Chapter 715: Ambush

Chapter 715: Ambush

The Great Qi under one heaven, all in harmony? Li Huowang had never imagined such words would come from the lips of a follower of the Daoist sect.

He immediately drew his spine sword and flung it forcefully at the great door.

A rift flew open, and various iridescent fluids poured out, defiling everything they touched.

Li Huowang pointed with his right finger toward the door god and shouted, "This is your world of unity! The entire Great Qi is now filled with these kinds of horrors! Say it again right in front of me! The people of Great Qi are all alive again! Peaceful living, universal harmony?!"

"Li Huowang, you have become attached to appearances. I thought as someone who possesses a heart-dragon, you might understand something, but I never expected you to know nothing at all. Xuan Pin and the others indeed kept their guard high against you."

As soon as the door god finished speaking, a twisted mass of flesh—deformed, ugly, grayish-white and slimy—emerged from the closing rift.

Due to the rift's closure, only half of its body was visible, yet even so, it lay on the ground, struggling to expand and contract, showing no signs of fatal injury.

From its forehead emerged a cluster of short, constantly trembling pink tendrils, emitting cries like those of infants. This creature had no fixed form; its body changed continuously at every moment.

"All good deeds arise from illusion, all evil actions are also illusory. The body is like foam gathered together, the mind like wind passing by—it arises without root or substance."

"What nonsense! I don't understand! Speak plainly!!" Li Huowang stared intently at the deformed monster in the courtyard far away.

What unsettled him was that for some reason, he could faintly see a human figure within the outline of that monster.

"All wholesome dharmas are illusions, all unwholesome actions are also illusions. The physical form resembles a pile of bubbles, superficial and insubstantial; the mind is like a breeze that comes and goes unseen, possessing sensation but no real essence. In short, everything we perceive is illusory and unreal."

"But times have changed. With Yu’er’s divine power, we can escape this illusion and become truly existent. We are no longer bubbles nor winds without trace!" At this point, the door god on the wooden panel gestured toward the monster outside the courtyard.

"Once we submit to Yu’er, we will no longer be false! Think about it, Li Huowang! Gods are like this! You're a Taoist, aren’t you? If you believe in Yu’er, you'll surely attain enlightenment and become immortal, blessed with eternal life equal to heaven itself!"

"Immortality? Equal to heaven?" Looking at the monster still crawling on the ground, a chill suddenly ran through him. Only now did he realize what the so-called "deathless world of unity" meant.

People in Great Qi might indeed be alive—but in another way, far more terrifying than death.

"Li Huowang, what do you say?" The door god seemed unwilling to give up.

"I won’t."

"You won’t?" The door god looked at Li Huowang in disbelief, clearly surprised by his response. "You don’t want those you care about to live again? You don’t want immortality?"

"Heh, though I doubted it, if such things were real, naturally I'd want them." Li Huowang tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

"But here's the thing—I never liked begging for anything. Since you claim Yu’er has the power to bring people back to life, why should I bargain with you? I’ll find a way to kill Yu’er and seize that heavenly authority directly from him. That would be better, wouldn’t it?"

To the followers of the Daoist sect, Li Huowang’s words were utterly blasphemous.

"Kindness returned with pig liver and bile! Unthinkable! How dare you desecrate the Heavenly Lord!!"

"Hey! There's nothing I can do! My master taught me this way! If you can't get it, take it by force!"

*Bang!* The great door slammed shut. The red cloth depicting the God of Wealth on the door gradually turned deep green. Seeing their opponent reveal his true intentions, Li Huowang felt no surprise. “I knew you had an ambush!!”

With a sharp *whoosh*, another rift was hurled outward, flying toward the door adorned with the door god.

When the two doors suddenly opened, dodging the rift before closing them again, Li Huowang’s figure had already vanished.

The two door gods exchanged glances, raised their right hands, and struck them together in unison.

"The Dharma is originally without dharma, the non-dharma is also dharma. When the non-dharma is given, how could there ever be dharma?"

Just as the final phrase left their lips, the entire room was instantly enveloped by their divine awareness—no trace could escape their senses. "Watch out! He can tunnel through earth!"

As the door god’s voice faded, Li Huowang’s body burst up from the ground, covered in splattered mud. His purple-tassel sword slashed straight down onto one of the door panels, splitting the entire door in two.

Having dealt with one door god, Li Huowang was preparing to face the second when a voice came from his ear.

"Dad! He's coming onto you!"

"What?" Li Huowang looked down and saw a door god stuck to his blood-red robe.

"Heh!" The door god raised his sword and slashed at Li Huowang’s arm. With a sharp crack, his entire arm severed, countless black tendrils quickly writhed out from the wound.

"Get lost!" From his navel, he pulled out a rib and stabbed it into his chest. The excruciating pain instantly transferred to the door god.

Painfully, the door god could no longer harm Li Huowang and dragged himself along the ground. But this time, Li Huowang wasn’t letting him go.

He stepped hard on him with his right foot, pinning him down, then raised his purple-tassel sword to strike.

At that moment, darkness fell before Li Huowang. Looking up, he saw another door panel with a door god crashing toward him.

Just as it was about to hit him, there was a *crack*. Peng Long leaped atop the door, sending it flying apart like the door god before it.

In the next instant, covered in blood, she laughed wildly as she crashed into the left wall. The whole house began to tremble.

Li Huowang looked down at the door god beneath his foot. With one hand, he grabbed a corner and yanked hard. As the force increased, the door god’s body stretched longer and longer.

Finally, with a scream of agony, the door god was torn in half by Li Huowang.

At the same time, the entire roof beam collapsed like tiles upon him.

As dust settled, Li Huowang slowly emerged from the ruins. Gazing at the breached city walls in the distance, he murmured, "Is this all you’ve got? It seems the Daoist sect won’t last long."

Whether due to his rapid growth in strength or something else, everything felt too easy.

"Oh really? Heheh, I don’t think so," a strange woman’s voice came from behind Li Huowang.

Li Huowang slowly turned around and saw a woman sitting carelessly on the ridgepole beast, wearing a ceramic doll head. Her hands were inserted into two door god puppets.

The two puppets in her hands were clearly unusable—split in half and cracked into pieces, just like the original door gods.

(End of Chapter)