Mutated Tao

Chapter 605: Strayed One, Twisted One

Despite the darkness, Li Huowang had ample oxygen in his lungs, so he wasn't too worried at the moment.

The fate of the Eight Immortals in the seawater was obvious as well.

Soon, black and yellow wood chips pervaded the seawater around Li Huowang. The root carvings were agile, but he reckoned that they couldn't swim.

Having dealt with the root carvings of the Eight Immortals, the black tentacles that sprouted on Li Huowang’s stumps swung rapidly, carrying him toward the sea surface.

Li Huowang soon found himself gasping for air on deck.

The other party knew that he was coming, so stealth had become meaningless. In the end, Li Huowang decided to confront the other party directly.

Li Huowang believed that he wouldn't necessarily lose in a head-on confrontation, as the two of them were Twisted Ones of a Siming.

Swoosh!

A spacetime rift flew and struck the bronze incense cauldron with three sticks of incense sticking out of it. The cauldron shattered, and ash scattered all over the ground.

“Come out! If you don’t come out, I’m going to burn this ship down to the ground!” Li Huowang exclaimed. He looked down at his charred figure with barely any skin left. The next moment, he pulled out a flint and scratched his skin.

Sparks flew, and a conflagration erupted, enveloping him completely in an instant.

The raging flames spread outward from Li Huowang’s feet.

Swoosh!

The cabin door swung open, and a large group of people rushed into the cabin.

The crowd was dressed in clothes that Li Huowang had never seen before, and their skin was slightly darker than the average person.

When the crowd dressed in strange clothes saw that Li Huowang was trying to burn down the ship, their eyes blazed with anger.

It seemed as if they had gone mad as they brandished their weapons and charged at Li Huowang.

There were some skilled fighters among them, but it was futile. As the flames spread, they ultimately became fuel that further intensified the flames.

The fire grew larger and larger. As the entire ship was about to become engulfed in flames, the flames disappeared rapidly. Time seemed to rewound like a tape as the charred wooden boards reverted to their original color. Eerily enough, the bronze incense cauldron, which had been split into two by Li Huowang actually returned to its original state.

A creaking noise echoed, and a nearby hatch opened.

A man dressed in tattered clothes with a leash around his neck crawled out slowly from the hatch. The rusty chain that linked his neck to the cabin rubbed against the ground, creating a harsh scraping sound.

He wasn't alone. Someone else crawled out of the hatch; more and more people crawled out until there were five of them outside.

They all looked normal, but they had identical pupils.

Li Huowang's expression turned solemn, and he clenched his fists. At last, the mastermind was here.

“Stand up.” An aged voice echoed from the pitch-black cabin. The expression of the five people became dull, and they stood up to repeat the aged voice's words.

“Stand up.”

“Stand up.”

“Stand up.”

“Stand up.”

“Stand up.”

Li Huowang remained calm as he faced the five strange individuals. He stared at the pitch-black cabin behind them and asked, “Are you the Twisted One hidden by Doulao?”

Just then, Li Huowang heard the sound of horse hooves on his left. He turned and saw waves of yellow dust rising from the pier in the distance.

It seemed that someone was coming to the pier. Unfortunately, their efforts were useless, as the ship was already quite a bit distant from the pier.

Li Huowang looked away and stared into the darkness. “Come out. I'm already here, so is there any point in hiding?”

Thump!

The headless Peng Longteng landed heavily next to Li Huowang. She took big strides forward and charged at the five people.

“Break their legs." The aged voice sounded once again.

The five strange individuals repeated the aged voice's words, and the legs of the charging Peng Longteng were abruptly severed, causing her to slam heavily onto the wooden floor.

Li Huowang swept his gaze across the five people, and he suddenly felt creeped out. The other party's ability to make their words come true made him think of something ominous. Strayed Ones? These five people are Strayed Ones?!

If Li Huowang's assumption was right, then it finally made sense how the walls had healed themselves. Li Huowang knew that the ‘Truth' of Strayed Ones could do something like that.

The person hiding in the cabin seemed like they didn't want to answer Li Huowang’s question.

When the Strayed Ones spoke in unison once again, the deck cracked open, and Li Huowang fell straight down into the lower hold.

Li Huowang recovered his balance and looked up to see the five Strayed Ones getting dragged away by the iron chains around their necks. Eventually, they were hung on the wall, making them look like five hanging ghosts.

As a Strayed One himself, Li Huowang could empathize with them. He found it disgusting how the other party was using these Strayed Ones as tools to fight for him.

The other party had transformed five living people into puppets.

Fortunately, Li Huowang was extremely familiar with Strayed Ones, and he had his own way of dealing with them as well.

When the other party opened their mouth to say something once again, Li Huowang took out an awl and pierced his eardrums without any hesitation.

The next moment, he closed his eyes and charged at the wall where the five Strayed Ones were hanging.

Li Sui watched as her father charged at the wall despite stepping on the fallen objects on the ground. The wooden boards that made up the lower hold were liquifying rapidly, but Li Huowang didn't seem to care as he continued his charge.

A giant wall covered with barbs, and a bucket of boiling molten iron fell toward Li Huowang, but he easily knocked them aside.

“Die!” Two spacetime rifts that led straight to the Great Qi flew toward the five Strayed Ones.

When Li Huowang opened his eyes once again, he saw that the Strayed Ones were dragged away by the chains on their necks, so they managed to dodge the attack.

However, Li Huowang was not disappointed at all. He already knew what he was going to do if his attack failed.

The opponent hiding in the darkness of the cabin was about to open their mouth when Li Huowang took out a bronze bell and shook it vigorously.

He had no intention of summoning the Wandering Gods; he just wanted to use the piercing sound of the bell to interrupt the other party’s commands to the Strayed Ones.

Strayed Ones were difficult opponents, so Li Huowang decided to disrupt his opponent's commands instead.

The five Strayed Ones stopped moving. Li Huowang saw that, so he swung his left hand toward the cabin door, hurling two slender tentacles that wrapped around the cabin door itself.

Li Huowang tugged forcefully, propelling himself into the dark cabin next door as if he were a stone leaving a slingshot. He moved so fast that he left behind a trail of afterimages.