Mutated Tao

The direction of battle changed in an instant.

When Li Huowang saw the opening generated by most of the Human Xiaos missing their attacks, he instantly seized it.

He had realized that while the Daoist Human Xiao was strong, it was also similar to a regular Daoist. It, too, had to either chant or do something as a condition to use its powers. As long as Li Huowang could force it into a melee fight, the Daoist Human Xiao would not be able to find the time needed to use the techniques.

“Jump!”

As Li Huowang commanded, seven to eight tentacles curled and then forcefully launched him into the air, bringing him even closer to the Daoist Human Xiao.

Clang!

The Daoist Human Xiao’s cherry wood sword broke. The black-tassel sword that the Abbess had given him was extremely sharp, to the point that the Daoist Human Xiao’s weapon was not able to win against his own.

Seeing that it was starting to lose, the Daoist Human Xiao used the force from Li Huowang’s assault to retreat.

But how could Li Huowang allow it to escape? He kept chasing and attacking it left and right, forcing the Daoist Human Xiao to not have the time to use its special techniques.

Meanwhile, when they sensed that their Master was losing the battle, one of the Human Xiaos threw a white horse-tail whisk with a small black talisman on it toward the Daoist Human Xiao.

Seeing this, the Daoist Human Xiao quickly used its curled fingernails to grab the horse-tail whisk. Then, it used the horsetail whisk to whip at Li Huowang, using the white fiber to entangle his sword. It was using a gentle approach to deflect Li Huowang’s strong attack. Even though Li Huowang’s sword was sharp enough to cut through the fibers, it would still take a bit of time.

At this point, both of them were locked into a stalemate. If Li Huowang wanted to win, he needed to cut off all of the entangling fibers before the rest of the Human Xiao could chase him to where he was.

But, Li Huowang had another trick.

He smiled cruelly at the monster in front of him. “Since you used your disciples to surround me, don’t blame me for using an underhanded tactic as well! Do it now!”

Following his command, several black tentacles moved and instantly grabbed numerous tools from within Li Huowang’s satchel of torture tools. Then, the tentacles used those tools as they stabbed, mauled, sliced, crushed, and pulverized the Daoist Human Xiao’s abdomen.

By the time the Daoist Human Xiao held its abdomen and fell to the ground, Li Huowang had managed to free his black-tassel sword from the white fibers and sliced it downward, instantly decapitating Daoist Human Xiao’s head.

Then, Li Huowang turned around with blood staining his robes as he stared at the remaining Human Xiaos. Even though they were quite numerous, none of them attacked Li Huowang. They were all afraid.

“Go!”

However, Li Huowang was currently filled with murderous intent as he charged and roared, running straight toward the hundreds of Human Xiao with his black-tassel sword in hand.

Without a leader, the remaining Human Xiaos soon scattered. It was a complete massacre as they turned their backs toward Li Huowang and ran.

Four hours passed by and the entire cave was mostly purged. While some of the Human Xiaos did manage to escape, they were not likely to pose any threats.

After finishing all this, the black tentacles skittered like a spider as they pulled Li Huowang toward his lower body.

By now, Li Huowang was extremely fatigued, and was holding through sheer willpower. Once he reached his lower body, he grabbed it and pulled upward, almost as if he was wearing pants.

As the two halves of his body were placed together, the wriggling tentacles once again entered his flesh as they started stitching and reconnecting his nerves, bone, flesh, and sinews.

At first, Li Huowang couldn’t feel anything in his lower body. But soon, he was able to feel his toes, and pain started radiating from where the black flags were stabbed into his feet.

Now that the circle on the ground had disappeared, Li Huowang bent over and pulled out the black flag.

Then, he stood up and looked at the chaotic scene all around. The entire floor of the cave was covered in mud and blood. It was almost impossible to find a dry spot.

Now that all the enemies were either dead or chased away, Li Huowang suddenly started laughing. At the same time, he realized that recently, he loved laughing more and more. He used to rarely laugh in the past.

After a while, he stopped laughing and touched his abdomen. “Thank you. Also, it seems that I have been underestimating you. You are much more useful than I thought.”

In response, Li Huowang heard some fragmented sentences in his ear. Compared to the last time, the Black Taisui was now able to use some simple words to converse, albeit in an incomplete manner. This was all thanks to Li Huowang teaching it over a long period of time.

After this battle, Li Huowang decided to invest more time and energy into the Black Taisui.

He didn’t know why the Black Taisui in his stomach was much more intelligent than the one outside. He wasn’t sure whether it was caused by the Black Taisui absorbing something from his body and that caused changes to appear within it.

Maybe the flesh and blood of a Strayed One can help elevate the Black Taisui’s intelligence?

Li Huowang was thinking about the various possibilities as he looked at his tattered body. At this point, there was barely any flesh left on him. Even though it hurt, he had gradually gotten used to it.

“Careful. The Black Taisui is not as kind as you think. It’s probably trying to take over your body by entering your stomach.”

Hong Zhong’s sudden words made Li Huowang frown. “Who cares! I would rather it do that! Who asked for your advice?”

“Why are you so stubborn? You can’t even differentiate good advice from lies.” Seeing his attitude, Hong Zhong got irritated and once again disappeared under the ground.

Li Huowang just scoffed as he took out the Fiery Sutra and started to heal himself.

Afterward, he slowly hobbled back to the cave where the babies were. His steps made him look like someone who was learning to walk for the first time.

When he returned, the old people within the caves were still there. There wasn’t much they could do. Escape was not an option for any of them.

“Grab the babies, We are leaving this place,” Li Huowang ordered in a cold tone.

At this point, the remaining old people did as they were told. None of them dared to say anything as they saw the blood that was still dripping down from Li Huowang’s body.

The reason they all sought the Water Son, even if they knew that they were being lied to, was because they didn’t want to die.

Meanwhile, Li Huowang counted the babies and saw that only thirty-one of them had survived. There should have been more of them, but some of them were killed in the battle just now.

After counting the number of babies, Li Huowang carried one of them with one arm as he led the old people to slowly follow him toward the entrance of the cave.

However, just as they were about to exit the cave, the headless Daoist Human Xiao once again started to move.

Seeing this, Li Huowang instantly placed down the baby in his arm and pulled out the bronze coin sword, its tip aimed at the headless Daoist Human Xiao.

When he saw that the Daoist Human Xiao was trying to retrieve something from its clothes, Li Huowang directly cut off the arm in a single slash.

The arm flew into the air and fell, releasing the pouch in its grasp. At the same time, several lifespan pills wrapped in black talismans scattered into the semi-coagulated blood pool.

“Lifespan pills?” Li Huowang was surprised as he inspected some of them with his sword.

What was it trying to do? Was it trying to beg for mercy using the lifespan pills?

The headless Daoist Human Xiao once again started to move. This time, it raised its other arm and pushed the lifespan pills toward Li Huowang.

After it did that, its body stopped moving completely.

Li Huowang counted up and found that there were a total of seventy-nine lifespan pills. If one were to eat all of them, then they could probably live long enough to turn into a Human Xiao.

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