Chapter 789: Heavenly Way

Chapter 789: Heaven's Will

Li Huowang stood motionless, as if gazing at Tian Wu, or perhaps lost in thought.

But in the next instant, Tian Wu’s head crashed into his chest, dodging the rift that came from behind.

Li Huowang’s figure gradually emerged behind Tian Wu, while the Li Huowang who had remained in place tore off his mask, revealing the small and adorable face of Li Sui beneath.

The hunchbacked Tian Wu bent over, using two fingers to scoop up an odd liquid that had fallen from the rift onto the ground, then sucked it into his mouth. “Heh heh heh, Master Li, you really know how to play tricks—how clever of you to even prepare a dummy to fool me.”

“Master Li, are you truly not joining our sect? Once this opportunity passes, there will be no second chance. If you join us, everything else can be negotiated.”

“Are you an idiot? We ambushed you, and now we’re stronger than you! How can you still be thinking about recruiting me? Do you think that’s possible?”

On the soft flesh beneath his feet, Li Huowang sneered, drew his sword, and stabbed it into his own abdomen. With a violent slash, his internal organs were instantly exposed to the air.

The opponent’s strength was oddly formidable; holding back was no longer an option. He had finally caught a high-level expert from the sect, and he must devour them all, making them suffer a painful lesson.

A copy of the *Great Thousand Records* was spread directly on the ground. Li Huowang tore out his liver and slammed it forcefully against the red bamboo scroll. “Wooden liver!”

Once the Five Elements ritual concluded, Li Huowang dragged his abdominal cavity, now completely covered by writhing worms, toward the old physician with great strides.

Just as he was about to make contact with the yellow mist, the blood and flesh beneath him suddenly split open, swallowing him whole.

“How amusing,” Tian Wu said, shaking his gourd. The yellow smoke floating in the air drifted toward the spot where Li Huowang had vanished.

Soon after, the flesh began to move again. As strange limbs grew continuously, the flesh broke free from the abbot’s control. Another sideways, flesh-covered gourd appeared, constantly secreting its peculiar fluid in all directions.

Tian Wu suddenly felt pain in his feet. When he looked down, he saw countless worms had already covered his soles, gnawing inward.

Just as they were about to chew through, a pus-filled blister suddenly swelled on the nearby gourd. With a pop, it burst, spraying the strange liquid all over his feet.

Soon, the liquid covered the worms, causing their bodies to mutate while also seizing control of Li Huowang’s hold over them.

“Is this all you can do, Master Li? I never knew why the Great Witch placed such value on you.”

As soon as Tian Wu finished speaking, a rift shot up from the earth, aiming to cleave him in two.

But Tian Wu seemed to have premonitions, quickly leaping backward and avoiding the incoming rift.

Yet in the next second, what Tian Wu didn’t expect happened—a purple-tipped long sword pierced out from within the rift.

When it stabbed into his belly and was yanked upward, Tian Wu’s body and head were cleanly severed.

Not long after, Li Huowang, whose entire body had undergone grotesque mutations, crawled back from a new rift. Clutching his head in agony, the writhing things on his body rapidly withered and disappeared.

Using the rift to leap to Dachi, then launching a surprise attack from there, although this tactic was hard to defend against, clearly, Dachi’s current state meant that escaping there would come at a heavy cost.

If anything there underwent wild mutations, a person could become a monster in mere moments.

Fortunately, Li Huowang possessed the ability to cultivate, allowing him to reverse the mutations of his body.

“No mistake! This feeling—this liquid he used is exactly the same as the one in Dachi!” Li Huowang frowned, staring at the gourds still secreting the fluid.

He didn’t know which of the Heavenly Paths borrowed by the Fate Keeper this man was using, but clearly, this path had something to do with mutation.

“Mutation counts as a Heavenly Path? Then what is the name of the Fate Keeper who governs mutation?” Li Huowang murmured.

“In your terms, he could be called the Plague God!” The hunchbacked old man, now cut in half and lying on the ground, suddenly stood up.

The strange liquid spewed like a volcano from his hump, splashing toward Li Huowang.

Worms flew from Li Huowang’s chest, blocking the black water and buying him time to escape.

Standing atop a raised bone, Li Huowang held his sword, his expression darkening as he stared at Tian Wu before him. “You’re still alive? What exactly are you?”

“Heh heh... I have no particular background. I’m just an ordinary old man,” Tian Wu, whose body was mutating, spoke with his two mouths that had been sliced open.

“You’re an ordinary old man? I’d believe it if I were blind!” With veins bulging on his forehead, Li Huowang roared in fury and charged at Tian Wu. His body, cracked open, forcibly closed together, and the mutations vanished swiftly.

Seeing Li Huowang approaching, Tian Wu tried to summon his powers—but found his body unresponsive. It was as if, in this moment, he had truly become an ordinary old man.

Just as he reached for his talisman at his waist, it was too late. A flash of white light, and Tian Wu’s head soared into the sky.

In the next moment, blood spurted from the broken neck, nearly reaching a height of ten feet.

Li Huowang remained cautious about the stranger’s oddity. He rushed to Tian Wu’s headless corpse and opened his bleeding neck wide.

As crimson blood surged into Li Huowang’s throat, the worms emerging from his mouth surged forward like fish leaping through the dragon gate, pushing through the blood and forcing their way inside.

“Ugh~!!” With a violent heave, countless red worms poured into Tian Wu’s body through the neck wound, devouring everything they touched without mercy.

As the worms gnawed, Tian Wu’s corpse quickly shriveled. When Li Huowang tossed aside the remaining bones and skin, the worms slithered back into his internal organs through the folds of his robe.

Having dealt with one enemy, Li Huowang did not rest. He charged toward the abbot Chan Du, who was desperately fighting. He had to end this battle before the Five Elements ritual concluded.

“Wait... wait!!” A voice from behind made Li Huowang freeze. Slowly turning around, he saw Tian Wu’s withered corpse crawling toward his head with its limbs.

“He’s still alive?! How is that possible!?”

At that moment of shock, a hand grabbed his ankle. A monk, his face swollen and rotting, his pupils dilated, pleaded with desperate eyes: “Master! Kill me! It hurts so much! So much pain!!”

Li Huowang lifted his foot and crushed his head. Even though the red and white matter spewed from his nose, the man still screamed in unbearable agony. “Aaaahhh!! Pain!! I’m dying!!”

Li Huowang glanced at the monk rolling on the ground in pain, then at Tian Wu staggering to his feet, shaking his head. He sensed something ominous.

As he looked around, despite the fierce battle raging all around, none of the corpses moved. Only then did he realize what had happened—he understood: a catastrophe had struck. Death had ceased to exist.