Chapter 130: Death

Li Huowang swayed as he looked at the "six people" in the distance. To him, they had also undergone a drastic change. Their bodies remained the same, but their facial features were completely twisted, elongated, and reassembled into grotesque mahjong tiles made of flesh and blood.

"Stop! We will help you eliminate Danyangzi right now!"

Upon hearing this, Li Huowang, on the verge of collapse, let out a laugh. It was merely an instinctive reaction; his heart felt no joy whatsoever. He should have been happy at that moment, but Li Huowang was currently tormented by extreme, dual pain, completely losing the ability to perceive joy. All his strength was spent resisting the overwhelming urge to end his own life.

In a daze, Li Huowang heard one of the "Three Bars" speak. "Xuan Yang, cross your legs! Place your hands over your dantian, form the Crouching Dragon Seal, and guard your heart!"

Li Huowang did his best to comply. The blood talismans around him trembled as his body swayed. Next, Li Huowang saw the six elders approach, sitting cross-legged in a circle about ten meters away. As all six spoke simultaneously, to his surprise, they uttered not obscure decrees or strange incantations, but a rhetorical question echoing profoundly.

"What is Zuowang Dao?"

"To shed one's limbs, discard one's intellect, separate from form and knowledge, and merge with the Great Flow—this is Zuowang!"

As they spoke to themselves, the clothes on the six figures began to billow in the wind, and they started to float in the air. All colors around them began to distort. A voice, seemingly from nowhere, instantly filled everyone's hearts. Everything around them was instantly overshadowed. The six elders simultaneously repeated the words, and the voice instantly magnified countless times.

The cracked sky began to be covered by dark clouds. Li Huowang's merged sensory perceptions gradually returned, though they felt slightly different from before.

"To sit is to move. To forget is to think. To not sit is to cease one's action. To not forget is to cease one's thought. If action does not cease, the spirit calms. If thought does not cease, the heart is at peace!"

The moment these words were uttered, Li Huowang seemed to sense something and instantly looked up. He then saw Danyangzi, hidden within the black clouds. This time, Danyangzi looked different from before. A translucent, umbilical cord-like object emerged from his abdomen, connecting to Li Huowang's body. Danyangzi's three heads simultaneously turned towards Li Huowang, all six eyes glaring at him with extreme hatred.

"Rebellious disciple! Are you looking for others to deal with your master again? Hmph! Do you think you can escape? Your master is already an immortal!"

"Immortal... immortal... Hehehe..." On the verge of breakdown, Li Huowang stared at the disgusting tentacles and organs on Danyangzi's body. Li Huowang took a deep breath and roared at Danyangzi: "How can someone like you become an immortal? What right do you have? Is there no justice in this place?!"

"Hmph! You've killed no fewer people than I have. What right do you have to say that?"

Danyangzi's rightmost child-like head twitched slightly. A sword made of flesh and blood, resembling copper coins, was entwined by his three tentacles. With his deformed body, he swooped down like a hawk on the black clouds towards the six elders below.

Ignoring Danyangzi above, the six elders simultaneously formed hand seals and pointed towards Li Huowang in the center.

"The Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown are but illusion,The clouds beneath your feet are not real.A grand dream must eventually end,Rootless and boundless, all returns to dust."

The moment these words were spoken, Danyangzi, as if struck by a mountain, plummeted towards the ground, leaving a trail of afterimages. Immediately after, Li Huowang, whose body was on fire, felt a strange sensation in his stomach, as if something was churning within him. Perhaps it was excruciatingly painful, but Li Huowang could no longer feel it. He only saw the "umbilical cord" connecting him to Danyangzi grow thicker and darker, appearing as if he could grasp it with his hands. He tentatively tried with both hands and found he could indeed touch it. The "umbilical cord" even hissed and sizzled from the flames on his hands.

"This... this is impossible!! I am an immortal now! Who dares stop me?!" Danyangzi, who had crashed heavily to the ground, struggled to get up. The six elders simultaneously sighed in unison and began to recite.

"Thus, the physical form binds, and the mind becomes muddled; worldly affairs sprout, and emotions are forgotten. Moreover, the ultimate Dao transcends colors and tastes, and true nature is separated from desires. How then can one hear the faint and believe, or listen to the indistinct and not be confused? If one hears the method of Zuowang..."

As the voice, fluctuating between loud and soft, resonated, Li Huowang felt everything around him become dislocated. He, who should have been sitting cross-legged in the center of the group, was now tilting, suspended halfway in the air. This wasn't happening to him alone; everyone else was affected similarly. Some even had half their bodies stuck in the mud, half outside.

Compared to them, Danyangzi underwent an even greater transformation. Surrounded by the chanting, everything on his body began to melt. His ethereal immortal sash fell limply to the ground, stained with the mud of the mortal world.

"Within the ultimate Dao, there is nothing, divine function has no bounds, and the essence of the mind is likewise. Tracing the essence of the mind..."

As the chanting continued, Li Huowang saw wisps of white smoke rising from the mahjong-like heads of the six elders. They intertwined like hemp ropes and burrowed into the ground.

"This... impossible... this... impossible! I am an immortal...!!" These were Danyangzi's last words.

After uttering these final words, Danyangzi completely disintegrated. His entire body transformed into wisps of black cloud, drifting into the air, but before they could rise halfway, they completely vanished.

Almost simultaneously, Li Huowang began to vomit violently. With a retch, he expelled half a face, tangled with tentacles. It was half of Danyangzi's face, pale and putrid, clearly dead. Li Huowang stared at the half-face before him, as if he were dreaming. With trembling hands, he picked it up and watched as Danyangzi's half-face burned to ashes in his grasp.

Danyangzi was gone. The entity that had constantly plotted to assimilate him was no more. As for how happy he was at that moment, Li Huowang felt nothing. He only felt an emptiness in his heart. The intense physical and mental pain prevented him from contemplating any other complex emotions.

The six elders exchanged glances, then simultaneously formed hand seals again and pointed towards Li Huowang. The hooked blood talismans around him slowly descended, returning to the ground. The dark clouds in the sky parted, and the distant, towering Bahui, like a sun, illuminated everyone once more.

Li Huowang stood stunned, oblivious to his surroundings. He didn't notice what the six elders were doing, nor did he care to know. It was already incredibly difficult for him to resist the urge to end his life. He didn't know when he lost consciousness. The last thing Li Huowang saw was Danyangzi's scorched ashes on the ground.