Chapter 762
Chapter 762
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 762
>Chapter Title: Change
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Zhuge Yuan's question was destined to have no one else answer it for him. Besides him, no one present knew that this thing was called Matuo.
Right now, Li Huowang certainly wouldn't answer this question. He didn't even have a head anymore.
However, in the instant his entire head exploded, Li Huowang finally caught sight of the true form of this invisible thing.
Compared to the statue from before, it too wore a bamboo hat, proving that the statue earlier had been it.
That statue was merely a part of this Matuo. The other part couldn't be shown through a stone statue.
That bamboo hat wasn't actually its head—it was its heart! Those red strips spreading from the heart were blood vessels extending throughout its body.
Above the statue was an even more peculiar part—a head that couldn't be touched.
Its head was a mass of constantly shifting beasts, continuously regenerating and detaching. The detached parts flowed along the red strips toward the bamboo hat, forming an ominous and terrifying appearance.
If Li Huowang still had a head at this sight, he probably couldn't bear to look at it for even a breath. But now he didn't, so he noticed some details, some imperceptible things.
"Zhuge... Brother Zhuge!!"
Hearing the voice, Zhuge Yuan pulled the old almanac from his robes and turned toward the lone half-mouth lying in a pool of blood on the ground beside him—Li Huowang's.
"This thing! This thing's left leg is injured! Its left leg was hurt not long ago! That's its weakness! It can be broken open there!!"
Hearing this, Zhuge Yuan moved. His feet lightly tapped the ground as he flew toward Matuo, gripping a brush dipped in cinnabar, aiming straight for its left leg.
Li Huowang's words weren't just heard by Zhuge Yuan—Peng Longteng heard them too, as did the remaining soldiers. They moved in perfect unison.
"Brother Li! Hold on! Give me the time it takes to drink a cup of tea!"
After Zhuge Yuan spoke, he leaped directly onto Peng Longteng's back and quickly began drawing on it. "General Peng, dare you to gamble it all?"
Staring at the thing before her, Peng Longteng's mouth cracked into an ever-wider grin, until she burst into mad laughter. "What do you mean 'dare'? Slay gods, slay immortals, slay Buddhas, slay Daos! Kill! Kill! Kill!!"
As the final "kill" rang out, Zhuge Yuan swiftly finished drawing. It was a banner filled with murderous intent, depicting a fierce ghost with a blue face and fangs, its waist surrounded by heads, devouring hearts and livers.
With a quick stroke of the brush across the ghost's face, Zhuge Yuan brought to life a pair of eyes brimming with the ecstasy of slaughter.
Immediately after, the drawing came alive. It opened its mouth in wild laughter and crawled from Peng Longteng's back to her front. The ghost's head landed perfectly over Peng Longteng's tattooed face proclaiming "Loyalty to the Death for the Nation." The overlapping images made it look even more terrifying and horrifying.
Zhuge Yuan didn't stop. He continued drawing on Peng Longteng's back, each stroke rapidly sinking into her body.
As the brush strokes merged into her, Peng Longteng's body began to change. Her originally burly frame grew slender and thin, horse and rider alike flattening out until they became a painting entirely.
Matuo tried to protect its wounded leg, but the soldiers sent two cavalry charging forward, sacrificing their lives to cover for Zhuge Yuan.
"Open!" With Zhuge Yuan slashing quickly at Matuo's wound, the fully transformed painting of Peng Longteng on horseback plunged straight into the fissure.
Matuo clearly felt the pain; its attacks grew less frequent.
When some red liquid flowed out from within, it lit the path for the other soldiers. A squad of cavalry charged up, piercing into its body like a spear.
As Matuo prepared to counterattack, Zhuge Yuan pulled out the old almanac from his robes and flung it into the air. "Taboo Sima, manifest!"
The old almanac was partially burned, partially intact—with Li Huowang's abilities, he couldn't fully forge it.
But it had some effect nonetheless. Zhuge Yuan gazed contentedly at Matuo's body flickering in and out of visibility before transforming back into the spinebone sword. He had done all he could.
As the soldiers tore relentlessly at it, Matuo's wound grew larger and larger until its entire left leg could no longer support it, and it collapsed to the ground.
Li Huowang struggled to his feet, gripping his rebar spear, panting as he eyed the large truck crashed into the wall in the distance, smoking and aflame.
The others nearby stared at Li Huowang in stunned silence. Wu Qi slowly extended her right hand toward him and gave a thumbs-up. "Badass!"
"What did I say? Better safe than sorry! That medicine of yours was useless!"
As Li Huowang spoke, he reached up to clutch his head—only to grasp at empty air. The next second, his body convulsed and he collapsed to the ground.
Moments later, a palm-sized human skin crawled out from the wound in his abdomen. It grew with the wind, soon expanding to full Li Huowang size.
But he now looked like a leaf—light and flimsy, as if a mere breath would topple him.
After Li Huowang sprawled on the ground and devoured the shadow of that headless corpse, his body rapidly swelled back to normal.
Once everything was restored, Li Huowang finally let out a long breath.
Then Li Huowang smiled. He looked at the motionless Matuo in the distance and laughed heartily.
No matter what schemes and sinister plots the Law Faction had planned with this thing, it was all useless now. It was dead. This time, they had won.
Matuo's body lay there, rapidly dissipating. In its place, nothing remained but Peng Longteng's painting.
Li Huowang felt exhausted. Even after switching bodies, he was still exhausted—not physically, but mentally.
He wanted to sleep deeply, preferably the kind where he never had to wake up.
"Dad, are you okay?" Li Sui carefully helped him up.
"No, I'm fine." Li Huowang's eyes stared blankly ahead as he answered reflexively.
"Dad, look, people are coming from over there. Our reinforcements are here!"
"Reinforcements? Reinforcements now? They'd be lucky to catch the shit while it's still hot!" Li Huowang didn't know where the surge of strength came from as he staggered toward the sound of hoofbeats.
Li Huowang's head swam dizzily; everything looked distorted. He knew what a horse was, yet he stared at its head for half a day before realizing it.
Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang drew the Violet Tassel Sword and slashed his own leg. He immediately felt much better.
"Where's Xuan Pin?! Get Xuan Pin out here to see me!" Li Huowang roared furiously at the reinforcements before him. "Xuan Pin! Get out here!!" He had completely lost trust in this old schemer who had always manipulated him.
"Senior Brother Li." A familiar voice called out.
Li Huowang looked up to see it was Gao Zhijian. He looked grave, holding something on a wooden tray.
"Why are you here? Where's Xuan Pin? Tell that bastard to get out here!"
With a pained expression, Gao Zhijian held the item forward to Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li, Master Xuan Pin has passed away."
Staring at the red Daoist robes in Gao Zhijian's wooden tray, Li Huowang stood frozen for a long while before realizing what had happened.
"Senior Brother Li, Xuan Pin is really gone. When things went wrong for you, they went wrong for him too..."
He took a deep breath and paced back and forth on his wounded leg, the anger in his heart burning ever fiercer.
"You... you fucking..." Li Huowang suddenly spun around, strode to Gao Zhijian's side, and slapped the tray from his hands, sending Xuan Pin's relics scattering to the ground.
"Why the fuck do you all have to be like this!!!"
(End of chapter)