The Unruly Immortals

"She's fake, I don't need you to remind me! Yes, even if my mom is an illusion! I don't want to make her sad!"

Li Huowang, his body bound in chains, roared with bulging veins.

The next moment, he became listless again. Pain overtook his face once more as he knelt on the ground, raising his head and repeatedly knocking it against the floor.

The pits created by his head grew larger with each smash.

Finally, Li Huowang calmed down, trying his best to control his emotions and steady himself.

"Mom, can you go out for a bit? Yeah, don't worry, I'll have a good talk with Dr. Wang. It's okay, I'm tied up. Tied up tightly, I can't hurt him, and I won't hurt him."

Just then, Mantou squeezed out of the crowd, ready to approach Li Huowang with something in its mouth, but Gao Zhijian quickly grabbed it. "Don't... don't... don't go!"

"What exactly do you want? I'm telling you, if you dare to use them again, I won't let it rest!"

"What are you responsible for! Isn't your money enough? Can't you just give me some random explanation and tell my mom that you're powerless?"

"I've said it, my issues... People like you can't help!"

"Fine, then I misspoke, let me rephrase it! People like you, an illusion like you, they can't help at all!"

"Try what! I'm not trying!! This is all fake! It's all fake!"

Li Huowang turned his head and plunged his head into the turf, burying his whole head into it.

After a while, with a "boom!", Li Huowang's head burst out from the turf, and he screamed manically at the air with a fierce expression: "You think you're so tough? Just standing there and running your mouth!"

"Still talking about understanding me! What the hell do you understand! Do you know what I've been through?! How could you possibly empathize!!"

"Treating both sides as real!! You make it sound so easy! If it's so simple, try being in my shoes!! Have you ever experienced, on one side eating chocolate balls, while on the other being fed nails?!"

"I don't care about myself! It doesn't matter if I swallow nails! But I, Li Huowang, have people I care about, I'm scared!"

"I'm afraid that one day, on one side I'll be picking up food with chopsticks, and on the other, I'll be stabbing chopsticks into Bai Lingmiao's eyes!"

"I won't give up! One day I will find a way to rid myself of these illusions! I won't suffer forever! One day, I too will become like a normal person!!"

Suddenly, Li Huowang seemed to see something, his face showing an incredulous expression, his breathing becoming more and more rapid. His pupils trembled.

Li Huowang abruptly turned once more, his bound body wriggling into the dirt like a maggot, his mud-caked head desperately shaking.

"No! Li Huowang, you've been tricked twice already! You can't be fooled again! That must be fake!!"

"You absolutely can't fall into confusion again! Over there, they're still fighting for their lives! What will happen to them if you get trapped again!!"

Under everyone's gaze, Li Huowang continuously rolled on the green grass, turning the neatly kept blades into a mess.

An hour later, Li Huowang stopped, lying there motionless, indistinguishable from a corpse except for his heaving chest.

"I'm fine now, untie me."

Li Huowang's hoarse voice was filled with deep fatigue.

Just as the others were about to rush over, Bai Lingmiao stopped them.

"Don't go, I can handle it alone, Brother Li doesn't want to see anyone right now."

As the crowd gradually dispersed, Bai Lingmiao ignored the mud on Li Huowang and crouched to gently unlock the chains. She cradled his head in her arms and constantly massaged his temples with her fingers.

Li Huowang took a deep breath, exhaled all the foul air from his lungs as much as possible, and looked up at the sky muttering to himself, "Miaomiao, they're pressuring us so tightly, I'm really so tired..."

Bai Lingmiao was so heartbroken she almost cried, but during this time she could hardly help with anything. She could only hold Li Huowang's head, massaging it over and over with her hands.

Li Huowang looked up at her, at Bai Lingmiao's delicate face, his expression hesitant. After watching her for a while, he spoke again in a low voice, "Miaomiao, be worse to me in the future. Being too nice feels too unreal, I'm afraid it's all an illusion."

Bai Lingmiao's tears eventually fell; she lay sobbing on Li Huowang's chest.

Li Huowang raised his right hand, holding it in front of him, and with a dagger in his left, he slashed forcefully, severing a little finger directly.

He closed his eyes, quietly experiencing the pain, the hesitance in his brow gradually fading away, "What a joke, how could such intense pain be fake?"

"Woof woof?" Mantou carried something in its mouth, carefully trotting circles around Li Huowang.

"Tssk tssk." Li Huowang picked up the severed finger and tossed it at Mantou's feet.

"Woof!" Mantou spat out the black, snakeskin-like object from its mouth, pinned down one end of the finger with its front paws, and began chewing on it with great excitement.

Li Huowang put his still-bleeding right hand in his mouth to suck on it, then patted Bai Lingmiao on the back and said, "It's okay, don't cry. Get up, you see everyone is sneaking glances at us."

When Bai Lingmiao got up from Li Huowang's chest with red eyes, he took a ribbon from the girl's wrist and gently wrapped it around her eyes. "The sun is strong during the day, remember to tie this around your eyes, or they'll get hurt."

Holding Bai Lingmiao, who couldn't see anything, Li Huowang turned and walked towards his cart.

After what happened with Li Huowang, the Qingqiu people in the entire camp village looked at him with odd expressions.

Li Huowang didn't care. After all, he was leaving, and he probably wouldn't see them again. How they looked at him or talked behind his back didn't matter.

"Baolu, until we meet again. We're leaving. If it's convenient, remember to write a letter," he said.

Li Huowang stood by the ox cart, speaking to Sun Baolu who was hugging the Qingqiu girl.

Sun Baolu appeared somewhat helpless. "Brother Li, I can't read."

Li Huowang was at a loss for words, "That's fine then, take care of yourself." With that, he left the tent village with the remaining people.

As for what was under Sun Baolu's clothes, Li Huowang didn't bother to ask. He wasn't that interested in gossip.

Gao Zhijian, Mantou, and the others hugged Sun Baolu tightly, with quite a few of them having teary eyes. After all, they were brothers who had faced life and death together, and they might never see each other again. It was impossible to say they didn't care.

As a dog, Mantou clearly didn't understand such emotions, and it continued to trot around Li Huowang with that object in its mouth.

When Mantou's tail brushed against his shin for the fifth time, Li Huowang sighed softly, looked down at Mantou, and said, "Spit out whatever is in your mouth. If you keep picking up random things, see if I don't stew you."

Mantou spat out the object in front of Li Huowang and sat down, wagging its tail while looking up at him.

"What's this? Shed snakeskin? Are there snakes this big in Qingqiu?"

Gao Zhijian hooked the object that Mantou had brought over into mid-air with his knife.

In the next moment, a black shadow flashed by, startling everyone.

It was Li Huowang. Li Huowang, who had been indifferent until then, now trembled as he held the object with both hands, looking very excited.

"This is... Black Taisui!"