The Unruly Immortals

"Brother Li? What's happened to you?" The cautious dog scion was alarmed when he saw Li Huowang put that thing into his mouth and start chewing.

"Not good, Brother Li is having an attack again."

Li Huowang, however, paid no attention to what he thought and savored the taste of the thin skin. The more he chewed, the more excited he became on his face. "This taste is unmistakable, it's the skin of Black Taisui! There's hope for my hysteria!"

Although the skin was completely dried up, Li Huowang, who had seen it once, knew that Black Taisui would turn into a puddle of water after death, with only this layer of skin remaining.

The reason why this thing had become like this was entirely due to Black Taisui's dehydration after death.

Now there was absolutely no clue, saying finding a way to solve Xinsu was like a fool's dream, with very slim hope.

Black Taisui could help him block Huan Jue, even if only temporarily, that could come in very handy!

"Mantou! Where did you find this thing?" Li Huowang turned his head and asked Mantou.

"Woof woof..." The ear-flopped mutt cocked its head left and right towards its master, clearly not understanding the meaning.

Li Huowang directly placed the skin of Black Taisui in front of its nose, "Smell it! Go find where this thing came from!"

"Woof woof!" This time Mantou seemed to understand Li Huowang's intention. It sniffed the black skin and then turned and dashed toward the grass beside.

"Leave the ox cart with Sun Baolu for now! We're not leaving! We'll go after we find Black Taisui!" With that said, Li Huowang, leaning on his crutch, hurriedly followed.

Although they did not know what Li Huowang wanted to do, the others still followed. With his current state, they truly feared he was having another attack.

Mantou ran very far, so far that Li Huowang's underarm began to bleed from the friction with his crutch.

"Tatatata," the dense sound of hoofbeats rang out. Li Huowang turned his head to see that it was Sun Baolu. He rode his horse with some Qingqiu People following.

"Brother Li! What are you looking for? Get on the horse! I'll take you there!"

Li Huowang stepped on the stirrup, mounted the horse, and pointed at Mantou, still sprinting in the distance, "Follow it!"

The horse was evidently much faster than Li Huowang walking, so they wouldn't get further and further behind Mantou.

Gradually, as the sun hung in the sky, the air grew hot as well.

"How far? Where exactly did Mantou find Black Taisui's skin?"

While thinking this, Li Huowang reached back to touch his Longsword. Black Taisui might have been dangerous to his former self, but to his current self, it was completely useless.

Now he shouldn't be concerned with whether Black Taisui would pose a threat, but how he was going to capture Black Taisui alive, how to imprison it, and then eat its flesh bit by bit to stabilize himself.

As Li Huowang mulled over these questions, Mantou, who was sprinting in the distance, suddenly disappeared.

When the horse followed, Li Huowang discovered that Mantou hadn't disappeared but had run down into a depression in the grassland.

On the left side of the depression was an irregular round hole, looking like the rabbit holes that are common on the grasslands.

Only, this hole was too big to have been dug out by a rabbit, being at least ten feet wide.

Li Huowang dismounted and came to where Mantou was circling. He saw the traces on the ground, traces of Black Taisui.

The scattered black skin had been blown away by the Qingqiu wind, leaving only a few fragments, but the traces of black water on the ground hadn't disappeared.

Li Huowang recognized the black water; it was the same water Black Taisui had expelled from its body just before death. By now, any grass that the black water had touched was already dead.

The trace of the black water extended from that round cave, and from the scene, Li Huowang could deduce what had happened to Black Taisui at that time.

Previously, it must have lived in the cave, seemingly having sustained a fatal injury, it used the last of its energy to crawl out, and eventually died on the outside.

Right after its death, the skin it left behind was picked up by Mantou and brought over to his side.

"Hmm… I hope there's not just one Black Taisui inside this cave," Li Huowang whispered to himself, cautiously approaching the dimly lit round cave.

"Wait!!" Sun Baolu, who was riding a horse, rushed over and stopped his horse in front of the cave entrance, blocking Li Huowang's path.

Visibly terrified, he leapt down from his horse and dragged Li Huowang towards the outside. "Senior Brother Li! You can't go! You really can't go!"

Sun Baolu's face was covered in cold sweat at this moment; he seemed extremely fearful of the round cave, not even wanting to glance at it.

"You… have you been here before?" Li Huowang could easily see the fear he had for the cave entrance.

"Senior Brother Li! I beg you! Please, let's go quickly! This place is really dangerous!!"

Sun Baolu was almost kneeling on the ground begging Li Huowang, yet he remained unmoved.

"You must be joking; after finally finding a clue about Black Taisui, how could I possibly let it slip away?"

"Baolu, calm down. It's safe here now, no one can harm you." Sun Baolu gradually calmed down with Li Huowang's reassurance.

Li Huowang asked Gao Zhijian for a Water Calabash and handed it to Baolu. "Take a sip; your lips are so dry they're peeling."

When he saw Sun Baolu gulping down all the water from the gourd, Li Huowang spoke to him again: "Do you have any understanding of this place? What's inside? I need to find something inside, perhaps you could really help me out."

"Senior Brother Li, you really shouldn't go inside! Qingqiu doesn't have Evil Spirits, not because they've all vanished without a trace, but because they're all hidden, all buried under the grass! That's their lair!!"

Watching Sun Baolu's trembling fingers pointing directly at the cave entrance, Li Huowang looked down at the lush green grass on the ground.

So, beneath the vibrant Qingqiu are all Evil Spirits? A chill ran through Li Huowang's body unbidden.

Yet, after giving it some thought, he found that such madness in this world made sense; otherwise, Black Taisui wouldn't have appeared here without reason.

"That's it? Just this? Do your people know anything else?"

"Senior Brother Li, please don't go! No one else knows what's inside! Even the Khan of Qingqiu has issued an order forbidding anyone to speak of what's inside the cave. The mere act of uttering its name, even just picturing it in your mind, can bring calamities!"

After hearing what Sun Baolu said, Li Huowang pondered for a while before speaking again: "Okay, I got it."

Having said that, he moved forward with his crutch towards the cave behind the horse.

"Senior Brother Li! I've made it so clear to you! Why would you still go in?! You're really going to die!" Sun Baolu was in a panic, hopping anxiously on the spot.

Li Huowang looked at him, recalling the hallucinations he experienced that morning. He was now too eager to isolate Black Taisui from the hallucinations.

"I've dealt with quite a few Evil Spirits on my own and am no longer the fledgling I once was. Facing Evil Spirits doesn't necessarily mean I'm without a chance of winning."

He really did not want to be caught between the two worlds any longer. In fact, Li Huowang was not very confident in himself, deeply afraid that after experiencing a few more Huan Jue, he would be ensnared again.