Chapter 696: Ascend Steps

Chapter 696: Ascending the Steps

Not long after the appearance of the Bai family, the Second Spirit immediately sensed instability in her upper body on the opposite side.

“All this is false! All illusions! We’re still inside the Earth Dragon’s belly! It’s all caused by this place!!” The Second Spirit, while feeling the same emotions from the other side, frantically persuaded herself in her mind.

“Don’t question Mother Wu Sheng! Have you forgotten? Mother Wu Sheng saves all beings! Return to the Vacuum Homeland! Your whole family is there! They’re all fine! This is all illusion! All fake!”

After speaking, she heard Bai Lingmiao’s sorrowful voice echoing beside her ear. “I know, I know! I know they are fake, but I just...”

Immediately afterward, the Second Spirit felt an overwhelming wave of grief from the other side once again crashing over her—“Even if you’ve become the White Lotus Holy Maiden, you’re still so useless!” The resentful Second Spirit gazed through the hazy red veil around her, looking at the chaos surrounding her.

Her hand, with black nails, gently pressed against her abdomen, feeling the writhing maggots beneath her skin.

The Second Spirit turned toward Li Huowang at that moment. When she saw him unable to do anything about the situation, she realized things had gone terribly wrong.

If even Li Huowang couldn't resolve it, then the situation must have reached its most critical point.

There was no time left for anything else. If they didn’t come up with a solution soon, they would surely die here!

With a glimmer of hope, the Second Spirit placed both hands in the lotus gesture over her belly and opened her mouth full of sharp teeth, quickly reciting:

“Primordial chaos opens, divine light shines, first came Mother Wu Sheng, then heaven was born. Mother Wu Sheng gave birth to the Taiji Mother, who then brought forth the Two Forms, after which the Four Symbols were born, and the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams were created…”

As she chanted, the twin lotus mark on their brows flickered rapidly. The Second Spirit attempted to invoke Mother Wu Sheng, yet something always obscured her vision, leaving her unable to truly connect.

With each passing moment, the connection between her and Mother Wu Sheng grew weaker.

They were one body, and what the Second Spirit felt, Bai Lingmiao also experienced. Her voice trembled as she said to the Second Spirit, “I have a way out.”

Hearing the choked voice in her mind, the Second Spirit snapped, “If you have a way, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“But this method requires us to die.”

“What good does that do? You might as well not have said anything!”

“But at least this way, Brother Li and Suisui can live on, right? I don’t want them to die.”

“Fine!”

Pain—endless pain pulled the Second Spirit back from her thoughts.

Surrounded by evil spirits, she felt them tearing at her hair, pulling off her fingernails, gouging out her eyes, and viciously biting into her flesh.

Regret? No, the Second Spirit did not regret it. Once something was done, no matter the cost, she would never regret it. Only a trace of dissatisfaction remained.

“Miaomiao!” From beyond the layers of evil spirits came Li Huowang's muffled shout.

“Shut up! Hurry and ascend the steps to escape! If even your death can’t let you ascend, Li Huowang, you deserve to die!!”

The Second Spirit suddenly opened her mouth and bit fiercely into an evil spirit’s face, her sharp teeth piercing deep, completely devouring its head.

Beside her, Bai Lingmiao with hollow eyes wept blood tears, feeling her body slowly slipping away from her. For some reason, the pain made her heart feel oddly relieved.

At that moment, Li Huowang had already rushed into the swarm of evil spirits. Ignoring the creatures tearing at him, he frantically searched—searched for Bai Lingmiao.

But when he looked around, all he found were her two eyeballs and half of her broken body. He let out a soul-shattering roar.

All the events since leaving Qingfeng Guan replayed in Li Huowang’s mind. He finally understood what true anguish meant.

Bai Lingmiao was dead—the girl he had sworn to bring home and marry was gone.

Even in the end, she still valued her life more than anyone else!

The Great Record lay spread on the ground. Li Huowang, his expression shattered, trembled as he clenched his teeth so hard they cracked.

He gripped the long spear embedded in his abdomen and twisted it to the left before yanking it out violently.

A torrent of worms and chunks of flesh sprayed out.

“Aaaahhh!” Li Huowang raised the spear covered in his own flesh and plunged it into the strange red glowing bamboo slips before him.

“Clang clang~!” Black fire exploded.

At the same time, dozens of tentacles wrapped around various torture tools and stabbed into Li Huowang’s body, pulling out again.

Blood and maggots flew through the air.

When both mind and body were immersed in extreme agony, Li Huowang felt a familiar gaze upon him. His features began to merge anew. Suddenly, his body split like fish scales, then fluttered like insect wings.

And when such a phenomenon, never seen before, occurred, Li Huowang finally sensed Ba Hui high above, feeling the intoxicating aura radiating from his body.

Under Ba Hui’s aura, both the physical and mental pain began to transform into another substance.

In the next moment, an intense fear and pain spread from Li Huowang, infecting everything around him.

Whether maggots or evil spirits, or any survivors, collapsed to the ground, writhing in despair, screaming in anguish.

At that moment, the wall beside him seemed to come alive, splitting open to reveal twisted faces crying and shouting.

Then the ground itself began to tremble. Deep voices came from all directions—it was the Earth Dragon’s voice. It too felt the ultimate pain.

“Aaaahhh!!” Broken and collapsing, Li Huowang stood up, his body arched, screaming at the gaze from below, his hands plunging into the earth.

His mind grew larger—BOOM! One of his heads exploded, followed by another.

Just as the third head was nearing its limit, under Li Huowang’s pull, the ground suddenly cracked open. They fell through the fissure.

Falling fast, wind rushed past them. Li Huowang saw the endless night sky outside his feet.

For some reason, they had turned upside down inside the Earth Dragon’s belly.

Li Huowang and the others continued falling at high speed, heading toward the black void.

Li Huowang smelled Ba Hui’s voice among them, and also heard something else—a strange crane call.

(End of Chapter)