Chapter 45: Fierce Ghosts Escaping? Raid Their Lair!

Having run far away and successfully escaped the encirclement, Meng Xiyue stood atop a wall, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Hey, you two, hurry over here! Something is terribly wrong over there, and more red light is flying across the sky! Run, hurry up and run!!"

Yuan Zhu and Zhou Chu looked up simultaneously. Sure enough, in the western sky of the Buddha City, a deep, dark red bloody light was rapidly approaching. As the dark red blood clouds drew closer, an icy, desolate, and utterly lifeless aura of death began to spread, accompanied by the sounds of wailing, spiteful, and filth-laden cursed Buddhist scriptures...

A hoarse, low voice echoed through the heavens: "Thief Duowen, return my life!" Following this, dense and countless ghost-cursed chants resounded across the area, creating an immensely grandiose spectacle.

As the dark red blood clouds drew closer, it became clear that it was a gigantic, tattered, bleeding kasaya, rolling forward through the air and kicking up billows of bloody mist. When the kasaya blotted out the starry sky and arrived above the square, the churning rags began to twist, outlining a withered human face staring down from above.

The human face opened the mouth formed by the kasaya, howling like a ghost: "Thief Duowen, you shall not attain Buddhahood tonight!"

On the ground, a considerable number of tainted-bone fiends, who still retained a shred of sanity, instinctively knelt and kowtowed upon hearing this hoarse and resentful voice: "Lord Buddha Longyin! Lord Buddha Longyin! Kill, kill, kill! Have mercy, Lord Buddha, grant me flesh and blood, I'm starving, starving, starving... Ah!"

"Good, good, good, you still remember me. You are the true believers; come and take refuge in my Buddha!"

The enormous blood-red kasaya face opened its jaws wide, plunging fiercely downward from the sky to take a savage bite out of the most densely packed crowd. Then, the tattered, ragged blood kasaya split into countless strips of fabric, wrapping around and binding the tainted-bone fiends, squeezing and twisting them with brute force, wringing them out like a wet towel until they burst, splashing onto the blood kasaya to be absorbed...

The next moment, mottled red and green tattered strips of cloth detached from the giant kasaya, transforming into smaller kasaya ghost faces. They too opened their mouths to emit demonic sounds, bewitching the crowd: "Why not hurry and take refuge in the Orthodox Dharma of Longyin?"

For a time, the Duowen Buddha-tomato remained half-hidden within the green plant hemisphere, holding its ground without moving; the Yellow Springs kasaya ghost descending from the sky began to bewitch the tainted-bone fiends and recruit old followers. By crushing, squeezing, and evenly smearing them, it cultivated ordinary civilians into miniature kasaya ghosts that flew about haphazardly in the sky.

"Was the old abbot killed by the tomato Buddha?" Yuan Zhu gossiped.

"Have you got a death wish? You still have the energy to care about that?" The edges of the blood kasaya had already enveloped them. Zhou Chu grabbed Yuan Zhu, who still wanted to go over and loot the corpses, and dragged him along in a frantic sprint, shouting, "Run!"

By this time, Meng Xiyue had run even further and climbed onto the roof of a two-story building. Once again cupping her hands around her mouth, she pointed at Yuan Zhu and Zhou Chu and gestured frantically: "Hey! Change direction! Not that way! Change direction! Hurry up and run!!"

Boom, boom, boom!

A slight vibration rumbled through the stone-paved ground. Moving away from the square, on the opposite side of the street they were advancing toward, they vaguely spotted a swaying, gigantic human figure.

wisps of starlight pierced through the violently dancing, massive blood kasaya, illuminating the city of Naye once more.

Beneath the red glow, Yuan Zhu clearly saw the entity ahead: it was a giant martial monk standing over three meters tall, with thick, powerful limbs and a bloated, protruding belly. This monk had a fierce expression, a necklace of skulls hanging around his neck, and the appearance of someone who had been dead for a very long time—undoubtedly a giant corpse-demon.

Aside from the normal arms a human should possess, a pair of fleshy Buddhist cocoons bulged out from behind his left and right shoulder blades, mutating into an additional pair of huge Buddha palms. Furthermore, right in the center of his high-protruding belly grew an exceptionally large fifth limb.

This guy had a full five arms!

His mastery of Buddhist teachings was boundless. Comparing this to the confession of the young novice monk Kutcao, this should be the very first Yellow Springs Ghost King of Naye State, the Abbot of Vajra Temple, the Five-Armed Heavenly King—the Buddha-Corpse Demon!

The blood kasaya floating in the sky, Lord Buddha Longyin, had tried to suppress it, only to fight to exhaustion... and die a miserable death. Yet judging by the victim's own account, he had apparently been backstabbed and murdered by Abbot Duowen?

Then Abbot Duowen had acquired the power of otherworldly castaways (tomato people), which led to tonight's grand ritual, intending to use the starlight to complete his evolution, attain Buddhahood, and subsequently wipe out the two Ghost Kings.

Now, the Ghost King had personally come to settle the score!

"Escape this way!"

Sensing the repeated, super-level emergency warnings transmitted by the [Immortal Scripture], Yuan Zhu dared not linger and court death. He grabbed Zhou Chu by the arm and dived into a narrow alley, dodging the fierce melee between the Buddha-Corpse Demon, the Blood Kasaya, and the Buddha-Tomato as best as he could.

"My children, subdue the heavenly demons and guide them to Buddhahood!"

The flesh-mountain of a Five-Armed Heavenly King took a single step, shrinking the earth beneath its feet. A massive horde of flesh-cultivating skeletons surged out from behind it.

The giant palm on the Vajra Ghost King's belly grabbed and yanked at the void, tearing open the ghost domain projected by the blood kasaya from afar, and bellowed: "Old dog Longyin, get out of Buddha's way immediately! These are all my children! Such strong vital blood, natural martial monk material—let Buddha guide you!"

The giant palm on the abdomen of the Buddha-Corpse Demon swung and grabbed into empty space once more, snatching a robust tainted-bone fiend from afar and subduing it within the giant Buddha palm in the blink of an eye.

Immediately after, the pair of Dharma palms behind the Buddha-Corpse Demon locked onto the fiend's head, pressed their palms together, and slammed them against the sides of the fiend's ears—*bam!* With a single strike, the head exploded into pieces, leaving behind a violently twitching, headless corpse that was not yet fully dead.

"Hahaha, my Buddha is merciful... Such abundant vital energy, such wonderful Buddhist sons and grandsons! Let Buddha guide you!"

The Dharma palm behind its back grabbed its own right forearm, forcefully bent and snapped it, and with a *rip*, tore the right arm off right at the elbow. Holding the severed arm in its Dharma palm, it aimed it at the neck of the headless fiend and forcefully shoved it in!

The foreign object (the severed arm) struck, invading the flesh and blood as tainted blood frantically converged to resist the intrusion from within. At the same time, the severed ghostly hand of the Buddha-Corpse Demon began instilling deathly aura into this vibrant body.

A massive influx of life force poured into the severed arm, beginning a process of modification in an attempt to resurrect it. Nourished by this life force, the severed hand genuinely began to grow, turning green bit by bit and swelling to twice the size of a human head, taking on a ghastly green hue. A slit split open along the lines of the palm, blinking open a huge eye.

Even as the tainted blood invaded and modified the hand, the severed palm simultaneously emitted a massive amount of deathly qi, bit by bit snuffing out the vitality of the body and transforming it into a new corpse-demon.

In the end, a skeleton martial monk with a green chayote-melon for a head, blinking a single huge green eye and using a palm as its head, trembled as it joined the melee.

"Good grief, another mutated hybrid has been born! What kind of green, grotesque version of Wang Lingguan (Monkey King) is this? Sister Zhou, do you think we should call it chayote or tomato-hand?"

Having climbed to the roof of a building, Zhou Chu ignored Yuan Zhu, instead gazing with a solemn expression at the chaotic, slaughter-filled square.

The Buddha-Tomato remained in deep meditation, indifferent to the outside world, while a multitude of civilians infected by the maddened blood were either transformed into ghosts by the blood kasaya or turned into Buddha-hand ghosts by the Buddha-Corpse Demon...

At this moment, Buddhist dharma, Yellow Springs, starlight, and tainted blood were locked in a multi-party melee, devouring one another and giving birth to one bizarre, deformed product after another. No sooner was one born than it was destroyed and consumed. And after devouring massive quantities of mutated fruits, a new round of mutations erupted, making the entities even stronger and more grotesque.

It was quite literally a closed-loop Shura Gu-poison jar.

Yuan Zhu felt a sense of regret: "Hiss...! How are we supposed to make a fortune like this? Getting close is instant death, and those two Ghost Kings don't look weak in the slightest."

Zhou Chu stopped observing the square, turned to survey the entire city of Naye instead, and abruptly said, "Let's go take a look at the temple!"

Yuan Zhu slapped his hands together in agreement: "Good idea!"

At this moment, not only was Duowen in the middle of attaining Buddhahood, but the two strongest Ghost Kings in the city had also been drawn here to obstruct the process. This meant that their respective lairs were currently at their emptiest—it was the absolute best opportunity for exploration and looting.

"Let's go!"

Yuan Zhu pulled out his rat-device, snapped open the insect segment corresponding to Meng Xiyue, lengthened the rat-head antenna, and began fiddling with it.

"Hello? Hello? Hello? This is Yuan Zhu, report if you copy."

Soon, he made contact with Meng Xiyue, learning that she and Mai Lili were fleeing together. As for Lü Rang, he had been lured by a luxury mansion a short while ago and had scaled the wall to search for gold and jewels. As for Granny Yu, after successfully escaping, she had taken hold of her little goat and chosen a direction to leave, seemingly having plans of her own.

Thus, through the rat-device, he briefly explained his and Zhou Chu's intentions. Meng Xiyue readily agreed, and the two parties arranged to rendezvous at the entrance of the inn.

When they regrouped, the squad was down to just four people. Yuan Zhu suddenly furrowed his brow, looked at Meng Xiyue and Zhou Chu, and said, "You three should stick together. Go ransack the temple; I have other urgent matters to attend to."

"What are you going to do?" Zhou Chu's gaze was sharp as she stared fixedly at Yuan Zhu. They had clearly agreed to go loot the temple together—why was he suddenly dropping out halfway?

Without offering any explanation, Yuan Zhu replied, "I have another opportunity awaiting me, so I won't compete with you for the resources in the temple."

"Alright, alright, little brother Yuan, go ahead and do your thing. But let me remind you, this Naye city is getting more and more dangerous. Once you finish your business, get out of the city as quickly as possible, and we'll regroup outside the walls. In case you run into danger in the city, you can contact us; if we still have spare energy, we'll try to pull you through," Meng Xiyue waved her hand, signaling for Yuan Zhu to leave.

They had only met by chance, after all; there was no need to die together.

Zhou Chu also warned him: "Absolutely do not feed the magic cocoon to your clothes! I'll be watching you."

Yuan Zhu: "Rest assured, I have no interest in this crappy thing. Even if it's a Buddha cocoon, I don't plan on feeding it to my clothes. No more chit-chat, see you later!"

With that, he changed direction and sprinted like mad toward Vajra Temple, the stronghold of the Buddha-Corpse Demon.

As the muscular power throughout his body erupted and he ran with all his might, the uniform he wore shifted slightly. With Yuan Zhu's frequent operations and use, coupled with his subconscious desires, the uniform gradually took on the style of a racing motorcycle suit.

It was the exact model he used to wear back on Earth when street-racing. Aside from the helmet, which failed to materialize, all other gear was fully present, including racing gloves on both hands. It looked exceptionally safe and life-preserving.

This feeling of being tightly sealed all over gave him a psychological sense of security, isolating him from external pollution. Furthermore, the style of the racing suit indeed offered higher defense than ordinary clothes, perfectly matching his subconscious desire: to stay alive while looking effortlessly cool!