Mutated Tao

“Thunder?” Li Huowang felt his scalp go numb and quickly dodged left.

Suddenly, the entire black, iridescent sky split open. A flash of platinum emerged from the darkness, carrying a nearly tangible gaze.

He felt an odd, almost inexplicable sensation emanating from the platinum gaze. It transcended his ordinary senses.

It was just a ray of light, but it tainted his eyes and turned them black and iridescent. As his eyes transformed, the black, iridescent liquid started to seep out from his eye socket.

That attack had visibly hurt his eyeball. Realizing something was wrong, Li Huowang snarled and clawed at his eye, attempting to dig it out.

“Li Huowang, stop! You can’t gouge it out—this is your last eye! If you do, you’ll be completely blind!” Yi Donglai shouted, grabbing his arm at the last moment.

“Scram! Don’t try to stop me! If I don’t do this, it will affect me!” Li Huowang shouted, throwing Yi Donglai away.

Just as he raised his hand to tear at his eye again, a sudden gaze from afar appeared. Li Huowang felt his body opening up like a flower blossoming. The pain overwhelmed him, halting both his movements and the black liquid’s flow.

Li Huowang’s senses melded together. He recognized the presence approaching: Ba-Hui, the Siming who governed the Heavenly Dao of Pain. And Ba-Hui wasn’t alone—he felt the others reaching around him.

Li Huowang raised his arm and pointed at the dark cloud to his left.

The Simings, which had fused together, floated like a large mountain towards the black sky.

The black sky began to bubble like hot metal plunged into oil.

An explosion sent a powerful heatwave blasting out from the impact. This intense heatwave burned off a layer of Li Huowang’s skin.

Gazing up at the cracked sky, Li Huowang caught sight of the darkness that lay beyond. Without a moment’s hesitation, he joined the other Simings and followed them toward the crack.

They were all fighting against Fu Shengtian and its Simings. He couldn’t remain behind.

As he was about to enter the dark hole, an inverted tree fell through the hole. Its twisted, rotting form gleamed with an iridescent sheen.

The sharp crown of the tree pierced through his chest, pinning him down. It grew endlessly and pushed Li Huowang down.

Li Huowang struggled but couldn’t move at all.

Suddenly, Li Huowang felt a glow behind him. When he looked back, he saw the floating Ox-Tail Gate.

The tree burst through the Ox-Tail Gate and stabbed down through the clouds.

It grew so fast that the Ox-Tail Gate was far above it. However, Li Huowang’s melded senses let him perceive that the Ox-Tail Jade had shattered.

The large tree crashed into the ground and raised a large plume of dust.

The tree’s branches spread outwards, as though it intended to take over the entire world.

It wasn’t over yet. Its sprawling form stretched across the place, forming a strange connection between Heaven and Earth. It resembled a massive mushroom.

With a roar, the bottom part of the tree exploded. Li Huowang emerged from the wreckage, his body ablaze.

He floated upward and glared at the tree angrily. The tree had broken the Ox-Tail Gate.

Li Huowang could sense the Heavenly Daos going out of control without the Ox-Tail Gate. The world was now undergoing a lot of Natural Disasters, and even Li Huowang couldn’t discern which Heavenly Dao caused which calamity.

“It’s all because of you!” Li Huowang exclaimed in anger. Simultaneously, a colossal piece of jade descended from the heavens, narrowly missing him.

He grabbed it and fashioned the jade into a massive ax. He couldn’t move it, but he had a plan.

He reached out his left arm and grabbed something.

Li Huowang caught it and fashioned it into a massive axe. It was too heavy to wield, but he had a plan. He extended his left arm to grab something, phasing past the Liang Kingdom, Qing Qiu, and the ground. Finally, he grasped the Lion Dance Palace hidden far below.

“It’s time for you to help me!”

The white tassels complied, entering his body. His organs began to grow outward while new organs sprouted in every direction.

Li Huowang’s body swelled beyond recognition. It became impossible to distinguish the front, side, back, up, and bottom of his body. He became one with the Lion Dance Palace.

Through his bulging large body, he let out an incoherent roar as he grabbed the large ax and tried to cut down the tree.

With an incoherent roar, Li Huowang lifted the colossal axe and struck the tree. The impact sent tremors across the battlefield, leaving a deep gash in the trunk. He swung again and again, each strike more furious than the last.

Finally, he cut down the tree. However, it quickly fell and reconnected the part he had chopped off. The wound healed swiftly, and the tree was whole once more.

Li Huowang chopped the tree repeatedly, but it would fall down and heal each time. He couldn’t do anything to it.

Then, the world seemed to ignite. A titanic head, vast enough to eclipse both sky and earth, roared and lunged at the tree. Gao Zhijian had summoned Jiang Xiangshou.

Li Huowang pounced toward Jiang Xiangshou and grabbed it. The white tassels behind his body worked hard to fuse them together.

The Dragon Qi within him fused with Jiang Xiangshou’s murderous aura. Li Huowang channeled their combined power into the axe. Together, they charged at the tree with a deafening roar.

In the pouring rain, Yi Donglai stood frozen in stunned silence, watching Li Huowang’s distorted form. His crimson body was twisted, his mouth was crooked, and his veins were bulging. He repeatedly swung at the empty space around him with his bloodied blade.

The sight was both eerie and bizarre. Li Huowang appeared to be performing the strange dance of the Nuo Opera in the rain.