Zuowandao

Chapter 439: Zuowandao

“It’s looking at me. Why is it looking at me?” Li Huowang stared up at the eyeball within that yin-yang taiji diagram that filled the sky above, his mind quaking with the question.

That question was destined to have no answer. The only thing Li Huowang knew for certain was that he, himself, had truly been singled out by this Doumu!

Without a moment’s hesitation, he flipped over and dove towards the ground, which was flowing like liquid all around him.

Even if it meant being buried dozens of zhang deep in the earth! Li Huowang did not want to end up like those divine mountain ghost eyes, dragged into Doumu’s own body!

Just as his upper body sank into the mud, in the next instant, he suddenly felt the entire world flip upside down.

The ground, which had been right in front of him, was now the ceiling, and the black-and-white ocean far beneath him was the true ground.

Li Huowang, inverted in the air, was irresistibly falling toward the Yin-Yang Doumu below.

“I refuse! I was so close to getting the True Cultivation technique! I was so close to becoming normal!” Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang jerked his right hand.

The flesh-colored worms in his belly surged out, twisting together into a braided rope, tightly winding around a half-collapsed stone wall on the ground.

He barely managed to stabilize himself, but the situation was hardly any better. The pulling force on his body was still growing stronger.

Gradually, transparent threads that ordinary people could not see began to appear at the crown of Li Huowang’s head. As the black-and-white ocean surged, some of these threads were parted.

Then, some threads from within were peeled out, while some outer threads were hidden. Still other threads were woven together.

He thought he could just hold on like this, that things would remain deadlocked. But slowly, strange images began to well up in his mind.

First came a massive ox head, several times bigger than his entire body. Li Huowang remembered it—this was the fear he felt at the age of six, the first time he saw a water buffalo.

Next came the terrifyingly high counter of a pawnshop. This was what he had seen when, at fourteen, he was sent to town to apprentice as a disciple under a pawnshop master.

Then came a skinny man wailing loudly. That was the pawnshop owner, his own master. He had been set up by a group of swindlers, fooled by a counterfeit item he appraised, losing everything he had.

It was from this point that Li Huowang lost his livelihood and had to fend for himself for food. And it was precisely because of this that he had come into contact with the Zuowandao.

At first, these images came slowly, but then they sped up faster and faster, flashing through his mind like a slideshow.

Following that, some vague memories began to grow clear. Very specific memories.

Memories about swindling techniques. Memories of his own experiences learning the Zuowandao’s supernatural abilities.

“Hong Zhong, Boss, what are you doing? No way? You’re going this big? Playing with a Heart-Element? Aren’t you afraid of getting in over your head?”

“Sigh, the realms of the Three Yuans are too high. I really can’t understand them.”

Those progressively clearer memories brought Li Huowang a terror he had never known before. His hands, turning pale, began to tremble.

“I’m not Hong Zhong. I’m Li Huowang. I’m not Hong Zhong. I’m Li Huowang.”

But this pale, repetitive mantra could hypnotize no one. If it were true that a person couldn’t imagine something they had never known, then what was all this extra stuff now appearing in his mind!

As the memories in his head grew more numerous, his grip on the wall loosened. If everything about Li Huowang was a fabrication made up by Hong Zhong to deceive himself, then was there any point in struggling so desperately to live?

Zhuge Yuan, noticing Li Huowang’s abnormality, furrowed his brow even tighter. He reached to his waist and pulled quickly, drawing out a slender, flexible sword.

Then, without hesitation, he pushed off the painting with both feet, using the momentum to step from his left foot onto his right foot.

A figure in white shot past Li Huowang, charging with an indomitable momentum straight toward the Doumu that covered the entire sky.

As he blocked Li Huowang’s line of sight, the pulling force on Li Huowang vanished abruptly, and he slammed heavily onto the wall.

The images flashing through his mind disappeared. But the memories of that past were now all the more vivid, as if they had truly existed.

“No! No! No! No!” Li Huowang trembled, reaching out to touch his own face. His features, flesh, and bones shifted rapidly, finally settling into the appearance of Hong Zhong.

This was no longer Li Sui forcibly holding the shape with her tentacles. This was a subconscious action, as natural as eating or drinking.

And as Li Huowang thought it, his face kept changing—Gouwa, Lü Zhuangyuan, Gao Zhijian, Bai Lingmiao, Zhao Wu, Chun Xiaoman.

Faces appeared on his face and then vanished, one after another, gradually blurring Li Huowang’s memory of his own past face.

“Chop!” A thunderous roar exploded, making Li Huowang look up. As the soft sword in Zhuge Yuan’s hand shattered into pieces, a sword essence shot swiftly toward the Doumu in the sky.

But before that enormous arc of light, facing a Doumu as vast as the sky itself, it only raised a tiny ripple.

When he saw that eye turn again toward Li Huowang, Zhuge Yuan quickly performed a backflip in midair, once again firmly blocking Li Huowang’s view.

Facing the Doumu that blotted out the sky, there was not a trace of fear on Zhuge Yuan’s face. His left hand was behind his back, his right hand gripping the Infernal Judge’s Brush, now bearing a small crack, pointing it straight at the single eye of the Doumu in the sky.

“Brother Li! You go first! I’ll hold it off! Don’t worry, the other Siming are watching! It can’t descend to the mortal world! Once you leave Shangjing City, you’ll be safe!”

Li Huowang, wearing the face of a stranger, looked at Zhuge Yuan’s upright, unyielding back with a complicated expression.

“That’s a Siming, Brother Zhuge. Why would you do this for me?”

“To know a person is precious in knowing their heart! There is no ‘why’ in this life! If this young scholar wants to do something… then he simply does it!”

Whoosh! The waxy yellow pages of the old imperial calendar scattered across the sky. Zhuge Yuan hovered in the air, using the earth as his inkstone and the sky as his paper. He brandished the Infernal Judge’s Brush, writing rapidly.

“Year of Yihai, a day of falls into the mire! Forbidden: Siming manifestation in the world!”

As soon as the words were spoken, all the calendars in the air exploded with a thunderous roar, turning into yellow talismans wrapped in flames, drifting toward the Doumu in the sky.

At this pronouncement, the entire world became a shade brighter. The black-and-white body of the Doumu in the sky began to dim.

Watching everything in the air, Li Huowang, lost in his confusion, clenched his teeth and tightened his fists. “Run? Abandon a good friend and sneak away? How can I possibly do that!”

“Don’t be stupid. That’s Doumu’s true body. How could you possibly fight it? You’ve managed to find one fool to block for you; just take the chance and run for your life.” The hallucinatory Zuowandao quickly urged him.

“Bullshit! Who are you trying to fool! The Dice rely on the Wangtian Precious Declaration to summon only a Doumu manifestation! They can’t summon Doumu’s true body!”