The Unruly Immortals

"By the time the ritual duration ends, I should be dead, right?"

Li Huowang slowly raised his sword, as the bugs on his abdomen crawled up his severed arm, wriggling into motion.

In a few breaths, he had a new left hand formed by the intertwining worms.

After trying out his new hand, Li Huowang nodded in satisfaction and once again looked into the distance at the five "Oblivion Path" disciples entangled with Master Danyang.

At this moment, in Li Huowang's eyes, Master Danyang still bore that terrifying appearance, while the faces of the other five had completely transformed into flesh and blood mahjong tiles.

As soon as he thought about his imminent death, Li Huowang's heart began to settle down, and he walked toward them with his sword in hand.

Li Huowang, charging forward, wielded his sword and chopped off the head in the center belonging to Master Danyang.

"Master, don't panic, your disciple is coming to help you!"

Seizing the moment Li Huowang launched his sneak attack on Master Danyang, the distant "Oblivion Path" disciples immediately took the chance. The five of them quickly sat cross-legged in the air, forming a circle around the two and began chanting, "What is Oblivion!"

Their voices echoed continuously within the spacious cave, growing louder and louder.

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Huowang and Master Danyang tacitly pushed off each other's bodies, each lunging toward an Oblivion Path disciple, one to the left and one to the right.

A black Pai Gow tile flew over, rapidly targeting Li Huowang's wrist. He was about to dodge when Yi Wan in the distance quickly crossed two fingers and snapped them.

The black shadow beneath the Pai Gow tile instantly split, the shadow turning into a tile, and the tile becoming a shadow.

Caught off-guard, the tile pierced through Li Huowang's wrist, leaving a square gap behind.

Just as Li Huowang's hand was about to droop helplessly without the support of his wrist bone, the square hole was quickly filled by the wriggling bugs, and the grip on his sword became firm and secure once more.

"Hehe, you get what you pay for. It seems that things obtained by sacrificing one's internal organs and guts truly are different," said Li Huowang before he dashed toward Yi Wan in the distance.

This time, facing anything thrown at him by the opponent, Li Huowang simply didn't dodge and took it head-on with his body.

After all, any damage or loss would be replaced by those squirming bugs.

With the power borrowed from Bahu, Li Huowang momentarily matched them in strength.

Li Huowang, Master Danyang, and Oblivion Path, three groups with entirely different goals, chaotically fought together.

Sometimes it was Li Huowang and Master Danyang teaming up against Oblivion Path, and other times it was Master Danyang and Oblivion Path aligning against Li Huowang.

Master Danyang, wielding the Flesh and Blood Coin Sword, showed astonishing strength, managing to overpower Oblivion Path even with a head missing.

It seemed Oblivion Path was more adept at manipulating the human heart than direct confrontation, with the five of them unexpectedly being suppressed by Master Danyang.

However, Li Huowang also played a part in this.

Though Master Danyang was more powerful, with the three factions now in a balance of power, none wanted to let the other two win.

In this melee, Li Huowang always sided with the weaker and attacked the stronger. He had already put his life on the line; it made no sense not to drag a few more down with him.

If both Master Danyang and Oblivion Path could follow him in death, it would be the best of outcomes.

Surprisingly, the intense battle reached a stalemate, each person calculating their own gains.

While Master Danyang was suppressing the others, Yi Wan quickly approached Li Huowang, his voice clearly anxious, "Boss! Stop messing around, don't you see the strength of this Demi Immortal? If we keep this up, someone's going to get killed!"

"Heh, you think calling me 'Boss' will make me spare you? Even if you called me 'Ancestor,' it would be useless!"

Li Huowang gripped the sides of the wound on his own chest and violently tore it open.

Blood-red worms, as if bursting from his abdomen in an instant, lunged towards Yi Wan like an avalanche.

These worms were now under Li Huowang's control; just a single touch would cause them to burrow instantly under the skin and wreak havoc, leading to an utterly ruptured gut.

"Hong Zhong, Boss! Seriously, stop fighting! Feel what's under the skin on the back of your neck! See if what I'm saying isn't true!"

Li Huowang reached to the back of his neck and felt the worms break through his flesh, pushing out something hard from within.

It was a mahjong tile, the Red Center.

A hint of hesitation appeared on Li Huowang's face. Yi Wan hurriedly explained in desperation, "Your true identity is Hong Zhong, one of the top three bosses of the Oblivion Path. You felt you had played with everything, got tired of all the games, and found it meaningless. That's why you sealed away your Divine Sense, letting us accompany you in your play.

"Now Er Bing is dead because of your game, we can't continue like this. We're brothers; if we keep fighting like this, it's going too far, and it's not fair for your fun to cost us our lives, right?"

"Is everything you're saying true?" Li Huowang looked utterly bewildered as he stared straight at the Red Center mahjong tile in his hand.

"Ah! Didn't you see this mahjong tile was dug out of your flesh! Could there still be—"

Before he could finish, Yi Wan felt something was wrong. He looked down and saw several worms had somehow burrowed into his calf.

When his attention was on his leg, a flash of cold light appeared in front of him, and Li Huowang's longsword stabbed straight through his throat.

Looking at Yi Wan before him, Li Huowang's face revealed a mocking smile, continuing to play along with the other's fabricated tales.

"Yes, I remember now, I am Hong Zhong, one of the three elements of the Oblivion Path. I also recall that you stole my woman back then, so now you're settling personal scores under the guise of public duty."

As long as one could confirm their identity as part of the Oblivion Path, dealing with them was simple – just treat everything they say as crap.

"Boss, I'm telling the truth!" Yi Wan clutched Li Huowang's sword tightly, unwilling to accept his fate as he shouted.

"I'll be damned if I believe you!"

With a powerful one-handed thrust from Li Huowang, Yi Wan's fingertips and his square head were sent flying into the air.

After the worms inside Yi Wan had returned to Li Huowang's chest, Li Huowang turned and rushed towards the distant battlefield.

One of the frauds from the Oblivion Path was dead, now it was time to weaken Master Danyang.

"Master! Xuan Yang is coming to help you!" Li Huowang, sword in hand, charged towards Master Danyang.

In a united assault with the Oblivion Path, "Puchi", Master Danyang's child-like head was chopped off in an instant.

But before Li Huowang could catch his breath, a bloody, malformed infant's head, as if suffering delayed development, grew back from the severed neck.

Yi Wan, witnessing this, swiftly turned to Li Huowang and said, "Your Master has the body of a Demi Immortal; this battle is futile and fruitless! Hold him off for a bit! We'll help you take care of him!"

Li Huowang's response was a mouthful of bloody spit.

"Fine! We did indeed fool you before, but now you've killed Er Bing and Yi Wan, isn't that enough revenge? Two lives should be more than enough to settle any score, right?"

"Moreover, compared to us outsiders, shouldn't you hate your Master even more?"