The Unruly Immortals

Peng Longteng, even without a head, somehow still moved—an impossibility Li Huowang had never anticipated and was utterly unprepared for.

Moreover, at this moment, his skin was completely gone, his consciousness was almost blurred by pain, and his movements became extremely sluggish. Even when he wanted to react, it was already too late, and he could only watch helplessly as the giant halberd smashed down toward his head.

"Am I... going to die?" This thought flashed through Li Huowang's mind, but rather than fear, his heart filled with a sense of relief.

Just at this critical juncture, a figure leapt up high with a roar, crashing onto Peng Longteng's left shoulder and slightly deflecting the massive figure clad in heavy armor.

The giant halberd slashed down close to Li Huowang's left side, like a door panel. Li Huowang himself was astonished that he had survived this deadly situation.

Looking through his somewhat blurry vision, he realized that the person who had collided with Peng Longteng was Gao Zhijian.

The next moment, a red shadow pounced beside Li Huowang. The beast's head under the red bridal veil opened its huge mouth, biting Li Huowang's charred neck, and quickly moved away from Peng Longteng on all fours.

Being dragged on the ground like this, Li Huowang looked at the white clouds in the sky and laughed inexplicably. Someone was risking their life to save him, and that feeling was really good.

The charred Li Huowang was dragged to a side. The beast's head under the red veil opened its mouth and immediately turned to rush towards the distance.

Refusing to wait helplessly while his enemy was still able to move, Li Huowang struggled to sit up. Speaking to the dog-like creature beside him, he said, "Go, help me retrieve the Great Thousand Record."

The dog-like creature swallowed nervously, its hands reaching out to help Li Huowang but hesitating, unsure where to begin. "Brother Li, what is the Great Thousand Record? Where is it?"

"It's... it's..." Li Huowang started pointing with his mangled fingers towards Peng Longteng's feet when a figure darted out and picked up the Great Thousand Record from the ground. It was Chun Xiaoman.

Before Li Huowang could speak, the situation in the battle suddenly changed. Accompanied by a squelching noise, Gao Zhijian's robust body limply hung from the heavy halberd.

The disparity in strength was too great. He was not the opponent's match at all.

"Give me the Great Thousand Record quickly!" Li Huowang, eyes nearly splitting with urgency, staggered forward a few steps before collapsing to the ground, too weak to continue.

He seemed to be made entirely of charcoal, shedding parts onto the ground with every step he took.

Chun Xiaoman glanced at the utterly wretched Li Huowang and then at Peng Longteng, who had flung Gao Zhijian off the halberd.

She gritted her teeth and, in a bold move, spread the Great Thousand Record out on the ground. Lifting the longsword in her hand, she ruthlessly chopped down towards her own left arm.

The arm, severed from Chun Xiaoman's body, rapidly turned an iron gray. The hairs on the arm grew thick and long, thrashing and waving around. Eventually, they transformed into tentacles that followed the arm, burrowing into the soil as it flipped over.

Just as Peng Longteng was about to run towards Li Huowang, with the giant halberd raised, the mass burst from the ground and slammed into Peng Longteng's breastplate, knocking her large figure heavily through the air.

The force was immense, almost wrenching the giant halberd from Peng Longteng's grasp.

As the woman with the red bridal veil, now on all fours, arrived, she sprang up high into the air. Three decaying wolf skulls harshly outlined beneath the red veil bit fiercely into Peng Longteng's heavy halberd.

The distant chanting and drumming timed perfectly with the moment.

"Boom, boom, boom! The giant turtle supports the earth and the sky, a pair of orioles watch. At the blink of the turtle's eye, it moves; as the turtle turns over, so does the sky! Boom, boom, boom!"

The woman in mid-air swiftly somersaulted, twisting her body beyond the capabilities of normal humans. With this twisting force, Peng Longteng's giant halberd was finally ripped from her hands.

Peng Longteng, headless and weaponless, met an inevitable end as Chun Xiaoman's tentacles, sprouting from her severed arm, incessantly waved and tightly wrapped around her entire body.

The woman with the red bridal veil spat the heavy halberd onto the ground and walked toward Peng Longteng with three beast heads in tow.

Once her rigid armor plates were torn off, Peng Longteng's flesh followed, torn by sharp teeth, revealing deep white bones.

Seeing everything come to an end, Li Huowang, who was barely hanging on by will alone, quickly lapsed into unconsciousness.

His last words before passing out were, "Hurry and save Gao... Zhijian...."

In a hazy state close to death, Li Huowang's consciousness was extremely blurred.

"So tired, no, I can't give up, someone is waiting for me,"

"Others have paid such a great price to rescue me, I absolutely cannot die..."

"Who is it? Who's watching me? Who are you?"

After an unknown period of time, Li Huowang, weakened to the extreme, slowly opened his sole eye and realized from the familiar rocking sensation that he was lying on an ox cart.

As his gaze moved downward, he saw Bai Lingmiao, her eyes slightly red, holding a clay pot and dabbing cotton cloth in a substance resembling butter, gently brushing it onto his body.

Li Huowang struggled to part his lips, which had stuck together, as streaks of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "How is Gao Zhijian doing?"

The hoarseness of his voice made Bai Lingmiao tremble, and clutching the pot in her hand, she leaned closer to Li Huowang's head as tears began to well up in her eyes again.

"How is Gao Zhijian?" Li Huowang asked again, his main concern being Gao Zhijian who had been hung from the giant halberd.

Bai Lingmiao gently pulled up her sleeve and wiped away her tears of emotion. "He's fine, I asked the Immortal Sects to save him. That strike didn't hit his vitals."

"That's good... that's good..." Li Huowang smiled as he struggled to sit up, but Bai Lingmiao hurriedly stopped him.

"Brother Li, you can't move right now, I'm applying mouse oil to you. My mother said that mouse oil is the best for treating burns."

Li Huowang did as he was told, lying charred on the cart, waiting for her to apply the oil again and again.

Through Bai Lingmiao's narrative, Li Huowang learned of everything that had happened after he had passed out.

No one knew what Peng Longteng had cultivated or why she could still move without a head. No one else knew either.

The only certainty was that this executioner, with hands covered in blood, had finally died, which was a form of divine retribution.

Peng Longteng's bones were hard, too hard to dissect; only after her flesh was completely stripped away, reducing her to a skeleton, did she at last stop moving.

Those who had survived the crisis hurried through the checkpoint into the realm of Qingqiu to avoid any potential retaliation from the remaining enemy soldiers.

After a moment of silence in the ox cart, Bai Lingmiao hesitantly said, "Brother Li, the divine skill you have that lets your hand grow back, can you teach it to Sister Xiaoman? She lost her hand."

"Although she always says it's fine, she's still so young, and she has her whole life ahead of her."