The Unruly Immortals

"Shopkeeper Li, has the cinnabar I ordered arrived?"

The owner of the herb shop, who was in the midst of fiddling with an abacus, looked up and immediately saw the odd man clad in a red Taoist robe.

A fawning smile quickly spread across his face; this man was a major patron. "Hehe, honored guest, we've been expecting you. All thirty jin are here, and, little Tiger, go help the guest take it to his house."

"No need, I'll take it myself." After paying the balance, Li Huowang picked up the bag with one hand and turned to walk out of the herb shop.

The shop assistant, little Tiger, was quite astonished and asked his boss, "Shopkeeper, what does he need thirty jin of cinnabar for? Ordinary folks, even the ones who use it for medicinal purposes, would at most buy it by the ounce."

With a "tskat," the shopkeeper bent his middle finger and smartly flicked the young assistant on the forehead. "Does it hurt? Good, it should! Remember this lesson well! It's none of our business what a customer buys for, even if he's going to mix it with his rice and eat it!"

With a "thud," the heavy bag of cinnabar was tossed onto the cart, and Li Huowang immediately sat atop the carriage, blew a whistle with his mouth, and Mantou promptly scampered over.

"Giddyap! Giddyap!" Li Huowang glanced at the bag of cinnabar beside him, flicked the reins, and drove the carriage towards the West City Gate.

Just last night, Li Huowang had a sudden realization that he'd been going down a dead end— if others could use Xinsu to craft magic artifacts, why couldn't he?

Moreover, his body healed at an extraordinary pace, causing him pain but virtually no other side effects.

More importantly, magic artifacts crafted from organs made of Xinsu possessed exceptional abilities, which could greatly enhance his own strength; this would certainly be of great help in the upcoming confrontation with Bei Feng.

"Clip-clop, clip-clop." As the sound of the horse's hooves striking the cobblestones kept ringing out, Li Huowang gradually headed out of the city.

Li Huowang didn't take the main roads that were full of people but deliberately looked for secluded trails and mountain paths.

As the sun gradually set, Li Huowang finally found a suitable place: a flat area in front of some graves.

Upon arriving there, Mantou immediately became vigilant, crouched low, and bared its teeth toward the graves as if trembling from intimidation.

"Please forgive my intrusion, I only seek to borrow this space in front of your resting places for one night," Li Huowang bowed toward the graves, then turned to retrieve items from the carriage.

Suddenly, Mantou pounced forward, startling a few rats into scurrying about in chaos.

The first thing Li Huowang took out was a small alchemy furnace he had obtained from a Huan Jue, followed by placing cinnabar inside, with well-prepared snowflake charcoal laid beneath it.

As a former elixir cultivator, concocting some cinnabar was easily within his reach. An hour later, Li Huowang opened the alchemy furnace and saw a liquid silver in color laced with medicine residue before him.

Master Danyang once taught this at Qingfeng Taoist Temple: the silver liquid obtained from processing cinnabar is called "Cha Nu," and in Li Huowang's former world, this substance was known as mercury.

Li Huowang quickly sifted out the residue and took up a bowl to collect the Cha Nu. However, this was not enough; he needed more.

After further processing, Li Huowang looked at the large bowl of glittering Cha Nu before him with a trace of satisfaction on his face.

"This should be about enough...."

Li Huowang turned and took out a shovel which he had prepared earlier and began digging a hole that became deeper and deeper. When it was finally deep enough to stand a person in, he stopped.

He closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and Li Huowang reached into the torture implement sheepskin bag at the hem and pulled out a dagger emitting a cold gleam.

"Taoist, do you not want to think about this again? It really isn't necessary to go this far," the Monk rushed over, persuading with a face full of reluctance.

In stark contrast to him was Hong Zhong, who sat on Peng Longteng's shoulder with a look of anticipation for a good show.

Regardless of what the illusions around him said, nothing could shake Li Huowang's determination. He raised the dagger high, slowly dragging it across the middle of his scalp, and soon Li Huowang's scalp split open, revealing the blood and veins underneath.

Following that, Li Huowang removed his clothes, standing stark naked in the hole he had previously dug, bowing his head and starting to bury himself with the earth continuously.

Burying oneself was quite difficult indeed, but thankfully Li Sui was there to help.

As Li Sui's tentacles whipped continuously on the soil, the earth around Li Huowang became tightly packed.

"Li Sui, be a dear and help a bit more..."

On Li Huowang's command, two tentacles emerged from his neck, slowly curling up the large bowl filled with mercury on the ground, moving towards the wound on his head.

Li Huowang swallowed a difficult mouthful of saliva and slowly spoke, "Spread it apart a bit before pouring, don't spill it."

Li Sui was obedient and immediately did so, stretching the tentacles out as far as they could go.

As the large bowl tilted, the silvery water made a glimmering line under the moon's rays, exceedingly beautiful.

"Mmm... Heh... Ahh!!"

The process was exceedingly difficult, but Li Huowang dared not waver for fear of spilling the mercury.

Initially, Li Huowang felt pain, but he could endure pain; however, gradually, the pain turned into itching, and the itching grew more and more intense, spreading throughout his body.

When this excruciating itch nearly peaked, Li Huowang, buried in the soil, struggled desperately. At this moment, he felt as if ants were biting all over his body, a sensation nearly driving him mad.

As Li Huowang twisted and turned, his body squeezed upwards like a snake, eventually emerging from the soil after much effort.

"Ha... Ha..." Li Huowang trembled all over, no longer able to discern where the pain was worse; he thought he had grown accustomed to the pain.

But when the biting cold winds of the twelfth lunar month swept over his skinless body like knives, Li Huowang still felt pain so intense he nearly passed out.

Trembling, Li Huowang took out the "Fire Coat True Scripture," his hands quivering as he began to recite the incantations written therein.

The fire millepede crawled slowly over Li Huowang. Before long, his entire body was completely covered in charred and yellowish burn scars.

This might have become even more painful, but at least the scar-covered Li Huowang could put on clothes now.

Li Huowang, now dressed, glanced at the discarded skin on the ground, and immediately feeling a weight lifted from his chest, collapsed on the carriage, curling his body, hugging himself, and fainting away.