The Unruly Immortals

It was as if a pot had exploded, and all the people attending the morning class snapped to attention, scattering quickly in all directions.

"What's going on? What have they discovered?" Li Huowang's heart skipped a beat, no matter what had happened, it looked like the situation had changed, and he began to speed up.

Not only did their actions resemble those of Qingfeng Taoist Temple, but even the arrangements looked like a Taoist temple, Li Huowang weaved through the squirming creatures, searching for the infant.

As he searched, Li Huowang suddenly stopped in his tracks, in the dim and damp underground, sound was the fastest way to discern direction, and he took out the cotton from his ears.

In an instant, the sounds of water waves, the crawling of the creatures, the dripping of the stalactites, and various other loud, piercing noises flooded into Li Huowang's ears.

Li Huowang closed his eyes, trying to identify something in that chaos of sounds, gradually, he heard a voice, "Uncle...?"

"This voice..." Just as Li Huowang strained to follow the sound, a cry suddenly rang in his ear.

"Found it!" Li Huowang's eyes snapped open, and he charged toward the source of the sound.

After bursting through various caves and puddles, Li Huowang at last found the infant in a cave lit with a faint glow.

Some disheveled, crutch-wielding elders were carefully attending to the children, their eyebrows marked with a cinnabar dot.

The grey-haired old woman from before was there too, holding a baby girl, her expression no longer joyful but rather anxious and uneasy.

There appeared to be twenty or thirty children, and in a corner, there were several cradles emitting a foul stench, what was inside was obviously unspeakable.

Under the monk's urging, Li Huowang slowly revealed his figure and spoke in a low voice to the elders, "Don't panic, the cave will soon be chaotic, just stay here and be honest, I will come and take you all out after a while."

The elders looked up, and upon seeing Li Huowang, some of their numb expressions gradually brightened.

An elderly figure, who looked to be well over a hundred years old, shakily raised his walking stick, his voice hoarse as he shouted, "My son, Shui Erzi, ah~! Come quick, someone has snuck in!"

With these words, a chain reaction was triggered, and the majority of the elders began to call out.

"Whoosh!" As Li Huowang, with a ferocious expression, charged forward, his sword raised, three white-haired heads soared into the air.

However, killing them now was to no avail for Li Huowang — the creatures had been alerted.

After a few breaths, a handful of black sticky rice mixed with black smoke was flung from outside the cave toward Li Huowang.

As Li Huowang swiftly dodged, the sticky rice shot through where he had been and struck an old woman.

Accompanied by a scream, the old woman's flesh rapidly dissolved, and in no time, she turned into a white-haired, smoking corpse.

"Go!" Li Huowang raised his longsword and sliced his left hand, shaving off all his freshly grown nails, which spun out of the cave.

Accompanied by the screams of creatures, Li Huowang quickly shifted his position, blending his body's color with the ground beneath him and entering an invisible state to hide.

It didn't take long before those clad in black robes, moving on all fours like the mythical xiao, crawled into the cave from the outside. They seemed to be searching for Li Huowang but couldn't find him anywhere.

Just then, some of the elderly who hadn't died managed to struggle up from the ground and cautioned the xiao, "Good sons! That man has escaped underground; he might know the Earth Escaping Technique, so you must be careful."

A strong intent to kill surged in Li Huowang's heart. He had never detested the existence of some people so much, even more so than he detested the xiao, these undying elders.

Upon hearing the warning from the elderly, one of the xiao, with nails long and unclean, pinched two dry yellow leaves and rubbed them fiercely in front of his eyes, which were covered with hair.

As a ghastly howl emerged from his mouth, all the xiao charged towards Li Huowang, carrying black dust, verdigris-covered Taoist Bells, and dark-red Peach Wood Swords.

"Nan Ling Na Zhen Guang Ji Ji She!!" The Copper Coins on Li Huowang's Copper Coin Sword, dragged by the red cord, quickly separated, lashing out like a whip at the bodies of the xiao.

In an instant, in that narrow, dark cave, the air was filled with the chaos of clashing blades and swords.

As Li Huowang was entangled by two xiao on either side, another xiao, holding an umbrella made from a purple talisman as if it were a shield, tried to sneak attack from behind.

Li Huowang's ears twitched, and he spun around to face it. The next moment, a mass of black tentacles pushed Li Huowang's bronze mask off his face and latched onto the xiao's face, tearing off half of it.

At that moment, those Copper Coins, tied by red cords, rapidly wound around the necks of several xiao.

Following that, Li Huowang yanked hard on his Copper Coin Sword. Heads rolled to the ground one by one.

As Li Huowang continued to harm himself, the number of xiao was rapidly dwindling; they stood no chance against him.

Seeing that they were no match, the xiao began to stir with a new plan.

An incense burner made from an elderly person's head was placed on the ground, with three pale candles lined up in a row; the lead xiao, who had been chanting earlier, got up from the ground.

He first stuffed several wriggling Elixirs into his mouth, then, stepping in the pattern of the Gang Step with his deformed feet, he suddenly began to conduct a ritual with a Peach Wood Sword that had black talismans inserted in it.

The Curse Sound issuing from his mouth was not human-like, terribly muffled, yet oddly rhythmic and tuneful.

It was nothing short of terrifying to see such deformed, blind-eyed, protruding-mouthed monsters chant incantations and perform rituals, just like humans.

What was even more terrifying was that Li Huowang had no idea what kind of ritual the opponent was performing, but he was certain that he couldn't allow him to continue chanting.

With a forceful push from his legs against the ground, he charged towards the xiao, once again pulling out the Purple Tassel Sword and fiercely hacking at his own left hand.

Two fingers were chopped off and, spiraling with the bone, flew towards the xiao.

With two "clangs", Li Huowang's fingers were blocked by other xiao.

The xiao performing the ritual saw Li Huowang and quickly rolled over, throwing out two black Banners on either side of Li Huowang. He then thrust the Peach Wood Sword, emitting dark vapors, fiercely into the ground.

The dark vapors on the Peach Wood Sword instantly seeped into the earth, and a circular Talisman, formed of some special ancient characters, rapidly emerged around Li Huowang as the center.