Chapter 478: Reverse

As the flint struck, sparks landed on Li Huowang's skin.

Suddenly, with a boom and an excruciating pain that nearly made him faint, Li Huowang's entire body instantly burst into intense flames. The extreme temperature distorted the surrounding air, and his body rapidly charred.

But when he saw black smoke rising from the nine-colored deer in front of him, Li Huowang's lipless mouth curled into a sinister grin, and he charged towards it. When Li Huowang, engulfed in flames, crashed heavily into the mass of flesh, it instantly ignited and was enveloped in a raging inferno.

Watching the flesh violently burn, twist, and blacken, Li Huowang felt a slight sense of relief. He had chosen correctly by not turning his skin into a life-saving talisman before coming.

However, as the writhing flesh gradually ceased to move, Li Huowang sensed something was amiss. He rushed into the fire, raised the Purple Tassel Sword in his hand, and heavily struck the charred mass. He thoroughly searched inside and out but did not find the spiritual anomaly he was looking for.

“It got away!” Li Huowang's expression turned grim. This spiritual anomaly was far more cunning than he had imagined.

“Let’s see where you can run to now!” Scanning his surroundings, Li Huowang crouched down and pressed his hand onto the dry grass and dead wood on the ground. Soon, a ring of flames spread outwards from him, climbing onto the surrounding peach trees like a living creature. Like a contagious plague, tree after tree ignited, and soon the area became a sea of fire.

Standing amidst the flames, Li Huowang looked around, searching for any anomaly. However, nothing happened. The spiritual anomaly was not forced out by the massive fire. This entity was more difficult to deal with than he had imagined.

“What now? If it escapes, finding it again will be troublesome.” Li Huowang pondered for a moment and prepared to divine its whereabouts.

But just as Li Huowang used his sword to cut an incision on himself, he saw a patch of fire on the back of his hand suddenly come alive and directly burrow into his wound.

“Oh no! The spiritual anomaly possessed the fire!” Li Huowang realized this then, but it seemed already too late.

The fire on his body and on the surrounding peach trees extinguished instantly. Furthermore, his body began to disintegrate like the nine-colored deer earlier, his flesh, bones, skin, and hair gradually separating and turning into a puddle. Every inch of tearing flesh and bone was genuinely felt by Li Huowang. The sensation of his entire body melting and tearing apart was a torment that made one wish for death.

However, at this moment, Li Huowang couldn't even die, because his body was almost entirely controlled by the spiritual anomaly! He could feel the entity's malice, a pure malice that permeated everything from inside out, filled with venomousness and revulsion towards all existence. It was constantly assimilating his consciousness. The spiritual anomaly seemed not to be a living creature, but an embodiment of sin! Even the wickedest person couldn't be entirely devoid of good!

Feeling half of his face slide to the ground, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tightly. “My body is perfectly healthy! There is no spiritual anomaly inside me!”

With a slight flicker of his mind, Li Huowang's melting body suddenly returned to normal, even the skin he had sacrificed to Bahui returned. But Li Huowang knew this was merely an illusion. He was currently incapable of making something false appear real!

Seizing this momentary opportunity, Li Huowang bolted towards the edge of the peach forest. By the time he saw the carriage again, his body collapsed with a crash, like tofu. As his head was about to detach, he yelled towards the carriage: “Li Sui! There's something in my body! Help me drive it out!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Li Huowang's body instantly transformed into a mass of writhing flesh and began to slither deeper into the peach forest.

Rapid footsteps, 'thud-thud-thud', echoed. The spiritual anomaly, controlling Li Huowang's two eyes, turned his head to look. Immediately, it saw a large, skinless dog made of flesh, galloping on all fours towards them.

“Father, I’m here!!” Mid-air, Li Sui’s body instantly disintegrated. Its flesh and tentacles quickly coalesced into a mass and crashed heavily onto Li Huowang's mass of flesh.

The two masses of flesh began to intertwine, twisting into a giant, tentacled, fleshy sphere that rolled violently through the burning peach forest. Li Huowang's face and Li Sui's face occasionally surfaced within the fleshy mass, only to quickly disappear again. The mass of flesh sometimes coalesced into a human form and sometimes reverted to a puddle of gore, appearing very unstable.

The spiritual anomaly seemed to want to occupy Li Sui's body as well, but this was not so easy. After all, the evil spirit Black Grand Emperor was born to possess bodies, and Li Huowang, who had painstakingly regained some control, was also obstructing it.

Facing a two-on-one situation, the spiritual anomaly was ultimately defeated. When Li Huowang's body reformed into a giant, corpulent figure, his belly ripped open entirely, and something drilled its way out. Li Huowang wanted to find it but couldn't see where the thing was at all. He could only watch the footprints in the ash on the ground rapidly disappear around a distant corner. That was the spiritual anomaly. It could never be seen by those who experience the human condition.

“Father, are you alright?” After Li Sui emerged from Li Huowang's abdomen, Li Huowang's bloated body finally returned to normal. Although his internal organs were a mess and some parts were reattached incorrectly, at least this time his body was entirely his own.

Looking at the strange, two-toed footprints in the ash on the ground, Li Huowang clutched his abdominal wound, a glint of hatred in his eyes. He had overcome countless hardships, yet he had nearly been tricked here.

Then, enduring the pain across his skin, he followed the footprints deeper inside. “Li Sui, wait outside. If I call, rush in! Otherwise, stay with Miaomiao!”

This time, Li Huowang slowed his pace, moving cautiously through the burning forest. He focused intently, listening to every sound around him. Since he couldn't see it, he would listen for it! This entity was far more cunning than he had imagined. He had to defeat it in a single strike.

Suddenly, Li Huowang heard a faint rustling sound. The sound came from behind him. Li Huowang didn't immediately react. Instead, he slowly walked forward. When he spotted a tree hollow that went straight through, he bent down and crawled inside, seemingly searching for something.

Behind Li Huowang at that moment, two sets of strange footprints appeared in the ash on the ground. It moved swiftly towards Li Huowang's foot, ready to burrow into the cracked flesh.

But just as it burrowed in, the spiritual anomaly instantly realized something was wrong. Only half of the person's body remained. The upper half, with the head, was gone.

“Heh heh... I finally caught you. You didn't expect me to use my lower body as bait, did you?”