Mutated Tao

The sounds of the bronze bell and drums filled the dark cave.

Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Dong~ Dong~ Dong~

Amidst the harmony of the two sounds, the Wandering Gods, the Second Deity, and all of Li Huowang’s companions were fighting off against the female Lion Dance.

Li Huowang did not run to help them. Instead he focused on the Lion Dance on the ceiling that was falling downward. He couldn’t let the two Lion Dances trap them!

Jiang!

Li Huowang unsheathed his sword and ran as fast as he could toward the male Lion Dance.

Meanwhile, the various black legs of the Lion Dance under the white tassels and white sheet of the Lion Dance started to tap aggressively as it ran towards Li Huowang.

Soon both of them were close enough to see each other's faces, and both of them saw the killing intent contained within the other’s eyes.

Both of them clashed. The giant Lion Dance rammed into Li Huowang, brushing the white tassels on its body toward Li Huowang.

But both of its attacks missed. On the other hand, Li Huowang raised his sword and sliced it downward toward the side of the Lion Dance.

Both of them quickly ran past each other. Li Huowang was unharmed while several feet of the Lion Dance were cut off.

What the Lion Dance saw was just an illusion of Li Huowang. Li Huowang had already separated his main body and illusion before he ran over here.

Staring at the unharmed Li Huowang, the Lion Dance’s massive lantern-like left eye moved upward, revealing a round black hole. Then, seven to eight arms resembling dried up monkey paws extended outward from behind and placed themselves neatly into rows like eyelashes.

Soon, several irregularly-shaped eyes filled the empty eye socket. At the same time, the man’s face became very scary with the several small eyes all staring at Li Huowang’s true body.

Li Huowang clenched his teeth, feeling a chill run down his spine. Regardless of what it was, it was definitely not a Lion Dance!

After a moment, Li Huowang threw his crutches away and stabbed his broken leg into the ground. His eyes were filled with killing intent as he roared, “Come!”

Then, he held the sword in front of him before swiping his left hand toward the sword. Instantly, two of his fingertips were cleanly cut as they started expanding in midair. With a pop, the sharp bone exploded from the flesh and flew toward the Lion Dance.

The bone bullets were extremely fast. The Lion Dance failed to avoid them and soon, two bloody holes appeared on its large face.

The two bone bullets had penetrated the face and continued to penetrate through its entire body. Accompanying the sound of tearing flesh was the sticky black blood flowing down the feet underneath the white sheet.

The performers of the Lion Dance were hurt, but they did not give up. The Lion Dance shook its body rigorously and the white tassels shot themselves toward Li Huowang.

However, Li Huowang had already anticipated this. He quickly took out a plier and pulled two of his molars out of his mouth. The two molars exploded in the air, causing the white tassels to be torn apart and fall listlessly toward the ground.

At the same time, the Lion Dance itself was also torn by the shrapnels from the exploding teeth. Reddish-black blood seeped out of the white sheet, making it look even more fearsome.

At this point, while the Lion Dance had realized that it was no match for Li Huowang, it still didn’t say anything. The feet below the white sheet quickly moved as they dragged away its torn body into the darkness.

But how could Li Huowang let it escape so easily? He quickly shoved the pliers into his mouth again.

In the face of Li Huowang’s attacks, the wounded Lion Dance soon died.

Then, without waiting to catch his breath, Li Huowang quickly ran over to help out his comrades. Once he joined in, the other Lion Dance also fell quite quickly.

Li Huowang leapt onto the Lion Dance head and stabbed his sword down, slicing right through the neck and chopping off the Lion Dance’s head!

Without the head, the Lion Dance soon slumped onto the ground.

Bam!

The Lion Dance fell heavily and thick blood seeped out from underneath it, staining the ground with reddish-black blood.

Li Huowang retrieved his sword and leapt down. Then, he looked at everyone who had been spooked and asked, “Is everyone alright?”

“Everything’s fine. It’s just that Gao Zhijian’s left ear was touched by the white tassels, causing it to shift downward by an inch. Those white tassels were most likely the things that Sun Baolu had touched before,” Chun Xiaoman answered him.

Li Huowang nodded when he saw Gao Zhijian now have one ear lower than the other. Then, he wiped the blood off his sword and placed it back into its sheath before turning around and inspecting the two Lion Dances.

Behind the flattened faces of the Lion Dance were not live humans, but masses consisting of fleshy corpses.

The entirety of the Lion Dance was just one body. It didn’t matter whether they were the hands or the feet, all of them originated from a single, grotesque body. Underneath the white sheet, various organs were connected to each other with blood vessels, confirming Li Huowang’s suspicions.

Li Huowang didn’t know whether these beings were born like that, or whether they were made by humans. But no matter what, their situation was quite bad; in fact, it might have just gotten even worse.

The truly scary thing about the Lion Dances was the fact that they were not confined to the underground, and that they could appear in the open in Qing Qiu. They were even accepted as a part of life by the people of Qing Qiu!

But while Li Huowang was sad, he was no longer surprised anymore.

“Heavens… What is this…” Puppy was too shocked to even speak properly.

“Im… im… impossible! This cannot be right!” Sun Baolu stared at the Lion Dance corpse with a complicated look on his face. Everything that he had learned to accept in the past ten years was toppled over just like that. “Senior Li, what… What are they?”

At this moment, Li Huowang was standing beside the male Lion Dance corpse. He didn’t have the luxury to think about what would happen to those living within Qing Qiu. In the end, they were just passers by who were passing through Qing Qiu so it didn't matter to him.

Instead, he was thinking about another problem.

Li Huowang stabbed the organs and flesh of the Lion Dance as he tried to find something.

“Senior Li, what are you finding?” asked Puppy.

“I’m finding Death,” answered Li Huowang. However, Puppy didn't understand what he was saying.

“What?”

Li Huowang was too lazy to explain and just continued examining the massive corpses in front of him.

Something’s not right here. The RIghteous Monastery had the lustful flesh Buddha and those monks could use powers related to flesh. The Benevolent Nunnery had the decaying Bodhisattva and they could use powers related to decay. But these Lion Dances… They did not use any powers related to death even though this place worships it… Unless… there’s another sect underneath here?!

As his thoughts reached this point, Li Huowang turned to look toward the giant cauldron. His body felt numb from the cold. This place was far more crowded than he had originally thought.

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