The Unruly Immortals

Li Huowang looked up at the Buddha; because he was facing the moon, he couldn't see the faces of these giant Buddhas.

All he could see were their palm-like moving hands behind them and their massive dark heads. He also smelled a strange odor on them, a mix of the scent of blood and incense.

Li Huowang took a few steps back, looked around, and after realizing he was indeed alone, shook his head at the Buddha in front of him,

"I won't go," he said decisively, reaching behind him and grabbing the hilt of his sword.

With a creaking noise, the giant Buddha bent down, blocking the moonlight above Li Huowang's head, and an immense pressure bore down on him.

Li Huowang could feel in the darkness that the Buddha's eyes, large as lanterns, were watching him.

"Amitabha, benefactor, you should really go. This is for your own good," Jiandun unexpectedly did not make a move, but continued to persuade him in a calm tone.

"If you really want what's good for me, why not let me leave instead? Aren't monks supposed to be compassionate? What about letting me go?"

"It is precisely because monks are compassionate that we cannot allow the benefactor to leave."

As he spoke, a stone flew by, hitting the Buddha on the head with a crisp clang.

Li Huowang and Jiandun turned toward the source and saw Bai Lingmiao and others holding luminous stones in their hands, standing in the distance.

"Brother Li! Run!!" More stones were thrown their way, hitting the Buddha's body before falling down weakly.

"Amitabha—endless is the sea of suffering, salvation lies in turning back," Jiandun brought his massive hands together with a heavy clap, gently squatted down on his slender legs, then pushed off with force.

With a "boom," Jiandun's towering figure soared into the air, then fell like a giant rock, snapping over a dozen trees as his large figure heavily crashed behind Bai Lingmiao and the others.

Seeing the frail Bai Lingmiao standing next to the Buddha, not even reaching its belly, Li Huowang's expression twisted hysterically as he shouted, "Stop!!"

"Boom!" Seemingly aware of something in an instant, whether it be the Buddha next to Li Huowang or those in the distance, all of them simultaneously retreated a step.

"Benefactor Xuan Yang, we have no intention of doing anything, please stay calm," Jiandun's voice now carried a hint of nervousness, as if not wanting to provoke Li Huowang.

"Hmm?" This scene surprised everyone; at a single word from Li Huowang, the opposition actually complied.

"They...are nervous? What's there to be nervous about with an ordinary person like me?"

"Monks do not take life; this poor monk only wanted to calm them down." Jiandun said, as he easily snapped off tree trunks with his massive hand, crossed them over each other, and made a crude tree enclosure, trapping everyone inside.

After dealing with the bystanders, Jiandun swayed back to Li Huowang.

"Benefactor Xuan Yang, since you are unwilling to return with me, how about a debate with this poor monk?"

"Debate? You want to convince me to go back with mere words?" Li Huowang looked at the palm that was even larger than his own body, truly at a loss for what the other party was doing.

"Indeed, Benefactor Xuan Yang is a sensible and courteous man. This poor monk believes I can persuade you," Jiandun responded.

"Hmm?" Recalling the incident at Zhengde Temple, Li Huowang noticed something that did not make sense.

Whether it was the abbot or the Jiandun before him, even though they were far more powerful than him, they still did not want to resort to violence against him. Instead, they had been trying to entrap him through deceitful emotional tactics.

"If they could easily resolve the matter with force, why go through such trouble? Could there be something special about me?" A puzzled Li Huowang spread open his hands, looking at his ordinary palms.

"Aside from being a lunatic, what other attributes do I have that could possibly interest them?" Li Huowang pondered quietly, completely ignoring Jiandun's words.

He needed to figure out what the other party was worried about; this might be his only sliver of hope for escape.

"To reason backward, if my life was threatened by their use of force, what would the consequences be?" Everything he had experienced in this world flashed through Li Huowang's mind in an instant.

It finally stopped at the moment when the God of Happiness was dragged into the darkness; along this journey, only that instance was truly a matter of life and death, yet that time, it was resolved in an extremely peculiar manner.

Li Huowang's pupils shrank to their smallest in a flash. "Master Danyang! They dare not use violence against me because, should I face a fatal crisis, Master Danyang, who had become some unknown entity, would appear! Master Danyang is actually protecting me!"

Having realized this, Li Huowang suddenly saw the light; he had always assumed instinctively that Master Danyang's presence was to his detriment, but now it seemed that was not the case at all.

Though he was responsible for Master Danyang's death, from his perspective, his disciple had done nothing wrong to him, even aiding him in "achieving immortality."

"The monks of Zhengde Temple obviously realized this long ago, yet they didn't tell me. Instead, they've been deceiving me, trying to use the grand prayer service to get rid of Master Danyang once and for all."

"If they get rid of Master Danyang, then people like me will truly become meat on the monks' chopping block," Li Huowang thought of what the monks of Zhengde Temple might do and instantly felt a chill.

Li Huowang, who had come to his senses, looked up again at Jiandun before him; this time, there was a slight upward curve at the corner of his mouth. "Are you afraid of Master Danyang? Since he has become Buddha, shouldn't you monks be afraid of him?"

Jiandun's expression tightened, "Benevolent layman Xuan Yang, I do not know what you are talking about. Monks do not tell lies, and I can swear to Buddha that the grand prayer service intends only to deal with Master Danyang and will not cause you any harm."

These words confirmed Li Huowang's speculation even further.

In this world, there are no kind-hearted people who will lay all their cards on the table; to learn something more valuable, one has to collect information and judge for oneself.

"I've suddenly realized that having Master Danyang around isn't so bad; after all, he is my master. It doesn't feel right to just get rid of him like that," Li Huowang thought, no longer in any panic.

"Amitabha, that is absolutely not feasible. Master Danyang's situation concerns not just you but all the people of this world," Jiandun said.

Li Huowang looked up at the Jiandun before him, a slight smile playing on his lips. "How about you discuss it face to face with my master then?"

"What?"

With a "clang," Li Huowang gripped the hilt with one hand and flicked it vigorously; the sharp longsword was now in his hand.

Seeing this, Jiandun's face broke into a kind smile. "You think you can damage the monk's Buddha body with that? Layman Xuan Yang, you are really attached to appearances."

"Didn't you hear what I just said? I said, why don't you have a talk with Master Danyang face to face?"

No sooner had he spoken than Li Huowang placed the longsword under his own neck and made a forceful swipe.

The skin was effortlessly sliced open, hot blood spurting out and quickly staining his Taoist robe red.

"Hehe," Li Huowang, his consciousness beginning to blur, said with a hand pressed to his neck, "Do you hear that? Sounds like... thunder."