Chapter 361: Yin and Yang

Li Huowang's face was exceptionally grim as he watched Ji Xiang slump to the ground before him.

Li Huowang remembered Ji Xiang saying that the male Heart Fiend was dead, but the female Heart Fiend was still alive. When these two Heart Fiends came together, even Zhuge Yuan couldn't handle the situation.

Li Huowang didn't know how strong Zhuge Yuan was, but he knew one thing: he was truly in trouble now.

“Huowang, what happened to this eunuch?” Bai Lingmiao, who was warily scanning their surroundings, clearly didn't understand the gravity of the situation.

Gazing at her profile, Li Huowang took a deep breath, suppressing the intense unease in his heart. His own life or death didn't matter, but he absolutely couldn't let Bai Lingmiao be implicated!

Li Huowang quickly stepped forward, helped Ji Xiang up from the ground, and asked anxiously, “Lord Ji Xiang! Don't lose heart! This situation isn't set in stone yet! Think hard, how did others in the Directorate escape when they encountered something like this?”

Hearing this, Ji Xiang looked at Li Huowang, his face etched with deep despair, and said, “You don't understand anything at all. There are no survivors when something like this happens!”

Just as Li Huowang was about to say something more, gazes from all directions made him instinctively tighten his grip on his sword hilt.

Gradually, a group of people emerged from the forest, a group of people who looked exactly like the creatures Li Huowang had captured.

They walked with hunched backs, cowering and squatting in the distance, their distended bellies prominent, and their protruding goldfish eyes fixed intently on Li Huowang and the others.

“Newcomers again? Excellent, excellent!”

“That girl looks really good. Heh heh...”

“Yes, and she has a big behind.”

Their low whispers made Li Huowang's expression turn savage. He swiftly swung the copper coin sword in his hand, and with the pull of its red string, it lashed out like a long whip towards these creatures.

However, facing Li Huowang's attack, these creatures didn't even try to dodge, directly taking the blows with their thin, emaciated bodies.

The sharp copper coins cut through their bodies as if slicing through tofu. Yet, even as they were severed into several pieces, they made no move, simply writhing on the ground and murmuring.

“Don't be in a hurry. We won't do anything; we'll just wait.”

“Wait one year, wait two years, wait three years, until you become just like us.”

These words sent a chill down Li Huowang's spine, a man who had always been fearless.

They were no longer human. These people, hidden and forgotten by the Heart Fiends, had long since mutated into monsters over the long years.

Li Huowang cursed under his breath, no longer paying attention to the surrounding creatures. He turned and hoisted Ji Xiang back up.

“Lord Ji Xiang, what's the big deal? So what if we're trapped? Think hard! Think about those waiting for you to return outside!”

Hearing Li Huowang's words, Ji Xiang seemed to remember something, and the fear and despair in his eyes rapidly receded.

“Yes, she's still waiting for me at home! I want to take her back to the village! I quit!”

Seeing this, Li Huowang breathed a sigh of relief and calmly asked, “Lord Ji Xiang, think hard, what method can get us out of here?”

Ji Xiang, who had barely managed to compose himself, slapped his own face hard. After thinking calmly for a moment, he looked up and said to the others, “Now that one Heart Fiend is dead and one is alive, the karmic obstacles within them are perfectly yin and yang. With yin and yang merging, we definitely can't escape. To break free, we must find the living female Heart Fiend.”

Ji Xiang became more composed as he spoke, and his words grew faster.

“Yes, that's right! Find that female Heart Fiend! Make her dead, and perhaps there's still a glimmer of hope!”

Hearing this, everyone disregarded everything else, quickly dispersed, and rushed into the forest to search for the so-called female Heart Fiend.

Trees continuously receded past them as Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao kept searching through the forest.

“Huowang, something's wrong with this damned place; I can't summon any immortals,” Bai Lingmiao said to Li Huowang, her expression quite agitated after beating her drum for a while.

Li Huowang had already expected this. In a situation like this, minor deities like immortals were useless.

“Searching blindly like this won't work. It seems we'll have to use talismans for divination.” Li Huowang tried to pull out some turmeric paper, but realized everything on him had already been burned to ashes.

“Do you have any yellow paper?” Li Huowang asked Bai Lingmiao.

Bai Lingmiao thought for a moment, then pulled out a small paper horse folded from yellow paper from her bosom. “I use this for my shamanic dances; see if you can use it.”

Li Huowang took it and quickly unfolded it. After glancing left and right, he rushed towards a man peeking at him from behind a tree. Shortly after, he returned, carrying a bloody skull, and began his divination.

Looking at the divination results, Li Huowang tossed the skull in his hand and continued his search.

However, the divination, which had always been unfailingly accurate in the past, was uncharacteristically useless this time. No matter how he searched, he couldn't find the patterns on the omen.

After a day and a night, Tuoba Danqing finally found them. “Hurry! Hong Da has been found!”

Ignoring their profound exhaustion, the three returned the way they came.

Soon they returned, just in time to see Tuoba Danqing viciously rip off the female Heart Fiend's head and throw it to the ground.

Seeing this, Li Huowang's heart instantly tightened, and he nervously observed the dark surroundings.

However, after a long while, there was still no change in their surroundings; none of the hidden people were missing.

“What's going on?” Li Huowang couldn't help but ask.

Just then, the female Heart Fiend's head on the ground slowly moved back towards her body. Though her eyes were lifeless, she was undeniably still alive.

Witnessing their actions, piercing laughter erupted from all around.

“Hahaha! You actually thought you could kill her? Don't you know no one can die in this place?”

“Do you think we don't want to die? We've wanted to die for a long time! Do you know what's more terrifying than death? It's living forever like this!”

These words sent a chill through everyone present. To break free, they had to kill the female Heart Fiend, but she couldn't die in this place!

The next moment, Bai Lingmiao pulled out the purple-tasseled sword from Li Huowang's belt and forcefully slashed it across Hong Da's neck.

Seeing that Hong Da, despite bleeding profusely, showed no signs of dying, everyone instantly understood their current predicament.

This had effectively become an unbreakable deadlock.

Ji Xiang's face instantly crumpled, and as he was about to say something more, a fist savagely struck his face.

“You dead eunuch! This whole damn thing is your fault! If you hadn't brought us here to catch some damned Heart Fiend, we wouldn't be in this mess!”

It was Tuoba Danqing, completely abandoning his usual easygoing demeanor and disregarding all hierarchy. He charged furiously at Ji Xiang and began a brutal beating of his former superior.