Chapter 290: Sitting in Oblivion Tao

"Clang!" The pale sword blade was drawn. Li Huowang positioned himself between Blind Chen and the approaching entities.

"Kill them!" Li Huowang commanded, and the others immediately turned their attention to the entities hidden within the mud statues.

Li Huowang was confident he could handle them. If even Blind Chen could deal with these things, then he, having defeated Blind Chen, had no reason to fail.

"Thump, thump, thump!" Gao Zhijian charged forward with heavy steps, plowing through the mud figures like an iron man and knocking many of them down.

However, no matter how many times Gao Zhijian knocked down the mud figures, they slowly rose again and began to encircle the group.

A group of people quickly rushed to help Gao Zhijian, but the situation barely improved. No matter how many mud figures fell, they always got back up. Even Li Huowang's two swords seemed to have no lasting effect.

"Help me up! Give me back the mirror!" Hearing Blind Chen's voice from where he lay on the ground, Li Huowang swiftly executed a roll, withdrawing from the fight.

He first glanced at Blind Chen, then kicked the nearby bamboo basket towards him.

Blind Chen immediately pulled out the Bagua mirror. He bit the tips of his index and middle fingers, then swiftly drew on the mirror's surface with his bleeding digits.

"Spirit light, eternal glow! Mirror present, soul present! Mirror shattered, soul vanquished, fearless, intrepid! By my command, gather! Cosmic vitality, flowing forms, impenetrable as gold and stone, attained through sincerity! Open!"

The blood-smeared Bagua mirror instantly emitted a blinding light.

The light illuminated the entire dim illusion, causing the mud figures it touched to melt away like snow under the sun.

Once the entities had vanished back into the ground, Blind Chen, looking utterly drained, lay sprawled and pale on the ground.

Li Huowang quickly and carefully helped him up. "Thank you, Senior Chen."

"You... get away! I still don't trust you!" Blind Chen said, but he made no move to refuse Li Huowang's help.

By now, Li Huowang noticed people peeking from the alley entrance and behind windows. If they didn't leave soon, it seemed the whole village would be watching them.

"Hmph, are you trying to kill me with kindness? How can I travel at night like this? Quickly find a place for me to heal!"

While the villagers of Ganyuan were bustling with discussions about Li Huowang's recent battle, he had already taken the injured Blind Chen to an unoccupied woodshed to settle down.

Li Huowang uncorked a small bottle and carefully poured the powdered wound medicine onto Blind Chen's injuries.

While treating his wounds, Li Huowang recounted all his previous experiences to Blind Chen.

"So, you're saying you were also tricked by the Zuowang Dao? Ha! If that's true, then they've really buried their deception deep, perhaps even starting with the 'Borrowing Knife' peddler."

Li Huowang sighed, replacing the stopper in the bottle. "Exactly. I don't know when the Zuowang Dao started targeting me. I clearly never revealed my..."

Li Huowang paused mid-sentence. He couldn't casually reveal his true nature as a 'Heart-Soul'.

Blind Chen listened intently to Li Huowang. When he realized there was no further explanation, he snorted. "I still don't trust you! At dawn, we'll go our separate ways! I'll find my own way to verify the truth of what you've said."

"Senior Chen, how can you possibly travel in your condition? Aren't you afraid of encountering danger on the way?"

"Hmph! No thanks! Being with you is courting disaster! And don't forget who's responsible for these injuries on me." Blind Chen finished, turning his back to Li Huowang, presenting the back of his head.

As Li Huowang was carefully choosing his words to persuade Blind Chen, he felt a slight shift in the air. "Shh, someone's coming."

The footsteps outside the woodshed made everyone inside hold their breath. It seemed the homeowner, who had been out joining the commotion, had returned.

Gradually, the footsteps faded, suggesting the homeowner had gone to sleep.

Just as they breathed a sigh of relief, the footsteps resumed, this time even more frequent.

The footsteps soon faded again, only to reappear moments later.

This time, they stopped right in front of the woodshed. "Thump, thump, thump," the door was knocked.

As Li Huowang gestured with his finger, Chun Xiaoman carefully walked over and opened the door.

Standing outside was the mud statue of the attendant boy, his hollow eyes fixed on everyone inside the room.

With a "crack," the mud statue of the boy split open, and segmented root-like tendrils, resembling insects, extended from within.

However, the sound of the mud figure cracking echoed, and identical sounds began to continuously resound behind Li Huowang.

"Behind me? There's clearly nothing behind me, just... a wall."

Li Huowang turned in astonishment, only to see numerous cracked mud Bodhisattvas, contorted into various Buddhist poses, hanging on the wall and glaring menacingly at him.

With a sudden "whoosh," their cracked bodies surged forward like a leaning tsunami.

By this point, Blind Chen didn't have time to use his mirror. Li Huowang, without hesitation, pulled out a pair of iron pincers and forcefully clamped down on his own eyeball.

"Pop!" As clear aqueous humor splattered from his eye, the airborne Arhat figures were instantly enveloped in a strange luminous film and crashed straight to the ground.

As they burst out, Li Huowang was stunned to see that all the rooftops before them were piled high with mud statues, all staring menacingly.

"Senior Chen, quickly!" Li Huowang's expression was grim as he surveyed the scene.

"Don't worry! These are just mud figures putting on a show," said Blind Chen from behind Li Huowang, as he opened the bamboo basket handed to him by Gouwa and began rummaging through it.

"Thump!" Two sharp daggers plunged into Li Huowang's heart.

He looked down at the bloodied knife tips, then trembled as he turned to face Blind Chen behind him.

Yet, seeing Li Huowang, whom he was apparently about to kill, Blind Chen's expression was even more terrified than Li Huowang's.

He looked at his hands in horror. "Kid, I swear I didn't do this! My body suddenly isn't listening to me!"

As he spoke, Blind Chen's body stiffened, and his demeanor inexplicably changed. The whites of his eyes slowly shifted downwards, revealing a pair of heterochromatic pupils to Li Huowang.

The wrinkles on his face rapidly smoothed away until, with a final transformation, he looked exactly like Li Huowang.

Then, the Li Huowang with heterochromatic pupils spoke.

"Haha! Tricking others or evil spirits is outdated. This time, I have a new trick: tricking myself! What do you think, Boss Hongzhong? Come to think of it, I learned this trick from you."