Chapter 432: Both Sides

“Hahahaha, why not? Da Liang might not have mahjong, but Da Qi certainly does!” said the illusory Red Dragon tile.

Just as the illusory Red Dragon tile finished speaking, an old woman tumbled out from in front of Zhuge Yuan.

Li Huowang recognized her; it was North Wind, whom Zhuge Yuan had captured and sent into Da Qi!

As North Wind stood up, her expression was deeply confused, but upon surveying her surroundings, her eyes quickly sharpened.

Her face then rapidly contorted, wrinkles quickly receding. Her features first transformed into the 'North Wind' mahjong tile pattern, and then the edges of the tile sharply folded inward.

It changed from a rectangle into a square, and the flesh on her face swiftly condensed, ultimately forming a six-sided die.

Its single blood-red dot fixed on the Da Liang Emperor in the tree, the die looked up, a hint of triumph in its voice. “Did you truly anticipate every single step? Did you guess that I would use the Heart Sprout to draw the Sitting Forgetters from Da Qi here?”

“Heh heh, you can handle one mahjong table, but what about two?”

Hearing this, Li Huowang’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. So North Wind and the other Sitting Forgetters had been faking it all along, whether seeking out Zhuge Yuan or deliberately losing to him!

Their true objective was singular: to have Zhuge Yuan transform them into Da Qi people, allowing them to enter Da Qi and establish contact with the Sitting Forgetters there!

This revealed that Da Qi was not merely a figment of the Heart Sprout's imagination; Da Qi genuinely existed!

As Li Huowang had this thought, the black-and-white vertical pupil in the sky suddenly underwent a drastic change, instantly splitting into three pupils, while the surrounding sixty-four trigrams spun furiously.

With the Sitting Forgetters gaining external support, the other side clearly had no intention of passively waiting, and immediately began to act.

The strange chanting in the air instantly grew much louder, and the singular sound began to splinter into several horrifying roars and whispers.

Li Huowang’s head immediately began to ache, veins bulging on his forehead, and his features felt as though they were melting.

That was no mere chanting; it was a sound incomprehensible to mortals, capable of loosening anyone's ten emotions and eight sufferings with just a single listen.

Bailing Miao’s personality had undergone such a drastic change merely from her ten emotions and eight sufferings being affected by malevolent energy; it was hard to imagine the consequences if a person's ten emotions and eight sufferings truly shattered.

Seeing a major battle about to erupt, Li Huowang was instantly consumed by anxiety. Enduring intense pain, he struggled to search for that Heart-Substance North Wind.

But what was worse, with the entry of the Da Qi Sitting Forgetters, the number of North Winds instantly increased to eight! This made finding the Heart-Substance North Wind even more difficult.

With a 'boom,' the Sitting Forgetters collectively sat cross-legged around the giant golden tree, beginning to chant.

The four dice figures positioned themselves precisely at the cardinal directions: East, South, West, and North. The numbers on their faces were currently four, two, five, and one, respectively.

Their voices recited: “Fasting the mind, sitting in oblivion, reaching the ultimate Dao! Those who preserve truth cultivate through sitting in oblivion; those who merely exist cultivate by following form. Cultivating form leads to becoming an immortal of form; cultivating through sitting in oblivion means abandoning form to enter truth.”

The strange voices of the Sitting Forgetters instantly dispersed the bizarre chanting in the air, and the two sounds began to interweave overhead. Under the influence of these sounds, everything around them started to become hallucinatory; both people and the surrounding gold began to continuously twist and distort.

With just a thought from Li Huowang, the golden bricks on the ground quickly rose, forming a golden statue of Yang Na, smiling and tilting her head.

“No, no matter what they do next! It’s bound to get more dangerous! I must find that Heart-Substance North Wind as soon as possible and take him away from here!”

Li Huowang’s mind raced, and he quickly devised a method. He immediately pulled out a dagger, ripped open his clothes, and sliced open his shoulder to expose his collarbone. Then he produced a piece of turmeric paper and began drawing divinatory talismans.

While this divination ability was useless for finding beings of profound cultivation, and could even reveal his own location, who said it couldn’t be used in reverse?

As Li Huowang forcefully plunged the yellow talisman he held into his bloodied collarbone, even before a bone crack appeared, he saw one of the eight North Winds in the distance—a female North Wind—suddenly look up and stare directly at him.

“Found her! It’s her!”

The invisible Li Huowang moved across the twisted golden bricks, approaching the Heart-Substance North Wind as if walking on water.

Li Huowang’s approach didn't draw the attention of the major figures, which he had anticipated, as neither the Bureau of Celestial Supervision nor the Sitting Forgetters had the capacity to spare.

In response to the Sitting Forgetters' actions, the Celestial Supervisor of the Bureau of Celestial Supervision and Da Liang's Grand Tutor naturally couldn't afford to sit idly by.

Li Huowang saw that as the white-haired Grand Tutor of Da Liang wielded his Constellation Longsword, his entire Taoist robe billowed without wind, and specks of starlight appeared within the low-hanging dark clouds.

Immediately after, another figure, completely cloaked in a large red robe, also stepped forward. Three individuals followed him; if Li Huowang wasn't mistaken, these three were the Junior Celestial Supervisors who had entered the palace, and the red-robed figure was the supreme head of Da Liang's Bureau of Celestial Supervision, the Celestial Supervisor himself.

Six ancient hands with exceptionally long nails extended from within the broad Taoist robe. They positioned themselves in three layers—upper, middle, and lower—with the upper forming hand seals, the middle drawing talismans, and the lower making mudras.

Three distinct incantations—old, grand, and small—each with a peculiar melody, emanated sequentially from the Taoist robe:

“A world each day, with lotuses white blooming across its sway. No Buddha's seed, nor worldly grace, its essence borne. Over phoenix it ascends, its spirit taken, by touch, it turns to ancient smoke. Unknowing of its lightness, it rests upon the lotus' peak.”

As this sound resonated, the voices of the Sitting Forgetters gradually weakened, and the continuously twisting golden bricks around them ceased their motion. The bizarre chanting began to dominate, and the giant eye in the sky descended slightly.

Under the gaze of the giant eye, the bodies of some peripheral Sitting Forgetters began to continuously collapse. First, they bloomed like lotuses, and then their orderly flesh rapidly reverted to chaos.

Just as Li Huowang thought they would continue their magical duel, suddenly, with a thunderous roar, the roots of the immense tree became unstable and collapsed with a crash.

The Sitting Forgetters, who were supposed to be sitting cross-legged, instantly burst into laughter and stood up, scrambling to rush towards the tree canopy.

A rumble sounded, and arcs of silvery-white light appeared within the snow-falling dark clouds. Then, with a searing crackle, a dark bolt of lightning struck down forcefully, instantly plunging the entire battlefield into chaos.

“A good opportunity!” Li Huowang didn’t hesitate, quickening his pace and charging towards the Heart-Substance North Wind.

This time, both sides were clearly serious. The entire world underwent drastic changes, shifting from twilight to midday in an instant. Accompanied by the chanting in the sky, Li Huowang felt as though his own body no longer belonged to him after staying in this place for too long.

Li Huowang couldn't discern which side had the upper hand, as he was currently incapable of making such a judgment.

Yet, no matter what was happening around him, nothing could shake his resolve. Li Huowang's gaze remained fixed on the Heart-Substance North Wind.

The Heart-Substance North Wind was gritting her teeth, glaring at the Da Liang Emperor, who was protected by three Junior Celestial Supervisors, seemingly intending to do something.

But the next moment, she cried out in pain, clutching her face and dropping to one knee. Dark golden liquid continuously seeped from her eye sockets.

Just as a dark bolt of lightning descended from the sky towards her, a right hand, missing two fingers, seized her arm and pulled sharply.

“What’s wrong! Are you alright! You’re hurt!” Li Huowang exclaimed, pulling North Wind and quickly retreating from the battle.