Chapter 759
Chapter 759
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 759
>Chapter Title: Death
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In the midst of the pouring rain, a white-robed scholar stood there, completely out of place with everything around him.
That was Zhuge Yuan—the Zhuge Yuan who had once died, now reconstructed by Li Huowang using the spinebone sword.
Zhuge Yuan looked around and immediately understood what had happened. He gripped his long-handled brush, lightly dipped it in the vermilion ink, then clenched his fingers and slashed forcefully at the chicken-foot people before him.
The brush in Zhuge Yuan’s hand was like the judge’s pen from the underworld. Wherever it touched, the chicken-foot people collapsed silently, and the incense in the censers instantly extinguished, unable to be relit.
Zhuge Yuan turned around and looked at Li Huowang.
“Brother Li, long time no see. I hope you’ve been well?”
Li Huowang, his head splitting with pain, tried to force a smile onto his agonized face upon hearing this, but he quickly remembered something and bent over in pain once more.
He had to make this clear: this looked just like Zhuge Yuan, but it wasn’t him. It was merely something he had forcibly cultivated into existence through true cultivation.
Now that his cultivation was complete, he could reconstruct Zhuge Yuan using the spinebone sword, but what was cultivated was ultimately fake. Zhuge Yuan was dead. He had to face reality.
He had cultivated him merely as a tool! Just like Peng Longteng! He couldn’t transfer the emotions he held for Zhuge Yuan onto this counterfeit.
He tried to distinguish truth from falsehood, but as Li Huowang thought this, Zhuge Yuan’s body began to crumble rapidly, on the verge of retreating back into the spinebone sword.
Something cultivated through true cultivation existed or not at Li Huowang’s mere whim. He couldn’t split hairs so finely. If he didn’t truly believe from the bottom of his heart that this Zhuge Yuan was real, then Zhuge Yuan couldn’t be cultivated.
Zhuge Yuan saw through the issue and immediately reminded him:
“Brother Li, whether I’m real or fake, if you truly believe I’m fake, then I inevitably cease to exist.”
Li Huowang let out a pained roar and jerked his head up, his tear-filled eyes locking onto Zhuge Yuan.
The body that had been crumbling stabilized, and Zhuge Yuan once again stood before Li Huowang.
Staring at the familiar face, Li Huowang’s trembling finger pointed toward the enemies around them.
“Help me! Help me kill them! Kill them all!!! ”
Zhuge Yuan nodded lightly. As he turned back, he began wielding his brush once more.
In the pouring rain, the chicken-foot people fell in swaths like harvested wheat. They quickly realized something was wrong.
All of them tacitly converged from every direction toward Li Huowang, not attacking the formidable Zhuge Yuan but targeting the agonizingly kneeling Li Huowang instead.
Clearly, they had witnessed Li Huowang’s cultivation just now and understood the causal link between them.
But with Zhuge Yuan there, they were overthinking it. They couldn’t get anywhere near Li Huowang.
Once Zhuge Yuan appeared, the outcome of the battle seemed set.
The chicken-foot people tried to struggle, coming up with all sorts of tactics, but Zhuge Yuan countered them effortlessly. The gap in strength was simply too vast.
Against Zhuge Yuan’s power, these chicken-foot people were no match. With every stroke and flourish of his brush, the chicken-foot people around them vanished rapidly. The incense smoke in the air gradually dispersed, with not a wisp entering the white bamboo hat anymore.
In the pouring rain, atop the blood-soaked altar, Zhuge Yuan stood alone with his sword amid the carnage, as the surroundings gradually fell silent.
“Brother Li, you can let go now. I’m the fake Zhuge Yuan. The real one is already dead.”
At these words, Li Huowang—clutching his head in the downpour—stumbled and collapsed, sprawling in the rainwater, gasping for breath in great heaves.
Maintaining Zhuge Yuan’s existence was excruciatingly painful with every breath, every moment, his head throbbing as if it were about to explode.
Without Li Huowang’s sustenance, Zhuge Yuan’s body beside him rapidly dissipated. Looking at Li Huowang, he slowly said:
“Brother Li, may I ask you one last thing? Has Great Qi truly been saved?”
Seeing Li Huowang nod slightly, a satisfied Zhuge Yuan reverted to the spinebone sword, which slanted into the ground.
“Dad.” Li Sui, who had manifested, crawled over and used her tentacles to clumsily help Li Huowang up.
“Dad, don’t be scared. Your head’s still there. Your head’s still there.”
Ignoring Li Sui for the moment, Li Huowang stood and surveyed the battlefield around him.
The altar was littered with the sprawled bodies of chicken-foot people. Most were dead, and even those still alive were swiftly cut down by Zhao Jiabao and the others, joining their companions.
The entire wooden city before had been interwoven with rainwater from above and bloodwater below, transforming this stronghold towering in the deep mountains into a city of blood.
Atop the sticky, muddy bloodwater loomed the massive four-legged idol squatting in the city center, draped in red cloth strips.
Though it looked even more terrifying under the blood’s reflection, at least it had stopped moving. Li Huowang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Even so, Li Huowang remained cautious. He turned to Zhao Jiabao beside him and ordered:
“Send everyone out! Search every inch inside and out of this city! Kill anything alive! Leave none!”
The more critical the moment, the more care was needed. With the fate of defeating the Dharma Cult at stake, Li Huowang dared not be careless.
He even tried to struggle to his feet to join them, but his head—threatening to burst—wouldn’t allow it.
Cultivating Zhuge Yuan, a heart demon, required immense mental effort. Even with the spinebone sword’s aid, reconstructing him was an extreme strain.
“Xuan Pin! Xuan Pin, get out here!” Li Huowang’s tone was utterly hostile, but the illusory Xuan Pin—who could appear at his side anytime before—didn’t show this time.
“Xuan Pin, get out here!” Li Huowang roared into the pouring rain, but still, nothing happened.
“You think hiding makes it go away? Just you wait! When I get back, you’d better give me an explanation!” Li Huowang cursed inwardly.
Feeling his head ease slightly, Li Huowang stood and walked to the left, gazing at the blood slowly seeping from under the windows.
This city had seemed to house others besides the chicken-foot people before. Who knew what they’d been doing here.
But not anymore.
Li Huowang looked up again at the mountain-like idol in the rain. Seeing no sign of movement, he turned to the spinning light mirror.
“This should put an end to the Dharma Cult’s schemes, right?”
That’s what he thought, but when he noticed the scene in the spinning light mirror, Li Huowang’s pupils shrank to pinpoints.
The soldiers’ faction, which should have been a solid mass of red dots, looked as if something had taken a massive bite out of it, forcibly tearing away a huge chunk.
(End of chapter)