Not Yet Won

Li Huowang’s hand, veins bulging, shoved with all his strength. He pushed Abbess Jingxin’s corpse into the large pit he had dug himself.

Then he dropped to his knees and, handful by handful, buried her broken body again.

A wooden board painted with a picture of a pastry was thrust into the ground before her grave.

His face ashen, he laid out the pastries he had brought up the mountain in a line, like offerings before her tomb.

Abbess Jingxin was dead. And dead along with her was the “decay” of this world.

All flesh, from the moment of death onward, would no longer rot and dissolve. Whatever state it was in when it died, it would stay that way. Forever.

Abbess Jingxin’s death had to be related to this. The powers the nuns had used before always seemed to be tied to “decay.”

The disappearance of “decay” was likely the real reason Abbess Jingxin and the others had died.

No matter the time, “decay” is always something nauseating, something people flee from.

But any world without it would run into big trouble.

When corpses no longer rot, the cycle of heaven and earth is broken. The dead would just keep piling up, more and more.

But Li Huowang had no energy left to care what it all meant. Because he himself was about to be finished.

The abbess was dead. There was no one else like her, no one else who would help him drive Danyangzi out of his body.

At this point, he couldn’t find anyone else to help. There was no time left.

He had already become a complete, total illiterate. It was easy to foresee that he would be entirely taken over by Danyangzi any moment now.

If he didn’t want Danyangzi’s scheme to succeed, there seemed to be only one path left.

“Abbess, do me a favor and wait for me a bit on the Bridge of Sorrows. I’ll be right down to keep you company!”

Li Huowang slammed his forehead heavily into the ground three times before the grave mound. Then, looking lost and haunted, he walked toward the rat hole he had visited before.

The abbess had said before that only by being gnawed to death by those rats could Danyangzi’s takeover be completely stopped.

He didn’t want Danyangzi to live. Even if it meant his own death, he didn’t want that thing to live!

But when Li Huowang, his heart set on dying, arrived once more before the black tower, he froze at the sight of all the black on the ground.

He walked over and scooped up a handful of the blackness. As his fingers parted slightly, overturned cockroaches, beetles, and flies slipped through the gaps, drifting down like black snow.

Dead along with the nuns, besides “decay,” were the flies and the cockroaches. The lowest-level decomposers.

Li Huowang suddenly stood up. Breathing heavily, he rushed inside the black tower.

But he was quickly met with a shocking sight. The black rats inside were all dead too. Like the others, the dead rats did not rot. They did not stink.

“Fuck!” Li Huowang, filled with extreme grief and rage, clenched his single fist and slammed it down onto the pile of dead rats. Flesh and organs squeezed out from the rats’ mouths, splattering everywhere.

What the hell did I do in my past life?! Why the fuck can’t I even die when I want to now?!

“Hehehe… child…” A low chuckle came from beside Li Huowang.

He looked up and saw Danyangzi’s three terrifying faces.

“What did this immortal tell you? Everything you do is a waste of effort. It’s not too late for you to turn back and help me.”

“You think you’ve already won?” Li Huowang stood up, his eyes burning with utter hatred.

“As long as this body is still in my hands—you haven’t won yet!”

Li Huowang lunged, charging toward the gates of Anci Nunnery. He sprinted down the mountain like a madman.

As soon as he reached the bottom, he practically collided with Yang Xiaohai, who had two fried sweet potato sticks dangling from his mouth.

Yang Xiaohai quickly put on a fawning smile. “Brother Li, you’re back? All done up there? Want to head back together?”

Li Huowang ignored his flattery entirely. He rushed straight onto the road.

He looked left and right, then directly snatched a horse from a passing scholar and leaped onto its back.

Spinning the horse around, Li Huowang, his eyes bloodshot, pulled out a barbed awl and stabbed it into the horse’s rump.

The horse reared, its front hooves kicking the air. It screamed in pain, then bolted toward the mountain range where the Ao-Jing Sect was located.

“My horse! That’s my horse!” the scholar wailed, chasing after him. But Li Huowang vanished from his sight in no time.

Seeing this, Yang Xiaohai panicked. Clutching the oil-paper bundle in his arms, he ran back toward the inn. “Senior Brother! Senior Sister! Brother Li’s episode is acting up again!”

The mountains where the Ao-Jing Sect was located were over two hundred li from Mount Henghua, where Anci Nunnery sat. By carriage, it would normally take quite some time.

But under the constant torture of Li Huowang’s tools, the horse managed the journey in just two days.

When he reached the dead town again, the stolen horse finally gave out. Foaming at the mouth, it collapsed to the ground, convulsing, its hindquarters a bloody, torn mess.

Li Huowang walked through the clusters of graves he had dug himself, heading toward the cave on the mountain.

He hadn’t slept in three days now. On top of that, he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything. His complexion was terrible.

But by now, Li Huowang had long since abandoned any thought of life or death. He no longer cared about these things. He just wanted Danyangzi dead!

No matter what it took, if he could achieve that goal, he would pay any price.

When the Ao-Jing Sect disciples in their wide robes saw Li Huowang return, they immediately moved in unison to block the cave entrance. “Shou San has ordered—”

Before they could finish, a flash of cold steel. Two heads hit the ground. Their eyes were filled with disbelief. They never expected he would just strike without a word.

Bleeding and reeking of blood, Li Huowang charged into the cave, holding his blade. “Zuowandao! Get the hell out here!”

His voice echoed through the cave, drawing everyone’s attention.

Soon, in an open cavern, Li Huowang was completely surrounded.

But he didn’t care anymore. He hadn’t planned on walking out alive anyway.

Shou San, his body wreathed in flames, stepped out from the crowd. “You’re this reckless. Do you really think we won’t make a move?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Li Huowang saw the five elders step out from the crowd.

Looking at the five Zuowandao members in disguise before him, Li Huowang smiled.

“Come on, then. Show me what the Zuowandao can really do!”

As he spoke, Li Huowang raised his longsword and dragged it fiercely across his own throat.

Danyangzi beside him immediately flared with rage. His terrifying body was gradually shrouded by a black cloud as he lunged straight at Li Huowang.

Feeling the blood flowing out, constantly draining his lifespan, Li Huowang paid it no mind at all.

With a rustle, the Thousand Greats Record spread out on the ground before him. Li Huowang stepped directly onto it.

The blood pouring from his neck soaked through his clothes and completely drenched the entire scroll.

(Chapter End)