The Heart-Element

Chapter 380: The Heart-Element

“Dad?” Li Sui raised her two eyeballs, watching the heart above her head beat rapidly.

She didn’t understand why her father’s heartbeat sometimes raced like that. It was funny.

Seeing that Li Huowang wasn’t paying her any attention, Li Sui cautiously extended a tentacle and poked him. When there was still no reaction, she reached out again and tugged downward.

“Sss—! What are you doing? Stay steady!”

Startled by Li Huowang’s shout, Li Sui quickly retracted her tentacles.

Scolded, she dared not move anymore. She huddled in place, playing with the black spindle her father had given her.

She didn’t know what a “spindle” was. Since her father called it that, she called it that too.

Holding her two eyeballs, she circled the spindle several times, then began to feel bored again.

But she didn’t want to go out. Staying inside her father’s belly was comfortable and peaceful. She liked this feeling.

After a moment’s thought, Li Sui used a tentacle to wrap around her eyeballs, squeezed through Li Huowang’s navel, and carefully peeked outside.

In front of her father was a table with nothing on it but a cup of tea. Her father looked anxious, as if he was waiting for something.

“Where is this?” Li Sui tried her best to listen to the sounds around her, but everything was muffled and incomprehensible.

“Ah, someone’s coming.” Li Sui watched curiously as the fat-faced man approached, holding a stack of books in his hands.

“Why is he bringing books? Is Dad going to start teaching me characters again? I don’t want to learn characters anymore.”

When the man placed the books on the table, Li Sui looked at them too. But she didn’t recognize many characters. “Heart-Element? What’s that?”

Just as Li Sui was about to look more closely, she saw her father pick up the book, blocking her view.

Li Huowang’s pupils tremored slightly as he scanned the pages. He read very carefully, unwilling to miss a single word, because what was recorded here was information about the Heart-Element!

After rapidly finishing the first few pages, Li Huowang was momentarily stunned. This did indeed record information about the Heart-Element.

But it wasn’t the information he wanted. What was written here were methods for using a Heart-Element’s eyes, combined with a Heart-Turbid’s hair, to refine so-called ritual implements.

“Switch!” Li Huowang quickly grabbed another volume and started reading again.

He read one book after another. But they were all methods for refining a Heart-Element’s body and consciousness. This filled Li Huowang with immense frustration.

He couldn’t use any of this. Was he supposed to refine his own organs into ritual implements?

Just as Li Huowang was flipping faster and faster, a sharp bird cry suddenly interrupted him.

“Why are you looking at the Heart-Element? Do you happen to have one in your possession?”

Li Huowang turned his head and saw that Sima Lan, who had left earlier, had returned!

Looking at the books about the Heart-Element beside him, a chill shot straight up the back of Li Huowang’s neck. Would this make the other man suspicious of him?!

After a brief moment, Li Huowang calmly put down the book and began to explain. “I saw in a book earlier that North Wind was a Heart-Element, so I wanted to know what a Heart-Element actually was.”

“Didn’t the great elders of the Ao-Jing Sect teach you?” Sima Lan asked.

Li Huowang reached out, took down the cloth bundle strapped to his back, and lifted the thin cloth to reveal the preserved tongue of the Heart-Element on the nail-penetrated, jade-like wood that the Chief Recorder had given him.

“Back at the Cross Temple, some people did talk about it. But they always just told us that a Heart-Element was a living celestial treasure, that we should coax it and not be rough with it. But they never told me why we had to do that.”

“If we ever encounter North Wind, are we supposed to coax him too? Then how would we even fight?”

Sima Lan nodded slightly. “I see. In that case, you don’t need to search the Four Archives for this matter. Since you are already a Geng Banner, I will tell you myself.”

Just as Li Huowang’s eyes widened in surprise, Sima Lan began to speak. “The Great Teacher once said: There is that which is born and yet does not come into being; there is that which transforms and yet does not change. That which does not come into being is able to give birth; that which does not change is able to effect all transformations. What is born cannot avoid being born; what transforms cannot avoid changing. Therefore, things are constantly being born and constantly changing. Constantly being born and constantly changing—”

Hearing these words, Li Huowang started to get a headache. He quickly raised a hand to stop him. “Brother Sima, please speak more plainly. I never attended a private school. I’m a crude man. Just tell me directly: what is a Heart-Element?”

Hearing this, Sima Lan frowned, and a flicker of contempt and disdain, there and gone, flashed in his eyes as he looked at Li Huowang.

But facing Li Huowang, he tapped the blind bird beside him. The bird began to explain in the simplest terms possible.

“According to the Great Teacher, ordinary people all have the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings. But the Heart-Element is different. Besides the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings, he also possesses one additional thing: Primordial Qi.”

“The Grand Beginning transforms into form. The form has substance but has not yet become a body. This is called the Heart-Element. The Heart-Element possesses Primordial Qi, which is extremely formidable. The Heart-Element’s Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings can transform into the Grand Beginning, merging with the Heavenly Way.”

“If you try to force a Heart-Element, pressuring him into his most desperate moment… should he mobilize that Primordial Qi, not even a god or immortal could save you.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang swallowed hard. “What would be the consequences?”

“Overturning mountains and seas, summoning wind and rain—all within a single thought of his!”

As he said this, Sima Lan’s voice dropped, as if he himself was frightened by his own words.

“Huh?” Li Huowang was momentarily taken aback. Overturning mountains and seas, summoning wind and rain… Was that really him? Was that really a Heart-Element?

Li Huowang’s gaze shifted to the faceless Red Center behind Sima Lan, the Sinless Monk, the headless Peng Longteng, and Jin Shan Zhao, who was only half a torso.

“This isn’t right! The Heart-Element this man is talking about is completely different from me! Why isn’t he mentioning the hallucinations? Why isn’t he mentioning the dead people who follow you? Why isn’t he mentioning that a Heart-Element’s body can shift and misalign?”

“Hehehe… how would this Mohist brat know? He’s just parroting a textbook. Do you really think he’s ever seen a living Heart-Element?” Red Center, who hadn’t appeared in a long time, suddenly popped up and spoke with mocking amusement.

“Oh, no, wait. This brat has seen a living Heart-Element. There’s one right in front of him now, hahaha!”

The corner of Li Huowang’s eye twitched. He completely ignored Red Center’s jeers and continued asking Sima Lan, “If dealing with an ordinary Heart-Element is this dangerous, then doesn’t that mean dealing with North Wind is even more troublesome?”

Sima Lan nodded. “Yes. Think about it. How hard is it to trick a Zuowandao? That’s precisely why that person could become one of the Four Joys of the Zuowandao.”

“Then how do we deal with North Wind?” Li Huowang pressed again.

“If the Supervisory Heavenly Office knew how to deal with North Wind, they would have wiped him out long ago. Would they still let him run wild?”

Hearing this, Li Huowang’s expression grew grave. There was a lot of information in the other man’s words. He needed to sort it all out carefully.