The Dice

The Dice

“Those people don’t even have any guards around them. They’re just ordinary folks. Once we Zuowandao find them, we don’t even have to lift a finger ourselves. We just have to stir things up a bit on the sidelines, and they’ll go and get themselves killed. Am I right, Red Center?”

The Dice’s words seemed to be directed at Li Huowang, but they felt more like a reminder.

A round jade pendant? Li Huowang immediately thought of the jade pendant he had stolen from the deceased senior brother Xuan Yang’s residence back in Qingfeng Temple! The same pendant he had recently traded for a horse!

Xuan Yang was actually a descendant of the Great Liang royal bloodline? A stunned Li Huowang recalled the young man who had tried to escape Qingfeng Temple and ended up being fed to the Black Tai Sui by Danyangzi.

The reason he died… was it the Zuowandao’s doing? Back in Qingfeng Temple, they had already infiltrated?!

He had known that the Heavenly Scripture Danyangzi received was delivered by the Zuowandao, but what he hadn’t known was that there was another Zuowandao inside Qingfeng Temple!

“Who is it? Who’s the one pretending to be Zuowandao!” Xiaoman, Gao Zhijian, Bai Lingmiao, Yang Xiaohai—those faces flashed rapidly through Li Huowang’s mind.

A “pop” sound, like a bubble bursting, suddenly appeared in his head. His own face appeared in his own mind.

Dust-covered memories from the past began to replay, scene by scene. Memories from before, deliberately sealed away with Zuowandao techniques.

“It was me? I was the one who hinted at Xuan Yang to run? I was the Zuowandao inside Qingfeng Temple?” Li Huowang’s body began to twitch uncontrollably. He clutched his head in pain.

He suddenly recalled the entire sequence of events from that earlier time, the period before he had transmigrated into this world. He himself had pretended to run into Danyangzi, and pretended to get caught by him, all to deal with Xuan Yang, that hidden dragon’s descendant.

Even the “Old Lord” that Danyangzi claimed had given him the Heavenly Scripture was him in disguise! He was Red Center! He had fooled everyone!

“No! Wrong! My memories were tampered with by Doumu’s Great Yin! This isn’t my memory! I’m not Red Center! I’m Li Huowang! Don’t let the Zuowandao trick me!” Li Huowang screamed in his own heart.

But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, the memories of being Red Center became clearer and clearer.

Those memories of Red Center began to multiply, encroaching on Li Huowang’s own memories.

When the past of Red Center started to outweigh Li Huowang’s, he could no longer tell if he was Red Center or Li Huowang.

Such an abnormal reaction from Li Huowang would have been noticed by the Imperial Preceptor under normal circumstances.

But right now, Huangfu Tiangang’s full attention was on the Dice’s words. He had no time to spare for Li Huowang.

“Don’t think you can trick this old man! Do you think a few lies can shake my Dao heart? Do you think I have no other contingency?” A bolt of purple lightning struck down, charring and curling the Dice’s remaining arm and leg.

Even though he was on the verge of death, with only the barest breath left in him, the Dice’s spirit seemed only to grow stronger.

“Hahaha!! Lies? Tiangang, you still don’t understand us Zuowandao well enough. Using lies to cheat people is a game for the small fry in our ranks! I am the mighty Dice! When I cheat, I only use the truth!”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me. The Great Liang’s Dragon Vein is already severed anyway. The Yu’er Shen is here too. All you have to do now is sit back and wait for the show to begin. Hehehe~”

The old general nearby couldn’t stomach his arrogance. He raised his guandao blade and pressed it against the Dice’s half-neck.

“Bastard! What good does severing the Liang Dragon Vein do you? When the whole world descends into chaos, you’ll die too!”

“Hehehe, it’s just dying. Do you think I, the head of the Zuowandao, am afraid of that?” The Dice’s body arched, his neck stretched, and his half-head fell to the ground.

“Gentlemen, I take my leave! I’ll go first! Oh, and Red Center, no need to burn ghost money for me on Qingming Festival. We Zuowandao don’t go in for that.” With those words, the head in the pool of blood lost all life.

“Want to die? It won’t be that easy!! This old man will shatter your soul and scatter it to the winds!”

As Huangfu Tiangang’s Constellation Sword shook violently in the air, bolt after bolt of purple lightning was drawn down, viciously striking the Dice’s corpse.

After more than a dozen strikes, there was nothing left of the half-corpse on the ground.

A muscle twitched on the Great Liang Imperial Preceptor’s face. He let out a cold snort at the patch of scorched brick, then turned and walked back toward the palace.

“Waaah~ Big Bro Dice~~~ You died so tragically!! How am I supposed to go on without you! Waaah!” The hallucinatory Zuowandao crouched by the scorched spot, weeping without tears.

“Monk! Monk! Don’t you want to be a good person? Didn’t you see my boss die? Come and do the funeral rites for my Big Bro Dice!”

His expression grave, Zhuge Yuan walked past the howling man and came to Li Huowang, who was clawing at his own scalp. “Brother Li! Brother Li! Hold on! This isn’t over yet!”

“I…” Li Huowang stood up, holding his head, and looked at Zhuge Yuan with a dazed expression. “Who am I? Am I Red Center or Li Huowang?”

“Whoever you are, do you want to see everything that happened to Great Qi play out in Great Liang as well? Think of your Niuxin Village! Think of your fellow disciples! And your daughter, Li Sui! Your Bai Lingmiao! Do you want them to end up the same way as the people of Great Qi?”

Zhuge Yuan’s words were like a bucket of cold water thrown over Li Huowang’s head, pulling him out of his self-doubt.

“The Dice’s puzzle isn’t flawless! Hurry up and catch up to the Great Liang Imperial Preceptor! There is a way to reattach the root of Great Liang!”

Feeling his inner resolve start to waver, Li Huowang slapped himself hard, then sprinted off in the direction the Great Liang Imperial Preceptor had gone.

The Great Liang Imperial Preceptor hadn’t gone far. He entered the main hall where Ji Lin had received Li Huowang earlier.

No sooner had Li Huowang stepped inside than he saw, surrounded by a mass of fallen eunuchs, Huangfu Tiangang’s grim face as he walked toward Ji Lin on his dragon throne.

“Imperial Preceptor! How dare you! I am the Emperor! Are you bold enough to commit high treason?” Ji Lin’s fierce face was panicked. This was the Imperial Preceptor turning on him.

But in the face of Ji Lin’s accusation, Huangfu Tiangang said nothing. He walked straight to the dragon throne and roughly yanked Ji Lin to the ground.

“Guards! Guards, protect the throne!” Ji Lin, using his right hand that only had two fingers left, propped himself up on the golden bricks and shouted in despair.

Just as he was about to stand up, the Imperial Preceptor lifted him into the air. Biting his own fingertip, the Preceptor began drawing talismans on Ji Lin’s body at lightning speed.

“Imperial Preceptor? Imperial Preceptor!! Huangfu Tiangang! You have some nerve! I am the Emperor! I am the only remaining bloodline of the Ji family! If you dare show me disrespect, are you not afraid that no one will be left to bear the burden of Great Liang’s Mandate?”

While Ji Lin was still speaking, the Preceptor finished drawing. Then he slapped Ji Lin’s face hard.

In the next instant, the red talismans on Ji Lin’s body came alive. Like swift dragons, they slithered rapidly across his skin.

Soon, the talismans seemed to have caught something. Their slithering accelerated.

A very resonant voice came from under Ji Lin’s dragon robe. “Oh dear, oh dear, you found me. So clever of you~ How did you know that this little girl’s most cherished possession was me?”

In the next moment, something rolled out from under the dragon robe and rolled toward the main gate where Li Huowang was standing. “Red Center! Red Center! What are you standing there gawking at! Come help!”

But before it could roll very far, Huangfu Tiangang’s big foot came down and crushed it completely to a pulp.

Next chapter update time: 00:02

(End of chapter)