Black Cauldron

When Xuan Yang covered Li Huowang's mouth, the others holding Fire Boxes rushed forward and surrounded Li Huowang with unfriendly looks.

"Not leaving, are you? Then die here today! We'll never let you go warn Pockmarked Head Master!"

Yet Li Huowang was not the least bit flustered by his life-or-death predicament. He rolled his eyes speechlessly, silently cursed the direction this hallucination's plot had taken, then simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he opened them again, he found himself strapped to a hospital bed with wide leather belts. The senior and junior disciples who had surrounded him were gone.

"Aunt Wang, I'm awake. Can you loosen these for me?" Li Huowang called toward the microphone by the bedside, desperately wanting to see whether the Jade Pendant was in his clothes.

But after calling for a long while without any response, Li Huowang understood. Nurse Wang was secretly watching Mary Sue dramas again during her night shift. She always loved slacking off like this.

Lowering his head, Li Huowang stared at his chest wrapped in blue-and-white hospital clothes and twisted desperately, trying to feel through the pressure whether the Jade Pendant was actually there.

But his body was bound too tightly. Sometimes it felt like it was there, sometimes it did not. After several attempts, he could only give up helplessly.

Yawning, Li Huowang could only lie on the bed and pray that after Nurse Wang finished her show, she would mercifully glance at the monitor.

In the depths of night, even the second floor where the critical patients were kept was utterly quiet. Li Huowang drifted off drowsily. When he woke again, he found himself lying on the cold ground of the Karst Cave.

He was still in the same place, but all those people who had tried to escape earlier had vanished without a trace.

"Tch, you NPCs think you can deal with me?" Li Huowang took the Jade Pendant from his chest, lightly tossed it in his palm, then tucked it back inside his clothes.

Half an incense stick later, he returned to the communal sleeping quarters where he lived. Lying amid the pile of dry grass, he patiently waited for daybreak. Thinking of the Jade Pendant's value, he was far too excited to sleep.

Without a clock, Li Huowang had no idea how much time had passed. When he saw the disciples on either side beginning to wake, he sat up as well.

"It's daylight here, so Aunt Wang should be changing shifts too, right? Should I go back and check first? Nurse Ai is far more dedicated than her."

Just as Li Huowang hesitated, a burst of hurried footsteps came from the doorway.

A Daoist Child in a black Daoist Robe, his hair tied atop his head, scrambled in from outside in panic.

"Hurry, all of you! Master wants everyone assembled at Huian Hall!!"

This sudden news left everyone baffled, but since their master had summoned them, they had no reason to refuse.

Before long, all the disciples had gathered in the largest Karst Cave, the so-called Huian Hall. Torchlight illuminated the confusion on every face with crystal clarity.

Li Huowang keenly noticed something: several people were missing from the crowd. Aside from Xuan Yang, several of Pockmarked Head Master's personal disciples were missing as well.

Oh? They escaped together? he thought, delighted by the spectacle. The scene before him made him feel as though he were watching a drama.

When an ugly head poked out from the dark tunnel, everyone except Li Huowang and the Daoist Child instinctively lowered their heads.

That was their master, Danyangzi.

"Cough~!" A single cough made everyone's bodies tighten.

"Last night, at the second watch, someone tried to run away. Among them were even two of this Daoist master's personal disciples. This Daoist master is deeply heartbroken!!"

Though he spoke of heartbreak, the vicious aura on his face was so thick it seemed on the verge of condensing into something tangible.

"They got caught already? Xuan Yang and the others are really pathetic." Li Huowang curled his lip.

"Without rules, no circle can be drawn; without standards, no square can stand. Those who err must be punished—such are the rules of my West Mountain Donghua Sect! Follow me."

None of the disciples dared breathe too loudly. Silently, they followed behind Danyangzi.

After passing through Karst Caves large and small and going alongside a rushing Underground River, they soon arrived in a damp Karst Cave the size of a classroom.

Li Huowang saw that every one of those who had tried to escape last night had been tightly bound and piled in the corner.

Seeing their master, the dispirited escapees immediately began struggling excitedly, as if trying to say something. But the rags stuffed in their mouths prevented them from uttering a word.

Danyangzi seemed unwilling to hear their excuses. With one hand, he formed a Daoist hand seal, then pointed forward. "Open!"

A great hole abruptly opened in the smooth, water-worn floor of the Karst Cave, and the escapees instantly fell into it.

The next moment, muffled, hysterical cries and screams rose continuously from within the hole.

Before this horrifying sight, quite a few Daoist Children's legs had begun to tremble, and they desperately wished they could shut their eyes.

"Come closer! This is the fate of those who run away!" At Danyangzi's words, everyone's faces turned several shades paler in an instant.

No one dared disobey their master's order. Pushing and shoving one another, they moved to the edge of the hole.

Inside was dark—very dark. Black as pitch.

The pitch-black circular opening was like a whirlpool, as though it would drag everyone down into its depths.

After looking carefully, Li Huowang saw a large Black Cauldron inside the hole. Twisted talismans were pressed around the rim of its mouth.

Something seemed to be moving within the cauldron, but Li Huowang could never see it clearly. The only information his senses received was the pungent, nauseating stench of blood.

Whatever was inside, one thing was certain: it was extremely dangerous.

"Things in hallucinations shouldn't be able to hurt me. That's never happened before."

Though he said that, his heart was suspended in his throat, and he prepared to retreat to the hospital at any moment.

Whoosh—! A ring of writhing black shadow burst from the hole, wrapped around one of the junior disciples beside Li Huowang, and violently retracted.

Everyone was terrified by the sight and stumbled back toward the smooth walls of the Karst Cave. If Danyangzi had not been watching beside them, they would likely have fled long ago.

At that moment, nearly everyone present wore an expression of utter terror, their hearts trembling as they guessed at what that thing had been.

But Li Huowang was not among those guessing, because he had stood closest and had seen it clearly.

It was a mass of black material with fleshy textures. Its slick, viscous skin was covered in clusters of short black tentacles that trembled without cease!

From that alone, Li Huowang could be sure that whatever Danyangzi was raising in that hole was absolutely no normal thing that existed in this world.

As for what it actually was, Li Huowang could not guess, nor did he want to walk over and look at it again.

Though he knew these things had all emerged from his own mind, Li Huowang truly did not understand why he would fabricate something like this.

Li Huowang surveyed everything around him, all incomparably real, and a terrifying thought suddenly arose in his heart. Could this horrifying, bizarre world be real?

That thought instantly made Li Huowang's body tremble. He remembered those people who had died before. If they had all been real rather than his hallucinations, then if that thing had dragged him in just now, would he have died too?

Li Huowang was nearly crushed by the suffocating terror. He took several deep breaths, then immediately began counseling himself according to the methods Doctor Li had taught him.

"These are all hallucinations. No matter how real they seem, they are hallucinations. Li Huowang, you absolutely cannot lose yourself in these hallucinations again. You created them all, so what are you afraid of?"

"Yang Na is still waiting for me. I can't let her down. I can overcome all this! I definitely can!"

After Li Huowang talked himself through it, his emotions gradually settled, and he was once again able to face everything before him calmly.