The Unruly Immortals

"Is anyone there?" Li Huowang's shout echoed continuously in the extremely empty surroundings.

He looked around in confusion and realized he was standing on a wooden bridge, with pitch darkness all around him, nothing to be seen.

Li Huowang took a deep breath and lifted his foot to continue walking forward, the wooden bridge creaking under his steps.

He didn't know how long he had walked when he felt something moving in the distance. Li Huowang's body shook, and he hurried towards that direction.

But as he approached and finally saw what it was, his body jolted to a stop. It was Li Zhi's protective spirit.

Previously the size of a palm, the clay figure had now grown three times larger than Li Huowang's body. Accompanied by the sound of stones rubbing against each other, it slowly turned its head to look at Li Huowang, its pupils void of any blackness, eerily white.

"This isn't any wooden bridge! I am standing on someone else's roof beam!" Li Huowang quickly realized.

A creaking sound emerged as the protective spirit's layers of red strings burst open, and countless clay palms extended out, grabbing towards Li Huowang's direction while constantly shedding dust.

Li Huowang turned to retreat, but a huge red bridal veil instantly covered him, completely enveloping his body.

"Don't look...." an extremely delicate and ethereal woman's voice arose.

"Huh!" Li Huowang woke up with a start, sweating coldly. He quickly looked around and found that there was no protective spirit or red bridal veil, it had all been just a dream.

He glanced at Bai Lingmiao lying next to him, pulled the blanket over her shoulders, got out of bed, and opened the window to look outside.

The moon was still in the sky, indicating he hadn't slept for too long.

Li Huowang recalled the events of the previous day as he looked at the black roof tiles outside.

The Second God, covered by the red veil, clearly seemed to want to say something to him, but was unintentionally interrupted by Li Zhi.

"What exactly did she want to say? Why didn't she want me to look at the protective spirit?" Li Huowang pondered this question with furrowed brows.

This Second God had always been silent, neither eating nor drinking, and compared to the unusually affable Li Zhi, she seemed very mysterious.

Such a person suddenly speaking to him must have some particular significance.

"What could she possibly have to tell me in secret and also take pains to keep Li Zhi from knowing? Does Li Zhi want to harm me?"

He had planned to ask Li Zhi to perform spirit-channeling, but now this matter had arisen and Li Huowang became hesitant. After all, they were not very familiar with each other.

He had considered seeking other spirit-channelers, but even if he found others, there was no guarantee that other spirit-channelers would be more trustworthy.

If he was going to seek someone out, it might as well be someone familiar.

"I must ask the Second God alone what's going on," Li Huowang decided in his mind.

Li Huowang took another look at the dark sky, then put on his crimson Taoist robe and walked outside. Li Zhi's fellow villagers' houses were not far apart; Li Zhi and the others lived nearby.

In the pitch black of the house, Li Huowang walked silently towards Li Zhi's residence.

"Creak~" The door adorned with an upside-down blessing character slowly opened, and a small, glowing stone was gently tossed inside.

The dim fluorescent light illuminated the interior, revealing the great spirit-channeler, Li Zhi, sprawled out on his bed, snoring, while the Second God covered with the red veil stood stiffly at the bedside, as if a piece of clothing.

Hearing the noise, the Second God, without a sound, turned the red veil towards Li Huowang. She stood there as if waiting for something.

Truth be told, seeing this scene in the middle of the night was quite chilling.

"Do I really have to go out and be alone with this thing right now?" Li Huowang was somewhat hesitant at this moment.

But thinking back to what she had told him, Li Huowang eventually steeled himself and gently beckoned with his hand.

To his surprise, the Second God actually moved, drifting towards the door like a ghostly apparition.

As she walked out, Li Huowang backed away, a step for a step, until they finally stopped outside the courtyard.

The dim moonlight from the half-moon in the sky offered a slight relief to Li Huowang's extremely tense mood.

The Second God, covered with a red veil, once again moved closer, very close indeed. So close that Li Huowang's speech could cause the red veil to sway gently. "What did you want to say yesterday?"

Those long black nails slowly lifted and, to Li Huowang's astonishment, lightly prickled the fingertip of her other hand.

Then, she used the dark red blood that flowed out to slowly start writing on her red veil.

"Be...careful...you...are...Xinsu...fairy..."

"What are you doing!" A stern shout suddenly exploded, and the black blood on the red veil was quickly absorbed into it.

Li Huowang had just stepped back when he saw a gloomy-faced Li Zhi, barefoot, hastily approaching the Second God and wrapping his arm firmly around her waist. "What are you trying to do? This is my wife!!"

Li Huowang, hearing some noises coming from the house, quickly thought to himself before saying, "I wasn't doing much, just a bit curious about my sister-in-law's face, that's all."

Li Zhi, looking guarded, scrutinized Li Huowang from top to bottom as if declaring sovereignty, then lifted a corner of the red veil and stuck his head in, planting a series of kisses.

As the red veil swayed, Li Huowang caught a glimpse of something in the moonlight.

"Is that… scales?"

Suddenly, Li Zhi pulled his head back from under the red veil, licking the yellow-green viscous liquid at the corners of his mouth.

"Remember this! She's my wife, you being a bachelor, whose fault is that? Only yourself to blame for being a Taoist! If you have the guts, renounce your vows!"

Having said that, without waiting for Li Huowang to argue, he took the Second God's pale hand with long black nails and walked back towards the house.

Scales, yellow-green viscous liquid—these images flashed through his mind incessantly. What exactly was the Second God?

When the baffled Li Huowang returned to the room, he found Bai Lingmiao had been woken up by the noise, sitting on the bed groggily rubbing her eyes.

"What's the matter? Did something happen?"

Li Huowang said nothing, simply blew out the relit oil lamp, "Nothing, go back to sleep."

Be careful? I am Xinsu fairy?"

Lying in bed, Li Huowang pondered the few words the Second God had just written. "What is Xinsu fairy? What else is she warning me to be careful of?"

The next day, when Li Huowang woke up and came to the main hall, he saw Li Zhi eating porridge.

He was holding onto the Second God with his right hand, talking to a fellow villager.

"Fellow villager, thank you for your help. How about this, I'll help you hire a protective charm, give you a discount, thirty copper coins? How's that?"

Li Zhi stopped speaking because he saw Li Huowang; his expression was no longer as affable as before.