Chapter 622
Chapter 622
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 622
>Chapter Title: Dharma Cult
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Outside the deserted county town, the Buddha Jade Furnace began chanting Buddhist scriptures.
As the Buddha Jade Furnace continued its recitation, echoes gradually arose within the eerily silent county.
The abbot of Zhengde Temple beside him took out a wooden fish and, along with the other two monks, knocked and chanted along. Gradually, the sound of the scriptures began to mix with something else.
As the chanting persisted, Li Huowang felt every piece of flesh in his body twitching, as if it were about to detach from him at any moment.
The Buddha Jade Furnace's robes writhed as various small Buddhas tumbled out from within, sitting cross-legged and joining in the recitation.
Just as the volume of the scriptures reached its peak, the ground suddenly split open. A tall figure wearing a hood marked with the character for "witch" leaped out, raising two obsidian daggers high in both hands and launching a sneak attack on the Buddha Jade Furnace who was chanting.
Meanwhile, Hong Da, who had been prepared, leaped from his horse and blocked the assailant.
But who could have anticipated that as Hong Da's rusted blade slashed into the man's chest, the arms gripping the weapons detached from the body—one left, one right—and lunged toward the Buddha Jade Furnace on horseback.
It turned out this wasn't a living person at all; the two dwarves disguised as hands were the real culprits.
Just as one of the dwarves thought victory was at hand, he saw a red-robed Daoist blocking his path.
As his attention fixed entirely on the Daoist's copper coin sword, the Daoist suddenly opened his mouth, and black tentacles lined with suction cups and barbs shot out, covering the dwarf's face.
In the next instant, he felt a sharp pain in his body, and then nothing.
Having dealt with this minor nuisance, Li Huowang dragged a long, bloodied tentacle from his chin and turned to look at the other side.
The other attacking dwarf had already been seized by Peng Longteng, who squeezed him relentlessly like a doll.
Once thoroughly crushed into a ball of meat, Peng Longteng raised it high above her head and squeezed hard, showering scarlet blood down onto the severed stump of her headless neck.
Li Huowang thought the matter was settled, but it had only just begun. A slender black straight blade pierced straight through Peng Longteng's heavy armor.
Soon, various common folk wearing white headscarves emerged from the county town, charging at Li Huowang and the others.
As the scriptures echoed, their bodies periodically shed parts—eyes, ears, and more.
Yet no matter how many organs fell away, the fanaticism on these people never waned.
Among them were many emaciated Great Qi folk starved to skin and bones, but even more were Great Liang folk who had only recently donned the white headscarves. The Dharma Cult's infiltration of Great Liang was far faster than Li Huowang had imagined.
Though these devotees feared not death, the gap in strength between the two sides was ultimately too vast. They were no match for Li Huowang, nor even for Peng Longteng.
The towering Peng Longteng plowed through the crowd like an iron plow, carving bloody paths.
She seemed to revel in it all, her body shuddering as she swung two corpses to batter the foes.
"Don't kill them all! Leave a few! I need to interrogate them!"
The slaughter continued until Liu Zongyuan's white mist enveloped the entire county town, bringing the battle swiftly to an end.
"Thud!" The last dwarf, battered and bloody while suspended from the wall, finally breathed his last and slumped lifeless to the ground.
"This seems to be just one of their temporary bases. They truly don't know the whereabouts of Taishan Stone." Li Huowang hung the bloodied torture tools back into his kit.
The problem circled back to square one. Even if they could defeat Taishan Stone, finding him was pointless without a location.
If the Dharma Cult were allowed to keep absorbing the common folk, all of Great Liang's people would eventually become their enemies.
After pondering for a moment while observing, the Buddha Jade Furnace spoke up. "Let's go. We'll clear a path all the way to Silver Mausoleum City. I need to find someone knowledgeable to divine Taishan Stone's location."
"Lord Remembrancer, who is this person? Can they truly succeed? Taishan Stone is a Great Qi man." Hong Da asked from the side.
"He's called Blind Chen. If he can't do it, no one can."
Li Huowang was taken aback by this. He knew the man. "Blind Chen, the one who sets up stall outside the City God Temple?"
"You know him?"
"Sort of. We've crossed paths a few times, but from what I know, the guy's not that strong. He even got duped by the Sitting Oblivion Dao last time."
That comprehensive talisman manual had been traded from Blind Chen's hands.
"Fortune-tellers can't divine themselves. He's useless at other things, but when it comes to divination, few in the Supervising Heaven Bureau can match him. He might not be up to it, but what he believes in is." With that, the Buddha Jade Furnace mounted his horse.
"What he believes in?" Li Huowang mused thoughtfully. "Could there be a Siye specifically in charge of fortune-telling? Past and future are in constant motion—can that guy really divine it?"
Li Huowang and the others soon departed, leaving behind a ground strewn with corpses. Crows and vultures began gathering in the sky, partaking in this unexpected feast.
As one crow pried open its beak to peck at an eyeball, a large shoeless foot stomped down, crushing it so that its innards spilled from its mouth.
"See? What did I tell you? Taishan, it's not yet time to rise. Make the slightest stir, and the Supervising Heaven Bureau comes sniffing like dogs after shit."
A man in a large robe adorned with colorful cloth strips strolled leisurely amid the corpses, a pitch-black cloth draped over his left shoulder.
At his side, the one called Taishan was an ugly dwarf with black fur sprouting from his ears. Though his features were crude, he wore an exquisitely elegant white opera robe, and the white headscarf on his head matched the black cloth on the other man's shoulder.
"Mm, indeed. But the Dharma Cult's followers are still too few. How long must we lie low before our immortal soldiers descend?"
"No rush, no rush. I know this place better than you. Though we serve different aspects of the Child God, as fellow witch ministers, why would I, Heixin, deceive you?"
"What you need to do now is have your people go dormant, disguising themselves as disaster refugees from Great Qi, and gather all the scattered followers from other places."
"Great Liang is the strongest realm in all the world. Once our Dharma Cult seizes Great Liang, the rest will fall easily."
The witch minister called Taishan pondered for a moment before nodding. "Fine. You have more people, so I'll follow your lead. But before that, I want your people to team up with mine to snatch that person's sword."
"Whose sword?"
"The bone sword of that red-robed kid. It's the spine bone of a Three Pure Hearts Coiled. I have great need of it."
"Alright. They seemed to be looking for you just now, so use yourself as bait. Set a trap and ambush them."
"Don't get careless. That one gives me an odd feeling. And best not to use our Dharma Cult identity—don't draw fire to ourselves."
"Rest assured. I'll bring some skilled hands. Truth be told, our Dharma Cult isn't exactly vermin everyone wants to beat in Great Liang—we have plenty of like-minded friends."