Chapter 794: Help

Chapter 794: Help

"You're speaking now! Why didn't you speak before?" Li Huowang stared at his reflection in the basin of water, his face dark with anger as he demanded urgently.

"This disaster is nothing like the ones of the past! Back then, it was just that things rotted away or disappeared during the day! But this time—death itself has vanished!"

"Do you understand what this means? This isn’t a trivial matter!" Li Huowang paced back and forth inside the room, his heart pounding with anxiety.

"Every time such a calamity strikes, it's because the celestial order has been disturbed. But if death has suddenly vanished, then surely something has happened to the Heavenly Dao of Death!"

Li Huowang stopped abruptly, a swift possibility flashing through his mind. He turned sharply toward his reflection in the basin. "Tell me! Is it those officials of the Faith of the Law who have taken away the Heavenly Dao of Death? Have you done anything about it?"

"Or perhaps enemies have already stormed your doorstep! And yet you remain so dazed and confused?"

"I did retaliate, I suppose."

Seeing his own image finally begin to speak, Li Huowang let out a furious curse. "You’re alive! I thought you were long gone!"

"It shouldn’t be time for that yet, is there something wrong?" Ji Zai’s tone remained calm and indifferent.

Li Huowang had no patience for idle chatter. He rushed over and asked anxiously, "What exactly is going on?! What happened to Kui Lei, who governs the Heavenly Dao of Death?"

"He died."

Hearing that, Li Huowang's pupils contracted instantly. "Died? Really died? How? Was he killed by one of Yu’er’s allies?"

"Probably." A trace of confusion flickered in Ji Zai’s eyes.

"Then who holds the Heavenly Dao of Death now? Why has the mortal world become like this?"

"Hmm..." Ji Zai fell into contemplation. "I don’t know. I haven’t seen it myself."

Li Huowang's forehead veins bulged with rage, his fists trembling slightly. "Fine, then I’ll ask what you do know! Which of the seven secret figures among the officials of the Faith are you referring to? Should I trust him?"

"Yes, at least for now, we’re on the same side. He wouldn’t harm me."

Finally receiving some information, Li Huowang’s fury began to subside somewhat. "How is it going on your end? Did Xuan Pin help much when she came before?"

"At present, I don’t recognize Xuan Pin. When you ask next time, I should have met her several times by then."

"Huh?" A question mark slowly formed in Li Huowang’s mind. What did this guy mean?

"Anything else? I’m quite busy here."

"There is! One last thing! Do you need me to go to Baiyu Jing to help you?" Having finally cornered Ji Zai, Li Huowang needed to get everything clear.

"That depends on how you look at it—will you help me? Or will I help you? Or will you help me?"

Li Huowang had completely lost his temper now. "What are you trying to say?! I don’t want riddles!"

"Help. In this matter, I’ll help you."

After saying that senseless phrase, Ji Zai went silent.

Looking at the unresponsive reflection before him, Li Huowang drew his sword in one swift motion, slicing both the reflection and the bronze basin in half.

"Damn it! You’re not even worth calling useless!"

With those words, Li Huowang stormed out of the door. Ji Zai, as always, was unreliable. Under these circumstances, he would have to find a solution himself.

As soon as he stepped outside, he noticed the atmosphere in the entire military camp was clearly off. Everyone looked tense, glancing frequently toward the east.

That direction was a specially designated area within the main camp. The buzzing of flies in the air suggested the smell there was far from pleasant, while thick black smoke never ceased rising.

Frowning, Li Huowang showed a hint of disgust and walked toward that place.

When Li Huowang pulled something up from a basket, a scene of unimaginable horror unfolded before him.

He had seen countless places filled with graves and corpses before—whether it was a graveyard or a pile of dead bodies—but nothing had ever made him feel so nauseated as this moment.

The decomposed human bodies, stripped of their clothes, were stuffed like rotting meat into wooden fences. Some lacked heads, others half their bodies.

Yet regardless of how grievously wounded they were, no matter how their bodies had changed, they still moved.

Death had vanished, but decay and suffering remained.

Each person who should have perished on the battlefield could not rest in peace, enduring endless torment of decay.

They could only watch helplessly as their bodies gradually rotted, festered, swelled, and were infested with maggots until bones were exposed.

At present, the only way to relieve their agony was fire—the great furnaces burning nonstop day and night.

Bloody flesh, alive and writhing, was skewered and thrown into the flames.

But the flames engulfed their entire bodies, scorching their tongues and internal organs, boiling their blood and brains. Still, they couldn’t stop screaming and struggling.

Desperate cries mixed with the crackling sounds of burning flesh, but none could bring about the finality of death.

Only when their bodies were completely reduced to ash could they finally fall silent.

"They didn’t die."

A withered lama wearing a chicken-crown hat approached Li Huowang. In his hands, he spun a wheel repeatedly, its humming echoing endlessly.

He gazed at the black smoke rising from the furnace and the piles of ashes pulled out from beneath it, repeating softly, "They didn’t die."

"Their bodies were burned into grains and fragments, each one feeling the pain and torment of bodily disintegration."

"Now their suffering is hundreds, thousands, millions times greater than before. They don’t scream not because they don’t wish to, but because they’ve lost their voices. They don’t move not because they don’t want to, but because they’ve lost limbs to move."

"If the Great Black Sky doesn’t return, they will endure this torment and agony forever."

Listening to the words of the lama from the Zhongyin Temple, Li Huowang felt his hair stand on end and his limbs grow cold.

Just imagining such a fate befalling himself would make even someone who had endured countless torments shiver with dread.

"Death is part of reincarnation, a destiny written for every person. Many fear death, fleeing from it at all costs. Yet they do not realize that death is actually the most precious gift bestowed upon everyone by the Great Black Sky. Unfortunately, they fail to cherish it. Only after losing can they regret deeply."

(End of Chapter)