The Unruly Immortals

"Clang—" The trembling sound of the gong echoed from the distant entrance, followed by the solemn melody of music, drawing nearer and nearer. The Emperor of Da Qi had truly arrived.

Before Li Huowang could make a move, the official beside him, who had been sipping vinegar from a shallow dish, suddenly turned pale and scrambled towards the entrance.

When Li Huowang likewise reached the courtyard outside, he saw everyone, including the so-called Old Qin and Magistrate Liang, kneeling on the ground.

The music drew closer still, mixing with the rich scent of fragrance, the rounded top of the Son of Heaven's carriage slowly peeked out from behind the tall wall.

With the approach of the procession, what followed were pillars adorned with red cloud dragons, intertwined with dark green sashes, enclosed by curtains patterned with black cloud dragon feathers, which tightly encased the entire wooden structure.

Li Huowang had thought that was it, but the imperial carriage of the Emperor seemed to grow higher and more enormous as though it had no end.

The accumulation atop it also kept growing—lanterns, dragon banners, circular jade ornaments, rings, bells—a beautiful yet dense array covering the entire structure.

Accompanying the solemn music, this giant yet top-heavy wooden structure, like a small mountain, drew ever closer. In the eyes of Li Huowang and the others, it loomed increasingly larger, emitting an overwhelming sense of oppression.

In the dim light, it was like an enormous, bloated stillborn peering down at everyone in the Liang household's courtyard.

By this time, the fragrance emanating from the carriage was becoming so intense, it was nearly suffocating.

Just as Li Huowang walked up to Zhuge Yuan and was about to say something, guards in red robes flooded in from the entrance, completely encircling the area.

A row of bald eunuchs wielding feather dusters followed closely behind, forming a human wall beneath the walls, isolating one side from the other. Their pale faces stood still against the backdrop of the night, resembling a row of paper effigies.

At some point, the music had faded away gradually, and everything became eerily silent, as if even breathing had ceased.

At this moment, Li Huowang stood in a corner, like a spectator observing everything before him, his gaze mostly fixated on the massive wooden edifice, his mind pondering something thoughtfully.

"The companion said you were all playing here. Why didn't you include me?" A childish voice suddenly emerged from behind the multiple layers of curtains.

At these words, the faces of those kneeling on the ground instantly turned deathly pale, and some of the more timid ones nearly collapsed on the spot.

"What are you playing with? Take it out and let me play with it?"

As these words were spoken, a boy wearing an Imperial Crown and dressed in a gold and black Dragon Robe poked his head from behind those numerous layers of curtains.

The scene was exceedingly bizarre, as if the giant, luxurious wooden structure was the immense body for that tiny head.

At first glance, Li Huowang knew this was absolutely not a child—no six-year-old looked at people with such naked scrutiny.

It was as though he wasn't looking at a person's exterior but rather at their flesh and through to their bones.

Looking at the thing before him, a hint of bewilderment flashed through Li Huowang's mind. "Could this really be the distorted creation of Zhuge Yuan? It's all too real, isn't it?"

At that moment, the eunuchs suddenly caught sight of the two standing out of place and erupted in rage. "How dare you!! The Official has already arrived; why are you not kneeling?"

Li Huowang looked toward Zhuge Yuan, and Zhuge Yuan likewise glanced back at Li Huowang.

Without any hesitation, Li Huowang immediately took out two Ginger Yellow Talismans and, biting the tip of his finger, quickly started drawing talismans on them.

Once he finished, Li Huowang attached them to the sides of his legs and directly pulled out the Purple Tassel Sword, charging toward the enormous carriage of Da Qi's young Emperor with a fading shadow trailing behind him.

"You've been deceived! The Emperor is fake! He's impersonated by someone from the Oblivion Path!" Li Huowang's shout exploded in the room like thunder.

Just as Li Huowang made his move, the brocade-clad guards swiftly formed a wall to block him.

At that moment, Zhuge Yuan's expression became unusually intense. With a flip of his hand, he set an old, wax-yellow Almanac down on the ground.

Then, he pulled a white wolf-hair brush from his sleeve, raised his hand, and waved it left and right against the pitch-black sky, staining the tip of the brush with the night's darkness.

The wolf-hair brush, glittering with specks of starlight, descended vertically and wrote on a page of the Almanac, "Yi Hai year, Gui Mao Jin Bi flat day, taboo: building lies upon void, taboo: changing faces!"

As soon as the brush left the paper, the characters were also lifted from the Almanac.

As that smear of black on the brush tip returned to the night sky, it also took the yellow characters up into that pitch-black expanse.

Immediately, the expressions of the young Emperor and some of the accompanying eunuchs began to distort, and the faces of the brocade-clad guards became extremely confused.

"Good! After waiting so long, you've finally come!" Seeing this, Li Huowang didn't hesitate to pull out a pair of pliers and clamp down forcefully on his mouth, scattering his teeth like a celestial maiden scattering flowers.

Just then, several leaf-shaped cards suddenly flew out from the ground, piercing straight into Li Huowang's abdomen.

But no blood came from Li Huowang's abdomen, and his body slanted as it thrust into the ground, leaving the brocade-clad guards unable to find him.

By the time they came to their senses, they realized the red-robed Taoist had already fiercely kicked off from the eaves and leapt toward His Majesty's Imperial Carriage.

Li Huowang's bloodshot eyes were fixed on the ever-closer child's face, with the hatred and killing intent in his heart nearly devouring him.

As Li Huowang wiped the Fire Sickle across his own body, surging flames instantly covered his newly healed skin, and the intense pain all over his body made Li Huowang look up to the sky and let out a heart-rending scream, "Which fucking 'banner' are you?!"

At this moment, Li Huowang was like a flaming kite, illuminating the dim sky brightly, and the air around was instantly twisted by the heat.

Seeing such a spectacle, the impostor Emperor from the Oblivion Path quickly retreated into the canopy of the carriage.

But by then it was a bit too late to hide; as soon as Li Huowang crashed into the canopy, raging flames instantly enveloped the entire bloated wooden tower. Towering black smoke rose straight up, carrying with it faint screams.

"Come out! Where did you go?" Li Huowang searched within the flames.

At that moment, a black shadow flashed from a distant canopy and rushed outside of the wooden tower.

"Think you can run?!" Li Huowang swiftly accepted the rib bone handed over by a black tendril and crossed his hands to thrust it into his own abdomen, causing all creatures within several dozens of zhang to feel the same agony as Li Huowang.

At a distance, the fleeing shadow let out a scream and stumbled into a pyre.

As Li Huowang, burning all over, endured the pain and approached, he turned the man over, only to discover that inside was merely a burning shadow puppet.