerful.
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> Among them were not only the Fa Teaching from Da Liang and Da Qi, but also many from other sects and schools. The black cloth on their shoulders proved they had all converted to the Fa Teaching.
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> Since the fire was already lit, Li Huowang had no intention of wasting it. Charging at the forefront, he used his body’s flames to dry the ground and incinerate Fa Teaching followers, paving a road of charred corpses for the others.
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> Under Li Huowang’s lead, they advanced swiftly. An hour later, they reached the place: the deepest part of Yunze, unexpectedly a patch of dry ground.
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> Atop this ground stood an immensely grim stone fortress. Through the cheval de frise spikes, Li Huowang saw nothing but some Fa Teaching severed heads. The rain still fell from the sky, and the gloomy heavens made the atmosphere exceptionally heavy.
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> Peng Longteng seized Li Huowang and hurled him high into the air. From that vantage, Li Huowang finally glimpsed what lay behind the fortress.
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> The dragon vein—formed by a stack of emperors—was pinned in an inverted triangular mud pit by massive stone pillars. As the dragon vein struggled, the mud in the pit churned violently, sending up miasma that spread everywhere.
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> Encircling the mud pit were Fa Teaching sorcerers in various loose robes, dancing ceaselessly around it.
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> The sorcerers linked with each other into some bizarre, writhing incantation. The Fa Teaching used people to draw living spells, invoking the curse to destroy the dragon vein.
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> Li Huowang wanted to see more details, but he clearly felt his body stiffening, gradually turning to stone. The Fa Teaching side had spotted him.
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> By the time Li Huowang landed, he found everyone else gathered together. The others had all arrived too. With both sides’ cards mostly on the table, it was time to plan the assault.
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> “Handle everything else. The dragon vein is mine.” Li Huowang spoke up. The dragon vein was immune to most divine abilities and techniques; he had more experience dealing with it than the others.
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> “That’s exactly the plan.” As Xuanyin spoke, his body dispersed like smoke, only to quickly reform before Li Huowang. “Remember our deal. Seizing back the dragon vein is the top priority.”
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> “But a place like this, the Fa Teaching must have experts guarding it. Don’t get tangled up with them too long. I’ll back you up. Once we grab the dragon vein, we win.”
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> “Got it.”
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> Eyeing some unfamiliar faces on his side, Li Huowang asked, “Who are they? What’s your plan?”
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> Though Li Huowang didn’t recognize them, they clearly weren’t from the Bureau of Surveillance.
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> “Li Huowang, at a time like this, don’t waste energy on these trifles. The big picture comes first.” Xuanyin’s tone was the same as before, but Li Huowang sensed the estrangement in his words.
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> Even forced to the same side by the Fa Teaching, Xuanyin still didn’t fully trust him. Many things were kept hidden, solely because he was Ji Zai’s heart anchor.
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> Of course, Li Huowang wasn’t completely at ease with them either. “Later, keep your people back from the front. If things go south, turn and run immediately!” Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao. The two upper bodies beneath the red veils nodded lightly in unison.
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> “Wooo wooo woo~” As the Later Shu Bureau of Astronomy sounded its horn, the people around began pressing forward.
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> From the crowd, a group of fully armored cavalry charged at the vanguard, enveloped in surging baleful aura like a giant sword thrusting toward the fortress.
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> “Kill!!” With a shout, the entire scene ignited. Both sides unleashed their abilities, rushing at each other.
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> But Li Huowang paid no mind to what happened outside. By now, he had burrowed into the earth, wriggling his tentacles like an octopus as he slunk toward the fortress.
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> Li Huowang knew the Fa Teaching had experts, so he didn’t go alone. He advanced slowly with his side’s forces, biding for an opening. He knew that the more critical the moment, the less he could rush.
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> An hour later, the fortress was breached. Instantly, the entire center of Yunze descended into chaos. Chanting and spell-casting filled the air nonstop, along with Buddhist sutras and grand shamanic hymns.
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> When Li Huowang spotted Zheng Boqiao of the Fangxian Sect chanting a spell that turned a living-curse Fa Teaching sorcerer into a lump of meat, which he then swallowed, Li Huowang knew his chance had come.
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> Li Huowang pulled out the box from his robes and crammed it into his mouth. Immediately after, Li Sui saw a sharp-cornered bulge rise in her dad’s neck and slide down from top to bottom.
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> The next instant, not only did the earth around Li Huowang turn to water, but even its color became transparent. His charred black body rapidly healed as well.
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> “Li Sui! Let’s go!” Li Huowang shot upward forcefully, a geyser erupting from the soil.
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> While everyone else stared at the inexplicable geyser, the invisible Li Huowang swiftly closed in on the dragon vein.
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> As he drew nearer, the dragon vein’s agonized draconic roars battered Li Huowang’s mind.
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> When he neared the mud pit’s edge, Li Huowang clenched his fists at the churning sludge. Under his gaze, the roiling mud solidified, while the stone pillars pinning the dragon vein liquefied.
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> Just as Li Huowang began to act, something unexpected happened. Whether the pillars’ grayish hue or the mud’s dark brown, all colors rapidly drained away, leaving only black and white.
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> Only the golden dragon robes on the dragon vein retained their original color, standing out glaringly against the rest.
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> “Who’s there? What sect’s trick is this?”
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> The thought had just flashed through Li Huowang’s mind when he realized not only the mud pit’s colors had vanished—his own had too.
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> Right now, he looked just like a figure from a black-and-white landscape painting.
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>(End of chapter)