Chapter 391: Li Huowang

Li Huowang was at a loss, confronted by the bizarre Sitting-Forget Daoist before him. He feared that if he stayed, the Daoist would trick him into losing his remaining abilities one by one. The only way to completely defeat him was to achieve the Cang Qiang Deng Jie ascension, but his adversary was right there, leaving no time for him to seek out the ultimate pain within himself.

"No, I must retreat first with the enemy's intentions unclear! I need to find Zhuge Yuan!"

Having made up his mind, Li Huowang immediately cut off his ears and threw them behind him to create a diversion, then turned and bolted out of the fortified building.

Back in the bamboo forest, the morning mist outside was slowly clearing. Li Huowang pushed himself to run forward, gritting his teeth. As he sprinted, he pulled out the broken bone and performed another divination. Either the divination would lead him to Zhuge Yuan, or Zhuge Yuan would sense that someone was divining for him; both scenarios would help him escape his current predicament. As soon as Zhuge Yuan, capable of killing Fa Cai, appeared, this crisis would be over!

As he ran, a donkey cart appeared on the road ahead. It was pulled by a very old donkey, but despite its age, it had no trouble pulling the lightweight mother and daughter inside the covered cart.

"Benefactor!?" The sallow-faced woman's eyes widened as she looked at the disheveled Li Huowang before her.

"Someone's chasing me! Help me get away!" Li Huowang said quickly, and without waiting for her reply, he climbed directly into the cart.

Just as the sallow-faced woman was trying to make sense of what was happening, she saw another benefactor, identical to the first, rushing toward them from ahead.

"Have you seen anyone who looks exactly like me?!"

As this second benefactor asked the question, and while the woman hesitated on how to answer, the child in her arms pointed towards the nearby bamboo grove.

"Let's see where you run!"

Watching the second benefactor disappear into the bamboo grove, the woman quickly hugged her child and pulled down the cart's curtain.

Clutching his abdominal wound, Li Huowang breathed a slight sigh of relief looking at the two faces, one large and one small, before him.

"Thank you for your help; I won't forget this favor."

Li Huowang never imagined that a past good deed of his would save his life.

The woman quickly shook her head. "Benefactor, you saved my daughter on the boat earlier; helping you is only right. You're bleeding profusely; you should quickly find a doctor in the village."

Li Huowang shook his head, then pulled out the "Huobao True Scripture" to heal himself. "Go on your way," he said. "Just pretend I was never here."

The woman, holding her daughter, nodded repeatedly, then pulled down the cart's curtain and urgently urged the old donkey to go faster.

Just as Li Huowang finished cauterizing his bleeding wounds, he felt the donkey cart beneath him come to a stop. His heart immediately sank.

Pulling back the cart's curtain, Li Huowang saw a face identical to his own in the distance. In his hand, the figure held a cracked human bone. Unbeknownst to Li Huowang, the opponent had already tricked him out of his divination ability and was now using it to track him down.

Li Huowang took a deep breath, jumped from the cart, and stood in front of it. He spoke to the mother and daughter behind him with a firm voice: "Go quickly, both of you! The further, the better!"

The sallow-faced woman looked at the two identical figures before her, then at her terrified, crying daughter. She abandoned her newly bought donkey cart, hugged her daughter, grabbed their luggage, and plunged into the nearby bamboo grove.

Li Huowang slowly exhaled. Just as he saw the opponent open his mouth to speak, both figures suddenly turned their heads to look at a nearby fork in the road.

Seeing the newcomer, Li Huowang's face filled with excitement. It was Zhuge Yuan!

Zhuge Yuan, dressed as a scholar, fanned himself with a folding fan, observing the two identical Li Huowangs before him with interest.

Before Li Huowang could speak, he heard the other figure say, "Brother Zhuge! I am Li Huowang! This person is a Sitting-Forget Daoist!"

Li Huowang almost spat out blood in frustration, but he didn't intend to repeat the other's words. He looked earnestly at Zhuge Yuan. "Brother Zhuge, you who can slay Fa Cai, surely you can see through this Sitting-Forget Daoist's little trick at a glance, can't you?"

Hearing the dialogue from both sides, Zhuge Yuan pondered for a moment, then asked with interest, "Did you bring the Heart-Turbidity hair I gave you back then?"

"Of course! I have it!" Li Huowang sliced open his stomach with a knife and pulled out the black spindle. If Zhuge Yuan hadn't mentioned it today, Li Huowang would never have known that the spindle was wrapped with Heart-Turbidity hair.

Looking at the black spindle in his hand, and then at the opponent's shifting expression as he clutched his stomach, Li Huowang smiled. It seemed the opponent hadn't guessed that he had hidden something inside his belly.

Li Huowang put the spindle back inside his robes, turned to Zhuge Yuan, and warned, "Brother Zhuge, be careful. This Sitting-Forget Daoist is unusual; he tricks people into giving away their abilities."

"You don't need to say more; I already know," Zhuge Yuan said, folding his fan and pulling a Judge's Brush directly from his sleeve.

Li Huowang watched intently, eager to discover just how powerful this Zhuge Yuan, capable of slaying Fa Cai, truly was. Seeing the Sitting-Forget Daoist before him take a half-step back, Li Huowang sneered inwardly. *Scared now? What were you doing earlier? How dare you impersonate me.*

Immediately after, Li Huowang saw Zhuge Yuan cup his hands in a greeting towards him, then lightly raise the Judge's Brush in his hand and point it at Li Huowang's left leg. Li Huowang instantly lost all sensation in his left leg and stumbled to the ground.

Li Huowang stared at Zhuge Yuan, utterly bewildered, for a moment convinced he was mistaken. But seeing Zhuge Yuan raise the Judge's Brush toward him once more, he finally realized he hadn't been mistaken: Zhuge Yuan was indeed attacking him!

"What are you doing?! That person is the Sitting-Forget Daoist!" Li Huowang cried out, filled with immense grief and indignation.

Zhuge Yuan's Judge's Brush pointed once more, and Li Huowang's entire lower body went numb.

Li Huowang, his heart brimming with fierce indignation, shrieked hysterically at Zhuge Yuan, his face contorted in agony: "You're a liar! All the goodwill you showed me before was a trick! You and the Sitting-Forget Daoist are in league!"

Faced with Li Huowang's accusations, Zhuge Yuan merely smiled, saying nothing. The tip of his Judge's Brush then aimed for Li Huowang's neck.

"I can't die! They're still waiting for me! I've endured so many hardships; I absolutely cannot die a pathetic death here!"

Unwilling to yield, Li Huowang tried to struggle, but as the Judge's Brush traced a circle around his head, his body stiffened, and all signs of life vanished.

*Thump!* Li Huowang's corpse fell heavily to the ground. The black spindle rolled from his hand, slowly coming to rest at Zhuge Yuan's feet.

Zhuge Yuan took out a white handkerchief, picked up the bloody, indistinct spindle, and handed it to the other Li Huowang.

This Li Huowang then tucked the spindle into his own belly, walked over to the corpse, and used a small knife to peel back its face. Sifting through the layers of skin, he found the bearded bald man who had been the best card player on the boat and had died at sea.

"Brother Zhuge," he said, "this Sitting-Forget Daoist genuinely seemed to believe he was me earlier."