Chapter 715: City Walls

A woman's severed torso lay by the putrid well, trembling slightly. Her eyeballs, dislodged from their sockets, swayed faintly with each tremor.

Suddenly, the woman's body stilled. Moments later, the rats, covered in putrid fluid, scurried out from within her, as if sensing something, and scattered in all directions.

Before long, Li Huowang, approaching from a distance, stepped over the woman's head and continued walking forward.

He surveyed his surroundings, his brow furrowed. It was a destroyed town, its surroundings a complete mess. There wasn't a single living soul; scorched earth and death were all that remained.

Li Huowang remembered this place. After he had escaped from Qingfeng Temple back then, he had even stayed here for a night.

At that time, it had been very lively, but now, there wasn't a single person left alive; everyone had been slaughtered.

This place was already close to the front lines. Whether it was due to the ravages of war or the deceptions of the Law Sect, it made no difference to the people of Siji.

Judging by the freshness of the corpses, the slaughter here must not have happened long ago.

"Sui Sui, let's rest for a bit. We'll be there soon," Li Huowang said. He sat on a bench, took out some dry rations and water, and began to eat.

Li Sui looked at the surrounding corpses with a sorrowful expression. "Dad, so many people have died," she said. She could now understand what death truly meant.

"Indeed," Li Huowang replied. "'Better to be a dog in times of peace than a human in times of chaos' isn't just a saying."

Watching the monk perform rites for the dead, Li Huowang's heart remained unmoved. He had seen too many dead people on this journey; he had long grown numb to it.

In fact, his mind was completely preoccupied with his own concerns at that moment.

"How could this be? Why did cultivating the Dao lead to the appearance of a Sui Sui?" This question flashed through Li Huowang's mind.

His cultivation technique advancing was, of course, a good thing, but the previous situation had made Li Huowang's heart inexplicably skip a beat.

He had been practicing this cultivation technique for so long, and indeed, the further he progressed, the more powerful it became. Initially, even a slight alteration to something would cause him excruciating headaches and nosebleeds.

But now that he was in the fourth cycle, he could conjure objects from thin air with ease.

However, did this cultivation technique, originating from Doumu, truly have no other hidden dangers? A trace of worry began to emerge in Li Huowang's heart.

Li Huowang suddenly thought of something. "I asked Ji Zai about this back then!"

"Ji Zai didn't object then, which is why I practiced it. Could it be..." Li Huowang's heart sank deeper.

Ji Zai was his Fate, but this Fate, who was constantly in a state of confusion and couldn't offer him any help, did he truly have no ulterior motives?

However, the methods of the Aojing Sect could not be used now. If he didn't use his cultivation abilities, he would probably be left with no choice but to charge in with his sword for close combat.

"No, I can't trust Ji Zai too much," Li Huowang thought. "I still need to continue using the painful sacrifices from the 'Grand Cosmos Record'. I can't let him think he has me completely figured out." He immediately decided on his next course of action.

He still knew too little about Fate, and he dared not fully trust him, even if this Fate was his future self.

He had to make Ji Zai apprehensive, so that he wouldn't end up being a mere pawn to be manipulated later.

Just as Li Huowang picked up his water gourd, tilted his head back, and poured water into his mouth to wash down his dry rations, he suddenly saw a faint red glow on the horizon to his left, along with thick, black smoke billowing upwards.

"I remember that place is..." Li Huowang murmured, as he extended his right index finger into the scrying mirror on his left.

He quickly learned what was happening there: a strategically important city of the Law Sect, difficult to attack but easy to defend, was being heavily defended by a large army.

That place was a military stronghold. Bypassing it was certainly not an option; a direct assault was necessary. If they rashly tried to go around it, they likely wouldn't even be able to transport their military supplies.

After Li Huowang withdrew his finger, he immediately took Li Sui and rushed towards that direction.

After passing through a forest, a scene of utterly brutal combat unfolded before Li Huowang. On the city walls, steaming golden fluid was poured down, as some massive warriors directly withstood the burns that scorched their skin and peeled their flesh, leaping onto the walls.

Some people had already jumped into the city. Inside and outside, it was utter chaos, with the sounds of slaughter echoing relentlessly from both within and without.

Li Huowang did not approach rashly. Instead, he first circled all four sides of the city walls.

When he spotted a weak point on the eastern, unbreached wall, Li Huowang shifted his body into the ground and moved stealthily towards it.

Upon reaching the city wall, Li Huowang didn't climb over it. Instead, he pressed his hand against the wall.

As he closed his eyes and pushed his hands forward, his entire body directly squeezed into the city wall.

When Li Huowang's body emerged from the other side, he looked back to see the wall behind him had returned to its original state, without any change.

"Let's go!" A tentacle shot out from Li Huowang's body, hooked onto the eaves, and pulled him up.

As soon as Li Huowang stood firm, he was surprised to find that where the City God Temple should have been, there was nothing. Instead, a colossal statue sat in the center of the city.

The entirely black statue held a Vajra Mudra near its left abdomen and a precious jade vase at its right chest. Although its face was benevolent and kind, Li Huowang found it unsettling no matter how he looked at it.

Whatever this thing was, it was definitely not the Child God. The Child God from the darkness was certainly not something they could build from mere mud and bamboo.

"Has the Child God simply changed its identity to deceive more people?" Li Huowang mused. But then again, if the Child God appeared in its true form, the number of people joining the Law Sect would probably halve.

Li Huowang's footsteps quickly and easily found their way across the tiles, for only the yamen's entrance was grand enough to display stone lions and stone bones.

"Whoosh!" A long spear suddenly pierced through the tiles and impaled Li Huowang's foot. "An ambush? I've been discovered!" he exclaimed.

Just as Li Huowang was about to react, the spear was yanked back.

With a clatter, tiles shattered across the floor. Li Huowang immediately slipped through the hole and entered the room.

He then saw a man, towering as if on stilts, holding two double-headed spears.

The man stared sinisterly at Li Huowang's foot and said smugly, "Hehehe, you dare raid my camp with such a clumsy leg? My spear tip has already been coated with—"

Before he could finish, Li Huowang's body instantly shortened by a zhang, and his Purple Tassel Sword directly plunged into the man's neck.

"I don't care what you coated it with! I'll cut your throat first!" Li Huowang retorted.

Having gone through so much, Li Huowang now knew how to use his mind-elemental abilities. No matter what the man had coated it with, as long as he didn't hear it, then nothing had been coated!

Under the man's incredulous gaze, Li Huowang flicked his wrist. Blood spurted skyward. Without a backward glance, Li Huowang immediately turned and decisively leapt out of the room.