Chapter 718
Chapter 718
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 718
>Chapter Title: Ambush
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Daqi's world in great harmony? Li Huowang never imagined such words could come from the mouth of a Dharma Cult follower.
He immediately pulled out his spinebone sword and flung it hard at that door.
A rift flew out, with all sorts of rainbow-colored liquids burrowing from within and staining everything they touched.
Li Huowang pointed his right hand at the door god on the door and roared,
"This is your great harmony world? Daqi is now full of these ghostly things! Say it to my face one more time! All the people of Daqi have come back to life! Living in peace and harmony across the land?!"
"Li Huowang, you're attached to appearances. I thought that as a heart anchor, you'd know something, but you understand nothing. Xuanyin and the others really kept their guard up against you tightly."
No sooner had the door god spoken than a mass of twisted flesh—a deformed, ugly, grayish-white, slimy body—squeezed out from the rift that was about to close.
Because the rift had sealed, only half its body had made it through. Even so, it sprawled on the ground, expanding and contracting vigorously, showing no sign of fatal injury.
A cluster of short, quivering pink tentacles sprouted from its forehead, emitting cries like those of an infant. The thing had no fixed form—every part of its body was changing at every moment.
"The arising of all good dharmas is illusory from the start. The creation of all evil karma is likewise illusory. The body is like gathered foam, the mind like the wind—illusory, without root, without substantiality."
"What bullshit! I don't understand it! Say it plainly!!"
Li Huowang stared fixedly at the deformed monster in the courtyard ahead.
What made him uneasy was that, for some reason, he could vaguely make out a human face in the monster's outline.
"All good dharmas of sentient beings are illusory and unreal. All evil karma of sentient beings is likewise illusory and unreal."
"The bodies of sentient beings are like that clump of gathered foam—mere appearance without substance. And the minds of sentient beings are like gusts of breeze brushing the face—coming from nowhere, going without a trace, mere sensation without substance. In short, everything we perceive is illusory and unreal."
"But things are different now. Yu'er God can free us from this illusion and let us become true existences. We're no longer foam, no longer formless wind!"
As he spoke, the door god on the door panel pointed at the monster outside the courtyard.
"As long as we submit to Yu'er God, we'll no longer be fake! Think about it, Li Huowang! Even gods and immortals are no more than this. Aren't you a Daoist? Believe in Yu'er God, and I guarantee you'll achieve the fruits of cultivation, attain the Dao, become an immortal—and enjoy eternal blessings with a lifespan matching heaven itself!"
"Become an immortal? Lifespan matching heaven?"
Looking at the monster still crawling on the ground, Li Huowang's heart suddenly went cold. At last, he understood what the door god meant by a deathless world of great harmony.
The people of Daqi had probably indeed come back to life—but in another form, one more terrifying than death itself.
"Li Huowang, what do you say?"
"I won't."
"You won't?"
The door god's eyes widened in disbelief as he stared at Li Huowang, evidently shocked by his reaction.
"You don't want the people you care about to come back to life? You don't want to become an immortal?"
"Heh, though I have my doubts, if it's real, of course I want it."
Li Huowang gripped the hilt of his sword tighter.
"But I've never liked begging others. Since you say Yu'er God possesses a heavenly law that revives the dead, why should I haggle with them? I'll just find a way to kill Yu'er God and seize that heavenly law straight from their hands—wouldn't that be even better?"
To the ears of the Dharma Cult followers, Li Huowang's words were utter blasphemy.
"Treating good intentions like a donkey's liver and lungs! Outrageous! How dare you profane the Heavenly Venerable!!"
"Ha! No helping it! That's how my master taught me back in the day! If you can't get it, then take it by force!"
"Bam!"
The doors slammed shut heavily. The body of the Wealth God paper talisman pasted on the door panel gradually turned deep green.
Seeing the other side reveal their true colors, Li Huowang showed no surprise.
"I knew you had an ambush!!"
Whoosh! A rift was flung out, streaking toward the door with the door god pasted on it.
By the time the two doors suddenly swung open—dodging the rift before slamming shut again—Li Huowang's figure had long vanished.
The door gods on either side glanced at each other and raised their right hands to clap hard.
"Dharma is dharma, no dharma is dharma; when no dharma is conferred, what dharma are all dharmas!"
With the final "dharma" uttered, their divine senses instantly blanketed the entire house. No trace could escape their perception.
"Careful—this one's an earth-escaper!"
No sooner had the door god spoken than Li Huowang's body erupted from the ground amid a spray of dirt. The purple-tasseled sword in his hand slashed straight down onto one of the door panels, cleaving the entire door in half.
Having dealt with one door god, Li Huowang turned to handle the second—when Li Sui's voice rang in his ear.
"Dad! It's on you!"
"What?"
Li Huowang looked down to see a door god plastered onto his crimson Daoist robe.
"Hey!"
The door god raised the treasured sword in its hand and slashed hard at Li Huowang's arm. The entire arm came off with a snap, and densely packed black tentacles wriggled rapidly out from the stump.
"Get off me!"
He yanked a rib bone from his navel-eye and jammed it hard into his own chest. Agonizing pain instantly transmitted to the door god.
The pain was so intense that it could no longer focus on harming Li Huowang. It slid away along the ground—but this time, Li Huowang was unwilling to let it go.
He slammed his right foot down directly onto it and raised the purple-tasseled sword to stab downward.
Just then, darkness fell before Li Huowang's eyes. He looked up to see the other door panel—with its door god—smashing toward him.
Right before it struck Li Huowang, there came a "crack." Peng Longteng, mounted on her warhorse, rammed into the door panel and shattered it—along with the door god—into five pieces.
In the next instant, she—drenched in blood—cackled wildly as she crashed into the left wall. The entire house began to shake and teeter on the verge of collapse.
Li Huowang looked down at the door god pinned under his foot. He reached out with one hand, seized one corner of it, and yanked hard. As he pulled with increasing force, the door god's body stretched longer and longer.
Finally, amid the door god's agonized screams, Li Huowang tore it clean in half.
At the same time, the entire roof beam and roof tiles came crashing down onto Li Huowang.
As the dust gradually settled, Li Huowang slowly walked out from the ruins. Gazing at the distant city walls that had been breached, he murmured to himself,
"Just these tricks? It seems the Dharma Cult won't hold out much longer."
He wasn't sure if it was because his own strength had grown too quickly or what, but it all felt a bit too easy.
"Is that so? Hehehe, I don't think so."
An unfamiliar woman's voice came from behind Li Huowang.
Li Huowang slowly turned around to see a woman wearing a large ceramic big-headed doll mask sitting brazenly astride a roof ridge beast. Both her hands were inserted into two door god puppets.
And the two door god puppets in her hands were clearly ruined beyond use—one split in half, the other cracked into pieces—matching the fate of the previous door gods exactly.
(End of chapter)