The Unruly Immortals

"Clip-clop, clip-clop." Accompanied by the continuous sounds of horse hooves, the horse carriage driven by Li Huowang was leaving Cangshui County, becoming more distant by the moment.

Apart from Black Taisui, the carriage was also loaded with plenty of dry goods that would last. Li Huowang took out a red dried jujube and started chewing it slowly.

"Sweet?" the Monk leaned over, his wrinkled face folding even more as he asked.

"Sweet," Li Huowang replied, then took out a piece of walnut meat and began to chew on it. "Do you think they're happy now?"

"Of course they're happy. If they weren't, would they have sent all this stuff to you?"

"Good, that's good. The world is too painful, so it's better to be as happy as we can."

Muttering to himself, Li Huowang was struggling in his pain and repression, but the feeling of helping others escape the same fate seemed not too bad either.

Upon hearing something stirring beside him, Li Huowang turned his head to see Mantou wagging its tail, pawing at the basket and burying its dog head inside a large bamboo basket, eagerly munching on something.

Li Huowang pinched the flesh of its neck with his fingers, lifting it and tossing it onto the dirt road beside them. "Get down, start running. Do you want to end up as a porker ready for slaughter, eating like this all the time?"

Mantou whined softly, seemingly expressing some dissatisfaction, but seeing that Li Huowang had no intention of waiting, it quickly started to run on all four paws.

Gazing at the undulating, endless dirt road ahead, Li Huowang loosened the reins in his hand, allowing the horse to move forward on its own.

Horse carriages aren't like cars; they don't need constant attention. Horses are smart creatures with brains, they'll dodge danger and stop at forks in the road.

With his hands free, Li Huowang took out an enlightenment book from his chest. When he touched his abdomen, Black Taisui inside him instantly stirred, and a black tentacle emerged from his navel, hooking around his finger.

He bowed his head, seeming to contemplate the tentacle. After the events that had transpired, he no longer felt as repulsed by Black Taisui.

Since it had intervened when he tried to take his own life and had helped him in critical moments, having such a creature by his side was quite nice. Of course, it would be better if it didn't constantly try to possess his body.

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Li Huowang suddenly removed the earplug from his right ear. The noise, fraught with clinking and clanking, immediately became clear. "Before, eat, hungry, I help you,"

"I know you helped me. Don't keep bringing it up. Be quiet now," Li Huowang snapped.

As soon as he finished speaking, the voice of Black Taisui grew quieter, "Okay ... hungry? Eat,"

"No eating, look at books, learn characters. Your speech is too jumbled, you haven't learned enough," Li Huowang retorted, holding the enlightenment book and began reading word by word.

He didn't know how much Black Taisui in his stomach could absorb, but the more fluently it spoke, the better it was for him.

As he read, a new tentacle extended from Li Huowang's navel, and at the tip of the tentacle was wrapped a double-pupil eyeball.

The bizarrely twisted tentacle slowly examined everything around it with great focus, a look of intense curiosity in its gaze.

Sensing two lines of sight emanating from the single eyeball, Li Huowang paused, reaching out to snatch the eyeball into his hand to take a closer look. "Hong Zhong, this seems to be your eyeball, right? Why wasn't it digested by Black Taisui?"

Hong Zhong, who hadn't appeared for a long time, rose up from beneath the swiftly rotating wheels of the carriage, "This thing is a real treasure. I went through a lot of trouble to acquire it back in the day."

"Another treasure? Isn't this your original eyeball?"

"Of course not, why don't you take a guess where I tricked this thing from?" Hong Zhong said with a smug smile on his face.

Li Huowang glanced at it and then ignored it, stuffing the eyeball in his hand back into the tentacle of Black Taishui and resumed chanting.

No matter how much Hong Zhong tried to tempt him, he didn't ask any further. With constant contact with the other party, Li Huowang seemed to have figured out how to deal with the tricks of the Oblivion Path.

As he was teaching, the time gradually reached midday, and a rest stop appeared on the side of the dirt road, scattered with a few wooden tables where several travelers were sitting, eating noodles with big bites.

Li Huowang thought it over, pulled on the reins to stop the carriage, and walked with Mantou, who was panting, toward the stall.

"What would you like, sir?" asked the stall owner with two small tufts of a mustache, carefully, upon smelling the strong scent of blood on Li Huowang.

"Do you have any food? Anything will do," said Li Huowang. With ready-made food available, he certainly didn't need to eat dry provisions.

After all, dry provisions were designed for long storage life, not for being particularly tasty.

"Ah, sir, take a seat and have a sip of cool tea! I'll serve you right away!" The mustachioed man went to the stove and started busily working with his wife, who had a big belly.

Li Huowang picked up the cool tea pot on the table and poured some for Mantou, who was panting beside him.

Seeing that the dog had been gnawing at the stream of water for quite a while with no reaction, Li Huowang poured himself a bowl and began to drink.

Although they were close to Cangshui County, it is always better to be careful—Li Huowang didn't want to capsize in a gutter.

"Now that I have the Alchemy Furnace, next is to find some Alchemy Ingredients. There should be some in the medicine shops of Yinling City, if not, I could ask Tuoba Danqing." As Li Huowang was pondering these things, he saw the mustachioed man come over with a bowl of noodles.

"Sir, your noodles are here." A steaming bowl of noodles was placed in front of Li Huowang—with just some assorted scraps of livestock and some wild vegetables and dried radish on top.

But mixed together, these ingredients emitted a very appetizing aroma.

After Mantou had eaten, Li Huowang began to devour his meal. The stall was selling wide noodles, which seemed to be a mixture of several types, and they tasted quite chewy.

Li Huowang was the only customer at that moment, so after the stall owner served the noodles, he had no other tasks and sat down with his wife. They were talking in low voices, far away, but Li Huowang, with his acute hearing, heard everything clearly.

"Wife, take a rest, don't overexert yourself and harm our baby."

"Er Lang, don't just worry about me, you should also eat something while there's no one around."

"Hehe, I'm not in a hurry, as long as I can see our child, I don't feel hungry at all."

The stall owner squatted down and gently stroked his wife's belly, speaking softly and affectionately, "Baby, can you feel it? I'm your daddy, be good, call daddy."

The pregnant woman playfully pinched the arm of the stall owner, "Why are you acting crazy? Which child can speak before it's born? Silly."

"Don't interrupt, I'm chatting with our child. The fortune-teller said that the more I talk to our child now, the more successful they will be in the future!"

After saying this, he lay down, placing his ear on his wife's bulging belly, speaking with love-filled tones, "Child, can you hear? I'm your daddy, come on, call daddy."

As soon as the stall owner's voice fell, an indistinct voice sounded like thunder in Li Huowang's ears. "Daddy..."