Chapter 288: Blind Chen

Chapter 288: Blind Chen

The words that rose to Li Huowang’s lips jammed hard in his throat the moment he heard Blind Chen speak.

"What does he mean? He suspects me of being a Falsehood Cultist? He never actually called for reinforcements?"

In a split second, a tempest of thoughts raced through Li Huowang’s mind, and the bobble-headed doll who had previously invited him to join the Watchers of Heaven instantly grew profoundly suspicious.

Bereft of Li Huowang’s command, the Old Voyagers that had been drifting in the air like jellyfish came to a sudden halt, hovering motionless.

"No!" Li Huowang’s face contorted into a snarl. Shaking his bell with violent force, he sent the eight Old Voyagers soaring toward Blind Chen to the rhythm of the ringing bronze. "Be it truth or lie, I demand ironclad proof! I will not allow myself to be led into another pit!"

Though the blind man could not see, he seemed perfectly attuned to the trajectories of the Old Voyagers; with a sudden, fluid backbend, he evaded the first strike, lunged his hand into the bamboo basket on his back, and instantly brandished a mirror shaped like a bagua trigram.

"Heaven purifies, Earth clarifies; yin descends, yang rises!"

A gentle beam of light erupted from the mirror, sweeping across the air like a greatsword, and every Old Voyager it touched dissolved into nothingness.

With another sweeping slash to the flank, two more Old Voyagers were severed clean at the waist.

Just as he prepared to aim the mirror at the remaining spirits, he felt an explosive surge of killing intent manifest directly above his head.

Faster than thought, Li Huowang descended upon him, shrouded in a towering aura of malice, his blade a mere half-chang from Blind Chen’s neck.

Yet in the blink of an eye, Blind Chen retracted his head into his collar like a startled tortoise, dodging the blow.

At the precise moment Li Huowang’s momentum spent itself and before his next breath could form, a massive hand thrust out from the cavity where the head should have been, locking tightly onto Li Huowang’s sword-wielding wrist.

Li Huowang wrenched his arm back violently, but instead of shaking Blind Chen off, the maneuver allowed the blind man to hitch a ride, pressing forward like an adhesive shadow.

Borrowing the force of Li Huowang’s pull, Blind Chen thrusted his bamboo staff straight toward the youth's chest.

But his ploy failed to find its mark, as the remaining Old Voyagers swarmed back to break the deadlock for Li Huowang.

For a time, the two sides clashed back and forth, locked in a fierce, agonizing stalemate.

Yet the stalemate was bound to fracture, for Li Huowang had deliberately left a hidden card up his sleeve.

"Senior Brother Li! We’re here to help you!" Waiting from a distance, Bai Lingmiao, Gao Zhijian, and the others drew their weapons and charged toward Blind Chen.

If Blind Chen could barely hold his own against Li Huowang alone, facing four more combatants meant he stood no chance; his fate was already sealed.

Splat! A long needle wrapped in white hair pinned itself into Blind Chen’s right hand, the one gripping the staff, and in an instant, his five fingers sloughed down toward his elbow like melting candle wax.

Unable to hold his weapon, panic gripped Blind Chen’s heart, and in the next heartbeat, a sudden darkness fell upon his mind as a bloody, howling wind whipped his hair wildly about.

"Disaster!" His heart sank instantly.

"Zhijian! Don't kill him!"

The moment Li Huowang’s voice rang out, Blind Chen felt that savage wind swerve violently, smashing directly into his arm.

With a sickening crunch of fracturing bone, the spiked mace in Gao Zhijian's grip pulverized Blind Chen’s arm.

Chun Xiaoman rushed forward, kicking the blind man’s staff away, and in perfect coordination caught the iron chains thrown by Gao Zhijian, swiftly binding Blind Chen tight.

"Did you see that? Did you see that? Heh! This blind bastard fell right into Master Cao Cao's hands!"

Li Huowang did not bother to acknowledge Gou Wa's boasting, walking straight up to Blind Chen instead. "Are you an official or a player? Now, we can have a proper chat."

"Kh-tfoo!" A glob of bloody phlegm flew toward Li Huowang’s face, but he evaded it with ease.

Gao Zhijian’s fist, the size of a sandbag, slammed into Blind Chen’s face, crookedly breaking his nose and knocking loose several teeth.

"Don't be so crude." Li Huowang stayed Gao Zhijian's next blow and questioned Blind Chen once more: "I will ask you one last time, who exactly are you?"

"I am your ancestral grandfather!" Looking at the blind man whose face was flushed crimson with rage, Li Huowang leaned down and retrieved a willow-leaf scalpel, thin as a cicada's wing, from the torture kit lining his robe.

"It matters not if you won't tell me. I shall find out myself. Hold his head for me, don't let him pull it back inside."

Amidst Blind Chen’s bloodcurdling shriek, the scalpel sliced diagonally into the skin beneath his jaw; Li Huowang carefully peeled away the first layer, and then immediately began to flay the second, working with the rapt devotion of a master craftsman.

Time ticked away slowly, but Li Huowang’s expression grew progressively grimmer; the man's face had been nearly entirely peeled away, yet he had found nothing but this single, genuine visage!

"You... you really aren't a Falsehood Cultist?" Li Huowang muttered, staring at Blind Chen, who was now drawing more expired breaths than fresh ones.

He had previously assumed this man was sowing discord, but with the ironclad proof laid bare before him, Li Huowang was forced to confront a stark reality: he had indeed committed a terrible mistake.

"I... I curse your ancestors."

Witnessing the sheer frailty of the cursing Blind Chen, Li Huowang’s chest tightened. He turned hastily to the woman beside him, who wore a red bridal veil and was flanked by her identical manifestation, and barked, "Miao Miao, quick! Call upon the White Immortal to heal him, hurry!"

After a frantic flurry of hands, Li Huowang finally watched as the face he had flayed away was stitched back into place.

"My deepest apologies, Senior. Under those circumstances, I truly could not distinguish truth from deception. Zhijian, untie him at once."

If this man was real, it meant the bobble-headed doll was the source of the rot, that the Falsehood Cultist was him, and that this might well be a trap orchestrated by the adversary.

The moment the heavily wounded Blind Chen regained his freedom, he scrambled away from Li Huowang and his companions like a startled monkey.

Leaning weakly against the wall, his face shifting between anger and fear, he stared in the direction of the approaching footsteps. "What kind of game are you Falsehood Cultists playing now? You think I'll believe you? Keep dreaming!"

With that, he struggled to stand, though given the severity of his injuries, the task was monumental.

"Senior Chen, listen to my explanation," Li Huowang said, stepping into Blind Chen’s path.

"What explanation is there left to give in this situation? Do you mean to tell me that what just happened was a mere misunderstanding? You want me to believe you? Fine! Get out of my sight, the further you go, the more I'll believe you!"

The two men engaged in conversation suddenly fell silent together, their eyes snapping toward the distant village temple, where a figure stood at an angle within the circular archway.

It was a clay Bodhisattva, half swallowed by the darkness and half illuminated by the moonlight, standing perfectly still as it stared fixedly at Li Huowang and his party through the black hollows of its eyes.

"There! Do you see it now?! You beat me to this state, and these clay ghouls noticed! They intend to take my life while I am down! Now, we shall all perish together!"

No sooner had the words fallen than the Eighteen Arhats slowly filed out from the temple sanctuary behind the clay Bodhisattva.

With every step they took, the clay coating their bodies cracked open a layer further, revealing clusters of faintly shimmering compound eyes hiding within the fissures.