Heaven Beyond Heaven

When Li Huowang saw that Bai Lingmiao had returned to normal, he immediately moved the jade lotus away, supporting her as he shook her urgently.

“Miao Miao! Miao Miao!” The moment the intensely nervous Li Huowang saw Bai Lingmiao slowly open her eyes, he finally let out a breath of relief.

“Senior Brother Li…” Bai Lingmiao’s pink eyes were now filled with grievance and heartache.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Feeling immense relief, Li Huowang pulled her into his arms, gently patting her back.

His gaze slowly lifted, moving toward Zhuge Yuan hovering in midair. He mouthed a silent thank you.

If it hadn’t been for his vast knowledge recognizing the jade lotus’s use, Miao Miao might really have been in danger.

“Brother Li, you’re too polite. It was just a small favor. I truly didn’t expect this Twelve-Grade Merit Jade Lotus to be in your possession. I searched for it for quite a long time back in the day.”

Li Huowang took a deep breath, slid his left hand under Bai Lingmiao’s knees and wrapped his right arm around her waist, lifting her horizontally into his arms as he strode out of the dark chamber. The Second Spirit, now with her red bridal veil back on, followed in silence behind them.

Lowering his head to press a kiss against Bai Lingmiao’s white hair, which carried a faint fragrance, Li Huowang said in a low voice, “I know you’re hurting inside. But things have to happen in order. Let’s get through this life-threatening calamity first, and then we can talk properly, alright?”

Listening to the steady beat of the heart inside Li Huowang’s chest, Bai Lingmiao buried her face against him and gave a small nod. Compared to before, she was now far more silent.

The passages the White Lotus Society had carved underground were not long. Li Huowang quickly pushed through the main White Lotus hall and climbed the stairs out of the Bai ancestral shrine.

The sounds of fighting coming from the direction of the Bai family compound caused Li Huowang’s expression to darken. It seemed things over there weren’t finished yet. He quickened his pace to go and help.

But he had barely taken a few steps when his expression froze and his body stiffened in place. His abnormally sharp senses told him something was watching him.

Gradually, an involuntary tremor ran through Li Huowang’s entire body. He didn’t know why he was shaking, but his body seemed to have a mind of its own, the trembling growing more and more intense.

“That’s…” Li Huowang’s endlessly quaking head slowly lifted, staring into the pitch-black sky.

That pitch-black void peeled back layer by layer like a curtain, revealing the surging Myriad Lofty Brahma-Aura beneath, the overlapping profundity of the spinning Heavenly Dao, the Yellow Path and Purple Way shining upon the Crimson Palace.

A bead of cold sweat slid down Li Huowang’s cheek and dripped onto Bai Lingmiao’s hand.

Buried in his arms, she raised her head to look at him, now completely frozen. She followed his gaze toward the sky above, but saw nothing.

“Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong?” A note of unease crept into Bai Lingmiao’s voice.

Just as she tugged lightly at the red Daoist robe he wore, Li Huowang’s mouth began to open wider and wider.

With a crack, as his jaw dislocated completely, a rapid, almost screaming crane cry rose from deep within his throat.

As soon as this sound appeared, it spread like an infection, assimilating nearly every noise in the vicinity into the same sound.

Under the propagation of this strange crane cry, roots began to extend out from the edges of Li Huowang’s shadow.

When Bai Lingmiao felt something tugging at her shoes from the darkness, her eyes reddened with panic. “Senior Brother Li!”

The frantic, overlapping crane call did not stop, but Li Huowang heard Bai Lingmiao’s plea. He tried desperately to close his eyes, to block out the influence of that thing in the sky, but his eyes no longer seemed to be his own. There was no effect at all.

Suddenly, the hands holding Bai Lingmiao shot up. He thrust his index and middle fingers directly into his own eyes and wrenched hard. His two eyeballs were forcibly gouged out.

Yet even this was useless. The bloodshot eyes still stared fixedly at that thing in the dark sky!

Only when Li Huowang clenched his fists and crushed the two spheres completely did the anguished scream finally replace the strange crane cry. Everything gradually returned to normal.

His strength spent, Li Huowang’s body went limp, collapsing to the ground together with Bai Lingmiao in his arms.

The Second Spirit and Bai Lingmiao each took one side, hurriedly helping him up.

Li Huowang’s jaw was now completely dislocated, his mouth hanging wide open as he gasped for breath. Saliva mixed with blood and sweat flowed down without pause.

He looked utterly weak, as if his soul had been drained away.

When Bai Lingmiao moved to beat her drum, Li Huowang pressed down on the hand holding the drumstick, then gripped his own jaw and shoved it back into place with a forceful click.

“Don’t summon the immortals. In a situation like this, all evil beings have gone mad! Those immortals may not obey your commands. They might not leave once they’re here.”

Bai Lingmiao reached out with a trembling hand to touch the two bloody holes on Li Huowang’s face, her eyes welling up with tears. “Senior Brother Li, what happened to you? Why did you suddenly gouge out your own eyes?”

The question made Li Huowang flinch violently, and his mouth began to open involuntarily again.

He immediately raised his violently shaking hands to cover the bloody sockets on his face, chanting over and over under his breath, “Don’t think… don’t think… All sentient beings have afflictions, afflictions are suffering. Afflictions are neither born nor destroyed, neither defiled nor pure, neither increased nor decreased…”

Everything he had just seen flickered in and out of Li Huowang’s mind.

After reciting the Heart-Calming Mantra over a hundred times, Li Huowang tried to lower his hands, only to find that the blood scabs had stuck his palms firmly to his face, impossible to peel off.

Steeling himself, Li Huowang ripped his hands away with a sharp pull. Fresh blood and tears gushed violently from the freshly clotted eye sockets once more.

Li Huowang tilted his head, listening to his surroundings, and endured the pain to ask, “Where am I now?”

“Master, you’re in the Bai family compound. Bear with it a little—I’m putting some wound medicine on your eyes.”

Hearing Lü Xiucai say this, Li Huowang struggled to his feet and picked up his sword, preparing to head outside.

“Master, Master, you’re hurt this badly, there’s no need for you to go. Mother-Master and the Fool and Xiaoman have already killed off most of the evil spirits. Besides, even if they can’t handle it, I’m still here.”

Lü Xiucai had barely finished speaking when the others rushed over to persuade him as well. Sensing that there truly was no danger, Li Huowang finally sat back down, pulled out the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments, and began to heal his wounds.

With the sizzling sound of flame searing flesh, a layer of scorched black scabs sealed the flowing blood.

After Lü Zhuangyuan had wrapped Li Huowang’s eyes with a roll of gauze, he sat in quiet stillness, his ears twitching faintly as he listened to every sound outside, calculating in his mind the worst scenarios that might still come.

Just then, Li Huowang suddenly felt a warmth on his arm and cheek. He heard a burst of wild cheering all around him.

“What now?!” Li Huowang gripped his sword hilt tightly and shot to his feet.

“Little Daoist! The sun’s back! Hahaha! Someone somewhere must have beat gongs and scared away the sky-devouring dog that ate the sun!”