Chapter 1006: Countermeasure

Chapter 1006: Countermeasure

Within the chaotic, timeless void of White Jade Capital, the Sima, clinging to and pulling away from one another, formed a shifting circle.

At the center stood Ji Zai, the master of bewilderment, and the dying Sanqing, who held the Heavenly Dao of Secrets.

Ji Zai gazed at the chaos within the chains of secrets before him; he could neither distinguish nor grasp which strand was the Heavenly Dao of Secrets and which was the Heavenly Dao of Growth stolen from Zuoqiu Yong.

After all, as the master of the Heavenly Dao of Secrets, Sanqing would surely have made concealing such information a trivial task.

Yet this did not deter Ji Zai; regardless of which was which, devouring them all would surely suffice.

Li Huowang, chewing on the Heavenly Dao, turned around in confusion and asked the other Sima with a muffled voice: "Well? Do none of you want the Heavenly Dao within Sanqing?"

Hearing Li Huowang’s words, the other Sima in White Jade Capital remained silent, standing still and merely watching him.

Li Huowang could not be bothered with them; if they did not want the Heavenly Dao, all the better, for they were unreliable anyway.

If they were to take the Heavenly Dao and then defect for some other reason, it would be a massive headache.

He could not trust them with such power; relying on heaven or earth was inferior to relying on oneself. Keeping Sanqing’s Heavenly Dao in his own hands was the only way to be certain.

Just then, Li Huowang saw the Wusheng Mother approach and crouch before him; she reached out with sleeves adorned in white feathers to gently wrap around his six deformed hands.

At that moment, a warmth flooded Li Huowang’s heart; to have someone who would never abandon him felt wonderful.

Perhaps it was for this reason that no matter how many hardships he endured, he could always persevere.

Following a shared smile between Ji Zai and the Wusheng Mother, they began to absorb the Heavenly Dao of Sanqing together.

Yet, to Li Huowang’s surprise, even after being wounded to such an extent, Sanqing still clung to life.

Lying in a pool of blood, the dying Qing Wanglai coughed up blood and laughed aloud, staring blankly at the sky as he felt his body being torn apart.

But soon, a woman’s face, a cigarette dangling from her lips and a thorn tattoo covering half her face, blocked his view. "Must hurt, doesn't it? Want me to help you find release?"

A ring of smoke was exhaled from above, settling over Qing Wanglai’s face.

Even so, Qing Wanglai maintained his signature, kindly smile. "Li, do you really... really think I had no... backup plan? You think I was... that easy?"

Upon hearing this, Li Huowang, mid-chew, froze for several seconds before forcing himself to swallow. "What? Even now, what could you possibly do? Don't tell me you’ve poisoned me?"

"Why... not? I have already... caught up to your... way of thinking. I have already... anticipated... what you would do."

No sooner had Li Huowang finished speaking than his expression shifted, and he immediately vomited everything back up. "You bastard, you actually dared to poison me?!"

"Hahahaha!!!" In his delirium, Qing Wanglai used his remaining strength to laugh aloud.

Amidst the laughter, Li Huowang felt a dull ache begin in his abdomen—a pain so familiar, reminiscent of the agony he felt after consuming the three pills Danyangzi had refined from evil spirits at Qingfeng Temple.

Li Huowang immediately shoved his fingers down his throat, gagging violently. "Ugh~"

Though he had purged almost everything from his stomach, the pain in his abdomen only grew more intense.

"Li Huowang, since you refuse to die, I can only send... you... to your death. My plan must be completed."

Seeing the situation turn, the others rushed over, and under Wu Qi’s guidance, they prepared to pump Li Huowang’s stomach.

But after their efforts, Li Huowang’s condition did not improve; it worsened. His face turned white as paper, and beads of sweat the size of beans soaked his forehead.

And it was not just him; Yang Na, too, began to show symptoms.

With a ghastly complexion and covered in wounds, Li Huowang pushed the others aside, gritted his teeth, and hauled the fallen Qing Wanglai up, glaring at him viciously. "What exactly did you do!"

Yet Qing Wanglai could no longer answer; though his signature smile remained, his hollow eyes made it clear he was already dead.

However, at such close range, Li Huowang noticed something white tucked into Qing Wanglai’s collar. He pulled it out and found a note covered in writing.

It was written in several lines of elegant italics, the handwriting clearly prepared by Qing Wanglai before he made his move.

"Li Huowang, if you see this note, it proves you did not help me; your thinking is ultimately too low-level, still fixated on the gains and losses of mere projections."

"Since soft tactics failed, I had to resort to force. You ate me, so you likely have only a day or two to live."

"Of course, I am not being merciful by letting you live an extra day; it is simply that if I had used a lethal poison, I would have died on the spot, unable to wait for the moment to poison you."

"Do you know? I didn't move against you because I couldn't defeat you; I simply held a shred of hope for you. Alas, I was wrong. I am the only one in the entire world capable of clear thought."

"Don't worry about walking alone. Look beneath my corpse; only by collapsing all the projections here can we save the real us."

Li Huowang looked down at the spot where Qing Wanglai had been lying and saw shards of glass in the viscous pool of blood! Upon closer inspection, they were fragments of three test tubes.

Clearly, while the others were in a panic, Qing Wanglai had silently slid these three tubes from his sleeves and shattered them against the blood-red floor!

The liquids from the three tubes had mixed upon breaking, and an odorless, colorless substance had long since permeated the room. Though Li Huowang did not know what it was, it was certainly not the anesthetic from before!

All the nonsense the man had spouted was merely a diversion! Even if he hadn't devoured the Heavenly Dao, he and the others would have been poisoned all the same! The man’s ultimate goal was to kill every Sima in White Jade Capital!

When Li Huowang looked at Qing Wanglai’s corpse again, he found the smile on the man’s face had grown even wider.

Gazing at that disgusting face, the rage in Li Huowang’s heart burned brighter. He snatched the gun from Yang Na’s hand, gritted his teeth, and pulled the trigger on Qing Wanglai’s face.

With a loud "bang," Qing Wanglai’s head shattered into pieces, and amidst the red and white gore, yet another note was revealed.