Chapter 788: Tianwu

Chapter 788: Tian Wu

When he sensed the intense fury emanating from the dark shadows beneath the water, Li Huowang laughed even louder, showing not the slightest trace of fear.

“You’ll have no more chance to laugh!” The rotten umbrella embedded in his belly twisted sharply, severing one of Li Huowang’s tentacles at once.

Immediately after, Ruyi pressed down on the umbrella handle, and the decaying parasol suddenly burst open. Its ribs and canopy stretched out, splitting Li Huowang's body apart into fragments. Crimson blood mingled with the brown river water, carrying his dismembered remains downstream.

Before him stood Ruyi, holding the broken fan, while Li Huowang—his body torn asunder—still wore a grin that grew ever wider.

Suddenly, black tendrils writhed out from each piece of his corpse, quickly entwining and pulling hard. Li Huowang’s fragmented form reassembled itself.

“Did I say I was bluffing? Did you think there wouldn’t be a trap? Why don’t you go take a look for yourselves?”

As soon as Li Huowang finished speaking, the surging river rapidly receded, drying up swiftly. The breach in the embankment had been sealed by someone.

With his feet now planted firmly on the muddy riverbed, free from the river’s control, Li Huowang looked upon his enemies before him—and the allies encircling them all.

Zhengde Temple, Zhongyin Monastery, Luo Sect, Mohist School, Aojing Sect, Military School, and several sects unfamiliar to him had sent reinforcements. They surrounded the practitioners of the Dharma Sect like a net.

This was an ambush within an ambush—a siege to kill him. What had just seemed so perilous for Li Huowang had now completely reversed.

Li Huowang took another look at his adversaries. In the murky water, he had only seen vague black shapes; now that the water had receded, he could finally see their faces clearly.

Besides Ruyi—who had appeared twice before, bearing four umbrellas—there were others whose faces were new to him.

The most conspicuous among them was a large mass of wet, black hair clumped together. But upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a group of water monkeys huddled tightly, as if protecting something.

Without the aid of the river, their strength was clearly diminished.

Beside the water monkeys stood four men with visceral masks, their faces covered in dirty red threads that dangled from beneath the veils. Li Huowang recognized these men—they had fought against such beings before.

Next to them stood an entity Li Huowang had never encountered—an individual wearing a stone mask. The mask had hollowed-out eyes and brows, rounded ears, a high nose bridge, and a wide, slightly open mouth, giving it a solemn and sacred appearance.

It bore a striking resemblance to the masks Li Huowang had seen on the walls of the Great Li Palace, though those had been made of bronze, whereas this one was carved from stone.

The last figure was an old man with a humpback, carrying a giant gourd on his back. Half of his face resembled a physician, while the other half was composed of grotesque, transformed flesh. Strange things, unlike anything seen on human faces, protruded from his half, dragging like mud along the ground, breathing in rhythm with his own respiration.

For some reason, seeing him made Li Huowang feel an itching sensation across his body. When he rubbed his chin against his arm, red welts began to appear—just like mosquito bites.

This was a battlefield. Clearly, neither side intended to introduce themselves one by one. In such circumstances, the abbot of Zhengde Temple struck first.

“Mo-lo... di-li ni... mo-xi-li tuo...” The blood-soaked Buddha, who had been swept away by the river, sat behind them. As he chanted, everything around him—the mud, stones, fallen logs—began transforming into flesh. This transformation spread further into the land beneath the Dharma Sect’s followers.

From the center of the water monkey formation came a muffled dragon roar. Rain, which had begun to cease in the air, started falling again heavily, pouring down like buckets. The water monkeys, curled up in a ball, bloomed instantly like flower buds.

A woman clad in fish-scale tattoos emerged from the mist. Li Huowang had seen her kind before—she was a member of the Tandem people, just like Yang Xiaohai.

But compared to other sea-faring Tandems, she was far more threatening. With a disdainful smile, she revealed rows of jagged, sharp teeth. In her arms, she carried a statue wrapped in fish skin. Though small, it gave Li Huowang a deeply unsettling feeling.

“Come!” Peng Longteng rode his horse forward, using his halberd to hook Li Huowang toward the Tandem woman. Clearly, the rain above was caused by some magical spell.

At that moment, a sudden mass of white tufts—writhing limbs—descended upon the water monkeys and the Tandem woman.

As organs on the water monkeys began shifting, Li Huowang remembered what this was. These white tufts were the technique of the Lion Dance Palace.

In a life-or-death moment, even they had come to assist.

Seeing someone else act first, Li Huowang changed direction immediately, charging straight toward the physician.

In such a situation, it was either him or them. Li Huowang did not dare to be careless. Facing enemies whose strength and origins were unknown, he didn’t rush in but instead unleashed his cultivation techniques directly.

Watching the scholar’s body turn completely to stone under his gaze, the next moment saw the stone crack open. A yellow smoke billowed from the gourd and drifted toward Li Huowang.

“Longteng! Go test what tricks this fellow has!”

“Yee!” Peng Longteng urged his horse forward, ignoring the yellow smoke, charging straight at the cracked statue.

When the smoke touched Peng Longteng’s body, her form began to mutate rapidly. Mouths that howled, and multi-fingered appendages writhed out from gaps in her armor, continuing to twist and change.

Her steed underwent an even greater metamorphosis. Running, its four legs split into six, then into eight.

Drops of strange, colorful liquid fell from the gaps in Peng Longteng’s mutated body, bestowing life upon all things that had none.

Li Huowang had seen this before. This strange power could transform anything into a mutation, and now it had already completely overtaken the entire Qi Empire.

“Yu’er Shen is dead. Is this thing stealing Yu’er Shen’s heavenly way, or is it another celestial’s heavenly way?” Li Huowang pondered, flicking his wrist lightly to dispel the illusion created by Peng Longteng’s cultivation.

Yet Peng Longteng’s body continued to grow more bizarre, eventually returning to illusion. Under the influence of the strange black liquid, she had now escaped Li Huowang’s control.

Peng Longteng, now fused entirely with her steed, ran slower and slower until she collapsed, twisting endlessly, finally becoming a bloated gourd oozing that strange fluid.

From behind the towering gourd, the half-faced physician stepped forward, patting it gently. He showed off his mouth full of rotting black teeth.

“I am Tian Wu. It is a pleasure to meet you, Master Li.”

(End of Chapter)