Intercalation

Chapter 626: Intercalation

His own back had somehow been injured.

Sensing something was wrong, He Xinlai turned to look behind him, but found nothing there.

Taishan Shi, seated cross-legged in the earth, clapped his hands together with a heavy bang. Dust erupted from the ground instantly, and within the swirling cloud of dirt, a hollow, transparent human figure was silhouetted—Li Huowang had just displaced his body.

The ground trembled. The woods beside them burst open as a bloated Flesh-Buddha, limbs sprouting from its swollen mass, came rolling out.

“Amitabha! Fellow benefactors! The sea of suffering has no shore—turn back now and reach the other side!!”

“Quick! His reinforcements are here! Stop holding back! While he’s blind, kill him!”

He Xinlai grabbed the black cloth draped over his own shoulder and tore it free. Then, with a violent toss, he hurled it toward the sun. As the coarse black fabric wrapped around the sunlight, an entire wide area was plunged into shadow. A localized heavenly calamity had taken form.

“Divine troops!!”

With Taishan Shi’s low shout, Li Huowang immediately felt gazes pressing in on him from every direction. He could even sense the pulling inside Li Sui’s body.

“Dad… I feel… so happy!” Li Sui’s tentacles began spreading through Li Huowang’s body at a terrifying speed. This time it was no longer parasitism—it was assimilation!

If he didn’t solve this problem immediately, he would end up like that steamed bun—utterly merged into Li Sui!

“Peng!” The towering Peng Longteng blocked Li Huowang’s left side. Li Huowang screamed inside his own mind: “Suisui! Hold on! Don’t give in to your instinct! We’re almost out!”

Just then, the ground gave way beneath them. Li Huowang plummeted into a deep pit in the earth. Within the darkness of that hole, things that hid in the shadows—their bodies flickering between real and illusion—writhed and pressed in toward him from all sides.

Li Huowang slashed wildly with his copper-coin sword and purple-tasseled blade, barely holding his own in the dark. Meanwhile, He Xinlai hovered at the edge, picking his moment to strike.

Spotting an opening in Li Huowang’s blind flailing, He Xinlai formed a sword seal, stepped onto his own shadow, and shot forward.

But just as his longsword was about to pierce Li Huowang’s throat, He Xinlai’s vision blurred. In the next instant, Li Huowang’s hand had reached out—steady, calm—and caught the blade.

“Huh?!”

At that moment, Li Huowang slowly raised his head. The eye that had been pierced bulged, then rolled out of its socket and fell to the ground. In the empty socket, a strange new eye—bearing two pupils—shone brightly.

“Who did you just say was blind?”

His own eyes had been ruined, yes—but he had his daughter’s eyeballs to borrow.

He hadn’t revealed them immediately on purpose. He had planned to lure He Xinlai in, and the man had taken the bait.

He Xinlai’s heart dropped. Without hesitation, he released his sword and retreated into the darkness.

But he was too close. There was no escape now. Peng Longteng’s massive frame blocked his retreat, and Li Huowang’s tentacles swept forward from behind, crashing over him like an avalanche.

“Taishan! Taishan Shi!”

He Xinlai screamed for his ally to help. Nothing happened. Realizing the situation had turned, Taishan Shi had already fled.

When Hong Da’s flying blade slashed the black cloth in the sky, severing its hold, light returned to the world. Taishan Shi was nowhere to be seen.

As the others surrounded the bound He Xinlai, everything was settled.

Li Huowang looked down at the man he had reduced to a limbless torso, all his teeth knocked out. He pulled out his torture kit and spread it open. “I’ll do it!”

“No!” Buddha-Jade Furnace cut him off immediately. “We finally caught a high Wu of the Fa Sect. What if you accidentally kill him? He needs to be sent back to the Office for interrogation by specialists.”

“Ha. You think I’m beneath you? I’m from the Ao-Jing Sect!”

“Everything must proceed according to the rules.”

“Fuck your rules! When has the Supervisory Heavenly Office ever followed rules? You’re just in it for the bounty—those Yang Life Pills! I’ve worked inside the Office before! Don’t let Taishan get away over a handful of scraps!”

Li Huowang was about to force the issue, but this time even Hong Da and Liu Zongyuan sided with Buddha-Jade Furnace.

“Ear-brother, take it easy. The Great Qi’s Fa Sect hasn’t been here that long. Even if we interrogate him, we won’t get much.”

“If we dig something important about the Fa Sect out of this man’s head, maybe I can wipe them out in one strike.”

“Ear-Nine, I know you have plenty of Ao-Jing tricks up your sleeve. But in interrogation, there are people in the Office better than you.”

Li Huowang’s brow was tightly furrowed as he swept his gaze across their faces. Their reactions made it clear—this man had a very high bounty within the Office.

Unless he killed them all, he couldn’t force the interrogation himself.

“I must have been out of my fucking mind, ever thinking I could work with you people to save the Great Liang. All of you just look out for your own interests!” Li Huowang spun around in fury, dropped to his knees, and shoved his face into the dirt, searching for traces of Taishan Shi’s earth-escape.

He searched for a long time. Eventually, he found some marks.

Ignoring the others from the Office, Li Huowang carefully studied the subtle changes in the soil and set off in relentless pursuit.

But he hadn’t gone far before he stopped again. A massive mountain blocked his path. Taishan Shi had apparently anticipated being tracked and had burrowed straight into the mountain. Unless Li Huowang could move the entire peak, there was no way to reach him.

“Ear-brother, don’t be mad. Heheheh~” Hearing the laughter behind him, Li Huowang didn’t turn around. “If you’ve got something to say, say it and be quick.”

“Ai, we’ve known each other this long. Is this really necessary? Think back—we went through life and death together fighting that Heart-Turbid.” Liu Zongyuan, wearing his wooden mask, walked up to Li Huowang with a grin.

“This is a good thing! Why are you still looking unhappy? We kept a great Wu alive. That’s a serious blow to the Fa Sect! There aren’t that many great Wu in the Fa Sect, you know.”

Seeing Li Huowang’s expression soften slightly, Liu Zongyuan continued. “Don’t rush~ You eat rice one mouthful at a time, you do things one step at a time. We’ll definitely wipe out the Fa Sect completely. Don’t stay mad at Chief Recorder Ji. Do it for my sake, eh?”

Li Huowang took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. “You know what? If it weren’t for the waste of time, I’d really want to kill you all.”

“Hahaha~ Ear-brother sure knows how to joke.” Liu Zongyuan laughed and moved to throw an arm around Li Huowang’s shoulder, but was blocked by the tangle of tentacles covering his body. “Ear-brother, shouldn’t you call off the magic?”

“Suisui, retract the tentacles.”

“...”

“Suisui?”

“I can’t pull them back, Dad. After going through that black sky… we seem to have gotten stuck together…” Li Sui’s voice was laced with grievance.