A Breakthrough

Chapter 715: A Breakthrough

When Li Huowang heard Xuanpin say this, he finally understood why the man had given him this thing for no reason.

“Since we’re allies, shouldn’t you have given me something like this a long time ago? Why wait until now?” Li Huowang refused to take the bait.

“Do you think this is a Yang Life Pill, something you can find anywhere? This is no ordinary object. I expended no small amount of heavenly materials and earthly treasures to refine it.”

“Stop trying to fool me. This thing is nothing but a hallucination. What did you expend?”

As he spoke, Li Huowang turned and walked toward his carriage. The Swivel Mirror followed him, moving on its own.

“In this vast world, the ten thousand things are in constant flux. Who says something that is an illusion cannot be refined? To speak frankly, in this path, you are not my equal.”

Li Huowang never said whether he had set aside their previous enmity, but Xuanpin didn’t need him to. He could hear the shift in the man’s tone. He knew his purpose had been achieved.

He didn’t want to admit it, but with the Swivel Mirror Xuanpin had given him, Li Huowang’s situation had indeed improved significantly. With this thing, he not only had a macroscopic view of the entire battle but could also conserve some strength. At the very least, they could now follow the path the allied army had already trampled out ahead of them.

The road was thick with corpses. The only living things were the wild dogs and vultures feasting on the dead. But at least now they no longer had to fear enemies suddenly springing up from the side. It allowed the others, who had fought their way through this entire stretch, to finally catch their breath.

Under these conditions, they made good time. It wouldn’t be long before they reached the front lines. The others had clearly sensed this as well. That night’s dinner was unusually hearty.

That night, Bai Lingmiao shook Li Huowang awake in the carriage.

“There’s even fish?” Li Huowang looked at the bowl of wild vegetable fish soup in his hand. The milky white broth looked rich and fresh.

“Mm. The rivers around Siqi have a lot of them. Suisui caught these. She’s really good in the water. She only goes for the big ones.”

Li Huowang sat on the carriage shaft, wolfing down his meal with the corpse-strewn battlefield stretching out behind him.

Seeing the fish scales and blood scabs caked on Li Huowang’s face, Bai Lingmiao asked, “Senior Brother Li, once we reach the front lines, what do you plan to do?”

“We’re not going to the front lines. That’s where soldiers belong. Not us.” Li Huowang popped the fish head into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

“But the place we’re going now…”

“Going to the front lines to help the soldiers kill a few Fa Sect believers is pointless. They won’t miss us if we’re not there, and they won’t notice if we are. People like that—they have as many as they want. In a large-scale situation like this, there’s only one thing people like us can do: decapitation.”

No matter the scale of the battle, the enemy had to have commanding officers. If he wanted to collapse the Fa Sect’s offensive as quickly as possible, this was the shortcut. Spies from the Supervisory Heavenly Office had no doubt already been seeded in, but he didn’t know how long it would take to get reliable information. They didn’t even know where the Fa Sect’s main base was yet. So the first thing to do was to break their army as fast as possible.

“Is that so? But the Fa Sect will probably send some powerful people to guard against that, won’t they?”

“Yeah. That’s why I need to cultivate the True as quickly as possible. Increase our odds however I can.”

Li Huowang set down the empty bowl and chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and walked toward the pitch-black forest beside the road.

Bai Lingmiao didn’t follow. During this time, Senior Brother Li had been like this: resting during the day, cultivating at night. She was used to it now.

Deep in the woods, Li Huowang sat cross-legged on a smooth, round boulder. He calmed his breath and spirit, sealing off his five senses.

Once everything around him faded from his awareness, Li Huowang silently pushed the divine radiance inside him forward, wrapping the Innate Pneuma, pressing it toward his Thoracic Wheel.

The process was impossibly slow and difficult, like carrying a massive boulder up a steep slope. Each push was harder than the last.

Gradually, Li Huowang forgot himself. He forgot everything. The only thought left in his mind was pushing the Innate Pneuma in his body toward the Thoracic Wheel.

The feeling was strange. He felt like he was on the verge of a breakthrough. But he was still just that little bit short.

He didn’t know how long passed before Li Huowang slowly opened his eyes. Feeling no change in his body, he let out a sigh.

This kind of thing—he was the only one who knew how to do it. There was no master he could ask for advice even if he wanted one.

“Dad! The sun’s up!”

When Li Huowang heard Li Sui’s voice, he got down from the boulder and walked over.

“Dad, look what I caught! There’s plenty to eat here!” Li Sui held up a few vultures in her hands, showing them off to Li Huowang.

“The meat on those birds is rank. Throw it away.” As he spoke, Li Huowang stole a glance in Bai Lingmiao’s direction.

“Suisui, we’re going to slip away quietly later. Don’t tell your First Mother or Second Mother.”

“Why not? First Mother and Second Mother are really strong too.” Li Sui’s face was full of confusion.

“What comes next might be a bit tricky. I don’t want them involved.”

Just how many hidden cards did the Fa Sect have? How many Siming had they secretly allied with? Li Huowang had no idea. But what he was sure of was that the Fa Sect was dangerous now. Very dangerous.

Bai Lingmiao hadn’t died the last time, but she had paid a terrible price. She was now stuck in a form that was neither human nor monster. Knowing full well how dangerous it was going to be, Li Huowang was even less willing to take Bai Lingmiao into harm’s way again.

She might resent him for it, but that was still better than losing her life.

“Oh… okay.” Li Sui nodded.

“Shh. Keep your voice down. Your First Mother may be blind, but she has sharp ears.” With that, Li Huowang took Li Sui’s hand and led her away.

He had barely stepped into the forest when he suddenly heard someone calling him from above.

“Dad? Who were you just talking to?”

Li Huowang froze at the voice. He looked up.

Above his head, there was no sky. Instead, there was an upside-down ground, identical to the one he was standing on. And Li Sui was crouching on the canopy of that inverted world, bouncing slightly as if trying to hook him.

Li Huowang looked at the Li Sui hanging above him. Then he looked at the Li Sui he was holding.

He looked at the forest above. Then at the identical forest around him.

The Li Sui beside him tightened her grip on his hand. She looked at him with confusion and fear. “Dad?”

The next moment, her entire body rapidly faded and vanished, leaving nothing behind.

Li Huowang looked at the Li Sui above him. Then at his own empty right hand.

Suddenly, he understood.

The boulders and trees around him rapidly turned to nothing. Finally, Li Huowang felt the downward pull of gravity, and he fell quickly back onto the real ground.

He landed steadily on the surface of the water. He looked up again at the inverted reflection of the ground, which was now rapidly disappearing from the sky.

A long time passed. When he came back to himself, Li Huowang realized that his cultivation technique for cultivating the True had somehow, without him noticing, broken through the Thoracic Wheel.