Chapter 76: Bamboo Slips

Chapter 76: Bamboo Slips

"Danyang Zi must not be allowed to emerge again."

After carefully pondering the series of events that unfolded following Danyang Zi's appearance, Li Huowang reached this conclusion.

Comparing the first manifestation of the Joyous God, the second of the Buddha, to today's third, Li Huowang discerned a glaring pattern.

During the first time, he could only faintly hear Danyang Zi's voice.

By the second time, he was already able to see his form.

Now, on the third occasion, not only could Danyang Zi communicate with him, but he had also begun to manipulate his emotions with murderous intent, and even caused him to forget how to read ordinary characters.

Regardless of what Danyang Zi had truly become, his influence over him grew more pronounced with each successive manifestation.

Danyang Zi had never been benevolent from the very beginning; everything he did was aimed at seizing this body.

Even if under his protection he would not die from other causes, it would likely not be long before he was completely transformed into him.

If such a fate were to befall him, Li Huowang could absolutely not accept it; he would rather die than become the very person he loathed most.

A pair of pale hands reached out, gently clasping his right hand.

Frowning deeply, Li Huowang looked up into those concerned pink eyes and shook his head slightly, offering no explanation.

Li Huowang picked up the Avatamsaka Sutra in his hands, casually flipping it open to skim a page.

"This book is useless," concluded Li Huowang, tossing it aside and throwing the Avatamsaka Sutra back into the wooden chest.

Only after reading the contents of the Avatamsaka Sutra did Li Huowang remember hearing monks chanting it at Zhengde Temple, and from the hands of different monks at that.

It was merely a widely copied Buddhist sutra, probably available in any ordinary bookstore; compared to this, those gold, silver, and jewels held far more value.

When Li Huowang returned to the pile of wealth, he saw Gouwa leading the others, enthusiastically dragging all the chests of treasures out of the room with all their might.

Yet the task proved arduous, for no matter how valuable gold and silver were, they were still heavy metal.

"Leave the silver, just take the gold jewelry. This gold alone is enough for our journey."

As soon as Li Huowang spoke these words, Gouwa jumped up in agitation. "Senior Brother Li!! This is silver! Gleaming white silver!"

Kicking the dead-heavy chest beside him, Li Huowang spoke up, "Do you know how heavy this silver is? We still need to fit people on the boat; if it sinks from the weight, do you plan to swim out carrying the silver on your back?"

"This gold is enough to feed us for a lifetime, don't be too greedy, let's hurry and go."

Still looking thoroughly unconvinced, Gouwa kept stuffing silver ingots into his clothes. "Then let me take a little more at least; with this much silver, how many wives could I marry, how many oxen could I buy?"

Too lazy to deal with him, Li Huowang gathered all the gold with the others, then turned and led them away.

Bulging with loot, Gouwa hurriedly chased after them, but after just a few steps, he was left panting in exhaustion.

Seeing the others' backs growing ever more distant, Gouwa stamped his foot in frustration, hastily discarded some silver ingots, and scrambled to catch up.

Walking out of the storehouse, Li Huowang was about to lead the others toward the exit of the stockade, but after a moment's thought, he headed toward the kitchen instead.

Before long, when he emerged again, the gold in his hands had been exchanged for two dead children with purplish-blue faces.

"Go find a few jars inside the stockade; once we're out, we'll burn them and collect their ashes. If we can't deliver them alive, at least let them return to their roots."

"Yes, Senior Brother Li."

The others were about to set off to find the jars, but just as they were about to move, a streak of bloody light slashed past them from the side, whistling as it shot toward them.

"Dodge!" Tense all over, Li Huowang instinctively threw himself backward.

A flash of crimson light grazed his chest, effortlessly slicing the two dead children cleanly in half.

Cold sweat poured down Li Huowang's face; if those two drowned Daoist apprentices hadn't blocked the way, he himself would likely have been cleaved in two just now.

"Find cover! There are still living people inside the stockade!"

When Li Huowang, holding a bell in one hand and a sword in the other, cautiously peeked out from behind a large vat, he finally noticed some bloody white fragments scattered on the ground in the distance.

"What just attacked us?" This question was quickly answered as heavy footsteps echoed, and a figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

A glowing stone was tossed at his feet by Xiaoman, illuminating his face. They recognized this person; it was the former boatman.

"This guy actually didn't die!?" This thought flashed through the minds of everyone present, including Li Huowang.

Yuan Er, his mouth dripping with blood, held a roll of strangely reddened bamboo slips in his right hand and a pair of black iron pincers in his left.

Seeing his bleeding mouth, Li Huowang immediately realized what those white things had been.

"Come out! Come out, you little Daoist brat! So you have your moments of powerlessness too!!"

With bloodshot eyes, Yuan Er shoved the pincers into his mouth, clamped down on his incisors once more, and yanked hard.

As he chanted something in a low voice toward the red bamboo slips with his bleeding mouth, the tooth was swiftly enveloped in a blood-red aura, shooting like a meteor and instantly burrowing into a nearby single-story house.

Xiaoman's agonizing scream from inside made Li Huowang's heart clench.

"Jingle, jingle, jingle!!" The bell rang out abruptly, and the two Wandering Lords glided low across the ground, flying straight at Yuan Er.

"Pah!" Yuan Er spat a mouthful of bloody saliva fiercely onto the ground, then immediately raised the pincers again; this time, he didn't aim for his teeth, but for his only remaining eye.

With a sharp pop, as his eyeball was crushed, a bizarre light enveloped the surroundings, and the two Wandering Lords, as if glued by some unseen force, collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

"Die!! All of you, die with me!!"

After roaring loudly, Yuan Er pulled a small knife from his waist and plunged it into his own throat.

Even as his body trembled violently from the pain, he still forcefully scraped away his own flesh and blood.

The bell rang out once more, and over a dozen Wandering Lords converged from all directions, swiftly lunging at Yuan Er.

As soon as Yuan Er placed these things from his hands onto the bamboo slips, all the Wandering Lords vanished in an instant.

And as the bamboo slips absorbed Yuan Er's flesh and blood, this lifeless object suddenly came alive.

Borrowing Yuan Er's tongue and vocal cords, the bamboo slips began to speak.

The moment that extremely bizarre, duck-like voice emerged, in an instant, heaven and earth underwent a sudden transformation.

"One tongue turns the wheel! One eyelash holds the great cosmos! The wondrous realms and ultimate extremes cannot be explained by words! Heaven is good and the gods are eerie, carved by the breath! My Lord is supreme! How dare you startle Him!?"

(End of Chapter)