Chapter 875: Talking About the Great Army

The grotesque figures, clad in opera costumes and with their faces painted in theatrical makeup, stood there and began to sing opera, as if the scene before them was not a battlefield of life and death, but a mere stage. Some wore flat shoes, while others were on stilts, towering several feet above the other deformed figures. They appeared in various sizes. To Li Huowang, this scene was no less terrifying than encountering the demons of the eighteen layers of hell.

Shivering with cold, Li Huowang gazed at the deformed figures before him—these 'sheng, dan, jing, mo, chou'—the so-called Unspeakable Army. Just two of them had been incredibly difficult to handle before, but now there were so many. Li Huowang, who had once believed he had no more opponents, finally understood how laughable his previous assumptions had been. This bizarre world always held strange things he had never encountered!

Li Huowang slightly turned his head to look at the Daqi people behind him. Seeing their confident and indignant expressions, a bitter feeling welled up in his heart. For any other challenge, perhaps these people could have been useful, but against the Unspeakable Army, they were, in plain terms, marching to their deaths.

"Oh, no," Li Huowang muttered under his breath, watching the distant Unspeakable Army begin to unveil themselves one by one. He instantly raised a single hand. "Fire!"

Soaring flames instantly ignited, erupting from the cuffs and collar of his red Taoist robe. Even if defeat seemed likely, Li Huowang was determined to try. He refused to surrender so easily.

Yet, this was not the end. Li Huowang grasped the spine sword with both hands and plunged it fiercely into his chest. With a gritting of teeth, he pulled it out, bringing all his internal organs with it. Five scrolls of the *Daqian Lu* appeared on the ground, catching Li Huowang's internal organs one by one. "Wood Liver! Earth Spleen! Metal Lungs! Water Kidneys! Fire Heart! Intercalate the Five Elements!"

The bamboo slips of the *Daqian Lu* quickly wriggled and transformed into worms, continuously splitting and filling Li Huowang's chest. The flames on Li Huowang's body continued to burn, enveloping the worms and causing them to scream wildly and their bodies to crackle. At this moment, Li Huowang and the worms were interconnected; he could feel everything they felt.

Stamping his feet fiercely on the ground, Li Huowang roared. Carrying his body of flames and the screaming worms, he charged directly towards the Unspeakable Army. Just as Li Huowang was about to collide with them, he grabbed his ribs with both hands and forcefully pulled them outwards. His body straightened abruptly, and the burning worms in his chest instantly scattered towards the enemy like a celestial maiden scattering flowers. Li Huowang was now an empty shell; the worms were his true form.

Swarms of worms, opening their gaping bloody mouths, rained down on them, burrowing into their opera costumes. The flames on their bodies swayed rapidly, continuously igniting everything flammable. The opera costumes caught fire, and the intense pain caused the creatures to frantically swing their long sleeves and swat at their bodies. In an instant, the area became a sea of fire.

Just as Li Huowang was preparing to unleash a massacre, the situation suddenly changed. The other deformed figures who had not been attacked quickly rushed forward. As their 'water sleeves' and 'flower spears' brushed against the worms, Li Huowang instantly felt that something was missing from the worms. The moment the worms stopped screaming and froze in place, Li Huowang immediately understood: the worms were devoid of pain! The Unspeakable Army had directly siphoned away all their suffering!

At this moment, Li Huowang finally understood what Zhuge Yuan had meant by 'touching heaven and touching the Dao'. These entities could touch any heavenly Dao. Whether it was the true essence cultivated through ascetic practice or the pain associated with Zoroastrianism, they could manipulate them as freely as physical objects. Any divine ability that drew upon a heavenly Dao, regardless of its nature, could be effortlessly nullified in their presence. With all pain removed, a Zoroastrian ritual without suffering was rendered meaningless.

Scattered sounds emerged as the worms, stripped of their pain, continuously fell. The flames on them quickly extinguished, and they lay motionless on the ground. Several deformed 'qingyi' (female lead opera roles) stepped forward mournfully, beginning to sing sorrowfully as if in mockery: "Only waiting for someone to offer sacrifices at the green tomb, someone to offer sacrifices, oh, how pitiful, another wronged soul through eternity, another wronged soul, your memory, in the next life, we shall be together, holding grass."

"It's not working? Even the Intercalated Five Elements isn't enough?" Though a fierce unwillingness burned in Li Huowang's heart, the facts were undeniable; nothing could change the reality before him. The enemy's power was simply too overwhelming. No wonder they had been able to conspire, betray Wusheng Laomu, and seize her Heavenly Dao.

"Ji Zai! Ji Zai!" Li Huowang roared at his reflection in the pool of blood, yet received no response. His greatest reliance remained useless at this most critical moment. Li Huowang's flaming hand gripped the hilt of the spine sword, a profound sense of powerlessness washing over him. Cultivation, Zoroastrian rituals, Ji Zai—nothing worked. He had run out of options. Since leaving Qingfeng Hall, he had never encountered such a formidable enemy.

"What now? If I can't fight them, should I retreat to Daliang and avoid their onslaught for now?" But when Li Huowang turned to look at the throngs of Daqi people who had already gathered behind him, he felt a surge of unwillingness. Li Huowang knew that if he were to retreat to Daliang, these people would likely be massacred by the Unspeakable Army. If they were all gone, Daqi would truly become nothing more than a transit point for Tianchen.

"Donor Li, do not panic! All the monks from Zhengde Temple have been deployed." Hearing this, a bitter smile touched Li Huowang's lips. What good was Zhengde Temple? The monks' flesh and blood Heavenly Dao would similarly be nullified by the enemy's strange abilities.

He turned to face the Unspeakable Army. They seemed to be in no rush, simply standing there, waiting for the Daqi people—who now covered the mountainside—to surround them, like cats waiting for mice to approach.

"Let the military forces take the front!" Li Huowang pulled out his spine sword once more. If divine abilities were useless, then a direct, head-on confrontation was their only option. He didn't know if it would work, but there truly was no other way now; only a fight to the death remained. If Daqi and I together couldn't withstand the Unspeakable Army, then Daliang would surely be threatened. This could be a crisis even more severe than the Law Sect.

Just as Li Huowang gritted his teeth, preparing to charge forward, an excited voice rang out from behind him. "Zhuge Bodhisattva! We've come to help you!" Li Huowang recognized the voice; it was Feng Bawant. As his voice resounded, a trace of 'fei gang' gradually flowed into Li Huowang's Dantian. Feng Bawant's voice immediately prompted others to follow suit, with cheers and encouraging shouts rising one after another. Everyone was excited and proud. In their eyes, their side clearly outnumbered the enemy, so the advantage was entirely with the Bodhisattva. With their shouts, wisps of 'fei gang' once again surged into Li Huowang's Dantian.

"What good is all this 'fei gang' to me? Can the tricks of the Zuowang Dao truly help me against these entities?!" Just as Li Huowang said this, he suddenly froze. Feeling the heavy surge of 'fei gang' in his heart, a new possibility suddenly dawned on him.