Chapter 680: Water

Chapter 680 Water

Before long, the blood streaming from his forehead had covered Lü Xiucai’s entire face, and he rapidly chanted the invocation spell.

“Disciple comes in sincerity to pay respects. The honored god of this altar descends swiftly, body transforms into spirit, spirit transforms into body, transforming mountains and rivers to open the light path! Step by step to guide! Inch by inch to support the child! Raise the spirit child to emit divine light, open the golden mouth to declare clearly, divine soldiers and divine fire, swift as the law!”

Just as Lü Xiucai began his invocation, the torches had already reached a spot not far from Li Huowang and the others. By now, their appearance was clearly visible.

They were the ones who had fled earlier—unexpected that after so many had died, they would still dare to return.

Li Huowang soon saw what emboldened them to come back. At the very front of the crowd stood several old men in fish-skin Daoist robes.

These individuals, distinct from the others in both attire and demeanor, wore solemn expressions, clasped enormous incense sticks as thick as a bowl’s rim, and continuously worshipped in all directions, murmuring something under their breath.

Li Huowang could hear them but could not understand—it was a local dialect.

The white incense smoke did not dissipate; instead, it gathered around them, hovering and coalescing into a single mass.

Behind them, these people, chanting work songs, carried out a painted mural on a wall.

No, to be precise, they had dismantled an entire wall and brought it over.

“What kind of evil is this?”

Watching these fishermen with dragon-scale tattoos, Li Huowang couldn’t help but recall the water bandits he had encountered on the great lake.

“Forget it, who cares!” Li Huowang dismissed the thought, stamped his feet, and charged forward with his sword, while Lü Xiucai, bleeding from the head and wearing a paper bellyband, followed behind.

As Li Huowang approached, the old Dan fishermen in fish skins thrust their massive incense sticks into the ground. The white smoke in the air instantly coalesced into a dragon’s head, lunging at him.

Li Huowang did not evade. Gripping the Purple Tassel Sword in one hand and the Copper Coin Sword in the other,

the moment they made contact with the dragon smoke, he crossed the two demon-banishing swords and thrust them forward.

The dragon-shaped smoke was sliced open into a cross shape. Just as Li Huowang, surrounded by the incense smoke, lunged without hesitation toward the Dan fishermen, the painted mural on the wall, along with the entire wall, crashed down toward him.

“Boom!” With a ground-shaking roar, the entire wall shattered, burying Li Huowang beneath it.

But when the smoke cleared, Li Huowang stepped out from behind Peng Longteng’s towering body—at the critical moment, Peng Longteng had served as a shield.

Holding both swords, he glanced at the shattered mural on the ground, then at the Dan fishermen in the distance, who were kowtowing and worshipping the sea. “Is that it? Just that?”

As he thought this, he felt the distant black sea grow even darker, as if a row of oppressively looming mountains stood there.

“Mountains?” The thought had barely crossed Li Huowang’s mind when a cold sweat broke out all over him. “No! Those aren’t mountains—that’s a tsunami!”

The next moment, the distant tsunami, carrying the Dan fishermen’s boats and their wooden houses erected on the sea, bore down on Li Huowang with a truly overwhelming force.

“Watch out!” Li Huowang quickly reached out to catch the bucket Yang Na was carrying as she staggered. It was a close call—the dirty water inside nearly spilled entirely.

“Hey, miss, can’t you just stay put? Don’t do any work.” Li Huowang carried the bucket to the latrine and poured all the water inside.

Yang Na pouted with some grievance, “I... I just wanted to help, why are you so harsh with me? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Look at you, I was just saying something casually—why are you upset?” Li Huowang set down the bucket, walked over to her, and gently pulled her into his arms.

“It’s okay! It’s all okay! You all need to leave this place—this damn spot is wrong!” Li Huowang shouted to the others in the pouring rain. “Senior Brother Li, you leave too, hurry!”

Standing half-submerged in the water, Li Huowang wiped his face with his hand and yelled again to the others, “No more talk! This rain is way too wrong like this! I’ll hold the rear! You all move fast!”

The moment Li Huowang finished speaking, he felt a sharp pain in his legs—something was in the water!

He pulled out a few fluorite stones and tossed them into the water. As the dim light emerged, the several dark shadows surrounding him instantly scattered.

Seeing some shadows charging toward the carriage, Li Huowang thrust his hand into the water and yanked hard.

The waist-high rainwater on the ground was pulled up like a blanket on a bed, preventing them from approaching the carriage.

Li Huowang’s cultivation ability had advanced to the third cycle, and he had naturally learned some new techniques.

Though Li Huowang’s abilities had improved, without locating the enemy, his strength was useless.

What on earth was this? Li Huowang frowned, scanning his surroundings, unable to figure out the opponent’s tactics.

With such a large setup, it didn’t seem like an ordinary evil. “Rain this heavy—it can’t be the Dragon King who commands the clouds and rain, can it?”

Just as Li Huowang thought this, using the fluorite light, he saw several dark shadows again skimming along the seabed, rushing toward him.

“Suisui! The ribs!” As Li Huowang crossed the ribs and inserted them into his own chest, the dark shadows froze in place, writhing.

A tentacle pulled out the Copper Coin Sword and swung it forcefully at a shadow in the water. With a clattering sound, the copper coins stretched, yanking that person up from the water.

The bare upper half of this man bore tattoos, proving he was with the previous one, but now his face was masked with a wooden mask shaped like a dragon’s head.

“Who is performing the ritual? Where is he?!”

The furious Li Huowang grabbed his neck and demanded. The man snarled back in anger, “The Dragon King has appeared! You dare offend the Dragon King—you’re dead!”

“Go to hell!” Li Huowang roared, opening his mouth wide. A barbed tentacle emerged from his throat, latching onto the man’s neck, tearing away most of the flesh.

“You trash from the Sect of Sorcery! Come out here!” Lü Xiucai shouted from the water nearby.

At that moment, the Dan fishermen climbed up from the water. They stood scattered in the rain, cursing angrily at Li Huowang and Lü Xiucai.

The curses mixed into the deluge only fueled Li Huowang’s rage. His mind now held only one thought: kill these bastards first!

Just as he tightened his grip on his sword and was about to charge over to slaughter them all, a dense drumbeat sounded.

The rhythmic drumming began to overpower the rain and the curses. Bai Lingmiao, beating the drum, came to his side and stood back-to-back with him.

“Li Huowang! What the hell is wrong with you? I told you to leave! What are you dawdling for?!”

When he heard Bai Lingmiao’s rebuke, Li Huowang’s heart sank. He realized something was wrong.

Unbeknownst to him, from some point on, everyone—including himself—had been consumed by rage. In that moment, they were controlled by this emotion. Something was manipulating their ten emotions and eight afflictions!