Heart-Element, Heart-Pan

Chapter 606: Heart-Element, Heart-Pan

Beneath the black hull of the ship, with sufficient oxygen flooding Li Huowang's lungs, he no longer had any weakness.

The fate of the Eight Immortals in the seawater was obvious.

Soon, patches of black and yellow wood shavings covered all the seawater around Li Huowang. No matter how well they could move, in this state, they were helpless.

Having dealt with the Eight Immortals, the black tentacles growing from Li Huowang's limbs flapped rapidly, carrying him toward the surface.

Once he clambered back onto the deck, panting heavily, Li Huowang decided to go for the hard approach.

Since the other side already knew he was coming, sneaking around was pointless. Besides, if it came down to a direct confrontation—he was a Heart-Pan of a Siming too. It wasn't certain he would lose.

Shiiing. A rift flew across, striking the bronze tripod where three giant incense sticks were inserted. The offering vessel shattered, spilling incense ash across the deck.

"Come out! If you don't come out, I'll burn this entire ship down!" Li Huowang glanced at his own skin, more than half of it already scorched away. He pulled a fire-striker from within his body again, scraped it against his own skin, and flames erupted instantly, engulfing him completely.

Raging fire began to spread from Li Huowang's feet, creeping outward.

The cabin door burst open, and a large crowd of people came pouring out. Their skin was dark, and their clothing was unlike anything Li Huowang had ever seen. It was strange.

No matter who they were, when they saw Li Huowang about to burn the ship, fury blazed in their eyes, and they charged at him with all kinds of weapons regardless of the cost.

There were skilled fighters among them, but it was useless. As the fire spread faster and faster, their only end was to become fuel that made the flames burn even brighter.

The fire was getting bigger and bigger. Just as the entire ship was about to turn into a blazing inferno, the flames on Li Huowang's body and on the deck vanished abruptly.

As if time had been reversed, the scorched black planks quickly returned to their original color. Stranger still, the bronze tripod at the bow—the piece Li Huowang had cut off—was restored to its former state as well.

A creaking sound came as the door slowly opened. A ragged man with an iron collar around his neck crawled out on all fours. The rusty chain linking his neck to the interior of the cabin scraped against the floor, making a harsh grating noise.

But there wasn't only one person. Soon a second crawled out, then a third, fourth, and fifth—five men in total.

Their faces looked no different from a normal person's, but their eyes were all the same: double pupils.

With a grim expression, Li Huowang clenched his fists. He knew that after all this trouble, the main event was finally here.

"Stand up." An aged voice rang out from within the pitch-black cabin. The five men, their gazes vacant, slowly rose from the ground, repeating after the voice in unison.

"Stand up."

Faced with these bizarre five, Li Huowang wasn't particularly flustered. He stared into the darkness of the cabin and asked, "Are you the Heart-Pan that Doumu was hiding?"

Just then, Li Huowang heard the sound of hooves to his left. He turned his head and saw dust rising from the distant dock.

Someone seemed to be arriving at the pier, but whoever it was, it didn't matter—the ship had already drifted a distance out to sea.

His expression hardening, Li Huowang turned back to the darkness in the distant cabin. "Come out. Since I've come all the way here, what's the point of hiding and sneaking around?"

Bang! The headless Peng Longteng landed heavily beside Li Huowang, took a big step forward, and charged at the five men with all her might.

"This one loses her legs," the aged voice spoke again.

As the five men repeated the words in unison, Peng Longteng's legs snapped clean off mid-stride, and she crashed heavily onto the planks.

When Li Huowang looked back at the five men, a chill ran down his spine. This ability to speak things into existence reminded him of something terrible. "Heart-Elements? All five of them are Heart-Elements?!"

Now that he knew their true identity, Li Huowang finally understood how the cut wooden wall had healed itself, how the shattered bronze tripod had been restored to its original shape. In all the world, only the cultivation of a Heart-Element could achieve this.

Faced with Li Huowang's question, the person hiding in the cabin showed no desire to answer. As the Heart-Elements spoke in unison again, the entire deck suddenly split open. With no foothold, Li Huowang plunged straight down into the hold below.

He landed steadily. Raising his head to look ahead, he saw the five Heart-Elements hanging on the distant wall like five hanged ghosts, dragged there by the iron chains around their necks.

Being a Heart-Element himself, Li Huowang felt a deep, visceral disgust. The way the other side treated Heart-Elements as mere magical tools was repulsive.

Five living human beings, reduced to puppets under the control of another.

But conversely, Li Huowang understood Heart-Elements well. He knew how to deal with them.

Seeing that the other side was about to open its mouth to speak, Li Huowang didn't hesitate. He pulled out an awl and pierced his own eardrums.

Then, without a moment's delay, he closed his eyes and charged at the five Heart-Elements on the wall.

Even though, from Li Sui's perspective, the wooden planks beneath him were cracking and liquefying, her father seemed completely unaffected, running across various surfaces as if they were solid ground.

Giant walls bristling with spikes, searing molten iron—Li Huowang slammed through them all without any difficulty.

"Die!" Two rifts leading to the Great Qi flew toward the five Heart-Elements.

When Li Huowang opened his eyes, he saw the Heart-Elements had been lifted by their chains and dodged the attack.

But there was no disappointment in his eyes. He had already planned for what to do if this failed.

Just as Li Huowang sensed that the person hiding in the cabin was about to give another command to the Heart-Elements, he whipped a rusted green Daoist bell out of his robes and shook it violently.

He wasn't trying to summon the Wandering Lord. He just wanted to use the jarring ring to interrupt the commands being sent to the Heart-Elements.

Heart-Elements were indeed troublesome, but blocking the commands being given to them didn't seem that hard.

Seeing the five Heart-Elements pause, Li Huowang, still mid-air, flicked his left hand toward the cabin door. Two slender tentacles shot out and coiled around the doorframe.

The next instant, the tentacles yanked hard. Li Huowang flew into the pitch-black cabin like a stone from a sling, leaving a blur behind him.

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