The Lord of Wounds

After carefully searching through this temple complex, Li Huowang walked back out onto the mountain path.

He patted Dog-head’s head with his hand, his lips pressed together in a tight line as he continued forward without a word.

It seemed the cross-shaped temples of the Ao-Jing Sect were built quite close together. Before long, Li Huowang discovered another one.

This cross-shaped temple was significantly more complete—at the very least, the head of the Gu-Spirit hadn’t gone missing.

The Gu-Spirit’s head was a charred black skull, as if it too had been thoroughly roasted by flames.

And yet, upon that very skull, an expression of fierce jealousy and desperate longing had been carved.

It stared with eyes that had already turned into two lumps of coke, gazing straight up toward the top of the temple.

Li Huowang followed its line of sight. Above the temple, he saw a mass of things assembled from all sorts of colors and shapes.

Judging by the deity statue’s expression, it was desperately yearning for those murals painted on the temple ceiling—though Li Huowang couldn’t for the moment understand what that jumble was supposed to represent.

“Woof~ Arf! Arf arf!!” Dog-head’s barking made Li Huowang’s body tense up instantly.

He whirled around and looked in the direction Dog-head was baring its teeth.

It was a side door. The sunlight from outside didn’t reach inside the doorway, leaving the whole side passage pitch black.

In that darkness, he saw the hem of a wide gray robe.

Li Huowang had learned from the nuns that most people in the Ao-Jing Sect wore robes to cover their scarred bodies.

For now, he could only see the lower half—not the upper half.

Sensing that something was off, Li Huowang immediately pulled out the flesh-skin letter that Abbess Jingxin had given him and tossed it into the darkness.

“I am Xuan Yang of Qingfeng Temple. I have urgent business and have come to your esteemed sect to beg for assistance!”

Li Huowang announced himself to the robe in the darkness, but the robe gave no response at all.

Just as he was wondering whether this thing was even alive, the robe stepped out of the shadows.

The moment he saw the man, Li Huowang knew—this person was definitely from the Ao-Jing Sect. Because the face under all those scars had no skin on it at all.

Just as the nuns of Anci Nunnery had said, the Ao-Jing Sect wore wide robes and tall hats.

The hat was very large, covering the eyes and nose, leaving Li Huowang with nothing but a glimpse of the bloody, raw flesh exposed on the man’s chin.

Li Huowang swallowed a mouthful of saliva and watched the man before him with intense vigilance.

“Not bad so far, at least. They didn’t make a move the second they saw I was a Heart-Element.”

Li Huowang glanced at the man’s bulging hands tucked into his sleeves, and then repeated his request in a calm tone.

The man still gave him no answer, but he clearly understood what Li Huowang had come for.

Without a word, he turned and walked out of the cross-shaped temple.

Li Huowang took a deep breath, his heart full of unease, and followed.

Walking behind this man, Li Huowang gradually advanced deeper into the mountains.

Staring at the wide robe in front of him, a doubt surfaced in his mind.

Wasn’t the Thousand Greats Record supposed to be the Ao-Jing Sect’s thing? Why hadn’t he seen it on this guy? Was it hidden under the robe?

With this question in mind, Li Huowang walked further and further in. From time to time, he encountered other people from the Ao-Jing Sect.

They were all dressed the same way. The first thing they did when they saw Li Huowang was fix him with a stare from behind those tall hats.

The abnormal environment made Dog-head afraid. It drooped its head, tucked its tail, and pressed close against Li Huowang’s hem as it followed.

Under the gaze of these people, a gourd-shaped cave entrance finally appeared before Li Huowang.

Seeing the cave, Li Huowang couldn’t help but think of some unpleasant things. He hated caves.

The inside of this cave wasn’t dark like Qingfeng Temple had been. It was very bright.

Torches, crackling and popping, illuminated the entire cave brilliantly.

There were so many torches that they had even raised the temperature inside, making Li Huowang feel a little hot and agitated.

Thinking back to the flames on the deity statue, Li Huowang guessed that fire might be an important element in the Ao-Jing Sect.

After walking through this bright cave for the time it takes two incense sticks to burn, Li Huowang finally saw the main man.

He was a completely charred-black figure lying on the cold ground. Calling him a person was a stretch—he was more like a burned corpse.

But the gaze coming from that direction told Li Huowang that this was no corpse.

Seeing this person also answered a question that had been bothering Li Huowang.

A rolled-out, blood-red Thousand Greats Record was spread face-down across his chest.

It was easy to tell that this thing had been laid out for a very long time. The bamboo strips had even started to sprout.

Blood-covered bamboo roots had pierced through his entire body, emerging from behind, dragging bits of skin and flesh with them.

When Li Huowang saw his guide respectfully present the flesh-skin letter with both hands, he immediately understood that this person in front of him definitely held a high rank in the Ao-Jing Sect.

But this charred corpse didn’t even look at Abbess Jingxin’s flesh-skin letter. Instead, he stared unblinkingly at Li Huowang.

He just stared like that for a very long time.

“Have you been seen by Bashe?”

The ability to communicate was a good start. Li Huowang nodded and replied, “That’s right.”

“It’s said that every Heart-Element is good material. Because they can get closer to the Sea of Suffering more easily. It’s a shame they all go mad in the end.” There was a trace of regret in the other party’s tone.

Then he glanced at the Thousand Greats Record hanging at Li Huowang’s waist.

“I am Shou San. It is an honor. Would you be willing to tell me how you performed the Dung-Beetle Ascension? You know, even among us, not everyone can manage it.”

Hearing that he was being praised, Li Huowang couldn’t muster any joy at all.

“Dung-Beetle Ascension?” he thought. “So that’s the name of the ritual that requires extreme, dual-sided pain?”

Leaving out some parts, Li Huowang told Shou San what had happened earlier.

“Heh heh. Using it against Layue Shiba was really overkill. Still, it’s a good thing you turned misfortune into a blessing.”

Li Huowang wasn’t here to chat about this. Now that he knew the other party could communicate normally, he restated the purpose of his visit.

“Alright.”

But before Li Huowang could feel happy for even a single breath, the conditions came along.

“However, as an exchange, I need you to perform the Dung-Beetle Ascension again, right in front of us.”

“Why do you need me, an outsider, to perform your sect’s ritual?” Li Huowang couldn’t understand the man’s reasoning.

“I have never seen a Heart-Element perform the Dung-Beetle Ascension. So I want to see it. Perhaps I can find a way to steal Bashe’s power from it.”

“Steal… Bashe’s power?” Li Huowang almost thought he had misheard.

“You have seen Bashe. You must know how powerful it is. In that instant when you gazed upon it, did the thought never cross your mind that you could possess that power yourself?”

Hearing this, Li Huowang belatedly came to his senses. That thing on the ceiling of the cross-shaped temple—it represented Bashe.

It was because humans could not fully describe Bashe’s appearance that they used that… thing… as a substitute.

They used pain to exchange for power from Bashe. And yet, they did not worship Bashe. Instead, they worshipped the Gu-Spirit.

The Gu-Spirit they worshipped was also desperately longing to steal and seize Bashe’s power.