Looting

Since he had already decided to leave, Li Huowang naturally had to suppress the hallucinations from returning. Otherwise, constantly slipping between hallucination and reality, he would never be able to do anything properly.

To suppress the hallucinations, the Black Tai Sui Danyangzi had raised was the key.

When the group arrived at the Karst Cave, they stopped short. They saw that the Black Tai Sui had actually crawled out of the Black Cauldron. This was the first time they had seen its true form.

It was a huge, black, slimy mass covered in mucus. At first glance, the growths covering its body looked like hair, but upon closer inspection, they proved to be dense clusters of dark, elongated feelers—or perhaps immature filaments.

Its entire body expanded and contracted freely like a giant python.

Its bloated body was also covered in openings. With every squirm, nauseating stench sprayed out from within.

The sight terrified everyone. Their arms and legs went weak, and they nearly turned and fled.

Yet Li Huowang keenly sensed that something was wrong. The Black Tai Sui had shrunk by a great deal, and black fluid was continuously seeping from beneath it.

"What's going on? Could its life be linked to Danyangzi's?" Li Huowang's heart sank without cease.

With that thought, he swiftly ran out. When he returned, he was clutching some of Danyangzi's remains.

Li Huowang rushed to the Black Tai Sui's side, dropped to one knee, and with great effort gathered the writhing lump of rotten flesh from the ground into his arms. He stuffed the remains in his hand into several cracks in the Black Tai Sui's body.

It would have been better if Li Huowang had not stuffed them in. The moment he did, even more black fluid seeped out of its body, and it shriveled even smaller.

Li Huowang's face was full of anxiety, as though what lay in his arms was not a twisted, writhing black monster, but his own sick child.

In his panic, he seized both sides of the Black Tai Sui and gently shook it. "Hey, hey, hey, don't scare me! What am I supposed to do if you die?!"

The Black Tai Sui gave no response. None of the organs on its body showed any sign of movement anymore.

Seeing the Black Tai Sui growing smaller and smaller, Li Huowang suddenly hardened his heart. He opened his mouth and bit down fiercely on its body.

Li Huowang's actions left Bai Lingmiao and the others utterly dumbfounded. They could only stand where they were, watching Senior Brother Li, covered in blood, clutch the writhing monster and tear into it in huge bites.

To them, compared to the Black Tai Sui, Li Huowang looked more like a monster right now.

Gou Dan edged over to Zhao Wu and whispered, "How about... we go our separate ways? Staying with him, I'm really afraid he'll eat me while I'm asleep."

A trace of fear began to appear in everyone's eyes as they looked at Li Huowang.

The condensed Black Tai Sui's flesh was clearly much tougher. Chewing it felt like gnawing on a tire.

But Li Huowang had no time to care about that. He swallowed mouthful after mouthful, yet no matter how much he ate, he could not keep up with the Black Tai Sui dissolving itself. Before long, all that remained in his arms was a layer of black skin.

"Um, Senior Brother Li, are you full? If you are, can we set off now?" Gouwa asked cautiously.

Regretfully, Li Huowang tossed the foul-smelling layer of skin in his hand onto the ground. He had no idea how long this would last. He could only hope that before the hallucinations returned, he would find another Black Tai Sui—or some other solution.

"I'm going to change clothes." The remaining things were basically worthless. As for cultivation manuals and secret texts, there was no need to even think about them—Danyangzi could not read at all.

Li Huowang stripped off his sticky Daoist Robe. After changing into a brand-new Azure Daoist Robe, he immediately felt refreshed all over.

Once he had changed, Li Huowang led the others toward the exit while explaining why he had done what he did.

When they understood that Li Huowang wanted to use the Black Tai Sui's flesh to suppress his hallucinations, the stones hanging in their hearts finally dropped.

"Ah, so that's what it was. I thought Senior Brother Li was hungry." Gouwa cracked a joke from the side, grinning as he eased the atmosphere.

As they walked, a new side passage appeared along the tunnel. Li Huowang stopped as if guided by some unseen hand. At the end of that passage was Danyangzi's residence. "Should we go see how the three senior brothers' fight turned out?"

Though he had no desire to meddle in their dog-eat-dog struggle, if possible, he did not want another Danyangzi to emerge.

"Come on, let's go take a look." Li Huowang led the group of old, weak, sick, and injured people that way.

When they reached the door, Li Huowang found that the door he had just shut had not been opened. That proved no one had come out from inside.

"Senior brothers, are you done fighting? We're leaving!" Li Huowang called loudly into the room.

After waiting a while without any response, Li Huowang pushed open the door. A piercing smell of blood rushed at them, and a bloody hand lay openly before everyone's eyes.

Everyone's gazes moved upward, revealing an even bloodier scene. Xuan Yuan was dead, and he had died horribly. His body had nearly been cleaved in two by a sword.

Chang Ren was dead too, stabbed through the back with a sword. Xuan Yuan cultivated talismans, not swordsmanship. That meant the only one who could have done it was his brother, Chang Ming.

Yet Chang Ming, the one who had survived to the end, was still in bad shape. The black threads strung with copper coins had pierced through his body over and over, sewing him completely onto the wall. It seemed he had triggered one of Danyangzi's contingencies.

Chang Ming was not dead. His desire-filled eyes remained fixed stubbornly upon the so-called Immortal Ascension Scripture.

"Cough, cough... cough..." Seeing Li Huowang enter, Chang Ming seemed to want to say something. But the copper coins embedded in his neck had completely severed his windpipe, leaving him unable to utter a word.

Li Huowang walked to his side, smiled at him, then bent down and picked up his sword.

It was a longsword over a meter long. Under the lamplight, its blade gleamed with a cold sheen, looking exceptionally sharp.

After laboriously swinging it a few times one-handed, Li Huowang said to Chang Ming, "A fine sword. Senior Brother probably won't need this sword for the time being, so Junior Brother will use it first."

"Although Junior Brother isn't a sword cultivator, when traveling outside, it's always better to have a piece of iron in hand than go bare-fisted. Don't you agree, Senior Brother?"

Chang Ming tried to signal something with his eyes, but Li Huowang clearly could not understand.

Li Huowang took the scabbard from the dead Chang Ren, sheathed the longsword, and slung it directly onto his back.

Then came the most important part—the Heavenly Book.

Li Huowang turned and walked toward the Heavenly Book, which no longer had any protection.

At that moment, Chang Ming suddenly began struggling violently. As he struggled, the copper coins on those black threads sank deeper and deeper. After only a few struggles, the light in his eyes rapidly dimmed.

"Senior Brother Li, Senior Brother Chang Ming is dead." Gouwa widened his eyes in surprise.

Li Huowang looked at the so-called Heavenly Book before him and sighed softly. It was just such a thing, of unknown origin, yet how many people had died because of it?

Li Huowang leaned his head closer again and studied it carefully. This time, he examined it even more seriously than he had under Danyangzi's coercion.

Yet after looking it over repeatedly, he still felt it was merely a scripture. Half guessing and half understanding, it even seemed to be a scripture urging people to do good.

Li Huowang took a step back, then reached behind him with one hand and slowly drew his sword. With a clang, the sword that could slice through iron like mud came down heavily upon the stone slab carved full of scripture.