Chapter 52: Danyangzi

Chapter 52: Danyangzi

"Thunder?" The other five colossal Buddhas, including Jiandun, looked up in unison, only to find that the half-moon which had been hanging in the sky just moments ago had vanished without a trace.

The entire firmament was shrouded in dark, roiling clouds, from which a continuous rumbling emanated; it sounded like thunder, yet it was decidedly not the voice of a storm.

"Cough, cough." Feeling his breath grow short, Li Huowang let out a few dry coughs before stumbling and collapsing to the ground.

As he lay there and gazed up at the heavens, Li Huowang finally caught sight of his master once more amidst the black clouds, looking just as hideous as before.

Blood-drenched black feathers covered his skin, and where his head should have been, the flesh was split open, bearing three faces of different ages.

Beyond his natural anatomy, his bloated body now sprouted a multitude of other organs that could never possibly belong to a human.

Nightmarish, glossy black forms, pus-filled vertical eyes, foul and everted viscera, and writhing, sinister tentacles—all these grotesque aberrations were enveloped by an ethereal, flowing white celestial ribbon suspended in the air.

Moreover, these nauseating appendages were far from static; they shifted and morphed every passing second into things even more spine-chilling.

He had not watched for long before Li Huowang's eyes grew bloodshot, blue veins bulging across his forehead as his entire head swelled to the size of the God of Longevity's.

"No, I can't look anymore..." Utterly weakened, Li Huowang quickly averted his gaze, which brought him only a sliver of relief.

Yet this relief was meager, for the relentless bleeding threatened to take his life all the same.

Extending a trembling hand, he fished out a few blood-stanching pills from his waist and tossed them into his mouth, swallowing them down.

The flow of blood within his veins began to slow, and the hemorrhaging visibly diminished.

But it was not enough; Li Huowang produced more pills, elixirs he had refined in the Qingfeng sect to consolidate his foundation, and placed them in his mouth.

A sudden, tearing rip of flesh and blood drew Li Huowang's gaze upward.

He saw that his master had already begun to move; the grotesque Danyangzi clung to the giant Buddha's head like a lizard, his three massive mouths effortlessly tearing away a plump ear.

Following a thunderous roar, the skin-covered hands behind the Buddha swiftly curled into claws, lunging toward Danyangzi.

Yet, to everyone's surprise, the various deformed and bizarre organs on Danyangzi's body suddenly swelled, violently ripping all the fleshy hands to shreds.

Immediately after, Danyangzi's three mouths seized the edges of the wound and yanked hard, tearing open a massive, spurting gash, into which his three heads plunged.

"Ahhh!!" The Buddha shrieked in despair, his giant hands frantically clawing at his own skin, trying to rip out whatever was inside, but it was doomed to be in vain as his plump body began to cave in and wither.

Within a few breaths, blood streaming from his seven orifices, he crashed heavily to the ground, his bloated belly bursting open like a blooming flower.

As the blood-soaked Danyangzi appeared before the remaining Buddhas, the grave-faced Jiandun dared not underestimate him, immediately drawing forth a Buddhist scripture bound in human skin.

"Om~ Ma~ Ni~ Pad~ Me~ Hum~" As the cross-legged Jiandun chanted the Six-Syllable Mantra, the blood-red scriptures on the tome swiftly vanished, reappearing upon Danyangzi's body.

The organs on Danyangzi covered by the scriptures began to tremble involuntarily, proliferating wildly.

The proliferation was short-lived, quickly giving way to rapid atrophy that accelerated until Danyangzi completely vanished from sight.

Cold sweat streaming down his face, Jiandun breathed a slight sigh of relief at the sight, thankful he had prepared a contingency, or else they would have been in grave peril.

Then, as he began to chant the mantra in reverse, the scriptures reemerged on the human-skin sutra cradled in his hands.

Seeing not a single character missing, Jiandun was just about to close the book when it violently exploded, the scriptures scattering in all directions as the terrifying Danyangzi burst forth from within.

No one had anticipated this; taking advantage of Jiandun's instinctively gaping mouth, Danyangzi's three heads drove into his throat like drill bits.

A tearing sound echoed as Jiandun's neck instantly swelled to the thickness of his head, and this was merely the beginning; amidst excruciating agony, the despairing Jiandun heard the sound of chewing from within his own body!!

"No!!" Accompanied by Jiandun's defiant scream, Danyangzi burst through his chest cavity, his three massive mouths tearing in unison.

The remaining three Buddhas tried to struggle, but it was doomed to be futile; within moments, their cries were replaced by the snapping of bones and the ripping of flesh.

Half a stick of incense later, the seven Buddhas had vanished, leaving only the steaming, bloody mire upon the ground.

Just as Li Huowang looked toward the blood-drenched Danyangzi, the creature turned around, his three faces from different eras simultaneously twisting into a profound and horrifying smile. "My child..."

With a soft puff, Danyangzi's body dissipated like smoke and clouds.

Time slowly passed, and the moonlight returned to the sky, draping a silver veil over everything on the forest path as the dust finally settled.

Clutching his neck, Li Huowang struggled to sit up and looked at the others still trapped by the tree trunks; they were nearly scared out of their wits, huddled together like wooden dummies.

As if knowing what they were thinking, Li Huowang quickly explained in a weak voice, "Don't be afraid, none of you! Danyangzi is truly dead; he won't use you as medicinal catalysts anymore."

Yet Li Huowang's words did nothing to diminish the terror on their faces; the Daoist acolytes had already been frightened to tears.

Finally, Bai Lingmiao, the closest to him, spoke up, her face paler than ever. "Senior Brother Li, what... what Danyangzi? We didn't see anything."

Li Huowang swallowed hard with great difficulty. "You can't see Danyangzi, who just killed those Buddhas? Is he invisible to your eyes?"

In that instant, new suspicions began to brew in Li Huowang's mind.

Just then, Gouwa, huddled behind the tall boy, began to tremble even more violently.

Not daring to look at Li Huowang, he squeezed his eyes shut and shouted through tearful sobs, "Senior Brother Li!! There is no Danyangzi! It was just you all along!"

"What?" Enduring the pain, Li Huowang reached up to touch his face, his fingers coming away coated in a sticky, viscous fluid.

Moving his hands lower, he felt that the corners of his mouth on both sides had been torn into long gashes, as if he had just opened his mouth impossibly wide.

Yet none of this was the main point; what mattered most now was that he felt incredibly full, full to the absolute brim.

(End of Chapter)