The Bone-Spine Sword

Amid the sparse forest, the clamor of battle rang out continuously. On one side were the faithful of the Dharma Sect, black cloth draped over their shoulders. On the other side, six individuals from the Supervisory Heavenly Office.

From their identities, Li Huowang judged that this was likely the Office clearing out a Dharma Sect that worshipped the Child-God Yú'er Shén, and the Office clearly had the upper hand.

No matter how fearless one was, it couldn't make up for the gap in absolute strength.

As for how Li Huowang could tell the other side was the Office—it was only because the Knife-Pawnbroker Hong Da, the man who had first brought him into the Office, was among them.

Watching the rivers of blood in the distance, Li Huowang let out a slight sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't related to the Zuowandao, that was fine for now.

"Let's go. Those rabble should be something the Office can handle. They don't need me butting in."

Ever since he learned that the Supervisory Heavenly Office was struggling to hold back the Heavenly Calamity, his attitude toward them had improved considerably.

But just as Li Huowang took half a step forward, he suddenly caught sight of a Daoist performing a ritual who was wielding a strange weapon. It was a writing brush.

When Li Huowang looked more carefully, he was shocked to realize that it was Zhuge Yuan's Judge's Brush.

"Brother Zhuge, look, isn't that your old weapon?" Bai Lingmiao suddenly heard Li Huowang ask himself.

"So that's how it is. After you died back then, everything on you was kept by the Office. Say, Brother Zhuge, what was the origin of that Judge's Brush of yours?"

"Oh? That powerful? Yeah, I should have taken it back then, but you had just died, my mind was nowhere near it."

Although Bai Lingmiao knew Li Huowang was probably talking to the hallucinations she couldn't see, there was no denying it was incredibly strange.

Just as she was about to ask what he was talking about, she suddenly saw Senior Brother Li's expression twist into something exceptionally ferocious. He was glaring with vicious intensity at someone in the distance.

Bai Lingmiao's "sight" followed his gaze. Soon, she spotted a woman with purple lips, holding a bizarre bone sword reversed in her left hand.

Segment by segment, the bony sword body rose. When she saw the shape of the hilt, Bai Lingmiao gasped in fright. It was a human head. This bone sword was made from a human spinal column!

The head appeared to have been specially refined, shriveled like a dried tangerine down to the size of a fist. All seven orifices were sealed with black mud, and a purple talisman was pasted across the forehead.

Even though the head had shrunk so much, Bai Lingmiao could still tell that the person must have been handsome in life.

"Grrrr." Hearing the sound, Bai Lingmiao turned sideways and found it was her Senior Brother Li, grinding his teeth in barely contained fury.

"They... they actually refined Zhuge Yuan's body into a magical artifact!!" Faced with such a desecration of his friend's remains, the rage in Li Huowang's eyes could not be stopped.

"What's there to be mad about? That's perfectly normal. If a Heart-Element like you is so valuable, do you think the Office would just leave an entire Heart-Pivot lying on the ground?" The Zuowandao hallucination sat on Peng Longteng's shoulder, grinning with schadenfreude.

In contrast to Li Huowang's fury, Zhuge Yuan's face showed remarkable magnanimity. "A humble scholar is not attached to objects; his heart is free. This is merely a stinking bag of skin. Brother Li, let us go."

"No!" Li Huowang said without hesitation. If he hadn't seen it, he could have pretended not to notice. But since he had, there was no way he was going to do nothing.

Zhuge Yuan had lost his life for him back then. Could he just stand by and let his corpse be used however others pleased?

Even though he had already decided to get that sword back, Li Huowang did not act recklessly. He stayed where he was, quietly observing the woman's methods and strength.

Judging by how Hong Da spoke to her, Li Huowang concluded that she was likely the new Chief Recorder.

As for which sect she belonged to, he couldn't yet tell from the simple purple long dress she wore.

And he was especially wary of the spinal cord longsword made from Zhuge Yuan in her hand. After all, that was a magical artifact refined from a Heart-Pivot.

"Brother Zhuge, do you know what kind of artifact can be refined from a Heart-Pivot's spinal cord? Is there any way to counter it?"

"Naturally, I do not. I am a Heart-Pivot; why would I pay attention to how to refine myself? Brother Li, let us go. Do not create unnecessary trouble on my account."

Despite Zhuge Yuan's pleas, Li Huowang's mind was made up. His eyes were locked onto the purple-lipped woman.

At that moment, the woman suddenly raised the marrow-spine sword in her hand and made a light slicing motion toward the distant Dharma Sect faithful. In an instant, the upper bodies of an entire row of faithful—from below the shoulders to above the waist—simply vanished.

They crashed to the ground in two pieces, blood spraying from the severed gap as their screams filled the air.

"Daoist, maybe we should forget it. She's this strong. You might not be able to take her on," the monk said, a look of concern on his face.

But Li Huowang didn't see it that way. The determination in his eyes only grew firmer.

"Senior Brother Li, it's so strange. After that person slashed with that bone sword, I could actually see a crack where she cut. Inside the crack, there were farmland and mountains!"

"A crack with farmland and mountains inside?"

"Brother Li, I understand. The other side of that crack is Great Qi."

Hearing Zhuge Yuan's words, Li Huowang's heart clenched. He immediately understood what was going on. This woman was using the sword to open a rift leading to Great Qi.

When the rift closed, it would act like a pair of scissors, cutting those Dharma Sect faithful into three sections. Two sections would fall into Great Liang, and one section into Great Qi. It wasn't so much a sword as it was a key to the history on the Great Qi side.

Seeing the Dharma Sect faithful routed and on the verge of collapse, Li Huowang, having figured out the marrow-spine sword's ability, decided he couldn't wait any longer!

With the Dharma Sect around, they could still draw the attention of the other Office members. If the Dharma Sect was wiped out, he would have to face this whole squad of the Office alone.

"You two go back and wait for me! Meet at the valley from two days ago!" Li Huowang murmured to Miao Miao and Li Sui. He took off his red Daoist robe, tossed it to them, and cut the chromatic projection into the ground. Now invisible, he began to edge closer to the woman.

When he was close enough, Li Huowang pulled off the copper coin mask from his face. His features twisted and rippled, reshaping into a stranger's face.

Then, with a flick of his hand, a piece of black cloth appeared in his palm. He hung it over his arm. Now, Li Huowang looked exactly like a member of the Dharma Sect's faithful.

Watching them slaughter the men, women, old, and young of the Dharma Sect, Li Huowang waited in silence. He was waiting for the perfect moment.

When he saw a black jade dagger emerge from the woman's shadow, reaching toward her back, Li Huowang suddenly kicked off the ground and lunged at her like a raging tiger.

Just as he was about to reach her, a chilling light burst forth from all directions. A tattered robe hung with all kinds of knives—old and new—spun around and shot toward him, enveloping him from every angle.