The Heart-Element in the Shrine

Li Sui clutched her eye as she emerged from her father’s navel, peering out furtively. She’d heard someone chanting just now and thought someone had arrived, but there was no one.

“Dad, I hear voices but I don’t see anyone. Where is the person?” Getting no answer, she grew worried. “Dad, are you mad at me?”

She didn’t think it was her fault. She really hadn’t expected there to be two dads—one headless and one with a head.

She hadn’t heard the order from the dad with the head, so coming out of the headless dad’s body to go to the dad with a head was perfectly understandable.

But Li Huowang had no time for Li Sui right now. He stared toward the capital with a puzzled expression. He was absolutely certain that strange, unnatural chanting was coming from that direction.

At first, he thought it was another hallucination. But when he saw commoners clutching their heads and writhing in pain, he realized this was anything but trivial.

He could feel it this strongly even this far from the capital. That told him the scope was enormous.

“Something major must have happened in the capital. I can’t wait any longer—I have to get back. Is the Supervisory Heavenly Office’s crackdown on the Zuowandao already underway?”

Li Huowang began his return journey, but he walked all the way until deep night and still hadn’t reached the capital. There was nothing for it. He had arrived empty-handed, but he was returning weighed down by one heavy corpse.

Even without the head, he hadn’t forgotten that he was a Heart-Element. Once he found the method for refining a Heart-Element, his own corpse would definitely be useful.

He drained the blood, then slathered the entire body inside and out with coarse salt. Simple preservation complete.

He glanced at the winter sky, caught his breath, wiped the sweat off his face, set down the corpse on his back, and turned toward the woods to gather firewood.

It was just after the New Year, and the weather was still bitterly cold. A campfire for the night was non-negotiable—he couldn’t afford to fall ill.

As Li Huowang hacked at branches with the Purple-Tasseled Sword, white specks began to drift down from the sky. Snow. The first snow he had seen in this world.

He looked up at the pale moon flickering through the clouds, exhaled a puff of white breath, and quickened his movements.

He needed to cut more. Tonight would be even colder.

Kachak, kachak—the fire-steel scraped again and again, sending up sparks. But the sparks landed on the kindling and refused to catch.

Li Huowang tried a few more times, then suddenly thought of something. He pulled an old almanac from his robe.

Kachak, kachak—a few more strikes. He tossed the lit almanac into the firewood and got a campfire going.

The orange-red glow illuminated Li Huowang’s face and hands, and he immediately felt much better.

He edged closer to the fire, then sat back-to-back with his headless corpse and slowly closed his eyes.

“Hey, Daoist, let me tell you something.” The hallucination-monk suddenly leaned in.

“I’m tired. I’ve got a mountain of things to do once I reach the capital tomorrow. Talk to me another day.”

“That’s not it. You remember that faceless kid, Hong Zhong? I heard him say you can turn fakes into real things. Is that true?”

Li Huowang slowly opened his eyes and looked at the bald head nearly pressed against his face.

The monk rubbed his hands together, an expectant look on his face. “So maybe… possibly… some day you could make the rest of us real too?”

“What?” All drowsiness fled. Li Huowang sat bolt upright, scanning the hallucinations around him—Peng Longteng, Hong Zhong, Jin Shan Zhao, the monk.

His gaze sharpened, locking onto Hong Zhong’s faceless face. “You put the monk up to fishing for my thoughts. What are you trying to do?”

“Heh, nothing special. Just curious. Think about it—if you killed me, then brought me back as real, wouldn’t that be hilarious?” Hong Zhong looked delighted.

“Heh. Keep dreaming. You’ll find everything you want there.”

“Hey, that’s cold of you. We’ve been through thick and thin together, haven’t we? If we had physical bodies, we could help you out when you run into trouble.”

“Don’t worry, even if I had a real body, I wouldn’t hurt you. I find you really interesting now, especially the way you impersonated me and sowed discord—that had real Zuowandao flair!”

Li Huowang couldn’t be bothered to respond. He simply closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

Between the half-cold, half-warm state, he wasn’t sure when he actually drifted off. When he opened his eyes again, he was buried in snow.

He inhaled the dry air, grabbed a handful of white snow, chewed it, then dragged his frozen-stiff body step by step toward the capital.

The capital had its eyes and ears. Dragging a corpse through the gate would definitely be noticed by the Supervisory Heavenly Office. He’d never be able to explain that.

Instead, Li Huowang dug a pit on a nearby slope and buried his headless corpse. Fortunately, it was cold, and he had packed it with salt, so it wouldn’t spoil.

He looked at the somewhat deserted city gate ahead, took a deep breath, and walked straight in.

He had assumed that strange chanting from before would have thrown the capital into chaos, but nothing seemed amiss. It was just quieter than usual because of the snow.

Li Huowang’s guess had been right—the capital did have Supervisory Heavenly Office informants. Not long after he entered, he was surrounded.

Looking at Nangong, Li Huowang struck first. His expression turned grim. “Brother Nangong, the Zuowandao tricked me.”

Nangong’s face was complicated as he stared at Li Huowang. After a long pause, he finally spoke. “Come with me. You won’t believe what the Zuowandao did in your name.”

Under Nangong’s lead, Li Huowang returned to the Supervisory Heavenly Office compound. They walked through the wooden corridors, weaving past rooms until they reached one with an oppressive atmosphere.

Inside, on a table, sat the head of a square-jawed man whose features were twisted into that of Hong Zhong. Three incense sticks burned in front of it.

Beside the table stood a Daoist in a yellow robe and a black-and-white yin-yang cap, waving a bronze coin sword in ritual gestures.

“Supervisor, Er Jiu is back.”

When the Daoist looked up, Li Huowang noticed two infant heads squeezed against the left side of his neck.

“This supervisor has two Nascent Souls. He must be from the Luo Sect.” Li Huowang instinctively raised his guard.

The Daoist supervisor set down his work, sized Li Huowang up for a moment, then grabbed the head off the table and tossed it to him.

Li Huowang caught the square-jawed head. He examined it carefully for a moment, then suddenly blurted out in shock.

“What?! That Zuowandao Hong Zhong is actually a Heart-Element!?”