Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 50
>Chapter Title: Buddha
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Night fell over a dense thicket of bushes where Li Huowang, wrapped in his quilt, kept silent watch.
The night without a campfire was bitterly cold—after all, it was only March.
But right now, he didn’t dare light a fire, lest the glow attract the pursuing monks.
By the faint moonlight filtering through the sky, Li Huowang reached into his robes and pulled out the Dao bell.
The incredibly potent pills that Danyangzi had given him were nearly all used up. This bell was the only thing of value he had left.
Yet recalling how effortlessly the abbot had held it in his hand filled Li Huowang with burning resentment.
The other side wanted him dead, yet here he was, only able to flee. The feeling was utterly unbearable.
“In this chaotic, bizarre world, strength rules all. If I want to survive here, I need to be strong enough!”
“Even someone like Danyangzi could grow that powerful—why not me? No matter how twisted the cultivation methods are in this world, I have to obtain them.”
“To protect myself and those I care about, I’ll beg if I must, steal if begging fails, rob if stealing fails, and scheme if all else does!”
Li Huowang’s expression gradually twisted into a savage grimace.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, Li Huowang froze. With a puzzled look, he reached back to touch the nape of his neck, as if pondering something.
“Nanmo~ he laduo na~ duo la ye ye~”
The stillness of the woods was shattered by an ethereal chant of sutras.
Almost on reflex, Li Huowang shot to his feet and scanned the surroundings.
But all around was pitch black—he saw nothing, and the simple little traps he’d set earlier showed no sign of being triggered.
“Nanmo~ a li ye~ po lu jie di~ shuo po la ye.”
The ethereal chant rose again from the darkness, closer this time.
“Quick! Everyone up! Run! Scatter! Forget the donkey cart! Fool! Do what I taught you before!”
At Li Huowang’s shout, Bai Lingmiao instinctively started to follow him, only to be hoisted onto the Fool’s shoulder. With long strides, he charged eastward.
Li Huowang vaulted over the bushes and back onto the road, clenching his teeth as he dashed ahead. No matter what, the monks’ target was only him. If he couldn’t escape, there was no need for the others to die with him.
In the darkness, Li Huowang kept running, but the chanting from who-knew-where dogged him relentlessly. And now his nose caught the scent of temple incense.
As he ran, he suddenly skidded to a halt. His pupils contracted as he stared at the pitch-black road ahead, where countless firefly-sized red dots trembled faintly.
“Po tuo ye~ po tuo ye~ mi di li ye~ na la jin chi.”
The chanting grew louder.
At last, the things in the darkness emerged slowly: Buddhas. Giant heads, towering bodies, but with spindly legs—the great-bellied Buddhas.
The red dots Li Huowang had glimpsed earlier were actually bundles of incense sticks jabbed into the Buddhas’ flesh. As the massive figures swayed, the incense quivered.
A towering Buddha wreathed in white smoke should have exuded an aura of divinity, but here in the dim forest path, it was something else entirely.
And there was more than one such Buddha—seven of them stood in a row, swaying as they advanced on Li Huowang.
They took simple, repetitive steps, swaying left then right. They resembled humans yet didn’t, their expressions a half-smile not-quite-smile, half-frown not-quite-frown.
When they fully emerged into the moonlight, Li Huowang saw the face of the lead Buddha. He recognized it—it was Jian Dun’s face.
“Amitabha, benefactor. Your heart is unsettled.”
Li Huowang looked up at the fleshly Buddha before him, at least four meters tall.
“You’ve finally stopped pretending, huh? You trash who worship monsters!!”
“Benefactor, this poor monk knows not of what you speak. Come back to the temple with me. Danyangzi’s karma is upon you. If you carry it away, you’ll face great calamity—and so will all the world’s beings.”
As Jian Dun spoke, he clapped his hands together in prayer. Flesh tore with a rip, and skinnless palms sprouted from behind him, swaying.
In an instant, like a peacock fanning its tail, the seven Buddhas had become seven horrifying bloodflesh Thousand-Armed Buddhas.
“Clang clang clang~!!”
As Li Huowang shook the Dao bell furiously, the surroundings warped. The lines of the branches around him twisted rapidly, forming the Wandering Lord.
Yet amid the bell’s tolling, the chaos around them had no effect on the Buddhas. They stood like unyielding reefs.
Li Huowang scooped up a handful of dirt and shoved it into his mouth. “Sitengken!”
The Wandering Lord streaked across the ground in a blur toward the Buddhas.
“Heya!”
A massive Buddha palm slammed down, kicking up clouds of dust.
But the insubstantial Wandering Lord ignored the blow entirely, burrowing out from the back of the hand and lunging straight for the Buddha’s enormous face.
Once the Wandering Lord fully burrowed into one Buddha’s head, the colossal figure began to sway. Its huge palms flailed like they were swatting flies.
But it did no good. Soon, the giant Buddha crashed heavily to the ground. Its facial features began to melt, and its body—which should have been immune—started warping along with the surrounding illusions.
“Bang bang bang!!”
The remaining six Buddhas swiftly formed a back-to-back circle, then slammed down like stone pillars. Hands clasped in prayer, they began chanting an arcane sutra.
“Tathagata Adoro~ san mo~ san bodhi~”
The moment the sutra-chanting began, Li Huowang spotted trouble with the Wandering Lord. The lines composing its body started twisting against its will.
Seeing this, Li Huowang shook the Dao bell even harder. “Jian jian! Cou kao gao qu!!”
Hearing Li Huowang offer more years of his lifespan, the Wandering Lord struggled to hold its form and charged at another Buddha.
Amid a ground-shaking thud, another Buddha toppled.
But that was the Wandering Lord’s limit.
Under the resounding chant, the Wandering Lord plummeted from midair to the ground.
Seeing the Wandering Lord spent, Li Huowang stopped ringing the bell. As the surroundings normalized, the fallen Wandering Lord didn’t dissipate.
All the lines on its body faded to a pinkish flesh tone. The formless entity had somehow been granted mortal flesh by the Buddhas’ chanting.
With a body now, the Wandering Lord resembled a massive knot of tangled earthworms, writhing slowly on the ground.
A giant palm bearing a swastika in its center slammed down.
“Splat.”
The Wandering Lord’s flesh instantly became a puddle of muck.
The massive palm, smeared with the Wandering Lord’s gore, slowly rose and clapped together in prayer.
The remaining five Thousand-Armed Buddhas swayed over and arrayed themselves before Li Huowang.
“Amitabha, benefactor. Please come back with us.”
(End of chapter)