The Unruly Immortals

Li Sui clutched her own eyes and crawled out from her father's navel, secretly peering outside. Someone was just chanting something, and she thought visitors had come, but in the end, there was nothing.

"Dad, why can I hear voices but see no one? Where is that person?" Li Sui's question went unanswered, and she couldn't help but worry, "Dad, are you mad at me?"

Li Sui thought it wasn't her fault; she had never expected to have two fathers, one headless and the other with a head.

It was understandable that she hadn't heard the headed dad give any orders to come out of the headless dad's body and go to the dad with a head.

At this moment, Li Huowang was too preoccupied to pay attention to Li Sui. He gazed towards the direction of the Capital City with suspicion. He could be very sure that the strange chanting sound was definitely coming from the Capital City.

At first, he thought it was another one of his hallucinations, but after seeing some common folks clutching their heads in agony and rolling around, Li Huowang understood that this matter was certainly serious.

Even at such a distance from the Capital City, he could feel it. One can only imagine how extensive the area affected must be.

"Something major must've happened in the Capital City. I can't wait any longer; I must hurry back. Could it be that the Astrological Bureau's crackdown on the Oblivion Path has begun?"

Li Huowang started on his way back, but even by late night, he still hadn't reached the Capital City. There was no choice; after all, he had come with empty hands, but now he was carrying a heavy corpse on his return.

Although headless, Li Huowang hadn't forgotten that he was Xinsu. Once he found the method to refine Xinsu, his own corpse would surely come in very handy.

After draining his own blood and rubbing coarse salt inside and out, the simple preservation was complete.

Glancing at the winter sky and taking a breath, he wiped the sweat from his face. Li Huowang set down the corpse on his back and turned to find firewood in the forest.

It hadn't been long since the New Year; the weather was still very cold. Sleeping at night without a bonfire would not do, as it was easy to fall ill from the cold.

As Li Huowang chopped branches with his Purple Tassel Sword, flakes of white gently fell from the sky. It was snowing, the first snow he had seen in this world.

Looking up at the intermittently visible white moon, Li Huowang exhaled a cloud of white breath, and his hands moved faster.

He needed to chop more wood, as tonight would undoubtedly be colder.

"Crack crack," with the friction of the Fire Sickle continually rubbing, sparks burst forth, but they couldn't quite ignite the small twigs.

After trying for a while, Li Huowang suddenly thought of something and directly pulled out an old Almanac from his bosom.

With a few more "crack crack" strikes, Li Huowang tossed the ignited Almanac into the pile of wood, and a bonfire rose.

As the orange-red flames reflected on Li Huowang's face and hands, he immediately felt much more comfortable.

Li Huowang moved closer to the bonfire, then slowly closed his eyes, back against back with his headless corpse.

"Hey, Taoist, let me tell you something," the hallucinatory monk suddenly leaned in and said.

"I'm tired, and when we arrive at the Capital City tomorrow, there's a pile of tasks waiting. Let's talk about it some other time."

"No, it's about that shameless kid called Hong Zhong, you remember him, right? I heard him saying, you can make the fake become real? Is that true?"

Li Huowang slowly opened his eyes, looking at the bald head almost touching his own face.

The monk rubbed his hands together, his expression filled with hopeful anticipation, "Does that mean, maybe... possibly... you could also turn us few into the real thing someday?"

"What?" Li Huowang instantly felt no sleepiness, bolted upright, and scanned the illusions around him, Peng Longteng, Hong Zhong, Jin Shanzhao, Monk.

Li Huowang's eyes narrowed as he stared at Hong Zhong's face, which lacked any skin. "You tricked the monk into probing my intentions, what are you getting at?"

"Hehe, nothing much, just a bit curious. Think about it, if you killed me and then made me real, wouldn't that be interesting?" Hong Zhong said with evident delight.

"Heh, keep dreaming; dreams have it all."

"Ah, you're being quite heartless with your words. After all, we're family who have shared weal and woe. If we had physical forms, we could help you with any trouble you run into in the future."

"Don't worry, even if I did have a physical form, I wouldn't harm you. I've found you quite interesting, especially that previous bit where you pretended to be Hong Zhong and sowed discord—it was very much in the style of Oblivion Path!"

Li Huowang simply couldn't be bothered with him any longer and decided to close his eyes and sleep.

In a state between warm and cold, Li Huowang didn't know when he had fallen asleep, but when he opened his eyes again, he found himself buried in snow.

Inhaling a breath of dry air and chewing on a handful of white snow he'd put in his mouth, Li Huowang dragged his frozen-hard body step by step towards the Capital City.

There were informants in the Capital City, and dragging a corpse in like this would surely attract the Astrological Bureau's notice, and that would be impossible to explain away.

Li Huowang decided to dig a hole on a mound and bury his headless body; fortunately, the cold weather and the salt he had rubbed in meant it wouldn't decay.

Looking at the somewhat desolate city gate, Li Huowang took a deep breath and walked straight inside.

Li Huowang had thought that the peculiar chanting he'd heard before would cause great chaos in the Capital City, but nothing had happened; it was just a bit deserted due to the snowfall.

Li Huowang guessed right—the Capital City sure had the Astrological Bureau's informants. He hadn't been in for long before he was surrounded.

Looking at Nan Gong before him, Li Huowang spoke first with an ugly expression, "Brother Nan Gong, I've been deceived by the Oblivion Path."

Nan Gong looked at Li Huowang with a complex expression. After a long pause, he finally spoke, "Come with me, you definitely won't believe what Oblivion Path has done with your identity."

Under Nan Gong's guidance, Li Huowang returned to the Astrological Bureau's Government Office, traversing the wooden corridor and entering a room filled with a suppressive atmosphere.

In the room, a head with features twisted to resemble Hong Zhong's was brazenly placed on a table, with three sticks of incense stuck in front of it.

A Taoist wearing a yellow Taoist Robe and an yin-yang adorned headpiece stood beside it, continuously waving a Copper Coin Sword, performing some ritual.

"Supervisor Lord, Er Jiu has returned."

When the Taoist raised his head, Li Huowang saw two infant heads squeezed on the left side of his neck.

"This Supervisor actually has two Nascent Souls, he must be from the Luo Sect." Li Huowang involuntarily heightened his vigilance inwardly,

The Taoist Supervisor put down the activity in his hands, examined Li Huowang for a moment, then grabbed the head on the table and threw it at Li Huowang.

Li Huowang caught the square-shaped head and carefully examined it for a while, then suddenly exclaimed in shock.

"What?! This Oblivion Path's Hong Zhong is actually Xinsu!?"