Chapter 552: Death

Faced with Xunián's peculiar attack, the Dragon Vein showed no sign of yielding. It struggled desperately, intertwining with Xunián's red afterimages. The moment Li Huowang was about to crash into the Dragon Vein, over a dozen dragon claws were already raised, poised for him.

However, this was merely a deceptive ploy by Li Huowang. Peng Longteng instantly appeared before him, steadily catching him, and then hurled him forcefully towards the young Qí Emperor. At this point, he could no longer be called the young emperor. He had completely transformed into a mass resembling a palm-sized, almost transparent-skinned premature infant.

Li Huowang suddenly reached out and, with one hand, pulled the Purple Tassel Sword from the Dragon Vein, then slashed it towards the young emperor.

"Brother Li! That won't kill it! First, sever its connection to the Dragon Vein!"

Hearing Zhuge Yuan's words, Li Huowang, gritting his teeth, instantly shifted the sword blade down three inches. With a ripping sound, the young emperor's back, which was connected to the Dragon Vein, was gruesomely severed. The next moment, Li Huowang flicked the Purple Tassel Sword, and its sharp tip pierced straight through the opponent's chest.

The bizarrely shaped Qí Emperor struggled, let out a dry wail, and then his slender fingers clutched at the sword. His head tilted, and he ceased to move.

As Li Huowang descended towards the ground with the young emperor's corpse, the Dragon Vein, now without the emperor, astonishingly began to swell uncontrollably. Viscous blood, grotesque organs, and various twisted dragon scales, claws, and horns continuously burst through the imperial robes, emerging from within. Large and small swollen eye-like bulges on its surface stared fixedly at Li Huowang, filled with a morbid craving. The clustered dragon claws strained with all their might to grasp at Li Huowang, or more precisely, at the deceased young emperor impaled on his sword.

"Brother Li! This is no good! The dragon qi will reanimate the young emperor! Don't let them touch him! Quickly throw him to Daliang!"

Still airborne, Li Huowang suddenly swung his sword, flinging the corpse into Xunián's nearby red illusion. He then drew the Spine Sword and powerfully slashed in that direction. The historical rift sliced through Xunián's red illusion, carrying the young emperor within it to Daliang.

After handling all of this, the hard ground was already close at hand. Li Huowang took a deep breath and abruptly closed his eyes. The next moment, he felt his body crash heavily onto a cold water surface. Feeling the water glide over his skin, he didn't immediately swim upwards. Instead, he kicked his legs and swam along the bottom to the left.

He continued swimming until he was almost out of breath. Only then did Li Huowang struggle to surface. As his head ached more and more, the water also grew stickier, and the surrounding pressure intensified.

With a thump, Li Huowang broke through the ground and tumbled out of the soil. He opened his mouth and vomited large clumps of earth. Ignoring the severe pain in his body, Li Huowang subconsciously looked up, ready to gaze towards the Dragon Vein. But before he could clearly see, the ground began to tremble violently. "An earthquake?!"

Sand and stones flew in the darkness as the world underwent immense change. The heavily injured Li Huowang could do little. He could only lie on the ground, steeling his resolve, and wait for the earthquake to pass. An unknown amount of time passed. Only when Li Huowang's injuries began to scab over did the violent trembling finally cease.

Li Huowang, leaning on his sword, shakily stood up and cautiously looked around at the dusty surroundings. "Wait, why is it so bright? Has the natural disaster passed?" Li Huowang cautiously tested the air for a moment, then abruptly looked up and saw that the darkness in the sky had indeed vanished! But before he could rejoice for long, Li Huowang noticed something was off with the sun hanging high in the sky. What should have been an incredibly dazzling orb now had some black patches on its surface.

"Wow, Daoist, that Heavenly Dog really did eat the sun," the monk exclaimed, covering his eyes with his right hand as he looked up at the sky, observing the peculiar scene with a look of awe.

"What... what's happening to this world? Is this world even real?" A momentary wavering sent a sudden chill through Li Huowang's heart.

"No, you cannot doubt! You are the Heart-Soul! If you doubt, things will go terribly wrong!" Li Huowang clenched his fist and forcefully struck his own head. After striking a few times, Li Huowang stopped, not by his own will, but because a strong sense of danger compelled him to halt.

"Thump!" A heavy beast claw landed on the ground, shaking away the surrounding dust. Immediately afterward, Xunián's massive figure emerged from the dust. The preceding bitter battle seemed to have taken a huge toll on Xunián as well. Although her fur was much thinner and her face more cracked, she was incomparably better off than the miserable Li Huowang.

Li Huowang struggled to grip his sword hilt tightly. Looking up at the tattered woman's face, he gritted his teeth and, without a trace of fear, asked, "Even in this state, you still want to fight me? Since you can understand human speech, you should know that there's no inherent enmity between us, right?"

Hearing Li Huowang, Xunián did not immediately respond. Gradually, a complex, almost human expression appeared on her torn face, as if she wanted to say something to him. Li Huowang would not wait for her to ponder. He began to shuffle his feet, slowly retreating. Just as Xunián's massive body re-submerged into the yellowish dust, a female voice, laden with myriad emotions, emanated from within.

"I wish to send a letter with colorful paper and a foot-long silk scroll. Where is the path through mountains long and waters wide?"

Li Huowang almost reflexively raised his weapon. "What 'Su'?! Did she recognize me as a Heart-Soul?"

After waiting a while, when Li Huowang realized Xunián had truly departed, he understood that he had misunderstood; those two lines seemed to convey a different meaning.

"Chi Su? Brother Zhuge, what did Xunián mean by that?" Li Huowang asked in his mind, puzzled.

Zhuge Yuan looked in the direction Xunián had departed. After a moment's thought, he said lightly, "Xunián always likes to parrot things; it means nothing. Brother Li, in your current state, you should quickly return to Daliang to rest."

Li Huowang glanced at him, then looked at his own injured, wrinkled foot. "How can I catch up to the rift like this? I should recover some stamina here first."

Having said that, Li Huowang leaned on his sword, found his red Daoist robe and put it back on, then located a rock and slowly sat down.

Gradually, the dust raised by the earthquake settled. The scene that appeared before his eyes utterly shocked him; the earthquake had completely altered the surrounding topography. It had clearly been a plain just moments ago, but now it had astonishingly transformed into a cliff, and he was currently sitting on its steep edge.

What exactly was going on? Li Huowang looked down at the chaotic scene below the cliff, then looked up at the black-and-yellow sun. For a moment, his mind was utterly confused, feeling as if he were in a dream.

Zhuge Yuan, who was nearby, also silently watched everything with Li Huowang. After a long time, he slowly said, "This humble one does not know either..."