Mutated Tao

Qing Wanglai somehow sensed the attack and twisted his body at an unnatural angle. Though he avoided a fatal wound, the bullet still ripped through his ear.

Qing Wanglai’s shattered glasses had barely touched the ground when Li Huowang’s blade swung toward his neck. The cold flash of steel reflected the broken glasses.

Li Huowang followed up his attack flawlessly after the first shot from Zhao Shuangdian. Li Huowang and Zhao Shuangdian orchestrated this ambush to kill Qing Wanglai.

Ding! Somehow, Qing Wanglai managed to use his watch to stop Li Huowang’s blade.

But it was futile. With his left hand, Li Huowang unsheathed a second blade and slashed again at Qing Wanglai’s neck.

Qing Wanglai stared at him in disbelief. Li Huowang was attacking even though Qing Wanglai hadn’t set his plan in motion. Why?

Blood sprayed in all directions, but Qing Wanglai remained eerily calm, his mind racing for ways to fight back. He grabbed Li Huowang’s wrist and shouted, “Help! Li Huowang’s gone crazy!”

The other Simings rushed over to help, but Yi Donglai and Yang Na blocked them. “Qing Wanglai is fooling you all! Li Huowang is sane. Qing Wanglai is using all of you!”

Another gunshot rang out. Once again, Qing Wanglai miraculously dodged it.

Li Huowang roared and exerted more force to cut down Qing Wanglat’s head. However, Qing Wanglai managed to withstand it, preventing Li Huowang from driving his blade closer.

Bam! Qing Wanglai kicked Li Huowang’s abdomen. The blow caused his organs to shift around.

“Junior Li, what are you doing?”

To Qing Wanglai’s surprise, his words had no effect whatsoever on Li Huowang.

“Everything is your fault!” Li Huowang jumped, aiming to bite Qing Wanglai’s face.

Qing Wanglai wanted to evade but couldn’t. Another red laser targeted the back of his head. Forced to choose, he dodged the bullet, allowing Li Huowang to sink his teeth into his face.

Li Huowang bit down forcefully and tore apart a huge chunk of Qing Wanglai’s face.

The searing pain of the wound and the gash on his neck drove adrenaline through Qing Wanglai’s veins. Summoning all his strength, he shoved Li Huowang back, stopping the assault for a moment.

Clutching onto the wounds on his neck, Qing Wanglai chuckled. “You’ve uncovered something with your ‘special techniques,’ haven’t you? Disagreeing with my plan already?”

Li Huowang had no intention of negotiating with Qing Wanglai. He tightened his grip on the blades, still thinking about how to kill Qing Wanglai.

Noticing that Li Huowang had no intention of talking, Qing Wanglai turned to the hesitant Wu Qi. “Wu Qi, come and help me.”

Wu Qi clutched onto her first aid kit and hesitated. Her gaze darted between Li Huowang and Qing Wanglai.

Qing Wanglai shouted, “Wu Qi, come here!”

At last, she drew a scalpel, fending off Yi Donglai before rushing to Qing Wanglai’s side to treat his wounds.

“What are you doing? There’s no reason to fight! We can sit down and talk!”

While Wu Qi stitched his wounds, Qing Wanglai used her as a shield against the gun aimed at him.

He turned to the others. “Do you all trust Li Huowang? I haven’t harmed him at all—I’ve been helping him all this time. I won’t take revenge on a patient, but we need to get him under control for now. He’s being reckless, and he could injure other people.”

“Is that so? Then tell us, what’s in the three test tubes behind you? Who are you planning to kill with that poison?” Li Huowang replied.

Li Huowang stomped hard and charged at Qing Wanglai, firmly gripping his blades to kill Qing Wanglai for good.

Qing Wanglai naturally had different plans in mind. He shoved Wu Qi toward Li Huowang, creating a distraction.

Li Huowang had to catch Wu Qi. The brief moment of distraction gave Qing Wanglai the chance to flee.

“Zhao Shuangdian, he’s getting away! After him!” Li Huowang roared, pushing Wu Qi aside to pursue.

Qing Wanglai was already wounded—Li Huowang couldn’t let him escape, not when he’d finally gained the upper hand by resetting the timeline.

The mountain’s dense forest made pursuit difficult. Thankfully, Li Huowang could track Qing Wanglai thanks to the blood-red secrets on the ground.

After chasing for some time, Li Huowang finally saw Qing Wanglai’s back. He hurled one of his blades, unexpectedly lodging it in Qing Wanglai’s leg.

Li Huowang pushed the branches away and inspected Qing Wanglai. At this point, Qing Wanglai panted while lying under a tree. The blade Li Huowang had thrown protruded from Qing Wanglai’s leg, his blood seeping into the soil.

Li Huowang grabbed his other blade and snarled at Qing Wanglai. “Any last words?”

Qing Wanglai raised his right hand, still missing its pinky finger, and pushed his bloodied glasses up. “Hehehe… What are you thinking of doing?”

Despite his dire state, Qing Wanglai showed no fear.

Li Huowang bared his teeth. “I’m going to devour your Heavenly Dao.”

The sound of approaching footsteps alerted Li Huowang. He knew it was Zhao Shuangdian.

“Li Huowang, are you sure this is the time to turn on our allies? The real enemy is right in front of us,” Qing Wanglai said, pointing at the clouds approaching from the horizon.

“Stop trying to deceive me.” Li Huowang said. “I learned what you’re planning in the previous timeline. Your tricks won’t work.”

“Hehehe…”

Qing Wanglai continued to chuckle. This was the first time Li Huowang had seen him like this. An unexpected temperature plunge cast a chilling, eerie atmosphere over the forest.

“You think I’m afraid of you?” Qing Wanglai sneered. “You’re just a deranged patient with some know-how. Do you really think you can win against me, even in an ambush?”

Clack. Qing Wanglai aimed his gun at Li Huowang’s forehead and removed the safety.

“You’re wrong, Li Huowang. Even like this, you can’t win.”

In Li Huowang’s eyes, Qing Wanglai’s body turned big and split into strands of invisible threads.

Li Huowang now stood in the chaos of the Baiyu Capital. After all his effort to find the Three Ancient Ones, he was now slipping away.

“Three Ancient Ones!”