Ten Emotions

When Li Huowang, standing in the seawater, realized that his emotions were being manipulated by someone, he decisively closed his eyes and silently recited in his heart, “No! I am not angry! I will not be angry!”

As he kept reciting, the towering rage within him gradually stabilized. But this feeling did not last long. When he opened his eyes again and the rain dripped into them, the violent fury surged back into his heart, impossible to dispel.

He could still think freely, but his emotions were no longer under his control.

By now, the Dan-min had vanished. They had submerged back into the water, and in the dim, murky depths, ghostly shadows flickered everywhere.

Li Huowang, dragging Lyu Xiucai with him, slaughtered them in a frenzy. But with every man he killed, the rage within him grew more concentrated, almost burning away the last shreds of his sanity.

Li Huowang knew this wouldn’t work. If he continued like this, he would become a mindless, violent madman, and then it would all be over.

Facing an enemy whose origins were unknown and who refused to show themselves, Li Huowang suppressed the fury in his heart. “This thing seems to be connected to water. A wise man does not stand beneath a crumbling wall. I have to get away from the water first!”

“Go!! All of you, go!!” Li Huowang, drenched through in the torrential rain, shouted at his people.

During their retreat, the Dan-min tried to block them, but it was clear that their strength was no match for Li Huowang.

Li Huowang and his group, along with their horse-drawn carriage, swiftly fled far from the shore. Their lower bodies finally left the seawater behind as they began to move inland toward the Shu territory.

Yet even then, the state of rage still hung over everyone’s hearts, not diminished in the slightest.

This anger kept accumulating within them, constantly provoking them to interpret their companions in the worst possible light.

By all logic, dawn should have come long ago, but the entire sky remained a murky gray.

“Why is it still affecting us?! Is that thing still following us?! Where is it?!” Li Huowang, burning with rage, looked up at the rain-laden sky. He raised his dagger and stabbed it fiercely into his own thigh.

But under the weight of his fury, the pain was greatly dulled. He barely felt it at all.

Then, without warning, the baseless rage began to dissipate rapidly. But before Li Huowang could feel any relief, a wave of grief slowly began to emerge.

This feeling was not like the swift fire of anger. Instead, it was like the black water in a gutter—slow but persistent.

They continued walking, and new emotions kept accumulating in their hearts, dredging up the hidden, painful memories of their pasts.

This was a situation Li Huowang had never experienced before. The enemy was invisible and intangible, relying solely on the Ten Emotions and Eight Sufferings to torment them relentlessly.

His own painful past kept surfacing in his mind, draining his spirit and leaving him unable to think clearly.

He was not the only one. Everyone else was the same. Even the horse pulling the cart had stopped, silently weeping two streams of tears.

“Waaah… Father! … Mother…”

Hearing a woman’s grief-stricken cry, Li Huowang turned his head. He saw Yang Na curled up into a ball, crouching beside the washing machine, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.

“What’s wrong? Just because your water got poured out? Why are you so upset?” Worried, Li Huowang quickly crouched down and looked at Yang Na with concern.

Yang Na, her eyes red from crying, shook her head gently. Tears flew from her face with the motion. “I… I don’t know… It’s just… inside…”

Seeing her reaction, Li Huowang paused for a moment, a look of realization dawning on his face.

“Nana! Has your depression relapsed?! What happened? Haven’t you been taking your medication?!”

“Ever since I got together with you, I’ve felt so happy… I thought…” Yang Na sobbed, as if her heart were breaking.

“How can you just stop taking your medication?!” Li Huowang was immediately alarmed. Not taking medication for any mental illness was a serious matter. He stood up, grabbed Yang Na’s bag, and quickly began searching through it.

A moment later, Li Huowang took out a pill bottle and came to Yang Na’s side, anxiously urging her, “Nana! Be good! Take the medicine! After you take it, you’ll feel better inside.”

“I… I don’t want to… Taking medicine feels awful… I don’t want to… Waaah…”

Overwhelmed by the crushing sorrow, Yang Na lay helplessly on the ground, crying bitterly like a child, almost incapable of rational thought.

“Nana! Nana!” Li Huowang gathered her up and held her in his arms. “Look at me! Don’t be scared! I’ll take it with you!”

With that, Li Huowang picked out a few pills from the bottle, tossed them into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed them directly.

“Those are antidepressants! Why are you eating them?!” Yang Na’s crying grew even louder.

Li Huowang took out a few more pills, put them in his mouth again, and without another word, turned his head and kissed her, gently pushing the pills across with his tongue.

As Li Huowang slowly pulled his tongue back, he realized that Bai Lingmiao in his arms had calmed down. The grief in her heart had vanished, and his own mind had returned to normal.

“How is it? Feeling better?” Li Huowang asked softly.

At that moment, Bai Lingmiao nodded gently. But then she suddenly turned her head to look up at the sky. “Brother Li, there’s something up there!!”

Li Huowang also looked up. At some point, the clouds in the sky had been pressed extremely low, and rumbling thunder was echoing from within them.

But compared to before, this time he felt a fleeting gaze upon them! They were back!

“I’ve finally found you!” Li Huowang’s expression gradually twisted into a snarl. A fire ignited in his heart—this time, it was not controlled by anyone else. It was his own emotion.

Peng Longteng’s figure appeared beside him. She grabbed him and hurled him straight up toward the extremely low-hanging clouds.

Bai Lingmiao flicked her sleeves, and two lengths of white silk wrapped around Li Huowang’s feet, following him upward.

Inside the dark clouds, Li Huowang could see nothing. But Bai Lingmiao’s Mind-Eye perception was now invaluable. She acted as his eyes, guiding him toward the enemy.

Peng Longteng kept throwing him higher. When Li Huowang finally broke through the thick rain layer, his surroundings suddenly cleared. A transparent thing, formed from the white smoke of burning incense, was coiling through the air.

It was not a dragon—at least, not the kind Li Huowang had ever seen or imagined.

As Peng Longteng hurled him again with all her might, Li Huowang was flung straight toward it. The incense creature did not dodge. It let Li Huowang pass right through its body.

“Again!” Peng Longteng, still mid-air, grabbed Li Huowang’s left foot and swung him once more toward the target. Li Huowang squeezed his eyes shut. “I can touch it! I can touch that beast!”

The next moment, Li Huowang felt himself collide with something solid. Without hesitation, he raised his longsword and thrust it into the mass with all his might.

“Die!!”

With a wet tearing sound, a strange, viscous liquid mixed with long, writhing tendrils sprayed across Li Huowang’s face.