Chapter 388: Apricot Island

The moment Li Huowang finished speaking to Yang Na, filled with guilt, his strained mind finally gave way, and he completely fainted.

The sounds of footsteps, shouts, and Yang Na's cries gradually faded away, and everything around him fell silent.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but Li Huowang slowly woke up, startled by the choking scent of incense.

Sky blue was the only color he could see. After a while, as Li Huowang regained his senses, he realized he was looking up at the sky.

The sound of waves hitting the ship's hull and the feel of the wooden deck beneath him made him realize he was back on board.

When Li Huowang lowered his head, his pupils immediately constricted in shock at the sight before him.

Offerings and an incense burner were placed before him, and behind the burner knelt rows of people prostrating themselves. What truly sent shivers down his spine was the pair of young boy and girl sitting among the offerings. It was as if they were worshiping him like a Bodhisattva.

Seeing this, Li Huowang immediately flew into a rage. He stood up and kicked over the incense burner.

“Are you all fools? Why do you always place your hopes on others? And you even offer me child sacrifices!” With that, Li Huowang forcefully pulled the two children, who had red dots on their foreheads, from the plate.

Li Huowang's sudden outburst terrified everyone, who continuously backed away. The ship's captain repeatedly kowtowed and begged for mercy. “Dragon King Grandpa, please calm down, please calm down!”

“Dragon King Grandpa?” Li Huowang looked down and saw black tentacles wriggling out from various parts of his body, especially from his severed arm, which was entirely formed by five intertwined tentacles.

It seemed the people on the ship had mistaken him—covered in black tentacles and devoid of skin—for someone possessed by an evil spirit.

“Li Sui, retract. Don't scare them.” Hearing Li Huowang's command, all the tentacles on his body instantly vanished.

After glancing at the wet deck and then at the cloudless sky, Li Huowang had no time to explain. He immediately ordered the captain, “Get up! Set sail for Apricot Island immediately!”

“Yes, yes, yes! I'll go! I'll go!” The captain wouldn't dare refuse. Even if the person before him wasn't Dragon King Grandpa, he was certainly not someone to be trifled with.

Passing through the crowd, Li Huowang found a quiet corner inside the cabin. After slowly exhaling, he looked up and asked the monk, “How did I get back on the ship earlier?”

“Taoist, you emerged from the belly of that thing. It was too dark underwater, so I couldn't see what it looked like. Oh, I also remember there was another living person inside its belly; I don't know if they got out or not. And, it had eyes all over its back…”

Listening to the monk's account, Li Huowang replayed everything he had experienced there.

As he had previously predicted, breaking through the window and jumping out meant emerging from the monster's belly. Climbing over the barbed wire cage charged with high voltage meant escaping entanglement from outside the water. And when he climbed the watchtower, that was the moment he boarded the ship's deck.

His movements within the illusion ultimately saved his life. This was a valuable experience, and if he encountered a similar situation again, he could use this method to resolve it.

It shouldn't have been so difficult, but he didn't know what method the creature in the water had used. It had managed to nullify the abilities of the Black Tai Sui in his abdomen. Fortunately, despite many twists and turns, the outcome was still acceptable.

“Taoist, Li Sui in your belly helped you a lot during that time. If it hadn't been for it, you wouldn't have been able to get back on the ship then.”

Li Huowang touched his abdomen, reviewing everything he had just experienced, and felt a slight sense of relief.

“Huowang!” An extremely sharp ringing sound echoed, and Li Huowang instinctively covered his ears with his hands.

It was Yang Na's voice; Li Huowang couldn't possibly mistake it. Remembering her desperate appearance, his heart ached as if pierced by a knife.

His expression contorted, Li Huowang covered his ears and continuously reassured himself: “That must be an illusion, there were too many coincidences there, it's an illusion! I don't need to care about what happened there, it's just an illusion!”

Li Huowang muttered to himself for a long time, trying to push Yang Na's image out of his mind.

When he lowered the tentacles covering his ears and no longer felt any ringing, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, still feeling shaken.

It seemed this auditory hallucination was a lingering aftereffect. He would have to be careful when encountering unfamiliar evil spirits in the future; perhaps they possessed the ability to nullify the Black Tai Sui's power.

“Heh heh, look at you, in this ghastly state, you'd be better off dead.”

Ignoring Hong Zhong's mockery, Li Huowang took out the 'True Scripture of Fire Robes' and silently healed himself.

“No matter how much I suffer, there will always be an end. I always have hope of escaping this life worse than death! As long as I can find a way to force the method of escaping illusions from Beifeng…”

“Three coins.”

“Empty bottle.”

“Half-eaten coin. I win.”

Seeing the leaf cards spread out in Li Huowang's hand, the other three instantly threw down their cards in annoyance. “How is it you again, master? You couldn't have used your supernatural powers to change the cards, could you?”

“If I were really using supernatural powers, wouldn't it be better to just rob you directly? Why go through such a roundabout way? Less talk, pay up as you lost the bet, quickly hand over the money.”

Some blackened, scattered silver pieces and various old and new copper coins were all pushed towards Li Huowang.

Just as Li Huowang was shuffling the cards, preparing for another round, stomping sounds suddenly came from the deck above. “The ship is approaching the shore! Apricot Island has been reached!”

Hearing this, both those playing cards and those observing rushed towards the cabin stairs.

When Li Huowang's feet stood on the pier of Apricot Island, he let out a sigh of relief. He had finally arrived.

However, Li Huowang suddenly found himself in a predicament. Although Zhuge Yuan told him to find him, the captain said that Apricot Island was half the size of Jiangnan Dao. How was he supposed to find Zhuge Yuan in such a vast place?

Li Huowang pondered for a moment, then pulled out a piece of yellow turmeric paper from his bosom. Ultimately, finding someone still required using this talisman for a divination.

However, performing divination required human bones, which was problematic as he hadn't prepared any.

Although difficult, Li Huowang pondered for a long time and eventually thought of an alternative.

First, he used a knife to cut open his healing severed arm. Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang plunged his hand into the flesh, grasped the arm bone, and pulled hard.

With a strong surge of aching pain and emptiness, Li Huowang pulled out his entire upper arm bone, still covered in blood and flesh, as if pulling a radish.