Chapter 760
Chapter 760
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 760
>Chapter Title: The Thing
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Chapter 760: The Thing
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> With his headache slightly eased, Li Huowang stared wide-eyed at the scene inside the spinning light mirror, nearly convinced he was seeing things.
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> The massive red dot representing the soldiers’ formation had been brutally torn away a huge chunk by something.
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> “This is impossible! How... how could this happen?! I clearly interrupted the sacrificial ritual!” Li Huowang glanced up at the statue overhead, which showed no sign of activity, then scanned the chicken-foot people sprawled haphazardly in pools of blood all around.
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> His expression turning extremely grim, Li Huowang immediately thrust his finger toward a small red dot beside the battlefield in the spinning light mirror, intent on figuring out what was going on over there.
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> In an instant, the view shifted, and Li Huowang found himself sitting on a warhorse, galloping toward the distance.
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> When he twisted his head back toward the battlefield, he witnessed a shocking sight: the soldiers’ massive formation was clashing with something invisible.
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> Though unseen, the thing’s every shift and movement clearly warped the surrounding space, causing everything nearby to sink inward unnaturally.
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> From the rough outline of the distorted space-time, Li Huowang could barely make out that the thing had four legs. It seemed enormous and extremely flat, with all sorts of long, strip-like appendages sprouting around its body.
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> But beyond that, Li Huowang couldn’t discern any more details about it.
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> “What is this? What the hell is this thing?” Li Huowang nearly ground his teeth to dust. Whatever it was, it was clear the Dharma Cult’s scheme had still succeeded—they must have prepared a backup plan.
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> Even if he’d blocked this one, their sacrificial ritual from somewhere else had gone through anyway.
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> The memories from the Taishan Stone had been flawed! Whether the Dharma Cult had been wary of him from the start, or this had been a trap for them all along, it didn’t change their current desperate situation.
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> Li Huowang yanked his hand out of the spinning light mirror and shouted loudly to the others: “Move! Everyone move! Head southwest to provide support!!”
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> Hearing Li Huowang’s order, Zhao Jiabao and the others who’d been patrolling sprang into action without the slightest hesitation, setting off as commanded.
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> Li Huowang prepared to depart as well, even though his head felt like it was splitting open and he had no idea if he could even deal with that thing.
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> But he had to go. If he let that thing slaughter the entire allied soldiers’ army, Great Liang would be left defenseless against the Dharma Cult’s whims.
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> “I need to get there faster! I need to hurry!” Li Huowang clutched his head, shouting in agony.
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> With a “splurt,” a sharp halberd blade pierced straight through Li Huowang’s chest. As flames engulfed him, Peng Longteng let out a low roar, jerking the halberd tip upward and hurling Li Huowang high into the air, sending him flying straight southwest from within the wooden fortress.
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> The rain continued to pour from the sky, and the raging storm blinded Li Huowang as he hurtled through the clouds. He could only gauge his position by the spinning light mirror each time he dropped to a certain height.
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> Li Huowang didn’t know how long he flew. When his scorched-black body, burned from the heat, finally froze stiff, his position overlapped with that massive red dot in the spinning light mirror.
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> “We’re here!” With his limbs tucked in, Li Huowang’s body plummeted rapidly downward.
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> As he burst through the clouds and returned to the mortal world, he spotted an ancient, bizarre thing squatting in the center of the scarred battlefield.
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> It resembled a mangy toad, but far more deformed than any ordinary one—somewhat like the statue from before, yet not quite.
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> The thing crouched low, its body formless and constantly shifting. Its previously invisible form was now entirely covered in writhing iron and flesh.
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> Hearing the unified cries of battle from above, Li Huowang realized that the stuff on its body was actually soldiers—it was completely blanketed by them!
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> Suddenly, a roar erupted from its mouth—not quite a tiger’s, not quite a wolf’s—and all the soldiers on its body were shaken off, scattering in every direction like falling rain.
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> As the soldiers retreated, the thing reverted to its previous state: warping space-time around it while its own body remained utterly transparent.
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> The soldiers hadn’t seemed to injure it just now—or if they had, its blood was transparent too, impossible to see.
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> The soldiers who’d scattered from its body tried to reform their array, but Li Huowang could clearly sense they were running out of steam.
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> “Xuanyin! Xuanyin!” Li Huowang shouted anxiously into the surroundings. “I don’t care where you are right now—you need to get here immediately! We’re in deep trouble here! Something this huge—you can’t pretend you didn’t see it!”
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> “For something this critical, don’t tell me a sly old fox like you didn’t leave a contingency! Stop hiding it! The Dharma Cult bastards really summoned this thing!”
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> Li Huowang’s voice echoed across the empty battlefield, but no response came—as if Xuanyin couldn’t care less about this life-or-death crisis.
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> Though furious, Li Huowang felt no surprise for some reason. He clenched his fists and strode firmly toward the distant thing.
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> “Xuanyin, if I survive this, you’d better wait for me—you’d better wait!!”
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> Accompanied by the thunder of hooves from behind, Peng Longteng’s massive halberd swung down, hooking Li Huowang onto the horse’s back as they charged wildly toward the distant battlefield.
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> They said you could stare at a mountain all day and still drop dead before reaching it—Li Huowang rode for a full half-stick of incense before finally arriving near the thing.
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> Up close, Li Huowang truly grasped its power. Some emotion radiated endlessly from it, seeking to infect and assimilate everything around it into itself.
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> It was bestial nature and ambition.
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> They’d said before it wasn’t a Regulator, but to Li Huowang, this thing was probably no weaker than one—only a Regulator could unconsciously assimilate everything around it like this.
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> With a creepy creaking sound, its unseen, ferocious maw opened and closed, sending mangled soldiers’ corpses tumbling down amid sprays of blood.
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> The soldiers clambered onto over half its body again, attacking with all sorts of weapons, but to little effect.
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> The thing’s body seemed impervious to mortal weapons.
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> “What now?” The question flashed through Li Huowang’s mind. Facing such a being, watching the soldiers charge forward one after another, Li Huowang took a slow, deep breath. “No matter what—let’s give it a shot!”
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> He hesitated, reaching tentatively for the spinebone sword’s hilt, but feeling his headache barely diminished, he thought better of it and let his hand drop.
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> “No, Zhuge Yuan probably can’t be repaired. I need to fix something else.”
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> (End of chapter)