Chapter 956: Change

Chapter 956: The Change

"Oh dear! Oh dear! Li Huowang, what kind of madness has possessed you! Why are you biting a die for no reason! These cheating dice are filled with mercury!"

Witnessing Li Huowang’s bizarre behavior, Chen Hongyu rushed over and thrust her hand into his mouth, intending to pry the die from his jaws.

"Quick! Spit it out, then rinse your mouth immediately! Liquid mercury is highly toxic! Do you have a death wish?" Wu Qi brought over a glass of milk from the refrigerator and held it out to him.

Despite the frantic dissuasions of the others, Li Huowang had absolutely no intention of letting go. His gums bled from the sheer force of his bite, yet he only pressed down harder with his teeth. Today, this die had to die!

"Heh~ Another good show to watch." A playful smirk gracing her face, Ba Nanxu sank back onto the sofa, watching the farce unfold nearby while scrolling through her phone alongside her brother.

Just as the scene was descending into utter chaos, a smiling Qing Wanglai walked over. He first reached out to drape an arm around Li Huowang’s shoulder, then instantly clenched his right hand into a fist, delivering a sharp left hook straight into Li Huowang’s stomach.

With a muffled "thud," the sheer force of the impact lifted Li Huowang slightly into the air. Jarred by such violence, his jaws flew open, and the cracked die was forced out of his mouth.

Quickly withdrawing the hand that had struck Li Huowang’s stomach, Qing Wanglai snatched the air with lightning speed, catching the cracked die squarely in his palm.

"Li Huowang, don't lose your temper. No matter what you've encountered, keep your composure. You still have us." Having offered his counsel, Qing Wanglai took the milk from Wu Qi and proffered it.

"Rinse your mouth first, then drink it all. The proteins in the milk will chelate with the mercury, preventing your body from absorbing it. Mercury is no joke; ingesting it can truly kill a person."

With a sudden slap, Li Huowang batted the glass of milk away, his gaze locked unblinkingly onto the die in the other man's hand.

Swallowing a mouthful of bloody saliva, Li Huowang made a move to snatch the die back. But how could Qing Wanglai possibly give it to him, terrified that he would stuff it back into his mouth and start chewing again?

"Dice! Did you think that just because you found a new patron, you could do whatever you please? Let me tell you! A Sovereign is always a Sovereign, and in this war, that fellow is only fit to be a pawn!!"

Hearing Li Huowang's words, the heavily battered Dice paid no heed whatsoever to his own injuries. With a smirk playing across his face, he spoke up: "Look at what you're saying. A man's always got to have something to strive for, hasn't he? Compared to becoming a die, I'd much rather become the one who casts them. If a man has nothing to strive for, what difference is there between him and a corpse?"

"Furthermore, I could cooperate with anyone but you. You're so erratic and unreliable. Don't forget that back then, even Zhuge Yuan couldn't trust you."

"Go to hell!!" Accompanied by Li Huowang's enraged roar, Dice's entire body instantly shattered into pieces.

Yet that square head rolled upon the ground, spinning round and round. Facing Li Huowang, who possessed seven wheels, he showed not a shred of fear.

"Hehehe~ Li Huowang, I'm afraid you don't have the luxury of wasting time with me here. Look over there, Zuo Qiuyong seems to have barely any breath left."

Hearing this, Li Huowang snapped his head around, only to find that Zuo Qiuyong was no longer where he had been. In his place lay a squirming puddle of iridescent, dark fluid.

Li Huowang remembered this substance. This thing hailed from Fushen Heaven! Back then, the entire Great Qi had been blanketed by it, leaving it completely barren!

A wave of chills shot straight into his brain. "Not good! This fellow isn't just dealing with Zuo Qiuyong's avatar! That colossal fleshly body is in danger too!"

Now that the traitor had been eliminated, Zuo Qiuyong was on their side. If anything happened to this fleshly Sovereign of theirs, their forces would lose a massive asset!

With a swift stroke of Li Huowang's hand, a portal leading to the Kingdom of Tianchen materialized before him.

Just as he prepared to step through, he glanced back at Dice's head in the distance. The situation over there was critical, but the trouble here was no small matter either.

Li Huowang pondered rapidly for a moment. Then, reaching behind his back, he ripped out his own spine and tossed it casually onto the ground.

Before the spine could even hit the floor, flesh, blood, and skin rapidly sprouted from the bone, ultimately coalescing into a new Li Huowang.

"Kill Dice for me!" Li Huowang barked a swift command to his replicated self, then strode hurriedly toward the Kingdom of Tianchen.

The moment he arrived in Tianchen, Li Huowang could clearly sense that something was amiss. The sky above Tianchen was broken! It was glaringly obvious that something had descended.

"Dammit!" Li Huowang cursed under his breath before plunging down toward the gaping hole. Harnessing his mastery to shrink the earth into inches, he covered vast distances in an instant. Moments later, the sky turned black, and the entire world began to shudder and rock.

By the time Li Huowang stabilized his footing, he beheld Zuo Qiuyong’s colossal body of flesh and blood crashing heavily against the earth amidst a resonant tremor.

The being's body appeared riddled with a thousand holes. The facial features were almost entirely obscured, replaced by a dense cluster of hollow cavities, resembling a fleshless lotus seedpod from which all the seeds had been gouged out.

Such a powerful Sovereign now looked as though afflicted by a plague, his body trembling uncontrollably all over, his face as pale as sheet paper.

Zuo Qiuyong struggled to claw his way back up, but after several attempts, he ultimately collapsed in failure.

Zuo Qiuyong governed the Heavenly Dao of Growth; in theory, a minor injury like this should not pose any challenge to him at all. Yet those hollow cavities, far from shrinking, were continuously spreading out in all directions.

It was not limited to the fleshly body; even the trees, rocks, and soil began to develop dense clusters of these cavities, as though the affliction were contagious.

Those were no mere openings; there was something surging within them!

Evidently, the enemy had come prepared. This was their hidden trump card. Seeing that their internal spy had been dealt with, the Sovereign of Fushen Heaven had immediately deployed their backup plan.

Nevertheless, Li Huowang ignored everything else. He first rushed to the opening of Zuo Qiuyong’s ear canal, opened a door, and slipped inside.

After conducting a thorough inspection within his mind and confirming there were no traitors left, Li Huowang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Fortunately, that previous Sovereign is truly dead. At least we can be certain that Zuo Qiuyong won't aid them."

Li Huowang emerged from within, standing upon Zuo Qiuyong’s face to examine the things nestled within the large and small pits covering his countenance.

If his guess was correct, these things had fallen from the heavens.

He had not looked closely enough just now, but in truth, this flesh lotus seedpod did contain "seeds."

These seeds appeared to be some manner of oval-shaped living creatures. Their bloated, obese torsos were riddled with folds of flesh, presenting an exceedingly repulsive sight.

Between the fleshly folds grew long whiskers. At a casual glance, one might mistake them for hair, but upon closer scrutiny, one would discern that they were a densely growing cluster of dark, elongated tentacles, or perhaps immature filaments.

As the creatures continuously expanded and contracted, that peculiar black liquid oozed from the cavities, gradually spreading across the entirety of Zuo Qiuyong's colossal fleshly form.