The Summoning

Chapter 130: The Summoning

“Mom, push me back inside. I might get a little loud later, bear with me. I’ll come back to see you when I have time. Tell me if you run out of money.”

Watching Li Huowang, whose entire body was wrapped in flames, a bizarre smile spread across his charred black face as he muttered these words to himself.

Shou San frowned slightly and took another step back. “The elder was right. This kid is different from the usual Heart-Elements. This is going to be tricky.”

Just as he was feeling at a loss, he suddenly heard movement behind him.

The moment he turned around, his expression tightened. The flames burning on his body rapidly diminished, retreating back into him.

“Elder Sight-Delight, Elder Hearing-Anger, Elder Smell-Love, Elder Tongue-Thought, Elder Mind-Desire, Elder Body-Sorrow. Why have all of you descended the mountain?”

“How goes it?” Body-Sorrow, who had a square face, seemed somewhat displeased.

“The Heart-Element is right there, as you can see. He’s not following our script.” Shou San pointed a charred finger at Li Huowang in the distance, his voice tinged with frustration.

The six exchanged glances. One of them, a tall woman, walked forward and said, “It’s almost time. Give him one more push.”

The moment she finished speaking, the six raised their hands and clenched their fists. The flames surrounding Li Huowang instantly slammed him down, pinning him hard against the ground.

“Mom, can you push a little faster? I feel like something’s wrong. Remember to gag me.”

Li Huowang stared at the moon in the sky, still muttering to himself.

“Let me handle this.” Hearing-Anger, who was dressed exactly like a brothel madam, pinched her fingers in a delicate gesture and reached into the hair on top of her head. She gently gripped something and began to pull it out.

A silver needle, gleaming with a cold light, was slowly extracted.

The longer she pulled, the longer it grew, until it was almost an inch in length. This made it clear just how deep it had been driven into the woman’s skull.

With a gentle flick from Hearing-Anger, the bloody silver needle shot out like a trailing phantom, piercing straight into Li Huowang’s already charred and blackened head.

“What did you inject into him? Don’t go messing around, or something might go wrong,” Sight-Delight, who was standing by, cautioned.

“Just a memory from four years ago. I was afraid his suffering wasn’t deep enough, so I thought I’d add a little more, hehe.” As she spoke, her blood-red lips curled upwards slightly, her expression quite pleased.

The instant the long needle pierced him, Li Huowang snapped awake. The sudden flood of bloody scenes in his mind made him clutch his stomach involuntarily and begin to vomit.

He saw it clearly. It was really him. He was laughing maniacally as he slaughtered people throughout the town at will.

To be precise, it wasn’t even killing. It was just that the people around him would, for no reason, have their bodies split open, their heads cave in, or spontaneously combust.

And it wasn’t just a few people or a dozen. It was tens of thousands.

Men and women, young and old, an entire town full of people, all meeting the same end in his mind’s eye.

Except for one person: Jiang Yingzi. Because her appearance in that moment was somewhat similar to Yang Na’s when she was a child.

The image of tens of thousands of people meeting a gruesome end by his own hand exploding in his mind simultaneously was something Li Huowang simply could not bear.

“Did I really kill all those people in that town?” Li Huowang began to question himself again. There seemed to be no need for an answer. Only he would have shown mercy to someone who looked like Yang Na as a child.

This time, there was no Danyangzi to give him a reason or share the burden of pain.

Coupled with the effects of the drug, in that instant, accompanied by a scream of pure agony from the charred and blackened Li Huowang, the sky split apart.

Everyone looked up at the same time. In the deepest part of the sky, within an unfathomable, vast, black abyss where countless darker worlds and a sun revolved, something was moving.

The five senses of everyone present simultaneously began to change.

Their sight, taste, smell, hearing, and touch all merged together, forming a new kind of perception that an ordinary person could not comprehend.

Only in this way could they truly “see” Bashe.

“Finally done,” Shou San exclaimed, excited, though his whole body was wrapped in an almost tangible fear.

“Begin immediately! Everyone get ready!” As soon as he finished speaking, the other Ao-Jing Sect followers, who had been sitting cross-legged around Li Huowang, also began to harm themselves in various ways.

In unison, they all “looked” towards Bashe in the sky, their eyes filled with morbid longing.

Blood-red blood dripped from everyone’s skin onto the ground, forming an incredibly complex series of hooked blood sigils on the earth.

The blood sigils began to coordinate with each other, gradually forming a massive circle of sigils.

The ritual circle was on the verge of completion. But then Li Huowang, at its center, gently raised his hand. All the blood sigils lying on the ground instantly stood up, slowly beginning to revolve around his body.

Bashe had been summoned by Li Huowang. At that moment, at least, he had briefly stolen a part of Bashe’s power.

With their plan ruined, the six elders glared at Li Huowang, who was enveloped in despair. Sight-Delight spoke first. “Young man, what is the meaning of this?”

Li Huowang knelt weakly on the ground, his body swaying as if he might collapse at any moment. His eyes were utterly devoid of life.

Feeling the double burden of pain, Li Huowang’s heart was nearly smothered by a thick desire for death. Thinking was incredibly difficult for him now, but he still forced himself to hold on to everything.

“I did what you wanted… now… it’s your turn,” he muttered to himself.

“Now? Are you insane? Do you know how long we’ve waited for this moment!”

“Stop your nonsense! Return the blood sigils immediately!”

“Who do you think you are? How dare you threaten us?”

A furious roar from Li Huowang silenced all their voices.

“It has to be now! If I don’t get mine, none of you get yours!”

Even at this point, Li Huowang still understood clearly. He had no real relationship with these people. He was still a Heart-Element. If he didn’t make a deal while he still held cards, once he lost Bashe’s power, he would have no room to negotiate.

“You can kill me right now! But then all your work these past days will be for nothing!”

“Just help me… get rid of Danyangzi!… After that, I don’t care what you do!”

Li Huowang used the last of his mental strength to state his terms.

Then his body began to tremble, and the immense physical and mental pain started to radiate outwards.

All the Ao-Jing Sect followers screamed in agony and prostrated themselves on the ground. This pain was far, far greater than anything they could achieve through their self-inflicted torments.

When any living being can no longer bear the pain, one thought that comes to mind is release. Involuntarily, they raised their various sharp weapons towards their own necks.

“Stop! We will help you get rid of Danyangzi right now!”

Li Huowang, swaying and nearly crushed by the agony, managed a smile.

While everyone’s attention was fixed on Li Huowang, no one noticed Bashe in the sky casting one last glance at him.