The Unruly Immortals

"Thud!" The giant wooden club slammed heavily into the ground, raising a thick cloud of dust.

Immediately afterward, the hefty club was lifted high again and fell heavily.

Li Huowang, supported by Bai Lingmiao, watched the fool swinging the wooden club from the side.

Although the wound on his neck had not yet healed, after several days of playing dead for recovery, he was barely able to stand up.

"Put your back into it! Smash harder!" Li Huowang shouted from the side.

By the campfire, Top Scholar Lv, holding two coarse grain mantous, walked over with a beaming smile. "Little Taoist Master, what are you doing here? The noise is quite something."

With each strike, the forest and bushes around were left in a mess.

"Heh, it's nothing; having such a big guy here just to carry people and luggage seemed a bit wasteful, so I'm training him."

"Ah, that's great, that's really good." Top Scholar Lv said while nodding his head and retreated.

Li Huowang's gaze returned to the fool in front of him, his upper body naked, sweat flying as he swung.

Don't be fooled, this guy might be slow in the head, but his body is indeed not bad, Li Huowang thought to himself, admiring the fool's bear-like torso.

"With such a big frame, he may not be good for much else, but it should be enough to handle ordinary bandits at least."

This was Li Huowang's plan, to enhance the strength of his crew. Relying solely on the severe side effects of Master Danyang and the whims of the masters was not going to cut it. Even if he didn't know the mystical ways of this world, he still understood the most primitive methods.

Regardless of how crude it might be, having some protection was better than none at all.

Not to mention, in case they encounter enemies in the future, aside from assisting, if he himself were to fall ill, the fool could stand guard by his side.

"That's enough! A hundred strikes now, time to rest!"

At these words, the bald fool tossed the wooden club aside and headed toward the campfire with heavy steps.

Without taking time to rest, the fool, without any ado, grabbed his exceptionally large bowl and started slurping down noodles.

Before long, a pound of noodles had disappeared into his stomach. But clearly still hungry after the exercise, he approached the big black pot and began scooping up noodles with his bowl.

Watching him wolf down another pound, Li Huowang felt a twinge of melancholy—indeed, the rich engage in martial ways. It was fortunate he still had some silver; otherwise, that guy would've eaten him into poverty.

At that moment, Li Huowang suddenly thought of something and raised his hand to take out his Taoist Bell.

Staring at the Taoist Bell in his hand, Li Huowang's mind flashed back to the badly damaged master he had encountered.

"Can this thing still be used?" Li Huowang wondered to himself.

In this bizarre world, having or not having this object was a big deal.

"Come, help me to the forest nearby," Li Huowang said to Bai Lingmiao.

They moved until the noise from the campfire was out of earshot, and only then did Li Huowang stop.

"You go back now." But this time, Bai Lingmiao didn't listen to him.

"Just go pee, I won't look…"

His companion's words left Li Huowang partly amused and partly frustrated, "I'm not going to relieve myself, just go back, and come back after a quarter of an hour."

Once he was alone in the forest, leaning against a white birch tree, Li Huowang pressed his hand against his forehead and began to shake the Taoist Bell.

As expected, the surroundings started to warp, but the lines dashed around erratically, failing to form the shape of the master.

Li Huowang, unwilling to give up, shook it harder. "Could this thing really be broken?"

Just as this thought arose, the twisting lines around him recombined into a new apparition of You Lao Ye. "Are you ready?"

However, faced with Li Huowang's puzzled inquiry, You Lao Ye's strange language still showed no hint of emotional fluctuation, as if it had not been the one Buddha had slapped to death just before.

Enduring the dizziness, Li Huowang quickly conversed with You Lao Ye and ended up learning some unexpected information.

First, You Lao Ye did have a name; it's just that their names couldn't be uttered by human mouths.

No one knew what the person who first met it had been through, or why they chose to name it You Lao Ye.

Secondly, the concept of death didn't apply to beings like You Lao Ye, or perhaps it was that they were not living creatures to begin with.

Aside from lacking the concept of death, they also had no concept of quantity.

"No concept of quantity?" Li Huowang, thinking of something, shook his head vigorously, making his already dizzy head even more so.

Now everything he saw was double, including You Lao Ye.

Looking at the two lingering images of You Lao Ye in front of him, Li Huowang seemed to understand something and began shaking his head with even more force.

As his head shook more drastically, more You Lao Ye appeared, until the dizzy Li Huowang saw about twenty or thirty You Lao Ye in front of him.

"Ugh~" Finally unable to bear the dizziness, Li Huowang bent over and began to vomit profusely.

The ringing sound disappeared, and the surroundings returned to normal, with the You Lao Ye also swiftly vanishing.

After vomiting out all of his lunch, Li Huowang began to throw up clear water.

He continued until there was nothing left to vomit, nearly reaching the bile, before he finally stopped.

Propping himself up, Li Huowang wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and took deep breaths before lifting the Taoist Bell in front of his eyes.

"If I had known about this earlier, would I have been able to avoid harming myself to summon Master Danyang?"

After contemplating, Li Huowang put away the Taoist Bell. "It's not possible, summoning You Lao Ye costs Yangshou, three months for one summoning. With so many You Lao Ye, a single summoning might cost a decade of life."

Li Huowang steadied himself using a tree trunk and began to make his way back the way he came, staggering slightly.

Just as he reached the roadside, he saw his group and Top Scholar Lv's group gathered in a circle.

"Gentlemen, take a look, all of these are of fine quality. If there's anything damaged or inferior inside, I, Zhu Dexi, deserve a horrible death! All my ancestors up to the eighteenth generation would be beasts!"

Li Huowang walked over and saw a peddler leading a mule cart, enthusiastically peddling his wares to the others.

Bai Lingmiao stood next to the long-haired woman by the cart, hesitantly handling some needles and thread.

"With the world in such chaos, you dare to sell your goods here? Aren't you afraid of being robbed by bandits?"

Faced with Li Huowang's question, the young man with a large mole on his face chuckled but offered no explanation.

"Taoist Master, do you need cinnabar? I have it right here!"

This comment came from Top Scholar Lv, who had been watching the scene. He leaned over and whispered disdainfully into Li Huowang's ear, "How could the bandits rob him? This type of peddler and those damnable bandits are of the same ilk; the bandits are responsible for robbing, while people like him are responsible for buying and selling the loot!"

"So that's how it is..." Li Huowang nodded in understanding. It was true, the bandit strongholds deep in the mountains needed supplies too, and these scattered peddlers were the most inconspicuous.

"Taoist Master, you don't want cinnabar? Take a look at other items? I have everything you could want," Zhu Dexi continued unabashedly, conducting his business energetically.

Li Huowang thought for a moment, then asked, "You have everything? Do you have something for killing people?"

As soon as he said this, everyone around turned to look at him.

Zhu Dexi clapped his hands excitedly and began rummaging through his mule cart. "Yes, yes, yes!!!"