The Unruly Immortals

The other's words caught Li Huowang off guard. He stared at the fat man in front of him, who was wearing a thick gold chain, almost thinking he had misheard. "Watching me? What's so interesting about me?"

Fearfully looking at the bloodstained glass shards, the fat man stammered, "I don't know, it was a distant cousin of mine who asked me to watch you, saying he'd give me 2500 a month."

"I thought to myself, watching a madman for 2500 a month, slacking off without the boss nagging, and still able to play games, is much better than working in an electronics factory, so I took the job."

Li Huowang reached out to tug at his gold necklace and immediately sensed something was off. He had handled gold that was much heavier than this; this was fake.

Eighty percent of what this fat man was saying was probably true; he was just someone else's pawn sent to shadow him.

The fat man's face revealed a smile eager to please, "This, I got for 30 bucks from my street stall, how could I afford a real gold necklace? That damn Wang Zhilong hasn't paid me for two months."

Li Huowang's look became somewhat vacant. What exactly was happening in this delusion? Who was sending people to watch me?

Li Huowang shook his head vigorously, breathing somewhat rapidly as he muttered to himself, "No! None of this matters, it's all a delusion, what logic can there be in a delusion? I don't need to care what happens here."

"Li Sui!" Li Huowang turned around and shouted loudly at his surroundings, "Li Sui! Have you had enough fun? If you still recognize me as your dad, come back to me now!"

Since he had already given up, there was nothing else to care about. He didn't want to continue staying in this delusion; he wanted to go back, there was still a lot to deal with on the other side!

Watching Li Huowang's abnormal behavior, the tied-up fat man was so frightened he was about to wet himself.

Having watched him for so long, he knew this man wasn't pretending; this guy was a genuine, authentic madman who, as far as he knew, had chopped someone before.

The fat man struggled to scoot backward while yelling, "It's not my fault! I'm just doing work! It was that little punk Dalong who told me, if something suddenly appears around you, I was to immediately call and notify him! Go find him if you want trouble!"

Li Huowang, who was shouting, narrowed his pupils slightly and turned his head to look slowly at him, "What did you say?!"

Li Huowang walked over and yanked him up from the ground, staring intently at his fat face, "What in the world is going on, who is this Dalong? Why does he know I can conjure things out of thin air?"

Everything that had been absurdly bizarre was now starting to make sense, and this inexplicably emerging logic scared him.

"That's all I know; I have his number on my phone, you call him, I'll help you lure him here!"

Li Huowang took out the fat man's phone, unlocked it with his face, opened the contacts, found someone nicknamed Dalong and dialed it.

"Hey—Dalong bro! Come quick! The madman's conjuring things, just like magic, keeps pulling it out! Yes, yes, yes! There's gold!!" After saying his piece with feigned earnestness, the fat man looked at Li Huowang with a face mixed with seven parts fear and three parts sycophancy.

"Bro, he said he'll be here soon, I've tricked him into coming, can you let me go now?"

Li Huowang threw the phone into the swiftly flowing river nearby, took off the fat man's sock, balled it up, and stuffed it directly into his mouth.

It seemed that the so-called Dalong wasn't too far away; after a short while, Li Huowang heard the sound of brakes outside.

When three men carrying various items hurriedly arrived at the underpass, a man with a buzz cut and a face full of tough flesh unexpectedly saw the fat man tied up with his belts in the depths of the underpass.

As they rushed over and frenetically untied the fat man, Wang Zhilong shook him harshly and asked, "Where's Li Huowang?"

Before the mouth could speak, a shadow swiftly emerged from the river beside them, clutching a pebble and fiercely smashing it onto a man's head.

The man dodged in panic, but the stone hit his collarbone, which rapidly swelled to a visible extent.

However, this was just the beginning. Caught off guard by Li Huowang's sneak attack, these people were utterly unprepared and found themselves retreating steadily against one-versus-four odds.

"Damn it! I'll fight you to the end!" a short plump man decided in desperation and pulled out a dagger, plunging it into Li Huowang's arm.

Having stabbed him, the man suddenly became frantic, unconsciously releasing the dagger and stepping back.

Li Huowang didn't hesitate to grab the handle and yanked it out fiercely, stabbing it into the assailant's arm; agonizing screams echoed through the underpass.

Then, as fast as lightning, Li Huowang pulled out the bloodied dagger and stabbed another man in the thigh.

Seeing the horrifying scene unfold before him, Wang Zhilong obviously panicked; he had not expected his opponent to be so terrifying.

He thought of running, but it was too late against the armed Li Huowang who kicked him squarely in the back, sending him face-first into the dirt in a perfect "eating mud" moment.

Soon, the four men were bound hand and foot with their own shoelaces and belts, lying on the ground like pigs awaiting slaughter.

Li Huowang dragged Wang Zhilong to the river's edge by his hair and pressed his face into the murky water, holding until the man struggled violently, then he yanked him up abruptly.

After repeating this several times, Wang Zhilong's life was hanging by a thread.

When lifted again, Li Huowang looked at him and asked, "How did you know I can transform things?"

Wang Zhilong, with a blank gaze and very weak voice, began to speak in fits and starts. "I... I found out by snooping around."

"What else have you done?" Li Huowang let go slightly, and Wang Zhilong's face was just a few centimeters from the water surface, the fear of suffocation making his speech rush out rapidly.

"I heard you have special abilities, that you can conjure gold out of thin air! So I got greedy, found a way to sneak you out of the hospital, and wanted you to make gold for me!" By the end of his confession, Wang Zhilong was crying.

"They didn't abandon me?" A strong feeling of happiness surged through Li Huowang's heart. "They didn't abandon me!"

He had always told himself he didn't care, but upon hearing that it was this man who had sneaked him out of the hospital, Li Huowang realized just how much it mattered to him.

Seeing Li Huowang's emotions stabilize, Wang Zhilong pleaded through his wails, "Can you forgive me just this once? I was really blinded by greed to think of such an underhanded scheme, I was wrong, I really was!"

Li Huowang looked down at him, the surge of excitement in his heart quickly fading, replaced by a strong suspicion.

"You're lying! If you wanted to control me to make gold, why didn't you keep me captive instead of throwing me out on the street? This place is fake! An illusion!"

In desperation, Wang Zhilong howled, "I did want to keep you captive, but I couldn't tie you down at all! The rope would just come loose from your hands, and though the door was clearly shut, you'd end up outside!"

"If you hadn't shown off your abilities, I would have still believed you were just an ordinary madman and given up on this a long time ago!"