The Corrupted Sun

Chapter 553: Death

Facing such a peculiar attack from the Void Nian, the Dragon Vein seemed unwilling to give up so easily, struggling desperately as it tangled with the Void Nian's red afterimage.

Just as Li Huowang was about to collide with the Dragon Vein, over a dozen dragon claws were already raised and waiting for him.

But this was merely Li Huowang's deceptive feint. Peng Longteng appeared instantly before him, catching him steadily before hurling him fiercely toward the Great Qi child emperor.

The being could no longer be called a child emperor. He had completely transformed into a lump—a prematurely born infant, no bigger than a palm, with nearly translucent skin.

Li Huowang suddenly reached out, yanked the Purple-Tasseled Sword from where it was embedded in the Dragon Vein, and swung it toward the child emperor.

"Brother Li! That won't kill it! Cut its connection to the Dragon Vein first!"

Hearing Zhuge Yuan's words, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and shifted the blade in his hand three inches downward.

With a tearing sound, the blood-soaked back where the child emperor connected to the Dragon Vein was slashed open.

The next moment, Li Huowang's Purple-Tasseled Sword lifted in a direct thrust, the sharp tip piercing through the other's chest.

The now grotesquely deformed emperor of Great Qi let out a struggling, hoarse cry. His thin fingers clawed at the blade briefly, then his head lolled to the side, motionless.

As Li Huowang descended toward the ground, carrying the child emperor's corpse on his sword tip, the Dragon Vein, now bereft of its emperor, began to swell wildly.

Thick blood, bizarre organs, and a mess of twisted dragon scales, claws, and horns burst through the dragon robe, pushing their way out.

Bulging, bloodshot orbs of various sizes fixed their gaze on Li Huowang, filled with a sickening hunger.

The clustered dragon claws strained with all their might, reaching for Li Huowang—or more precisely, for the dead child emperor on his sword.

"Brother Li! This won't work! The dragon qi will revive the child emperor! Don't let them touch! Throw it into Great Liang!"

Midair, Li Huowang jerked his sword, flinging the corpse into the red phantom of the Void Nian beside him.

He then yanked out the Spine Sword and slashed fiercely in that direction. The historical fissure pierced through the Void Nian's red aura, carrying the child emperor into Great Liang.

With that dealt with, the hard ground was already right beneath him.

Li Huowang took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. The next instant, he felt his body slam heavily onto an icy water surface.

Feeling the water slide across his skin, he didn't swim upward immediately. Instead, he kicked his legs, keeping close to the riverbed as he swam left.

He continued like this until he could barely hold his breath. Only then did he struggle to the surface. As the pain in his head grew worse, the water around him grew thicker and stickier, and the pressure closing in from all sides intensified.

With a muffled crash, Li Huowang tore through a layer of earth and rolled out of the soil, vomiting clumps of dirt.

Ignoring the searing pain across his body, he instinctively looked up, ready to search for the Dragon Vein.

But before he could see clearly, the ground began to shake violently. "An earthquake?!"

Rocks and sand flew through the darkness as heaven and earth convulsed. There was little the gravely wounded Li Huowang could do but lie on the ground, forcing himself to stay conscious until the earthquake passed.

He didn't know how long it lasted—long enough for his wounds to begin scabbing over—before the violent tremors finally ceased.

Li Huowang propped himself up with his sword and stood, swaying. He cautiously surveyed the dusty surroundings.

"Wait... why is it so bright? Did the Heavenly Calamity end?" After a few moments of careful probing, he suddenly looked up and saw that the darkness in the sky had indeed vanished!

But before he could feel relieved, Li Huowang noticed something wrong with the sun hanging high overhead. The usually dazzling sphere was now marked with black spots.

"Wow, Daoist, that Sky Dog really did eat the sun," the monk said, shielding his eyes with his right hand as he gazed up at the strange spectacle, his tone full of awe.

"What... what is this world? Is this world even real?" A momentary wavering sent a chill through Li Huowang's heart.

"No. You can't doubt. You're a Heart-Element! If you start doubting, things will go to hell!" Li Huowang clenched his fist and slammed it hard against his own head.

After a few harsh blows, he stopped—not because he chose to, but because a powerful sense of danger forced him to.

Thump! A heavy beast paw slammed into the ground, kicking up the surrounding dust. Then the Void Nian emerged from the haze, its massive silhouette towering.

The brutal battle had clearly taken a heavy toll on the Void Nian as well. The fur on its body was thinner and patchy, the cracks on its face wider. But compared to Li Huowang's current miserable state, it was in infinitely better shape.

Li Huowang forced himself to tighten his grip on the sword hilt, looking up at the tattered woman's face. Clenching his teeth to hide any trace of fear, he asked, "After all this, you still want to fight me? Since you understand human speech, you should know we have no real quarrel, right?"

Hearing this, the Void Nian did not respond immediately. A flicker of something deeply complex crossed its torn face, almost like a human trying to say something.

Li Huowang wasn't about to wait for it to think things through. He began to slowly step backward. Just as the Void Nian's massive body was swallowed back into the yellow-brown dust, a woman's voice, laden with countless emotions, emerged from within.

"I want to send a colored letter and a foot-long silk scroll. But the mountains are high and the waters wide—how would I know where you are?"

Li Huowang raised his weapon by reflex. "'Silk'?! Did it recognize me as a Heart-Element?!"

After a long pause, when he realized the Void Nian had truly left, Li Huowang understood he had misinterpreted. Those two lines seemed to carry a different meaning.

"'Foot-long silk'? Brother Zhuge, what did the Void Nian mean by that?" Li Huowang asked silently in his mind.

Zhuge Yuan gazed in the direction the Void Nian had left. After a moment's thought, he said lightly, "The Void Nian has always been fond of mimicry. It doesn't mean anything. Brother Li, in your current state, you should hurry back to Great Liang to rest."

Li Huowang glanced at him, then down at his own injured foot, covered in wrinkles and wounds. "How can I catch up to the fissure like this? I'll restore some strength here first."

With that, Li Huowang leaned on his sword, found his red Daoist robe and draped it back over himself, then located a rock and slowly sat down.

Gradually, the dust kicked up by the earthquake began to settle. The sight before him was utterly staggering. The tremor had completely transformed the landscape.

Where there had just been flat plains, there was now a sheer cliff. He was sitting right on its precarious edge.

What is going on? Li Huowang looked down at everything lying in chaos at the base of the cliff, then raised his eyes again to the sun, mottled black and yellow. His mind was a mess, overwhelmed by a sensation like being trapped in a dream.

Beside him, Zhuge Yuan silently watched the same scene. After a long while, he spoke slowly, "I... do not know either."

— Next chapter update at 00:01 (Chapter complete)