Chapter 958: Escape

Chapter 958: Breaking Free

The enemy’s method of attack was truly bizarre; Li Huowang had never imagined that a single button could force him to regress from the seventh wheel back to the sixth.

His adversary stood right beside him, yet his strength had plummeted at the worst possible moment—in such a situation, this was a death sentence!

At the sixth wheel, he was no match for the Si Ming of Good Fortune, let alone when two of them had arrived.

Breaking into a cold sweat, Li Huowang gritted his teeth, struggling to repeat in his mind that his body was the seventh wheel, that his body was the seventh wheel.

As he repeated the mantra, the reality around him began to shift, threatening to knit itself back together.

However, having gone to such lengths to force Li Huowang out of that state, the enemy would not let him revert so easily.

Just as Li Huowang’s self-hypnosis began to take hold, a black hole the size of a fingertip appeared on his forehead, and then, as if multiplying, more began to sprout.

Before long, his face and head were riddled with them. The firm convictions he held in his mind quickly solidified into physical matter, leaking out through these holes and piling up at his feet.

This transformation not only shattered his concentration but dragged him back from the very threshold of the seventh wheel.

Even as Li Huowang frantically dug his fingers into the voids on his face to pull out the obstructions, it was futile; the holes spread faster than he could clear them.

Eventually, several worms were crammed into a single cavity, causing Li Huowang’s entire head to swell into a grotesque and terrifying mass.

"Bang!" A meat-worm the size of a house burst from a hole in Zuo Qiu-yong’s face, slamming into Li Huowang, coated in thick, viscous fluid.

With the sound of splintering bone, Li Huowang’s skeletal structure was crushed, and the worms within the holes on his face were mangled, long, white strands oozing out.

Yet it did not end there; as the meat-worm on Li Huowang’s body writhed, its own surface sprouted crowded black holes, from which hollow, humanoid figures formed entirely of voids crawled out.

They stumbled as if learning to walk, and wherever their feet touched, new holes sprouted, leaving a trail of worms in their wake.

Seeing them close in, Li Huowang prepared to use his cultivation to strike back, but he could not focus; he could not cultivate. Every thought he formed leaked out through the holes in his head, piling onto the ground in a heap of slime.

With a pained expression, Li Huowang bent down, struggling to scoop up his spilled thoughts to stuff them back into his brain.

But his enemy would not allow it. A hand covered in dense, gaping holes pressed down on his, and the voids acted like scoops, gouging his flesh away piece by piece.

Scoop by scoop, Li Huowang’s body began to vanish, and with it, his last chance; the situation had become dire.

If his body were to disappear entirely, even his cultivation would cease to exist.

"Zhao Shuangdian! Qing Wanglai! Wu Qi! Chen Hongyu! Where are you all? Help me!" Li Huowang roared toward the fractured sky.

Yet those who had sworn to assist remained motionless, showing no sign of response.

Just as Li Huowang was pinned down and on the verge of death, a thunderous shout erupted from afar: "Get away from him!"

A gust of violent wind swept through, twisting the lines of the void-beings into a tangled mess.

Seizing the moment, Xuan Pin appeared beside Li Huowang, grabbed him, and retreated rapidly from the encirclement.

Meat-worms crawled from Zuo Qiu-yong’s body like rain, attempting to block their escape.

But every time the worms descended, the gale twisted their bodies into knots.

Once Xuan Pin stopped at a safe distance, Li Huowang realized who had saved him; to his left stood another Li Huowang, clutching his own spinal sword, his gaze resolute.

It was Li Huowang who had saved Li Huowang—the one he had left behind to deal with the Dice.

"Why are you here? Is the Dice dead?" Li Huowang asked, clutching his riddled head in agony.

"Forget the Dice for now; the situation is critical. Xuan Pin saw you were in trouble and sent me to assist."

Li Huowang spoke, eyes fixed on the distant, mountain-like form of Zuo Qiu-yong, who had undergone a total transformation.

Dense, gaping holes of all sizes covered his body, from which strange worms constantly emerged, secreting fluid and writhing in waves.

Zuo Qiu-yong had become a living mountain of insects, a nest for these creatures.

As they spoke, the mountain collapsed; a sea of worms surged toward them like a tidal wave.

Wherever these strange insects passed, the land was stained with a dull, iridescent black. They were not merely attacking Li Huowang; they seemed to be devouring the entire Tianchen Kingdom!

"Help me! Get these worms off my head! As long as they are here, I cannot reach the seventh wheel!"

Hearing this, the other Li Huowang stared at his head, but no matter how he tried to cultivate, the worms kept emerging; the root could not be severed, and cultivation was useless.

"I’ll do it," Xuan Pin said, waving his right hand and cleanly decapitating Li Huowang’s riddled head.

Before the head hit the ground, Xuan Pin kicked it aside, then turned to the headless body and asked, "How is it?"

Finally free of the worm-holes, feeling that his thoughts were no longer leaking, the headless Li Huowang let out a long sigh of relief. "Much better."

The next moment, as he clenched his fists and recited the mantra, the hidden seventh wheel manifested once more, the strange state of superposition returning.

He immediately turned to Zhao Shuangdian and Qing Wanglai, cursing them: "Are you just going to watch? Is this your idea of help? Do you Si Ming treat your promises like farts?"

The group looked at him, utterly bewildered.

"What help did you ask for? You were just standing there raving like a madman; we had no idea what you were trying to express."