Chapter 622: Ambush

Chapter 622: Ambush

"Wu Cheng! Again!"

"Snap!" "Chariot jumps soldier!"

"Snap!" "Minister eats cannon!"

"Snap!" "Push the pawn!"

"Clang!" The blade of the Purple-Tassel Sword clashed heavily against an obsidian dagger. Amidst scattering sparks, the sheared-off tip of the dagger spun and plunged into the blood-stained earth.

Though his weapon was damaged, the ritual priest of the Fajiao sect before him swiftly twisted his weapon hand, breaking away from the clash with the Purple-Tassel Sword, and fiercely thrust the broken blade into Li Huowang’s left chest.

It seemed he held the upper hand, yet this man had already placed himself in peril without realizing it. He should never, ever have gotten so close to Li Huowang.

In the next breath, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down, he saw a mass of writhing tentacles burst from his opponent's chest and instantly burrow straight into his own abdomen!

"No, no, no!" He tore open the wound on his belly, frantically and in sheer terror rummaging through his gory, mangled entrails.

"Yu... Er..." The man struggled to gasp out half a name before his neck jerked back involuntarily, his entire brain churned into mush by the tentacles within him.

Though the man was dead, his body remained standing. A moment later, he raised his weapon and charged at the nearby Fajiao cultists who were attempting to ambush Li Huowang. His body had been completely taken over by Li Sui.

Panting heavily, Li Huowang stood in place and surveyed the battlefield. Although he had dealt with the old Lama, the battle was far from over. Next were these Fajiao cultists.

With the assistance of the Buddha Jade Brazier and the Abbot of Zhengde Temple, Li Huowang was not too worried about losing this time.

What concerned him more right now was the Great Liang. This enemy proved that his suspicion had actually come true! The Fajiao of the Great Qi and the Fajiao of the Great Liang had actually merged in such a short span of time.

The local Fajiao alone had previously turned the Great Liang upside down. Now, with the addition of the Great Qi's Fajiao, God only knew what consequences the alliance of these two cults would bring.

And while he was watching others, others were also watching him.

"Taishan! We need to retreat now! If we delay any longer, those Military Legalists will arrive!!" He Xinlai, with a black cloth wrapped around his shoulder, shouted loudly to the Great Qi shaman-minister beside him.

"Mm!" As Taishan Shi gave a low nod, the heavily battered cultists around them unhesitatingly pulled out round stones, swallowed them down, and with bloodshot eyes, charged forward fearlessly to cover their retreat.

"You think you can leave?! Li Sui, keep up!"

Li Huowang pulled out two pieces of yellow talisman paper, quickly used his own blood to draw two seals, and slapped them hard onto his legs. His body turned into a blur of afterimages as he pursued the two fleeing figures.

Everyone else was pinned down, yet the force blocking Li Huowang happened to be remarkably weak.

"He really is pursuing us."

"I know," He Xinlai said, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

Colossal trees continuously receded into the background as two men fled and one pursued.

Suddenly, the view opened up ahead. Beyond the forest lay a field where piles of withered yellow rice stalks were stacked in rows, and faint wisps of white smoke rose from a distant village.

"Still running!" Li Huowang slashed off a large piece of flesh without hesitation and threw it toward the two men in the distance.

The ragged piece of flesh spun rapidly in the air, as if possessed of its own consciousness, and lunged toward Taishan Shi’s back.

The moment Taishan Shi was pinned to the ground by Li Huowang's writhing flesh, Li Huowang leaped high into the air and forcefully stabbed the Purple-Tassel Sword down into the squirming human skin on the ground.

When the Purple-Tassel Sword pierced through, a lightweight, empty sensation startled Li Huowang. This was definitely not the feeling of a blade entering flesh.

In the next instant, a pair of heavily calloused, massive hands erupted from the soil, grabbing Li Huowang's feet and dragging him violently down into the ground.

"This fellow can move through earth?!" The moment this thought flashed through Li Huowang’s mind, he was buried in the mud up to his neck.

And it did not stop there. Severe pain radiated from his chest and back, as if something within the earth was continuously boring into his body. Li Sui was desperately using tentacles to block it.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth and clamped his single eye shut. "I am in water! I am in water!! I must hold my breath!"

Li Huowang, who had just been rendered completely immobile by the crushing pressure of the surrounding earth, instantly felt freezing lake water pour through his exposed wounds, chilling him to the core.

Shuddering violently, Li Huowang struggled to draw the Spine Sword and slashed forcefully across his chest and back.

Whatever it was, the sensation of pain vanished.

Li Huowang paddled his arms and swam upward with all his might. In the water, he was no match for his opponent; he had to return to the surface as quickly as possible!

Once he was halfway out of the water, Li Huowang pushed his hands against the soil surface and pulled himself out of the earth like pulling a radish.

Catching his breath slightly, Li Huowang opened his eyes to look around, but all he met was a wall of total darkness.

Li Huowang tremblingly reached a finger into his right eye socket and found three earth thorns deeply embedded inside. He was blind.

Just as Li Huowang thought the enemy would kick him while he was down and blind, the surroundings remained eerily quiet.

Standing a few fathoms away from Li Huowang, He Xinlai held a wooden sword and walked over to Taishan Shi, who had emerged from the ground. "Well? The kid is blind. How do you plan to deal with him?"

Yet, the cautious Taishan Shi showed no trace of relaxation on his face. As a shaman-minister of Shidu, he faintly discerned something amiss.

"This boy is strange. I fear he still has a trump card up his sleeve. I must consult Shidu." Taishan Shi took out two crescent-shaped cracked bone stones. Kneeling on both knees, he cradled them to his chest, shook them, and tossed them onto the ground.

"What does the God Yu'er say?" He Xinlai asked, looking at the stones on the ground.

"Yin Divination, Smile! Kill! The man must be killed, and the sword must be taken!" After Taishan Shi finished speaking, his body swayed and sank entirely into the earth.

Hearing this, He Xinlai’s face instantly filled with shock. As a shaman-minister, he had never imagined that the God Yu'er could deliver such an explicit divine decree.

But regardless, since it had been commanded, He Xinlai complied without hesitation.

He had to demonstrate his loyalty to the God Yu'er who was about to descend to the mortal realm.

He Xinlai formed a hand seal with one hand, brought it to his mouth to bite his fingertip, and then wiped the blood onto the black cloth on his shoulder. Using the dark blood on his hand, he rapidly drew peach wood charms onto his wooden sword. "If it is to kill, then kill!"

As He Xinlai charged toward Li Huowang with the dark sword in hand, two hands erupted from the ground once more, grabbing at Li Huowang's feet to pull him down with force.

This time, however, something went wrong. Taishan Shi's hands passed directly through Li Huowang’s ankles, clutching nothing but empty air.

In the next instant, Li Huowang, standing in place, drew his sword and thrust it fiercely into the empty space on his left, while He Xinlai, positioned to his right, instantly felt a sharp pain in his back.