The Unruly Immortals

"Thunder?" Jiandun and the other five colossal Buddhas looked up simultaneously, only to find that the half-moon that had just been visible had disappeared without a trace.

The whole sky was engulfed in dark clouds that tumbled and rolled, emitting sounds that resembled thunder but were decidedly not it.

"Cough, cough." Li Huowang, struggling to breathe, coughed dryly several times before staggering and collapsing to the ground.

When he lay on the ground and looked up at the sky, within those dark clouds, Li Huowang finally saw his master again, looking as hideous as before.

Black, blood-drenched feathers covered his skin, and instead of a head, three faces of different ages split open from the same spot.

His bulging body bore not only the organs that were inherently his but also some that could not possibly belong to a human being.

The nightmarish, glistening black form, eyes like pus, oozing gelatinous pupils, disgustingly protruding internal organs, and entwining sinister tentacles—all these assorted horrors were enveloped by a piece of white silk that floated in the air with an ethereal aura.

Moreover, these nauseating entities did not remain static; they were constantly transforming into even more spine-chilling shapes.

Before long, Li Huowang's eyes started to fill with blood, his forehead became veined, and his head swelled to the size of a venerable god's.

"No, I can't keep looking..." Li Huowang, weakened to the extreme, quickly averted his gaze, which made him feel slightly better.

But not much better, as the incessant bleeding could take him as well.

Extending his trembling hand, he took out several blood-nourishing medicines to stop the bleeding and swallowed them.

The flow of blood in his body began to slow, the bleeding visibly lessened.

But this was not enough. Li Huowang took out some Fortify the Origin elixirs he had concocted within Qingfeng and put them in his mouth.

Suddenly, a chilling sound of flesh tearing, "rip," caused Li Huowang to look upwards.

He saw his master beginning to move; the freakish Master Danyang, now resembling a lizard, was perched on the giant Buddha's head, effortlessly ripping off a fleshy ear with his three gaping mouths.

After a roar of anger, the palms on the Buddha's back quickly bent into claws and reached for Master Danyang.

But who could have known that various grotesque organs on Master Danyang's body would suddenly inflate, tearing off all the fleshly palms with brutal force.

Following that, Master Danyang pulled at the edges of the wounds with his three large mouths, forcefully tearing open a gaping, bleeding mouth, and then shoved all three heads inside.

"Ah!!" The Buddha screamed in despair, frantically tearing at his own skin, trying to extract something from inside, but it was doomed to be futile; his corpulent body began to concave and wither.

In just a few moments, he fell heavily, bleeding from all orifices, then his corpulent belly burst open like a flower blooming.

When the blood-soaked Master Danyang emerged in front of the other Buddhas, Jiandun, with a grave expression, did not dare to be careless and promptly took out a set of Buddhist scriptures made of human skin.

"Om—mane—padme—hum," Jiandun chanted the Six Syllable Mantra with legs crossed in meditation. The blood-red text on the scriptures rapidly vanished, only to reappear on Master Danyang's body.

The organs on Master Danyang's body covered by the scriptures began to tremble involuntarily and started growing proliferously.

The growth hadn't lasted long before it began to rapidly shrink, and the shrinkage accelerated until Master Danyang completely vanished from the spot.

Beads of cold sweat streaming down his face, Jiandun breathed a slight sigh of relief at this sight, grateful he had prepared a contingency plan. Otherwise, things could have been much worse.

Immediately following, as he began to chant the Six Syllable Mantra backward, the text started to re-emerge on the human-skin scripture he held in his hands.

Seeing that not a word was missing, Jiandun was about to close the book when it suddenly burst open. The scriptures scattered everywhere, and the terrifying figure of Master Danyang burst forth from within.

This scene was unexpected by everyone. Seizing the moment Jiandun opened his mouth wide in shock, Master Danyang's three heads, like drills, bored straight into his throat.

A tearing sound erupted, and Jiandun's neck instantly swelled to the size of his head. And this was just the beginning—

Feeling an unbearable pain, the desperate Jiandun heard the sound of chewing coming from inside his own body!!

"No!!" Accompanied by Jiandun's resentful shout, Master Danyang burst through his chest cavity and emerged, the three gaping mouths tearing with concerted force.

The remaining three Buddhas tried to struggle, but it was inevitably futile. The sounds were soon replaced by the snapping of bones and the ripping of flesh.

After half an incense stick had burned, the seven Buddhas were no more, leaving only the steaming remains of blood on the ground.

As Li Huowang looked towards the bloody figure of Master Danyang, Master Danyang turned around, the three faces from different periods each revealing a sinister, terrible smile. "Child...."

With a faint "plop," Master Danyang's body dissipated like smoke.

Time slowly passed, and the moonlight reappeared in the sky, casting a silvery veil over everything on the forest path, settling the dust.

Li Huowang clutched his throat, struggled to sit up, and looked over at the others still enclosed by the trees. By now, they were nearly scared witless, huddling together like petrified chickens.

Li Huowang seemed to know what they were thinking and weakly tried to reassure them, "Don't be afraid, don't be scared! Master Danyang is truly dead, he won't use any of you as a Medicinal Guide again."

However, Li Huowang's words did nothing to lessen the fear on their faces; the Taoist boys were already crying.

Finally, it was Lingmiao, the one closest to him, who spoke. Her face was even paler. "Brother Li, what... what Master Danyang? We didn't see him."

Li Huowang swallowed with difficulty. "You didn't see Master Danyang, who just killed those Buddhas? Was he invisible to you all?"

For a moment, other suspicions crossed Li Huowang's mind.

Just then, the dog child hiding behind the larger figure began to tremble violently.

He didn't dare look at Li Huowang but instead screamed with a cry in his voice, his eyes shut tight, "Brother Li!! There was no Master Danyang! It was just you the whole time!"

"What?" Li Huowang endured the pain, reaching his hand to touch his face, feeling some sticky liquid.

Continuing down, he also felt long tears on both sides of his mouth, as if he himself had just opened his mouth wide.

But none of this was the point; the most important thing now was that he felt full, very full.