The Unruly Immortals

Beneath Qingqiu, within the interlocking caverns, Li Huowang and his group stood under a glow of silver light, looking toward the external exit.

"It's so high, and almost completely vertical, how can we possibly climb up there?" Doggy, with his neck craned, said difficulty as he gazed at the speckled starry sky outside the cave.

For others, this might be a major problem, but for the current Li Huowang, it was easy to solve, even if he couldn't handle it himself, there were others beside him who had ways to deal with it.

Li Huowang turned his head and glanced at Bai Lingmiao, jerked his chin toward her, and she showed a trace of hesitation on her face, yet eventually she nodded and covered her head with her red bridal veil.

Seeing this scene, Li Huowang's expression slightly tightened, and then he remained silent.

"Dong dong dong~!! Head wrapped in headscarf, feet treading on Ziwei soil~! Today, the ascent is auspicious as Nandou leans on Beidou, Nandou Star residence of the Sixth Patriarch, within Beidou Mouth Ziwei thrives, ai~!"

Accompanied by the sound of drums and godly chant, Bai Lingmiao, possessed by an Immortal Sects entity, suddenly threw back her head, peering through the red bridal veil at the dots of stars in the sky.

Bai Lingmiao's body began to convulse briefly, and when the convulsions ceased, she snatched the iron chains from Gao Zhijian's body that were used to bind Li Huowang, then her body slumped to the ground as if boneless in an instant.

She twisted her soft, limp body and, like a human serpent, slithered smoothly up the cave wall.

Against the nearly vertical cave wall, Bai Lingmiao moved as if on flat ground, swiftly climbing to the cave entrance.

Soon, the chain used to bind Li Huowang was thrown down. It landed in front of the others, the problem resolved with ease.

"You all go up first, I'll cover our retreat," Li Huowang said, standing firm in the moonlight, warily watching the darkness beyond the moonlight.

"Brother Li, you're badly wounded; you should go up first," Sun Baolu said, worriedly looking at the wounds on Li Huowang's body.

No wonder he thought so, as Li Huowang looked pitiful, with blood still dripping from his severed hand fingers and most of the skin on his chest peeled off, his body had no good parts left.

"Stop dawdling, just climb up when I tell you to!" Li Huowang flatly rejected his goodwill.

He understood that in such a situation, as the strongest among them, he could manage any unexpected incidents that might occur during the retreat.

But if someone else were to cover the retreat and they ran into trouble, they might not make it.

Under Li Huowang's repeated orders, the rest began climbing up the chain.

Most others had an easy time, but the toughest challenge was for the wriggling Black Taisui, who, constantly twisting, took quite an effort to get strapped onto the chain, and was forcefully pulled up by Gao Zhijian.

Looking up as the others clutched the chain and started to climb laboriously, Li Huowang was calculating the time left when his expression suddenly grew extremely somber; he turned and looked towards the darkness on the left side of his body.

Han Fu emerged from the darkness, looking somewhat disheveled with his two deformed heads, the yellow Taoist robe dyed with a lot of blood, clearly from Li Huowang's earlier attacks.

He didn't step into the moonlight but stopped at the boundary between the moonlight and the darkness.

While gripping the hilt of his longsword, Li Huowang stared at Han Fu, who looked back at him with a smirk that wasn't quite a smile. "Daoist Brother Xuan Yang, it seems that all the irrelevant people have already left, haven't they?"

"Yeah, they all left." Li Huowang's right hand fingers clenched with an audible creak.

"Brother Li! Is everything alright down there?! Who are you talking to?" The shouting of Gouwa came from the opening above.

Hearing the hollow echo from above, the furrow-browed Li Huowang shouted back, "It's fine! I'm talking to an illusion! Keep climbing!"

Afterward, Li Huowang coldly eyed the Taoist before him, "You actually arrived early, right? Waited all this time just to catch me alone, do you really think you can defeat me?"

Han Fu shook his head, a hint of smugness on his face as he said, "Hehe, didn't you notice? Those talismans on your sword, they've all been stabbed into your body, haven't they? Enveloping your internal organs?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he spread his hands apart, and with the waving of his wide sleeves in the air that made whooshing noises, a giant ghost-drawn talisman, three Zhang in length, materialized on the ground surrounding Li Huowang.

No sooner had the talisman, the same color as their rotten teeth, appeared than it enveloped Li Huowang entirely, followed immediately by his sensation of being unable to move an inch.

"Om tare tuttare ture soha!!"

With a low chant from Han Fu, the giant talisman on the ground seemed to come alive, as twisty lines of black and yellow rapidly climbed up Li Huowang's body, burrowing through his wounds.

Seeing Li Huowang frozen in place, not moving, a trace of smugness crossed Han Fu's face. "Capturing a live Xinsu is so simple, it really is easy to capture, I truly don't understand why people always say not to forcefully confront the Xinsu."

"What do they know, Xinsu is so rare, a bunch of people who have never seen a pig discussing how to kill one, of course, they can't come up with anything useful." Han Fu's fist-sized head disparaged along with his other self.

Han Fu walked over, continuing to size up the rigid Li Huowang. "This Xinsu, it seems no different from the outside. Why is it so prized? Who should I sell it to?"

"Selling it to someone else doesn't seem right, does it? Who knows, they might covet our Xinsu seeing as we're weak, better to use it ourselves."

"How to use it, though? Just peel it and throw it into the pot to boil and eat? I've heard that Xinsu is special, but never why it's special. Maybe just sell it."

"If we don't know what makes it special, who knows the price? What if we sell it too cheap? Let's go back and ask Master, he's seen so much."

"But what if Master decides to kill us to seize our Xinsu?"

While Han Fu's two heads were still discussing how to deal with Li Huowang, the immobilized Li Huowang suddenly stretched out his hand.

Before Han Fu could react, a "puchi" sound rang out as Li Huowang thrust his longsword into the other's belly.

"This... this is impossible! I definitely sealed your..." Han Fu, blood slowly seeping from his mouth, looked incredulously at the virulent Li Huowang.

"Kid! Don't rob others if your skills aren't up to par!" With a low shout from Li Huowang, he twisted the sword that pierced into his belly, grabbed the hilt with both hands and with a forceful push upwards, the blade sliced through the navel and cut upward towards the head.

Even at this moment, Han Fu still refused to give up the struggle, lifting his hands to form a seal, but as soon as he moved them towards his chest, Li Huowang's longsword had already made its cut.

Among the splatter of blood, several severed fingers flew through the air.

"How is this possible!" Amid Han Fu's cries full of unwillingness, Li Huowang's longsword swiftly but firmly slid across his throat, mouth, nose, and forehead.