Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 76
>Chapter Title: Bamboo Slips
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“I can’t let Danyangzi come out again.”
After carefully pondering the series of events that happened after Danyangzi appeared, Li Huowang reached this conclusion.
Comparing the first time with the Joy God, the second time with the Buddha, and today’s third time, Li Huowang discovered an obvious pattern.
The first time, he could only vaguely hear Danyangzi’s voice.
The second time, he could already see his appearance.
And by the third time, not only could Danyangzi communicate with him, but he had also begun controlling his emotions with killing intent, and even made him unable to recognize some ordinary characters.
No matter what Danyangzi had turned into now, his influence was growing more pronounced each time.
Danyangzi had never been so kind-hearted from start to finish. Everything he did was to seize this body of his.
Even under his protection, where he wouldn’t die from other causes, it wouldn’t be long before he completely turned into him.
If that situation really arose, Li Huowang absolutely could not accept it. He’d rather die than become the person he hated most.
A pair of fair hands reached over and gently grasped his right hand.
Li Huowang, with his brows tightly furrowed, looked up into those concerned pink eyes and shook his head slightly. He didn’t explain anything.
Li Huowang picked up the Avatamsaka Sutra in his hand and casually flipped it open to glance at a page.
“This book is useless.” After passing judgment, Li Huowang tossed it away, throwing the Avatamsaka Sutra back into the wooden chest.
After reading the contents of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Li Huowang remembered that he had heard monks reciting it at Zhengde Temple, and from different monks’ hands at that.
It was just a widely copied Buddhist scripture. He could probably buy one at any bookstore. Compared to this, the gold, silver, and jewels were far more valuable.
When Li Huowang returned to the pile of treasures, he saw Gouwa leading the others, excitedly dragging all the chests filled with valuables toward the outside of the house.
But this job was very strenuous, after all, gold and silver were still metal no matter how valuable.
“Forget the silver. Just take the gold jewelry. This gold is enough for us to spend on the road.”
As soon as Li Huowang said this, Gouwa jumped up in a hurry.
“Senior Brother Li!! This is silver! Shiny white silver!”
Li Huowang kicked the extremely heavy chest beside him and spoke.
“Do you know how heavy this silver is? We still need to carry people. If we sink the boat, you planning to swim out carrying the silver on your back?”
“This gold is enough for us to live on for a lifetime. Don’t be too greedy. Hurry up and go.”
Gouwa was still reluctant, stuffing silver ingots into his clothes nonstop.
“Then at least take a bit more. With this much silver, how many wives could we marry? How many oxen could we buy?”
Li Huowang ignored him and, taking all the gold with the others, turned and led everyone away.
The bulging Gouwa hurriedly chased after them from behind, but after just a few steps, he was already panting from exhaustion.
Seeing the others’ silhouettes growing farther away, Gouwa stomped his foot in frustration, hastily discarded some silver ingots, and hurried to catch up.
Li Huowang walked out of the storeroom and was just about to lead the others toward the outside of the village when he thought for a moment and headed toward the kitchen instead.
Before long, when he came out again, the gold in his hands had been replaced by two dead children with purple-black faces.
“Go into the village and find a few jars. Later, after we leave, burn them and collect the ashes in the jars. We can’t deliver the living, but at least let them return to their roots like fallen leaves.”
“Yes, Senior Brother Li.”
The others said this and were about to go find jars when a flash of blood-red light streaked from the side, whistling toward them.
“Everyone dodge!” Li Huowang, body tensed, instinctively threw himself backward.
A red gleam passed over his chest, effortlessly slicing the two dead Taoist boys in half.
Cold sweat poured down Li Huowang’s back. If not for these two drowned Taoist boys blocking it, he might have just been cut in half.
“Find cover to hide behind! There are still living people in the village!”
When Li Huowang, bell in one hand and sword in the other, cautiously poked his head out from behind a large jar, he finally noticed some bloodstained white fragments scattered on the ground in the distance.
“What was that thing that attacked us just now?” The answer came quickly as heavy footsteps sounded, and a figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
Xiaoman tossed a glowing stone at his feet, illuminating his face. They recognized this man—the previous boatman.
“This guy’s still alive!?” This thought flashed through everyone’s minds, including Li Huowang’s.
Yuan Er, blood streaming from his mouth, held a reddish ancient bamboo slip in his right hand and a black iron pincer in his left.
Looking at his bleeding mouth, Li Huowang immediately realized what those white things were.
“Come out! Come out! Little bald nose! So you have your limits too!!”
Yuan Er, eyes threaded with blood, thrust the pincer into his mouth and clamped down on an incisor, yanking hard.
As he muttered something in a low voice against the red bamboo slip with his bleeding mouth, that tooth was swiftly enveloped in blood, shooting into a nearby thatched hut like a meteor.
Xiaoman’s scream from inside made Li Huowang’s heart tighten.
“Ding ding ding!!” The bell rang abruptly, and two Wandering Lords skimmed the ground toward Yuan Er.
“Pah!” Yuan Er spat a thick glob of blood onto the ground, then raised the pincer again. This time, he aimed not at his teeth, but at his remaining solitary eye.
With a “pop,” as the eyeball burst, a bizarre light enveloped the surroundings. The two Wandering Lords seemed stuck to something, collapsing to the ground and unable to move.
“Die!! All of you die together!!”
After roaring loudly, Yuan Er drew a small knife from his waist and plunged it into his own throat.
Even as his body trembled from the pain, he scraped vigorously at his own flesh.
The bell rang again, and over a dozen Wandering Lords coalesced from all directions, lunging swiftly at Yuan Er.
When Yuan Er placed these things from his hand onto the bamboo slip, all the Wandering Lords vanished instantly.
And as Yuan Er’s flesh was absorbed by the bamboo slip, the dead object suddenly came alive.
Using Yuan Er’s tongue and vocal cords, the bamboo slip began to speak.
As soon as that extremely eerie duck-like voice emerged, the heavens and earth changed in an instant.
“One Tongue Turns the Wheel! One Lash Spans the Myriad Worlds! Mystic Realms’ Extremes, Beyond Words’ Grasp! Heaven’s Good and Gods’ Strangeness, Dare Not Etch with Vital Breath! My Lord Supreme! How Dare You Panic!?”
(End of chapter)