Chapter 604: Eight Immortals

In the dim, empty ship cabin, the dark brown root-carved Eight Immortals stood before Li Huowang. Their twisted, gnarled wooden bodies appeared incredibly eerie under the fluorescent green light.

Compared to Tie Guaili and Lü Dongbin, the other Immortals were even more terrifying. While retaining the same root structure, each possessed uniquely grotesque features. For instance, He Xiangu's neck was twisted like a pretzel. Han Zhongli, with his exposed chest, had breasts that were not only disproportionately sized but also oddly numerous. They sagged like rotten flesh, appearing particularly disgusting.

The pitch-black cabin was silent. Facing these entities, Li Huowang could hear nothing but his own breathing. Gazing at the wooden Eight Immortals surrounding him, Li Huowang knew that in this utterly insane world, anything related to "Immortal" was bad news.

"Li Sui, let's go! Find Doumu's Heart Tendril and finish this quickly!" Li Huowang said, then phased into invisibility again, swiftly moving past the root carvings and walking away into the distance.

But just as he walked out of the cluster of root carvings, a chilling sound of wood scraping against wood suddenly echoed from behind him. Li Huowang instantly spun around and saw the eight root carvings standing in a neat row, staring at him with their bizarre eyes. They could move!

With a "snap," a fluorescent stone Li Huowang had thrown onto the ground burst, its light instantly dimming. This was just the beginning. As more fluorescent stones burst and dimmed, the eight root-carved Immortals before Li Huowang gradually plunged into a seemingly swirling darkness.

Even with excellent eyesight, in these conditions, Li Huowang could only see a very short distance ahead. In the darkness, accompanied by Han Xiangzi's flute, strange voices, both male and female, began to sound.

"The superior person does not strive; the inferior person strives. The superior virtue is not virtuous; the inferior virtue clings to virtue. Those who cling are not truly virtuous."

After speaking, low laughter—male, female, old, or young—echoed in layers from the darkness. Hearing this laughter, Li Huowang instantly gritted his teeth and forcefully swung his right hand, clutching the spine sword, toward where the Eight Immortals had been. A rift leading to Daqi flew in that direction.

Just as Li Huowang turned sideways, intending to dodge any potential attack to his left, Lü Dongbin's root carving appeared abruptly beside him. As Li Huowang moved, the large hole in Lü Dongbin's chest, like a gaping maw, seemed to wait for him to plunge into it. Fortunately, at the last moment, Li Sui's suction-cupped tentacles extended from Li Huowang's body, firmly gripping the floor and preventing Li Huowang from making contact with Lü Dongbin's body.

"What the hell are these things!" Li Huowang gritted his teeth, raising both swords and swinging them forcefully at Lü Dongbin. With a "crack," Lü Dongbin's root carving was instantly cut in two.

Suddenly, Li Huowang's foot caught on something, and his body stumbled to the left. In the direction he was falling, Han Xiangzi's twisted bamboo flute was already standing, waiting. It waited for Li Huowang to fall, poised to directly pierce his temple. Just as he was less than an inch away from Han Xiangzi's flute, Han Xiangzi in the darkness was suddenly pulled away from Li Huowang's vicinity.

"Thud!" He stuck his long sword into the ground to stabilize himself, then slowly straightened up, his face filled with rage. "Have you rotten pieces of wood had enough fun?!"

The fire scythe ignited on Li Huowang, and a surge of flames instantly engulfed his entire body. The next moment, the flames spread like an infection to the other root-carved Immortals, and the dark cabin instantly became brightly lit. The root-carved Eight Immortals, who had remained still until now, finally moved. Their burning burls and roots stretched their flame-enveloped bodies, crawling towards Li Huowang.

Just as Li Huowang was about to set the entire ship ablaze, the wooden floorboards suddenly split open on their own, and surging seawater poured in. Not only did it extinguish all the flames, but it also brought back the previous darkness.

Water and fire met, creating constant sizzling sounds that made Li Huowang's body convulse in pain. Unwilling to let the water's properties go to waste, Li Huowang, while submerged, directly took ribs from his navel and re-inserted them into his chest. The next moment, all the pain in Li Huowang's body was shared with everything around him, and everything instantly fell silent.

"You want to play this game, huh? Fine! I'll sink this entire ship then!" Li Huowang, charred all over like a water ghost, swam to the wooden wall and frantically swung his spine sword. Rifts sliced through, carrying away large amounts of seawater while riddling the wooden wall with holes.

Just as the icy seawater poured into the gaps, something surprising happened to Li Huowang: the wooden cracks, as if made of flesh, undulated and quickly healed. And that wasn't all. In the pitch-black seawater, something began to appear: it was the root-carved Eight Immortals from before. But after having been through the fire, the already terrifying bodies of the root-carved Eight Immortals were now covered in a layer of char. The char slowly dispersed and spread like black mist in the seawater, making them even more terrifying. Furthermore, Lü Dongbin's body, which Li Huowang had previously cut, had also healed. Now, he was circling Li Huowang along with the others.

The Eight Immortals moved, carrying the black mist that emanated from the char on their bodies, and rushed towards Li Huowang with monkey-like agility. His right hand, wielding the spine sword, instantly blocked He Xiangu's lotus. His left hand gripped the purple-tassel sword and plunged it into Zhang Guolao's face. Immediately after, Li Huowang opened his mouth wide, and densely packed tentacles extended from his throat, directly twisting off Han Zhongli's head.

Behind him, Li Sui also brandished a copper-coin sword, fending off enemies. In such circumstances, even when ambushed in the water, Li Huowang still held his ground. But these "half-Immortals" were incredibly troublesome. Merely separating their heads from their bodies or cutting them wasn't enough; they had to be completely ground into dust to stop moving. Dealing with them wasn't a major issue, but more importantly, Li Huowang was running out of air.

The high-intensity movements, coupled with being in the deep sea, made Li Huowang feel as if his lungs were on fire. His expression grew increasingly pained, and veins began to bulge on his forehead. Instinct urged him to quickly surface, but he was at the bottom of this small ship, entangled by those strange Immortals, making escape by swimming impossible.

In his hypoxic state, Li Huowang's consciousness became increasingly hazy, and he began to experience hallucinations.

"Gasp!" Li Huowang, with a dagger clenched in his mouth, surfaced and gasped for air. After several more deep breaths, he plunged back down, swimming into the deep sea. Having taken several large breaths, Li Huowang instantly regained his clarity, his body filled with renewed strength.