The Dice
1,427 words
Chapter 506: The Dice
"Th-this is impossible!" Li Huowang staggered back half a step, staring at the figure before him in utter shock.
The spine-blade from before had been completely transfigured. Chaotic flesh and malformed organs were now intertwined, growing out from the spinal column like a grotesque, vegetable-like bloom.
It hadn't fully grown into a human shape. After sprouting only a jumble of mismatched, bloody organs, it had abruptly stopped. There was no skin, nothing that resembled a person.
Though the sight was horrendous, Li Huowang was certain of one thing: this thing was still alive! Zhuge Yuan was still alive!
"How can you still be alive?! You were dead! I strangled you with my own hands! Your soul was already absorbed into my hallucination!"
Zhuge Yuan—half-grown from the spine-blade—extended a left hand that was nothing but bone from the flesh, using skeletal fingers to comb back strands of hair that were matted with blood.
"Brother Li, what are you saying? I am a Heart-Pith. Even if a Heart-Pith dies, the Three Souls, Seven Poisons, Ten Emotions, and Eight Sufferings all still belong to the Three-Bodied One's old form. How could you possibly take them away?"
These words made Li Huowang stumble, his face turning ashen white. He could barely stand.
"So... so they were nothing at all?"
The moment these words left his mouth, memories of past events in his mind began to change.
In a daze, Li Huowang found that, in his memory, when they had broken free of the Immortals back then, the Second Spirit had not sacrificed herself. Instead, he had come up with a solution that satisfied both sides.
That solution was to kill the Second Spirit with his own hands, making her like Zhuge Yuan—becoming his hallucination! Once his cultivation of the True was complete, he would turn them both from illusion into reality.
The Second Spirit had agreed. She had died smiling, killed by his hand.
"Boss Dice, I've only just realized now that my hallucinations were all fake... utterly, completely fake... The Second Spirit was never able to live; she was just something I made up in my mind..."
Behind the messy stall selling food, Li Huowang sat on a stool, a look of death in his eyes, repeating the same words in a numb monotone.
"So what do you expect me to do about it, Red Center? You've already killed her. Even I can't do anything about that. I'm not a miracle worker." The fat-faced Dice's voice was tinged with helplessness as he fried his oil fritters.
"I don't ask you to resurrect her. I only ask you to cover up this memory for me. Use Cultivating the False and Lies together—you're the best at it. Please... I... I truly cannot face the hallucination of the Second Spirit that I killed with my own hands."
"She was clearly fake! But why did she have to feel so real?! Right now, every moment is torment! Torment!"
"Well... fine. We're fellow disciples, after all. I'll help you this once. But you'll owe me a big favor this time. Don't forget to pay it back."
When Li Huowang awoke from that altered memory, his fists clenched, and his face twisted with fury as he roared: "No! That's impossible! It's all fake!"
"Brother Li, what is wrong with you? Please, pull yourself together!" Bai Lingmiao's eyes were full of tears as she anxiously reached out to support him.
The sight of Bai Lingmiao before him was like a lifeline. He grabbed her slender arms and shook her violently.
"Miaomiao! You were there that day! Tell me! How did the Second Spirit leave? Was she strangled by me?!"
"Brother Li, what are you talking about? Didn't the Second Spirit disappear along with the Immortals? What's happening to you?"
Upon hearing this, Li Huowang laughed. That's right, this is the fake! It didn't matter if he misremembered—could Bai Lingmiao have misremembered, too?
Just as this thought crossed his mind, he was horrified to see Bai Lingmiao in front of him rapidly turning transparent.
"Miaomiao!" Li Huowang shouted, throwing his arms forward to embrace her, but his arms closed on nothing, passing right through her body as if she were a phantom.
"Brother Li, how am I..." Bai Lingmiao looked down in shock at her own transparent body, and then, in the next instant, she vanished completely.
"MIAOMIAO!!!"
"Red Center, don't go blaming me for this. This is all because you didn't repay your favor first. Since you defaulted on the favor you asked me for earlier, naturally, I can't help you now."
The fat-faced Dice waddled over with a grin, reaching out an oily hand to pat Li Huowang on the shoulder.
"Miaomiao? Where did you take Bai Lingmiao?!" Li Huowang's eyes were bloodshot as he glared at the Dice, his look murderous.
"Hey now, don't pin this on me. I'm saying you didn't repay my favor. As for your woman, how should I know where you lost her, and then where you went and cultivated a real one out of nothing?" Dice waved his hands emphatically.
"Didn't I tell you before? Cultivate the True without cultivating the False, and sooner or later you'll fall into Qi Deviation. A living person stands right in front of you—how do you judge whether this person is real, or one you manifested from falsehood? Hm? Hm? Hm? Think about it yourself."
"Hehehe~ But anyway, this is all trivial. Do me a favor. As long as you help me put that little Emperor on the throne, I'll help you get your woman back."
"THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! ALL OF IT!" Completely hysterical, Li Huowang reached behind his back and ripped down the flesh-wrapped Thousand Greats Record, slamming it hard onto the ground.
Then, gripping two barbed iron hooks—one in each hand—he plunged them viciously into both sides of his own abdomen!
As various coils of intestine were dragged out by the hooks and violently impaled onto the Thousand Greats Record, the heavens and earth abruptly shifted color. The five senses of everyone nearby began to converge.
"Oh my, what are you trying to do, what do you think you're doing? You're trying the Dung-Beetle Ascension on your own boss, too?" Dice retreated a few steps, showing no trace of fear whatsoever.
Just as Li Huowang felt a gaze—countless times clearer than before—fall upon him, he gradually slowed to a stop.
As the Thousand Greats Record on the ground fully transformed into a human skin, Ba She's gaze in the sky slowly faded away.
Kneeling on one knee, Li Huowang remained still. As he panted heavily, the searing pain in his body and mind began to ebb.
This time was different from the last. The Dung-Beetle Ascension was useless against Dice. His true body wasn't here. The fat man in front of him was merely a pawn in his hand.
Since Miaomiao was already in his grasp, if he wanted to get her back, he absolutely could not act rashly now!
The other side held good cards. If he, holding no cards of his own, played recklessly, he would only make the situation worse—especially when the one he was playing cards against was Dice.
Biting down on the pain, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and trembled as he shoved the loops of large and small intestines hanging from the barbed hooks back into his belly.
"Dice! You want me to go back to the Capital, right? Fine! I'll assist Ji Lin in ascending the throne! And you return Bai Lingmiao to me—whole and safe, without a single hair out of place!"
"If you really do get Ji Lin on the throne, then I'll help you find that white-haired girl. But Red Center, let me be clear: I really didn't kidnap her. We are Zuowandao. If we stooped to doing something as stupid as taking hostages, it would be a disgrace to our founder's face!"
Li Huowang sneered inwardly. He didn't believe a single word coming out of his mouth.
This whole thing was a setup orchestrated by Dice from start to finish! That member of the Supervisory Heavenly Office they had met on the road, the one carrying the spine-blade—that was probably his doing, too. All of it was meant to fool him into believing he owed Dice a favor!
No! Maybe this scheme started even earlier! Maybe even back at the Shangsi Festival, his coincidental encounter with Ji Lin being swindled was also Dice's handiwork!