Chapter 733
Chapter 733
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 733
>Chapter Title: False
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Siqi, Xuantai Mountain, Yangming Temple, Mahavira Treasure Hall.
With the sound of sharp blades slicing into flesh, Li Huowang watched as the black-skinned monk before him was cleaved in two by his own hand. Black water gushed out from within, surging straight toward his face.
Sensing something off about that black water, Li Huowang yanked back hard with the four tentacles propping him up from behind, letting the stuff slide past him by a hair's breadth.
“Heh.” Li Huowang, standing in the center of the hall radiating murderous intent, parted his lips slightly and slowly exhaled a puff of bloody mist from deep in his throat.
He was missing one hand now, but gripped three swords at once. Behind him lay a dense pile of monk corpses.
With a savage expression, Li Huowang fixed his bloodshot eyes on the distant golden Buddha statue.
The golden Buddha, draped in black cloth over one shoulder, sat cross-legged on the offering table. Its face showed neither joy nor sorrow, but the bloody flesh tribute laid before it sent chills down the spine.
This temple had fully defected to the Dharma Cult. Not only that, they had even sculpted a Buddha body for the Yu'er God! Stranger still, these monk soldiers wielded military arts. This place was a major threat that had to be eradicated swiftly.
Li Huowang drew a deep breath and charged at the giant Buddha with sword raised. Just as he neared the offering table, his right foot stomped the air, launching his body into midair.
His left foot followed, stomping the void once more to propel him even higher.
Left foot, right foot, alternating stomps pushed Li Huowang right up to the Buddha statue. He gritted his teeth, raised the Purple Tassel Sword in his hand, and slashed down at its head.
But at that moment, the golden body of the Buddha statue suddenly cracked. Black fissures spread across its form, and through the gaps in the gold, it was clear this giant golden Buddha was alive!
The massive Buddha head glared furiously with round eyes. Its hands seized Li Huowang abruptly, and its pitch-black maw gaped wide to chomp down on him.
With a squelch, the beaded black teeth pierced Li Huowang's body—but they couldn't crush his bones.
Li Huowang planted his feet on its lower jaw and shoved his back against the upper, forcibly preventing the thing from swallowing him.
“Want to eat? Then eat your fill!!” Tilting his head, Li Huowang opened his mouth toward the statue. “Urgh~~!!”
The tentacles on Li Huowang's body retracted swiftly as he vomited Li Sui—head, body, and all—straight down the Buddha statue's throat. “Li Sui, eat it!!”
After sending out Li Sui, Li Huowang jammed the Purple Tassel Sword against the black teeth and yanked the Spinebone Sword from his back, leaping outward. What met him were the Buddha statue's clapping hands, trembling as they closed in.
Yet at that instant, a spinning giant halberd flew in from the side, slicing the Buddha statue's fingers clean in half.
“Destroying Buddha? Excellent! Splendid! I've long despised these bald donkeys!” Peng Longteng, mounted on his massive steed, caught the returning halberd. He yanked the reins, charging straight at the animated Buddha statue.
Under the pincer attack from Li Huowang and Peng Longteng, the colossal Buddha statue retreated step by step despite its size.
Though the situation favored them and Li Huowang trusted Li Sui could handle it, the total lack of reaction from within the Buddha's belly left him worried for the one trapped inside.
He should have gone in alongside her just now. They needed to end this fight fast.
As Li Huowang thought this, a half-dog face suddenly bulged from the Buddha's belly.
A faint voice emanated from its navel, which he caught immediately. “Dad! Help! It ate my... head!”
The instant he heard this, Li Huowang's hairs stood on end. He charged recklessly, enduring the wounds to draw the Purple Tassel Sword and slice open the navel.
As Li Huowang stared, chilled to the bone, at the tentacle limbs spilling out with the blood, a skinned dog head dragged half a gut alongside it and poked out from the side. “Dad? Whose hands are these?”
That was Li Sui. She was fine. The voice from before hadn't been hers.
No sooner had Li Sui spoken than the severed tentacles faded into illusion and vanished completely. They were nothing more than an unintended product of his cultivation—those tentacles and the cry for help alike.
“What?” As Li Huowang reeled in shock, the Buddha statue's palm slammed down. With the crack of breaking bones, it pinned him to the ground. Blood slowly seeped from the gaps between its fingers.
Half a stick of incense later, the blood-drenched Li Huowang stooped with effort, dragging the immensely heavy giant Buddha head slowly out of the hall.
Once outside, he glanced down at the monk soldiers still desperately resisting below. With a burst of strength in his right arm, he shoved the Buddha head forward—then drove a kick into it with his right foot. The enormous head went crashing down the blue-brick steps, each impact resounding like rolling thunder.
Seeing the Buddha's own head roll past them shattered the monk soldiers' will to fight. This brutal, bloody battle finally came to an end.
Catching his breath, Li Huowang slumped sideways onto a cushion. He idly toyed with the rotating light mirror Xuanpin had given him, using it to observe the progress of the other battles.
To the soldier artists searching for surviving foes, this behavior seemed utterly bizarre. But Li Huowang no longer cared to explain his sanity to anyone. He knew he wasn't mad—that was enough.
Filthy and exhausted, Li Sui slumped against Li Huowang's back, nuzzling her head into him. “Dad, we're so awesome. We killed all those bad guys.”
Li Huowang, however, let out a soft sigh and withdrew his fingers from the rotating light mirror. Of course he knew how powerful he was. His strength now likely surpassed even Danyangzi at his half-immortal peak.
Yet this power came at a steep price—one far too severe.
As his cultivation grew stronger, so did its ability to silently reshape the world around him according to his thoughts.
Not just deliberate thoughts, either—even fleeting notions could be made real from false by him.
He recalled Li Sui's illusory cry for help, the corpse of Li Sui he'd unwittingly cultivated from mere suspicion. A momentary doubt, and the corresponding change appeared.
This was dangerous. It was even starting to hinder his combat prowess. Had today's foe been any stronger, he and Li Sui might have died here.
When nothing fake before his eyes remained fake, the real would cease to exist as well.
This wasn't the first time. It had been the fourth since he'd accidentally cultivated that white version of Bai Lingmiao last time.
At this point, he was less fighting the Dharma Cult and more fighting himself.
(End of chapter)