Chapter 559: Huangfu Tiangang

Five miles outside the capital city, Li Huowang and Li Sui were sprinting through the woods. Figures darted through the trees behind them, creating a formidable pursuit.

Just as their pursuers were about to catch up, a black-robed Arhat, holding a Demonic Subjugation Ring, suddenly burst forth from a nearby tree trunk. The Demonic Subjugation Ring, inscribed with Buddhist scriptures, was flung powerfully towards Li Huowang and Li Sui.

Accompanied by a dark glow, the Demonic Subjugation Ring violently struck them. In an instant, their bodies crumbled limb by limb like decaying wood.

A group of people quickly gathered around, looking at Li Huowang's head in the Arhat's hand.

"Something's wrong!" exclaimed a man dressed as a Taoist. He flipped his hands, applying two leaves to his eyes.

The next moment, when he reached out and tore off the skin from Li Huowang's head, he discovered that beneath it was a talisman pasted onto a dead person's face.

"It's an illusion! Pursue them quickly!" The clustered group instantly dispersed.

Meanwhile, on a distant mountainside, Li Huowang watched everything from afar. "The tricks of the Sit-Forget Dao are more effective than I imagined. They'll buy me some time."

"Father, how much longer will we be chased?" asked Li Sui, lying sprawled on the ground with her arms and legs spread out.

"That doesn't depend on us; it depends on when the Supervisor of the Heavens returns," Li Huowang replied. Without a word, he immediately pulled out one of his own collarbones and began drawing talismans for divination.

Naturally, the subject of his divination was the Supervisor of the Heavens, who had not yet returned. Li Huowang knew perfectly well that he couldn't divine the Supervisor's true hexagram using mere talismans.

However, if he divined about the Supervisor, the latter would certainly notice. Li Huowang's goal was to use this awareness to signal to the Supervisor that his task was complete.

After finishing the divination, Li Huowang reinserted the cracked collarbone into his flesh. He then looked at Shangguan Yuting, who was standing nearby. "At a time like this," he asked, "can you tell me where the Supervisor of the Heavens went?"

Shangguan Yuting, whose head was covered with eyeballs, seemed completely unfazed. "I don't know," she replied. "The Lord didn't tell me either. If the Lord chose to postpone, there must be a reason for it."

Facing this illusion, which he wasn't sure counted as a living being, Li Huowang couldn't even bring himself to be angry.

Fortunately, the experts Ji Lin had found, from wherever they came, possessed formidable pursuit and divination abilities. However, Li Huowang was not unprepared; the Spinal Sword was his greatest reliance.

He could always use the Spinal Sword to escape to Great Qi just as he was about to be surrounded, thereby evading capture.

When Li Huowang escaped into another layer of history, no matter how powerful or how bizarre their supernatural abilities were, these people had no effective way to deal with it.

However, constantly running around, unable to eat or sleep well, was truly agonizing.

Li Huowang pulled a steamed bun from his pocket and handed it to Li Sui. "Eat quickly," he urged. "Once you're done, we need to move. One of those people has a remarkably accurate compass."

Li Sui sat up, took the bun, put it in her mouth, and chewed diligently, her cheeks bulging. "Father," she said, "I don't want to eat buns. Can I go look for meat in the forest? I just saw a lot of meat there."

"At a time like this, don't be picky," Li Huowang replied. "Wasting time hunting now would just tell them exactly where we are. Take this instead." He reached inside his red Taoist robe and peeled off a wide strip of blood scab with fragments of skin, which he then offered to her.

Li Sui took it and crunched on it, her eyes narrowing in delight. "Thank you, Father!" she exclaimed. "I like this. It tastes even better than meat."

Watching the young girl in front of him gnawing on his blood scab, Li Huowang felt a strange sensation. Ever since Li Sui had taken on a human appearance, he had always felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.

It was as if, now that Li Sui looked human, she truly was human.

Once they were out of danger, he would still make her shed her human flesh.

Just as Li Huowang reached out to touch her head, a sudden sense of alarm rose within him, and he immediately gripped the Spinal Sword, his brows furrowed.

"Li Sui, quickly! Someone's coming!" Li Sui quickly stuffed the remaining blood scab into her mouth and leaped onto Li Huowang's back.

When he heard the sound of robes rustling against leaves, Li Huowang unhesitatingly used the Spinal Sword in his hand to carve out a rift.

But just as he was about to rush into it, the sky suddenly darkened, and the rift leading to two layers of history was severed.

It didn't disappear on its own; it was as if something had cut it in half!

"Who in the entire Great Liang nation could do such a thing!" This question had barely formed in Li Huowang's mind when the answer emerged from the woods: it was the Grand Preceptor of Great Liang!

Unlike the old man who previously rode a green ox holding a fishing rod, Huangfu Tiangang now, clad in a majestic Taoist robe and holding the Star Constellation Longsword, slowly emerged from the forest. "Ji Zai," he asked, "what are you doing here?"

Li Huowang shielded Li Sui tightly behind him. "Naturally, I am protecting my lord!" he declared. "'Good birds choose their trees to nest in' – does the Grand Preceptor intend to meddle in such a matter?"

"Do you think those paltry tricks can deceive this old man? Anping died long ago! Her skin is merely a vessel for the evil spirit you raised!" Huangfu Tiangang directly exposed Li Sui's true identity.

"His Majesty has already won, and he is now the Emperor," Huangfu Tiangang continued. "Who do you think you are to stir up trouble in affairs of state? A deceiver of the monarch deserves death!"

The moment these words were uttered, Li Huowang instantly felt as if an enormous mountain had pressed down on him, rendering him utterly immobile.

Watching the Grand Preceptor, eyes wide, approaching him with his sword, just as he was about to be killed, Li Huowang rapidly spoke: "Grand Preceptor, wait! Since you possess such immense divine power, have you not noticed the illusion of the Supervisor of the Heavens beside me? This matter is connected to the Supervisor!"

As Li Huowang blurted out these words, the atmosphere around them nearly froze. But seeing that the sword in the Grand Preceptor's hand did not strike down, he knew his words had taken effect.

Li Huowang knew that even if the Grand Preceptor and the Supervisor of the Heavens were on the same side, they couldn't possibly consult each other on every matter.

With one hand, Huangfu Tiangang formed a Taoist hand seal Li Huowang had never seen before. He forcefully pointed at the ground, and his eyes immediately fixed on Shangguan Yuting, who was bowing to him nearby.

Upon seeing her head covered with eyes, the Grand Preceptor of Great Liang was instantly taken aback. "Such a thing truly exists?" he murmured. "Wait, could the Supervisor of the Heavens be trying to..."

Seizing this opportunity, Li Huowang immediately revealed the Dice's plan.

Yet the Grand Preceptor of Great Liang's attitude was strikingly similar to that of the Supervisor of the Heavens. Even after hearing Li Huowang speak of the Dice's conspiracy, he remained calm. Instead, he became even more focused on Shangguan Yuting's head full of eyes.

Just as he was pondering something with a furrowed brow, footsteps echoed around them once more; Ji Lin's subordinates had caught up.

Dozens of people surrounded them from all directions, but they did not immediately act, because they too saw Huangfu Tiangang standing there.

After a moment, a corpulent man, holding a golden ingot, cautiously stepped forward. "Grand Preceptor," he began, "this person..."

"Step back."