Chapter 34
Chapter 34
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 34
>Chapter Title: Joy God
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Just as Li Huowang felt like he was about to lose consciousness, he reached into his waistband and yanked. The moment the excruciatingly shrill bell rang out, that agonizing sensation rapidly receded.
“Thud!” Li Huowang’s occiput slammed heavily into the ground, making his head buzz.
Ignoring the pain in his skull, Li Huowang gritted his teeth and kept vigorously shaking the copper bell in his hand. He had nearly been done in by that thing.
The edge of the Eight Immortals table, the bamboo poles for the stage, the edges of the Hu family ancestors’ plaques—now all the lines began to twist, swiftly coalescing into a bizarre aggregate.
As the splitting-headache-stricken Li Huowang pointed with his hand, the Wandering Lord lunged toward the fake Lv Zhuangyuan who was retreating.
Seeing that its opponent had backup, the thing tried to flee, but it was already too late. The Wandering Lord had reached its side.
However, it didn’t approach Lv Zhuangyuan’s body. Instead, it dove straight into the black shadow on the ground cast by the lantern.
As the lines on the Wandering Lord sliced into the small-footed woman’s shadow like knives, cutting it to shreds, the thing let out a beastly shriek and writhed desperately on the ground.
“So this thing’s true form is the shadow on the ground? No wonder slicing its body in half did nothing.” This thought flashed through Li Huowang’s mind.
Under the Wandering Lord’s assault, the fake Lv Zhuangyuan deflated like a punctured air sac. The humanoid shadow on the ground spread rapidly, ultimately forming a puddle of foul-smelling, viscous black liquid.
Just as Li Huowang thought it was all over,
Whoosh! The Wandering Lord darted back, circling rapidly around him.
“What’s going on? Is there more?” Li Huowang intensified his bell-shaking, which had just started to slow.
Seeing that hiding was futile, the small-footed woman emerged from a wriggling line in the distance, standing there and glaring darkly at them.
“The one that turned into Lv Zhuangyuan wasn’t this one. There are two of them.” As this thought crossed Li Huowang’s mind, another small-footed woman split off from her, and they began multiplying, getting smaller with each division.
Not just one—several small-footed women leaped out from the twisted lines all around, likewise dividing and shrinking.
With a point of Li Huowang’s finger, the Wandering Lord charged, attacking the palm-sized small-footed women surrounding them.
But no matter how fast it struck, they divided even faster. These identical small-footed women encircled Li Huowang, splitting apart while opening their blood-red cherry mouths slightly. They twisted their grotesque bodies and began singing a ditty in shrill, piercing voices.
“Joy God sings, Joy God laughs, robes and bows so amiably kin.”
“Joy God dances, Joy God romps, door-stuck red scrolls with fresh ink sheen.”
“Joy God rages, Joy God grieves, fragrant skull with lantern bright as sea.”
“Joy God hungers, Joy God starves, left hand holds heart and liver, right hand guts and all, from village head come welcome Joy God~!”
The instant they finished singing, their bodies exploded, splattering some black substance from within, dyeing every writhing, twisting space around them pitch black.
Though he didn’t know what they were up to, Li Huowang sensed something off and stopped shaking the bell, preparing to retreat first.
But the next second, his feet were nailed to the spot like with spikes. A hazy, faint guidance from some unknown source made Li Huowang lift his head straight up, gazing at the sky directly overhead.
It was an utter void of extreme darkness, nothing there—but Li Huowang sensed something. Amid the darkness, something enormously vast was stirring.
“Joy God?”
The moment this thought arose, Li Huowang saw silhouettes large and small emerging from the dark. “No, that thing sensed my thoughts! I have to get out of here now.”
That’s what Li Huowang thought, but his body did the opposite. It grew exhilarated, his breathing quickened, veins bulged on his face, he tore open his Daoist robes, and raised his hands high to welcome the thing in the darkness.
The black silhouettes sharpened into twisted clarity. Li Huowang could see it now! The bloodshot veins in his eyes burst from excitement, two trails of blood tears slowly sliding from his sockets.
“Don’t look anymore! Absolutely don’t look!! Close your eyes now!!” Li Huowang struggled with every ounce of strength, to no avail.
Li Huowang could now see the Joy God’s head—if that massive string of chaotic, viscous sludge could truly be called a head.
Just as that thing was about to fully emerge from the darkness, a very peculiar “tap-tap” sound suddenly rang out.
The thing in the darkness halted abruptly, shrinking back a huge chunk into the pitch-black sky, as if something in the dark was yanking it.
Suddenly, an enormously resounding cock crow shattered the darkness in the sky like a mirror.
Amid the cracking of bones, the upward-gazing Li Huowang regained his senses. He jerked his head down, hands on the ground, gasping huge breaths onto the stone tiles.
“What the hell did those small-footed women summon? What just happened?!” All sorts of unanswerable questions exploded in his mind.
Propping himself up against the nearby Eight Immortals table, Li Huowang struggled to sit. He looked up—nothing in the air, as if it had all been an illusion.
The sky was growing light; the fifth watch had passed. The Hu family would come to retrieve their ancestors soon.
The distant stage was still resounding; Lv Zhuangyuan and the others had sung straight through the night. Even though they swayed unsteadily from the bell’s influence, their voices hoarse, they hadn’t dared stop for a moment.
Looking at the various black plaques beside him, Li Huowang belatedly realized that the “tap-tap” sound had been these spirit plaques knocking against the table.
Li Huowang stared in astonishment at the Hu family ancestors’ plaques before him. “Did they just help me?”
After thinking it over, the more he considered, the more plausible it seemed. He quickly stood straight and performed a Clear Wind Temple bow toward the Eight Immortals table holding the plaques. “Thank you all for your help.”
The moment he finished the bow, the plaques began to tremble faintly, the shaking growing stronger and stronger. “Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.”
Seeing this eerie sight, Li Huowang gripped his Dao bell and warily stepped back half a pace.
“What’s this? Did thanking them backfire? Dawn’s breaking—aren’t you going back? What are you waiting for?”
But as Li Huowang thought this, with a “scrape,” every plaque on the Eight Immortals table before him toppled backward in unison.
Then a familiar, ethereal voice sounded by Li Huowang’s ear, sending a chill through him like falling into an icy abyss. “Child...”
(End of chapter)