Chapter 713: City Wall

Chapter 713: The City Wall

The half-woman's corpse lay trembling beside the stinking well, her eyeballs rolling in their sockets with each shudder.

Suddenly, her body stopped moving. After several breaths, the rats—drenched in rotting fluid—seemed to sense something and crawled out from within her, scurrying away in all directions.

Not long after, Li Huowang’s footsteps approached from afar, stepping over the woman’s head as he continued forward.

He frowned deeply at the surroundings. This was a destroyed town, littered with debris, devoid of any living soul. Charred earth and death were all that remained.

Li Huowang remembered this place. He had stayed here once after fleeing Qingfeng Monastery.

Back then, it had been bustling with life. Now, however, not a single person remained—everyone had been slaughtered clean.

This area was close to the frontlines. Whether by war or deception from the Sect of Law, it made no difference to the people of Siqi.

Judging by the freshness of the corpses, this place hadn’t been cleansed for long.

"Sui Sui, rest a bit. We’re almost there," Li Huowang sat on a wooden stool, pulling out dry rations and water to eat.

Li Sui looked around at the bodies with a sad expression. "Father, so many people died."

She now understood what death truly meant.

"Yes, better to be a dog in peace than a human in chaos—it’s not just idle talk."

As the monk performed rituals for them, Li Huowang felt nothing. He had seen too many dead bodies on this journey; his heart had grown numb.

In truth, his mind was entirely focused on his own matters.

"Why did this happen? Why did my cultivation produce Sui Sui?" A question flashed through Li Huowang’s mind.

His cultivation advancing was certainly good, but the strange occurrences beforehand made him feel uneasy.

This cultivation method, passed down from Doumu, had indeed grown stronger with time. At first, even small changes would cause him excruciating headaches and nosebleeds.

Now, in the fourth stage, he could conjure objects out of thin air effortlessly.

But was this method truly without hidden dangers? Doubt began to creep into Li Huowang’s heart.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. “I asked Ji Zai about this back then!”

“Ji Zai didn’t oppose it, so I started practicing. Could it be...” Li Huowang’s heart sank further.

Ji Zai was his Guardian Spirit, but at this moment, lost and unable to offer any help, could he really have no ulterior motives?

With the Aojing Sect’s methods no longer usable, if he didn’t use his cultivation powers, he might only be left with sword in hand, charging into battle.

“No, I can’t trust Ji Zai too much. I’ll still perform the pain sacrifice from *The Great Thousand Records*. I mustn’t let him think he has me completely under control,” Li Huowang quickly decided on his next move.

He knew too little about his Guardian Spirit—and couldn’t fully trust him, even if that spirit was his future self.

He had to make Ji Zai fear consequences, or else he’d end up like a pawn manipulated at will.

Just as Li Huowang lifted the gourd to his mouth and swallowed his food, he noticed a faint red glow on the horizon to his left, along with dark smoke billowing in the sky.

“I remember that direction is…” Li Huowang muttered, thrusting his right index finger into the left-side rotating mirror.

Soon, he knew what had happened. A fortress, naturally defensible and hard to assault, was being held by a large army.

It was a strategic military location—there was no way around it. It had to be taken by force. If they tried to flank it, supplies wouldn’t even reach the front lines.

Once he pulled his finger back, Li Huowang immediately took Li Sui and rushed toward the city.

Passing through a grove, a battlefield of unimaginable horror lay before him. On the city wall, molten gold poured down in steaming streams. Some soldiers, their skin burned raw, leapt onto the wall with brute strength.

Some had already entered the city, where chaos reigned inside and out, screams of battle echoing endlessly.

Li Huowang didn’t rush in recklessly. Instead, he circled the entire city, examining all four walls.

When he spotted a weak point on the eastern wall, he phased his body underground, becoming invisible, and moved toward it.

Reaching the wall, he didn’t climb over it. Instead, he pressed his palm against it.

Closing his eyes, he pushed forward with both hands, and his entire body squeezed into the wall itself.

When he emerged from the other side, the wall behind him looked exactly as before—no trace of his intrusion.

"Let’s go!" A tentacle shot out from Li Huowang’s body, hooking onto the eaves and lifting him up.

As soon as he stood steady, he was startled to find that where the City God Temple should have been, there was nothing. In its place stood a colossal black statue at the center of the city.

The statue held a diamond seal in its left hand, and a jade vase in its right. Though its face appeared kind and benevolent, Li Huowang found it unsettling.

Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t the Yu’er God. The Yu’er God in the darkness was definitely not built from mud and bamboo.

“Is the Yu’er God trying to deceive more people by assuming another identity?” Thinking about it, if the true form of the Yu’er God were revealed, perhaps half the followers of the Sect would abandon it.

“Tap tap tap.” Li Huowang’s feet stepped rapidly across the tiles, heading straight for the city hall.

Though the city was vast, in such circumstances, he found it easily—only the entrance to the city hall bore stone lions and stone pillars.

“Whoosh!” A spear suddenly pierced through the roof, stabbing into Li Huowang’s foot. “Ambush? I’m discovered!”

Before he could react, the spear withdrew.

Crash! Tiles scattered everywhere. Li Huowang slid through the hole into the room.

Immediately, he saw a man standing like a stilts-walker, wielding two double-headed spears.

The man stared coldly at Li Huowang’s foot and sneered, “Heh heh heh, dare you come to attack our camp with such pathetic skill? My spearhead is already coated with—”

Before he could finish, Li Huowang’s body shortened by a zhang. His Purple-Flower Sword plunged into the man’s neck.

“I don’t care what you’ve coated it with! I’ll coat your neck first!”

After everything he had gone through, Li Huowang had learned how to use his Heart Essence ability. No matter what substance he applied, if he didn’t hear it, it was as if nothing had been applied!

Under the man’s stunned gaze, Li Huowang flicked his wrist. Blood sprayed into the air. Without looking back, he turned sharply and leaped out the window.

(End of Chapter)