Chapter 756
Chapter 756
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 756
>Chapter Title: God Statue
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On the way, Li Huowang learned more about these people. Though they all boasted extravagantly, he wasn't sure how much of it was bluster.
The black-red zongzi truly worked. They had now penetrated deep into Dali territory, yet no one had blocked them. This was worlds apart from his own previous experience.
"Don't worry, the people I found for you are all experts. As long as nothing unexpected happens, we'll definitely ruin the Fa Cult's plans." Xuanyin followed alongside Li Huowang, gazing together at the scattered red dots on the spinning light mirror.
"Hope so." At this point, Li Huowang felt discussing it further was pointless. What he needed to do now was finish this task first before worrying about anything else.
"How's your side? When do we make our move?" Li Huowang asked.
Though he sat at a tea stall, he was already very close to the Fa Cult's ritual site. Without the black-red zongzi, he would have been spotted long ago.
"Look here." Xuanyin's finger pointed to a cluster of red dots on the spinning light mirror, not far from Li Huowang's position.
"Once the front lines engage and the battlefront pushes this way, you can move in right after."
Li Huowang's finger swept over those red dots, immediately revealing ranks of soldiers polishing their guns and armor. Their expressions were utterly calm, like the stillness before a storm.
"Do the soldiers have a Si Ming?" Li Huowang asked.
He had always wanted to ask this question but never found the time.
"Of course."
"Who?"
"General, Minister, Chief."
"So in White Jade Capital, he should be on our side, right?"
Xuanyin shook his head. "You're asking too many questions. Get ready. Listen—the war drums are already sounding. Give it your all. The whole world is counting on you."
Drum-like beats drifted slowly from the distance. But when Li Huowang looked up, he realized it was thunder rumbling from the leaden clouds overhead.
He poured the remaining tea and tea leaves from his bowl into his mouth, stood up, passed through Xuanyin's body, and headed down the left path.
This was a mountain road, growing more remote the deeper it went. Yet in this forsaken place hid quite a few people.
As Li Huowang kept walking, the helpers Xuanyin had gathered flickered in and out of the shadows of the trees, gradually converging.
They swiftly dealt with the roadside sentries, both overt and covert.
Now, everyone's expressions grew increasingly grave. The thunder in the sky pounded like drums on their hearts.
As Li Huowang's finger swept over a banner on the spinning light mirror, a wave of murderous aura crashed over him, nearly suffocating him.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!!" On the battlefield's left flank appeared a massive Eight Array Diagram. The soldiers at its center were enveloped in sky-high killing intent, their eyes bloodshot, expressions frenzied and mad.
They seemed to have lost all reason. Yet every lift of their heads and step they took shifted with the formation's changes. In motion as array, at rest as camp.
In that instant, these hundreds of thousands of soldiers fused into a single entity—a monster with human bodies for bones and killing aura for blood.
Compared to them, the Fa Cult followers resembled a motley rabble. Though they seemed endless, they were a chaotic mess.
At that moment, a yellow triangular dragon general chess piece was slammed down hard by You Zixiong.
"Heaven and Earth charge forward! Transform to Tiger Wing! Crouching Tiger General strikes! Unleash its full might! As Hou Yin wielded it! Endless transformations! At the Gaixia encirclement, even the Grand Marshal could not predict!"
"Ha!!"
With the soldiers' unified roar, the solidified killing aura surged upward, forcibly scattering Li Huowang's view.
Snapping back to attention, Li Huowang saw the massive red blotch on the spinning light mirror and stopped watching that side. They had arrived at their destination.
Li Huowang tilted his head back, staring at the enormous wooden city wall standing alone amid the mountains.
Red cloth draped it entirely, but the fresh green leaves on the wood showed it had been felled recently.
Another deafening thunderclap rang out, and torrential rain poured down from the heavens.
As people from the city rushed toward the battle lines, Li Huowang took a deep breath. Dozens of tentacles slowly emerged from his body.
"Go!" Li Huowang's tentacles and feet slammed into the ground, propelling him over the massive wooden wall.
The wall turned to soft mud, letting him emerge easily from within.
The moment Li Huowang emerged, his view opened wide. A mountain-sized four-legged god statue loomed in the downpour.
The statue's face hid beneath a giant bamboo hat. From under the hat, dense red silk banners spread like bridges, draping the entire city above and below.
Ignoring the gazes turned his way, Li Huowang grabbed one corner of a red bridge and swung toward the altar at the statue's base, shrouded in white incense smoke.
No matter what the Fa Cult planned to sacrifice to the god, he would utterly destroy the ritual.
Fa Cult sorcerers swarmed toward Li Huowang, trying to block his approach to the base.
This was when the earlier helpers proved their worth—they held back every last Fa Cult sorcerer.
By the time Li Huowang broke through the encirclement and reached the platform before the god statue, a very strange figure blocked his path.
The man wore a tall square hat, its brim a curtain of bloody, mangled flesh.
Li Huowang first thought the man's face was rotted away. But upon closer inspection, he saw it covered by stitched-together viscera forming a curtain.
Red silk banners protruded from the man's body too, emerging from his flesh curtain and sleeves just like the statue.
When Li Huowang glanced at his feet, his pupils contracted. Those weren't human feet—they were chicken feet!
Facing the predatory glare of Li Huowang, the figure didn't spare him a glance. He reverently held a censer on a sandalwood tray with both hands.
As his limbs twisted in a dance-like motion, the white incense smoke billowing from the censer danced along with him.
At the end of each dance segment, whether lying or kneeling, he would raise the censer high toward the massive god statue before him.
The white smoke drifting from the censer rose slowly, gradually wafting into the god statue's hat, thick with red banners.
In the midst of this pouring rain, the sight was utterly bizarre.
Watching the man continue his incense purification with utter focus, Li Huowang's teeth clenched tighter.
This guy wasn't with the Fa Cult—Li Huowang was certain of it! Neither this man, nor the god statue, nor this bizarre ritual had anything to do with the Fa Cult!
But whatever this thing was, it was his enemy!
With Li Huowang snapping his head up, amid the whinnying of horses, Peng Longteng charged atop her massive warhorse, giant halberd in hand, smashing down toward the figure's head like a small mountain.
(End of chapter)