Chapter 976: Switch

Chapter 976: Switching

"Li Huo. Wake up. Wake up."

Upon hearing these words, Li Huowang shuddered, stumbling back several paces in disbelief, as if confronted by a monstrous flood, his eyes wide with terror as he stared at Yi Donglai. "What did you just say?!"

"What?" Yi Donglai frowned, seemingly unable to comprehend what Li Huowang was trying to express.

"It wasn't you? You didn't just speak?"

"No," Yi Donglai replied with absolute certainty.

"If it wasn't you! If it wasn't you, then there is only one possibility: that voice belonged to Gao Zhijian on the other side! No! Gao Zhijian is in danger!" Li Huowang’s voice rose to a frantic peak.

"Doctor Yi! Find a way! Find a way to send me back! Gao Zhijian is the dragon vein! He is my junior brother! He cannot be in danger!" Anxious, Li Huowang lunged forward, gripping Yi Donglai’s collar with a death grip.

"I haven't even started the treatment! How am I supposed to make you feel the delusion again?!" Yi Donglai struggled, retreating half a step, a flicker of lingering fear in his eyes.

Burning with anxiety, Li Huowang stood rooted to the spot, desperately searching for a solution.

Suddenly, he stopped and shouted into the air: "I don't care who you are! If you dare touch the Great Liang dragon vein, try it if you have the guts!"

"Hahahaha~" A piercing, shrill laughter erupted once more, making Li Huowang’s ears ache.

But at this moment, Li Huowang couldn't be bothered with her. He looked up, turning his gaze to Zhao Shuangdian! "Use your computer to calculate! Is it someone from the Fusheng Heaven who came to ambush us!"

Zhao Shuangdian slowly shook her head. "Senior Brother Li, I am fine. No one is threatening me."

Hearing this, Li Huowang froze, staring straight at Zhao Shuangdian.

"Fine? There is no one threatening Gao Zhijian in the Tianchen Kingdom for now, but if he is fine, then whose voice was that just now?"

Thinking this, Li Huowang looked back at Yi Donglai, hesitant. "Was it him? Why would he want me to wake up? Am I not awake right now?"

"Or is this world I perceive currently a lie?"

"Wake up," the grating, harsh sound echoed again, causing Li Huowang to clutch his ears in agony.

Ba Nanxu was laughing again, her voice sounding incredibly wretched. Li Huowang remembered that she had never been so fond of laughter in the past.

"No, this isn't right! Why is she laughing? Why is Ba Hui, who governs pain, laughing!! What exactly are you laughing at!!" Li Huowang lunged, pinning her down.

"What are you doing! You’re getting crazier by the day."

"Let go, quickly!"

"What a mess this has become."

As the others scrambled to pull Li Huowang away, he looked at Ba Nanxu’s face and suddenly realized something. He immediately spoke: "I know! I finally know why you are laughing! Somewhere, some ultimate suffering must be pleasing you! Ba Hui, I know you! Because that is exactly what I used to do!"

For Ba Hui to laugh like this, it could not be ordinary pain; such agony was far beyond his imagination.

Despite being pinned down by Li Huowang, Ba Nanxu did not seem angry at all. Instead, she teased with a mocking smile: "Hahaha, if you want to please me, little high schooler, I’m afraid that’s a bit difficult."

"Spare me the nonsense! What are you doing! Answer me! Where is this happening and what is going on! Where is this pain coming from!"

Just as Li Huowang was about to scan his surroundings, the entire study, along with everyone in it, dissolved into mounds of sand, scattering across the floor.

Gao Zhijian stood not far away, looking surprised at the emotionally unstable Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li, are you alright?"

He was back. He did not know when the two sides had switched again.

"Shh, wait... let me think, let me think!" With a pained expression, Li Huowang raised his hands, slamming them repeatedly against his own head; the pain helped his mind settle.

Just as he began to bleed, Li Huowang’s body flickered and vanished, rematerializing before Gao Zhijian. "Where are those fifteen dragon veins now? They haven't been sent away yet, have they!!"

"Not yet. Senior Brother, if you don't send them, no one else can. They are all coiled up at the Imperial Temple. Senior Brother, why do you ask about the dragon veins?"

"I am going to White Jade Capital! I must find out what is going on!" Hysterical, Li Huowang grabbed Gao Zhijian’s shoulder, stomped his right foot, and returned directly to the Great Liang Imperial City.

Arriving at the Imperial Temple, Li Huowang slammed his hands onto the ground. With a roar, a massive, thunderous boom echoed as a colossal bronze tree burst through the temple, pulling the writhing dragon veins up from the earth.

Six arms sprouted from Li Huowang’s body, and as he chanted, he began to execute the Dragon-Slaying and Immortal-Killing Array.

The invisible, intangible dragon aura swirled around Li Huowang, gradually being absorbed into his body. The aura that had once dragonized everything it touched had no effect on the now-cultivated Li Huowang.

Li Huowang stomped his feet, surging toward the heavens beyond the heavens, carrying the dragon aura with him. He tore through the clouds and pierced the sky beyond the distant, twinkling stars.

As Li Huowang traversed the stars, deformed, terrifying, and indescribable monsters appeared in the vast expanse.

When Li Huowang emerged, these chaotic entities turned to look.

However, they seemed to sense something and vanished one by one, revealing a colorless, chaotic jade plaque suspended in the void; the creatures had been drawn by it.

The plaque seemed to be tethered by something in the distant, ultimate darkness, undulating and flowing with the formless bodies of those entities, drifting up and down.

Through the gate, Li Huowang saw something moving inside the White Jade Capital—so many things moving, all the deities of the White Jade Capital were there!

Wrapped in dragon aura, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and charged inside.

Yet, as he plunged into the aperture of the jade, he was shocked to find himself emerging from the other side. "What?! How is this possible!"

Li Huowang hung in mid-air, staring at the mountain-sized Gate of Yak, never imagining there would come a day he could not enter.

Even when he had followed Danyangzi, he could enter, yet now he was barred.

"Let me in! I am Ji Zai!" Li Huowang roared, charging at the Gate of Yak once more.

But this time, just as he was about to re-enter, everything before him turned transparent. A strange sense of stagnation enveloped his entire body, and Li Huowang was once again expelled from the other side of the Gate of Yak.