Mutated Tao

“Fire!” Li Huowang roared as he and Peng Longteng were engulfed by fire.

They broke through the entrapment of the four strange men, charging towards the other Dharma Sect members.

Li Huowang had allies on the outside, so he wanted to group up with them to increase his chances of winning.

But the Dharma Sect was clearly trying to stop him from doing so. The four weird men opened their umbrellas simultaneously. It suddenly started raining out of nowhere, and the rainwater suppressed Li Huowang’s fire.

Fire and water collided, forming a dense mist of steam that the four weird men held onto. They pulled the steam and covered their surroundings in white mist.

With the concealment of the mist, Li Huowang and Peng Longteng lost sight of their targets.

Chan Du disappeared as well. Li Huowang had lost his bearings and didn’t know where his allies were.

Splat! Peng Longteng impaled Li Huowang with her halberd and launched him high up into the air. Li Huowang needed to find a way to escape through the white mist.

Li Huowang flew high before landing back into the white mist. Suddenly, he saw something red flashing in the mist.

Without hesitation, he stabbed towards the red light with his sword.

There were two stabbing sounds. One came from Li Huowang stabbing his sword into Peng Longteng, while the other was Peng Longteng stabbing her halberd into Li Huowang.

They stared at each other in a daze as the flames burned their bodies.

Peng Longteng swung her halberd and threw Li Huowang to the side. “What’s going on? Didn’t you fly up just now? How did you end up behind me?”

Li Huowang held his chest and stood up as he observed the white mist.

He had a gut feeling that something was wrong. He stabbed his sword into his mouth to pry off some of his molars before spitting them out like shotgun pellets towards his front.

He was surprised when the molars hit his back, causing sparks to fly from the impact. “Something’s wrong with the mist!”

The moment the words left Li Huowang’s mouth, the rain became heavier, threatening to extinguish his fire.

What should I do? Am I trapped?

Li Huowang shook his head to snap out of it. “No, this is good. I need them to buy as much time as possible! I already have a team of elites heading towards them from the back. They are doomed to die today from our pincer attack!”

He felt False Qi enter his body.

They believed it!

He smiled without anyone knowing.

Just then, the white mist to his left started to bubble and swirl before a weird man with the umbrella walked into his line of sight.

Li Huowang asked, “Who are you? Give me a name!”

He stomped on the ground and ran towards the weird man.

“Ru Shou.”

“Ru Shou.”

“Ru Shou.”

“Ru Shou.”

Four identical voices answered as the weird men threw their umbrellas at Li Huowang from four different directions.

Li Huowang swung his spine sword, sending a rift towards every umbrella.

The umbrellas spun through the air, shaking off droplets of rainwater. The rifts diminished in size as the rain continued to fall on them.

Who are they? Li Huowang wondered, looking at the four umbrellas flying towards him.

Without any hesitation, he tore off one of his rib bones and stabbed his own chest. Just as he did, he saw an eyeball underneath one of the tattered umbrellas.

The four umbrellas didn’t stop at all, seemingly unaffected by the pain. They tried to stab Li Huowang, but they were not the only ones attacking Li Huowang. Even their shadows had joined in, attacking Li Huowang’s shadow.

Peng Longteng’s massive frame suddenly appeared in front of Li Huowang and blocked their attacks.

The umbrellas pierced her before spinning wildly. Peng Longteng’s flaming body was split into pieces before scattering onto the ground.

Li Huowang stood still and glared at the four men in front of him. “You don’t feel pain? Are you not alive?”

The four of them, Ru Shou, did not answer. Their emaciated bodies suddenly trembled. Li Huowang even heard their urns shatter underneath their umbrellas.

The four men suddenly expanded, though their lower halves were still long and thin.

Li Huowang thought they were going to attack him again, but the white mist around him suddenly cleared up a lot.

Soon after, Li Huowang saw a familiar Buddha consuming the white mist. It was the one he had seen in the Righteous Monastery. It was sucking the white mist into the holes on its body.

“Nan wu shi ji chui~ Yi meng ah li ye~ Po lu ji di shi fo luo leng two po~”

There was a superimposed chanting coming from the Buddha as a fleshy Bodhisattva with two faces crawled out from one of the Buddha’s orifices.

The two faces were none other than Abbot Chan Du and Abbot Xin Hui.

“Sa po pu duo~ Na mo po jia~”

As they chanted, the four Ru Shous swelled up more and more, with lumps of flesh protruding out.

Li Huowang recalled that this was one of the very few times that he was fighting with his allies!

“Keep going, don't stop!” he yelled.

Li Huowang watched the four weird men, Ru Shou, slowly turn into mud.

Their umbrellas suddenly fell downwards, blocking Li Huowang’s vision. Ru Shou had disappeared by the time the umbrellas landed on the ground.

The white mist scattered, and Li Huowang was back on the battlefield filled with bloodthirst and a murderous aura.

“He ran?” Li Huowang muttered, scanning his surroundings.

“No, he would not. If the Dharma Sect couldn’t even hold their ground here, they wouldn’t be able to defend all of Nan Ping,” Chan Du replied.

The ground suddenly trembled.

“Is the Earth Dragon turning again?”

Li Huowang focused on the ground to prevent himself being swallowed by the Earth Dragon once more.

Just then, the eyes growing at the back of his head widened with shock. “Father! Water! There’s a lot of water behind us!”

Li Huowang turned around and saw muddy water surging towards them like a yellow dragon.

The water submerged everyone on the battlefield, both the soldiers and the Dharma Sect members. All of them were washed away.