Compassion

The "tap, tap, tap" of the Wooden Fish struck again and again, making Li Huowang's anger flare.

"Li Sui, let's go! Let's see what sort of demons and monsters they are!" Li Huowang pulled several swords from beneath his pillow and, with Li Sui in tow, raced across the roof tiles toward the sound.

Li Huowang soon found its source. It was a group of monks—or, more precisely, monks so thin they looked like skeletons.

The monks sat cross-legged at the entrance to the village, striking their Wooden Fish again and again. The nearby refugees seemed to have awakened, yet none dared peek outside. They buried their heads deep in the straw, trembling all over.

The instant Li Huowang appeared, the monks all turned to look at him. Some did not look with their eyes, but with the ordination scars atop their heads, from which Eye Stalks with eyeballs crawled in and out like maggots.

"Amitabha. This humble monk greets you, benefactor."

Li Huowang looked at the old monk speaking before him. Though the man was so thin he barely looked human, Li Huowang recognized him at once. This monk looked exactly like the hallucinated monk beside him—he was the abbot of Zhengde Temple in Great Qi!

"Amitabha. This humble monk has come to seek alms and hopes that you, benefactor, might give generously." As he spoke, they pushed the copper alms bowls on the ground forward, and the sound of the Wooden Fish abruptly stopped.

"Seeking alms? I refuse to give you any! What are you going to do about it?" Li Sui's black tentacles instantly burst from within Li Huowang's body, each one entwined with talismans and instruments of torture as they hovered in the air.

Footsteps sounded behind Li Huowang. Bai Lingmiao stood silently behind him with