Mutated Tao

A bloodied eyeball appeared in Ji Zai’s hands. It was the Divine Mountain Ghost Eye—the same one brimming with chaos.

Ji Zai crushed it, unleashing the Heavenly Dao of Chaos in a violent explosion. The chaos radiated outward with Ji Zai at its epicenter, affecting everything except him.

Even the Baiyu Capital, the place perpetually surrounded by chaos, was affected by it. Naturally, the Three Ancient Ones bore the brunt of it.

Due to the Heavenly Dao of Chaos, the Three Ancient Ones’ karmic chains of secrets started to break as the flesh was separated from them.

The Heavenly Dao of Chaos caused the karmic chains of the Three Ancient Ones to snap, with the flesh connecting them being ripped away.

Li Huowang heard Qing Wanglai’s anguished scream as the wounds on his body began to rot. Pain intruded into his body as the other Simings joined in.

“Fucker! So you can finally feel the pain!”

Li Huowang grabbed a rock and smashed Qing Wanglai’s left hand. Qing Wanglai’s fingers cracked open, leaving a thin veil of flesh clinging to his broken bones.

Qing Wanglai reached into his robes with his other arm, but Li Huowang anticipated the move. Swinging his blade, he severed Qing Wanglai’s hand.

Li Huowang reached behind Qing Wanglai and grabbed the test tubes filled with poison before tossing them far away. Qing Wanglai no longer had any other methods of retaliating.

“Qing Wanglai, you are dead!”

Li Huowang stepped on Qing Wanglai’s neck and smashed a rock onto his head forcefully.

Only when blood pooled beneath the rock did Li Huowang allow himself a breath of relief.

But a chill crept over him. Looking up, he saw droplets of rain falling from the dark clouds.

“Hahaha…”

A deep laugh came from underneath the rock. Ji Zai looked down to find that the Three Ancient Ones’ scattered bodies were merging once more.

This was thanks to Zuoqiu Yong’s Heavenly Dao of Growth. The Three Ancient Ones would continuously revive as long as that Heavenly Dao remained in his possession.

“Li Huowang, oh Li Huowang. Why must you get the way of my plans? Don’t you see? You’ve become the villain—the destroyer of worlds!”

The body of the Three Ancient Ones started to expand once more.

“And you think you’re righteous? Your plan was to murder everyone! Fuck you!” Li Huowang snapped back, bringing his blade down on the bloody tentacles of the Three Ancient Ones.

Even so, the Three Ancient Ones’ body continued to heal, this time even faster.

Just then, Chen Hongyu appeared behind Qing Wanglai, holding onto a half-rotten corpse as she tried to push Qing Wanglai back down.

With a violent spasm, the dying Qing Wanglai’s power returned.

“You don’t understand! None of you understand what we’re up against!” Qing Wanglai’s voice cracked with desperation. “We’ll all die if we do nothing! I tried to shoulder this despair alone, but you’re leaving me no choice! Since you won’t grasp what I’ve endured, I’ll make you see it for yourselves!”

The chains of the Three Ancient Ones scattered again. After one brushed against Chen Hongyu, she released the corpse, trembling violently. Her eyes filled with an incomprehensible fear.

Ji Zai knew what was going on. The Three Ancient Ones had embedded some unfathomable secret into the Siming of Rot. He didn’t know what it was, but it had to be deadly to terrify even a Siming.

“Stay back!” Ji Zai warned the others. “Attack from a distance!”

Despite his warning, Qing Wanglai lunged forward, nearly reaching Yang Na before Li Huowang intercepted him with his blade.

The bloody chains snapped again, but this time, instead of dispersing, they converged on Ji Zai. It had been a ruse—the Three Ancient Ones had been targeting Ji Zai all along.

As the secrets invaded Ji Zai’s body, horrifying knowledge flooded his mind.

Fear. A primordial fear from an unknowable source. Fu Shengtian was no ordinary Siming; he wielded the Heavenly Dao of Fear.

The Heavenly Dao it controlled was not ordinary either—Fu Shengtian was a Grand Siming.

No—it was something beyond the Heavenly Dao of Fear. It was a pure, primordial terror that nurtured the other Heavenly Daos.

Even the Three Ancient Ones couldn’t comprehend it fully. And from that ignorance, fear was born.

Li Huowang could feel fear welling up uncontrollably in his heart the moment he obtained the secret. For the first time, he was afraid.

The fear he felt was suffocating, clinging to his bones and resisting any attempts to shake it off. It washed over him in relentless waves, a constant presence that never ceased.

Qing Wanglai grabbed Ji Zai by the head, glaring at him with bloodshot eyes. “Do you see now? Do you understand what I’m up against? Do you think you can face this alone? You’re wrong! The only way we can survive this is by following my plan! Ji Zai, you need to die. Why are you still alive?”

Li Huowang watched despair and terror flicker in Qing Wanglai’s gaze, and a memory surfaced—the tombstone he’d glimpsed in a half-dreaming state. The more he stared, the clearer it became. Qing Wanglai was like a single stroke from one of the tombstone’s characters—one that another character had plucked for itself.

“I understand now!” Li Huowang shouted, reaching for one of Qing Wanglai’s bloodied tentacles before chewing on it. As he consumed its karma, understanding dawned on him. “I finally understand now!”

Qing Wanglai laughed, offering another tentacle. “Do you? Do you truly understand now? Do you agree with my plan now? Do you finally agree to abandon the two projections to save our true selves?”

Li Huowang grabbed the other tentacle with glee and ate it. “No! I just learned why Da Nuo went crazy. It was all because of you! As the Siming in control of the Heavenly Dao of Secrets, you were polluted by Fu Shengtian a long time ago!”