Chapter 539
Chapter 539
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 539
>Chapter Title: Satiated
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Phew~ Phew~” Qiu Chibao lay on the ground, cheeks puffed out, carefully blowing air onto the firewood under her broken bowl.
“Gurgle gurgle.” Hearing her stomach rumble, Qiu Chibao grabbed the rope of her pants and tied it tighter.
Though her name was Chibao—meaning “satiated”—Qiu Chibao rarely ever had the chance to eat her fill.
It had been this way living with her parents, and even more so after she got married.
After burning for a while, seeing the flames weaken, Qiu Chibao grew terribly anxious.
She glanced around and hurriedly picked up some human bones from the nearby campfire, tossing them into the fire.
Seeing the flames under the broken bowl reignite, Qiu Chibao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She carefully lifted the tile covering the broken bowl, revealing three goose pebbles boiling and tumbling inside with the water.
She poked at the stones lightly with a rusty knife, and a look of joy instantly spread across her filthy face.
She replaced the tile, added more firewood, then gently cradled the swaddling bundle made of tattered cotton rags beside her, rocking it softly.
“Son, today’s stones are almost boiled to mush. Once they are, drink down this stone soup, and not only will your illness be completely cured, you’ll become a god!”
Qiu Chibao grew happier as she spoke, grinning ear to ear at her cooing baby in the bundle.
Just as she said this, the dozing crowd around her began to stir, from far to near.
An old man sleeping nearby was jolted awake. He stretched his arms lazily, then kicked out with his foot, toppling the broken bowl.
“My stone soup!!” With Qiu Chibao’s anguished scream, followers of the Fa Cult wearing white headscarves rose to their feet from all directions.
“Kill!! Kill that red-robed Daoist! He killed our shaman!” The crowd grew rowdy, the atmosphere heating up.
“Who?! Who killed our shaman?! Without the shaman communing with Grandfather Shi Du, what if the stone soup loses its power?!”
Qiu Chibao, who had been scrambling on the ground for stones, instantly forgot her earlier distress. She tucked the rusty knife inside the swaddling bundle and staggered to her feet.
She tried to squeeze toward the source of the noise with the others, but she was too short and scrawny to push through.
“Make way! Let me through! I can’t get past!!” Qiu Chibao shouted at the top of her lungs, but no one paid her any mind.
Suddenly, the people in front of her seemed to hear her, parting left and right to clear a path.
A Daoist appeared before her, his body covered in black tentacles, clad in a red Daoist robe, his face hidden behind a copper coin mask.
Staring at the blade raised before her eyes, Qiu Chibao felt Grandfather Shi Du’s protection and felt no fear. Instead, clutching her wailing baby, she charged at the monster writhing with black tentacles.
“I’ll kill you for murdering our shaman! I’ll kill you for ruining my stone soup!” Qiu Chibao snarled through gritted teeth, thrusting the rusty little knife viciously into the red-robed Daoist’s chest.
But the next moment, darkness fell over Qiu Chibao’s vision, and she knew nothing more.
“Daddy, Daddy!” Li Sui’s voice snapped Li Huowang back to his senses as he stared at the gore before him.
He couldn’t afford to lose focus now! These people all around were his enemies!
Li Huowang, nearly drenched head to toe in blood, drew a sharp breath and gripped his sword hilt tight, chasing after Peng Longteng who had gone fully berserk in the distance.
“Don’t circle around nearby! Push forward! Charge as far forward as you can!!”
Yet Peng Longteng acted as if she hadn’t heard Li Huowang’s order, continuing her slaughter.
“I’ll say it one more time! Forward! Or I’ll scatter you back into nothingness and never let you out again!”
Peng Longteng froze, clenching her right fist tight. With a crack of splintering bone, the head in her palm—mouth gaping wide—burst into a mash of red and white oozing from between her fingers.
Though she clearly loathed it, under Li Huowang’s threat, Peng Longteng obeyed.
Only with a living body could she savor this exhilarating slaughter, and for now, her flesh depended entirely on Li Huowang.
The towering Peng Longteng hoisted two burly men like a bloody whirlwind, carving a gore-strewn path through the Fa Cult followers with devastating force.
With Peng Longteng clearing the way ahead, things eased up around Li Huowang, but he felt no joy whatsoever. The image of that woman clutching her dead infant lingered inescapably in his mind.
He scanned the Fa Cult followers around him again, taking in their skeletal frames and distended bellies.
The red haze before his eyes gradually receded, restoring their true colors.
Peng Longteng stomped down, squeezing the contents from one man’s gut—not food, but clumps of hardened earth: Guanyin clay.
Eating Guanyin clay wouldn’t keep anyone alive for long, but Li Huowang spotted a skinny leg nearby—they were still eating raw human flesh too.
Li Huowang knew that once inducted into the Fa Cult, these people would pillage and slaughter without restraint. Their prayers to the present-world Yu’er God surely harbored no good intentions either. But did these people truly have any choice?
“Grandfather Shi Du protect us!” An elderly man with white hair brandished a stick and charged Li Huowang without hesitation, howling.
Li Sui’s copper coin sword whipped over like a long lash, coiling around the man’s neck and yanking hard. His head tumbled to the ground.
Li Huowang stepped over it and pressed onward.
Gazing at the faces surrounding him, Li Huowang inexplicably recalled his master Danyangzi, whom he had killed.
These people were just like Danyangzi back then—blindly faithful, ignorant, toyed with at others’ whims.
Seeing the fanaticism in that severed head’s eyes, Li Huowang understood: worldly suffering had stripped these people of everything, reason included. They could only pin their hopes on the so-called Yu’er God, even if that god was the very culprit behind their misery.
They were blameless, yet at this moment, Li Huowang had no choice but to pave his path with their flesh and blood.
But it was for the best, perhaps. Living on like walking corpses, death might be a mercy.
Nearby, Jinshan Zhao—what remained of his half-body—trembled at the sight, eyes brimming with sorrow and rage, tears streaming uncontrollably. “Ugh!” After so long at Li Huowang’s side, he finally uttered his first sound.
As Li Huowang’s eyes flicked open toward him, the ground suddenly sank, his calves plunging into the earth.
Then, from beneath the feet of the surrounding crowd, three ridges of upheaved soil raced swiftly toward Li Huowang.
He knew it—with so many Fa Cult followers, some tricky bastards must be lurking among them, directing the fray. He hadn’t expected them to catch up so quickly despite his speed!