The Unruly Immortals

Li Huowang continued walking down, and the sunny weather turned dim. Before long, as the ground leveled, he saw ahead a dilapidated mound grave, overgrown with weeds, with three incense sticks inserted in front of the grave mound.

Thin wisps of white smoke did not dissipate but swayed, enveloping the grave head in a veil of reality and illusion.

Li Huowang entered the white smoke, trying to discern the writing on the tombstone. Although there were obviously words on it, he couldn't understand their meaning. He definitely recognized them in the past, but now he didn't, and the characters kept changing.

As he watched, the ever-changing characters gradually turned into two characters, one being 橠 and the other being 欎.

These two characters began to move, probing each other for a while before they started fighting and brawling, constantly pulling off each other's strokes and attaching them to themselves.

Clearly, 橠 was no match for 欎; not only were many strokes torn off, but the strokes on its original body were also messed up and became extremely loose.

In the end, 橠 forcefully threw "多" towards 欎. Taking the chance while the latter picked up "多," 橠 fled downwards in haste.

As Li Huowang's body slowly squatted down, 橠 gradually reached the lower half of the tombstone, crossing mountains and rivers, stepping over the farthest abyss, glancing past the pale, uncanny glow, and finally reaching the ground, running past beneath Li Huowang.

Li Huowang lowered his head and followed 橠, crawling through his knees, gradually sprinting into the distance.

He positioned one eye above 橠 and the other above 欎, watching their next move intently.

Just as 欎 was about to catch up with 橠, their bodies began to overlap continuously, turning from a single character into a stack of characters, and these human figures started to tremble at a high frequency.

As the trembling continued, those characters began to rapidly grow larger, not only 橠 but also 欎 chasing behind was enlarging.

With constant change, every stroke on their bodies also gradually transformed into something else.

Li Huowang laboriously moved his legs backward two steps, trying to make room for the enlarging two characters.

However, to his surprise, the rate at which these two characters grew was far beyond his imagination.

In almost an instant, the two people, having swelled to a size larger than the sky, completely enveloped Li Huowang and then disappeared from his sight altogether.

Li Huowang raised his head, staring at the chaotic sky above, standing dumbstruck in place.

As he gently wiped upwards with his hand, the sky eventually seemed to brighten slightly.

With his head lowered, Li Huowang discovered that the grave beside him had transformed into a mountain, and the tombstone where the two characters had clashed just now had vanished without a trace.

Gazing distantly, he noticed a path on the mountain, and Li Huowang continued forward along a small path on the mountain.

He walked not knowing for how long, but certainly a long time had passed. When Li Huowang crossed that mountain, the sky brightened again. Walking and observing his gradually clearer surroundings, he noticed the trees become distinct.

"Ding-ling~!" With the sound of the bell, a fallen leaf was blown away by a gust of cold wind, and Li Huowang felt a bit chilly. Hugging his arms, he hunched his body and continued to walk forward.

The weather grew increasingly cold, and Li Huowang began to have a runny nose, his body shivering uncontrollably.

When that familiar bell rang again, Li Huowang finally saw clearly that it was the bell on a camel's neck.

Several camels stopped in front of a makeshift stall, and their owner was eating inside the stall. The aroma and warmth wafting from it instinctively drew Li Huowang closer.

The people at the stall turned their heads upon hearing footsteps. These people had faceless expressions, with chopsticks held together, and the colors of their clothes blurred into their skin.

Seeing Li Huowang sit down at a vacant table, the others with indistinct color boundaries turned their heads back and continued eating their food.

Soon, a dish with similarly blurred color boundaries was placed in front of Li Huowang. He picked up the chopsticks and began to eat.

Although the unclear boundaries made Li Huowang inadvertently consume some of the colors of the plate and table, he finally felt warm.

Wiping his mouth, feeling much better, Li Huowang stood up and was about to leave.

At this moment, the shopkeeper was pulling at him, and Li Huowang's expression seemed somewhat hesitant.

He tentatively reached out to the faceless shopkeeper, lightly extending a hand, and instantly, the human form scattered like yellow sand in the air.

Subsequently, the stall, camels, and customers all dispersed like yellow sand, leaving everything around white and barren.

"Ling~" The bell sound continued, and Li Huowang instinctively followed the direction from which it rang.

The white void gradually disappeared, and a verdant green forest reappeared before him.

Li Huowang followed the bell sound through this forest, but as he ventured further, he sensed something was amiss — this place was so familiar.

"I seem to have been here before." With these words uttered, Li Huowang noticed the surrounding forest turn deeper green, the ground becoming muddy, causing discomfort when stepping on it.

Feeling both cold and sticky, Li Huowang instinctively wanted to leave, quickening his pace towards the sound of the bell.

More familiarly appeared around him as stones and trees filled Li Huowang's mind with known entities.

As these things became more and more familiar, the surroundings grew more and more real, until finally, Li Huowang felt even the bell sound familiar. "Who am I? Why am I here? I want to go home?"

At this very moment, the bell sound became clearer and sped up; it was ahead just moments ago, now it was behind him.

Li Huowang turned back, but found nothing.

The situation shifted — Li Huowang had been chasing the bell, but now it was the bell chasing him.

Though nothing was behind him, Li Huowang instinctively felt fear, desperately fleeing forward.

Along with the bell, overlapping footsteps began to emerge.

Suddenly, Li Huowang felt a tremendous force from behind, launching him into the air and slamming him hard onto the ground.

A heavily wrinkled hand seized Li Huowang's clothes, lifting him up. As Li Huowang raised his head, he came face to face with the hand's owner.

"Haha, good luck just can't be stopped. A Taoist Master like me can even pick one up on the road," Master Danyang, holding a Taoist Bell, looked at the person in his hand and laughed aloud.

"Ha!" Li Huowang suddenly woke up, looking at the empty warehouse and at Bai Lingmiao and Yi Donglai in front of him, feeling incredibly strange.