Chapter 873: Siming

Chapter 873: The Keeper of Life

Feeling the non-gang continuing to rise and observing the distant enemies he could do nothing about, Li Huowang quickly made up his mind.

Seeing the army of Shuobu De approaching from afar, Li Huowang turned around and faced them with his back.

Before him stretched an endless sea of Qi people. After quickly scanning the crowd, Li Huowang located Feng Bawan among them.

He immediately pulled him out forcefully and excitedly gave orders. “Quick! Let them shout! Let everyone follow you and keep shouting!”

“What are we shouting?” Feng Bawan, still holding half a brick, was utterly confused.

“Shout what you just said! Get everyone to join in! Hurry!”

Before Feng Bawan could react, several scholars from Minglun Hall understood instantly what Li Huowang meant. They bowed respectfully. “Understood!”

The praises for Li Huowang began to be shouted by the scholars, and those behind followed suit, echoing each other in the thousands.

“The Great Dao is impartial, true blessings, compassionate heart saving the suffering, Zhuge Yuan!”

“The Great Dao is impartial, true blessings, compassionate heart saving the suffering, Zhuge Yuan!”

Minglun Hall’s words were naturally more elegant than Feng Bawan’s blunt expressions, but Li Huowang didn’t care about the poetic quality—he only cared about the amount of non-gang.

As the massive influx of non-gang surged into him, he knew he had found his way to victory!

“Chandu! Take the others and hold them off for a moment! I’m not done yet!”

The abbot of Zhengde Temple did not ask questions. He simply turned his Buddhist beads leisurely and led the Qi’s Sky-Watching Bureau and military men resolutely toward Shuobu De's army, even though he knew they were no match for these beings.

“Don’t stop! Keep shouting!”

Li Huowang let everyone fully believe he was a bodhisattva, borrowing some of the non-gang to make himself appear several zhang taller in their eyes.

Seeing Li Huowang seated cross-legged like a true Buddha, some of those who shouted raised their voices significantly, repeating the chants with increasing fervor.

“Bodhisattva Zhuge guides all to salvation, lotus seat and auspicious clouds open the pure realm!”

“Bodhisattva Zhuge guides all to salvation, lotus seat and auspicious clouds open the pure realm!”

“Bodhisattva Zhuge! Doing a thousand good deeds daily, accumulating thirty thousand merits, great fortune arrives, compassion in heart!”

“Bodhisattva Zhuge! Doing a thousand good deeds daily, accumulating thirty thousand merits, great fortune arrives, compassion in heart!”

In this atmosphere, even those who previously didn’t believe began unconsciously to believe. With Li Huowang’s many sacrifices, they knelt down devoutly, bowing their heads as if worshipping a real bodhisattva.

Everyone believed Li Huowang was the bodhisattva Zhuge, the savior of suffering, despite wearing Daoist robes and despite the name Zhuge having no connection to Buddhism.

With their devout shouts, the endless stream of non-gang poured toward Li Huowang. If before it had been a trickle, now it was a river flooding.

Feeling the non-gang increase endlessly, Li Huowang listened to the screams behind him, anxiously waiting. “Not enough! Not enough yet! Not enough!!”

Time passed slowly. As the screams behind him began to fade, Li Huowang suddenly opened his eyes wide. “Enough!”

At that very moment, the spine sword behind Li Huowang rapidly grew flesh and blood, forming a new Li Huowang. Both stood back-to-back, opening their mouths to chant simultaneously.

“True Void, Supreme Mystery, Master of the Dharma King, Supreme Primordial Mother of Heaven, where golden light shines, sun and moon hide their brilliance, when the treasure staff spins, ghosts and demons lose their color, appearing in the mortal world, protecting the holy vehicle…”

Though the voice was not loud, it traveled far and farther. The unchanging sky of Qi began to change.

Then both Li Huowangs’ heads gradually became square, transforming into dice.

As the chanting continued, the square heads of the dice grew larger and more purple. Their bodies began to disappear from this world, as if they were illusions themselves.

As Li Huowang’s body vanished, the chanting of the dice grew louder, eventually becoming the sole sound in the heavens and earth.

Shuobu De’s army seemed to sense something and abandoned their fight with Qi’s Sky-Watching Bureau and military, rushing toward Li Huowang.

However, seeing Li Huowang performing the ritual, how could Chandu and the others let them pass? Even at the cost of death, they would block them.

Although the Qi people couldn’t defeat these things, they could still hold them off with their lives.

In the midst of chaos, the chanting of the two dice entered its final phase.

“All beings in distress who call upon your name, the great being hears and rescues, great compassion, great vow, great sage, great mercy, Holy Spirit of Heavenly Light, Queen of the Heavenly Realm, Marici. Supreme Lady of the Celestial Compassion!”

At the last word, the six faces of numbers on Li Huowang’s face detached from his body, enveloped in dark purple light, sinking into the extremely dark clouds above.

In the next moment, both Li Huowangs raised their heads in unison, shouting toward the sky.

“Lady Doumu, come quickly! I return the true heavenly path to you!”

Indeed, this was the Wángtiān Bǎohào of the Forgetful Dao. Since their powers were so strange, he would summon the true Keeper of Life and see whether these hundred and odd people had the strength to kill Lady Doumu!

“Whoa~!” The dark clouds in the sky began to churn violently.

In contrast to the changes in the sky, the grass on the ground also began to transform, its texture becoming very peculiar, as if turning into some kind of liquid.

Li Huowang looked up and saw the Yin-Yang Taiji fish far in the distance, like a sun in the sky.

Li Huowang knew Lady Doumu was coming. “Get on the ground! Close your eyes and plug your ears tightly!”

At his command, all the citizens of Qi obeyed, and the ground was soon covered with people lying down.

Lying on the ground, they swayed like seaweed in the waves.

When Li Huowang looked up again, he saw clearly—two vast seas entwined in black and white! Lady Doumu had truly arrived.

Those two vast seas were not Lady Doumu herself; it was what lay beneath them that was Lady Doumu.

Li Huowang felt his body melting, his perception fading.

Both of them, with pained expressions, clutched their heads and cursed at the sky, “What the hell are you staring at me for? The enemy is those things! Kill them!”

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