Chapter 364: Pain

Looking at the metal object in front of the other person, Li Huowang chuckled softly. He shook his head and began speaking to the wall beside him.

“Miaomiao, take Li Sui and stay a bit further back. Even though no one will die here, it’s better to be safe.”

“Who the hell are you talking to? Take off that Bluetooth earpiece!”

Li Huowang’s voice echoed again in the somewhat empty stairwell, filled with exhaustion and suppression.

“You know what? My mood truly couldn’t be worse right now. I really want to find something to vent on!”

Li Huowang twisted his hand, revealing a sharp blade. His expression instantly turned extremely savage. He stomped fiercely on the steps and charged towards the three people in front of him like a pouncing tiger.

“Bang!” Tiny spatters of blood bloomed on Li Huowang. This familiar pain only excited him further.

A cold glint flashed. A finger, still attached to the pistol, tumbled through the air, accompanied by blood. The man’s scream was cut short as his vocal cords were severed in half, a hissing sound accompanying the faint tremor in the air.

This scene petrified the remaining two. They clutched the girls in their arms tightly, threatening hysterically, “You, you, you, don’t come any closer! We have hostages!”

“Tell that to the real police! In your world, I’m a fucking lunatic!”

Scalding blood gushed from the fresh wound, soaking the soles of Li Huowang’s feet.

Without a glance at the two girls, terrified to the point of incontinence, Li Huowang, a knife protruding from his chest, ascended the stairs, leaving bloody footprints. His wailing, ghost-like voice echoed continuously through the stairwell.

“Yang Na! I’m sorry! I’m here for you!”

Li Huowang searched dormitory by dormitory in the stairwell. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he saw the remaining four men.

Bleeding, Li Huowang tilted his head, staring fixedly at each man’s neck. Facing Li Huowang in such a state, even with hostages and weapons in hand, the advantage was no longer theirs.

Finally, the man among the four with an obviously weaker disposition suddenly released the girl in his arms and said with a tremor in his voice, “Comrade, can we surrender now? We really didn’t do anything! Brother Bao forced me to rob the bank earlier; he was the mastermind!”

Li Huowang violently pulled the dagger from his body with his left hand, leaned slightly forward, and charged at them, laughing hysterically and shedding tears.

The difference between those who had killed and those who hadn’t was undeniably vast. Dark red blood dripped down the stairs, step by step.

The heavily wounded Li Huowang sat on two corpses, panting heavily, feeling the pain throughout his body. He wasn’t sure if a nerve or tendon in his right arm had been severed, but he couldn’t lift it properly.

“Huo… Huowang?”

Hearing the familiar voice, Li Huowang’s body suddenly trembled. A sudden urge welled up within him to leave immediately, to run as far as he could. But upon remembering Bai Lingmiao, trapped by the Heart Impurity, Li Huowang continuously muttered “illusion” under his breath, slowly raising his head to look towards the stairwell entrance.

It was Yang Na, wearing an exquisite jade earring in her right ear. Li Huowang remembered that earring; he had previously entrusted his mother to give it to Yang Na as a birthday gift.

“Wuwuwu… Huowang! Why are you so badly injured?!”

A tearful Yang Na rushed to Li Huowang’s side, helplessly looking at his continuously bleeding wounds. She tried to staunch the bleeding with her hands, but she couldn’t stop it.

“Fake… fake… fake…” Li Huowang continuously whispered to himself, his left hand, gripping the dagger, tightening further.

Just as he forcefully raised the dagger in his hand, Yang Na spoke.

“Why did you come to save me?! You’re insane! Why did you come to save me?! How am I supposed to forget you now?!”

“Aaaah!!” Li Huowang felt the dagger in his hand weigh a thousand pounds. Her words almost completely broke him. Feeling a heartbreaking pain, Li Huowang exerted all his willpower, plunging the dagger’s tip into Yang Na’s chest. The sharp blade cut through her tight purple sweater and her skin.

Feeling the pain in her chest, Yang Na blinked tremblingly and looked at Li Huowang. In her eyes, there was no fear, no disappointment, no complaint—only profound sorrow. “Huowang, why?”

Her gaze pierced Li Huowang’s heart like a sharp knife; no, it was far, far more painful than that feeling.

Just as he was about to exert more force, in despair and collapse, he suddenly felt a burning pain in his throat. The pain intensified, making everything around him feel unstable.

With a “clang,” the dagger in Li Huowang’s hand fell to the ground. The immense pain made his body tremble uncontrollably.

Disregarding the wound on her own chest, Yang Na quickly lunged forward and embraced the reeling Li Huowang, pulling him into her arms.

With a “boom,” everything around them vanished instantly, and Li Huowang returned to the dark forest.

He was kneeling on the ground. In front of him was the red bamboo scroll, "The Great Thousand Record," which seemed to be wrapped around something. Just then, a tongue flopped out from inside the bamboo scroll and began to speak. "The Great Thousand Record" had come to life.

“With a single tongue, the wheel turns! With a single blink, the Great Thousand appears! Wondrous realms beyond all speech! Heaven delights in the strange and divine, unetched by breath! My Lord is supreme! Who dares disturb Him?!”

Listening to the voice of "The Great Thousand Record," Li Huowang felt all his senses begin to merge again, fusing into that unique perception capable of sensing the existence of Bahui. With this perception, Li Huowang could hear that "The Great Thousand Record" was alive. He touched the individual red bamboo slips as they transformed into continuously wriggling red worms.

In a trance, Li Huowang looked up. The pitch-black dome above him seemed to crack open, and a long, slender, almost sky-sized, misty eyeball gazed through the fissure into the space.

That wasn’t Bahui. Li Huowang could sense Bahui, but it was far away, still in Baiyujing.

The eyeball dispersed, and Li Huowang sensed Bahui again, or perhaps he saw Bahui. This time, he saw that parts of Bahui’s body began to have some of his own sensations.

An intensely severe pain descended, interweaving with Li Huowang’s own pain, and began to spread outwards. Soon, everything around them was enveloped by this pain, from Bai Lingmiao to the mutated humans. Finally, even the trees, the soil, and the very air began to tremble slightly.

As Li Huowang gently raised his hands, all the pain intensified, and these newfound pains would be controlled by Li Huowang.

Li Huowang’s merged perception sensed two eyeballs, one black and one white, each containing the other. They had no boundaries; their respective boundaries canceled each other out, and he was inside that sphere.

As Li Huowang raised his hands once more, he stripped all the pain from his body and poured it into those two spheres.