Chapter 210: Collect

Chapter 210: Retrieval

That a headless Peng Longteng could still move was something Li Huowang had never anticipated, and he was entirely unguarded against it.

Moreover, his skin was now utterly gone, his consciousness blurred to near-nothingness by the agony, and his movements had grown agonizingly slow. Even if he wished to react, it was already too late; he could only watch blankly as the giant halberd crashed down toward his head.

"Am I... about to die?" The thought surfaced in Li Huowang’s mind, yet within him lay no terror, only a faint sense of deliverance.

At that hairsbreadth juncture, a silhouette leaped high with a furious roar, slamming into Peng Longteng's left shoulder and slightly deflecting her towering, heavy-armored frame.

The great halberd sliced down like a massive door plank, nearly scraping past the left side of Li Huowang's body. Li Huowang was astonished himself that he had somehow survived this fatal predicament.

Straining his blurred vision, he discovered that the figure who had thrown himself into Peng Longteng was none other than Gao Zhijian.

In the next instant, a crimson shadow pounced to Li Huowang's side. The beastly head beneath the red bridal veil snapped its jaws open, clamping onto Li Huowang's charred neck, and swiftly dragged him away from Peng Longteng on all fours.

Being dragged along the ground like this, Li Huowang stared up at the white clouds in the sky and smiled inexplicably; to have someone risking their life to save him was a truly wonderful feeling.

Once the scorched Li Huowang was dragged to one side, the beastly head beneath the red veil released its grip and immediately turned to charge into the distance.

The enemy was still moving, and Li Huowang refused to wait out his end in resignation. Struggling into a sitting position, he spoke to the approaching Gouwa, "Go, help me retrieve the Great Qian Record."

Gouwa swallowed hard in nervousness, his hands reaching forward to support Li Huowang, yet he had no idea where he could even touch him. "Senior Brother Li, what Great Qian Record? Where is it?"

"It's... over..." Before Li Huowang could fully point his mangled finger toward Peng Longteng's feet, a figure darted out and scooped the Great Qian Record from the ground. It was Chun Xiaoman.

Before Li Huowang could speak, the battle took a sudden, violent turn. With a sickening squelch, Gao Zhijian’s burly frame hung limply upon the heavy halberd.

The disparity in strength was simply too vast; he was no match for her at all.

"Give the Great Qian Record to me, quickly!" Eyes nearly bursting, Li Huowang stumbled forward only two steps before collapsing into the dirt; his body was currently too weak.

At this moment, he seemed entirely composed of black charcoal—a man of soot who shed pieces of himself with every couple of steps.

Chun Xiaoman cast a glance at the utterly wretched Li Huowang, then looked toward Peng Longteng, who was flinging Gao Zhijian off her halberd.

Hardening her heart and gritting her teeth, she unrolled the Great Qian Record directly onto the ground, aimed the longsword in her hand at her own left arm, and hacked down ruthlessly.

The moment the left arm severed from Chun Xiaoman's body, it rapidly turned an iron gray, the hairs upon it thickening and lengthening as they writhed and thrashed, eventually transforming into a cluster of tentacles that twisted and burrowed into the earth.

Just as Peng Longteng raised the giant halberd with both hands, preparing to sprint toward Li Huowang, the thing churned up from the soil and slammed violently against her breastplate, sending her towering form flying backward.

The force was immense, so much so that the giant halberd nearly slipped from Peng Longteng's grasp.

Right then, the newly arrived woman in the red veil propelled herself off the ground on all fours, leaping straight into midair. The contours of three rotting wolf skulls suddenly thrust through the fabric of the red veil, biting viciously onto the heavy halberd in Peng Longteng's hands.

From afar, the divine incantations and drumbeats rang out at the perfect moment.

"Dong, dong, dong! The Ao fish bears the earth and the earth bears the sky, a pair of orioles watches over it nigh. When the Ao fish blinks, the earth begins to shake; when the Ao fish turns over, the earth splits and the heavens break! Dong, dong, dong!"

The woman twisted her body rapidly in midair, contorting herself to a degree an ordinary person could never achieve. Harnessing this torsional force, she finally wrenched the giant halberd from Peng Longteng's grasp.

The weaponless, headless Peng Longteng was now facing an inevitable end. The tentacles from Chun Xiaoman’s severed arm writhed continuously, binding her entire body in a tight embrace.

The woman in the red veil spat the heavy halberd onto the ground and stalked toward Peng Longteng with her three beastly heads.

Once the rigid armor plates were torn away, Peng Longteng's flesh followed, ripped apart by sharp fangs and teeth until deep white bones began to show.

Seeing that it was all over, Li Huowang, who had been holding on almost entirely by sheer force of will, rapidly succumbed to unconsciousness.

His last words before blacking out were, "Quick, go save... Gao... Zhijian..."

Groggy and fading, Li Huowang fell into a near-death state, his consciousness profoundly blurred.

"So tired... No, I cannot give up, someone is waiting for me,"

"Others paid such a heavy price to save me, I absolutely cannot die..."

"Who is it? Who is watching me? Who are you?"

An unknown amount of time passed before Li Huowang, weakened to the absolute limit, slowly opened his single eye. The familiar swaying of his body told him he was currently lying in an oxcart.

Shifting his gaze downward, he found a red-eyed Bai Lingmiao holding a clay jar, using a cotton cloth dipped in something resembling lard to gently brush it over his body.

Li Huowang strained to part his lips, which had already fused together, a trickle of bloody water slipping from the corner of his mouth. "How is Gao Zhijian?"

His raspy voice made Bai Lingmiao tremble. Clutching the jar, she leaned closer to Li Huowang's head, tears welling up in her eyes once more.

"Where is Gao Zhijian?" Li Huowang asked again, his greatest concern now being the man who had been impaled on the giant halberd.

Bai Lingmiao gently raised her sleeve to wipe away her emotional tears. "He is fine. I beseeched the Immortals to save him. That strike missed his vital organs."

"That is good... That is good..." Li Huowang smiled. He struggled to sit up, but Bai Lingmiao hastily held him back.

"Senior Brother Li, you mustn't move just yet. I am applying rat oil to you. My mother used to say rat oil is the best thing for treating burns."

Li Huowang complied. Charcoal-black all over, he lay in the cart, waiting as she brushed the oil over him time and again.

Through Bai Lingmiao’s recounting, Li Huowang learned of everything that had transpired after he lost consciousness.

No one knew what kind of martial arts or sorcery Peng Longteng had cultivated, nor why she could still move without a head. No one else knew either.

The only certainty was that this blood-drenched executioner was finally dead, which could be considered an act of divine justice.

Peng Longteng's bones were incredibly tough, making it impossible to dismember her. Only after all her flesh had been torn away, reducing her completely to a skeleton, did she finally cease to stir.

Having escaped the peril, the others had hurried through the pass and entered the territory of Qingqiu, lest the remaining penal soldiers seek retribution.

Silence settled inside the oxcart for a brief moment before Bai Lingmiao spoke with some hesitation, "Senior Brother Li, that divine ability of yours that allows limbs to grow back... could you teach it to Sister Xiaoman? Her arm is gone."

"Though she always claims she is fine, she is still so young, and her days ahead are still very long."