Mutated Tao

Li Huowang knew that the issue had to be serious, as Zhuge Yuan looked so distressed.

What could be even worse than Doulao descending upon the mortal realm?

“Senior Zhuge, don’t panic," said Li Huowang in an effort to console Zhuge Yuan, "Tell me what's going on. I can’t help you if you don’t explain it to me.”

Zhuge Yuan closed his reddened eyes. He took a deep breath before pointing his fan at the deceased human-cow hybrid on the ground. “Junior Li, do you know what that is?”

“Er … Isn’t that the son that the Righteous Monastery had implanted into that eunuch to give birth to? Wait, I actually don't know if they can indeed grant children to the eunuchs. Maybe they just deceived the eunuchs?"

The fake Hong Zhong’s illusion interjected. “Yeah, how could they be so unscrupulous?”

“Wrong! You're very wrong. Did you not hear what it sang? That was an omen! The Great Qi’s dragon vein is about to be severed!”

Zhuge Yuan’s words frightened Li Huowang. He didn’t know what the human-cow hybrid was, but he knew that the severing of a dragon vein was bad news.

“Junior Li, we don’t have time now! We need to leave now! We can’t use your techniques here yet!”

“Dragon Vein?” Li Huowang recalled the tied-up bodies of the past emperors in the imperial palace of the Liang Kingdom last time.

Zhuge Yuan caught up to Li Huowang and explained, “There would be an omen before every great disaster—a half-human and half-beast hybrid would be born, and they would tell an omen before passing away. Omens are mostly bad, and they almost always happen immediately!”

“That means … Did that thing say that the Great Qi’s Dragon Vein would be severed? Senior Zhuge, what would happen if the Dragon Vein was severed?” Li Huowang stomped the ground and leaped up the palace wall with ease with the help of Li Sui’s tentacles.

“There should only be the Great Qi in the first place. The Great Liang never existed! Do you know why? It’s because a thousand years ago, the Dragon Vein of the Qi Kingdom was severed once! If it's severed once again, the entire Qi Kingdom might cease to exist!”

Li Huowang felt his blood run cold. The Dragon Vein was the anchor of a timeline!

Now he knew why the Liang Kingdom needed to have an emperor at all times and why the authority of the imperial family had lasted so long amidst such a crazy world.

But did the Liang Kingdom really come into existence because the Dragon Vein was severed once? Or was Zhuge Yuan mistaken?”

Li Huowang’s mind was in disarray as if he had learned something important but only the superficial details. He felt like the details were being obfuscated by something.

“Junior Li, stop here! This is good enough!”

Li Huowang noticed that he had arrived in the capital city of the Qi Kingdom, You Capital. It was night, so the streets were silent—too silent.

Li Huowang felt like something had changed here, but he didn’t know what had changed.

“Senior Zhuge, what should I do next?”

“Materialize me! I need to have a physical body!”

Li Huowang didn’t hesitate and did it. He pressed his temples, and Zhuge Yuan’s figure flickered.

Veins bulge on his forehead and his eyes started popping outwards slightly. He was using a lot of force.

Something’s wrong! It wasn’t this hard to materialize the old monk and Peng Longteng! Li Huowang kneeled on the ground as blood dripped out of his nose.

“Junior Li, please hang on! The lives of everyone are at stake here!” Zhuge Yuan clenched his fist and urged Li Huowang to continue.

“Don’t worry! I can handle it!” Li Huowang’s brain bulged, and his head expanded by a huge margin. Zhuge Yuan’s fleshly body materialized slowly.

Zhuge Yuan did not waste any time when he saw Li Huowang’s swaying figure. He immediately took the spine sword off Li Huowang’s back.

He tore off the talisman on the hilt, and the sword came back to life.

The two Zhuge Yuans looked at each other before he spoke to the sword, “There’s an omen! The Dragon Vein is about to be severed!”

“What?! Is that true?!”

However, Zhuge Yuan’s spine sword did not hesitate. He raised his skeletal hand and drew a line on its own bloody body. Blood flowed down his organs and talismans to reach the tip of the sword.

The blood that had dripped from the sword was somehow alive, and it burrowed into the ground.

Zhuge Yuan wielded the spine sword and started writing, but no words appeared on the ground as all of the blood had been absorbed by the ground.

“Faster! My dad can’t keep it up any longer!” Li Sui shouted at Zhuge Yuan while supporting Li Huowang with her tentacles.

“Junior Li! Hang on! I’m almost done!” Zhuge Yuan leaped into the air and pointed the spine sword at the ground. His white robes billowed out in the wind as his figure gradually became transparent. The next moment, he let go of the sword and kicked it toward the ground. The spine sword slipped past Li Sui’s tentacles and returned to Li Huowang’s back.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Zhuge Yuan flew and landed on a roof on the left side. He waved his right arm, and the roof tiles flew upwards, revealing the writing implements in the room.

He waved his hand, and a brush flew into his hand. Then, he summoned a piece of paper and drew something on it. He drew an incomplete circle with a single opening before writing something inside the circle.

When his hands faded into nothingness, the paper filled with words burned up, and when the tiles neatly landed on the roof, Zhuge Yuan finally disappeared.

Zhuge Yuan sighed in relief when he saw the paper burning up and scattering into the air as ashes. “I hope that it works. May the Three Ancient Ones protect the Dragon Vein.”

Zhuge Yuan floated toward Li Huowang.

“Junior Li, thank—” Zhuge Yuan stopped mid-sentence.

Li Huowang was bleeding from all of his orifices and was unconscious in his daughter’s tentacles.

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