The Unruly Immortals

Li Huowang staggered as he looked at the "six people" in the distance, who had also drastically changed in his eyes.

Their bodies remained the same, but their features had completely twisted and elongated, rearranging into different flesh-and-blood mahjong tiles.

"Stop! We'll help you get rid of Master Danyang right now!"

Upon hearing this sentence, the collapsing Li Huowang laughed, a mere instinctual reaction, unable to feel any joy in his heart.

At this moment, he should have felt happy, yet the current Li Huowang was tormented by an extreme duality of pain, completely losing the ability to sense joy.

All his strength was used to resist the intense will to seek death.

In his muddled state, Li Huowang saw one of the three-stripes speak.

"Set your legs in the lotus position! Place your hands on the Dantian, pinch the dragon-lying incantation, and guard your heart!"

Li Huowang did as he was told with all the effort he could muster, the Blood Talismans around him trembling with his shaking body.

Then, Li Huowang saw the six Elders approach, sitting cross-legged in a circle three Zhang away.

As the six spoke simultaneously, unexpectedly, what they uttered was not some arcane edict or bizarre incantation, but an echoed interrogative sentence.

"What is the Oblivion Path?"

"Cast off limbs, demote genius wit, leave form and knowledge behind, be one with the great thoroughfare, this is called Oblivion!"

As they talked among themselves, the six people's clothes began to billow in the wind, and they started to levitate in the air, as all the surrounding colors began to misalign.

"Not so!" A voice from an unknown source suddenly occupied everyone's hearts, and everything around instantly faded.

"Not so!"

"Not so!"

"Not so!"

"Not so!"

"Not so!"

"Not so!"

The six Elders repeated in unison, their voices magnifying countless times.

The split sky began to be covered by some dark clouds, and Li Huowang's merged senses gradually returned, though they seemed a bit different from before.

"Those who sit, also move. Those who forget, are also mindful. Without sitting, one ends all toil; without forgetting, one rests all thoughts. If toil does not end, the spirit is calm. If thoughts do not rest, the heart is at peace!"

As these words were spoken by the six Elders, Li Huowang felt something and suddenly looked up, only to see Master Danyang hidden in the dark clouds.

This time, Master Danyang looked a bit different from the last, with a translucent cord resembling an umbilical cord stretching from his abdomen to Li Huowang.

All three of Master Danyang's heads turned toward Li Huowang at the same time, six eyes glaring at him with extreme hatred.

"Wretched disciple! Seeking others to contend with your teacher again? Hmph, hmph! Do you think you can hide? I have become an Immortal!"

"Immortal... Immortal... Hehehe..." Li Huowang, teetering on the brink of collapse, looked at Master Danyang's repulsive tentacle-like organs.

Li Huowang took a deep breath, shouting at Master Danyang, "You could be an Immortal? What right do you have to be an Immortal? Is there no justice in this place?!"

"Hmph, hmph! The number of people you've killed is no less than mine; what right do you have to say such a thing!"

The child's head on Master Danyang's right side swayed slightly, a Flesh and Blood Coin Sword enwrapped in his three tentacles.

With his distorted body, he pounced from the black clouds toward the six Elders below, like a falcon in descent.

Li Huowang did not pay any attention to Master Danyang above his head, as the six Elders simultaneously gestured with their hands toward the center where Li Huowang stood.

"The Three Flowers Gathering at the Top is but an illusion, the clouds underfoot are also not real. A great dream must awaken in the end, everything rootless and boundless inevitably returns to dust."

As these words were spoken, Master Danyang in the sky seemed to be struck by a great mountain, plunging straight down to the ground with a trailing afterimage.

Immediately after, Li Huowang, whose body was ablaze, began to feel something strange in his stomach, as if something was stirring within.

This might have been painful, but at that moment Li Huowang could no longer feel it.

All he could see was the "umbilical cord" connecting him and Master Danyang becoming thicker and deeper, as though he could grasp it with his hands.

He tentatively reached out with both hands and discovered he really could touch it, and even the "umbilical cord" would sizzle from the flames on his hands.

"This... this is impossible!! I am now an Immortal! Who dares to obstruct me!!" Master Danyang, having crashed heavily to the ground, struggled to get up.

The six Elders all sighed in unison and began to chant together.

"For the shape and form are present but the heart is lost in illusion, the reason for being sprouts but emotions are fleeting. Moreover, the ultimate Path transcends all sensation and desires, the true nature is beyond want, and who could perceive the fine subtleties and suspend belief, heed the boundless and remain unconfused, as someone who has heard of the Way of Oblivion..."

With the fluctuating volume of the chanting, Li Huowang suddenly realized that everything around him was displaced.

He was supposed to be sitting cross-legged at the center of the crowd, but now he was slanted, suspended in mid-air.

This wasn't just happening to him; everyone was affected in the same way, with some people even half-stuck in the dirt, half protruding out.

Compared to them, Master Danyang's transformation was even more drastic; amidst the chanting, everything about him began to melt away, his Immortal Belt, once floating with Immortal energy, helplessly fell to the ground, dirtied with mundane muck.

"In the utmost Path, there lies stillness, void of all; divine action has no direction, and so does the heart and body. From their very heart and body..."

As the chanting continued, Li Huowang saw white smoke float up from the Elders' heads, twisting into ropes of hemp and burrowing into the ground.

"This... impossible... this... impossible! I am an Immortal...!!" These were Master Danyang's last words.

After uttering this final sentence, Master Danyang completely collapsed.

His entire body turned into swirls of black cloud, drifting towards the sky, and before even reaching halfway, it completely dissipated.

Almost at the same moment, Li Huowang began to vomit profusely, and with a retch, the half-face wrapped by tendrils was expelled from his mouth.

It was Master Danyang's half-face, which was now pale and reeked of decay, clearly already dead.

Li Huowang stared at the half-face before him as if he was dreaming.

With trembling hands, he cradled it, watching Master Danyang's half-face burn to ash in his palms.

Master Danyang was gone, and with him the thing that had been planning to assimilate with Li Huowang had finally vanished.

Li Huowang wasn't feeling particularly ecstatic at this moment; he simply felt an emptiness inside his heart.

The severe pain in his body and spirit barred him from considering any other complex emotions.

The six Elders exchanged glances, then once again chanted together and pointed at Li Huowang.

The hook-shaped Blood Talismans around him slowly fell back down, returning to the ground.

The dark clouds above split open, and Bahu, as distant and high as the sun, shone down upon everyone once more.

Li Huowang stood there in a daze, ignoring everything around him. He did not notice what the six Elders were doing nor did he want to know.

Just preventing himself from seeking a quick death was hard enough.

He didn't know when he had passed out; the last scene Li Huowang saw was Master Danyang's ashes charred on the ground.