Chapter 232: Corrupting Hearts

Chapter 232: Bewitching Hearts

This rain fell at the junction of Zi and Chou, the dead of night.

From the start, it was fiercely intense, as if intent on soaking through the entire pre-dawn hours, or perhaps warning the world not to venture out tonight.

The sickly yellow glow of streetlamps trembled in the wind; rainwater slid down the bloated black rubber raincoat, stumbling and crashing onto trouser legs, then seeping into the cloth shoes on the youth's feet.

Yet even so, Zhou You felt not a shred of cold.

Because when he had reassembled this mechanical body, he had excised his sense of touch and pain entirely.

Leaving only the olfactory sense to smell blood, and the visual acuity to recognize his enemies.

Even among the Soldier Path sequences, obsessed with modification, such a radical approach was uncommon.

After all, not everyone was willing to strip themselves of the joys of being 'human' for that sliver of enhancement.

The Eighteen Stairs slum remained a chaotic mess; the haphazardly erected shanties resembled failed prosthetic limbs—sloppy and ugly.

Zhou You stepped through sewage floating with garbage, halting before that familiar courtyard gate.

He did not rush to open the door; instead, he crushed a first-revolution gene pill hidden in his back molars.

Potent medicinal efficacy swiftly slowed the beating frequency of his mechanical heart; his slightly hurried breathing steadied in turn.

As per Chen Qisheng's instructions, a pill of this grade could not grant total immunity to hypnosis, but it could raise his mental resistance to a degree, delaying the onset of hypnosis.

Coupled with other auxiliary measures, it should buy enough time.

Creak.

The rusted hinge let out a piercing screech; through the widening crack of the door yawned a deeper darkness.

The youth's gaze swept across the rain-slashed courtyard, unsurprised to find the monk standing under the eaves, smiling right at him.

"You've come."

Zhou You's tone was stiff: "You knew I would come?"

"Because you and I are bound by karma. They cannot wake your brother, but I can."

Longtu's smile was gentle: "So you were certain to come."

Zhou You stood by the door, sinking into a long silence.

The monk did not urge him, merely standing quietly under the eaves with a faint smile.

After a long while, the youth finally spoke, voicing the doubt buried deep in his heart.

"After the reconstruction... is he really still him?"

"He eats and drinks, weeps and laughs, remembers your sacrifice, cherishes the bond with you."

Longtu countered: "How is that not him?"

"I don't believe your words. I need to see Zhou Sheng wake with my own eyes!"

Zhou You gritted his teeth, tearing off his raincoat to reveal the pale youth bound to his back with straps.

Click-click.

The chambered muzzle pressed against his heart; Zhou You glared at the red-robed monk, "Otherwise, you'll only beguile a corpse."

"As you wish."

Every reaction of the youth's was within the monk's expectations.

With a light wave of his hand, a rustling sound suddenly came from above Zhou You's head.

Zhou You looked up in shock, only to discover a figure shrouded entirely in a red robe crouching on the door lintel, two pale gold filaments extending from beneath it.

Under Zhou You's tense gaze, the neural filaments descended at an excruciatingly slow pace, writhing downward to plug into the spiritual aperture brain-machine interface at the back of Zhou Sheng's skull.

If Longtu wished, he could wake Zhou Sheng this very instant.

But he was in no rush to display the Buddha's miracle; instead, he secretly manipulated his Dharmapala, delaying the process as much as possible.

As a Buddhist Sequence practitioner obsessed with salvation, Longtu disliked the method of using the Buddha Nation Mainframe to drag others into the 'Buddha Nation on Earth' for forced conversion.

He even felt such a way was a desecration and insult to a high monk of the Buddhist gates.

In his view, only using pure words to enlighten deluded minds, guiding lost souls to sincerely take refuge in the Buddhist gates, could be called true salvation.

And a person awaiting hope is at their most fragile.

"They knew I would come looking for you."

Zhou You understood Longtu's meaning, and knew who the 'they' in his words referred to.

The Horse King, Chen Qisheng... even Li Jun.

"If I'm not mistaken, they gave you some pills to keep your mind calm, perhaps even other means to resist conversion, correct?"

Zhou You's mechanical joints instinctively tensed; a faint hum emanated from his chest cavity.

"Even your appearance today was bait, meant to lure me out."

Longtu spoke softly: "Am I right?"

"Correct."

A muffled reply came from beneath the conical hat; the youth lifted his head, tearing off the biomimetic skin masking his face.

The revealed visage bore symmetrical Taiji patterns etched in silver metal filaments across both cheeks.

This was Chen Qisheng's final trump card for him, now bared before the monk.

Zhou You's voice was hoarse: "Since you guessed it all, why dare show yourself?"

"If I do not descend into hell, who will? This karma arose from the Buddhist gates; naturally, it should be borne by a Buddhist."

Clearly a follower of the Foreign Transmission (Tibetan Buddhism), yet Longtu absurdly uttered a maxim of the Han Transmission (Chinese Buddhism).

"Moreover, I believe that once you witness the hope bestowed by the Buddha, you will surely make the right choice."

Click.

Accompanied by a crisp mechanical chime, a lifelike metal lotus slowly bloomed in Longtu's open palm.

"Flesh is weak; the Buddha Nation is eternal."

The monk spoke gently: "Join my Buddha Nation, and you shall be free of all hardship and suffering."

"I never feared hardship, nor do I need eternity. I only need Zhou Sheng to live."

The youth's gaze was ironclad, devoid of any sway.

"What you desire, you shall ultimately obtain."

As Longtu's voice entered his ears, the rigid expression on Zhou You's face melted like a candle thrown into a raging fire, visibly softening.

He distinctly felt the body pressed against his back begin to tremble faintly.

Without turning back, Zhou You seemed to already see a pair of eyes slowly opening.

"Brother..."

The pistol aimed at his heart slipped from his grasp, clattering to the ground.

The corners of Zhou You’s mouth were smiling, yet his brows and eyes twitched with a sorrowful grief. Expressions of supreme joy and supreme sorrow, contradictory in nature, manifested simultaneously upon a single face.

He raised a hand to wipe his face, exerting every ounce of strength to drive all emotion back into that cold, mechanical heart of his.

"I am here."

Zhou You unfastened the straps binding him, shed his straw cloak and spread it upon the stone steps, then helped the frail Zhou Sheng to sit.

Zhou Sheng, his face pale as paper, seemed entirely unaware of the figure standing beneath the eaves—a presence akin to a deity—merely staring blankly with wide-open eyes.

"Brother, where are we?"

"This is the house Brother bought. Our home."

Zhou You patted his head, then reached toward his own cheeks.

Amid a series of sickening sounds of tearing flesh and blood, the protective talismans etched upon his cheeks were ripped away by brute force and cast into the rainwater.

"Shan Nan Zhou You pays respects to the Grand Master."

The youth pressed his palms together in devout prostration. His bowed head exposed the spiritual aperture interface at his nape.

Beside him, the bewildered Zhou Sheng watched his brother in incomprehension, yet a bizarre smile flickered in the depths of his eyes.

Long Tu cradled a golden lotus, one hand raised vertically before him, returning the salute to Zhou You from afar.

At this moment, his heart was replete with satisfaction. Indeed, only this pure form of deliverance could conform to the exquisite art of the Buddhist sect.

And to achieve all this, the price he paid was merely a single, custom-made 'Yellow Millet Ghost'.

Nothing more.