Chapter 993: Secret

Chapter 993: Secrets

Within the chaotically anomalous White Jade Capital, everything around Li Huowang began to lose its stability.

Yet this instability did not stem from his own cultivation, but from the influence of the Three Pure Ones’ Heavenly Dao.

Li Huowang could feel that the Three Pure Ones were already very close to him—frighteningly, suffocatingly close.

At the mere thought of the Three Pure Ones’ sickening past deeds, Li Huowang’s expression twisted into a snarl, his breathing growing ragged and heavy.

He gripped his military knife and slashed wildly into the void, but though he felt the sensation of hair brushing against his blade, the air remained empty.

Seeing that his attacks could not harm the Three Pure Ones, Li Huowang prepared to shift his tactics. Then, a gunshot rang out. Li Huowang instantly sensed something invisible in front of him shudder violently, flickering into existence for a fleeting moment.

It was a colossal, translucent, and infinitely vast entity. It resembled a shapeless, protoplasmic mass of tumors, shimmering with a faint, eerie glow.

In that singular instant, Li Huowang realized that this creature’s body was formed by a causal chain of interconnected secrets.

As Li Huowang beheld those secrets, he began to comprehend them. As he subconsciously absorbed that endless stream of knowledge, on the verge of understanding what exactly the Three Pure Ones had taken from him—

With a sudden rush of blood to his head and a sharp "bang," Li Huowang felt sweat drip from his brow down to his chin.

He had no time to dwell on it, for he realized the Three Pure Ones were trying to escape!

"Nana! Keep up! Your attacks are effective against him!" Li Huowang shouted, giving chase in the direction of the retreating entity.

As he pursued, he scanned his surroundings with vigilance, wary of a potential ambush. Qing Wanglai was not the type to act without purpose; his sudden appearance here must have a hidden agenda!

Yang Na, riding her motorcycle, streaked past Li Huowang at high speed, cutting off the entity’s path and firing her gun. "You go! I’ll hold him off!"

"Right!" Li Huowang did not hesitate. He smeared his own blood across the blade of his knife, leaped high into the air, and lunged toward the Three Pure Ones amidst the thunder of Yang Na’s gunfire.

With a wet "squelch," the blood-stained blade finally bit into the entity. Secrets, linked together in varying sizes, bled from the wound like gore.

Faced with the assault, the Three Pure Ones reacted swiftly; the body formed of secrets disintegrated, scattering and drifting away in every direction.

Having finally drawn blood, Li Huowang would not let go so easily. He chased after the direction where he felt the phantom sensation of hair.

"Nana!" As Yang Na swept past him again, Li Huowang vaulted onto the back of her motorcycle.

As the distance closed, Li Huowang could feel the secrets flowing from the entity. One secret, the size of a ping-pong ball, struck his damaged eye squarely.

A cool, refreshing sensation washed over him, and a vision flashed through his mind: a blind old Taoist, his face etched with bitterness, sat upon a prayer mat, kowtowing to three divine statues while whispering something.

His words rang with crystal clarity in Li Huowang’s ears: "Heavenly Venerable, I discovered a secret in an ancient jade slip while tomb-raiding. I know not if it is true, but I beg for your guidance."

"Why does the world suffer so? Why do natural disasters plague this land? Why are the sects filled with such monstrosities? The ancient jade slip holds the answer."

At this, the blind Taoist’s expression turned to one of terror. His voice trembled as if he loathed the truth he was about to utter, yet he was compelled to speak.

"It is because we are reaping the karma we deserve. This world is not the mortal realm; it is a ghost domain. We are not mortals, but the suffering dead!"

"The primordial Nuo is mad, and the cycle of the five realms and six paths is shattered. That is why all is so strange—men are not men, and ghosts are not ghosts."

Having said this, the blind Taoist seemed to exhaust his very soul, letting out a wretched, miserable laugh. "Heavenly Venerable, if we are all ghosts, then what Dao do we cultivate, and what immortality do we seek?"

The vision vanished instantly. When Li Huowang regained his senses, he found himself back within the White Jade Capital.

"What?! The reason this world is so riddled with anomalies is because the Great Liang was once the Underworld?!"

Memories of the Flesh Bodhisattva at Zhengde Temple, the Fly Guanyin at Anci Nunnery, and the charred Gu God of the Ao-Jing Sect flooded his mind, and he felt a terrifying sense of logic to it all.

The shock paralyzed his brain for a heartbeat, and in that brief moment, the Three Pure Ones widened the gap once more.

Li Huowang shook his head violently, cursing under his breath. What nonsense was this? This secret was not the point.

The point was that Qing Wanglai intended to use this secret to stall him. Only the Three Pure Ones, who controlled the Heavenly Dao of Secrets, could use such things as a defense.

Watching the Three Pure Ones in the distance, Li Huowang knew he could not let him run. If he kept going, heaven only knew where this creature would lead him.

He stood up, bracing himself against Yang Na’s back, and launched himself from the rear seat of the motorcycle, hurtling toward the target.

As he closed the distance, Li Huowang furrowed his brow. Peng Longteng appeared beside him, swinging a massive halberd that hooked him and flung him forward with tremendous force.

The distance was sufficient. Li Huowang roared, raising his blood-stained knife and plunging it deep into the Three Pure Ones.

As he gripped the knife, on the verge of tearing the entity asunder, strands of silk adhered to Li Huowang’s head, yanking him upward.

Forced to look up, Li Huowang froze. The White Jade Capital should have been chaotic and formless, devoid of light or dark.

Yet, above him, the situation had changed drastically. The iridescent blackness that had once submerged the Great Qi, capable of animating all things, had returned.

This time, it was not water, but a strange, shifting color that stained the entire sky.

Li Huowang had not forgotten where he was! He was in the White Jade Capital! Somehow, the Blessed Heaven had assimilated a portion of it!

And this was different from the last time. Before, it had been a mere crack; now, it was an assimilation—a vast swathe of the sky of the White Jade Capital, if such a place could be said to have one.

Within that dim, iridescent blackness, the colors pulsed like living things, as if gestating some horrific life.