Chapter 952: Fate

Chapter 952: The Si Ming

Pinned to the bamboo shoot, Li Huowang could not move, forced to passively endure the things growing within his own flesh.

Just then, Bai Lingmiao lunged before him, and with a forceful swipe of the Second God’s sharp black claws, the bamboo shoot beneath Li Huowang was severed at the root.

Xuan Pin arrived at that very instant, his tentacles lashing out to carve a line of blood directly across Li Huowang’s brow.

Four hands gripped Li Huowang’s limbs and pulled with all their might; before he could even react, his body was ripped clean in two.

Xuan Pin reached into the gaping torso, tore out the bamboo shoot that continued to sprout, and then slammed the two halves of Li Huowang back together.

With a swift, sweeping motion of his hand, Xuan Pin erased the bloody fissure running down the center of Li Huowang’s body.

Xuan Pin retreated rapidly, dragging Li Huowang as far as possible from the influence of Zuo Qiuyong’s Heavenly Dao.

It takes long to recount, but all this transpired in a mere few breaths; Li Huowang was not only free, but his mangled body had fully mended.

Though temporarily safe, there was no joy on Li Huowang’s face as he stared at Zuo Qiuyong, who loomed like a mountain.

The enemy was too powerful, the crushing pressure leaving him gasping for air; he knew his chances of victory were slim, perhaps nonexistent.

Yet, even so, Li Huowang refused to yield. Zuo Qiuyong sought the life of Bai Lingmiao. Li Sui was already gone, and she was the last person he truly cherished.

After a frantic moment of thought, Li Huowang realized he could not face this incarnate Si Ming alone; he had to borrow external power to find a sliver of hope.

"Xuan Pin... Xuan Pin!" Li Huowang roared, veins bulging on his forehead, "Tell me! Is Sui Sui truly dead?"

"Yes. How many times must I tell you? Your daughter has been dead for a long time."

This time, Li Huowang did not flee; he chose to believe those words with his entire being. He needed the absolute agony of Li Sui’s death to fuel his resolve.

To borrow power requires a price, and for Li Huowang, the price was to tear open the bloody wound in his heart, rub coarse salt into it, and offer it up to the Ba Hui beyond the Heavens.

As he fully accepted the reality that Li Sui would never return, Li Huowang’s face twisted, and he let out a soul-shattering scream; he felt as if thousands of red-hot needles were piercing his heart.

He plunged his hands into his own throat, and amidst a spray of blood, he ripped out his own tongue and larynx, hurling them onto the glowing red pages of the Great Thousand Record on the ground.

As the tongue and throat landed upon the book, the Great Thousand Record instantly surged with life.

"One tongue turns the wheel, one lash spans the thousand worlds; eyes capture the lightning, fire drives the thunder; intent crafts all illusions, breaking the primordial chaos; Heaven favors the divine and strange, etched by the breath of the void; my Lord is supreme, how dare you disturb Him!"

As the incantation finished, Li Huowang’s features began to blur, and the pain—both physical and spiritual—began to transmute into something else entirely.

A terrifying, desperate aura radiated from him, a power that did not belong to the mortal realm.

Under a crushing pressure, everything near Li Huowang creaked and bent away from him; it was the manifestation of agony, absolute and pure.

By ascending the Cangqiang Staircase, Li Huowang had temporarily seized control of the Heavenly Dao of Pain. The trees and flowers that had been encroaching upon him shrieked in torment, desperately trying to flee his presence.

Those that could not escape sought only to destroy themselves, preferring the finality of death to the endless torture of his proximity.

Looking at Zuo Qiuyong in the distance, Li Huowang, his body tearing from the intensity of the pain, looked up toward the void beyond the Heavens.

"Ba Hui! Help me... Come down and help!! Don't forget it was me! I saved Bai Yujing!! Every Si Ming in your Bai Yujing owes me!"

As he finished, he felt the gaze from above vanish. Ba Hui had granted him the Dao of Pain, but offered no further aid. "Damn it!!"

Li Huowang would not give up; he refused to accept this. Feeling the surging non-gang within him, he sat on the ground, preparing to perform the Wangtian Bao Hao once more.

To defeat Zuo Qiuyong, he had to drag other Si Mings into the fray.

But before he could finish, Zuo Qiuyong moved. As he swayed, his flesh twisted and grew, and smaller versions of himself squeezed out from his body, dropping to the ground and burrowing into the soil.

With every piece of flesh buried, Zuo Qiuyong’s control over the world deepened.

A foot as vast as a mountain descended, and Li Huowang’s chanting, along with the entire hillside, vanished.

Just as Zuo Qiuyong thought he had finished his opponent, he felt a sharp pain in his foot—a pain that grew with every passing second.

It was as if he hadn't stepped on a man, but on a needle, and the agony was crawling up his leg.

Yet, he ignored the bone-deep pain. "Hahaha~ Li Huowang, this is all you have? You are finished."

As he spoke, dense bone spurs erupted from his flesh, piercing through the ground and skewering Li Huowang.

But in his ascended state, Li Huowang could not die; he poured every ounce of his agony into Zuo Qiuyong.

However, the once-invincible Cangqiang Staircase failed; the enemy’s body was too vast, and his own pain was too small.

With a thought, the ground for miles around liquefied into a sea.

Li Huowang grew fins and webbing, escaping the restraint.

But when he stood atop a distant peak, he found that Zuo Qiuyong was not pursuing him, but watching him with the eyes of a cat playing with a mouse.

"Little one, slippery and hard to catch. No matter, I will deal with you at the end. Just watch."

"I know you don't fear death; even if I kill you now, you won't bow. But I know what you care about, and I will make you see the price of opposing me!"

Zuo Qiuyong’s massive hand slammed down to the left, snatching up the retreating Bai Lingmiao.

The next moment, dense bone spurs erupted from his flesh, impaling Bai Lingmiao, the Second God, and all their vital organs.