Chapter 168: Accomplished

Chapter 168: Success

This sudden turn of events caught everyone present completely off guard.

Having regained his freedom, Danyang Zi hesitated not a moment; treading upon a cloud of black mist, he lunged toward the three figures in the distance like a tiger descending the mountain.

Li Huowang, however, merely stood his ground, watching the distant spectacle as if attending a theatrical performance.

Seeing ten thousand pairs of eyes staring at him in sheer disbelief,

Li Huowang's face instantly flushed with feigned guilt, and he clapped his hands together in mock remorse.

"Oh dear! Look at the mess I've made. How could I have let Danyang Zi slip away in a moment of carelessness? This junior is inexperienced and truly apologizes; I pray the seniors will forgive my blunder."

"You dare deceive me!"

Hearing such words spill from the other's lips, Li Huowang let out a sudden snort of laughter.

"I think I'm finally starting to understand why you Seat of Oblivion folks love doing this so much. Turns out, playing people is actually a lot of fun! Hahaha!"

Regardless of what the others thought, the situation began to spiral into an irreversible direction.

Just as the head of one Seat of Oblivion member was cleaved in two by Danyang Zi's sword, three Joyous Gods suddenly wriggled out from the smooth walls of the karst cave.

They were three chaotic, viscous masses, translucent things that looked as though they were pieced together from clusters of rotting grapes.

The instant they emerged, the Zoroastrian cultists watching from the surroundings found themselves utterly trapped; every mortal present rolled on the ground, laughing as if possessed and mad.

The more they laughed, the more terrifying they became, until blood seeped from their seven orifices, causing them to drop dead on the spot.

After emerging and taking a brief moment to acclimate, the Joyous Gods immediately set their sights on Danyang Zi and Li Huowang, charging forth.

With yet another faction joining the fray, the scene descended into even greater chaos.

Li Huowang, however, couldn't be bothered to move. Watching Danyang Zi dismember another Seat of Oblivion member in the distance, he felt he had achieved what he set out to do; it was time to end this.

Suddenly, the light above dimmed as Li Huowang was enveloped by a Joyous God.

As its layered, overlapping body scraped against him, Li Huowang instantly felt a multitude of things being stripped away from him.

Most of his emotions, his will to die, his despair, and even the faintest trace of reluctance were all swept away.

With a rustling sound, some stiffened worms slid from Li Huowang's chest, falling limply to the ground.

Staring sluggishly at the dead worms, Li Huowang understood that the time of the Intercalary Five Elements was nearly up.

A continuous clicking sound echoed from above; the Joyous God's next assault was imminent, and barring any surprises, that would mark the hour of his death.

Yet Li Huowang had no intention of dodging any longer. Without these worms, with his internal organs gone, his death was inevitable; whether early or late, the end was the same.

But perhaps this was for the best; Danyang Zi's plan to usurp his body had utterly failed.

"Sigh, I'm so tired. It's time to rest."

The wind above whipped the hem of Li Huowang's robe, making it flutter ceaselessly as he slowly closed his eyes to embrace his final end.

"Get lost!" A thunderclap exploded, and as Li Huowang looked up in confusion, he saw the back of Danyang Zi, whose body was entirely encased in grotesque, deformed flesh.

Shrouded in black clouds, he hovered directly above Li Huowang, stubbornly holding back the Joyous God; against all odds, he had saved Li Huowang at this very moment.

Scratching at his own chest, more dead worms slid to the ground, and his lost sense of pain began to gradually return.

"Save me? What's the point of saving me? Do you think that means I won't die?"

Having said this, Li Huowang stood idly in place, watching the show.

Barring any surprises, Danyang Zi's fate was likely grim as well, for he saw the other two Joyous Gods slithering over.

Just as Li Huowang stood there, intending to use his final moments to watch Danyang Zi suffer, he suddenly remembered something and turned his head toward where the Seat of Oblivion members had been.

There, the ground was littered with corpses in disarray; everyone else was dead, except for one.

A square-headed figure was clutching his stomach, stumbling and rushing forward along the cave.

"Damn! One of them actually got away!"

A Seat of Oblivion member surviving was even more unbearable than his own survival, something Li Huowang simply could not tolerate.

Li Huowang, who had just been filled with the will to die, instantly seemed to experience a final surge of vitality, charging toward that last remaining Seat of Oblivion member.

That Seat of Oblivion member appeared to have been injured during his clash with Danyang Zi and was not moving very fast.

Li Huowang couldn't chase him quickly either, for his sense of pain had returned; with every step, his increasingly hollow body suffered agonizing pain as if pierced by needles, his physical form collapsing.

One chased, the other fled, until suddenly the Seat of Oblivion member took a sharp turn at a corner ahead, vanishing from Li Huowang's sight just like that.

When Li Huowang, sword in hand, dragged his collapsing body past that corner and saw what lay beyond, he froze in place.

It was actually a dead end, where some women clutching their children were huddled at the very back, trembling in fear.

These people must be the families of the Zoroastrian cultists, hidden here to seek refuge from the disaster.

The Seat of Oblivion member who had just fled seemed to have changed his appearance and was hiding among them.

Hunched over, Li Huowang bent his back and stumbled toward them, the sharp tip of his sword dragging slowly along the ground, emitting an excruciatingly grating friction.

To these people, that sound was like a death knell, reducing them all to a chorus of terrified weeping and wailing.

Li Huowang's gaze swept over each and every one of them, searching for the hidden Seat of Oblivion member.

But this was no easy task, for there were too many people.

With a clatter, Li Huowang's left hand collapsed, falling to the ground and dissolving into a scattered pile of broken red bamboo slips.

"It's no use, I'm almost out of time, no time left to search! Since you won't come out, then I'll kill them all!!"

Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang raised his sword toward the old, the weak, the women, and the children before him.

"Wait!! Daoist, what are you doing!! They are all good people! They have never done anything wrong!" the monk's hallucination suddenly spoke up to dissuade him.

Hearing these words, a trace of hesitation flickered in Li Huowang's eyes, but suddenly he gripped the hilt tightly and swung down with all his might.

In an instant, a bloody storm erupted; amidst continuous cries and screams of agony, the Daoist robe on Li Huowang's body was dyed an even deeper red.

Witnessing the utterly tragic scene before him, the monk cried in anxiety, jumping up and down beside him, seemingly wanting to rush over and stop him, yet the monk could not touch Li Huowang in the slightest.

Amidst the bloody carnage, one woman's body twisted, her face rapidly shifting into a new visage as she prepared to flee in the chaos.

But before she could run a few steps, several worms flew out from the pool of blood on the ground and burrowed into her body.

As she collapsed to the ground wailing, something pushed her flesh and skin high up from within.

As her struggles ceased, with a wet squelch, crooked red bamboo slips drilled out from her mahjong-tiled face as if screwing their way out.

Thus, the last Seat of Oblivion member was dead, and with that, all six Seat of Oblivion members who had once deceived Li Huowang were completely wiped out.

Watching Li Huowang halt his slaughter, the monk, furious beyond measure, forcefully tore a piece of fabric from his sleeve and threw it fiercely to the ground.

Pointing a trembling finger at Li Huowang, he shouted, "Daoist! I misjudged you! We are through! The Li Huowang of the past could never have done such a thing!!"

Hearing this, Li Huowang, who was nearly at the end of his rope, slowly raised his head to look at him.

As if realizing it only after the fact, he suddenly had an epiphany.

First, he lowered his head to look at his own ruined, battered body, and then, his expression suddenly shifted to one of ecstatic joy.

"That's right! Li Huowang would never do such a thing, but I would, Danyang Zi would! Hahaha! This Daoist Lord has succeeded!!"

(End of Chapter)