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Chapter 603 - Wooden Ship
The New Year festivities had just ended, so the weather was still cold. It was so cold that the seawater's coldness had to be bone-chilling.
However, this bit of cold was nothing to Li Huowang, who had gone through countless battles.
Li Huowang was beneath a crowded wooden pier. He projected his image and submerged his colored phantom. His invisible figure peeked out of the water and stared at his distant target.
There was a huge wooden ship, and it wasn't just any ship. It was huge and was even larger than the warships Li Huowang had seen around Xing Island.
The bow of the huge wooden ship was like a massive fish as it sat on the water's surface. It had a wooden-yellow color, making it appear like an oppressive mountain.
I finally caught up! Hmph! Trying to escape, huh? Leaving Great Liang immediately when the situation seems amiss? Not that easy! You still owe me for the ambush that you and Huangfu Tiangang had done against me! Li Sui, let’s go!
Li Sui’s tentacles extended from Li Huowang’s wound, and they moved swiftly in the seawater, propelling Li Huowang toward the bizarre flat-bottomed wooden ship.
Li Huowang had lost three of his limbs, and Li Sui’s skinned tentacles, which resembled a dog's limbs, replaced his lost limbs. Even his left hand, which only had one finger remaining, was replaced by Li Sui.
Li Sui was attached to Li Huowang, so he could use her limbs skillfully as if they were his own.
At first, he was hesitant about the idea of making a break for it, but he decided to make a break for it after surviving Huangfu Tiangang’s ambush.
This huge wooden ship would sail away before he could recover his limbs, so he couldn't wait for them to recover.
Fortunately, Li Sui’s tentacles were great tools for swimming, and Li Sui herself was comfortable in the water as if she were a fish.
Soon, Li Huowang was touching the wooden hull of the ship. Instead of immediately making a move, he waited quietly for nightfall to sneak his way onto the ship.
He wasn't afraid that the ship might sail away as he dilly-dallied, as he was already near its hull.
Time ticked by slowly, and the sky gradually darkened as the sun shifted westward.
As the lights in the distant pier disappeared, Li Huowang stuck his black tentacles to the hull, and just like that, he rapidly climbed up the hull.
He placed his one remaining finger on the side of the ship and poked his head out to look around. His projection ability was concealing his figure at the moment, so Li Huowang wasn't particularly nervous about this.
The ship's bow was massive, and the front deck was as big as a soccer field. However, the vast field was desolate. Li Huowang couldn't see anything other than smoke from the three burning incense inside a giant cauldron on the bow.
The three columns of white smoke rising from the incense took to the air and disappeared into the darkness.
There were some offerings before the triangular display stand, which stood right in front of the cauldron.
In addition to the usual pig, cow, and sheep heads, there were incense, candles, yellow paper, and gold ingots.
“Dad, what are they worshiping?”
“Don’t worry about what they’re worshiping. Our goal is to find Doulao’s Twisted One and kill him! Everything else is irrelevant.”
Li Huowang dragged his crippled figure toward the cabin. His senses were heightened to their absolute limit at the moment, so he could feel every single movement around him. He was planning on brute forcing his way in if he ended up getting detected by any of the crew.
Soon, Li Huowang found himself standing before the cabin door. He opened it cautiously, but nothing happened.
What kind of trickery is this? Could it be that the Twisted One really can’t detect my hidden self? Li Huowang thought as he placed his back against the wall and slowly entered the cabin. It was larger and more crowded than Li Huowang had imagined. The cabin was filled with clutter, and both walls were densely packed with wooden carvings of buildings. It was like a three-dimensional version of a famous Qingming painting[1] hanging on the wall.
The wooden carvings were incredibly realistic depictions of wooden tiles, pine trees, sleeves, donkeys, horses, and even cow dung.
Li Huowang was on high alert as he reached behind him and grabbed the hilt of the spine sword.
As soon as he touched the hilt of the spine sword, everything on the wall came to life. A crowd of tiny people rushed to the windows and pointed curiously at Li Huowang.
They can see me! Li Huowang’s figure flickered, and he reappeared a yard away. He had no time to entangle with these things, so he quickly rushed forward.
Thump! Peng Longteng’s tall figure landed heavily next to Li Huowang. She raised her fist, which was wrapped in heavy armor, and smashed it into the wooden carvings on the wall.
Peng Longteng sent a few more punches before she abruptly froze and became a wood carving.
What are those? Li Huowang gripped the spine sword tightly and swung it toward the wall, creating a spacetime rift that sent the wooden carvings flying toward the Great Qi.
When the spacetime rift shattered the wooden wall, a wooden eye socket densely packed with eyeballs in a variety of sizes stared at Li Huowang, making his scalp feel numb.
Li Huowang saw that the path had gotten narrower, so he raised the purple-tasseled sword and thrust it into the ground before carving open a hole in the cabin.
Li Huowang wasted no time and jumped into the hole.
The lower deck of the ship was darker than Li Huowang had anticipated. It was so dark that he could not even see his fingers.
Li Huowang took out a green glowing stone, and a distorted, laughing face abruptly appeared before him.
Li Huowang responded quickly. He raised his sword and slashed out, but he forcefully stopped his attack. He took a step back and took a good look at the face that was over three meters tall.
If he wasn't mistaken, then the towering object before him was one of the Eight Immortals, Tieguai Li[2]. More precisely, it was a root carving[3] of Tieguai Li.
It seemed that the carving was made in a way that would emphasize the growth of the roots rather than make the intertwined roots appear like a person.
The carving depicted densely packed tree burls that had been assimilated by Tieguai Li.
Tieguai Li had no legs, as they had been replaced by twisted roots, which made him look rather bizarre and disfigured.
After confirming that the Tieguai Li before him was just an inanimate root carving, Li Huowang backed away slowly.
Just as he took a few steps backward, he felt someone's gaze boring into him from behind.
Li Huowang whipped around and saw one of the Eight Immortals, Lu Dongbin. It was another root carving, but it looked like he was carved from roots that had been eaten by insects.
Lu Dongbin’s overall appearance was exactly the same as Tieguai Li’s appearance. However, Lu Dongbin's interior seemed hollow as his figure was riddled with holes in a variety of sizes. Clearly, those holes were made by the insects that had devoured his figure.
Li Huowang stood frozen. After a while, he took out all the glowing stones that he had brought from Zephyr Temple and hurled them in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, the root carvings of Eight Immortals in many different poses were revealed around him.
1. Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a handscroll painting by the Song dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan ☜
2. also known as Iron-Crutch Li ☜
3. a traditional Chinese art form of carving and polishing tree roots into various artistic creations ☜