Mutated Tao

Chapter 922: Fuse

Li Sui sat in Zuoqiu Yong’s study while munching on raw flesh. She was also toying around with the ink monkeys sleeping inside the brushes.

She looked at the three figurines that Zuoqiu Yong had made for her and touched them.

“Father, don’t worry. I’m fine here. Aunty is a good person, and she takes good care of me. I will wait for you to come back. One hundred and eighty years is… how many months is that again?”

Li Sui set aside the raw flesh and attempted to count the months with her tentacles when, out of nowhere, the lanterns in the room were snuffed out. In an instant, the room was engulfed in darkness.

“Huh? What’s going on?”

Li Sui had barely reacted when she felt her neck going cold. The next second, Princess An Ping’s head flew high up in the air.

Several tentacles sprouted out from her neck, but someone in the dark knocked Li Sui away!

The bloody dog skull sprouted out beneath her skirt, sensing the impending danger from the dark. Li Sui panicked. “Aunty! Aunty help! Someone’s trying to kill me!”

However, Zuoqiu Yong didn’t respond, even though she was just in the room beside Li Sui.

“Ban Luo Jie Di! Mo Ah Wan Luo Ren Li!” a complex mantra resonated through the air. Li Sui’s head throbbed with piercing pain, as if something were digging its way into her mind.

She tried to retaliate, but her enemies came prepared. Li Sui couldn’t see anything in the darkness. She didn’t even know who was attacking her.

“Aunty! Help! Help me…”

Li Sui used the last of her strength to escape the study.

Just as she had almost reached the door, the entire study room extended. The door, which had been just inches away from her, was now positioned on the horizon!

Simultaneously, a wave of intense pain emanated from her back, making Li Sui involuntarily freeze up. She reached out to her chest only to discover a massive hole.

I cannot die! Father still needs me!

Li Sui’s tentacles surged out from her tattered body. However, in a matter of moments, she sensed a force pulling at her tentacles from all directions. The sound of tearing flesh filled the air as Li Sui was ripped apart, leaving the study silent once again.

Li Sui was powerless against the three siblings—they had learned everything about Li Sui’s powers.

“Brother, is that thing dead?” asked the sister.

The lanterns in the study lit up, revealing the three siblings standing around.

The eldest brother grumbled to his younger brother, saying, “Why did you tear it to so many pieces? Don’t you know how much pure lifespan we can get if we sell that thing?”

The sister tried to break them up. “Brother, let’s stop fighting and clear up this mess. This is the Chief’s study, after all.”

“Should we ask the Chief to come and see?”

“No need. The Chief is too kind and doesn’t want to see the mess here.”

The eldest brother took out a burlap sack and shook it. Li Sui’s flesh, which had been scattered all over the room, was vacuumed into the bag.

The three of them exited the study and bowed to the room where Zuoqiu Yong was. Then, they quickly left.

They exited the Chief’s residence with wide grins on their faces. They had scored big this time.

“This is something the Chief has given to us. We can’t let the others know, especially Zhang Tude. Let’s scatter first. We can meet up at the old place outside of the city.”

The youngest brother appeared irritated. It seemed he had a grudge against Zhang Tude. “Hmph! I don’t believe he would take our stuff so openly like that! He’s so arrogant, thinking that he’s the one in control of the Surveillance Bureau!”

“No need to be angry with him. We are still the Chief’s closest aides right now. Soon, we’ll be the ones ordering him around! Let’s disperse for now.”

The other two nodded. They each chose a different exit and left.

Since the eldest brother was the one carrying the sack, he might have been targeted first. To avoid this, he opted for the most inconspicuous route available and reached their rendezvous point by nightfall.

It was a dilapidated temple, but only the three of them knew there was a hidden chamber beneath it. A rat-like evil entity had dug it out in the past.

The two younger siblings had been anxiously waiting and immediately greeted their elder brother when they saw him climbing down with the sack.

“Brother, why are you so late? We would’ve thought you ran away if we weren’t siblings.”

As soon as they made contact with their older brother, he opened his mouth. From his mouth, numerous flattened tentacles swiftly emerged, entering his sister’s body through her openings.

“Why did you kill me!” the eldest brother shouted as the sack on his back wriggled. Li Sui was still alive.

Taking advantage of the surprise, Li Sui attacked the final sibling. The youngest brother tried to escape, but it was futile. He was consumed by the flattened tentacles too.

When everything had been settled, the eldest brother placed down the sack, revealing a massive hole in his back where the sack had been.

After resolving everything, the eldest brother gently placed the sack on the ground, revealing a large hole in his back.

Li Sui had poked a hole in the sack and extended her tentacles through it to take control of the eldest brother’s body. The latter didn’t even realize that Li Sui had completely spread her tentacles into his body.

The eldest brother was now dead, and Li Sui had taken over his body as a new host.

Li Sui controlled the broken body to dump out the sack’s contents. Bloody pieces of her previous corpse fell out.

She sucked the shadow of her dismembered corpse, filling and engorging her flattened tentacles once more.

Li Sui controlled her new body to search for her previous body. Amidst the fragments of her former body, she discovered wrinkled, curled human skin—her father’s skin doll. It was a life-saving treasure Li Huowang had given her. He had once told her that after Bai Lingmiao, he was the one who worried about her the most.

Her father’s concern for her had saved her life.

Li Sui cried as she controlled her new body. She continued to look around and finally found the three clay figurines. She grabbed them and clinged onto them tightly. “Father, why is Auntie trying to kill me? I liked her so much. She said that I was part of her family. Was she lying?”

The future version of Li Huowang did not have the answer—Li Sui did.

As she assimilated the memories of the eldest brother with hers, she slowly let go of her naivety and found the apparent contradiction in her memories.

It was Xuan Pin. Could the Chief of the Surveillance Bureau from the Liang Kingdom really travel to the Qi Kingdom so easily? Furthermore, could the Chiefs of the different kingdoms really be on good enough terms to call each other just like that?

Li Sui then noticed some of the minor inconsistencies, such as the absence of runes on Xuan Pin’s robes and the differences in his voice. After carefully analyzing these clues, Li Sui concluded that Zuoqiu Yong had lied to her.