The Unruly Immortals

Li Huowang, bereft of all pain, smelled everything around him in a daze. At that moment, his fused senses could feel the previously merged yin and yang splitting apart.

It wasn't because the yang hadn't arrived, but because the yin had come to life. Only living things could feel pain. As Heart Turbidity, who had died before, let out screams of agony, he, like those screaming rocks and trees, also came back to life.

Li Huowang staggered, trying to walk a few steps, but his weak body instinctively fell forward. Several wriggling dark tentacles stretched out, propping up on the ground like pillars. "Dad..."

Afterward, Li Sui opened the wound in Li Huowang's chest and swiftly burrowed inside.

Li Huowang, his mouth trembling, seemed to want to say something, but he could only manage a bloody, fleshly hole that emitted no sound.

Li Huowang's right hand, missing its nail, was raised shakily, pointing to the south. He could feel there was a crack there.

Bai Lingmiao immediately understood Li Huowang's intention, quickly picked up the Great Thousand Record from the ground, and, with Second God carrying Li Huowang on her back, headed south.

As they walked, suddenly, everything around them turned upside down. The three of them felt lighter and plummeted straight down towards the cracked black dome below.

When the three of them passed through the gap, the blinding sunlight forced everyone to close their eyes. It had always been dark inside, but outside, it was already dawn. They had made it out!

Watching the yellow soil rapidly enlarging below, Second God quickly spun around and held Li Huowang and Bai Lingmiao in her arms.

With a loud "Bang!" a violent trembling sound echoed, and Li Huowang's merged features gradually returned to their respective places. Bahu's gaze on him also slowly faded, and the lost sense of pain gradually returned.

"Huowang! Are you okay? Pull yourself together!" Li Huowang heard a familiar voice. When he opened his eyes, he saw the faces of Bai Lingmiao and Yang Na overlapping into one.

They merged with each other as if they had become one person, each opening their mouths and asking together.

At that moment, both sides actually overlapped, making it impossible for Li Huowang to tell if he was in reality or an illusion.

"Huowang!" Bai Lingmiao, desperate, lightly slapped Li Huowang's cheeks with her slender palm, but he showed no response.

Bai Lingmiao, anxious in her heart, picked up the Drum and Whip and started tapping vigorously on the drum at her waist, preparing to call the Bai Family's great-grandmother to heal.

Li Huowang's hand suddenly caught Bai Lingmiao's, shaking his head slightly. In that moment, he was certain; this was reality, the person before him was Bai Lingmiao, and there was no Yang Na at all.

He struggled to turn over and lie face down on the ground. As Li Huowang gasped heavily, bits of flesh from the bloody hole in his mouth slid down his cheeks to the ground.

Li Huowang, mustering all his strength, lifted his head and looked around before spotting the mud-covered Great Thousand Record on the ground. He then used all his force to crawl towards it.

Seeing what he wanted, Bai Lingmiao ran over quickly, picked up the still-bleeding red bamboo scroll, and offered it to Li Huowang.

Li Huowang reached out shakily, unrolling the wrapped-up Great Thousand Record like opening a gift box, revealing his mangled tongue and entire throat.

The weakened Li Huowang lifted his head, opened his mouth wide, and vertically positioned the long object in his hands, letting it fall straight into the horrifying bloody hole.

Slender tentacles soon wriggled out from Li Huowang's mouth, wrapping around his tongue and organs, adjusting their positions and securing them where they were supposed to be.

"It's good you're okay, good you're okay, you scared me to death!" Bai Lingmiao embraced Li Huowang in her arms, her voice trembling as she spoke.

Recalling everything he had gone through in the illusion, Li Huowang managed a weak smile. He reached out to hold Bai Lingmiao back, struggling with his icy tongue to say, "Why did... you... cough cough... suddenly... move forward?"

He clearly hadn't killed Yang Na in the illusion yet, but Bai Lingmiao had proceeded with the Cangqiong Ascension first.

"Didn't you say to act when it hurts the most? I saw you were almost fainting, what? Did I do something wrong?"

Li Huowang shook his head slightly, "No... it was... just right..." Yang Na was injured, but she wasn't dead.

"Thank you… Miao... Miao..." Li Huowang kissed her neck lightly.

Her premature action had saved Yang Na; otherwise, with his own preparations, that stab would have certainly been delivered. Li Huowang couldn't understand why he cared so much about an illusion, but the thought of Yang Na being alive filled him with joy more than anything else could.

Li Huowang now understood that Bahu only desired the pain, not death; it was some other Fate Commander that required death, perhaps the massive bone Bodhisattva he had seen, or something else.

He didn't need to kill Yang Na; the excruciating pain of making up his mind to do so was already enough to carry out the Cangqiong Ascension.

"Yang Na... I'm sorry..." Li Huowang murmured absentmindedly into the void. "I left a scar on your chest; you should rush to get medical attention..."

Hearing Li Huowang's words, Bai Lingmiao's eyebrows creased slightly, but she said nothing and struggled to help him up, planning to leave this cursed place first.

Only now did Li Huowang have the chance to look around at his surroundings, but all he saw was dirt, which looked nothing like the place where he had been initially.

"Where are we? Have we not gotten out yet?!" Li Huowang's heart sank as he forced his gaze upward and finally saw some familiar greenery of the forest.

But those trees were very tall, perched atop a distant cliff. Li Huowang clearly remembered there being no cliffs nearby, let alone such tall mountains.

"Cliffs? Why would there be cliffs here?" When Li Huowang looked around and saw towering cliffs on all sides, he suddenly realized that wasn't a cliff.

Above that was the normal ground; he was in a valley, situated within an incredibly vast basin.

When the Heart Turbidity of life and death touched, they not only hid themselves away but also burrowed three feet into the ground, scraping away everything in several miles radius.

"Huowang, look quick! What is that in the sky?!"

Li Huowang strained to look up and noticed that right above him, in the cloudless sky, a piece was inexplicably missing, and they had fallen from that very spot, which held the dark night with its cracks.

"Is this the power of Heart Turbidity?" asked Li Huowang in utter amazement, his mouth agape. "What in the world is Heart Turbidity? Why can it hide away the sky when the Heart Turbidity of life and death come together?!"