The Face of Xu'er

Chapter 608: Xu

Though he didn’t understand how it had happened, at this moment he had indeed turned real again.

Afraid the other party would use that strange power to turn him false once more, Li Huowang immediately began to counterattack.

“Dad, my bronze coin sword is gone.”

But Li Huowang’s attention at that moment was entirely focused on the masked man kneeling on the ground and the five Heart-Elements. He didn’t register what Li Sui was saying at all.

“Die for me!” Li Huowang swung the spine-sword with force, slashing at the five Heart-Elements.

The five Heart-Elements, who had been in the middle of their worship ceremony, never expected Li Huowang to suddenly turn from false back to real at this moment.

Shww!

The heads of the five Heart-Elements, along with their shoulders, were sent to the Great Qi together.

“Feel your heads! You have no heads left!”

At Li Huowang’s reminder, as the Heart-Elements simultaneously reached for their heads, their bodies instantly went limp, collapsed to the ground, and never rose again.

Having finally dealt with those troublesome five, Li Huowang immediately shifted his blade without hesitation, pointing it at the Dǒumǔ Heart-Pan sitting in the wooden chair.

The moment the two made contact, the entire floor split open left and right like a blood-filled maw, the jagged wooden spikes and cones at the edges slamming heavily shut, swallowing both of them inside.

Interlocking wooden spikes stood like chaotic knives thrust into the ground. The roofless cabin fell silent once more. No living thing remained.

Time passed second by second, minute by minute. The dark clouds in the sky gradually spread, and from the deepest point of those clouds, an eye appeared—the eye of the Mountain-God-Ghost that Dǒumǔ had possessed earlier.

And just then, a blood-red worm, its mouthparts bristling with needle-like teeth, bit through the wooden floor and crawled out, voraciously gnawing at all the wood around it.

This was only the beginning. More and more fleshy worms drilled out from beneath the wood, devouring every piece of timber they could see.

Soon, the entire floor was gnawed into a thousand holes, exposing Li Huowang beneath it to the open sky.

Li Huowang’s chest was now wide open, completely packed with writhing flesh. To deal with this Dǒumǔ Heart-Pan, he had unhesitatingly sacrificed his own five viscera to Bāsì, carrying out the Intercalation of the Five Phases.

The power bought with his life was immense. With a chhhh sound, Li Huowang raised the spine-sword and plunged it heavily into Dǒumǔ Heart-Pan’s high-arched belly.

Then, as he twisted it with force, the darkness in the sky churned even faster.

Though it was already futile, the Yin-Yang Dǒumǔ raised both hands, pressing down desperately on the descending spine-sword.

“Still won’t die?” Li Huowang’s tentacles pushed hard against the ground, launching his body high into the air, and he landed directly on the sword’s hilt.

The sharp spine-sword bore down with crushing weight, finally pinning the Dǒumǔ Heart-Pan to the wooden boards. What he had promised Jìzāi was finally done.

Just at that instant, heaven and earth suddenly shifted. Li Huowang’s body passed straight through the spine-sword. His body and the sword became misaligned, fused into one.

The spine-sword was inside his own body, yet not only did he feel no pain, but when he looked down, he could clearly see the spine-sword.

Having been through this before, Li Huowang recognized the feeling. He understood he had turned false again. But this time, he realized it wasn’t just him—the entire ship, the entire sea, perhaps even the whole of heaven and earth had gone false.

It was as if matter had vanished in that instant. Everything “true” had disappeared, leaving only the false.

This state didn’t last long, however. Then, quite suddenly, the “truth” of the whole world returned, and the false vanished in its place.

A bewildered Qiū Chībǎo, the monk, and Jīnshān Zhǎo all lowered their heads, feeling their substantial bodies.

“I’m alive? I’m really alive?! I can go do good deeds again!” The monk jumped around in ecstasy.

“What’s going on?” Li Huowang wondered inwardly. But then a look of sudden realization crossed his face. He immediately looked up at the sky. “So that’s it. So this is how the Heavenly Calamity comes about?”

Since he had already eliminated Dǒumǔ’s Heart-Pan, Jìzāi was probably in the middle of seizing control of the Yin-Yang Dǒumǔ’s True-False Heavenly Way. The appearance of the Heavenly Calamity must have been the effect of the Siming’s struggle.

Bang!

Feeling that her body had returned, Péng Lóngténg immediately left Li Huowang without hesitation and charged toward the ship’s railing.

But just as she was about to climb, her hand, grabbing a broken piece of timber, passed straight through the wood. She had turned back into Li Huowang’s illusion.

“Ahh… turned back again.” The monk’s face showed deep regret as he felt his body disappear.

“So this is it?” Li Huowang closed his eyes, sensing everything around him.

If the Heavenly Calamity had ended so quickly, then his Siming, Jìzāi, had probably already fully grasped Dǒumǔ’s True-False Heavenly Way.

In theory, his future self mastering two Heavenly Ways should be a momentous thing. But as far as Li Huowang could feel, there was nothing at all.

Huuu… huuu… huuu…

A strange whistling sound appeared above his head.

Li Huowang looked up. The wind blew his bangs wildly to one side. A military helicopter, its red warning lights flashing, appeared in the sky. Looking at the Chinese characters on the helicopter’s underside, Li Huowang gave a helpless smile. “Looks like Old Liú did call the police after all.”

Things had gotten this big—it probably wouldn’t be easy to smooth over. Especially with the ship full of bodies.

He looked down at Xú Shòu, who was barely breathing, a look of indifference on his face. “Doesn’t matter. At least Yáng Nà and my parents are safe now.”

Staring at the one ultimately responsible, Li Huowang grew more irritated the longer he looked. He bent down and reached out to pull the sunglasses off Xú Shòu’s face, putting them on himself. “You went through all this trouble, and you even cost me an arm. But I don’t blame you. Watch yourself in your next life!”

Holding a hand covered in rings over the bleeding wound where the bronze coin sword was embedded, Xú Shòu’s lips trembled open. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as if he wanted to say something.

“Hm? What did you say?” Li Huowang leaned his head a little closer.

But just then, Li Huowang’s pupils contracted to pinpricks. He realized that without the sunglasses, Xú Shòu’s face was one he seemed to have seen somewhere before!

Distant memories resurfaced in his mind. Soon, a filthy, neglected nunnery appeared in his thoughts—Ān Cí Nunnery!

“Xú… Xú’ér? You’re Xú’ér? Are you Abbess Jìngxīn’s son, Xú’ér?!” Li Huowang demanded urgently.

Examining every detail carefully, Li Huowang was utterly certain that this man’s face was exactly the same as that Heart-Element son the abbess had raised inside his own excess flesh—the one whose limbs had completely degenerated!

This revelation sent a shock through Li Huowang that made every pore on his body stand on end.

The chaotic, tangled information made his head begin to throb with pain. Just moments ago, everything had been fine, but now his thoughts were in complete disarray.