The Dragon

Chapter 551 – The Dragon

Facing the temporarily trapped Void Nian, Li Huowang pushed off the ground with all six tentacles and both legs, gripping the bronze coin sword as he leaped high.

“Die!”

The next moment, the sharp blade slid into the hollow left eye socket of the human skin covering the beast, before piercing cleanly out the back of the skull.

Li Huowang hadn’t forgotten the taboo Zhuge Yuan had just mentioned. He shoved hard against the sword’s hilt, using the force to flip backward and land steadily.

But when he saw the Void Nian—with a sword still sticking through its head—standing there without so much as a stagger, his expression turned ugly.

He looked down. At some point, a red object had stabbed through his left foot. The limb had become withered and aged, shriveled like a much older man’s.

This thing is far smarter than I thought. It can even trade injury for injury, laying a trap so I can’t use the spine-sword to escape.

“What the hell is this thing made of? A copper coin sword meant to break evil, straight through the skull—and it doesn’t even react!”

Li Huowang quickly stripped off his blood-red Daoist robe, dropping it to the ground, and pulled a fire-striker from his chest.

The wounded Void Nian didn’t charge. Instead, it twisted its huge, skin-covered face to the left.

Its massive beast-body lowered slightly, and a deep, animalistic warning growl came from beneath the human skin.

Then—pound, pound, pound, pound—heavy, chaotic footsteps rang out again. Closer this time. So close the sound drilled into Li Huowang’s ears.

He turned his head slightly. In the churning darkness, he saw a mountain-sized thing pressing toward him with each footfall.

It was very close now. As it took another step, Li Huowang—his vision sharp in the dark—could finally make out its full shape.

Lanterns. Dragon banners. Round jade discs. Traveling rings. Bells. Countless tarnished, dust-coated ornaments densely covered the towering, wooden structure before him.

Red-clouded dragons painted on the fabric, the dark green silk cords binding the four pillars. Between the pillars, black cloud-and-dragon-patterned curtains sealed the entire carriage tight.

The heavy, disordered footsteps came from beneath the wood: emaciated, skeletal eunuchs in tattered clothes, their heads wrapped tight in white cloth, pulling ropes like beasts of burden.

Everything on that wooden structure was decayed, filthy, rotted—yet Li Huowang recognized it at once.

This is the Imperial Carriage of Great Qi’s emperor!

He never imagined that the sound he’d been hearing was the zombie child-emperor of Great Qi.

A powerful gaze landed on him from the wooden tower, locking onto him with pressure so intense he could feel it on his skin. There was no mistake—he had been marked.

He glanced at the Void Nian in the distance, then back at the imposing Imperial Carriage closing in on him. He cursed bitterly in his heart. This damn place! Not once have I ever had good luck!

With the situation as it was, there was nothing left to say. Li Huowang opened his mouth wide and spat out Li Sui. He raised the spine-sword, slashed her back to Great Liang, and without hesitation, struck his fire-striker across his own skin.

Whoosh!

In an instant, Li Huowang burst into flames. He became a blinding torch, illuminating everything around him.

Through the wavering fire, he looked at the Void Nian one last time, then ran—still blazing—straight for the massive Imperial Carriage.

Compared to that unpredictable Void Nian, the Qi emperor should be easier to deal with. And he looks easier to burn.

As the distance closed, Li Huowang began to hear other sounds.

“Long live the Emperor… Thank you for your boundless grace… May the Emperor be blessed…”

The skeletal eunuchs chanted mechanically as they pulled, repeating meaningless court salutations over and over.

With a flick of Li Huowang’s right hand, the eunuchs were instantly wrapped in flames, turning into walking torches.

His foot was injured, and he couldn’t move fast—but he had another way.

Boom!

Peng Longteng slammed into the ground beside him. Her enormous hand grabbed Li Huowang, his whole body still ablaze, and hurled him toward the top of the Imperial Carriage.

As he crashed through the cloud-patterned curtains, they caught fire and burned away. In the flames, Li Huowang saw the little emperor of Great Qi.

A child of only six or seven, wearing an oversized dragon robe, sat on an even more oversized dragon throne. The proportions were grotesque.

But even more grotesque was his appearance. Li Huowang had only heard that the little emperor of Great Qi was already dead—a zombie. Yet what he saw was a chubby, normal child with eyes full of innocent curiosity.

Then this perfectly normal child began to rise. The dragon robe lifted higher and higher.

When the robe was fully raised, it finally revealed the coiled mass of Dragon Veins piled underneath.

Who could have guessed? The little emperor of Great Qi isn’t just one person—he was already fused with the Dragon Veins while still alive!

A gale-force wind exploded. The entire mass of Dragon Veins coiled in the air, and at its highest point, the little emperor clapped his chubby little hands, giggling with delight.

An overwhelming pressure bore down, so intense it even suppressed the flames on Li Huowang’s body, refusing to let them rise.

Shwing!

Li Huowang gripped the spine-sword and slashed upward at the sky. The fissure flew forward, struck the thing—and did absolutely nothing.

It was the first time since acquiring the spine-sword that Li Huowang had seen something resist the cut between the two histories completely unscathed.

The Dragon Vein’s body shuddered violently. A residual shadow flew toward him, slamming into his body with brutal force.

Spitting blood, Li Huowang was hurled from the burning Imperial Carriage. The flames on his body snuffed out instantly. The hallucinations around him—Shang Yuting, Zhuge Yuan, all of them—began to flicker in and out of clarity.

As he fell from an impossible height toward the ground, he squeezed his eyes shut. The next moment, he felt himself plunge into freezing lake water.

He struggled to the surface, opened his eyes again, and found himself half-buried in dirt.

“Zhuge! Are you all right!” Li Huowang clawed himself out of the soil, shouting frantically in his mind.

Zhuge Yuan opened his mouth, saying something urgent. But Li Huowang couldn’t hear a word.

But when he saw Zhuge Yuan point toward the Imperial Carriage, Li Huowang spun his head around.

The Great Qi Dragon Vein was diving toward him like a true dragon, carrying an overwhelming pressure.

ROAR!

A thunderous bellow made the Dragon Vein freeze mid-air. It curled into a defensive coil, head meeting tail.

Li Huowang turned toward the sound. It was the Void Nian. The fur on its body stood completely on end, radiating fury at the Dragon Vein’s arrival.

Seeing this, Li Huowang looked down at his pierced leg. Let’s try—maybe I can slip back to Great Liang while they tear each other apart!

He raised the spine-sword on the spot, slashed open a fissure, and charged toward it.

But the next instant, the Dragon Vein swept down and shattered the fissure into fragments.

The Dragon Vein clearly despised the appearance of that gap between two histories. It abandoned the provoking Void Nian entirely and lunged straight at Li Huowang.

The coiled pile of Dragon Veins moved with incredible speed and force. One fast swing, and the left side of Li Huowang’s shoulder was crushed flat.

He drove the purple-tasseled sword into the Dragon Vein’s body. But to the beast, it was no more than a scratch.

It was the first time Li Huowang had faced such a powerful enemy. Nothing he had—none of his weapons—could do anything at all.

(Chapter ends)