Chapter 109: Injury

Chapter 109: The Wound

A continuous hissing sound filled the air as black liquid ceaselessly sprayed from the gash in Li Huowang's body.

After all, it was his own stomach being torn open; his face contorted in excruciating agony as he stumbled and collapsed to the ground.

Yet, seeing the bizarre body of Danyang Zi before him begin to waver and destabilize, a faint gleam of grim satisfaction flickered across his face.

As long as he could kill Danyang Zi, he would endure any amount of suffering!

"You ungrateful wretch! If it weren't for this Daoist's intervention, you would still be drowning in your delusions!!"

Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang pressed down with trembling force upon the blade.

"Did I fucking ask for your help? It's because of you!! That I live in such unbearable agony!!"

"Good! Very good indeed!!" A murderous intent of the utmost extremity flared in Danyang Zi's three pairs of eyes, an intent that simultaneously infected Li Huowang.

In that instant, no other emotion remained in Li Huowang's heart; the only thing he wanted to do now was to kill Danyang Zi!

Just as this suffocating atmosphere reached its absolute zenith, massive swarms of flies descended from the sky, enveloping the two men completely with decay and filth.

In the distance, the six nuns of Jingxin pressed their bead-adorned hands together with heavy force, resuming their chanting in unison with the colossal Buddha statue.

"There is no suffering, no accumulation, no cessation, no path; no wisdom and no attainment. With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva relies on the perfection of wisdom, and the mind is without hindrances. Without hindrances, there is no fear. Far beyond all inverted views, one reaches ultimate nirvana. All Buddhas of the past, present, and future rely on the perfection of wisdom!"

As the sound of chanting rose, the aging, filth, and obesity upon their bodies began to recede at an astonishing speed.

These elements intertwined with one another, continuously spreading upward into the air.

In stark contrast, an anomaly began to manifest in the sky; within the torn expanse of the heavens appeared an eye that eclipsed the sun and moon, the eye of an Immaculate and Pure Wrathful Arhat.

"Hah!" A furious roar pierced through the air for dozens of miles, causing the entire space to tremble; all that was abnormal within the Anchci Nunnery rapidly dispersed, Danyang Zi included.

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Emerging from a daze, Bai Lingmiao regained her senses, and upon fully coming to, she found herself actually slumped before a massive pot of greasy fried rice, her hands frantically shoving the rice into her mouth.

"Ugh~!" Spitting out the cloying fried rice from her mouth, she looked around in a panic.

After glancing around for a while, she finally realized she was sitting normally in the kitchen of the Anchci Nunnery, surrounded by plump nuns eating, the sounds of chewing and swallowing constantly drilling into her ears.

Turning her head to look back at the iron pot, she saw that the rice was not just for her alone, but for everyone at their table.

Gouwa, Xiaoman, Baolu, Yang Xiaohai, Gao Zhijian—they were all there, devouring their food just as ravenously as the nuns.

However, it wasn't long before they too snapped out of it, looking around at their surroundings in alarm.

"What... what is going on? How did we end up here?" The others clearly hadn't yet grasped what had happened.

Bai Lingmiao quickly looked around and found that everyone else was present, but Li Huowang was conspicuously missing.

"What on earth is going on? Weren't we supposed to be exorcising Senior Brother? Why did we suddenly come here to eat? There isn't even a single vegetable, how can we eat something this greasy?"

After Gouwa finished speaking, he looked at the other tables; the nuns there couldn't be bothered to pay him any mind, frantically stuffing their faces, though they weren't eating fried rice, but rather moldy steamed buns and other assorted foods.

A trace of anxiety on her face, Bai Lingmiao walked up behind a plump nun and asked, "Excuse me, Sister, have you seen my Senior Brother Li?"

"Senior Brother Li? The kid with the Pure Heart constitution, right? He's with Abbess Jingxin, go find her."

The nun replied without even turning her head, her hands still snatching at the food as she spoke, terrified of being too slow and eating too little.

After this group once again waded through the swamp of moldy food and arrived in front of Abbess Jingxin's quarters, they saw Li Huowang standing there talking to a remarkably bizarre-looking nun; the nun was exceedingly strange, with no eyes in her sockets, her eye sockets entirely sunken inward.

Her figure appeared exceedingly emaciated, yet paradoxically, the skin on her body was incredibly loose; the skin from her chin hung down to her belly, and the skin from her belly draped all the way to the ground, much like a vast Daoist robe.

Hearing their footsteps, Li Huowang turned around, smiling as he waved them over.

Bai Lingmiao was instantly taken aback; it was the first time she had ever seen Senior Brother Li smile.

"You're here? Weren't scared, were you? The masters of the Anchci Nunnery had some trouble retracting their divine powers, so it's only natural that it affected you," Li Huowang explained to the others.

As soon as Bai Lingmiao stepped closer, she was stunned by the appearance of the emaciated nun; the woman was simply too beautiful.

Even though her appearance was bizarre, and even though Bai Lingmiao herself was a woman.

Pulling Li Huowang a little further away, Bai Lingmiao asked in a low voice, "Senior Brother Li, who is this person?"

"She is Abbess Jingxin, what? Don't you recognize her?"

No sooner had the words left Li Huowang's mouth than the blind young woman in the distance, her flesh dragging on the ground, nodded to the others.

"Her?! Jingxin?? The fat woman who couldn't even walk?"

Everyone was instantly shocked, their eyes widening to the extreme; the contrast was simply too vast.

"The cultivation methods of the Anchci Nunnery are different from anywhere else, so don't ask any more questions. Fortunately, Abbess Jingxin's great sacrifice has yielded results; my troubles are gone. Danyang Zi will not emerge again."

Upon hearing Li Huowang's final words, everyone's faces broke into smiles, offering their congratulations to him one after another.

After a brief exchange, the amiable Li Huowang raised his hands and pressed them downward, suppressing the others' questions about the details for the time being.

"I still have some matters to attend to here, and I estimate I'll be staying for a while. You all go ahead, and once I'm done, I'll catch up as quickly as possible."

"Senior Brother Li, what could take so long? Why don't we stay and help you?" Hearing that they were to split up, Bai Lingmiao was the first to object.

"Stop messing around, you can't help with matters of cultivation. Go ahead first; it will take at most ten days or so before I catch up."

"Besides, aren't you all heading home? Hurry along, we've already delayed for so long; if we delay any further, we'll be spending the New Year out on the road again."

"I'm not saying I won't leave, don't worry. As long as you follow the route marked on the map, I'll definitely be able to catch up."

Under Li Huowang's earnest persuasion, the other senior and junior martial siblings were finally convinced, turning to leave the Anchci Nunnery.

As their figures gradually faded into the distance, the smile on Li Huowang's face slowly cooled, gradually replaced by agony.

He untied his red Daoist robe and pulled open his inner garment, revealing a massive gash in his abdomen, with dense clusters of white maggots wriggling in and out.

"Within the Anchci Nunnery, this wound will heal in a few days; what you should worry about is something else, you understand what I mean."

(End of Chapter)