Chapter 994: Spread

Chapter 994: The Spread

Within the chaotic and disordered White Jade Capital, Li Huowang, swathed in dragon qi, tilted his head back to gaze at the horrifying sky being devoured by the Prosperous Heaven.

That vast expanse of dull, iridescent, and ever-pulsing blackness expanded and contracted; with every rhythmic shift, its borders crept further outward.

The Prosperous Heaven was invading the White Jade Capital. Li Huowang felt his scalp prickle, a crushing weight settling upon his heart like a massive boulder.

Whether through direct confrontation or insidious schemes, the Prosperous Heaven had never given up. They were striking at every moment!

"Move! Move, damn you!" Li Huowang snapped his head down, only to find the space below empty; the secrets he had just spilled were nowhere to be found.

While he had been stunned by the invasion, Sanqing had slipped away again!

So, he had lured him here merely to use him as a shield against the Prosperous Heaven. Even at this late hour, he was still calculating.

"Sanqing, you wait for me! You just wait!" Li Huowang swung his arms, gripping his blood-stained blade as he charged toward the suffocating sky.

"Nana, help me!"

At Li Huowang’s roar, Yang Na nodded firmly, raising her gun to fire repeatedly into the dark clouds above.

Gunshots rang out, followed immediately by thunder, and a torrential downpour cascaded down, drenching everyone present to the bone.

The rain fell, stinging Li Huowang’s eyes and mouth, blurring his vision until the iridescent blackness above became a hazy smear.

Rain lashed against the umbrellas of the others who had emerged from the house, watching the struggling couple in the downpour with complex expressions.

Zhao Shuangdian’s keyboard clattered incessantly, her fingers dancing in rhythm with the falling rain as she calculated.

Suddenly, a soaked Yang Na rushed over, shouting anxiously to those beneath the umbrellas: "Does anyone have bullets? Lend me some! I’m out!"

Seeing no response, she repeated the plea, her voice frantic.

"Hurry! Huowang is fighting the entire Prosperous Heaven alone! I have to help him!" Yang Na shielded her eyes, glaring with intense hostility at the storm-wracked clouds.

The typing stopped abruptly. Zhao Shuangdian pulled two full magazines from Ba Shengqing’s belt and slapped them into Yang Na’s hands without a word.

The action caught everyone off guard. Ba Nanxu asked in astonishment, "You don’t actually believe his mad ravings, do you? Have you been infected by him too?"

Zhao Shuangdian turned to the smoking woman. "Why not? At the very least, his model is logical. I believe him."

Ba Nanxu looked at Zhao Shuangdian with surprise.

But when she realized the other woman was not joking, she burst into laughter, drew her own gun, disengaged the safety, and fired two shots into the sky. "Fine. If you’re willing to die, I’m willing to bury you."

"What’s next? As the Arbiter of Agony, should I return to my post? Use the Dao of Pain to strike back at the Prosperous Heaven’s arbiters? Shall I make them suffer until they die?"

Zhao Shuangdian shook her head, staring at the formulas on her screen. "We cannot let them lead us by the nose. They fight their battle, we fight ours."

"Besides, we cannot influence the White Jade Capital directly for now. Leave that to Li Huowang. Go get the cars. Since they are here, there must be a coupling point nearby. Once we find it, we can intervene."

Three off-road vehicles with fog lights blazing pulled onto the muddy road through the downpour. The others folded their umbrellas and piled inside.

As the driver’s window rolled down, Ba Nanxu, a cigarette dangling from her lip, shouted to Li Huowang in the rain: "Huowang! Hold on! We’re coming to the White Jade Capital to help!"

Li Huowang wiped his face with his sleeve and roared back: "Hurry! They’ve already swallowed much of the White Jade Capital! I don’t know if they have any tricks left up their sleeves."

Ba Nanxu nodded, slammed on the gas, and the engine roared as the vehicle tore down the muddy track.

Neither side noticed that Yi Donglai had emerged at some point. He stood motionless in the rain, lips pressed tight, clutching his pocket watch.

Hearing the engines fade, Li Huowang felt a sliver of relief. At least he wasn't fighting alone this time.

"Sanqing! Guide them! If you don’t want the White Jade Capital to vanish!" Li Huowang didn't know if the vanished Qing Wanglai could hear him, but he plunged his blood-stained saber deep into the black sky.

With a violent slash, black liquid sprayed out, drenching him from head to toe.

The liquid, capable of animating anything, touched Li Huowang’s dragon qi and, failing to manifest its power, simply slid away.

Li Huowang had no time for that. He hacked relentlessly at the black expanse.

Soon, he realized this was futile; the efficiency was too low, and he was far too small against this endless void.

He wiped the water from his face. "This won't work! I need another way to stop this."

After a moment of thought, he turned and flew to the left, his speed increasing as he mastered the distance.

Minutes later, he reached the edge where the chaos of the White Jade Capital met the blackness, which was still infecting the surroundings at a visible rate.

Without delay, he raised his saber and sliced along the border, forcibly severing the chaos from the strange blackness.

If he couldn't destroy the blackness, he would isolate it from the capital.

Seeing the spread of the iridescent blackness halt, Li Huowang felt a surge of joy. His plan was working.

Just then, from the depths of the blackness, came a sound that chilled the soul—a hiss like a serpent’s tongue.

The sound shifted, overlapping with low-frequency Sanskrit chants, growing in intensity until it erupted into a deafening roar that exploded in Li Huowang’s ears.

At that moment, Yi Donglai’s voice drifted over: "Xiao Li! It’s thundering! Drop the blade, or you’ll get struck by lightning!"