Chapter 292: Trouble

Chapter 292 Trouble

Once all the details for the funeral arrangements were prepared, Gouwa emerged from the coffin shop, quite satisfied with the price. "Everything is settled; this will be countless times better than last time."

Squinting his eyes, he glanced up at the scorching sun overhead, realized it was already noon, and hurriedly set off toward the inn.

"Oh right, the shopkeeper just said making the burial clothes requires the deceased's measurements; I need to hurry back and measure them."

When Gouwa reached beside his room and looked through the window, seeing that Gao Zhijian, who was heavily injured, wasn't lying in bed, his heart skipped a beat. "Could it be..."

He rushed two steps at a time to Li Huowang's room. Seeing the other three gathered around Li Huowang's bed, he took a deep breath, pulled some yellow ginger from his pocket, rubbed it under his eyes, and walked in with an air of profound grief.

"Senior Brother Li! Oh, Senior Brother Li!! Wuuu wuuu..."

Just as he, putting on a show, shoved Gao Zhijian aside and lunged toward the bedside, he was stunned frozen by Li Huowang opening his eyes on the bed. "So... you're not dead..."

In the next moment, his heart tightened. Trouble. If Senior Brother Li isn't dead, won't I lose the money I spent ordering the coffin?

"Gouwa, are you injured too?"

Li Huowang's words pulled Gouwa back from his thoughts, and he quickly put on an indifferent expression on his face.

"Ah, these minor injuries don't count for anything. You don't know, back then when that pile of clay figures surrounded me, I didn't even blink!"

"Don't listen to him ramble. Back then if I hadn't watched out for him, he would have been torn apart long ago."

Gouwa glared resentfully at Chun Xiaoman for exposing his shortcomings, but he dared not say anything. He couldn't beat her anyway, and now she was a full head taller than him.

Li Huowang on the bed turned his head to look at Chun Xiaoman beside him, whose appearance had changed drastically. The girl she once was had fully blossomed; even the black hair covering her body couldn't obscure the unique charm specific to a woman.

But this was not a good thing. It meant that during the previous battle with those clay demon spirits, she had consumed many years of her lifespan to summon the Lord You.

"There was no need to summon so many Lords You. Think carefully before using them; four Lords You equal one year of life." The weak Li Huowang advised her.

"It doesn't matter, I'm young." Chun Xiaoman felt no despair over the loss of her lifespan; instead, she seemed to prefer this tall body she had now.

"Cough cough~" Li Huowang coughed up some bloody foam. After pausing for a while, he spoke again: "Miaomiao, pour out all the Lifespan Pills from my gourd and let her eat them."

Lifespan Pills could increase longevity, allowing Xiaoman to return to her youth.

"I really don't need them!" Chun Xiaoman pressed Bai Lingmiao's shoulder with her single arm, speaking with a hint of worry in her voice: "Senior Brother Li, rather than worrying about me, you should worry about yourself. What... what is wrong with you?"

Hearing this, Li Huowang paused for a moment. Looking at the roof beam above, a bitter smile appeared on his exceptionally haggard face. "What is wrong with me?"

Li Huowang recalled everything that dual-pupiled Zuo Wang Dao had said before. Naturally, he wouldn't believe nonsense like being tricked into thinking he was Hongzhong.

But if this was a scam, why did this person use the same method as the previous six to deceive him? Something was very wrong.

"Could it be... No... There is no 'could it be'! Everything coming out of a Zuo Wang Dao's mouth is false! They must have used some way to make the dead Zuo Wang Dao collude with the living Zuo Wang Dao! The dead and the living conspired to deceive me!"

"Senior Brother Li, forget about other troublesome matters for now. Your injuries are still severe. Rest immediately."

Bai Lingmiao picked up a rice husk pillow and carefully placed it between Li Huowang's neck, making him sleep more comfortably.

As soon as Li Huowang shook his head, he felt his head splitting with pain. Enduring the agony, he insisted: "I'm not sleepy. Tell me what happened after I passed out."

The Zuo Wang Dao was dead, and those clay evil spirits had left. Actually, after Li Huowang passed out, there was nothing much to tell; it was simply others cleaning up the aftermath.

"Sigh! What's the use of saying such nonsense? You don't know at all what Senior Brother Li cares about."

Gouwa, looking excited, crouched by the bedside holding a bamboo basket and reported to Li Huowang: "Senior Brother Li, look! All the swindler's belongings are here. I didn't even spare the clothes on his body! Now they all belong to us!"

When Gouwa lifted the curtain, Li Huowang saw the Bagua mirror inside the bamboo basket, along with those blood-stained Pai Gow and Mahjong tiles.

Seeing these items, Li Huowang relaxed internally. He wasn't greedy for these things, but seeing them reminded him that this was the test from the Tianjian Bureau earlier.

The Zuo Wang Dao was dead, and he was alive. Having undergone the trial, he could finally join the Tianjian Bureau.

As long as he joined the Tianjian Bureau, he would have backing. Whether it was cultivating techniques or anything else, he wouldn't have to rely on random guessing like Dan Yangzi anymore.

Moreover, as long as he didn't expose his Heart Essence identity, others wouldn't dare to act rashly against him.

"Heh, so what if you took them? As if you know how to use them." The contemptuous voice coming from behind Gouwa made Li Huowang's eyes widen.

The exceptionally weak Li Huowang, hearing this voice, found strength surging from somewhere unknown. He suddenly sat up, shoved Gouwa away forcefully, and stared trembling-eyed at the distant hallucination.

Peng Longteng holding a halberd without a head, Jin Shan Zhao without a lower body, mouth open but speechless, an old monk with a helpless expression, and finally that faceless, eyeless Zuo Wang Dao!

A face without flesh topped with two pitch-black holes, using lipless, gleaming white teeth, exaggeratedly displayed a ferocious grin.

Seeing Li Huowang stiffened in place, Chun Xiaoman on the side exchanged a glance with Gao Zhijian nearby. Both hurriedly reached out to grab Li Huowang's left and right hands.

But in the next moment, a tremendous force came, flinging their arms away.

"Why are you here too!! Why!! On what grounds do you become my hallucination!!" Accompanying Li Huowang's hysterical scream, the stitched wounds all over his body began to burst with blood.

Just as he was about to say something else, he suddenly stumbled to the ground, clutching his throat with both hands.

"Cough cough~ Urgh!" Li Huowang, lying on the ground, dry-heaved, and wriggling black tentacles vomited out from his throat.

Seeing this scene, the others panicked instantly. "Quick! Pull this thing out!!"

However, just as the others reached out to help, Li Huowang trembled and blocked them away with his arms.

Kneeling on the ground, he cupped those tentacles with trembling hands, as if holding treasures, and carefully stuffed them back into his own mouth.

Under the shocked gaze of everyone surrounding him, accompanied by retching sounds, the Black Tai Sui was forcibly swallowed back into his stomach.

(End of Chapter)