Zhuge Yuan

Chapter 505: Zhuge Yuan

“I did it!” As Li Huowang opened his eyes in exhilaration, he was suspended in mid-air, plummeting towards the utterly unrecognizable ground below.

Watching the ground rush towards him, Li Huowang squeezed his eyes shut. “So much water—it's a good thing I can swim!”

With a splash, Li Huowang felt himself hit the water. It splashed high, and he even swallowed a little.

Swimming in the slightly cool water, Li Huowang began to paddle with his arms.

When he opened his eyes again, he found he had already swum ashore.

He turned back to look at the hard, rippling rock behind him and couldn’t help but clench his fist in excitement. “My cultivation ability is getting stronger and stronger. As long as I keep this up, there will always be that world... No! That world is real!”

“That world is already real! My cultivation now is actually to resurrect Zhuge Yuan!”

Thinking this, Li Huowang excitedly looked at Zhuge Yuan in the distance. “Brother Zhuge, come over here for a second!”

When he saw Zhuge Yuan standing before him again, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and, with a trembling hand, reached out to pat him on the shoulder. “Zhuge Yuan is alive! Everything that happened in the capital before was fake! It was all an illusion!”

And this time, unlike before, Li Huowang did not pass right through his body. He could actually touch him!

And the sensation was so real, as if it were genuine.

But this only lasted a few breaths. After those few moments, a pained expression crossed Li Huowang's face as he let go.

“Danyangzi used the Innate Pneuma inside me and became a half-immortal so easily. How come when I use it, it's so much more troublesome?” Li Huowang said, gently rubbing his temples as a splitting headache set in.

“Brother Li, that’s only natural. Before, when you unknowingly borrowed the Innate Pneuma, it was like setting a fire. Anyone can set a fire, but no matter how big the blaze, it’s not under your control. And the bigger the fire, the easier it is to hurt yourself and others.”

“Now, this flame of yours is small, but it is truly your own. Lighting a lamp or steaming rice is all within your grasp.”

Hearing this, Li Huowang felt a little calmer. There was no need to rush. His own Innate Pneuma was right there inside him.

Although Zhuge Yuan’s body had only lasted a very short time, he had truly possessed a physical form. Once Li Huowang fully mastered the power within him, he would be able to resurrect Zhuge Yuan, just like Danyangzi had become an immortal.

“No... I can't anymore, Brother Zhuge. I need to rest for a while, or else this Innate Pneuma is going to destabilize again.” Li Huowang staggered towards the cave dwelling. Without even getting a word in with Bai Lingmiao, he collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep immediately.

When Li Huowang opened his eyes again, the crisp chirping of birds outside told him the rain had stopped. Slanting rays of sunlight filtering through the cracks in the cave wall proved it was a good day.

“Senior Brother Li, you slept really well this time! No nightmares. Does that mean you’re okay now?” A delighted Bai Lingmiao ladled half a bowl of wild vegetable porridge from the iron pot hanging over the campfire and brought it to him with both hands.

“It’s only been one day. That doesn’t prove anything. We’ll see how things go later.” Li Huowang took the bowl and began gulping it down. He realized he was ravenously hungry.

After drinking one bowl, while Bai Lingmiao was ladling him another, Li Huowang continued, “We’ll see what comes next. If that Dice bastard tries to send me another dream, I’ll have to find a way to stop sleeping altogether.”

“Can you really just not sleep?” Bai Lingmiao brought the bowl back over.

“Heh. In this mad world, even the dead can come back to life. What’s a little sleeplessness? Anyway, if Dice pulls any more tricks, I’ll just counter them as they come.”

“He’d better not push me too far. If he does, I’ll just go straight to the Supervisory Heavenly Office and report him!”

Just as Li Huowang was saying this, his gaze fixed on Bai Lingmiao’s face. On the left side of her delicate features, a few white hairs had grown.

Li Huowang’s expression froze. He immediately pulled a dagger from his waistband and stabbed it fiercely into his own thigh.

When he felt no pain at all, his expression instantly turned cold and grim as he stared at the Bai Lingmiao before him. “Big Boss Dice. Three strikes and you’re out, don’t you think? Isn’t this going a bit too far?”

Bai Lingmiao’s face peeled open from the white hairs, revealing a constantly shifting, dice-like head where hers should be. “Red Center, this was already a huge pain in the ass, but since you’re a fellow sect member, I decided to help you out. But don’t forget, you owe me one. You’ll have to pay me back.”

“Fine,” Li Huowang agreed, his heart filled with despair and dejection, though he didn’t know why he felt so defeated and hopeless.

“So, why did you need my help anyway?”

“Because... you’re Dice. Even if you tell me the truth, the future me would never be able to believe it...”

When Li Huowang saw his own hand reach out and press a thumbprint onto the contract Dice was holding, he suddenly snapped awake. It was as if he remembered something. These events had happened before. These were memories that had been tampered with.

Whenever Li Huowang tried to recall them, his own body seemed to instinctively resist, as if refusing to do so!

“No... No, no, no!! Don’t follow Dice’s path! He’s lying to me! This is all fake!”

The entire scene in front of him tore apart like a sheet of paper. A skinny, withered hand reached out from the tear, grabbing hold of Li Huowang and pulling him desperately away from the edge of a cliff.

“Brother Li!! Help me! Help me undo this! I really can’t breathe anymore!” The speaker was still Zhuge Yuan, his eyes filled with longing and pleading.

“I didn’t want to disturb your dream, but you’re the only one who can help me now! Help me undo it! Undo the talisman!”

“Fake! It’s all fake!!” Li Huowang shook his arms wildly, eventually breaking free from Zhuge Yuan’s grip and falling into the abyss.

But what lay at the bottom of the abyss was nothing other than a surging sea of yin and yang in conflict.

It was Doumu, the Arbiter of Truth and Falsehood. When she, using the Divine-Spirit and Ghost-Eye that she had seized from the Supervisory Heavenly Office, looked at Li Huowang, a sharp “Hah!” escaped his lips. His body felt as if it had been washed clean, and Li Huowang sat bolt upright. The next second, he whipped out his dagger and stabbed it viciously into his left forearm.

The searing pain gave Li Huowang a sliver of safety. Now, only pain could dispel this uncertainty between what was real and what was illusion.

Coming to his senses and looking around, Li Huowang realized he was lying in the cave dwelling. Everything was in disarray. Bai Lingmiao and Li Sui were staring at him in shock from nearby. The spine-sword had been unwrapped and was lying before him.

“Senior Brother Li, was that person sending you dreams again? Was he controlling your body in the dream to do those strange things?” Bai Lingmiao’s eyes were full of deep worry.

“Strange things? What strange things? What did I just do?” Li Huowang asked urgently.

“Brother Li, you were writhing on the ground just now. You pulled out that bone sword, unwrapped the cloth, and seemed to want to undo the purple talisman on that little head,” Zhuge Yuan said from the side.

Hearing this, Li Huowang looked at the spine-sword on the ground, then at the shrunken head of Zhuge Yuan attached to the sword’s pommel, and finally at the purple talisman on its forehead.

“Talisman? Was Zhuge Yuan just now asking me to undo the talisman?” When Li Huowang suddenly looked up at Zhuge Yuan standing nearby, a chill ran down his spine.

“Could it be...”

When Li Huowang, his hand trembling, reached out and tore off the talisman, Zhuge Yuan’s shrunken head began to writhe and struggle, growing larger as soon as it was exposed to the air. At the same time, flesh, blood, and bone began to rapidly grow along the spine.

A deformed and monstrous mass, like some kind of fruit, hung from the spine, with peach-wood talismans interspersed within it. “Ah... finally. Brother Li, thank you so much.”

The instant Li Huowang heard these words, the illusory body of Zhuge Yuan beside him flickered slightly, almost disappearing.