Chapter 128: Not Me

Flames burned relentlessly, consuming everything of Li Huowang. His appearance was gradually becoming more like the charred Hand Three.

Perhaps due to the ingested medicine, or the flames engulfing him, everything Li Huowang saw began to warp. The surrounding skeletons, which should have been motionless, began to grow like trees, twisting bizarrely as they grew.

"Ah... ah... ah!!!" As Li Huowang roared, the flames seemed to find an opening, instantly piercing inward, and began burning his internal organs from within.

"My young friend Xuanyang, it's time." Hand Three walked over and spread the *Grand Scroll*, which had been at Li Huowang's waist, before him.

Tormented by dual pain to the point of wishing for death, Li Huowang looked through the layers of flames. He now saw that the *Grand Scroll* before him was no longer a series of bamboo slips arranged side by side, but had transformed into writhing flesh-worms. Their bodies, covered with strange characters, were neatly aligned to form a bizarre set of flesh-slips.

"What in the hell is going on?!" Li Huowang felt his mind was in a complete mess at this moment, or perhaps the intense heat of the flames had already turned his brain into mush.

From all directions, the members of the Ao Jing Cult, who had already shed their robes, gradually closed in. Dragging their various mutilated bodies, they sat in a circle around Li Huowang, following a certain pattern. However, in Li Huowang's eyes, all of them were now bloodied and grotesque monsters.

Hand Three looked at Li Huowang in the flames, taking a small step back. "Young friend, don't forget your purpose in coming here. The time is ripe now to open the door to the Sea of Bitterness, and meet Ba Kui again."

Li Huowang looked at him with eyes that were also burning. "You lied to me?! All of this was your deception?!"

"No, I did not lie to you. It was simply an opportune moment, which I merely took advantage of. Don't you want to get rid of your master? As long as you summon Ba Kui, the elders will have a way to deal with Dan Yangzi, who is entwined with you."

Li Huowang, in immense pain, wailed, raised his charred hands, and gently pressed them onto the flesh-worms covered with inscriptions. At this moment, Li Huowang's pain, both physical and mental, gradually began to transform into something else, just as it had before. An aura of extreme dread and despair emanated from Li Huowang, causing everyone present to tremble uncontrollably, a power that absolutely did not belong to the mortal realm.

Li Huowang was very familiar with this scene; these were all precursors to Ba Kui's manifestation. His five senses began to twist and merge, and the previously cloudless sky suddenly changed color.

Seeing this, Hand Three became excited. His body began to tremble, as if in anticipation. "After all this trouble, is it finally happening?"

However, things did not unfold as he expected. All the anomalies began intensely, but soon gradually subsided.

"What's wrong?" An agitated Hand Three instinctively looked at Li Huowang. For some reason, in that instant, he felt that the other person was different.

At the same time, Li Huowang was slowly lifting his hands from the *Grand Scroll*. His voice was no longer filled with pain, but carried a hint of confusion. "You say... why should I feel so bad? What does their death have to do with me? Now that nothing restrains me, what if I kill a few friends? Who's going to stop me? This place is dog-eat-dog. If they're weak, they deserve to die. If they're not killed by me, they'll be killed by someone else. It's truly laughable, why should I feel guilty? What's more, perhaps all of this is a trick by those masochists from the Ao Jing Cult!"

The moment these words left his mouth, Li Huowang instantly felt the mountain-like pressure on him vanish.

Looking at the suddenly changed Li Huowang, Hand Three asked with some apprehension, "Young friend? Have you been too deeply influenced by your master? Stay true to your original self, young friend. Do you want your master to completely take over your body?"

After saying this, Hand Three saw Li Huowang in the flames suddenly clutch his head with both hands, struggling with a pained expression, and begin arguing with himself. "So they died! What's it to us? Are you some great philanthropist? You live like this piece of shit, and you still have time to care about others! Dan Yangzi! Get out of my head!! My values are mine to decide!! You will never influence me again!!"

With his shouts, the anomalous celestial phenomena and terrifying aura around him expanded and contracted accordingly. As time passed, the changes eventually settled down.

At this critical juncture, Li Huowang once again felt everything around him change abruptly. The extreme physical and mental pain rapidly receded, and a sense of peace and tranquility enveloped him.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself wearing a straitjacket, lying in a wheelchair, being pushed by his mother into the hospital courtyard to sunbathe. All pain and suffering instantly vanished.

"Hoo... hoo... hoo..." Li Huowang, still shaken, gasped for breath. Tormented by various events, he finally had a moment to catch his breath. All he wanted now was to do nothing and simply rest peacefully for a while.

"Son? Son, are you awake?" Sun Xiaoqin was delighted to see that her son was distinctly different from his previous deranged state; he was now looking at things with his eyes.

Li Huowang looked at his mother, his expression extremely complex. "Mom, do you know? I really don't want to go back there. Living there is so exhausting."

Sun Xiaoqin lovingly held him in her arms with both hands. "It's okay, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Those are all illusions, they're not real."

Li Huowang closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Honestly, he truly wanted to escape now; he didn't want to suffer anymore. Compared to the peace and tranquility here, and his family and Yang Na, that other place was simply hell.

What had just happened seemed to catch up to him now, burrowing into Li Huowang's mind, and his expression became pained. "Mom... who do you say I am?"

"You're Li Huowang! You're my son!"

"Then what kind of person is your son?" Li Huowang's pained voice held a trace of confusion.

Sun Xiaoqin's hand caressed her son's head. "Li Huowang is a good child; he's sincere with people, sensible, and studies hard. Do you remember that afternoon in junior high? That day on the bus..."

Listening to his mother's words, Li Huowang recalled various things from the past, remembering the things he had done. He had experienced so much since coming here, so much that Li Huowang had forgotten what kind of person he was. He had changed, a lot, and for the worse, not only influenced by Dan Yangzi, but also by that world.

Gradually, his gaze became firm. "Yes... this is me, this is the real Li Huowang. That suspicious, foolish person, easily deceived, with no sense of good or evil—that's not me. That's Dan Yangzi. That's not me!"