Chapter 1024: Past

As he began to chew, the entire White Jade Capital started to collapse. Everything chaotic began to tear apart, revealing boundless darkness beyond the rifts.

Li Huowang continued to chew. Then, he raised his spine sword and forcefully spat onto it, instantly imbuing the entire spine with death.

Li Huowang turned around and looked at the countless Sanqing, who were still continuously spreading fear.

"Qingwanglai!" Li Huowang raised the blade in his hand and swung it. Death took away everything from him, dissolving the source of fear and despair.

Li Huowang tore away the fear and despair clinging to it. He found the Heavenly Dao of Growth, forcibly ripped it off, and crammed it into his mouth. Next came the Heavenly Dao of Flesh and Blood, and finally, the Heavenly Dao of Secrets.

After devouring all of this, Li Huowang found the bone inscribed with the character "Wang." With a gentle touch, the character "Wang" returned to his own name.

As soon as the character "Wang" returned, Li Huowang's mind suddenly reeled. Only at this moment did he finally understand what Qingwanglai had taken from him.

This was the other side of the Heavenly Dao of Confusion: clarity. It turned out that all Heavenly Daos always had two facets.

The other side of confusion was clarity. It was simply because the Sanqing had taken this clarity before he became the Dispeller of Confusion, which was why he had never been aware of it.

After completely devouring all the Heavenly Daos, Li Huowang finally became fully aware. His way of thinking instantly changed, becoming completely different from before.

Sensing something, Li Huowang looked up at the crumbling White Jade Capital above him.

Li Huowang reached out and completely ripped apart the entire White Jade Capital, emerging from it like a chick pecking its way out of an eggshell.

As Li Huowang crumpled the torn White Jade Capital into a ball and stuffed it into his mouth, he then clearly saw the Heavenly Being of Fortune. He saw it distinctly.

It was truly enormous, vast, hovering before him like a gigantic planet capable of causing intense suffocation, hurtling towards him.

It was acting against him; more precisely, it had already acted. The Heavenly Being of Fortune had raised a spiral double-headed spear, one head representing Sanqing and the other Qingwanglai, wrapped in fear and despair, and thrust it into his chest.

Li Huowang gripped the spear shaft, gritting his teeth, and trembling, he pulled it out inch by inch. Finally, he wrestled the double-headed spear from the Heavenly Being of Fortune's grasp.

With a forceful swing, the fear and despair on the double-headed spear instantly dispersed. Li Huowang fiercely pointed the now clean double-headed spear in his hand at the Heavenly Being of Fortune. "Come on!"

The Heavenly Being of Fortune began to move. It looked over, and its gaze transformed into another double-headed spear, one head representing Wang Changxu and the other Tong Guchang. This spear, still enveloped in boundless fear and despair, again lunged towards Li Huowang.

With a clang, Li Huowang blocked it. He raised his death-infused spine and directly severed the double-headed spear, preventing it from piercing his body.

However, to his surprise, more and more double-headed spears extended from within the Heavenly Being of Fortune, and they were not limited to two heads; some had even more, and were stranger.

All the spearheads, wrapped in waves of fear and despair, lunged at Li Huowang. He blocked them all, but he couldn't keep blocking them indefinitely.

Finally, a spear formed by the spiraling heads of Shangguan Gedeng, Kou Yinliangong, and Zhu Cuifeng pierced through Li Huowang's eye socket, nailing him to the ground.

In an instant, Li Huowang's past gained a fated enemy, a Dispeller named Kou Yinliangong, who possessed two heart-bound entities: Shangguan Gedeng and Zhu Cuifeng. Their appearance added more despair and self-destruction to Li Huowang's past.

Seizing this opportunity, more spears pierced him. With a series of thuds, the part of Li Huowang's body that was truly his own was constantly compressed, his physical form increasingly occupied by more and more spears.

His past was increasingly dominated by more entities, and the part that was originally his was shrinking.

"Get out!" Li Huowang swung the spine in his hand with all his might, severing every spear. Although the spears were broken, their heads remained within Li Huowang, altering his past and future.

Gasping for breath, Li Huowang used all his strength to snap his head up, only to see countless projectiles, like a rain of spears, raining down on him. There were too many; the Heavenly Being of Fortune was simply too powerful. He was no match.

Despair gradually welled up in Li Huowang's heart. As despair emerged, this emotion seemed to proliferate, generating spears from within Li Huowang that then turned against him.

As more and more spears manifested within him, the now-clear Li Huowang understood everything: the Heavenly Being of Fortune could not be defeated. Once you became aware of its existence, you were destined to lose.

Because when you felt its fear, you became a part of it, one of its pawns, just like the Sanqing were.

The Sanqing, who controlled the Heavenly Dao of Secrets, had gone completely mad precisely because they knew too much.

"Is this it? Is this all there is? I won't accept this, I truly won't! So many people have died! Why can't we win?!"

Li Huowang knelt on the ground, screaming heartbreakingly, but his unwillingness began to be overshadowed by the illusions of despair. An intense self-destruction, born from despair, started to engulf his heart.

In this state of self-destruction, Li Huowang once again picked up Death and aimed it at himself.

"Daoist! Keep going!" A voice pierced through the darkness.

Li Huowang turned his head and saw the hallucination of the monk, who had appeared before, standing beside him again. "Daoist, you are a good Daoist. You cannot die like this."

"Young Daoist Master, I left because of your promise." This was Jin Shanzhao.

"You want to commit suicide? Shameful!"

One hallucination after another appeared; even the furthest ones, Jiang Yingzi and Danyangzi, materialized.

Finally, Li Huowang saw Zhuge Yuan again. "Brother Li, hold on. Don't let yourself be defeated."

Li Huowang looked at all the hallucinations around him with despair. "Who are you all?!"

"Brother Li, who we are isn't important. What's important is who you are."

"Who am I? I am Li Huowang!"

As Li Huowang uttered these words, he paused, stunned. He began to recall everything from his fragmented past memories, everything he had experienced.

"Yes, that's right, I'm Li Huowang! I'm crazy!" Li Huowang stood up, looking at the surrounding chaos. He repeatedly shook his head. "No! This isn't me, this isn't me!"

Li Huowang began to tear off the Heavenly Daos from his body, peeling them away one by one. Eventually, he even tore off the final character "Wang."

He then shoved all these Heavenly Daos into the arms of Yi Donglai, who was supporting him nearby. "These are all yours. Take them, take them all! They're all yours!"

After handing them over, Li Huowang opened his mouth again and swallowed Yi Donglai whole, concealing him inside his stomach.

After dealing with everything, Li Huowang closed his eyes and screamed hysterically, "None of this is real! None of this is real! It's all an illusion! Wake up!"

Just as only the purest confusion remained within Li Huowang, indistinct voices began to whisper in his ears.

Li Huowang, who had always resisted these voices in the past, now began to wholeheartedly believe their words. As he moved, the voices grew clearer and clearer.

"Li Huowang, wake up! Li Huowang, wake up! Everything you've experienced is fake!"

This voice pierced through the darkness, reaching into Li Huowang's past and future.

Suddenly, Li Huowang's eyes snapped open. Dazzling sunlight streamed through the billowing white curtains, and a piercing ringing sound echoed in his ears. He was wearing a hospital gown.

White bedsheets, air smelling of disinfectant, honorary banners on the wall, a ceiling fan above — everything was so familiar. Li Huowang remembered this place: it was his Ward 13. He was still in White Tower Hospital.