The Unruly Immortals

"Is it looking at me? Why would it look at me?" Li Huowang looked up at the eyeball in the Yin Yang Taiji Map above him, thinking about this question with a trembling heart.

There was destined to be no answer to this question, the only thing Li Huowang knew was that he was truly being watched by Doumu!

Without any hesitation, Li Huowang swiftly turned over, plunging toward the ground that looked like liquid all around him.

Even if he would be buried deep in dozens of feet of dirt in the future! Li Huowang didn't want to be pulled into its body by Doumu just like that Divine Mountain Ghost Eye!

Watching as as half of Li Huowang's body sank into the soil, the next moment, he suddenly felt the whole world turn upside down.

The ground within reach in front of him was actually the ceiling, and the distant black and white ocean beneath him was the actual ground.

The inverted Li Huowang in the air, irresistibly plummeted towards the Yin Yang Doumu below him.

"I'm not reconciled!! I was about to obtain the Cultivation Technique! I was about to become a normal person!!" Li Huowang clenched his teeth and violently shook his right hand.

The flesh-colored worms in his belly rushed out quickly, twisting into a bundle like a hemp rope, and tightly latched onto a piece of half-collapsed stone wall on the ground.

His figure was barely stabilized, but the situation couldn't get much better, the pulling force on his body continued to grow stronger.

Gradually, transparent threads that ordinary people couldn't see appeared above Li Huowang's head. As the black and white ocean churned, some of the threads on Li Huowang's body were separated.

Then some of the threads were stripped away from the inside, while some on the outside were concealed. And some threads were woven together.

He had thought that this stalemate would continue indefinitely, but gradually, unknown images began to flood Li Huowang's mind.

First was a gigantic ox head, several times taller than himself; Li Huowang remembered it was the fear in his heart when he saw a water buffalo for the first time at the age of six.

Next came the frighteningly tall counter of a pawn shop; this was the scene he saw at the age of fourteen when he was sent to apprentice under a pawn shop's master in town.

Then a skinny man sobbing bitterly; that was the pawn shop's shopkeeper and his master's master, who was duped by a gang of swindlers into accepting counterfeit goods, leading to his financial ruin.

It was from here that he lost his source of income and had to fend for himself, which is why he came into contact with Oblivion Path.

These images started slowly, but then sped up, flicking through his mind like slides in a fast-forwarded presentation.

Then some vague memories began to gradually become clear, memories that were very special.

Memories about swindling, about his experiences learning the Divine Skills of Oblivion Path.

"Hong Zhong, boss, what are you doing? No way? Playing this big? Playing with Xinsu? Aren't you afraid of getting caught up in it?"

"Alas, Sanyuan's realm is too high, I truly can't comprehend it."

The memories that became increasingly clear filled Li Huowang with an unprecedented fear, and his lips started to quiver pallidly.

"I'm not Hong Zhong... I am Li Huowang... I'm not Hong Zhong... I am Li Huowang..."

But such a pale repetition couldn't hypnotize anyone. If they say a person can't imagine something they have never understood, what is this that's popping up in my mind now!

As more and more memories flooded his mind, his grip on the wall gradually loosened. If everything about Li Huowang was fabricated by Hong Zhong to deceive him, did he still need to desperately struggle to survive?

Noticing something was off with Li Huowang, Zhuge Yuan's brows furrowed even tighter. He swiftly reached towards his waist and drew out a slender soft sword.

He then decisively stomped his feet on the scroll, using that momentum to launch himself off, stepping with his left foot onto his right.

Clothed in white, he soared past Li Huowang, charging towards the Doumu that covered the heavens and the earth with an unstoppable force.

As he blocked Li Huowang's line of sight, the pulling force on Li Huowang's body suddenly vanished, and he crashed hard against the wall.

The flashing images in his mind disappeared, yet those past memories became even more vivid, as if they had truly existed.

"No... no, no, no!" Li Huowang, trembling, reached for his face. His features, along with his flesh and bones, rapidly changed, eventually taking on the appearance of Hong Zhong.

This was no longer the form that Li Sui had forcibly sustained with his tentacles, but an involuntary action of his own, as natural as eating or drinking.

And as Li Huowang thought about it, his face kept changing forms: a stray dog, Top Scholar Lv, Gao Zhijian, Bai Lingmiao, Zhao Wu, Chun Xiaoman.

One face after another appeared and vanished on his countenance, causing Li Huowang's recollection of his past visage to become increasingly hazy.

"Slash!" A thunderous shout exploded, making Li Huowang look up. As the soft sword in Zhuge Yuan's hands shattered into fragments, a Sword Gang swiftly flew towards the Doumu in the sky.

Yet when that enormous arc of light met the sky-high Doumu, it only stirred up a tiny ripple.

Seeing the eye turn towards Li Huowang again, Zhuge Yuan in mid-air swiftly performed a backflip, once again blocking in front of Li Huowang.

Facing the Doumu that enveloped the sky, Zhuge Yuan showed not a hint of fear. With his left hand behind him and his right tightly holding the cracked Judge's brush, he pointed it directly at the single eye of Doumu in the sky.

"Brother Li! Go now! I'll cover for you. Don't worry, the other Fate Commanders are watching; it can't descend to the mortal realm! Once you're out of the Capital City, you'll be safe!"

Li Huowang, wearing the face of a stranger, looked complexly at Zhuge Yuan's tall and straight silhouette.

"That is a Fate Commander, Brother Zhuge, why are you doing this for me?"

"Knowing one's heart is the most precious knowing! Why ask why in life! If I wish to do something... I simply do it!"

With a whoosh, the tawny old imperial calendars scattered across the sky. Zhuge Yuan hovered in the air, using the ground as an inkstone and the sky as paper, his hand with the Judge's brush moving rapidly as he began to write.

"Yi Hai year, Jia Mao earth swamp descends sun! Prohibit Fate Commander from appearing in the world!!"

No sooner had his words fallen than all the old imperial calendars exploded with a bang, igniting into flames like Yellow Talismans wrapped in fire, floating towards the Doumu in the sky.

With his declaration, the whole world instantly brightened a fraction, and the Doumu's black and white body began to fade.

Watching all this from the ground, Li Huowang, lost in a daze, clenched his teeth and fists tightly. "Run? How could I abandon my friend and lead a cowardly existence!"

"Stop being foolish, that's the real body of Doumu; how could you possibly fight it? It's rare to find an idiot to take the stand for you, so run for your life." Huan Jue from Oblivion Path hurriedly advised.

"Nonsense! Who are you trying to fool!! The Touzis, relying on the Mist Heaven Edict, can only summon the Nirmanakaya of Doumu! They can't summon the real body of Doumu!"