Yin and Yang

Chapter 362: Yin and Yang

Li Huowang's expression was exceptionally ugly as he stared at the Chief Recorder, who had collapsed limply on the ground before him.

Li Huowang remembered the Chief Recorder saying that the male Heart-Turbid was dead, and the female Heart-Turbid was still alive. When these two Heart-Turbids were brought together, even Zhuge Yuan couldn't handle it.

Li Huowang didn't know how strong Zhuge Yuan was. The only thing he knew was that he was in serious trouble now.

"Huowang, what's wrong with the eunuch?" Bai Lingmiao asked, glancing warily around, clearly unaware of the gravity of the situation.

Looking at her profile, Li Huowang took a deep breath, suppressing the intense unease in his heart. It didn't matter if he lived or died, but getting Bai Lingmiao caught up in this? Absolutely not!

Li Huowang quickly stepped forward and helped the Chief Recorder up from the ground, his voice urgent. "Chief Recorder! Don't give up! This isn't settled yet! Think carefully—how did other people in the Office get out of situations like this?"

Hearing this, the Chief Recorder looked at Li Huowang, his face etched with deep despair. "You don't understand anything! There are no survivors from something like this!"

Just as Li Huowang was about to say something else, the gazes converging from all directions made him tighten his grip on his sword hilt in alert.

Gradually, a group of people emerged slowly from the forest. A group of people who looked exactly like the thing Li Huowang had captured earlier.

They were hunched over, crouching in the distance, their distended bellies prominent, their bulging fish eyes staring fixedly at Li Huowang and the others.

"Newcomers? Good, good!"

"That girl's not bad looking, hehe…"

"Yeah, and she's got a nice ass too."

Their murmuring twisted Li Huowang's expression into a snarl. With a swift swing of the bronze coin sword in his hand, the red cord pulled taut, the weapon lashing out like a long whip towards these creatures.

But facing Li Huowang's attack, these things didn't even bother to dodge; they simply took the blow with their thin, gaunt bodies.

The sharp bronze coins sliced through their bodies like a knife through tofu. Yet, even as they were cut into several pieces, they didn't do anything. They just writhed on the ground, still talking.

"Take your time, we're not going to do anything. We're just going to wait."

"Wait a year, wait two years, wait three years... until you become just like us."

Their words sent a chill down the spine of Li Huowang, who was usually fearless.

They were no longer human. These people, hidden away by the Heart-Turbid and then forgotten, had long since twisted into monsters over the long years.

Li Huowang cursed silently in his heart, abandoning his vigilance against the surrounding things for the moment. He turned and grabbed the Chief Recorder again.

"Chief Recorder, what's the big deal? It's just being trapped, right? Think carefully! Think about the people waiting for you to come back out there!"

Hearing Li Huowang's words, the Chief Recorder seemed to remember something. The panic and despair in his eyes rapidly receded.

"Yes... she's still at home waiting for me! I have to take her back to the village! I quit!"

Seeing this, Li Huowang breathed a sigh of relief and asked calmly, "Chief Recorder, think hard. Is there any way to get us out of here?"

Forcing himself to pull together, the Chief Recorder slapped his own face hard. After thinking it over calmly, he looked up at the others and said, "Right now, with one Heart-Turbid dead and the other alive, the karmic obstacles inside them are exactly one yin and one yang. With yin and yang merging, there's no way we can leave. To break this deadlock, we must find the living female Heart-Turbid."

The more he spoke, the calmer the Chief Recorder became, his words coming faster and faster.

"Yes, that's right! Find that female Heart-Turbid! Turn her into a dead one—maybe then there's a sliver of hope!"

At these words, everyone forgot everything else, scattering and charging into the forest to search for the so-called female Heart-Turbid.

Trees flew past as Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao searched ceaselessly through the woods.

"Huowang, I can't reach any of the immortals in this damn place, no matter how I drum." Bai Lingmiao's expression was irritable as she spoke to Li Huowang, having just finished a bout of drumming.

Li Huowang had already expected this. In a situation like this, petty immortals like those were useless.

"Blind searching like this won't work. I need to use a talisman for divination." Li Huowang reached for the turmeric paper, only to find that his stash had been completely burned up earlier.

"Got any yellow paper?" Li Huowang asked Bai Lingmiao.

After thinking for a moment, Bai Lingmiao pulled a small paper horse folded from yellow paper from her bosom. "I use this for my spirit dances. See if you can use it."

Li Huowang took it, quickly unfolded it, glanced around, and charged at a man peeking at them from behind a tree. A moment later, he returned with a bloody skull and began his divination.

Looking at the hexagram lines on the bone, Li Huowang tossed the skull aside and continued searching.

But this time, the divination that had always been unerring was surprisingly useless. No matter where he looked, he couldn't find the pattern indicated by the hexagram.

After a day and a night, it was Tuoba Danqing who finally found them. "Hurry! Hong Da found it!"

Forgetting their own deep exhaustion, the three of them turned back and followed the path.

They soon returned, just in time to see Tuoba Danqing viciously wrenching the female Heart-Turbid's head off and throwing it to the ground.

Li Huowang's heart clenched at the sight. He nervously observed the pitch-black surroundings.

But a long time passed, and nothing changed. None of the people who were hidden had disappeared.

"What's going on?" Li Huowang couldn't help but ask.

At that moment, the head of the female Heart-Turbid on the ground slowly began to inch back towards her body. Although her eyes were vacant, she was unmistakably still alive.

Seeing what they had done, the surrounding area erupted in extremely harsh, mocking laughter.

"Hahaha! You actually tried to kill her? Don't you know that no one here can die?"

"You think we don't want to die? We've wanted to die for ages! Do you know what's scarier than death? It's being stuck like this forever!"

These words chilled everyone present to the bone. The only way to break the deadlock was to kill the female Heart-Turbid, but here, she simply couldn't die!

The next moment, Bai Lingmiao pulled the Purple-Tasseled Sword from Li Huowang's sheath and slashed it fiercely across Hong Da's neck.

When they saw that Hong Da, bleeding profusely, showed no sign of dying, everyone instantly understood their current predicament.

This had formed an almost unbreakable, fatal deadlock.

The Chief Recorder's face fell, and just as he was about to say something, a fist slammed hard into his face.

"You damned eunuch! This is all your fault! If it weren't for you bringing us here to catch some shitty Heart-Turbid, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

It was Tuoba Danqing. Gone was his usual easygoing demeanor, completely disregarding any rank or order. Enraged, he rushed at the Chief Recorder and began beating his former superior mercilessly.