Secrets

The Martial clan commanders in the distance, upon seeing the White Lotus appear in the center of the battlefield, found their emperor's earlier words a little more credible.

The war drum's rhythm shifted. The scale-dragon soldiers coordinated and pressed down upon these heretics.

On the nearby mountainside, the archers began to slowly draw the strings of their octagonal crossbows taut.

But the next moment, great flames suddenly erupted on the mountainside and among the trebuchet positions—the Ao-Jing Sect had made their move.

Though the pressure on Bai Lingmiao had suddenly lessened, surrounded by layer upon layer of Martial clansmen, she still felt the immense weight. This concerned not only herself but also Li Huowang's very survival.

Trapped in the encirclement, Bai Lingmiao glanced at Li Huowang, who was lost in his own world. Her expression twisted into one of fierce resolve as she shouted, "Rise, possessed mediums!"

Hearing this, all those around her immediately drew serrated short knives with one hand and struck their own foreheads. Bright red blood flowed down their faces in time with their chants.

"We invoke the gods, the gods enter the body. The gods summon this altar—for what cause? We summon the fierce generals of this altar, the golden-light masters on both sides, the five great generals who slay the rebellious, the five-paced turning dharma-wheel, the great true Pu'an Bodhisattva!"

Once they finished the incantation, the possessed mediums seemed possessed by spirits, their faces devoid of all fear as they charged toward the towering Martial clansmen.

In terms of skill, these possessed mediums were no match for the battle-hardened soldiers. All manner of weapons pierced in and out of their bodies with terrifying speed.

Yet these mediums seemed utterly unaffected, using their physical bodies to stubbornly hold the soldiers in place.

Bai Lingmiao formed a lotus mudra with both hands and pressed it firmly against her forehead. The lotus mark on her brow instantly transformed into a twin lotus. "Blending fragrance, both fair, each scent distinct; petals part east and west, stems joined at the root!"

The moment Bai Lingmiao finished the chant, her body began to tremble violently. One half of her face was rage, the other grief—a truly bizarre sight. Her shadow beneath her began to swell enormously.

Strange as she was, the Martial clansmen paid it no mind. The earth suddenly exploded as a soldier drenched in killing intent leaped high, gripping a dragon-horned weapon as he lunged at Bai Lingmiao.

Just as he was about to strike her, her body split cleanly left and right, dodging the attack.

Now, Bai Lingmiao's lower body remained unchanged, but her upper body had split like that of conjoined twins into two torsos. The faces bore two expressions: one of pity and mercy, the other of savage cruelty.

"Thump… thump… thump… thump—" Four slender hands tipped with black nails struck rapidly against the white drum at Bai Lingmiao's waist like whips.

Accompanying the drumbeats, a red bridal veil covered both heads. From beneath the veil, the Second Spirit began to chant.

"Winged steeds soar through ninefold skies, treasures cloud-bright on Iron-Scraper Mountain! I am the Laughing Lord, she the Laughing Wife; the third laugh finds the old immortal without a path! I call upon the Old Immortal—and you must come!"

The next instant, wild animal fur burst from the backs of Bai Lingmiao's hands. Wolf bones, pushing out from beneath the red veil, clamped down left and right on the Martial clansman's wrists. With a simultaneous pull from both sides, the hand gripping the weapon was instantly torn apart.

While Bai Lingmiao and her possessed mediums were buying time, Li Huowang had already swallowed most of Shangguan Yuting's head. The eye on his forehead was bloodshot, swollen larger than his own skull. Paired with the tentacles writhing across his body, he looked utterly horrifying.

His expression was twisted into one of extreme agony, as if he could barely breathe. Yet Li Huowang felt it still wasn't enough.

"Not enough! Still not enough!"

Li Huowang's mouth split open to his ears. He opened his jaw as wide as it would go and lunged forward, cramming Shangguan Yuting's entire head into his mouth.

The moment her limp body had fully dissipated, the eye on his forehead swelled to its maximum. The skin of Li Huowang's scalp stretched almost transparent.

"I… I see it!!" As Li Huowang screamed these words hysterically, his head first swelled to twice its size, then shrank down to the size of a walnut, and then—bang—Li Huowang's head burst apart like smoke.

In that single instant, through the secrets of the Supreme Extremity Confluence, Li Huowang saw what was hidden beneath the world. Everything that had once been shrouded in mist became blindingly clear.

I am Red Center. When Doumu granted me the identity of Red Center back then, everything from my past changed.

The past is not merely the past. When a Siming changes a person's past, they also change that person's future!

The Simings care so much about the past because, in the end, they are fighting for each other's futures! The Four-Qi Supervisor of Celestial Affairs was right—only with causal connection does karma exist!

These Simings are not fully existing. When all traces of their existence are erased, they vanish.

In the unseen realm, Li Huowang glimpsed a fragment of the secret of a Siming's birth and death. Suddenly, he felt he understood what a Siming truly was.

Having learned these secrets, he could soon sense that many things from beyond the heavens had taken notice of him. But at this moment, he didn't care.

What he cared about more was that through the secrets of the Supreme Extremity Confluence, he had found a great deal of valuable information—including what had been on Zhuge Yuan's fan back then.

Li Huowang raised his head from where he knelt on the ground, looking up at everything in the sky. "So this was your plan?" In that moment, he saw Doumu's stolen Eye of the Mountain God.

In that sky-obscuring eye, he saw his own reflection. If he became Doumu's Heart-Pan, then the Doumu before him now was his future self.

And that was its plan. If he followed the path it had laid out, he could resolve this crisis.

"The Dice tricked my future self. I have to avenge myself." Logically, there seemed to be nothing wrong with that.

Just as Li Huowang's distance from the great eye was closing rapidly, his physical body suddenly split open on its own. Every scar that hadn't healed tore open, blooming like fresh petals.

"Pain. Agony."

The searing pain pulled Li Huowang back, dragging him farther and farther from the Eye of the Mountain God in the sky.

Feeling that familiar sensation, Li Huowang laughed. "I'm still a hot commodity around here, huh? I should have figured."

Bashe. When Doumu was setting her trap, Bashe was setting his own. More precisely, from the moment he obtained the Thousand Greats Record from those river bandits, they had both wanted to make him their Heart-Pan!

Though it felt like a long time had passed to Li Huowang, his brain matter, blood, and shattered bones—sprayed through the air—were only now beginning to fall to the ground.

This sudden development stunned both the possessed mediums and the Martial clansmen for a moment. They paused.

With unspeakable shock, they saw that this man's head was already gone. Only a mouth remained, still whispering to itself.

And his body seemed to have been subjected to a slow slicing—flesh and skin splitting open continuously, revealing the squirming black tentacles beneath.

Inside Li Huowang's body, Li Sui had already understood something. People die if they lose their heads.

"Dad! Are you okay?! Your head—"

"Shh—!" Bai Lingmiao, now with two bodies, rushed over and spoke anxiously to the tentacles growing from the stump of Li Huowang's neck. "Suisui, listen to me. Don't say anything to your dad right now!"

At these words, Li Huowang—now reduced to only a mouth—suddenly moved on his own. He charged toward the Dice, who was still entangled with the Supervisor of Celestial Affairs and Zhuge Yuan.

Bai Lingmiao clenched her fangs tightly and followed swiftly. The scale-dragon soldiers tried to block her, but she and the death-defying possessed mediums held them back.

When the Supervisor of Celestial Affairs and Zhuge Yuan saw Li Huowang's current state, they seemed to understand something instantly. They said nothing. But the same could not be said for the Dice.

"Red Center! What happened to your head?"

Li Huowang roared at him hysterically. "You damn Way-forgetting liar! Don't you try to fool me again!!"

"Your head really is gone! If you don't believe me, reach up and feel for yourself!"