Chapter 988: Bell

Chapter 988: The Bell

Li Huowang continued his descent as the bright, sunny weather began to dim. Before long, as the ground leveled out, he saw a dilapidated earthen grave appear before him, the mound overgrown with weeds, with three sticks of incense planted at its head.

The wisps of white smoke did not dissipate, but instead swayed, shrouding the grave in an aura that felt both real and illusory.

Li Huowang stepped into the white smoke, wanting to see the characters on the tombstone clearly. Although there were clearly words there, he could not discern their meaning; he must have known them once, but now they were strangers to him, and they were constantly shifting.

Under his gaze, the morphing characters gradually resolved into two: "Nuo" and "Yu."

These two characters began to stir, testing each other before erupting into a violent struggle. They were tearing the strokes from one another and pinning them onto their own bodies.

Clearly, "Nuo" was no match for "Yu," not only having many of its strokes ripped away, but its own original form was left in disarray, becoming loose and fragmented.

In the end, "Nuo" hurled the "Duo" component at "Yu" with all its might, and while the opponent was busy retrieving it, "Nuo" fled in a panic toward the bottom of the stone.

As Li Huowang slowly crouched down, "Nuo" gradually reached the lower half of the tombstone; it traversed mountains and rivers, crossed the most distant abysses, bypassed pale and strange halos, and finally reached the ground, scurrying right between Li Huowang’s legs.

Li Huowang lowered his head and followed "Nuo," crawling through his own legs and galloping off into the distance.

He shifted one eye above "Nuo" and the other above "Yu," watching their next moves intently.

Just as "Yu" was about to catch "Nuo," their bodies began to overlap, transforming from single characters into a stack, and these characters began to vibrate at a high frequency.

With the trembling, the characters began to swell rapidly; not only "Nuo," but the "Yu" chasing behind it was also growing larger.

As they continued to change, every stroke of their bodies gradually morphed into something else.

Li Huowang strained to move his legs backward two steps, attempting to make room for the two expanding characters.

Yet, to his utter shock, the speed at which they grew exceeded his imagination.

Almost in an instant, the two figures grew larger than the heavens, completely engulfing Li Huowang before finally vanishing from his sight.

Li Huowang tilted his head back, staring at the chaotic sky above, frozen in a daze.

As he gently wiped his hand across the air above, the sky seemed to brighten slightly.

When Li Huowang lowered his head, he found that the grave beside him had turned into a massive mountain, and the tombstone where the two characters had fought was now nowhere to be found.

Looking into the distance, he saw a path on the mountain, so Li Huowang followed the trail and continued forward.

He walked for who knows how long, but it was certainly a great while. When Li Huowang crested the mountain, the sky brightened again; he walked on, watching the trees around him gradually become clear.

"Ding-ling!" As the bell rang, a withered leaf was blown down by a cold gust of wind. Li Huowang felt a chill; he hugged his arms, hunched his body, and continued forward.

The weather grew colder, and Li Huowang began to sniffle, his body trembling uncontrollably.

When that familiar bell rang again, Li Huowang finally saw clearly that it was a bell hanging from a camel’s neck.

A few camels had stopped in front of a crude stall, and their owner was eating inside. The aroma and warmth drifting from the stall drew Li Huowang toward it instinctively.

The people at the stall turned their heads at the sound of footsteps; these people had no facial features, their hands holding chopsticks were fused together, and the boundaries between their clothes and skin were incredibly blurred.

When they saw Li Huowang sit at an empty table, those others with indistinct boundaries turned their heads back and continued eating.

Soon, a bowl of food with equally blurred boundaries was placed before Li Huowang, and he picked up his chopsticks to eat.

Although the lack of definition meant Li Huowang consumed some of the color of the plate and table, he finally felt his body warm up.

Wiping his mouth, a feeling of relief washed over him, and Li Huowang stood up, ready to leave.

Just then, he saw the shopkeeper pulling at him, and Li Huowang’s expression turned hesitant.

He tentatively reached out a hand toward the featureless shopkeeper, and the figure instantly scattered into the air like yellow sand.

Immediately after, the stall, the camels, and the diners all dissipated like sand, leaving the surroundings a vast, white void where nothing remained.

"Ling~" The bell continued to ring, and Li Huowang instinctively walked toward the sound.

The white void gradually vanished, and a lush green forest reappeared before him.

Li Huowang followed the sound through the woods, but as he walked, he felt something was wrong; this place was so familiar.

"I feel like I’ve been here before." As he spoke, Li Huowang noticed the surrounding forest turning a deep green, and the ground becoming muddy, making it very uncomfortable to walk upon.

His body felt cold and sticky; Li Huowang instinctively wanted to leave, and he quickened his pace toward the ringing.

The trees around him, the stones to the side—more and more familiar things surfaced in Li Huowang’s mind.

As these things became more familiar, the surroundings became increasingly real, until finally, even the bell sounded deeply familiar. "Who am I? Why am I here? I want to go home."

At this moment, the bell began to grow clear and urgent; the sound that had been in front of him now seemed to be coming from behind.

Li Huowang turned to look behind him, only to find nothing there.

The situation had shifted; just a moment ago, Li Huowang was chasing the bell, but now the bell was chasing him.

Even though there was nothing behind him, Li Huowang felt an instinctive terror, fleeing blindly into the distance.

Along with the bell, overlapping footsteps began to emerge.

Suddenly, Li Huowang felt a massive force strike his back; he was kicked into the air and slammed hard against the ground.

A wrinkled hand grabbed Li Huowang’s clothes and hoisted him up. As Li Huowang looked up, he found himself face-to-face with the owner of the hand.

"Haha, good fortune comes and cannot be stopped; I, the Daoist, can even pick one up on the road!" Danyangzi, holding a Daoist bell in his hand, looked at the person he had caught and threw his head back in laughter.

"Hah!" Li Huowang jolted awake, staring at the empty warehouse, seeing Bai Lingmiao and Yi Donglai before him, feeling entirely like a stranger.