Chapter 365: 天

Li Huowang, now devoid of all pain, dazed, perceived everything around him. With his merged senses, he could tell that the previously integrated Yin and Yang had now split apart.

It wasn't that the Yang hadn't appeared; it was because the Yin had awakened. Only living beings can feel pain. As the previously dead Heart-Corpse let out a bloodcurdling scream, it, like the screaming stones and trees, came to life.

Li Huowang stumbled, trying to walk, but his weakened body instinctively pitched forward. Several wriggling black tentacles extended, propping him up like pillars. "Dad..."

Then, Li Sui opened the wound on Li Huowang's chest and quickly burrowed inside.

Li Huowang's mouth trembled, as if he wanted to speak, but there was only a bloody, gaping hole where his mouth should be, preventing him from making any sound.

Li Huowang's right hand, lacking fingernails, lifted and trembled as it pointed south. He could feel a fissure there.

Bai Lingmiao immediately understood Li Huowang. She quickly picked up "The Grand World Record" from the ground, and along with Er Shen, who was carrying Li Huowang, walked south.

As they walked, everything around them suddenly inverted. The three felt their bodies lighten and plummeted directly towards the cracked black dome below.

As the three passed through the gap, blinding sunlight forced them to close their eyes. Inside, it had always been dark, but outside, dawn had already broken. They were out!

Seeing the yellow earth rapidly growing larger below, Er Shen quickly turned and pulled Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao into his arms.

"Thud!" A violent tremor. Li Huowang's merged senses gradually returned to their proper places. Ba Hui's gaze upon him slowly vanished, and the lost sensation of pain also gradually returned.

"Huowang! Are you okay? Pull yourself together!" Li Huowang heard a familiar voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw Bai Lingmiao's and Yang Na's faces completely overlapped.

They were fused together, as if they had become one person. Both opened their mouths and spoke simultaneously.

At this moment, both sides had overlapped, and Li Huowang couldn't distinguish whether this was reality or an illusion.

"Huowang!" Bai Lingmiao, in a panic, lightly patted Li Huowang's cheek with her delicate hand, but he remained motionless.

Bai Lingmiao's heart pounded. She quickly picked up her drumstick and rapidly tapped the leather drum at her waist, preparing to summon Grandma Bai for healing.

Li Huowang's hand suddenly grasped Bai Lingmiao's. He subtly shook his head. At this moment, he understood clearly: this was reality, the person in front of him was Bai Lingmiao, and there was no Yang Na at all.

He struggled to roll over and lie prone on the ground. As Li Huowang gasped for air, bits of flesh slipped from the bloody hole in his mouth and dripped onto the ground.

Li Huowang mustered all his strength to lift his head. After looking around, he spotted "The Grand World Record," covered in mud, on the ground in the distance. Immediately, he pushed with his hands and laboriously crawled towards it.

Seeing that he wanted it, Bai Lingmiao quickly ran over, picked up the still-bleeding red bamboo scroll, and brought it to Li Huowang.

Li Huowang's trembling hand reached out. Like opening a gift box, he unrolled "The Grand World Record." The bloody tongue and entire throat appeared before them.

The weakened Li Huowang lifted his head and opened his mouth wide. He held the long, strip-like object upright, letting it fall directly into the horrifying, bloody hole of his mouth.

Soon, thin tentacles emerged from Li Huowang's mouth, coiling around his tongue and other organs, adjusting their positions, and securing them where they belonged.

"It's good that you're okay, it's good that you're okay. You scared me half to death!" Bai Lingmiao hugged Li Huowang, her voice trembling.

Recalling everything he had experienced in the illusion, Li Huowang managed a faint smile. He reached out and hugged Bai Lingmiao back, controlling the icy tongue to say, "Why... *cough*... did you... suddenly... do it early?"

He clearly hadn't killed the illusory Yang Na yet, but Bai Lingmiao had already performed the 'Ascension of the Azure Scarab'.

"Didn't you say to act when you were in the most pain? You looked like you were about to pass out. What? Did I do something wrong?"

Li Huowang subtly shook his head. "No... it was... just right..." Although Yang Na was injured, she wasn't dead.

"Thank you... Miao... Miao..." Li Huowang kissed her neck.

Her early action had saved Yang Na. Otherwise, according to his own preparations, he would have certainly stabbed her. Li Huowang didn't understand why he cared so much about an illusion, but the thought that Yang Na was alive made him happier than anything.

Li Huowang now understood that Ba Hui only desired pain, not death. It was other Sages who wanted death, perhaps the enormous Skeleton Bodhisattva he had seen, or something else entirely.

He didn't need to kill Yang Na. The heart-wrenching pain he felt when he resolved to kill her was enough to perform the 'Ascension of the Azure Scarab'.

"Yang Na... I'm sorry..." Li Huowang mumbled to the empty air, lost in thought. "I left a scar on your chest. Hurry and call 120 for treatment..."

Hearing Li Huowang's words, Bai Lingmiao subtly furrowed her brow but said nothing. She laboriously helped Li Huowang to his feet and walked to the side, intending to get out of this cursed place first.

It wasn't until this moment that Li Huowang had a chance to look around. However, all he could see was dirt, completely different from where he had originally been.

"Where are we? Haven't we gotten out yet?!" Li Huowang's heart sank. He struggled to shift his gaze upward, finally spotting some familiar green woods.

However, those woods were very high up, perched on a distant cliff. Li Huowang clearly remembered that there wasn't even a cliff nearby, let alone such a tall mountain.

"A cliff? Why is there a cliff here?" As Li Huowang looked around, he realized that towering cliffs surrounded them on all sides. It was then that he suddenly understood: those weren't cliffs.

The higher ground was the normal position. He was at a low point, situated in an enormous basin.

When the Heart-Corpse of Life and the Heart-Corpse of Death touched, they didn't just hide them; they literally dug three feet deep, scraping away everything for several miles around.

"Huowang, look quickly! What's that in the sky?!"

Li Huowang strained to look up. He saw that directly above him, a section of the clear, cloudless sky was inexplicably missing. They had fallen out of it earlier. Inside was a pitch-black night with fissures.

"Is this the power of the Heart-Corpse...?" Li Huowang, utterly stunned, couldn't help but open his mouth. "What exactly is this Heart-Corpse? How can a Heart-Corpse of Life and a Heart-Corpse of Death, when they meet, manage to hide the sky itself?!"