Chapter 123: Who Is It?

These tangled iron nails looked like some kind of hidden weapon.

As Li Huowang saw himself spitting them out, he immediately realized that these were the "chocolate liqueurs" he had just eaten.

He had just raised his right hand when a sharp pain shot through his shoulder.

Li Huowang trembled as he looked at his arm, seeing a wound so deep that the bone was visible.

That was precisely where Yang Na had hit him with her satchel earlier!

"Someone tried to kill me while I was hallucinating!" Li Huowang understood in an instant.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Li Huowang glared around with bloodshot eyes, only to find the rows of Manichaean followers standing silently like tombstones, watching him.

Li Huowang's expression hardened. With one hand, he reached behind him, and the "Records of the Great Thousand" rapidly unrolled on the ground. Blood trickled continuously from the corner of his mouth onto the red bamboo slips.

With a clang, Li Huowang drew his long sword and pointed it at the surrounding Manichaean followers.

"What is the meaning of this?! Is this how you uphold your rules? Do you really think I'm a pushover?" Li Huowang roared.

Li Huowang's voice echoed in the cave, but no one questioned him.

The Manichaean followers remained standing, observing Li Huowang with mocking, curious, and bewildered gazes.

Just as Li Huowang thought they intended to fight him to the death, a teary-eyed Yingzi rushed out from the crowd and laboriously helped him up.

"Benefactor, let's go, quickly, don't meet their gaze," Jiang Yingzi urged Li Huowang, her voice filled with anxiety, as he stood covered in blood.

Li Huowang turned his gaze to Yingzi beside him, his eyes cold. She seemed no different from the others.

Slowly, he poured a few Blood-Nourishing Pills from the gourd at his waist and put them into his mouth.

Supported by Yingzi, Li Huowang passed through the gazes of the others and returned to his own cave.

The pain within him had not subsided. Li Huowang knew, of course, that after consuming that stuff, his stomach and esophagus must be in terrible shape.

However, there was nothing he could do now but lie on the bed, enduring the pain, and waiting for his body, which possessed enhanced regenerative abilities, to heal itself.

Once it was quiet, Li Huowang discovered that not only did he have internal injuries, but there were also knife wounds on his body, as if he had been cut.

Recalling the earlier hallucination where Yang Na hit him with her satchel, it now made sense in light of his physical wounds.

Yingzi, watching Li Huowang's wounds, showed a hint of struggle in her expression. She pulled out a wax-wrapped book from inside her robe. "Benefactor, bear with it, I'll help you heal."

As she approached, Li Huowang violently swung his right hand, sending the wax-wrapped book flying.

"You were the only one by my side just now. Tell me, what exactly happened?"

Yingzi clutched her robe tightly with trembling hands, looking terrified. "I... I can't say... they'll kill me."

Li Huowang looked at Yingzi, who kept her head bowed. He then realized that ever since he had met her, he had never once met her gaze.

"Look up, look at me."

Hearing Li Huowang's words, Yingzi appeared even more distraught.

With her head still lowered, her gaze darted nervously, consistently avoiding eye contact with Li Huowang.

"What are you so afraid of? Are you actually an informant they planted by my side?"

"Everything you said last night was just made up, wasn't it? What is the true purpose of you self-mutilating villains?"

"It's not like that, it's not..." Yingzi's breathing was erratic; she seemed to be holding back something.

"If you're not with them, then who injured me just now! Speak! Don't you people have rules? Is this how you follow them? Will you die if you don't commit evil?"

Hearing this, Yingzi's expression was one of extreme struggle; she had bitten her lip until it bled.

Just as she was about to say something, a knock came from the door.

Li Huowang and Yingzi simultaneously turned their heads, seeing two Manichaean followers, one in a black robe and one in a white robe, each over two meters tall, standing silently like door gods.

Yingzi clearly understood what these two giants signified better than Li Huowang. Her body trembling, she walked towards the door.

"What's this charade? They're not even pretending anymore; have they completely abandoned all pretense?"

Li Huowang closed his eyes again, trying to recover as much as possible.

He couldn't let his wounds worsen; if they did, Dan Yangzi would emerge.

Suddenly, he felt movement on his wound.

When he opened his eyes, he saw it was Mantou.

Mantou, with its ears drooping, quietly came closer and gently licked Li Huowang's wounds.

"Mantou, oh Mantou, next time don't stay home and guard the house, just follow me. I really can't be without someone by my side," Li Huowang mumbled, stroking Mantou's head.

Suddenly, Mantou's scrawny body tensed, and its head shot toward the door.

After finding nothing, it lowered its head again and continued licking Li Huowang's wounds.

Li Huowang, with a furrowed brow, also looked towards the door.

He understood what had just happened with Mantou; it had heard a scream.

Li Huowang, whose hearing was greatly enhanced, also heard that faint sound, which seemed to be a woman's scream.

Connecting it with Yingzi being taken away earlier, it was not difficult to guess whose scream it was.

A hint of hesitation appeared in Li Huowang's eyes, but eventually, he pressed a hand on the dog's back, gritted his teeth, endured the sharp pain, and stood up.

"Every single day, it's nothing but trouble! Can't I just get some rest?"

Swaying like a torn sack, Li Huowang slowly moved outwards.

The screams grew louder and louder. Finally, Li Huowang found them in a large, echoing limestone cave.

Two barbed hooks pierced her collarbones, hoisting her naked body entirely into the air.

The two-meter-tall white-robed Manichaean follower from earlier was holding two razor-thin blades, flaying her alive.

Her left hand had already been stripped to the bone, the stark white bones dangling and shaking with Yingzi's agonizing screams.

*Whoosh!* One of Li Huowang's fingernails flew out, severing the chain holding Yingzi.

The girl, covered in blood and gore, crashed heavily to the ground.

Li Huowang walked in front of her, shielding her from the others' gazes.

Then, he sternly questioned the charred Shou San standing nearby: "How do you Manichaeans manage to treat your words like farts?! I'm asking you, does our deal still stand or not?!"

Shou San was quite surprised to see Li Huowang there. A hint of amusement then crossed his face.

"I still have to give face to the Master Nun. Of course, we keep our word; the deal is still valid."