"This strike... is for my missing martial uncle!!"
"Roar—!!"
Xu Yunzi let out an earth-shattering scream.
Hatred intensified the burning of the Hatred Fire. Under the erosion of the resentment fire, which ignored all defenses, the wolf heart instantly became incredibly fragile.
Black sword qi exploded wildly within his body, shredding the countless parasitic human hearts one by one.
"No... impossible... my longevity... my demon body..."
Xu Yunzi's massive frame collapsed with a roar, kicking up a cloud of snow dust.
Li Zhaoye knelt beside his master's corpse, drew his sword, and struck again, and again.
"This strike is for my junior sister who died in battle!"
"And this strike is for that unknown boy!"
Li Zhaoye hacked away like a madman until he had minced that wolf heart into a pulp.
Chen Zhou walked forward slowly and reached into the pile of mangled flesh.
Soon, two balls of dazzling light separated from Xu Yunzi's corpse.
【You obtained a piece of broken divinity — Decay】
【You obtained a piece of broken divinity — Lie】
Chen Zhou was in a great mood. Another piece of Decay; he had another pair.
Including his previous accumulation, he now held two pieces of 【Destruction】, two of 【Decay】, two of 【Corrosion】, one of 【Envy】, and one of 【Lie】.
He already had three sets that were one short of completion. It was a massive harvest of divinity.
"It looks like the heart of a seventh-stage great demon."
Chen Zhou looked at the mass of lifeless, mangled flesh in his hand, a hint of contemplation flashing in his eyes.
"Madman."
"What?" Wu Gou opened his eyes and let out a drunken burp.
"Besides that old dog, Moon-Swallowing, who else is a seventh-stage great demon in the Northern Region?"
"None. Just that one dog." Wu Gou shook his wine jar.
"If there's only one, then where did Xu Yunzi get this wolf heart?" Chen Zhou asked with a faint, knowing smile.
Wu Gou rolled his eyes. "You've already guessed it, haven't you? Why even ask me? That's the problem with smart people—they see through everything too clearly."
Wu Gou pointed at Xu Yunzi on the ground, then toward the distant Moon-Swallowing Wolf Court.
"That great war ten years ago was actually just a transaction."
"Xu Yunzi, a human cultivator, grew weary of human fragility. He craved the physique of a demon and wanted to fully transform to seek eternal life."
"The Moon-Swallowing Wolf Saint, a demon cultivator, grew tired of demonic savagery. He longed for human Buddhist nature, hoping to use it to become a Moon-Howling Arhat and achieve enlightenment."
"And so, they hit it off."
"'You give me your wolf heart to help me transform into a demon, and I'll give you human hearts to help you practice Buddhism.'"
"This is the Heart-Swapping Method."
Wu Gou sighed, his tone filled with the absurdity of it all.
Chen Zhou nodded, pondering.
"So, only people from the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Court and the Heavenly Sword Sect die in the Northern Region because they are the consumables for this transaction?"
"Once mortals enter the Heavenly Sword Sect, they lose the immortality attribute granted by the Ksitigarbha of Great Vows and return to being ordinary flesh and blood."
"Then, in the slaughter with the wolf demons, they die in battle, and their souls are swapped."
"Those with human bodies and demon souls are taken by the Moon-Swallowing Wolf Court for Moon-Swallowing to comprehend humanity."
"Those with demon bodies and human souls are taken by the Heavenly Sword Sect for Xu Yunzi to temper his demon body."
"Truly, they each took what they needed."
Chen Zhou looked at the werewolves still howling in confusion, gave a cold snort, and kicked Xu Yunzi's corpse aside.
Meanwhile, in the ten-thousand-foot abyss underground.
The corrupted realm earthworm was also kicked away by Zen Master Wu Hai.
"Boom!!"
The river of magma surged with hundred-foot waves as countless tentacles were blown into the air.
The bone Arhat that Zen Master Wu Hai had manifested was now missing an arm, and the bones across his body were pitted and scarred from being gnawed by the corrupted creature, which was likely a realm earthworm.
Yet the soul fire in his eyes burned more vigorously than ever before.
"Dammit, you long worm sure can take a beating!"
Zen Master Wu Hai swung his monk staff with one hand, delivering a heavy blow to the head of the realm earthworm.
The realm earthworm was not faring well either.
Its massive body had been hammered into several segments by Zen Master Wu Hai. Foul-smelling yellow fluid leaked from the large holes eroded by death qi all over its body.
The realm earthworm let out a cry of agony. It wanted to flee, to burrow deeper into the earth.
However, an order from its chaotic sea of consciousness compelled it to guard this place.
"Want to run? Why didn't you think about running when you messed with my dog!"
Zen Master Wu Hai had seen red and was in no mood to let it go.
He lunged forward, his sole remaining bone claw clamping down hard on the realm earthworm's seven-inch spot.
"Die for the Buddha Lord!!"
Zen Master Wu Hai directly detonated one of his own ribs.
"Rumble—"
A violent explosion erupted inside the realm earthworm.
With a piercing shriek, the terrifying monster that had guarded this underground for centuries finally went still.
The rotting giant worm's body shriveled rapidly, eventually turning into a puddle of pus that merged into the magma.
Gasping for breath, Zen Master Wu Hai climbed off the realm earthworm's corpse. He picked up his severed rib and shoved it back into his chest cavity.
Though he put it in backward, he didn't care.
He limped toward the massive ball of flesh.
"Silly dog... silly dog..."
Zen Master Wu Hai's voice trembled slightly.
He raised his monk staff and carefully shattered the golden light of the seal on the surface of the flesh ball.
As the seal broke, the flesh ball slowly opened like a wilting flower.
Within the flesh ball, there seemed to be another world.
Dust swirled amidst surging heat waves.
At the very center was not the majestic divine beast Huo Dou from Zen Master Wu Hai's memory—the one cloaked in black fire that could swallow a mountain in one bite.
Instead, it was a gaunt, skeletal giant black dog.
It stood a hundred yards tall, yet it was curled into a small ball.
Two thick chains ruthlessly pierced its shoulder blades, pinning it firmly to the bottom of the magma river.
Countless vessel-like tubes were plugged into its body, extracting not only its fiendish qi but also its origin fire.
The extracted fire was transported upward through umbilical cords outside the flesh ball, providing a constant stream of energy to the entire Northern Region.
Zen Master Wu Hai didn't understand what the energy was for, but he could vaguely sense an exquisite Buddhist dharma within it, seemingly related to souls.
All he knew was that his Huo Dou's eyes were half-open, containing only deathly stillness—no light, no rage.
Like a pile of burnt-out ashes.
"Huo Dou..."
Zen Master Wu Hai dropped his monk staff and collapsed to his knees with a thud.
Trembling, he reached out and touched Huo Dou's massive fangs.
They were ice-cold.
What should have been the most scorching fire beast in the world was now as cold as ten-thousand-year-old ice.
"Who... who did this..."
Zen Master Wu Hai's voice choked. Although a skeleton has no tears, his grief was hotter than magma.
"They turned you... into a boiler?"
"They actually dared to treat my sect-protecting divine beast like a goddamn boiler?!"
It seemed to catch a familiar scent.
Huo Dou's eyes shifted slightly.
It saw the battered skeleton before it.
Though its appearance had changed—it was uglier and weaker now.
But that scent...
It was the smelly monk who loved to whack its head with a big stick yet always secretly saved meat bones from offerings for it.
"Whimper..."
A faint whimper squeezed out of Huo Dou's throat.
Two lines of scalding liquid flowed from its withered eyes, landing on Zen Master Wu Hai's bones with a sizzle and leaving two black scorch marks.
"Don't cry, don't cry, you silly dog."
Zen Master Wu Hai hurriedly tried to wipe away its tears, but they only fell faster.
"I'm here. Lord Wu Hai has come to get you."
"Dammit, I'm going to tear the Northern Region apart! I'll grind the bones of those bastards into powder to feed you as dog food!"
Zen Master Wu Hai roared, frantically tearing out the tubes plugged into Huo Dou.
"Snap! Snap! Snap!"
With every tube he ripped away, Huo Dou's body shuddered, but the light in its eyes grew brighter.
Finally, all the tubes were severed.
Zen Master Wu Hai raised his monk staff and channeled every last drop of his strength, slamming it against the chains piercing the shoulder blades.
"Open for the Buddha Lord!!"
"Clang!!"
Sparks flew everywhere.
The chains snapped.
Huo Dou was finally free.
It struggled to stand, but its limbs buckled from prolonged inactivity, and it nearly collapsed.
Zen Master Wu Hai rushed forward immediately, bracing his shoulder against its massive head.
"It's okay, it's okay. The Buddha Lord's got you."
Zen Master Wu Hai patted Huo Dou's nose, grinning to reveal a hideous smile.
"Let's go. We're going home."
"The Founding Ancestor is waiting for us up there."
"Let me tell you, our Bone Temple is doing great now. The Founding Ancestor is incredibly powerful—way stronger than I ever was."
"We won't be eating dead men's bones anymore. The Founding Ancestor said he'd treat us to the best of everything."
"Once I've fattened you up, we'll storm back to the Wolf Court and stew that old bald ass Ksitigarbha too!"
Rate on N.U.
