Chapter 814: Won

Chapter 814: Victory

“Victory?” Li Huowang stood still, staring blankly at the followers of the False Teaching sprawled across the ground in pieces.

He walked over and checked one of them, only to be shocked by the discovery that there was not even a trace of breath left— they were all dead.

“Crackling,” accompanied by the sound of crumbling earth, the massive Buddhist statues that the cultists had dragged to the center of the battlefield began to crackle and gradually collapse to the ground, turning into scattered piles of dirt.

“Victory! Victory!!” The cries of exhilaration spread like a tsunami, reaching every ear.

When everyone finally reacted, their shouts of joy echoed through the sky. They were filled with excitement, wildly pounding the ground with their heads in ecstasy.

They had won. The overwhelming enemy that had pressed down on each of their hearts—the terrifying and hopeless fate of Great Qi—was now completely far away from everyone.

At this news, many people threw their weapons high into the air. If death hadn’t vanished, then just standing barefoot would have killed many.

“Finally we’ve won!” Li Huowang smiled as he looked around, taking in everything before him. His gaze eventually settled on Xuan Pin.

“Li Sui, did I do a good job as your high-ranking official?”

Li Sui nodded slightly, then came beside Li Huowang and reached to open his abdomen, just as she had done before, slipping her body inside. “Father, let’s go home.”

“Mm! Let’s go home!!” Li Huowang nodded, filled with excitement, walking toward the edge of the battlefield.

“It seems the top really has won. Only when the top wins can the bottom win so easily!”

Listening to the cheers all around him, Li Huowang’s lips curled upward slightly. “Li Sui, what should I do next?”

Li Sui didn’t answer. Instead, she extended two tentacles from her navel and gently shook Li Huowang’s left hand.

Just then, Li Sui approached a group of White Lotus cultists who were kneeling devoutly on the ground, bowing before Bai Lingmiao among the crowd, shouting about the manifestation of the Mother of Infinite Life.

“Lingmiao! We’ve won! Come on! Let’s go home!” Li Huowang shouted to her.

Hearing Li Huowang’s shout, Bai Lingmiao smiled faintly, nodded, and secretly pointed to the surrounding believers with her hand.

“Good!” Li Huowang nodded at her, then pointed toward Niu Xin Village and strode off in that direction.

As soon as Li Huowang stepped out of the battlefield, he saw the Grand Master of the Great Liang State, Huangfu Tiangang, swiftly passing through the air on a sword. “Where is Xuan Pin! The Emperor commands! Return to Great Liang immediately!”

Li Huowang stopped in place. After thinking for a moment, he gently patted his own belly and said, “Go.”

Unknowingly, Sui Sui had grown up and begun to have her own affairs.

Li Huowang’s abdomen slowly opened, and countless tentacles flowed out from within.

Li Huowang took off his red Daoist robe and draped it over Li Sui's sticky body.

Li Sui nodded at him, then quickly retracted into the earth, disappearing completely.

Looking at the spot where Li Sui had vanished, Li Huowang smiled again. He turned his head excitedly toward the nearby monk and shouted, “Monk! Did you see? We’ve won! We really have won!”

The monk also nodded energetically, replying happily, “Yes! Taoist! You really won! You saved many people. You truly saved many people! That’s a great deed! You can become a Buddha!”

Jinshan Zhao also dragged his broken body over, speaking excitedly to Li Huowang.

“Victory! Victory! Hahaha!” Qiu Baochi held her rotting child and laughed maniacally, circling Li Huowang again and again.

“Hmph.” Peng Longteng rode his horse, watching the whole farce unfold, following along slowly.

As Li Huowang gradually left the bustling scene, surrounded by these hallucinations,

“A Taoist? Is that really you? Taoist?” A familiar yet strange voice suddenly rang from behind Li Huowang.

Li Huowang paused slightly, slowly turning around to see an old monk standing there, smiling warmly at him.

That was the monk—the one who had always wanted to do good deeds.

Li Huowang turned to look at the hallucination beside him, which was also a monk, identical in appearance to the old monk.

“Taoist, it’s been a long time! Didn’t expect you to come too? Did you come to help fight the war?” The monk held his prayer beads, curious, asking Li Huowang.

Li Huowang glanced between the two monks, finally widening his eyes at the real one. “You’re not dead?”

“What? What are you talking about? Of course I’m not dead.” As the monk said this matter-of-factly, the hallucination monk began to flicker in and out of visibility.

“Before, wasn’t I working at Zhengde Temple? After you left, I kept carrying stones at Zhengde Temple until now.”

“So it’s war, right? I heard doing good deeds could help, so I followed my masters here. On the way, I did plenty of work, but honestly, I don’t know if this counts as good deeds.”

“You’re alive?” Li Huowang slowly turned his head, looking at the identical hallucination monk beside him. “If he’s alive, then who are you? Who are you all?”

At this moment, Li Huowang’s mind was thoroughly confused. He had always believed that these hallucinations were the souls of those who died, preserved by his Heart Essence ability.

The belief he had clung to for so long now seemed to crumble.

The hallucination monk stared at the real monk who looked exactly like him, then looked at Li Huowang with a complex expression. “Taoist, if he is the real monk, then perhaps all of us are false.”

Upon hearing this, Jinshan Zhao and Peng Longteng also began to flicker in and out of visibility.

“What nonsense!” Peng Longteng jumped off his horse and came to stand before Li Huowang. “Can’t you tell? We’re not who we used to be—we’re all parts of you! You’re not actually cultivating, you’re just cultivating falsity!”

These words exploded like thunder in Li Huowang’s heart. Then, Peng Longteng, Jinshan Zhao, and the monk’s bodies rapidly became transparent.

Having seen this many times, as if already knowing his fate, the hallucination monk walked up to Li Huowang and said, “Taoist, sorry for not being able to help much recently. All I can do is recite Amitabha Buddha.”

“But I think, though it may not help much, kindness is still necessary. Otherwise, how can one become a Buddha? Don’t you think so?”

After saying that, the monk disappeared entirely.

Then came Jinshan Zhao. Without saying anything else, he raised a thumbs-up toward Li Huowang and laughed happily.

Before he could say more, Peng Longteng crashed into him, scattering Jinshan Zhao’s body like smoke. “Kid, you’re a man. I wanted to kill you before, but you killed me. Fair enough. Our score’s even now.”

Li Huowang stood motionless, watching the hallucinations disappear one after another, leaving only Qiu Baochi dancing wildly with her child.

“This…” Just as Li Huowang stood stunned, overwhelmed by the emptiness around him, a torrent of non-sense surged into his mind.

The past version of himself had deceived himself, and now the truth of the deception had finally been revealed.

Li Huowang staggered backward, his face twisted in horror. The nearby monk rushed forward to support him, but Li Huowang shoved him aside. “Dice! What the hell do you mean!!”

The monk who had approached was gently tapped on the shoulder. He froze in place. The person who tapped him had a six-sided die on his head.

“Nothing much. I helped you, so you must help me. I can’t get down from above, so I have to use your deception to descend. You can’t break your word.”

“What the hell do you want to do!!”

Li Huowang glared at the die with predatory eyes. Under his gaze, the die’s body gradually shrank.

“I don’t want anything for now. I just want to survive.”

With a light snap of his fingers, the die stopped shrinking.

“Li Huowang, to be honest, you’ve surprised me. I thought the sky would collapse, but you managed to push it back up.”

“When I seized the dragon vein, I just thought I’d take advantage after the heavens cracked. It turns out you’re truly the heart of the calamity. With you, there’s always change.”

“No need to worry. You’ve patched the heavens. I have no reason to oppose you, right, Xuan Pin?”

Xuan Pin, wearing a red Daoist robe, walked between Li Huowang and the die. She glanced at the die, six arms reaching out to embrace and support Li Huowang, speaking softly to him as they slowly retreated into the distance.

The die turned to look at Huangfu Tiangang, who had appeared without warning. Then, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a fortune mask, and offered it to him.

“Hmph.” Huangfu Tiangang waved his sleeve coldly, turned, and left.

“Wait!” The die reached into his head and pulled out a six-sided die from the eighteen-sided one, offering it to Huangfu Tiangang again.

This time, Huangfu Tiangang didn’t leave. A hint of hesitation crossed his face, but he eventually accepted it.

On the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, dust was swept and houses cleaned.

On the twenty-fifth, mills were turned and tofu made.

On the twenty-sixth, pigs were slaughtered and New Year meat cut.

On the twenty-seventh, chickens were butchered and markets visited.

On the twenty-eighth, rice cakes were pounded and steamed buns baked, window decorations pasted.

As red paper cutouts adorned window after window, the sweet aroma of pastries filled the air, and even after the great snowfall, Niuxin Village had begun to carry a hint of the New Year.

Not only Niuxin Village, but Dalang, Hou Shu, Qingqiu, Siqi—everywhere was striving to become as lively as possible, as if hoping that the joy of the New Year could wash away the sorrow of the past.

Li Huowang stood on the second floor of the Bai Family Compound, watching children running freely through the snow, watching the smiles on their faces.

The house was cold, with no hearth lit, yet he stood there as if waiting for something, standing there until night fell, still standing.

The snowflakes drifted slowly from the sky, settling lightly upon his black hair. A thin layer, when Li Huowang caught sight of brilliant tree blossoms blooming on distant walls, and the white lotus soul banners rising and falling between the houses, a slight upward curve appeared at the corners of his mouth.

(Volume Four Complete)

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Volume Four is finished. I must report to all my benefactors on the results. Writing to this point, the book has just reached eighty thousand average subscriptions—this truly took me by surprise. Volume Five will be the final volume.

I know I cannot achieve perfection, but I will do my best to write well, bringing it to a close with consistency, ensuring that "Dao Gui Xian" has a perfect ending.

As before, in order to organize the plot for Volume Five, I need two days of rest.

Of course, I haven't forgotten the accounts with all our lords. Two Yuanzi side stories, one dice side story, one Miaomiao side story, plus dozens of chapters of bonus content—I've all noted down.

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