The Symbiotic Upgrade

By the time Li Sui carried the water vat filled with dirt into the house, Li Huowang had already scraped the wax seal off the iron box with his sword blade. He pried at the edges with force.

A drop of silvery liquid splashed onto his red Daoist robe, then slid down the fabric and pooled on the ground into a tiny silver bead.

“Never thought that stuff the teacher taught me would come in handy here. Liquid mercury evaporates easily at room temperature. If I hadn’t wax-sealed it, skinning would’ve been a lot more trouble.”

As he spoke, Li Huowang began to strip off his clothes. He picked up the box of mercury and walked toward the vat of packed dirt.

This was Ji Lin’s first assignment to him. If he wanted to use Ji Lin to deal with Dice, he had to do this cleanly.

The Dowager Empress and the Grand Princess—titles that noble. Even if the Supervisory Heavenly Office didn’t get involved, they must have some capable people around them.

If he was going to make a move, he needed to be cautious. And a substitute talisman refined from Heart-Element skin was undoubtedly a powerful insurance policy.

Li Huowang shoved the iron box into Li Sui’s arms, then lay down in the big pit dug into the dirt vat. “Li Sui, after all these times, you should know the drill by now, right?”

“Mm! I know! I know!”

Li Sui’s voice was excited as she scraped her sharp nails across the center of Li Huowang’s scalp.

“Dad, since I can help you with this, does that mean I’m useful?”

Feeling those sharp nails split his scalp in two, Li Huowang nodded faintly. “Yeah. You’re very useful.”

Hearing this, Li Sui was delighted. Her black tentacles waved and stretched like branches.

Dad rarely praised her. Being able to help her dad—it made her very happy.

Just as Li Sui pulled back his scalp and was about to pour the mercury, Li Huowang suddenly stopped her. “Wait.”

Buried deep in the vat of dirt, he thought for a moment, then softened his voice and whispered toward the empty space in front of him. “Mom? Mom, are you there?”

“I might get a little loud in a bit. Don’t worry, I’m just… just bungee jumping. Yeah, bungee jumping. It’s a really long bungee jump. Don’t panic.”

After murmuring a few comforting words, Li Huowang turned his head to look at Li Sui and nodded firmly. “Go ahead.”

Even though he had been through this process several times, Li Huowang still hadn’t gotten used to it. He tried his best to hold back the screams, but in the end, he couldn’t help it.

A long time later, nearly passed out from the pain, Li Huowang lay on the ground gasping for air. He watched his hallucinations clustering together in the distance, chattering about him.

Though he had been healed through the True Sutra of the Fire Vestments and was no longer in danger, the searing pain from head to toe tormented him without mercy.

“This is too damn hard. I need to find a way to peel that doesn’t hurt so much. If I keep putting my body through this much torture for too long, it’s definitely going to mess with my head.”

“Dad, does it hurt? Should I not help you?” Li Sui’s tentacles coiled around the scabs on Li Huowang’s body. “If it hurts, you don’t have to do it.”

“Heh. Some things you still have to do, no matter how much they hurt. Come on, touch me for a bit. If you touch me, it won’t hurt as much.”

Hearing that, Li Sui gently slid her mucus-covered tentacles across Li Huowang’s body, writhing and wrapping. When one tentacle didn’t feel like enough, she wound another around him, then another.

Finally, Li Sui’s body split apart completely, draping over Li Huowang like a second skin. “Dad, does it not hurt anywhere now?”

“Doesn’t hurt. Doesn’t hurt anymore.” Li Huowang soothed her softly, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him. He tore a strip of red cloth from his Daoist robe and covered his lidless eyes.

In a daze, he fell asleep. When he woke the next day, he found his body already carrying the water vat downstairs. “Li Sui?”

“Dad, did I wake you? We don’t need the vat anymore. I was going to put it back.”

“It’s fine. I was planning to get up early anyway. Better to be prepared.”

Li Huowang helped the tentacles set the vat back in its original spot, then walked to the well in the courtyard and began his usual morning wash.

But when he saw his reflection in the well water, it struck him: did he even need to wash his face anymore?

Li Huowang stared blankly at his reflection on the water’s surface. Watching the tentacles slither in and out of his own body, a sudden inspiration hit him.

“Li Sui, can you still get inside my body now?”

“Dad, didn’t you say I shouldn’t go inside you? That if I did, I’d eat you.”

“Not the kind where you stay in and never come out. Just for a little while. Since the Luo Sect can use their Nascent Souls to boost their strength, why can’t I?”

Against an enemy of unknown strength, there was no such thing as too many backup plans. Besides, he and Li Sui already had good默契. Having another person inside his body meant one more hand to work with.

“Oh. Let me try.”

As Li Huowang opened his mouth, Li Sui’s tentacles began to burrow inside. Some of the thinner limbs followed suit.

The more that crawled in, the more Li Huowang felt a tearing sensation inside his body. He could sense tentacles slithering under his flesh, writhing near his organs. It was a very strange feeling.

As for the pain—Li Huowang could take it. He was already sore all over. He just couldn’t tell anymore if the pain came from outside or inside.

When it was over, Li Huowang looked down at his reflection in the well.

His skinned body was already horrifying enough. Now, with Li Sui inside him, it was even more terrifying.

He looked like a fat man stuffed into clothes that didn’t fit him—except he was the clothes, and Li Sui was the fat man.

Every exposed blood vessel on his body was now filled with black tentacles.

A bloated, bloody, grotesque corpse, draped in large patches of black netting. Even knowing that this thing in front of him was himself, Li Huowang still felt a chill run down his spine.

He took a few experimental steps, then spoke to Li Sui. “You don’t have to pack all the tentacles inside. Let some of the longer ones stick out.”

Black tentacles burst through Li Huowang’s freshly clotted scabs like bamboo shoots after rain, writhing wildly in every direction.

His body was still a bit bulkier than before, but at least it wasn’t swollen to the point of clumsiness. Walking and jumping were no longer affected.

Li Huowang swung the Purple-Tasseled Sword through the air in rapid arcs, while Li Sui’s tentacles wrapped around the Bronze Coin Sword and held talismans at the ready, helping from the side.

The two had spent so much time together that even after a break, they hadn’t forgotten how to work in sync. Li Huowang realized this method really did work.

Not only did it give him an extra person by his side, it also boosted his own combat power. Plus, it hid his identity. No one would recognize this hideous form as Li Huowang—not even he himself could guess that this was him.

“Dad, but if we’re like this, we won’t be able to fit into your red clothes.”

“Then we don’t wear them. We’re going out to kill people. Wearing something that flashy—are we afraid people won’t know who we are?”

Li Huowang fished out a dusty gray bedsheet. After slashing it a few times with his sword, a tattered cloak was draped over his body.