Mutated Tao

Amidst the chaotic battlefield, just as Li Huowang was trying to understand what the freed Dragon Vein intended to do, he saw the emperor shouting excitedly to the surrounding warriors.

“Run! Run quickly! This is a trap! The Dharma Sect is using the Dragon Vein as bait to catch you all!”

An earth-shaking rumble erupted suddenly and caused the ground to tremble violently.

The clearing at the center of Cloud Swamp shook intensely, as if the entire fortress, or rather, the entire ground, had come to life.

It turned out that destroying the Dragon Vein was just a ruse. The Dharma Sect’s plan wasn’t merely to destroy the Dragon Vein. They wanted to use the pretext of destroying it as a trap to capture all the Surveillance Bureau Chiefs in one fell swoop!

At that moment, the sky suddenly darkened. It was a Natural Disaster.

Li Huowang felt the gaze in the sky fixed on him, and a cold sweat trickled down his face. He realized he was in serious trouble.

He had initially thought that no matter how many experts the Dharma Sect deployed, they couldn’t possibly defeat the three Chiefs and the top experts from the Surveillance Bureau.

Even if there was an ambush, he was confident he could escape with Miaomiao. But no one expected that god Yu’er would intervene directly!

This wasn’t the Dharma Sect’s conspiracy—it was God Yu’er’s scheme! He was pulling out all the stops to eliminate the mortal obstacles.

Li Huowang knew that although god Yu’er couldn’t descend yet, it didn’t mean he couldn’t act in other ways. Since he had set this trap personally, more trouble was surely on the way.

“Run! Miaomiao, retreat quickly!”

Peng Longteng suddenly appeared beside Li Huowang, grabbed him with one hand, and threw him towards the distant swamp.

From a great distance, a crane’s cry echoed, causing their hair to stand up. The ground of Cloud Swamp shook even more violently.

Suddenly, stone fangs resembling pillars rose from the surrounding marsh and blocked Li Huowang’s path in mid-air. Before he could turn, giant spikes rose around the entire fortress.

These spikes interlocked and shook violently, then formed a gigantic mouth that swallowed the entire fortress at the center of the Cloud Swamp.

Everything went silent as they were plunged into darkness.

Xuan Pin raised a light to illuminate the surroundings, causing the crowd to erupt in chaos. Both sides ignored everything else and scattered in all directions.

The panic on their faces was genuine. Clearly, the Dharma Sect hadn’t informed its members that this was a trap.

Li Huowang forced himself to stay calm. He approached Xuan Pin and asked, “What method did god Yu’er use? What kind of stomach are we in now?”

Xuan Pin answered him concisely, “Earth Dragon.”

“What? Earth Dragons are real?” Li Huowang’s pupils contracted. He had always thought the so-called Earth Dragon turning was just a metaphor for earthquakes, but it was real!

The dark surroundings trembled slightly, suggesting that the Earth Dragon was burrowing deeper into the ground. They would be trapped forever if they didn’t find a way out soon.

Li Huowang walked towards the side. He had to escape from this place, even if he had to bust a hole in this so-called Earth Dragon.

Soon, he reached the boundary and began melting the iron-hard walls to create a large gap, despite their hardness.

However, as he continued, an unexpected itching sensation struck him. He reached into his abdominal wound and pulled out several wriggling worms.

Li Huowang was reminded of the human statues in Cloud Swamp.

“Dad, there are a lot of worms in your stomach, and they’re growing in number. I’ll throw them all out.”

Li Sui’s tentacles kept removing the worms from Li Huowang’s stomach, but Li Huowang noticed that the smooth skin of Li Sui’s tentacles was also crawling with worms. His heart sank.

The Earth Dragon was digesting both humans and Li Sui too.

His expression became even grimmer as he realized that the digestion was happening internally and externally.

“Ahhh!” Lu Xiucai’s scream pierced the air. When Li Huowang turned, he saw all sorts of evil spirits wrapped in black smoke emerging from his shadow.

Inside this Earth Dragon’s belly, everyone’s shadow had become a door that could not be closed, and evil spirits were summoned endlessly.

Though these spirits were only about as strong as the Wandering Gods, their numbers were endless, continually emerging no matter how many were killed.

“Xuan Pin! Do something!” Li Huowang shouted.

“Sorry, I can’t. I had already escaped when the Earth Dragon opened its mouth. It’s just an illusion beside you,” Xuan Pin said as his body began to melt.

“What did you say?” Li Huowang looked at him in disbelief.

“I covered all my bases. Since I came to Hou Shu to rescue the Dragon Vein, I naturally had a backup plan. Don’t tell me you didn’t have one too?”

Li Huowang reached into his stomach and pulled out a palm-sized piece of human skin as he gritted his teeth. Of course, he had prepared a backup plan. He had secretly peeled two layers of his skin while traveling and made two life-saving artifacts, one for himself and one for Miaomiao. But in this situation, his backup plan was useless!

Li Huowang looked around quickly and saw that Xuan Pin wasn’t the only one who got away—Hou Shu’s Chief Zhang Tan and many others had escaped too.

The only consolation was that Si Qi’s Chief Zheng Boqiao hadn’t escaped either. He looked around with a stern face, seemingly calculating his next move. It seemed his prepared backup plan didn’t work either.

“No matter, just wait a bit. The version of myself outside is definitely working on a way to get you all out. Rest assured, I won’t abandon you. After all, the two Dragon Veins are here too.”

“Wait!?! Do you think we can afford to wait?” Li Huowang shouted as he sliced through an approaching evil spirit with his sword and pointed at the chaos around them.

In a short time, the various evil spirits had crowded the surroundings. Those with weaker cultivation bases had already fallen to the worms and spirits, and the situation was becoming increasingly dire.

“Don’t panic. My other self will find a way. Besides, you won’t die so easily,” Xuan Pin said, and then his body completely melted away.

At that moment, Li Sui’s voice emerged in Li Huowang’s mind, filled with fear and terror for the first time. “Dad, there are a lot of worms in my stomach too. They’re eating my flesh. Am I going to die?”