Chapter 801: Dragon Vein

Chapter 801: Dragon Vein

Faced with such a formidable adversary, Li Huowang had no intention of throwing his life away this time. After all, death was no longer an option—he found it rather difficult to kill it even if he wanted to.

He hadn’t forgotten why he had come here. If he focused solely on killing this creature, he would be missing the point entirely.

“I’ll hold it off for a stick of incense! You run as far as you can—meet us at the designated spot!” With those words, Li Huowang whipped his tentacles in a sudden burst of force, charging straight toward the beast before him.

As they drew closer, Li Huowang gave a sharp shake of his spine sword, and a fissure instantly appeared.

But this fissure wasn’t meant to harm Ao Mo Jie—it was a trap. Li Huowang’s body darted through it like lightning, vanishing into the gap.

In the next instant, the fissure struck Ao Mo Jie and shattered. In the endless black sea, Li Huowang disappeared completely.

The enemy had fled, but Ao Mo Jie didn’t wait. It opened its many eyes and spat out waves of heat from some of its intestines, chasing after Shen Benyou and the others who were swimming toward the surface.

Just then, there came a sharp “pfft,” and a blade so sharp it seemed to appear from nowhere pierced through the fissure, plunging into Ao Mo Jie’s body and withdrawing just as quickly.

Another strike followed, another wound bloomed, and again and again, the blood seeping from Ao Mo Jie’s body stained the surrounding waters.

On the final slash, Li Huowang, still in the Great Qi realm, could no longer endure. He staggered out of the fissure.

Under the influence of the strange liquid from the Great Qi, even though he forced himself to cultivate, his body had become grotesquely abnormal.

His entire form had swollen unnaturally, six curved limbs ending in crab-like pincers sprouting from beneath his robe.

Above his head, four gray-white filaments protruded, each topped with flower-like organs. Below his head hung eight slender, nearly green tendrils.

Beneath the tendrils, sparse strands of dry white hair fell from his scalp, covering the malformed little head that sat upon his neck.

Yet these bizarre changes were temporary. As Li Huowang rapidly cultivated, his body swiftly returned to normal.

But at that moment, the shrinking head suddenly spoke. “Li Huowang! What do you mean?! You promised!!”

Without turning around, Li Huowang raised his webbed right hand and tore the head off his body.

“Heh, did you really believe me? You’re a Red Middle of the Forgetful Dao, yet you fall for lies! I’m lying to you! I’ve had enough illusions already! Compared to the dice’s hidden moves, I’m more worried about what you’re secretly up to!”

With a casual toss, he discarded the head and turned to face Ao Mo Jie.

Though he had exerted great effort, facing a creature the size of a house, his few strikes had not achieved the desired effect.

Still, Li Huowang did not despair. His mission was to delay, not to fight to the death.

Through the row of compound eyes at the back of his neck, he saw Shen Benyou and the others rising to the surface. He reached up and scraped off the eyes, then swung his tentacles once more at the beast.

Both dragon veins had been located—the halfway mark of his goal achieved. All he needed now was to hold it off long enough to retreat.

But it seemed Ao Mo Jie had no intention of fighting fair. Its scales began trembling violently, and the other fishermen who had vanished earlier reappeared around it.

A high-pitched sound, accompanied by heat, spread across the water.

Hearing it, both fishermen and water monkeys began tearing off pieces of scale from Ao Mo Jie, devouring the flesh pulled from the base of the scales whole, then pressing the scales against their foreheads to cover their eyes.

Li Huowang’s perception of them changed instantly. They looked the same, but felt utterly different.

They surrounded him, and when he attempted to use cultivation against them, it had no effect. They had all absorbed the dragon energy of the vein.

As more and more scales were distributed, Li Huowang sensed something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. The dragon energy was being shared too freely!

This creature hadn’t absorbed the full dragon veins! Where did it get so much dragon energy?

Li Huowang had once touched dragon veins. There was something deeply unusual about this creature.

When the men with scales on their faces swam together like schools of fish, forming a massive serpentine monster, Li Huowang suddenly understood.

“These... these aren’t stolen dragon energies! They’re yours! You’re not a Fate Keeper! No Fate Keeper is so weak! You are the dragon vein itself! You are... the dragon vein of their world! Right? You haven’t absorbed the dragon vein—you’ve strengthened yourself!”

Ao Mo Jie did not answer. It flailed its scaled flesh toward Li Huowang.

“Other worlds’ Fate Keepers! Other worlds’ dragon veins! Why come here to steal ours?!”

Li Huowang charged forward.

Faced with overwhelming numbers, most of his attacks were ineffective. Li Huowang was thoroughly overwhelmed.

But fortunately, since death no longer existed, no matter how badly he was injured, he would not die.

Even now, he continued questioning Ao Mo Jie, “Why?! Why come here to steal our Heavenly Dao?! Do you not even have death in your world?! Or do you find double death exhilarating?”

At that, Li Huowang froze, recalling the words of the gate guardian earlier. He realized he had inadvertently revealed the truth.

Seizing the opportunity, Ao Mo Jie’s attack struck. A flash of cold light, and Li Huowang’s body split into two halves. But the black tendrils stitched him back together.

“I see! I finally understand! That’s right! Your world has no death! No decay, no pain, no lies!”

“So you crave all of it! You yearn for decay, for pain, for lies! You even crave death! Because none of these things exist in your world!”

Li Huowang read something in Ao Mo Jie’s eyes, slowly gripped his spine sword, and smiled coldly.

“But... not a chance! So long as I, Li Huowang, am alive, you will never take our Heavenly Dao!”

“I want to see! If you kill our dragon vein, will our time vanish? If I destroy your dragon vein, what happens to your world?!”

(End of Chapter)