The possessed Ling Nie immediately controlled Li Huowang's lower body and struggled to run away. However, Li Huowang's lower body had no eyes and couldn't perceive the direction. It had just crawled out of the tree hole and stumbled upon a tree root, falling heavily.
Seeing that the situation was not right, the Ling Nie decisively wanted to run away. But just as it was about to crawl out of Li Huowang's lower body, a copper coin sword with a cold light descended from the sky and pierced into its half-rotted body.
Find the original at "pawread dot com".
Accompanied by a piercing scream, black smoke rose, and the Ling Nie let out a painful howl. However, at this point, it couldn't do anything anymore, and its voice gradually weakened.
When the Ling Nie completely stopped moving, Li Huowang, who was invisible, revealed himself.
To be precise, it was his upper body. His lower body was still lying on the ground.
When a swindler knows what a person wants, it becomes much easier to deceive them. Knowing that it constantly wanted to possess his body, Li Huowang had just cut himself in half to lure out the Ling Nie.
Li Huowang lay on the ground, gasping for breath. He had endured various sufferings, such as burning skin, a broken chest, and being cut in half. The pain was so intense that he was on the verge of passing out. He had almost relied solely on his willpower to support himself until now.
"Fortunately, at least there was some gain." Li Huowang turned his head and looked at the bottom of the copper coin sword. It was slowly emitting black smoke, the corpse of the Ling Nie.
When Li Huowang touched the black smoke with his burnt finger, he could clearly feel his dark side expanding. The desire to kill, hatred, and irritability were deepening.
What was even stranger was that when Li Huowang reached out to touch the source of the black smoke, he found that he couldn't touch the Ling Nie. There was nothing beneath the wisps of black smoke.
But he could touch other things. Even if he poked a rotten piece of wood a few times, he could feel its texture. It was only his physical body that couldn't.
"This Ling Nie is dangerous and strange. I wonder why the Monitoring Bureau would pay such a high price to capture it."
After resting for a while, Li Huowang regained some strength and used his hands to crawl towards his lower body. Just at that moment, the sound of heavy footsteps made Li Huowang's expression change. "Someone is coming? Miaomiao? No, Miaomiao's footsteps are not like this!"
When Li Huowang, who was extremely vigilant, looked towards the chaotic path in the woods on the left, a strangely dressed fat woman with steady steps walked out from inside.
This woman was wearing a red talisman bellyband and a small golden crown with a red embroidered ball on her head. The flesh on her entire head was pierced by burning purple incense sticks, resembling a hedgehog.
Two small flags with red spell patterns were inserted from the outside of her ears, straight into her earlobes.
If it weren't for the fact that she was carrying a wolf-tooth club wrapped in yellow paper on her shoulder, proving that she was human, Li Huowang would have almost thought that he had encountered another evil spirit.
The woman raised her wolf-tooth club and pointed it at Li Huowang. "Hey! Ascend to heaven, travel through the earthly realm, guard the wind and clouds as the four directions, and clearly capture demons and evil spirits!"
Li Huowang stared at this strange person with a frown and reached into his belly to take out his waist token, pointing it at her. "Monitoring Bureau business! Get lost!"
"Huh?!" Seeing Li Huowang's waist token, the fat woman was obviously also taken aback. Then she took out an identical waist token from her bellyband. She was also from the Monitoring Bureau.
"You're also from the Monitoring Bureau? It doesn't seem like it. Throw your waist token over and let me see!"
Facing Li Huowang, who was now only half a body and covered in black soot, she didn't dare to relax her guard.
After Li Huowang threw the waist token over, he began to connect his lower body with his upper body.
While he quietly waited for his lower body to regain consciousness, the fat woman walked over and placed the waist token beside him.
"I didn't expect that you are actually from the Monitoring Bureau. I thought you were a Ling Nie just now. By the way, which sect are you from?"
"Jingjiao."
The fat woman looked Li Huowang up and down, then nodded in agreement. "Hmm, I thought so too."
After saying that, she began to pull out the incense sticks from her face one by one. "Youngster, look at this mess. It almost caused a big disaster. Our family almost didn't recognize each other. Your body-splitting technique is impressive. Where did you learn it?"
Seeing that the other party had no hostility, Li Huowang couldn't be bothered to engage in meaningless conversation. After all, the Monitoring Bureau was not a harmonious family.
Without the incense sticks sticking out of her head, her true appearance was revealed. If judged solely by her appearance, she looked like a very ordinary rural woman.
Without waiting for Li Huowang to reply, the fat woman asked again, "I came here to find the Ling Nie. What are you here for?""Hmm?" Upon hearing this, Li Huowang propped himself up, looking at her. "You also took that task? Can two people take the same task?"
"What a novel idea, of course several people can take the same task. It's a matter of ability, whoever completes it first gets the credit."
"Oh," Li Huowang struggled to turn around, pressing his hand against the lower half of his body that had regained a slight sensation. "Then you're late, I've already killed the Ling Nie."
"What?! You did it alone?" The plump woman looked utterly shocked at this news.
Li Huowang could see that although she appeared surprised on the outside, her inner emotions, her 'ten emotions and eight sufferings', told a different story. She was not as she seemed.
But this was normal. When encountering a stranger, one naturally had to be on guard. Li Huowang was no different. Ever since this woman appeared, he had not let go of his Zisui Sword.
"Miss, you just said it yourself, the tasks within the bureau are based on ability. Whoever completes it first gets the credit. So, excuse me."
Li Huowang struggled to curl up his legs, then slowly put them down again. He could move his feet now.
"Well, that's true, but..." The plump woman seemed particularly anxious.
Li Huowang paid her no mind, struggling to get up from the ground. He used his copper coin sword to pick up the Ling Nie and slowly walked towards the outside of the peach grove.
"Wait!!"
At the sound of this, Li Huowang quickly turned around, his long sword pointing directly at her nose.
"What? You want to rob me?" Li Huowang's tone instantly turned hostile.
The plump woman nervously took a few steps back, only speaking after she was out of Li Huowang's attack range. "We're all from the Skywatch Bureau, I wouldn't do such a thing."
In response, Li Huowang sneered. He knew all too well the tactics of his colleagues at the Skywatch Bureau.
If he had shown the slightest bit of fear just now, this woman would have likely attacked him, stolen the Ling Nie, and claimed the reward.
A few hundred Yangshou Pills were no small sum in this chaotic world. After all, the tasks from the Skywatch Bureau only required the Ling Nie, they wouldn't ask where it came from.
"If not, that's best. We each take our own path. I'm sure you wouldn't want to try my methods."
After saying these threatening words, Li Huowang slowly left with his spoils of war.
(End of Chapter)