Chapter 550: Death

Chapter 550: Death

Faced with Xun Nian’s peculiar assault, the dragon vein seemed unwilling to let things end so easily, writhing desperately in entanglement with the red phantom of Xun Nian.

At the moment Li Huowang was about to crash into the dragon vein, more than ten dragon claws had already risen to meet him.

But this was merely a deceptive trick meant to confuse Li Huowang. Peng Longteng suddenly appeared before him and caught him firmly, then threw him forcefully toward the young emperor of Great Qi.

At this point, he could no longer be called a young emperor; he had completely transformed into a shapeless mass, resembling a premature infant barely the size of a palm, with skin nearly translucent.

Li Huowang suddenly extended his hand, drawing the purple-sheathed sword from the dragon vein and swinging it down toward the little emperor.

“Brother Li! You can’t kill it this way! First sever its connection to the dragon vein!”

Hearing Zhuge Yuan’s words, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and moved the sword blade three inches downward.

With a sharp tearing sound, the back of the little emperor, connected to the dragon vein, was slashed open, gushing blood.

In the next instant, Li Huowang’s purple-sheathed sword lifted up sharply, its sharp tip piercing through the opponent's chest.

The grotesque figure of the Great Qi emperor struggled and howled once before his slender fingers scratched at his sword behind, then his head drooped lifelessly.

As Li Huowang carried the corpse of the little emperor falling toward the ground, the dragon vein, now deprived of the little emperor, began to swell wildly.

Thick blood, strange organs, and twisted dragon scales, claws, and horns kept bursting out of the dragon robe.

Large and small swollen eyeballs stared at Li Huowang with a morbid longing.

The gathered dragon claws reached out with all their might toward Li Huowang, or rather, toward the dead little emperor on his sword.

“Brother Li! This won’t work! The dragon energy will revive that little emperor again! Don’t let them touch it! Hurry and throw him to Daliang!”

Mid-air, Li Huowang suddenly swung his sword, flinging the corpse into the red shadow of Xun Nian.

Then he pulled out the spine sword and slashed forcefully, piercing through the historical rift and sending the little emperor inside to Daliang.

After dealing with everything, the hard ground was now close at hand.

Li Huowang took a deep breath and closed his eyes tightly. In the next moment, he felt his body slam heavily onto a cold surface of water.

Feeling the water slide across his skin, he didn’t swim upward immediately but instead kicked his legs, gliding along the bottom toward the left.

He swam like this until almost suffocating, then struggled to rise to the surface. As his head grew increasingly painful, the water became thicker, and the pressure around him intensified.

“Bang!” Li Huowang tore open the earth and emerged from beneath it, vomiting dirt from his mouth.

Ignoring the pain in his body, he instinctively raised his head, preparing to look toward the dragon vein.

Before he could see clearly, the ground began to tremble violently. “Earthquake...?!”

In the darkness, sand and stones flew everywhere as heaven and earth changed. The severely wounded Li Huowang could do little but lie on the ground, forcing himself to stay alert until the quake passed.

He didn’t know how long it had been. When his wounds started scabbing over, the violent trembling finally ceased.

Li Huowang leaned on his sword, staggering to his feet and cautiously looking around at the dust-filled surroundings.

“Wait, why is it so bright? Has the disaster passed?” Li Huowang cautiously tested the air, then suddenly looked up and saw that the darkness above truly had vanished!

But before he could feel joy, he noticed something odd about the sun hanging high in the sky—it should have been a brilliant orb, yet it now bore black spots.

“Wow, monk, the celestial dog really did swallow the sun,” the monk said, covering his eyes with his right hand and gazing upward in awe.

“What... what... What is happening to the world? Is this world even real?” A sudden doubt sent a chill through Li Huowang’s heart.

“No, you must not doubt. You are Heart Essence! If you doubt, things will go terribly wrong!” Li Huowang clenched his fists and struck his own head.

After several hard blows, he stopped—not by choice, but due to an overwhelming sense of danger compelling him to halt.

“Bang~!” A heavy beast claw stepped on the ground, kicking up dust. Then, Xun Nian’s massive form emerged from the dust.

The previous fierce battle clearly had taken a great toll on Xun Nian. Though her fur was sparse and her face riddled with cracks, compared to the pitiful state of Li Huowang, she looked far better.

Li Huowang forced himself to grip the sword hilt and looked up at the tattered woman’s face. With his teeth clenched, he asked without showing fear: “Even like this, you still want to fight me? Since you understand human speech, you should know we never had any grudge.”

Upon hearing Li Huowang speak, Xun Nian did not respond immediately. Gradually, the torn face showed a complex expression, as if she wanted to say something to him.

Li Huowang wouldn’t wait for her to think. He slowly backed away. Just as Xun Nian’s huge body disappeared back into the yellow dust, a voice filled with countless emotions came from within.

“To send a letter with silk and a scroll. Mountains long, waters wide—where can one find you?”

Li Huowang reflexively raised his weapon. “What scroll?! Did she recognize I’m Heart Essence?”

After waiting a while, when he realized Xun Nian had truly departed, he realized he had misunderstood. These two lines seemed to carry another meaning.

“Scroll? Brother Zhuge, what did Xun Nian just mean?” Li Huowang wondered inwardly.

Zhuge Yuan looked toward where Xun Nian had gone, thought for a moment, and casually said, “Xun Nian always likes to mimic others. Nothing significant. Brother Li, your current appearance is quite terrible. You’d best return to Daliang to rest.”

Li Huowang glanced at him, then looked at his injured, wrinkled foot. “How can I chase after the rift like this? I’ll rest here first to recover some strength.”

Saying that, Li Huowang supported himself with the sword, found his red robe, and draped it over himself again. Then he found a stone and sat down slowly.

Gradually, the dust stirred by the earthquake settled. What appeared before him was breathtaking—the landscape had completely changed.

Just moments ago, it had been a plain, yet now it had become a cliff. He sat on the edge of a steep cliff.

What was going on? Li Huowang looked down at the chaos below, then looked up at the dark-yellow sun. His mind was in turmoil, feeling as though he were dreaming.

Beside him, Zhuge Yuan silently watched the scene with Li Huowang. After a long silence, he said slowly, “I don’t know either…”

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(End of Chapter)