Mutated Tao

“Stop! You will also die with me!”

As they got closer and closer to the Bodhisattva, Dan Yangzi’s voice was filled with fear for the first time in forever.

However, Li Huowang just grew excited! “Who the heck cares?! The life of a disciple is nothing compared to helping his Master achieve Immortality!”

Between the force of Li Huowang’s push and the slight tug of the gentle breeze, all of Dan Yangzi’s struggles were rendered useless as they slowly approached the open Ox Tail Gate.

As they got closer, the pale white light coming from behind the Bodhisattva enveloped both of them.

At that moment, all of Dan Yangzi’s feathers started transforming into a white shawl similar to the one on the Bodhisattva's body. Dan Yangzi’s body, regardless of whether it was the wriggling flesh or his organs, died the moment they were enveloped by the white shawl.

As Dan Yangzi felt his body slowly dying, his survival instincts kicked in. He refused to die just like this. “Huowang! You don’t have to do this! Your physical body can still be used! We just need to go back down and then you can go! After that, I will leave you alone and we won't meet each other ever again!”

While Li Huowang ignored Dan Yangzi’s word, one of the bandit-like illusions spoke out, “Young man, don’t listen to him! He has never spoken the truth! He’s still thinking about how to get rid of you!”

Just as Dan Yangzi glared at the illusion, a portion of the white shawl enveloped one of his heads causing it to die.

When Dan Yangzi’s other head witnessed this, he was extremely shocked. Immediately, he threw aside his dignity and started pleading with Li Huowang, “Huowang! You’ve won! Please, let’s just run away! Otherwise, both of us will die and who knows what kind of fate awaits us after that! We might even suffer from a fate worse than death! Please! I am even willing to kowtow to you and call you Master! Just let me go!”

At that moment, the white shawl covered Li Huowang’s eyes, but he was still smiling happily. “That won’t do, Master. You promised me that we will become Immortals together.”

Just as he finished saying that, Dan Yangzi’s body was completely covered by the white shawl and brought into the Ox Tail Gate.

The moment they passed through the gate, Dan Yangzi’s body was separated from Li Huowang’s head.

Staring at Li Huowang’s translucent head, Dan Yangzi barely managed to say something before his body popped like a bubble.

At that moment, Dan Yangzi, who had tormented Li Huowang for so long, disappeared just like that. His death was swift and quiet.

In the spot where Dan Yangzi had died, numerous different colored types of energy spread out before floating into the depths of the gate.

Li Huowang recognized what that was and yet he couldn’t find words to accurately describe it. If he tried, the only thing he would be able to come up with was that it was the energy representing desire, greed, persistence, hate, and killing intent.

While Li Huowang did not die like Dan Yangzi, his current condition wasn’t much better.

At that moment, the massive Bodhisattva used one of her rotting skeletal hands to reach out for Li Huowang.

Just as the massive shadow enveloped Li Huowang, a voice rang out from the depths. The voice was quite similar to that of a Suona[1].

As soon as he heard the voice, Li Huowang felt his five senses morphing and melding together. He had instantly obtained five different ways to ‘see’ the world.

At that moment, he saw that the Bodhisattva was composed of a mountain of corpses, and that she had an umbilical cord dangling from her abdomen.

In fact, pretty much everything within the Ox Tail Gate had an umbilical cord dangling from its abdomen.

However, it was not only his sense of sight that had changed. At present, he could sense so many different things that a mortal should never be able to sense. A mass of foreign senses were worming their way into him.

Amidst all this, Li Huowang started moving deeper and deeper into the Baiyu Capital.

The deeper he got, the more he sensed.

“No… No, No, NO NO NO!”

As he went deeper, Li Huowang learned more and more about Baiyu Capital, but at the same time, his mind almost crumbled from the overwhelming amount of knowledge.

Li Huowang shouted in despair. The deeper he flew, the more he learned.

Then, he stopped and slowly flew back the same way he came from.

At this point, Li Huowang had learned everything about the world, and he finally knew what had been worming into his very senses.

It was a bundle of pain and suffering—it was Ba-Hui!

——————————————

Back within the kingdom of Si Qi, on a beautiful mountain, a group of people were standing around a newly constructed grave while wearing funeral clothes. At this moment, they were scattering a bunch of bronze coins and paper ingots while grieving.

“Senior Li! Boo-hoooo~ Why did you die? What’s going to happen to us now that you are dead?” Puppy bawled, his eyes red with tears. However, halfway through he quieted down and stared at Bai Lingmiao.

Compared to his somewhat extreme display, Bai Lingmiao was eerily calm. She did not cry, and instead just silently burned the pieces of offering paper one at a time.

Seeing her current state, Puppy sighed and started sniffing. Then, he laid his body onto the grave and started bawling his eyes out. “Senior Li! How did you die without any illness or accidents? Now that we are without you, we will end up being bullied by everyone else!”

Just as he was doing his best to grieve, the dirt on the grave moved.

“Hm?” Puppy thought he was seeing things. He rubbed his eyes, only to see a hand explode out from within the grave.

“AAAAAAAAAH! HIS BODY IS MOVING!” Puppy cried out and fell onto the ground.

On the other hand, Bai Lingmiao reacted immediately. The walls surrounding her heart crumbled away as she started crying while clawing at the dirt, trying to remove as much of it as she could.

After a moment, the others reacted as well, and moved to help her.

However, before they even finished digging away the dirt, Li Huowang suddenly appeared from within the grave, wearing his graveclothes.

He held his head with a twisted expression, his face twitching as he mumbled something, causing most of them to be scared away.

“Senior Li!”

Bai Lingmiao ran over to him tearfully, but was caught by him.

As he looked at Bai Lingmiao, his eyes were bloodshot. “Alive! You are alive! This world is alive!”

At that moment, Chun Xiaoman sighed in relief and sheathed his sword. “That’s good; looks like he’s alive. His body did not just reanimate by itself.”

On the other hand, as she faced Li Huowang who was behaving strangely, Bai Lingmiao did not feel afraid. Instead, she was concerned. “Senior Li, what’s wrong?”

“Listen to me! I know what’s wrong with this world!” Li Huowang’s shout dampened all the noises around him. “This world is alive! That means that anything that could happen to a human could happen to the entire world as well! I’m not the crazy one! This world is crazy! IT’S TRULY LUNATIC!”

As he spoke, Li Huowang pushed Bai Lingmiao away before pointing one of his fingers toward the Heavens and the other toward his chest as he tried his best to reassure himself as much as he could. “THE ENTIRE WORLD IS CRAZY, IT’S EVEN CRAZIER THAN ME!”

After repeating those words tens of times, his body finally gave way and he crashed onto the ground.

1. a musical instrument ☜

Chacha and Char's Thoughts

The artist drew a very good rendition of that eldritch being! Credits to 格子的乱七八糟 on douyin

Also this is a Suona

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