021 Attaining Immortality

Li Huowang stared at the two fist-sized red pills with a metallic sheen, the two wriggling meat pills that seemed almost alive, and the two rotten black pills reeking with a pungent, eye-stinging odor. A satisfied nod escaped him. He'd pulled out all the stops, throwing in every ingredient he could think of. With such a concoction, these pills were nothing short of deadly, a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

He stuck an incense stick beside the pills. It was a silent countdown, marking the remaining time of the year. According to the cultivation method he'd conjured out of thin air, the year's end was the golden moment to practice and soak up the spiritual energy bestowed by the Heavenly Dao.

Li Huowang settled into a cross-legged position. First, he picked up the fist-sized red pill, holding it like a fateful weapon. As death loomed closer, an unexpected calm washed over him.

Yes, he'd made no backup plans. None at all.

Li Huowang knew he had to be the one to take these pills. If he didn't, Danyangzi would never swallow them.

During the New Year's Eve dinner, Danyangzi had feigned friendliness. But those so-called "fellow practitioners" he mentioned? He was just using Li Huowang as a guinea pig for his pills.

Little did he know that Li Huowang simply didn't give a damn about his own life.

As for running away, it never even crossed Li Huowang's mind. By now, he'd long since seen through life and death. He didn't belong to this world in the first place.

His sole purpose now was to drag this disgusting trash, Danyangzi, into the grave with him.

At that moment, Danyangzi sat across from him, also reaching for a red pill first.

Under their intense, mutual gazes, the flame of the incense stick slowly burned lower, like a dying star.

Just as the incense was about to flicker out, Li Huowang took a deep breath. He stuffed the pill in his hand into his mouth and gulped it down whole, like a man facing his destiny head-on.

At this, Danyangzi's hand froze mid-air. His eyes were glued to Li Huowang, watching his every move.

Li Huowang, his face alight with false excitement, pretended not to notice. He went on to swallow the remaining two pills in one go. Then, he closed his eyes and placed his hands in a spell-forming gesture on his knees, as if he were truly on the verge of a great spiritual breakthrough.

Sweat trickled down his face like a stream on a mountainside. As Li Huowang sat in meditation, his body began to tremble, but an uncontrollable ecstasy spread across his face like wildfire.

"I can sense so much innate spiritual energy! This... these are... So that's how it is! I've understood! I've understood!! I'm going to become an immortal~!"

Hearing this, a flicker of anxiety flashed in Danyangzi's eyes. But he still held back. It wasn't until he saw wisps of white smoke rising from Li Huowang's head that he stuffed the three pills into his mouth and gobbled them down.

When Danyangzi, sitting cross-legged, closed his eyes and started to circulate the Great and Small Circulations of Qi, Li Huowang slowly opened his eyes. Looking at his master in front of him, his smile widened into a maniacal grin.

When he saw white smoke rising from Danyangzi's head too, and some black stuff wriggling along his blood vessels like snakes, Li Huowang uncrossed his legs. He clutched his excruciatingly painful stomach and let out a wild, crazy laugh.

"Hahaha, Baldy! Baldy!! You won't become an immortal! You'll only become a ghost! Let's keep each other company on the Naihe Bridge, hahaha!!"

Danyangzi seemed to have heard him, but he was in a world of his own. He squeezed his eyes shut, gritted his teeth, and sat there cross-legged, frantically circulating the internal and external Great Circulation techniques.

"Are you still practicing? It's all made up by me! I copied it from a Xianxia novel, hahaha. Ouch, my stomach hurts so much, hahaha."

Li Huowang crawled slowly on the ground towards Danyangzi. Grinning maniacally, he stared at the other's pale face. His hand trembled as he raised it and slapped Danyangzi across the face. "Hey, are you deaf? I'm talking to you."

He slapped him again with his backhand, but Danyangzi didn't even flinch.

Li Huowang's hand shook as he took out a pill and stuffed it into his mouth. Then, his veins bulged all over his body, and a surge of strength coursed through him.

"I told you to stop practicing! Didn't you hear me?" Li Huowang punched Danyangzi in the face, caving in his underbite and nose like a collapsing wall.

Danyangzi, with a mouth full of blood, suddenly opened his eyes and glared fiercely at Li Huowang. He waved his Taoist robe, and Li Huowang went flying through the air like a broken kite.

"Get out of the way! You evil demons, don't try to stop me from becoming an immortal!! I'm about to become a god! The ancestors are coming to pick me up soon!"

Li Huowang, who'd been sent flying and now lay on the ground, didn't get up. He just lay there, looking at Danyangzi, muttering to himself, "He's gone crazy. This guy has been completely driven mad by his obsession with becoming an immortal. Ouch, my stomach really hurts."

One sat cross-legged in a delirious trance, the other lay on the ground writhing in pain. As time ticked by, the pain in Li Huowang's abdomen grew more and more intense. Driven by instinct, his body curled up like a shrimp in a net.

"Hiss, why does it hurt so much? How long do I have to suffer like this? I really regret not bringing a knife to cut my throat just now," Li Huowang, curled up like a tortured shrimp, rolled around on the ground in agony.

Under the intense pain, Li Huowang's consciousness began to fade. In his confusion, he saw Yang Na's face again. "Yang Na, have you come to pick me up?"

Yang Na's face quickly melted and then re-formed into the face of his attending doctor. "Patient in Bed 14 is losing consciousness. Preliminary diagnosis: food poisoning! Quick! Get the electric suction device and perform gastric lavage!"

Li Huowang slowly closed his eyes, and an extremely faint voice slipped from his lips.

"Gastric lavage your ass... Don't you forget, it's a mental hospital... Where the hell do you have a gastric lavage machine... Can you hallucinations be more logical..."

After those last words, Li Huowang's consciousness slipped away, and the world around him went dark.

He felt a strange comfort now because the pain in his stomach had finally stopped.

Li Huowang felt his body falling, falling, as if into an endless abyss.

"Huowang, hold on! You promised me!" A hazy and urgent female voice exploded in his ear like a thunderclap.

I don't know how much time had passed. Suddenly, Li Huowang's eyes flew open wide. He propped himself up on his hands and began to vomit violently.

A mass of deformed flesh mixed with black water, a little hair, dumpling scraps, and a few internal organ fragments came spewing out of Li Huowang's mouth.

The flesh lying in the black water twitched a few times and then went still, like a dying insect.

This sudden turn of events left Li Huowang stunned on the spot. He was still alive? It was beyond belief. If he was still alive, then what about Danyangzi?

Just thinking about it, cold sweat broke out on Li Huowang's forehead. He instinctively turned his head. Then his mouth dropped open in horror. "Oh my god, what the hell has he become...?"

He saw that his so-called master's body had completely distorted. His ugly head split open, and three fleshy big mouths protruded from it. Inside these big mouths were nested three or four small mouths. With their disgusting yellow teeth, they were writhing and gaping at the ceiling like grotesque monsters.

In addition to his head, his body had also undergone a nightmarish transformation. Feathers stuck together by asphalt, like sharp thorns, forcefully drilled out of his flesh.

"What the hell is this? Three Flowers Gathering at the Summit and Transforming into an Immortal?"

Just as this thought popped into Li Huowang's mind, the three mouths opened wide. Simultaneously, three voices of Danyangzi in his youth, middle-age, and old-age boomed out. "So that's how it is! I've understood! I've understood!! Hahaha!!"

"Bang!!" Along with a deafening explosion, Danyangzi