Chapter 761: Change

Zhuge Yuan’s question was destined to remain unanswered by others; no one present knew this entity was called Matuo.

Li Huowang, at this moment, was even less likely to answer; he no longer had a head.

However, the instant his entire head exploded, Li Huowang finally glimpsed the true form of the unseen entity.

Compared to the previous idol, it indeed wore a straw hat, indicating that the idol had been its representation.

Yet, that idol was only a part of Matuo; the rest could not be depicted by a stone statue.

The straw hat was not its head; it was its heart! Red lines extended from the heart, which were blood vessels spreading throughout its entire body.

Above the idol, there was an even more peculiar part: a head that could not be touched.

Its head was a constantly shifting mass of beasts, regenerating and detaching constantly. The detached parts flowed along red strips towards the straw hat, forming an ominous and terrifying appearance.

This scene, if Li Huowang had a head, he probably wouldn't have been able to endure it for a single breath. But since he didn't, he noticed subtle details, things difficult to perceive otherwise.

"Brother Zhuge! Brother Zhuge!"

Hearing the sound, Zhuge Yuan, who had just pulled an old almanac from his pocket, turned to look at Li Huowang's solitary half-mouth lying in a pool of blood on the ground nearby.

"This thing! Its left leg is injured! Its left leg was injured recently! That's its weakness! It can be broken there!!"

Hearing this, Zhuge Yuan moved. He lightly stomped his feet on the ground and flew towards Matuo, holding a brush tipped with cinnabar. His target was the entity's left leg.

Furthermore, Li Huowang's words were heard not only by Zhuge Yuan but also by Peng Longteng and the remaining military strategists. They all moved simultaneously and in perfect coordination.

"Brother Li! Hold on! Give me a moment!"

After speaking, Zhuge Yuan leaped directly behind Peng Longteng and rapidly began drawing on her back. "General Peng," he asked, "do you dare to take a gamble?"

Gazing at the entity before her, Peng Longteng's mouth widened into a grin, finally erupting into maniacal laughter. "What do you mean, 'dare'?" she roared. "Destroy gods, destroy immortals, destroy Buddhas, destroy Daoists! Kill! Kill! Kill!!"

As the last 'kill' was uttered, Zhuge Yuan swiftly completed his drawing. It was a menacing, bloodthirsty image: a green-faced, tusked demon, with heads encircling its waist, devouring hearts and tearing out livers.

As Zhuge Yuan quickly swept his brush across the demon's face, a pair of eyes, filled with the glee of slaughter, appeared on it.

Immediately after, the drawing suddenly came to life. It opened its mouth in a laugh and crawled from Peng Longteng's back to her front. The demon's head landed precisely on Peng Longteng's face, which bore the tattoo "Serve the country loyally." The demon's head superimposed with the tattoo made the image even more terrifying and horrifying.

Zhuge Yuan did not stop. He continued to draw on Peng Longteng's back, each stroke quickly absorbing into her body.

As the brushstrokes continued to sink in, Peng Longteng's body began to change. Her normally burly figure became increasingly slender and delicate, and both she and her horse grew thinner and thinner, until they finally became a complete painting.

Matuo tried to protect its injured leg, but two cavalry units from the military strategists, acting in perfect coordination, charged forward, directly sacrificing their lives to provide cover for Zhuge Yuan.

"Open!" As Zhuge Yuan quickly slashed at Matuo's wound, Peng Longteng, now completely a painting, rode her horse directly into the fissure.

Matuo clearly felt pain, and its attacks were no longer as frequent.

When a reddish liquid began to flow out from within, it clarified the path for the other military strategists. A cavalry unit charged forward, piercing deep into the entity's body like a spear.

Seeing Matuo about to counterattack, Zhuge Yuan pulled out the old almanac from his pocket and scattered it into the air, shouting, "Taboo for the Fate Official to appear!"

Some of the almanac pages burned, some did not. Such a technique was beyond Li Huowang's cultivation abilities.

Nevertheless, it had some effect. Zhuge Yuan watched Matuo's body flicker, then, satisfied, transformed back into the Spine Sword. He had done everything he possibly could.

As the military strategists continued to tear at it, Matuo's wound grew larger and larger. Eventually, its entire left leg could no longer support it, and it collapsed to the ground.

Li Huowang struggled to his feet, clutching the rebar spear in his hand, and breathlessly looked at the large truck in the distance, which had crashed into a wall and was smoking and catching fire.

The others nearby stared at Li Huowang in astonishment. Wu Qi slowly extended his right hand towards Li Huowang and gave him a thumbs-up. "Incredible!" he exclaimed.

"What did I say?" Li Huowang retorted. "Preparation averts perils! Your medicine was useless!"

As Li Huowang spoke, he reached up to touch his head but found nothing. The next second, his body lost control, and he fell to the ground.

A moment later, a palm-sized piece of human skin emerged from the wound on his abdomen. It grew rapidly upon contact with the air, quickly expanding to Li Huowang's size.

However, his current appearance resembled a playing card, so light that it looked like it would fall over with a mere breath.

As Li Huowang, lying on the ground, consumed the shadow of the headless corpse, his body rapidly inflated.

Once everything was back to normal, Li Huowang finally let out a long sigh.

Immediately after, Li Huowang smiled. He looked at the motionless Matuo in the distance and burst into laughter.

Whatever schemes the Dharma Sect planned with this entity were now useless. It was dead. This time, they had won.

Matuo's body lay there, rapidly dissipating, leaving nothing behind except Peng Longteng's painting.

Li Huowang felt very tired, even after changing bodies. This exhaustion was not physical, but mental.

He wanted to get a good night's sleep, preferably one he would never wake up from.

"Father, are you alright?" Li Sui carefully helped him up.

"No, I'm fine," Li Huowang answered instinctively, his eyes unfocused.

"Father, look, people are coming from over there!" Li Sui said. "Our reinforcements are here!"

"Reinforcements? Now? They're too late!" Li Huowang exclaimed. Finding a surge of strength from somewhere, he struggled towards the sound of hooves.

Li Huowang's head was dizzy; everything he saw seemed distorted. He knew what a horse was, but it took him a long time staring at a horse's head to recognize it.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth, pulled out the Purple Tassel Sword, and stabbed himself in the leg. Immediately, he felt much better.

"Where's Xuanpin?! Make Xuanpin come see me!" Li Huowang angrily shouted at the approaching reinforcements. "Xuanpin! Get out here!!" Li Huowang had completely lost trust in this old man who had always used him.

"Senior Brother Li," a familiar voice replied.

Li Huowang looked up and saw Gao Zhijian, who looked solemn and was carrying something on a wooden tray.

"Why are you here?" Li Huowang demanded. "Where's Xuanpin? Tell that bastard to get out here!"

With a pained expression, Gao Zhijian presented the item in his hands, holding it out on the tray to Li Huowang. "Senior Brother Li," he said, "Master Xuanpin has passed away."

Looking at the red Daoist robe on the square wooden tray in Gao Zhijian's hands, Li Huowang froze for a long moment before realizing what had truly happened.

"Senior Brother Li," Gao Zhijian continued, "Xuanpin is truly gone. When things went wrong here, things also went wrong on his side..."

He took a deep breath. Dragging his injured leg, he paced back and forth as the anger in his heart burned hotter and hotter.

"You... you bastards!" Li Huowang suddenly turned, went to Gao Zhijian, and with a fierce slap, knocked Xuanpin's belongings directly to the ground.

"Why are you all like this, damn it!!!"