Chapter 730: Void

Chapter 730: Void

In Siqi, Xuantai Mountain, Yangming Temple, the Great Hall of the Buddha.

As the sharp blade sliced through flesh and blood, Li Huowang watched in horror as the black-skinned monk before him was cleaved in two. Black water gushed out from the wound, threatening to cover his face.

Instinctively sensing something amiss with that dark fluid, Li Huowang quickly pulled back the four tentacles that had been supporting his body, causing the black liquid to narrowly miss him by mere inches.

"Hah..." The Li Huowang standing in the great hall, brimming with killing intent, slightly parted his lips and slowly exhaled a cloud of blood mist from deep within his throat.

At this moment, he had lost one hand but still held three swords in his grasp. Behind him lay a sea of dead monks.

With eyes blazing red, his face twisted in fury, Li Huowang stared intently at the golden Buddha statue seated far away on its pedestal.

The golden Buddha sat cross-legged upon an altar, expressionless—neither joyful nor sorrowful—but the bloody offerings placed before it were enough to make anyone's hair stand on end.

This temple had completely defected to the Law Sect, and worse yet, they had erected a Buddha form for Yu'er Shen! Even more bizarre was that these so-called monks were wielding martial arts techniques. This place was clearly a major threat—one that needed to be eliminated swiftly.

Taking a deep breath, Li Huowang raised his sword and charged toward the golden Buddha. Just as he neared the offering table, his right foot struck the air, propelling his body into midair.

His left foot followed suit, pushing him even higher.

With alternating steps, he soared above the statue until he stood directly before it. Then, gritting his teeth, he raised his purple-sworded blade high and slashed down toward the Buddha’s head.

But just then, the golden body of the statue cracked open. A spreading black fissure covered his entire form. From within the crack, it was unmistakably clear—the massive golden Buddha was alive!

Its enormous head glared with fierce eyes, its hands suddenly lunging forward to seize Li Huowang. With a wide, pitch-black mouth, it lunged toward him in a bite.

A "pfft" sound echoed as the black teeth of the prayer beads pierced through his body—but they couldn't break his bones.

Li Huowang pressed his feet against the ground and his back against the sky, forcing the creature to fail in swallowing him whole.

"You want to eat? I’ll let you have your fill!!" Tilting his head, Li Huowang opened his mouth wide at the statue. “Ughhh~!”

His tentacles retracted rapidly. Li Sui, head first, was vomited straight into the Buddha’s throat. “Li Sui, swallow him!”

After sending Li Sui inside, Li Huowang raised his purple sword to block the black teeth, then drew his spine blade from behind and leaped backward. What awaited him was the rapid closing of the statue’s trembling hands.

But at that very moment, a giant halberd spun out from the side, cleanly severing one of the Buddha’s fingers.

“Want to destroy the Buddha? Fine! Fine indeed! I’ve hated those bald bastards for ages!” Peng Longteng, riding a colossal horse, caught the flying halberd, yanked the reins, and charged straight at the moving statue.

Faced with the combined assault of Li Huowang and Peng Longteng, despite the statue’s towering height, it began retreating step by step.

Though the situation favored him and he believed Li Sui could handle things, seeing no reaction from within the Buddha’s belly made Li Huowang worry about his daughter.

If only he’d gone in after her—he needed to finish this quickly.

Just as he thought this, he noticed the belly of the Buddha suddenly bulge outward, revealing half of a dog’s face.

Then came a faint voice from the navel eye, which immediately caught his attention. “Dad! Save... me! He ate my... head...”

At that moment, Li Huowang’s hair stood on end. Without hesitation, he rushed forward, ignoring his injuries, drew his purple sword, and slashed open the navel hole.

As he watched the limbs and tentacles streaming out in blood, chilled to the bone, a peeled dog head dragging half its intestines emerged from beside him. “Dad? Whose are these hands?”

It was Li Sui—she was fine. That voice hadn’t come from her.

Before she could finish speaking, the severed tentacles began to fade into nothingness, vanishing entirely. They were merely illusions born from Li Huowang’s unintentional cultivation. Both the tentacles and the plea for help were figments of his imagination.

“What?” As Li Huowang stood stunned, the Buddha’s palm slammed down. With a cracking sound of breaking bones, he was pinned to the ground. Blood seeped slowly between his fingers.

Half a stick of incense later, covered in blood, Li Huowang painfully bent over, dragging the massive Buddha head out of the hall.

Once outside, seeing the monks still desperately resisting below, Li Huowang pushed the head forward with his right hand, then kicked it hard with his right foot. The enormous head rolled down the stone steps with a tremor.

Seeing the Buddha’s head roll past them, the monks’ morale crumbled. The brutal battle finally came to an end.

Breathing heavily, Li Huowang sat cross-legged on a cushion, occasionally tracing patterns in the Xuan Pin’s rotating mirror, watching the other battles unfold.

To the martial sect soldiers searching for remaining enemies, his appearance was utterly bizarre. But now, Li Huowang no longer cared whether others thought he was sane or not—he knew he wasn’t.

Li Sui, covered in dirt, was exhausted and collapsed against his back, pressing her head into his shoulder. “Dad, we’re so awesome—we killed all those bad guys.”

But Li Huowang sighed softly, withdrawing his fingers from the mirror. Of course he knew he was powerful. His current strength probably surpassed that of Dan Yangzi when he became half-immortal.

Yet such power came at a cost—and a heavy one.

As his cultivation grew stronger, so did his ability to alter reality through thought alone. It wasn’t necessarily what he consciously intended—it could be a fleeting thought, and yet it might manifest into reality.

He recalled just now how Li Sui’s cry for help had triggered the appearance of her corpse—an illusion he couldn’t control. Just a slight suspicion, and reality shifted accordingly.

This was dangerous. It was beginning to affect his true strength. If today’s enemies weren’t so weak, both he and Li Sui might have perished here.

When falsehoods no longer appeared false in front of him, truth itself would vanish.

This wasn’t the first time it happened. Since the last time he inadvertently caused Bai Lingmiao to become real through cultivation, this had happened for the fourth time.

Now, it seemed less like a fight against the Law Sect and more like a war against himself.

(End of Chapter)