Mutated Tao

Li Huowang stood still, staring wide-eyed at everything in front of him. He had always held an indifferent attitude toward wealth. However, he still couldn't help but feel incredibly shocked upon seeing a golden palace—a palace made out of gold.

Despite the lavishness, the golden palace still looked solemn and sacred.

The falling snowflakes disappeared slowly as they landed on the palace.

They're all inside… Li Huowang stared at the bloodstains on the distant golden bricks. Li Huowang walked in that direction with his illusion.

Li Huowang stepped on the golden bricks and stared intently at the golden palace as he walked by himself in the palace of gold. The sight was extremely surreal, making Li Huowang feel as if he were dreaming. He couldn't help but wonder how much gold they had to use to build such a huge golden palace in the Liang Kingdom.

Li Huowang soon found himself standing at the entrance of the golden palace. There was a couplet written on the left side of the entrance that said, “The imperial decree has been established in the nine regions, yet it remains difficult. How can it not be respected?”

Li Huowang turned to the right and saw a couplet that said, “May the heavens’ heart bless one with virtue. May one always be under the heaven's protection. May one seek peace.”

Li Huowang looked up at the huge plaque above and saw shimmering golden characters that said, "Golden Throne Room."

The Golden Throne Room? Li Huowang frowned and stepped forward. He couldn't care less about the palace's name. His top priority was to find the Strayed One Bei Feng.

The Golden Throne Room's interior was spacious, and it was desolate except for the giant columns adorned with six-clawed golden dragons. It was so quiet that even Li Huowang's low footsteps echoed quite loudly in the space.

How did those Sitting Oblivion Dao members come here so fast? Also, why did they even decide to come to the Liang Kingdom’s palace? Li Huowang wondered as he hurried toward the six doors at the back of the hall.

Soon, he arrived at his destination, but the six doors had vanished inexplicably!

Huh? Am I getting lost? I'm getting lost in the imperial palace? Li Huowang’s heart skipped a beat.

“Dad…” Li Sui said suddenly.

“What’s wrong? This isn't the time to speak about random things.”

“Dad, there are words written on your arm.”

Li Huowang raised his arms and saw words carved with a knife on his left arm's underside that said, "This is a bizarre place where you'll end up losing your memories over time. Carve your thoughts with a knife!"

There was no way Li Huowang would mistake his own handwriting for someone else's handwriting. However, he couldn't remember when he had carved such words on his own arm.

Hold on! This isn't my first rodeo! Li Huowang was about to take the knife to carve the words "Muddled One," but he was stunned upon realizing that it had already been carved on his arm.

There were more words written next to the word "Muddled One," and they said, “He's nearby! Hurry up and find him! I've been here for half an hour now!"

Li Huowang felt a shiver down his spine. It had only been a few minutes since he entered the Golden Throne Room, so why were the words saying that he had been here for thirty minutes rather than just a few minutes?

Just then, Li Huowang felt a sharp pain coming from his thigh. He looked down and saw a wound that was so deep that he could see his bone through the wound.

I’m injured? When did I get injured? Li Huowang gnashed his teeth and tore open his flesh. Then, he found a chunk of his thigh bone missing. It seemed that he had used that part to divine.

Obviously, Li Huowang had used divination to find the Muddled One, but Li Huowang had no idea when he had done that. Li Huowang observed the bone closely and memorized the twisted shapes on the chunk that had been carved out.

He carved those shapes on his hand and began his search throughout the Golden Throne Room.

Li Huowang saw more and more writing on his arms.

"The southeast corner has nothing."

"Nothing behind the dragon pillar on the east; no need to search it again."

After a few laps, Li Huowang stopped in the middle of the Golden Throne Room.

The center of the Golden Throne Rome had remained without any writings about it. Li Huowang looked at the familiar patterns on the golden bricks and tightened his grip on his sword hilt before thrusting the purple-tassel word into the ground.

Gold was precious, but it was relatively softer than other metals. It was as soft as mud against the purple-tassel sword. Li Huowang pried open the golden brick and peeked inside to see that the compact soil had been pushed over to one side. Then, he saw a building with red tiles through the crack.

The buried building was small; it was about the same height as a person, and it seemed to be made out of clay. Li Huowang decisively raised the bronze coin sword in his hand and shook it before chanting a quick incantation.

The roof of the small temple was lifted, and a familiar face appeared in front of Li Huowang. It was the Muddled One that Ji Xiang and the rest of them had captured after much difficulty!

The Muddled One's limbs were bent and stitched together with gold threads. No, it wasn't just his eyes. His mouth and his orifices had been stitched with golden threads, and he became a Muddled One stick.

The Muddled One was covered with intertwining golden words except for his head and chest. Overall, the Muddled One looked as if he were wearing a golden robe riddled with swastikas. The swastikas seemed to have seeped out of the Muddled One, as everything around the Muddled One had been riddled with swastikas.

Li Huowang gestured with his bronze coin sword again. The bronze coin sword wrapped around the Muddled One, and Li Huowang pulled hard.

The corpse flew away from the small temple, and the entire Golden Throne Room seemed to dim slightly as the Muddled One was removed from the swastikas.

Li Huowang looked down at himself and sighed in relief upon realizing that there weren't any new words on himself. Clearly, the crisis had passed. Unfortunately, Li Huowang had already wasted a lot of time, so he couldn't afford to waste any more time.

He stared deeply at the Muddled One before walking toward the distant exit.

Li Huowang no longer encountered any issues, and he successfully walked out of the golden palace. He was about to sigh in relief when he clapped his eyes on the golden palaces in the distance. Wait a minute, why are there multiple golden palaces? And could there be a Muddled One in every golden palace?

“There are Muddled Ones in those palaces, but not all of them have one,” Hong Zhong said, breaking his long silence. “These golden palaces have been arranged to form a constellation array. I can’t tell which specific constellation, though. Hehe, it seems that the Muddled One you worked so hard to find ended up becoming a part of an array."

Li Huowang’s expression became ugly at Hong Zhong's words. A dangerous Muddled One ended up becoming a part of a mere array. What exactly were they planning to do?

Li Huowang ignored everything else and picked up the pace. Things were getting troublesome now. The imperial palace was teeming with danger, and Bei Feng would most likely lose his life. Li Huowang couldn't let anything happen to Bei Feng!

Li Huowang used his experience to avoid the nearby golden palaces. He walked only along the empty areas. In the face of a dead end, he'd dig a hole in the golden wall. It was unknown whether Li Huowang's method was working or if the people ahead of him had cleared a path for him, but Li Huowang didn't encounter anything bizarre for a while.

Li Huowang continued moving north while following the bloodstains on the ground. He soon walked past a high wall, and his keen ears immediately heard chanting and sounds of metal clashing against metal from behind the golden walls in the distance.

That's it! Li Huowang exclaimed inwardly. He couldn’t contain his excitement as he hurried toward the noises. Li Huowang made holes in the golden walls ahead of him, and Li Huowang soon carved open a hole in the final golden wall and walked through it.

The first thing that caught his attention was a black and white vertical pupil in the extremely low clouds in the sky. The black and white vertical pupil had been surrounded by a bronze hexagram, and there were sixty-four trigrams orbiting it.

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