Chapter 292: Death

"Ahhh!" Zuowangdao knelt on the ground, trembling as he covered his flayed face with his hands, letting out a horrific shriek. The scream wasn't just from pain; it was also from the realization that he had been outmaneuvered.

With the sound of slimy tendrils sliding against skin, the writhing tentacles of the Black Grand Emperor, wrapped around the facial skin with its eyeballs, slowly retracted back into Li Huowang's mouth.

Li Huowang swallowed the foul, sticky mass in his mouth with a difficult gulp. He watched Zuowangdao struggle to stand, then stumbled backward, pulling out his copper coin sword, which instantly appeared in his hand.

"Whoosh!" As Li Huowang lost his balance from swinging the sword and collapsed, Zuowangdao, with a dozen copper coins embedded in his body, also fell to the ground.

A strange smile appeared on the dying Zuowangdao's face. "You truly are formidable, Boss Hongzhong... Grand Slam, indeed, a Grand Slam."

Lying on the ground, Li Huowang silently gazed at the scattered points of light in the sky, quietly enduring the intense pain in his body. "I can't believe... I've fallen here... I'm really not willing to accept this..."

Observing Gao Zhijian, whose body was covered in mud figures, and the Great God attempting to approach him from a distance, Li Huowang painfully managed to roll over. "This... it would be such a waste not to use this pain, wouldn't it?"

He tried a few times but failed. With one final attempt, he reached into his abdominal cavity and firmly gripped his ribs, one with each hand. As Li Huowang violently pulled his hands from his abdomen, two bloody ribs were also torn out. The two curved bones sharply crossed in the air, then were vertically reinserted into his abdomen. "Flesh Rending, Bone Extraction!"

The sounds of impact and struggle around him vanished, replaced by an unbroken chorus of screams and wails. Everything in Ganyuan Village—whether the beings hidden within the mud figures, or the villagers and dogs—at that moment felt the same intense pain as Li Huowang. The mud figures immediately crumbled, trembling as they fled underground. The critical situation had been instantly resolved by Li Huowang.

Feeling them leave, Li Huowang's hand loosened, and his consciousness began to fade. "Li Huowang!" Drowsy, Li Huowang instinctively propped up his head and responded, "Who? I'm here." The last thing he saw was Bai Lingmiao running towards him. "I can't die, I can't die..." Li Huowang's head tilted, and his consciousness plunged into darkness.

At dawn, hearing the roosters crow outside, the scruffy-bearded Gouwa emerged from the room, carrying a chamber pot. His face was pale, and the white cloth on his collar indicated he was also injured. He had to empty the chamber pot despite his injuries because Gao Zhijian's wounds were far more severe; the mud figures had nearly torn off his arm.

After arriving at the outhouse and emptying the pot, he yawned, shrugging his shoulders as he hurried back. Passing by Room Heaven-2, Gouwa carefully pulled open the window and peeked inside. Seeing Li Huowang lying lifelessly on the bed, showing no signs of waking, he shook his head helplessly.

Back in his own room, he had just placed the chamber pot under the bed when Gao Zhijian's thunderous snoring stopped. "Wh...wh...wh..."

"Nothing, still the same. Move over, I'm going back to sleep." Gouwa climbed back into bed, shrinking his bony body under the covers. "Ah, I'm afraid Senior Brother Li won't make it this time. It's time to split up the household. Hey, you fool, how much of that golden box do you think I'll get?" Hearing a disgruntled stir beside him, Gouwa continued, "I'm not cursing Senior Brother Li; you saw it yourself. This time, even his internal organs were hollowed out. No matter how powerful that great shaman is, he's not a true immortal, is he? Can he really bring flesh and bone back to life?"

"Bang!" Gouwa was shoved off the bed.

"Hey, you!" Gouwa grumbled as he stood up, his sleepiness gone after being shoved. He turned, grabbed the copper basin from the wooden shelf, and headed to the well in the backyard to fetch water.

After washing up, he walked out onto the street and sat down at a small roadside stall. "Boss, one bowl of sweet tofu pudding, and two fried dough sticks, please."

"Alright! Just a moment, it'll be right out."

The steaming tofu pudding, sprinkled with sesame seeds and brown sugar, made Gouwa's hungry stomach growl and his mouth water. He picked up a fried dough stick with his chopsticks, dipped it in the tofu pudding to soften, then popped it into his mouth. The sweet, oily aroma filled his mouth, a truly comforting sensation. "This Daliang is truly different. People eat breakfast even when they're not transplanting rice seedlings, and there are so many varieties."

After Gouwa enjoyed his breakfast, the streets nearby began to fill with more people. He carefully licked the bowl clean with his tongue, then stood up, pulled a dozen copper coins from his waist, and tossed them over.

"Oh my, so much! Thank you, sir, for your generosity!"

"Who's being generous? Make three more portions of that for the second floor of the inn next door. I won't be watching, so don't shortchange them." After speaking, Gouwa turned and blended into the crowd. He had become very familiar with this town during his time here.

After wandering around for a while, he finally stopped in front of a secluded coffin shop. Spitting a bit of saliva into his palm and smoothing his sideburns, Gouwa stepped inside.

The man behind the abacus, upon seeing Gouwa's sharp, monkey-like face, couldn't help but wear a helpless, bitter smile. "Master Cao, you're here again? Please come in."

"So? You've had all night to think about it. Can you lower that price I mentioned?" Gouwa expertly patted a large, prominent coffin nearby.

"Master Cao, this is premium red pine! Oh, please stop patting it. You pat it every day, and now the paint is coming off."

"Are you buying or not? You come every day just to ask the price. You're not thinking of getting into this business yourself, are you?"

"Hmph," Gouwa scoffed dismissively. "Of course, I'm serious about buying. If you lower the price by another half tael, just another half tael, I'll pay the deposit today."

The coffin shop owner's heart skipped a beat at this. He quickly slowed his voice, cautiously asking, "Our Senior Brother Li... is he close?" Seeing Gouwa close his eyes, purse his lips, and nod, the owner hardened his resolve. "Alright! Half a tael it is! That's the absolute lowest; no more bargaining."

"No rush," Gouwa said, circling the coffin carefully a few times before addressing the man again. "Shopkeeper, since you've already lowered it by half a tael, how about throwing in a shroud as well?"

An hour quickly passed, and the coffin shop owner, his mouth dry from talking, finally agreed to Gouwa's offer. He truly didn't want to drag it on any longer. If he did, whether "Senior Brother Li" in Master Cao's words was dead or not, he himself would be worn out to death by him.

After paying the deposit, Gouwa asked again, "Shopkeeper, you're familiar with all the funeral arrangements, aren't you?"

The coffin shop owner nodded repeatedly. "Don't worry, the chefs for the feast, the opera troupe, and the eight pallbearers—I know them all, I know them all."

"They must be the best! It has to be a grand funeral! He was my brother through thick and thin!"

"Consider it done! I'll help you make the connections, and I guarantee everything will be handled beautifully. You can rest assured."

"Oh, and also, ask the paper effigy maker to make a few extra maidservants. Senior Brother Li going down alone, I'm afraid he'll get terribly bored."

"Master Cao, you're truly righteous!"

"Sigh, what can I do? Once Senior Brother Li dies, they'll all be weeping inconsolably and won't attend to anything. Someone has to handle these matters, and I did it last time too."

"Last... last time?"