The Breakthrough

Chapter 694: The Breakthrough

These Corpse-Unbinding Immortals—the more Li Huowang looked at them, the less they seemed like Fa Sect creations. They looked like Military Path stock.

It seemed to prove that with the change of ownership of the Dragon Veins, the Military Path of Nanping and Siqi had also switched sides.

But right now, Li Huowang had no time to think about them. Surrounded by towering flames, he prepared to throw himself into the fray and relieve the others.

He had expected this situation to end quickly. But instead, figures kept emerging from the water-mist. They might not be a match for Li Huowang and the others, but they never gave anyone a moment's rest.

"They're stalling for time!" The thought had barely formed when the ground shuddered violently. The Earth Dragon had turned over again.

The earthquake sent the entire swamp into motion. With the shaking, the muddy ground that could barely support a person's weight rapidly transformed into a devouring mire.

Yet even in this state, more Fa Sect faithful kept crawling out of the water-mist, determined to drag someone down with them even if they were swallowed by the mud.

Li Huowang had experienced this sort of Earth Dragon turning many times. He knew what it meant.

"How many hours have been lost!" Li Huowang shouted at Xuanpin. The answer came in the form of a single raised finger.

"One hour gone. Which means one of the three Dragon Veins has already been destroyed!" This bad news pressed down on Li Huowang with suffocating weight.

There was no point in saying anything else now. He clenched his teeth and led the others forward, pushing through the Fa Sect's assault toward the heart of Cloud Marsh.

As they drew closer to the center of the marsh, the strange worm-like humanoid statues gradually grew rarer. Living Fa Sect members became more numerous, and each one was exceptionally powerful.

Among them, besides the Fa Sect from Greater Liang and the Fa Sect from Great Qi, there were also many from other sects and schools. The black cloth on their shoulders proved they had all converted to the Fa Sect.

Since he had already lit the fire, Li Huowang didn't intend to waste it. He charged at the front, using the flames on his body to dry the ground, kill the Fa Sect faithful, and pave a road littered with corpses for the others.

With Li Huowang leading the way, they made fast progress. An hour later, they found the place. At the deepest part of Cloud Marsh, unexpectedly, lay a patch of dry ground.

Upon this ground, a grim fortress of rock had already been raised. Through the sharpened spikes and caltrops, Li Huowang saw nothing except a few Fa Sect heads mounted on them. The rain was still falling, and the dark sky made the atmosphere oppressively heavy.

Peng Longteng grabbed Li Huowang and hurled him high into the air. From that height, Li Huowang finally saw what lay behind the fortress.

The Dragon Vein. A Dragon Vein formed from a pile of emperors, one stacked upon another, pinned into an inverted triangular mire by enormous stone pillars. As the Dragon Vein struggled, the silt in the mire churned violently, and the rising miasma spread everywhere.

Surrounding this mud were Fa Sect shaman-priests in various wide robes, dancing in a circle around the mire.

Between the shaman-priests, some strange, writhing curse had been drawn into a living chain. The Fa Sect used men to draw living curses—invoking curses to destroy the Dragon Vein.

Li Huowang wanted to see more details, but he could clearly feel his body beginning to stiffen, slowly turning to stone. The Fa Sect had noticed him.

When Li Huowang landed, he saw that the others had gathered together. Everyone else had arrived as well. Since both sides were practically showing their hands, it was time to plan the attack.

"Leave the other matters to you. The Dragon Vein is mine," Li Huowang said. The Dragon Vein was immune to most supernatural techniques and abilities. He had more experience dealing with Dragon Veins than the others.

"That was my intention," Xuanpin said. His body flickered away like smoke, but quickly coalesced again in front of Li Huowang. "Remember our agreement. Getting the Dragon Vein back is the most important thing."

"But in a place like this, the Fa Sect is sure to have a master overseeing it. You can't get tangled up with them for too long. I'll help you. If we take back the Dragon Vein, we win."

"Understood."

Li Huowang studied the unfamiliar faces among their group and asked, "Who are they? What's the plan for later?"

Even though Li Huowang didn't know them, it was obvious from their appearance that they weren't Supervisory Heavenly Office personnel.

"Li Huowang, at a time like this, don't waste your energy on trivial matters. Focus on the big picture." Xuanpin's tone was the same as before, but Li Huowang could feel the distance in his words.

Even though they were forced to be on the same side because of the Fa Sect, Xuanpin still didn't fully trust him. He was holding back a lot of things, simply because Li Huowang was Ji Zai's Heart-Pan.

But Li Huowang didn't completely trust them either. "Wait. You and your people don't get too close to the front. If something goes wrong, turn around and run immediately!" he said to Bai Lingmiao. The two Bai Lingmiaos, each with an upper body covered by a red bridal veil, nodded in unison.

"Woooo—" The Hou Shu Sitian Jian blew a horn, and the people around them began to press forward.

From the crowd, a group of heavily armored cavalry charged to the forefront. The towering killing intent wrapped around them like a great sword stabbing toward the fortress.

"KILL!" With that roar, the entire scene ignited. Both sides unleashed their supernatural abilities and charged at each other.

But no matter what happened outside, Li Huowang paid no attention. By now, he had submerged into the earth, waving his tentacles like an octopus as he crept toward the fortress.

Li Huowang knew the Fa Sect had experts. He didn't go alone. He advanced slowly with his own people, looking for an opening. He knew this was the time he absolutely could not be impatient.

An hour later, the fortress was breached. In an instant, the center of Cloud Marsh fell into chaos. The sounds of chanting and hand-seal incantations filled the air, mixed with Buddhist sutras and invocations to deities.

When he saw Zheng Boqiao of the Fangxian Dao chant a living curse and turn a Fa Sect shaman-minister into a lump of flesh, then swallow it whole, Li Huowang knew his chance had come.

Li Huowang pulled out the box from his robes and forced it into his mouth. Li Sui watched as a angular bulge rose on her father's neck, sliding down from top to bottom.

In the next instant, not only did the earth around Li Huowang turn to water, but even the colors became transparent. His charred black body healed rapidly.

"Li Sui! Let's go!" With a powerful surge upward, Li Huowang burst forth from the ground as a spring.

While the others around were distracted by this inexplicable spring, the invisible Li Huowang rapidly closed in on the Dragon Vein.

As he drew nearer, the Dragon Vein's agonized roar buffeted Li Huowang's thoughts.

When he was nearly at the edge of the mire, Li Huowang clenched his fists as he stared at the mud. Under his gaze, the churning silt began to solidify, and the stone pillars pinning the Dragon Vein started to liquefy.

Just as Li Huowang began his move, something unexpected happened. The gray of the stone pillars and the dark brown of the mud rapidly lost their color, leaving only black and white.

Only the golden dragon robe on the Dragon Vein remained its original hue, made starkly conspicuous against everything else.

"What kind of person? What sect, what school's technique?"

The thought had barely entered Li Huowang's mind when he realized that it wasn't just the colors in the mire that had vanished. The colors on his own body had vanished too.

Right now, he was like a figure inside a black-and-white ink landscape painting.