Departure

Chapter 554: Departure

On a dirt road winding through a dense forest, Li Sui paced anxiously in circles on all fours, as if searching for something.

The ground was covered in his claw marks; it seemed he had been looking for a very long time.

But despite searching for so long, there was no trace of Li Huowang.

As time passed, Li Sui grew more and more anxious.

He had always been by Li Huowang's side; he had long since grown used to it.

The thought that Li Huowang might never appear again made Li Sui feel like crying.

Just as rolling tears began to well up at the corners of his eyes, a fissure opened to his left, and Li Huowang, his body scorched black and covered in wounds, crawled out from within.

"Dad!!"

Li Sui immediately pounced on him, licking his chin excitedly with a tongue covered in tentacles.

"You're crushing me! I'm still injured! Let go!" Li Huowang shoved and pushed until he finally pried Li Sui off himself.

"Dad, why did you throw me out? I thought I'd never see you again. It felt terrible." Li Sui circled Li Huowang as he spoke.

"You were inside my body—I couldn't move freely. With that much fire, it would have easily burned your tentacles. It's over now, don't be afraid, everything's past." Li Huowang reached out and patted his head reassuringly.

Feeling comforted, Li Sui gently rubbed his white skull against Li Huowang's palm, his voice clinging as he asked, "Dad, can we go home now?"

"Not yet. I haven't found the Shangji Pass. I was planning to go back to Great Liang first to heal my wounds."

With that, Li Huowang looked around at the dense forest, then raised his head to gaze at the perfect, setting sun.

He had to admit, the feeling was very strange. Great Qi had been destroyed into such a terrible state, yet here in Great Liang, there wasn't a single sign of it. It was completely calm.

It was hard to imagine that these two places were so close together.

As for what this meant, Li Huowang couldn't say. But he didn't care. There were too many incomprehensible things in this crazy world; he didn't need to get to the bottom of everything.

Back in the familiar Great Liang, the moment Li Huowang's heart completely relaxed, he immediately felt his severely injured body on the verge of collapse.

"Dad, are you alright?" Li Sui reached out to steady Li Huowang. "Are you hungry? Are you thirsty?"

"It's nothing. I can handle this little injury. Help me over to the side to sit for a bit." Li Huowang endured the pain, looked down at the gap in his waist, and reached in to push back the things that were falling out.

Li Sui's tentacles burrowed in as well. In an instant, Li Sui's body vanished, and Li Huowang's previously broken form was filled in by her.

"Dad, is it a little better now?"

Hearing the voice coming from inside his own body, Li Huowang reached out and touched one of the tentacles. "Thanks. That saves me the trouble of wasting time healing. Let's go. We'll head back to Great Qi and look for the Shangji Pass."

"Are you sure that's okay? Are you really not afraid of dying there?" Shangguan Yuting, standing nearby, looked at the chaotic state of Li Huowang and asked with a trace of worry on her delicate face.

"There's no need! The sooner this is settled, the better!" Li Huowang untied the cloth strips from his spine-blade sword and fastened it tightly to his body.

"Now that Great Qi finally doesn't have a Heavenly Calamity, I have to hurry. Who knows how much longer Great Qi can hold on? If it collapses, everything will be lost."

With that, Li Huowang took a deep breath, gripped his spine-blade sword, and swung it with force, then dove into the fissure.

Not long after he left, a speeding carriage passed through the spot where Li Huowang had just been, heading toward the capital city.

The man driving the carriage glanced at the dense claw marks on the ground and said to the person inside, "We'll rest when we get home. Look at the ground around here—there's probably a tiger nearby."

A woman's dissatisfied voice came from inside the carriage. "Why are you changing your mind again? Hey, slow down. This ride is so bumpy, my butt is numb."

"You ungrateful woman! This kind gentleman took pity on us poor souls and lent us a carriage for the ride. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't even have the chance to sit."

As soon as he finished speaking, the carriage curtain was lifted, and a hand wearing a silver bracelet reached out, directly pinching the man's ear. "Say that again if you dare! Do you really think that just because I'm married off, you can play the tyrant at home?"

"Hey, hey, hey!! Sis, I'm driving the carriage here! Stop that. Let the stranger see us making a scene."

Gao Zhijian, hunched over and sitting silently at the back of the carriage, watched the brother and sister argue in front of him.

Although his eyes were on them, his mind was entirely occupied with what he planned to do once they reached the capital.

Regardless of whether the chaos in his head was real or not, Gao Zhijian hadn't wanted to deal with his past.

He liked Niuxin Village. He planned to live there for the rest of his life. If he could marry Xiaoman, that would be even better.

But along the way, he had seen all the hardships Brother Li had endured to protect them. Now that Brother Li's eyes were clearly failing, he had to help.

Two grown men—if Gouwa couldn't find him, then surely using the emperor's power would work. After all, the whole world belonged to the emperor.

In truth, Gao Zhijian himself wasn't entirely sure about his past. Those vague memories could be real or fake. But no matter what, he had to try.

"I am the emperor. Once I get there, the people in the palace will surely recognize me, right?"

"Since I was emperor before, the current emperor must be my relative. Asking him for help shouldn't be difficult, should it?"

"Even if I'm not the emperor, it doesn't matter. There's also a general's memory in my head. Maybe I was a general too. It must be easy for a general to find someone."

The more Gao Zhijian thought, the more his head began to ache. His memories were too chaotic, scattered in pieces, and piecing them together was no easy task.

When Gao Zhijian came back to his senses, he found that the carriage had stopped. The brother and sister had already gotten off.

"Uh, kind sir, we've arrived. Thank you for the carriage. Our village is just ahead. Would you like to come in for a simple meal?" The man who had been driving the carriage clasped his hands politely and asked.

Gao Zhijian clasped his hands in return, then shook his head. He walked to the front of the carriage, picked up the reins, and drove the cart slowly onto the dirt path.

"What a good man. And so big and strong. If I weren't already married, I'd want to marry him," the woman sighed with emotion.

The man let out a regretful sigh and said to his sister beside him, "Yeah, look at him. Sturdy as an ox. If he were plowing fields, he'd be worth two oxen. What a pity, though. Such a shame he's a mute."