Chapter 955: Traitor

Chapter 955: The Traitor

Faced with the yellow-clad woman's seductive guile, Li Huowang's mind did not waver in the slightest; he had long since seen through people of her kind.

"The only thing I want from any of you is your death!"

With those words, his military knife plunged straight into her mouth with a violent twist, ripping a mangled, bloody tongue clean out.

Just then, Yang Na came stumbling over, her hands locking tightly around Li Huowang's blade-wielding arm as she stared at the gory spectacle, utterly terrified. "Li Huowang, what on earth are you doing?!"

"Trust me! Trust me! This woman is an insider from the Auspicious Heaven!! Nana!! You have to believe me!!" His eyes nearly splitting with rage, Li Huowang roared at Yang Na.

Yang Na froze. She looked first at the pitiful woman in yellow, then at the frantic Li Huowang, until finally, a stark realization washed over her.

"Mhm, Huowang, I believe you. Whatever you say, I believe."

With that, Yang Na drew a military knife of her own, gripping it tightly with both hands, and slowly pressed it down into the yellow-clad woman's chest.

Watching the woman perish entirely, Yang Na released her grip with trembling hands, staring down at her own blood-slicked palms as a beautiful, curving smile gradually graced her lips.

She turned back to face Li Huowang, her face blooming like a white magnolia in full flower. "Huowang, we won. We killed another Arbiter who threatened us! Tell me, am I not incredible?"

Gazing into Yang Na’s eyes, which shone like a pool of clear spring water, Li Huowang was momentarily stunned before he gave a slow, gentle nod. "Yes, you are incredible. We won."

"Wonderful!" Yang Na threw herself into Li Huowang's embrace, leaping with joy. "I can help now. I am the Unborn Holy Mother."

Releasing the corpse, Li Huowang placed a gentle hand atop Yang Na's head, gradually soothing her back from her state of excitement. "Let us go. I have blocked the Auspicious Heaven's counterattack. Let us head back first before we talk further."

With those words, Li Huowang walked toward the villa, but the moment he gripped the doorknob and twisted it open, a different Li Huowang—dripping with brain matter and bloody water—stepped out of the interior all by himself. "The traitor is finally dead. Now we can have a proper chat."

Hearing this, Zuo Qiuyong sat upon a stone bench, twirling a pink handkerchief around his fingers as though lost in deep thought.

The man who had just been fighting tooth and nail only moments ago seemed entirely transformed. This was still the capital city of Shangjing; all prior chaos had vanished, and the common folk within the city walls continued about their ordinary day.

There was no flesh-and-blood Arbiter as vast as the sky, nor was there the all-encompassing Heavenly Dao of Growth to warp reality; the memory of the Auspicious Heaven that had been deliberately planted in Zuo Qiuyong's mind had vanished along with it, and everything was rewritten anew.

After pondering for a long moment, Zuo Qiuyong finally nodded. "Very well, then. Let us have a proper chat. I accept your truce."

"Until the trouble with the Auspicious Heaven is resolved, neither I nor the Unborn Holy Mother shall cross paths to cause trouble for each other."

Li Huowang was not surprised by Zuo Qiuyong's reaction; since the traitor who sowed discord was dead, all of her prior influence had disintegrated, including her sway over Zuo Qiuyong.

Deliberating for a moment, Li Huowang spoke slowly. "This is what I wished to say. Throughout all the temporal rewinds of the past, I have never once seen this woman. When I was being monitored back then, she was present too. This woman is an Arbiter from the other elephant."

"We have provoked them repeatedly before, so they were bound to act, but I never expected them to be so utterly ruthless as to send someone here to drive a wedge between us."

"Fortunately, my reflexes were swift enough to stop her before she could cause irreversible ruin. If we had turned our blades against one another, their treacherous plot would have succeeded. After all, a clash between Arbiters is no laughing matter."

Hearing this, a look of understanding dawned on Zuo Qiuyong's face.

"So that is how it is. Very well then. If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave. Find a way to establish contact with the other Arbiters and see where I can be of assistance from down here."

"Let us make one thing clear beforehand: I cannot go to the White Jade Capital. If a true war breaks out up there, I will be of no help."

"Mhm, I know. Qing Wanglai was right, and I share the same sentiment. Though to be quite honest, I really did not expect you two siblings to actually believe my words." Li Huowang stood up, preparing to see his guest out.

Yet right at that moment, just as Zuo Qiuyong was about to depart, Dice suddenly approached from the distance.

"This person is..."

"He is one of our own, rather well-informed. Let us see what he has to say." Li Huowang's words caused Zuo Qiuyong to halt his steps.

Dice came before the two men, first bowing deeply to Li Huowang, and then stepping up to Zuo Qiuyong's side, opening his mouth as if to speak.

But to anyone's utter shock, before a single word could escape him, a splash of iridescent black liquid erupted from a point on Dice's head, spraying directly onto Zuo Qiuyong's chest.

No one could have anticipated such an action from Dice; neither Zuo Qiuyong nor Li Huowang could react in time.

By the time Zuo Qiuyong realized what had happened, it was already too late. The tar-like liquid spread rapidly across his body, regrowing even if it was hacked away.

"Dice! What do you think you are doing?!" Li Huowang drew his sword and slashed down, severing Zuo Qiuyong's head clean off.

Yet even so, it was too late; the new body regenerating beneath Zuo Qiuyong's head was still plagued by that bizarre fluid.

"What am I doing? Hehehe... Didn't I tell you before? I side with whoever wins."

Dice spoke as he slowly backed away, putting distance between himself and Li Huowang. "I spoke nothing but the truth~ It’s just that, well, I actually happen to believe the Auspicious Heaven has a slightly better chance of winning. Ha~~ Ha~~ Ha~~"

"Oh, come now, surely not? Hong Zhong, you didn't actually believe me, did you? You didn't truly think I was helping you with all my heart and soul, did you? You didn't think we became friends through our little scuffle, did you?"

At this point, Dice clutched his stomach and burst into uproarious laughter. "Hahaha! You fell for it! You fell for it again! Hahahah!!"

Amidst his relentless laughter, Dice could not help but lift his head, gazing up toward the gate of the Great Beyond.

"Ji Zai, Ji Zai, and you over there—did you honestly think I would care about the meager scraps of benefit you offered? How tragic. The other side offered far, far more than you ever could."

Li Huowang trembled with pure rage, a fiery wrath erupting violently from his core. He lunged forward, closing the distance in a few swift strides, and clamped his hand tightly around the gold-and-silver inlaid dice resting upon the table.

His eyes glared furiously at the object in his palm. "Dice, you may have mistaken one crucial thing. I was not trying to win you over with benefits before—I was threatening you! If you don't do exactly as I say, I will fucking destroy you!"

With that roar, Li Huowang shoved the dice directly into his mouth, biting down with a harsh, crunching grind.

Within a few gnashes, teeth marks were ground deep into the dice. Finally, with a sudden, violent exertion of Li Huowang's jaws, the dice cracked wide open with a sharp snap, and a certain silver-white, faintly luminous fluid instantly sprayed out from within.

(End of Chapter)

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