The Unruly Immortals

"Don't move, nobody move!" When Li Huowang's voice rose in the dim Bamboo Forest, everyone instantly froze in place.

They stood there motionless, looking up at the rows of bamboo tips overhead, terrified that they would simply plunge down directly.

"I said don't move." Li Huowang spoke, as he lifted his right foot and took a step forward.

Seeing this, everyone's hearts leaped into their throats, but when they saw that the bamboo above them didn't change at all, they all breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Li Huowang took a few steps forward, and after circling around, the bamboo was still just bamboo, with no changes.

"Could it be… could it be that the bamboo in this damn place just grows oddly?" Doggie hesitated as he spoke.

Whether it did or not, Li Huowang dared not guess, and began shaking his bell single-handedly, with the line-formed Master Taoist Bell swiftly patrolling around the Bamboo Forest.

After a while, when Master Taoist Bell came back in front of Li Huowang, indicating that there were no problems, Li Huowang's heart finally eased somewhat.

He wasn't reassured by what Master Taoist Bell had indicated, but by the fact that the strange sensation of being watched had vanished.

Li Huowang didn't immediately put Master Taoist Bell away but continued moving forward with it.

Although the sound of the bell was dizzying, it was still better than being ambushed by the so-called "Eighteenth of the Twelfth Lunar Month."

"Stay close, let's get through this forest quickly."

As Li Huowang talked, he walked into the Bamboo Forest, ringing the bell, and with a flick of his finger, he unbuckled the cowhide pouch, and the instruments inside swiftly spread out around the hem of his robe, emitting a faint cold light under the illumination of the luminescent stone.

At this moment, everyone held their weapons and held their breath, one sticking close to another, following tightly, afraid that if they fell behind, they wouldn't be able to catch up again.

As time passed little by little, the bamboo tips overhead became lower and lower, so low that they touched the top of the horse carriage.

The sound of the bamboo tips scraping across the carriage's roof was grating and sharp, adding to everyone's sense of oppression, yet Master Taoist Bell still signaled no enemies around.

Moving through this bizarre Bamboo Forest, everyone felt as if they were crawling through the mouth of something, with the bamboo tips being the sharp teeth of that entity.

In such an environment, Li Huowang had no idea how long he had walked, the dizziness made him lose his sense of time.

Suddenly, he spotted light in the distance, an exit!

Excitedly, he brandished the sharp Longsword with force, a swath of bamboo fell, and dazzling sunlight poured in.

The sun in the sky made everyone instinctively squint, it was too blinding, seeing the position of the sun, it should be afternoon by now.

As everyone gathered their senses and looked ahead, they couldn't help but widen their eyes, to their astonishment, they saw a village behind this eerie forest.

There, the blue-tiled houses were scattered in disarray, no different from all the villages Li Huowang and his companions had seen on the road.

And at the edge of a crystal-clear pond at the beginning of the village, some young women were laughing and chatting about trivial matters while beating clothes.

"Brother Li, are you sure it's here? Could we have gone to the wrong place?" Xiao Man asked with a puzzled frown.

Quickly filtering through the location given by Master Jingxin in his mind, Li Huowang put the Taoist Bell away and started walking toward the distant village.

"Stay close, don't lower your guard, this might just be an illusion by 'Eighteenth of the Twelfth Lunar Month.'"

"Could 'Eighteenth of the Twelfth Lunar Month'… be a village?" Bai Lingmiao murmured to herself.

Her words were also what Li Huowang had on his mind; from Master Jingxin, the only piece of information he could glean about the eighteenth of the twelfth lunar month was that the Evil Spirit was red.

As Li Huowang and his companions approached, the first to notice them were the women washing clothes, who picked up their garments and whispered among themselves as they walked into the village.

The sight of a large group of people wearing black gauze hats approaching naturally drew the attention of the villagers. Groups of young and strong men, armed with various farming tools, gathered at the village entrance with a wary look in their eyes.

"Strangers! What are you doing in our Wu Family village? Are you just passing through, or visiting relatives?" an elder with a goatee shouted to Li Huowang from a distance.

Li Huowang's gaze swept across the faces of all the villagers, but he didn't detect any abnormalities. On the surface, it seemed to be just like any other normal village.

"Could the eighteenth of the twelfth lunar month be here?" Li Huowang thought to himself.

When the village leader shouted for the second time, Li Huowang led his group forward and, with a gesture of respect, unfolded the map in front of them.

"Elder, may I trouble you to confirm if this location on the map is your village?"

"Eh? Are you asking for directions?" The elder took the map and began murmuring with those next to him.

Li Huowang watched their faces intently, observing any expression they made.

After a lengthy discussion, the village leader handed the map back with both hands. "Strangers, you've gone to the wrong place. This location on the map is a good twenty or thirty miles from here."

"Wrong place? We haven't arrived yet?" Li Huowang swiftly calculated the distance from An Ci Nunnery to their current location; Master Jingxin had mentioned it was two hundred miles. Since he wasn't a machine, a little discrepancy seemed normal.

"Haha, my apologies. I have been so careless to have gotten the location wrong," Li Huowang admitted generously, once again bowing his hands to the people before him.

"However, elder, the sun is about to set; may we stay here for the night? We have been on the road for half a month and are quite weary."

"This..." The village leader looked at Li Huowang and his companions, clearly on guard.

"Elder, please do us a favor," Li Huowang said with a smile as he moved closer, draping his long gown over the other's hand.

Feeling a faint weight in his palm, the village leader's face changed as he pinched it with his fingers.

"Fine, the west wing of our house is empty. You can stay there, but remember, just for one night."

As the two carriages moved along the moss-covered stone slabs toward the inside of the village, a boy named Doggie came up and whispered, "Brother Li, didn't we get the wrong place?"

Li Huowang shifted his gaze to the villagers who were peeking out from behind the doors.

"Maybe we haven't gone astray? Perhaps what we're seeking is right here?"

Being out here for so long, he had learned the most important thing was to trust only a third of what others say.

Since the Evil Spirit could take on any form, a complex village was undoubtedly a convenient place to hide.

He wondered if it fed on humans; if so, then the village would also be a very convenient feeding ground.

He began searching, looking for any red colour across the whole village, but even when they reached the home of the villagers, he still didn't find any red.

They arrived under the archway at the entrance, where the village leader stood with hands clasped, eyeing these foreigners.

"I should mention that Wu Family Village has many rules—traditions passed down from the previous generations that cannot be changed. If you want to stay here, fine, but you must follow the rules. If you can't, it's best you leave now."

"Rules?"