Chapter 717
Chapter 717
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 717
>Chapter Title: Door God
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Facing someone who’d come to cut off heads, the Faith Cult had clearly prepared defenses long ago.
Li Huowang had just stepped out from inside the building when three black shadows lunged straight at him.
“Thud!” A low, muffled impact rang out as they slammed right into Peng Longteng’s hard armor.
The towering Peng Longteng slowly lowered her head. Under Li Huowang’s gaze, her head grew back, and a massive heavy halberd appeared in her hand at some point.
“Suffocating in there! Kill!!!” A bloodthirsty grin spread across Peng Longteng’s face, tattooed with “Loyalty and Service to the Nation,” as she charged at the sorcerers like a ferocious tiger.
Now armed, she was like a tiger with wings added. The Faith Cult ambushers hiding in the shadows couldn’t even get close.
“Get me a horse!!”
Mounting her warhorse, Peng Longteng crashed into the yamen gates like a massive boulder.
“Boom!” With a deafening crash, the entire gate—along with the eaves plaque and even the people behind the door—shattered into pieces.
Peng Longteng barreled inside amid the debris. Whether to vent her rage or not, she didn’t dodge any of the buildings ahead. Relying on her enormous frame, she smashed through houses and walls, reducing them to ruins.
While Peng Longteng drew all the attention up front, Li Huowang had already circled to the back courtyard.
To avoid detection, he didn’t even show himself this time. He sank straight into the earth and swam through.
A hidden sentry stood guard. A longsword burst from the wall, pierced his body, and retracted.
Breakthrough complete, Li Huowang found himself increasingly adept at wielding the innate qi within him—using it felt effortless now.
He silently cleared every hidden sentry like this before slowly emerging into the building.
There he spotted his targets: several white-haired officials with black cloth draped over their shoulders, poring over a sandbox map as they directed the soldiers.
“So this is it?” Li Huowang thought.
He didn’t strike right away. He simply stared silently at the ground, his right hand’s fingers digging hard into his temples on both sides.
Suddenly, the entire floor softened in an instant. Everything in the room sank straight into the earth, leaving nothing behind. They were all buried alive.
The once-bustling room fell utterly silent in a heartbeat.
“That’s it? It’s over just like that?” Li Huowang blinked, momentarily stunned. It had all happened too fast.
The heart of the entire city was gone, just like that?
Li Huowang wondered if it was a trap. But when chaos truly erupted at the city gates, he realized he was no longer the man he used to be.
Yet just as he prepared to swim back out underground, he felt someone stomping overhead. “Heh heh! People killed, but no chat before you go?”
The ground cracked open. Li Huowang’s three swords thrust up through the floorboards, emerging from the soil.
But what sank his heart was that all three swords were spotless—no blood.
He scanned the room. No one was there.
“Kid, stop looking. This venerable one’s right here!” Li Huowang followed the voice to the door itself, where he found the source: the door gods.
Just like the usual New Year’s door guardians, the two door gods were bare-chested and pot-bellied, with curly beards, clad in armor, holding spears, bows slung at their sides, swords at their waists, horns sprouting from their heads, and peachwood swords in hand.
The only difference was the black cloth painted on their shoulders too.
Clearly, in Si Qi, even door gods now served under the Children God.
“You can call this venerable one Shentu. I’ve come today to offer you amnesty.” The door god plastered on the door glared at Li Huowang.
“Amnesty? The Faith Cult wants to amnesty me?” Li Huowang almost thought he’d misheard.
“Indeed. Though you’ve ruined so many of Great Li’s plans, the National Advisor believes you’re a man who knows the times.”
“Heh.” Li Huowang nearly laughed out loud.
“You’ve killed so many, done so many heinous things, and now you want to amnesty me?”
“Have any of your family died in this catastrophe? Amnesty yourself, and the National Advisor can bring them back to life right away.”
“You think I’d believe that? Something even the Fates can’t do, and you can?!”
Li Huowang charged without hesitation, thrusting his sword into the door.
“The Fates here can’t, but Fates elsewhere might. We’re sincerely here to persuade you to surrender.”
Li Huowang’s brow furrowed at that. He pulled his sword back and eyed the door god.
“What did you say?”
He wasn’t in a rush to strike now. The enemy seemed to know things he didn’t—maybe he could pry some info first.
“The Fates govern the great paths of the world, making them gods and immortals by right. But the great paths number fifty, and they’re not omnipotent. After all, bringing the dead back to life defies the heavenly dao.”
“They can’t do it, but the Children God can? Isn’t he a governor of the heavenly dao too?” Li Huowang feigned utter disbelief to draw out more words.
“The Children God can, because he governs a heavenly dao from elsewhere. Great Nuo’s dao can’t, but another place’s dao can.”
“Elsewhere?” Li Huowang’s mind reeled. If Great Nuo meant this living world, then what was “elsewhere”?
“Looks like you really know nothing. See? Even Xuanpin didn’t tell you this—he’s been guarding against you all along.”
The door god continued,
“In truth, you think you know so much—White Jade Capital, the Fates, secrets mortals can’t grasp—but there’s still plenty you don’t.”
“Great Nuo’s Heavenly Dao strictly separates life and death—no crossing the boundary is permitted. But elsewhere, it’s different. There, yin can return to yang, so the two realms are not so rigidly divided.”
“You’ve only lived within Great Nuo, like a frog at the bottom of a well. You have no idea how different the heavenly dao of other cave-heavens are from this one.”
Li Huowang eyed the door god thoughtfully. For it to tell him this, they must truly intend to amnesty him.
“Think it over. Everything I’ve said is true. Don’t you want to revive Zhuge Yuan? Or the family of Bai Lingmiao that you accidentally killed?”
Li Huowang’s pupils shrank to pinpoints. They even knew that!
“You stubborn fools always talk of saving the world’s people, don’t you? If the Children God descends, every soul who’s died across the world can live again. Isn’t that saving the world?”
“Shut your crap!” Li Huowang roared.
“You think I’m blind? Great Qi’s been taken by the Children God! You think I haven’t seen what it’s become now?”
Those strange liquids oozing from the cracks flashed through Li Huowang’s mind. That world was long covered by whatever turned the living into monsters.
“Hmph! Ignorant brat, have you even been to Great Qi now? All hearsay! In today’s Great Qi, not only have all the former dead come back to life, they’ll never hunger or die again. The people live in peace and contentment, the old are cared for, the young nurtured—utmost harmony under heaven!”
(End of chapter)