Chapter 531: Zhuge Yuan

**Daoist Peculiar Immortals**

Li Huowang realized that for Zhuge Yuan to display such an expression, this situation was probably even more dire than anything they had faced before. What could possibly be more severe than Dou Mu's descent to the mortal realm?

Seeing Zhuge Yuan's unusual demeanor, Li Huowang quickly tried to reassure him. "Brother Zhuge, don't panic. Tell me what happened first. If I don't know, I naturally can't help you."

Zhuge Yuan's somewhat reddened eyes briefly closed. After taking a deep breath, he reopened them and pointed his folding fan at the dead man-faced ox on the ground. "Brother Li, do you know what that is?"

"Uh, a son from Zhengde Temple for this eunuch to carry on his lineage? I wonder if those lustful monks couldn't manage it, or what, to actually try to pass this off to the eunuchs."

Suddenly, the Sitting-and-Forgetting Dao hallucination interjected from the side, "Exactly, that's not very decent of them."

"Wrong! Completely wrong! Didn't you hear what it sang earlier? This creature is an omen! The Dragon Vein of Great Qi is about to be severed!"

Zhuge Yuan's words sent a tremor through Li Huowang. Though he still didn't know what the man-faced ox was, the mention of the Dragon Vein being severed made him feel as if something terrible was about to unfold.

"Brother Li, there's no time to waste here! Hurry! Let's get out of this place first! It's too restrictive to act here!"

Without further hesitation, Li Huowang lifted his right foot and charged out of the desolate Cold Palace.

"Dragon Vein?" Li Huowang instinctively recalled the stack of Great Liang emperors he had seen in the Great Liang Imperial Temple.

Seeing Li Huowang start to move, Zhuge Yuan quickly explained beside him: "Whenever there's great chaos, an omen-creature is born. This half-human, half-beast creature speaks human language as soon as it's born, then immediately dies. The words spoken by these omens are almost always inauspicious, and they signify something that is definitely about to occur!"

"So, the omen's words just now mean the Great Qi's Dragon Vein is about to be severed? Brother Zhuge, what happens if the Dragon Vein breaks?" Li Huowang stomped his feet heavily on the ground and, with the help of Li Sui's tentacles, easily scaled a city wall.

"There should only be Great Qi; Great Liang shouldn't exist at all. Do you know why Great Liang appeared in the first place? It's because Great Qi's Dragon Vein was severed once a thousand years ago! If the Dragon Vein is severed again this time, perhaps all of Great Qi will cease to exist!"

These words sent shivers down Li Huowang's spine. So, in this insane world, the Dragon Vein actually served as an anchor point for a historical era! He instantly understood why there always had to be an emperor of Great Liang, and how, in this insane world, the emperor's authority could be maintained for such an extended period.

"But did Great Liang truly emerge like that? Is it possible Zhuge Yuan is mistaken?"

But at this moment, Li Huowang's mind was still a jumble. He seemed to grasp some superficial aspects, but something else entirely was hidden deep beneath those appearances.

"Brother Li! Stop! This is far enough!"

When Li Huowang stopped, he found himself outside the Cold Palace and within Youdu, the capital of Great Qi. In the deep night, the endless stretch of dark roof tiles before him was utterly silent, like a ghostly realm. Compared to the Great Qi he had known before, Li Huowang felt something was different, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

"Brother Zhuge, what should I do now?"

"Manifest me into reality! I, this humble scholar, need to exist in physical form for a while!"

Li Huowang did so without hesitation. As he pressed his hands firmly against his temples, Zhuge Yuan's body beside him began to flicker, growing indistinct. Veins bulged on Li Huowang's flushed, strained forehead, and his bloodshot eyeballs even began to protrude.

"This... this feels wrong! It wasn't this strenuous when I gave the monk and Peng Longteng physical forms!" As Li Huowang trembled and knelt on one knee, crimson nosebleed dripped from his nose onto the ground.

"Brother Li! Hold on, this concerns the fate of all beings under heaven!" Zhuge Yuan clenched his fists, urging Li Huowang on.

"It's nothing! I can handle it!" As Li Huowang's head suddenly swelled to the size of a longevity god's head in a New Year's print, Zhuge Yuan's body instantly solidified from its illusory state.

Seeing Li Huowang's tottering body, Zhuge Yuan didn't dare waste any time and immediately drew the Spine Bone Sword from Li Huowang's back. Once he peeled off the talismans from the Spine Bone Sword's hilt, the entire sword sprang to life again.

The two identical Zhuge Yuans gazed at each other. Then, Zhuge Yuan spoke to his other self, now manifested as the sword: "The omen has begun! The Dragon Vein is severed!"

Though it sounded like a question, Zhuge Jian (the sword) didn't hesitate. He immediately raised his skeletal arm and forcefully sliced down the center of the flesh beneath him. A dark red stream of blood slowly flowed along the peach talismans and organs towards the sword's tip.

Zhuge Yuan gripped the sword, lightly stepped on a roof tile, and soared into the air. Using the sword as a brush, he swiftly began to write on the ground. As the blood-ink dripping from the sword landed, it seemed to come alive, burrowing into the ground. Thus, Zhuge Yuan, holding the sword in an inverted grip, clearly wrote many characters, yet no trace was left on the ground.

"Hurry up! My father can't hold on much longer!" Li Sui, supporting Li Huowang with her tentacles, shouted at Zhuge Yuan.

"Brother Li! Almost done!" In mid-air, Zhuge Yuan, holding the Spine Bone Sword, forcefully tapped the ground with its tip, and his white robes instantly billowed as he shot upwards.

Zhuge Yuan, whose body was gradually becoming transparent, quickly released the sword, executed a backflip, and with his left foot nudged the hilt. The Spine Bone Sword swished back, steadily passing through the gaps in Li Sui's tentacles, and reinserted itself into Li Huowang's back.

Using this recoil force, Zhuge Yuan descended towards a rooftop to the left. With a forceful sweep of his right white sleeve, tiles from a distant roof flew up, revealing the Four Treasures of the Study within. Zhuge Yuan reached out and lightly pinched, and a brush flew into his hand. He took the brush and, facing the Xuan paper flying towards him, first drew a complete circle with one gap on its outer edge, then swiftly began writing on the paper.

The moment his hand holding the brush began to turn ethereal, the Xuan paper, filled with characters, suddenly spontaneously combusted. As the tiles that had flown up above his head settled back into their proper places, Zhuge Yuan's body completely vanished.

Only after seeing the papers burn completely to ashes, and these ashes swirling away with the air currents, did Zhuge Yuan let out a sigh of relief. "It has come to this; I hope it proves useful. May the Three Bodies of Old protect the Dragon Vein of Great Qi and keep it unbroken."

Zhuge Yuan passed through the green tiles above him, reappeared on the rooftop, and walked towards Li Huowang.

"Brother Li, thank..." The word "thank" remained unspoken. Zhuge Yuan saw Li Huowang, bleeding from all seven orifices, collapse unconscious into his daughter's arms.