The Solution

Tuoba Danqing had completely broken down. The others were not much better off.

Liu Zongyuan knelt on the ground, pounding his fists against the earth in frustration.

Hong Da stood frozen, his face expressionless, his gaze fixed dully on everything around him.

Despair enveloped them all. The unkillable figures around them screeched their mockery, their voices piercing and sharp.

In this situation, it felt like anything they did was futile. Even death had become a luxury.

But that did not include Li Huowang. Having weathered every kind of extreme despair, he was rarely shattered by anything anymore.

The moment he noticed Bai Lingmiao’s face twisting into a ferocious expression, Li Huowang pulled her close, his voice trembling. “I’m here. As long as I’m here, no one can hurt you.”

The Second Spirit pressed up behind him, gently leaning against Li Huowang’s back. For once, Li Huowang did not recoil.

“In this situation, do you really have a plan?”

Bai Lingmiao stared wide-eyed at the man before her. How could he say something like that in such a hopeless predicament?

Li Huowang gave a slight nod, then lifted his head to look at the pitch-black canopy above. A bitter smile crept onto his face.

“This place… the immortals can’t enter. But I think there’s one being who definitely can.”

“Who?”

“Bashe! Bashe in the White Jade Capital!”

Li Huowang had been to the White Jade Capital. No matter how this Heart-Turbid had managed what it did, it was nothing before those beings you couldn’t even bear to think about. Even a living-and-dead fused Heart-Turbid was worthless.

After a moment of thought, Li Huowang’s expression hardened with resolve. “I’m going to use the Dung-Beetle Ascension. I’ll borrow Bashe’s power to break this deadlock.”

If there was any other way to escape this trap, this was the only one.

Bai Lingmiao’s heart clenched. She remembered this. He had told her about it before. “But that would—”

“Yeah. That’s right.” Li Huowang turned his head to glance at Tuoba Danqing, who was currently putting the Three Knives and Six Holes on the Chief Recorder. He put his arm around Bai Lingmiao and led her into a dense grove of trees.

The others didn’t care where Li Huowang went. By now, they had stopped caring about anything at all.

“The Dung-Beetle Ascension requires torment of both body and mind. The physical agony is easy. I need to find torment of the heart.”

As he said this, a brief struggle flickered in Li Huowang’s eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao’s heart trembled. Then, without hesitation, she said, “Tell me what to do. I can take it.”

Li Huowang shook his head, his lips trembling slightly. “I don’t need you to do anything. I just need you to watch me. Because… I need to enter the hallucination to find it.”

As he spoke, a violent struggle was evident in his eyes. But when he looked at Bai Lingmiao before him, his gaze grew firm.

He was not an ordinary person. He was a Heart-Element. The Heart-Turbid could use its power, but a Heart-Element could use its own.

It was just like the first time he had used the Dung-Beetle Ascension. On that side—in the hallucination—as long as he dared to do it, that side would keep sending him the extreme torment of the heart.

In the dark, empty forest, Li Huowang studied the young woman before him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of this danger, just like I did at Qingfeng Temple.”

“No! Think of another way!” Bai Lingmiao vetoed his words outright.

But Li Huowang was not going to listen to her. “Li Sui. Come out. Stay quietly with your mother. Don’t wander off. I’ll be back soon.”

Black tentacles began to burrow out of Li Huowang’s chest, eventually coalescing into a writhing mass of monstrous tendrils.

“Miao Miao. This is my son. Don’t be afraid.” Li Huowang explained to Bai Lingmiao, who was seeing Li Sui for the first time.

Bai Lingmiao’s eyes went wide as she stared at the terrifying tentacle monster before her. “Say that again… whose son is this?”

Li Huowang let out a quiet laugh. Feeling the world around him begin to shudder and dissolve, he offered no further explanation.

“Wait for me to come back. Stand a little further away, so you don’t get hurt. Even if you can’t die, it still hurts.”

Around him, everything began to melt away. For some reason, the transition was much slower than usual. But eventually, Li Huowang found himself back in that dark, filthy bridge tunnel.

He stared at his familiar yet unfamiliar surroundings, frozen for a moment, before rushing to the riverbank to splash water on his face.

Gazing at his reflection in the water, he spoke as if hypnotizing himself.

“Miao Miao is still waiting for me. I need to use the hallucination to find the torment of the heart so I can save her!”

After repeating this three times, Li Huowang straightened up. Now he had to figure out how to find that torment.

The answer seemed obvious. If you wanted to reach the pinnacle of pain, you knew exactly what needed to be done.

Just then, Li Huowang heard footsteps outside. Moments later, Huanhuan appeared in the doorway, holding a basket of steamed buns.

When she saw Li Huowang staring straight at her, a cheerful smile spread across her face. “Uncle, you’re awake again?”

“The torment of the heart… the torment of the heart… This is nothing. It’s all fake. It’s all a hallucination.”

Muttering to himself, Li Huowang looked around and picked up a thin piece of string from the ground. He began to walk toward Huanhuan.

“I just got here, and she shows up. There’s no way it’s a coincidence. This is obviously fake. I shouldn’t hesitate at all.”

Li Huowang loomed over her, his right hand, wrapped in the string, trembling violently.

“Uncle?” Huanhuan took a fearful step back. She felt that the uncle in front of her was different from before.

Suddenly, Li Huowang deflated like a punctured balloon, slowly exhaling all the air from his lungs.

“No. This is wrong. This isn’t right.”

Turning around, he ground his teeth so hard they creaked. He paced back and forth in place.

“No. I haven’t known her that long. Even if I killed her, it wouldn’t be enough torment. I need more. More!”

He knelt down and wrote two names on the ground: Yang Na and Sun Xiaoqin.

Staring at those two names, Li Huowang’s eyes filled with terror. He was trembling so hard it shook his whole body.

“This is a hallucination! It’s all a hallucination! I already transmigrated a long time ago! This isn’t real!”

His trembling hand started to rise, then snatched back as if burned.

Suddenly, he grabbed a rock from the ground and smashed it against his own head.

Instantly, blood streamed down Li Huowang’s face. But it wasn’t enough. He grabbed the stone and struck himself again, harder, once, twice.

Soon, his tears and sweat mixed with his blood, making him look terrifying beyond words.

“This is fake! It’s obviously fake! This is obviously a hallucination! Why the hell am I still hesitating?! Miao Miao is still waiting for me to save her!!”