Chapter 24: Scavenging

Since he had already planned to go out, Li Huowang certainly had to suppress the recurrence of hallucinations; otherwise, he would be perpetually bewildered between hallucinations and reality, incapable of performing any task well.

To suppress the hallucinations, the Black Taishui raised by Master Danyang was key.

When the group arrived at the cavern, they stopped, witnessing for the first time the Black Taishui actually crawling out of the cauldron.

It was a large mass coated with slimy black mucus, resembling hair at first glance but upon closer inspection, one would find it was a densely growing dark elongated feeler, or perhaps immature filaments.

The entire body expanded and contracted freely, much like a gigantic maggot.

Its bloated body also had some gashes from which, with each undulation, an abhorrent stench was emitted.

This scene petrified everyone; their limbs weakened, and they were on the brink of turning around to flee.

However, Li Huowang sharply perceived something amiss—the Black Taishui had shrunk significantly, and beneath it, a black fluid was continuously seeping out.

"What's going on? Could it be connected to Master Danyang's life?" Li Huowang's heart sank further.

With that thought, he quickly ran out, and upon his return, he clutched some of Master Danyang's remains in his hands.

Li Huowang rushed to the Black Taishui's side, knelt on one knee, and with difficulty embraced the writhing mass of rotting flesh from the ground into his arms, stuffing the remains into some of the crevices of the Black Taishui's body.

The more Li Huowang stuffed, the more black fluid seeped out from its body, causing it to shrivel even further.

At this moment, Li Huowang's face was full of anxiety, as if the squirming, contorted black creature in his arms wasn't a monstrous beast but his own sick child.

An anxious Li Huowang grasped both sides of the Black Taishui and gently shook it. "Hey, hey, hey, don't scare me, okay? What am I supposed to do if you die?!"

The Black Taishui showed no reaction, any organs on its body ceased to have any signs of movement.

As the Black Taishui kept getting smaller, Li Huowang suddenly became fierce, opened his mouth, and bit down hard on its flesh.

Li Huowang's actions truly bewildered Bai Lingmiao and the others, who could only stand there and watch as their blood-covered senior brother embraced the writhing monster and tore into it with big bites.

In their eyes, Li Huowang seemed more monstrous than the Black Taishui at that moment.

Goudan moved closer to Zhao Wu and said in a low voice, "Maybe... we should split up. I'm really afraid he might eat me in my sleep if we stay with him."

Fear began to creep into everyone's gaze towards Li Huowang.

After it had condensed, the Black Taishui's flesh became noticeably denser, and Li Huowang found it as tough as chewing a tire.

But at that moment he couldn't care less and kept swallowing in big gulps, though no matter how much he ate, he couldn't keep pace with the Black Taishui's self-dissolution. Soon, all that was left in Li Huowang's embrace was a black skin.

"Um, Senior Brother Li, have you eaten enough? Can we set off if you're full?" Gouwa asked cautiously.

Li Huowang regretfully threw the smelly, fishy skin on the ground, unsure of how long it would last. He just hoped that before his hallucinations kicked in again, he would find another Black Taishui or some other solution.

"I'm going to change my clothes." There was virtually nothing left of value; as for things like the Technique Secret Manual, one could forget about them, since Master Danyang couldn't even read.

After stripping off his sticky Taoist robe and donning a fresh new blue one, Li Huowang immediately felt refreshed.

Now dressed, Li Huowang led the others towards the entrance, all the while explaining to them why he had done what he did.

When they finally understood that Li Huowang wanted to use Black Taisui meat to suppress the hallucinations, the anxiety that had been hanging in their hearts finally settled.

"Hey, so that's what's going on. I thought Brother Li was just hungry," Gouwa joked from the side, laughing to ease the tension.

As they walked on, a new branch appeared to the side of the tunnel. Li Huowang spontaneously stopped. This tunnel led to Master Danyang's dwelling. "Should we go in and see how the three senior brothers are faring?"

Although he didn't want to concern himself with their dog-eat-dog situation, he didn't want another Master Danyang to emerge if he could help it.

"Let's go, take a look," Li Huowang said, leading a group of the old, weak, sick, and disabled towards it.

When they reached the door, Li Huowang found that the door he had closed had not been opened by anyone, which meant no one had come out from inside.

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

After waiting for a while with no response, Li Huowang pushed the door open, and a pungent scent of blood hit them, as a blood-drenched hand was revealed before everyone's eyes.

As everyone's gaze moved upwards, an even more gruesome scene came into view. Xuan Yuan was dead, and it was a horrible death. His body had almost been sliced in half by a sword.

Changren was also dead, having been stabbed from behind with a sword. Xuan Yuan practiced Talisman Cultivation, not Sword Cultivation. The only one who could have acted was his brother, Changming.

But even Changming, who had survived to the end, was in a dire situation. His body was sewn against the wall with black lines strung with copper coins passing in and out of him; it looked like he had triggered something Master Danyang had set.

Changming was not dead. His eyes, filled with desire, were still fixed on the so-called Immortality Scripture.

"Cough cough... Cough~" Seeing Li Huowang come in, Changming on the wall seemed to want to say something, but the copper coins lodged in his neck had completely severed his trachea, making it impossible for him to speak.

Li Huowang walked over to him, smiled, and bent down to pick up his sword.

It was a longsword, one meter twenty in length. Under the light of the oil lamp, the blade reflected a chilling light, appearing incredibly sharp.

After struggling to swing it single-handedly a few times, Li Huowang turned to Changming and said, "Good sword. It seems, senior brother, that you won't need this sword for the time being, so I'll make use of it first."

"Although I'm not a Sword Cultivator, it's better to have some iron in hand than to be unarmed when out and about. Wouldn't you agree, senior brother?"

Changming tried to convey something with his eyes, but obviously, Li Huowang didn't understand.

Li Huowang took the sword sheath from the dead Changren, inserted the longsword into it, and slung it directly onto his back.

Then came the most important drama, the Heavenly Book.

Li Huowang turned and walked towards the now unprotected Heavenly Book.

Just then, Changming suddenly struggled violently, and as he squirmed, the copper coins on the black lines sank even deeper. After a few thrashes, the light in his eyes quickly dimmed.

"Brother Li, Senior Brother Changming is dead," Gouwa exclaimed, eyes wide with surprise.

Li Huowang looked at the so-called Heavenly Book before him and sighed softly. It was because of this unknown thing that so many had died.

Li Huowang leaned in closer, scrutinizing it even more intensely than he had under Master Danyang's coercion.

However, after looking it over several times, it still appeared to him to be nothing more than a script, somewhat preachy, seemingly one that exhorted people to be good.

Li Huowang stepped back and then extended one hand behind him to draw the sword slowly. With a clang, the razor-sharp longsword heavily chopped down on the stone slab engraved with scriptures.