Mutated Tao

Li Huowang stopped his daughter from thinking such negative thoughts. “Don’t think about it! You won’t die!”

He continued, “Come! Follow me and repeat after me! I don’t have any worms in my body! I don’t have any worms in my body!”

As Li Huowang used his primordial breath, the worms in his body slowly transformed into his flesh.

Even though the problem had been dealt with temporarily, they were still in danger. Li Huowang was not afraid of evil entities, but rather of the endless number of them.

As they shouted and growled, the evil entities all pounced towards Li Huowang.

Shua! The bronze coin sword whipped at the evil entities, and they were all sliced in half. The dead evil entities were reduced to a cloud of black smoke.

Right after the smoke had just dispersed, a new wave of evil entities lunged at Li Huowang.

“Miaomiao!” Li Huowang raised the glowing stone in his hand to find Bai Lingmiao.

“Senior Li, I’m here!”

Li Huowang followed the voice and soon found the members of the White Lotus Sect sitting cross-legged in a lotus pattern.

Their bodies were naked from the top and had a tattoo of a white donkey. They chanted in unison, “Formless yet complete, born before the creation of Heaven and Earth. Silent and boundless, yet standing alone without change. It goes without peril, for it could be the Mother of the world.”

Li Huowang was surprised that none of the sitting figures, including Bai Lingmiao in the middle, had worms on their bodies. The evil entities also refused to step close to them.

Bai Lingmiao’s upper body was divided in half. She sat with her legs crossed and chanted with both mouths, while the conjoined lotus engraving on her forehead glowed softly.

Li Huowang slammed his tentacles down and jumped forward. He appeared in front of Bai Lingmiao. “So? Is there a way for the White Lotus Sect to break out of here?”

Both of Bai Lingmiao’s heads shook simultaneously. “No. This is a strange space.”

Li Huowang understood that if they didn’t get out soon, they would all be in mortal danger.

How should I escape?

When Li Huowang saw the others fighting off the evil entities, he had an idea. There might be a chance.

“Everyone, come here!” Li Huowang shouted. “We cannot fight alone. Let’s all work together to escape! The worms and evil entities won’t get near the White Lotus Sect!”

Those who survived up until now were competent and strong. They saw the White Lotus Sect was doing well and understood what might be happening.

Under Li Huowang’s lead, the survivors started to move towards the White Lotus Sect.

Li Huowang never forgot the two Dragon Veins. He rescued one of them during the chaos. The Dragon Veins had been bait all along, but Li Huowang had no choice but to bite into them if he wanted to save the world.

As they grouped where the White Lotus Sect was, the members of the White Lotus Sect started to face difficulties in their chant. Worms began growing out of their bodies.

Their burden increased as the amount of people they had to protect increased.

“Can you ask your people to move towards the wall?” Li Huowang was agitated by how serious the situation was.

Bai Lingmiao nodded with difficulty. “Yes.”

Everyone followed the White Lotus Sect members as they slowly moved towards the south. Li Huowang extended several tentacles to carry Bai Lingmiao above his head as he quickly followed them.

The White Lotus Sect members moved slowly because it was difficult to chant while walking, but thankfully they arrived at the wall without any issues.

Li Huowang got to the point. “Everyone, we need to dig here if we want to survive! We need to dig out a hole from inside the Earth Dragon’s stomach!”

Li Huowang then used his purple-tassel sword to draw a large circle on the stomach lining of the Earth Dragon. “Do not think that it’s impossible! I just tried digging, and the walls were soft! Everyone, start digging so we can get out of here alive!”

Without the worms and evil entities attacking them, they all heeded Li Huowang’s words and started using their individual techniques to dig out a path.

Zheng Boqiao did not stand idly either. He spat out numerous pills and gave them to everyone.

Under their relentless attacks, the circle that Li Huowang had drawn on the stomach lining disappeared as a large hole formed.

It’s working! Li Huowang saw that they had hope of escaping the place.

“Go! Get inside!” Li Huowang shouted, and they started digging deeper. The hole got larger and larger.

“Senior Li! Faster! Everyone is at their limits!” The members of the White Lotus Sect were already pale from overexertion as they almost toppled over.

Bai Lingmiao’s red veil was already drenched in sweat. Li Huowang glared at the hole and willed it to widen faster.

The hole grew wider as if it had become as soft as rubber, allowing them to dig through it more quickly.

Sensing Li Huowang’s strange powers, Zheng Boqiao brought out the ace in his sleeve. He rolled up his sleeve and revealed his arms covered in large warts. He cut open one of the warts with his fingernail and took out something from the inside.

“Here!” he threw a writhing ball of flesh to Li Huowang. “Eat it! It’s the pill that I’ve been preserving for years! It will temporarily grant you the strength of a half-Immortal!”

Li Huowang quickly swallowed it.

The moment he did, he felt his stomach turning and churning.

He barely held his stomach with his hands when a strong force shot upwards and split his head apart. At the base of where his head was split in half was another fist-sized head.

The small head started growing until it reached the average size of a head. The two halves of his original head grew out too. Soon, Li Huowang had three heads on his shoulders.

Splat. Two pairs of bloody arms sprouted from Li Huowang’s back. Zheng Boqiao’s pill had turned Li Huowang into a monstrosity with three heads and six arms!

Li Huowang felt a profound sensation: the amount of his primordial breath had tripled, just like his head.

Li Huowang raised his right hand, and the Earth Dragon’s stomach hole grew wider.

“Go!” All three of Li Huowang’s mouths shouted in unison as they ran into the hole.

With Li Huowang’s guidance, everyone started moving quickly, but the tunnel was endless, as if the Earth Dragon's stomach was incredibly thick.

“Faster! Faster!” Li Huowang ran as fast as he could. The pressure in his three heads started to make his brain pulse in pain.

Just then, Li Huowang heard something chasing them from behind. The head on his left turned around and saw a wall heading towards them—an entire wall of evil entities!

“Ack!” One of the members from the White Lotus Sect spat out blood and fell to the ground. The air started to quiver as Li Huowang felt worms emerging from the depths of his stomach once more.

But they had no choice but to continue to run forward. He led everyone as they ran like an arrow shot out of the bow.

As the first devotee fell, the second and third soon followed—more and more devotees of the White Lotus Sect fell. Everyone felt the worms growing in their body while the wall of evil entities closed in on them.

“Faster! We need to be faster!” Just as the evil entities almost devoured all of them, Li Huowang suddenly felt no resistance in front of him. They escaped!