Iron Garb and Monk's Robes

Foreword:

I remember those days when I flew across the grass, my iron armor worn out, now replaced by a monk's robe.

--Huang Chao

[Part 1: Like a Dream]

Rows of low stools were set up around the sacrificial site at the hearth in the mountain town. Wu Xiuwen, in a daze and with faltering steps, limped to the Blood Jade Bodhisattva Guanyin statue, already looking like a dead man.

After the Buddha Sculptor died, the spiritual power of this [Merit Box] gradually lost its effectiveness. There was originally a penetrating wound in his abdomen, which the local earth god transformed into rock fragments through a clever trick.

But now, as the rock fragments gradually crumbled and destroyed, blood began to flow from his stomach, and soon his rotting intestines could be seen protruding. The same was true of the gash on his head.

Xiuwen knew he was probably not going to make it.

The intense pain made it difficult for him to think; even his clever mind was dulled and no longer functioning properly. Driven solely by his will to survive, he reached the Blood Jade Guanyin Bodhisattva, hoping to obtain some Immortal Honey to save himself—this distance of seven or eight hundred steps determined his life or death.

When Wu Xiuwen first left the grassland and ran away from the Buddha Sculptor, he immediately regretted it—why did he give the last bit of his Immortal Honey to those unfortunate people in the jars who had lost their limbs?

He didn't understand, didn't comprehend his own choice; perhaps he had gone mad at the time.

Such a little mercy, such a little kindness, and you want to send him to the underworld, kick him into a quagmire worse than death, and make him take this long road, circling around Black Wind Town, just to survive.

What's the use of pouring some Immortal Honey into the jar of human pigs? Even if these creatures feel a little better or more comfortable, it's all in vain. They won't experience any real joy in life, so they might as well die sooner.

Wu Xiuwen, how could you make such a mistake?

Once he entered the town center, he regretted it even more. The excruciating pain of his intestines being ripped open was like a thousand insects burrowing into his heart. The dizziness from his splitting skull amplified the pain even more. He could barely walk, could not see clearly, and the more he wiped the blood off his face, the more blood appeared.

When he reached the hearth, he had neither the mind nor the energy to regret it. The layers upon layers of low stools became one obstacle after another.

He felt his eyelids drooping, the sky and the earth darkening, his body growing cold, and his hands and feet going numb.

Only one thought remained in my mind--

Master, Master

Did I guess right, Master?

Did I do it right?

Have I settled all my debts with the Zhao Brothers? What do I still owe them?

Wu Cheng Zhang wanted to kill Xiangxiang, so I'm here to settle this score. What do I still owe her?

"Mother."

Before a person dies, they will instinctively call out a name, a substitute.

The vast majority died far from home, or were seriously wounded and near death in the war.

In the arms of their companions, under the care of doctors, when they finally experience blood loss and blackouts, these wanderers will call out for their fathers and mothers.

Wu Xiuwen was abandoned at a young age. To put it nicely, he was fostered; to put it bluntly, his family couldn't support him, so he was sent to a wealthy family to work as a servant or slave. This way, he would develop a sense of service from a young age and would never betray his master when he grew up.

He came to the Blood Jade Guanyin Bodhisattva and saw the auspicious clouds of the compassionate Buddha Mother's Dharma treasures, and the magnificent golden and red light emanating from her body. He couldn't help but call out "Mother!"

He no longer had the strength to climb onto the pedestal or walk to the water channel beside the red stone Buddha sculpture to collect honey.

And there are two obstacles guarding Immortal Honey--

--Those are two earthenware jars, made by Buddha Sculptor in conjunction with Clan Priest.

To the left and right of the Buddha statue were two strangely shaped yellow talisman jars. The Heavenly Master's edict and the Eight Trigrams for rainmaking were written on four pieces of yellow silk, covering the mouth and body of the jars.

Last time Wu Xiuwen came to collect honey, he also needed the Priest Elder's help to get rid of those two jar ghosts.

The origin of the little figures in the altar is that they were abandoned children picked up by the Buddha Sculptor from the town. In this spiritual pressure environment, pregnant women are easily infected with the Vita Imprint, and the children in their wombs are occasionally born prematurely or deformed, and they are not healthy or lucky when they grow up. So they are sent to the Buddha Sculptor to become deities in the altar.

These deformed children, raised to the age of three or four, are then immersed in a jar of Immortal Honey and raised in the mountains to drink poisonous water and feel poisonous winds. If they do not die, by the age of seventeen or eighteen, they will become loyal ghost soldiers of the Buddha Sculptor, obeying only the orders of the Buddha Sculptor and the Priest Elder.

At this moment, the two jar ghosts poked their heads out of the large earthenware jar, revealing pale faces, black melon-shaped hats on their heads, and bright red rouge on their cheeks. Strong and powerful limbs emerged from the jar, and they looked curiously at Wu Xiuwen, who was crawling on the ground in Wu Xiuwen.

When the two demons saw Wu Xiuwen approaching, they immediately tore off the cloth from the altar and took the Celestial Master's edict talisman. The cloth hardened and took shape as soon as it left the altar, turning into a bright yellow broadsword.

Wu Xiuwen looked up but couldn't see anything except two yellowish-brown spiritual energy tides through a patch of blackish-gray mist. He knew in his heart that the Jar Ghost was coming with a knife to take his head.

He knew in his heart that if he wanted to obtain the Immortal Honey from the Blood Jade Guanyin Bodhisattva, he could not escape this calamity, and his life was coming to an end.

"Mommy. Mommy hurts. I'm in pain."

Wu Xiuwen cried out weakly and helplessly, clutching his stomach, wanting only to stuff his rotting intestines back in. He lay on the ground like a worm, a dying ant.

He still remembered what he had said to Zhao Jianxiong--

--He has no right to participate in a battle between immortals. The immortals' breath would cause them pain, and a wave of their hand would kill them.

But Xiuwen himself said the words, but he neither listened to them nor did he act on them, nor did he continue to endure them.

Through spiritual perception and vision, two bright yellow true essence spiritual energies suddenly descended!

The two jar-shaped demons strained their bodies, tensed their limbs, and unleashed terrifying strength. Their arm muscles clenched, and veins bulged from their shoulders, as if they wanted to chop the seriously injured man into pieces!

Wu Xiuwen did not close his eyes. He wanted to die with his head up, to see clearly, to tell the King of Hell his grievances, and to explain the cause of his death to the judge. Perhaps then he could gain a good fate in the next life.

He couldn't see the big locust tree in Yingzhou, nor the sign for the Five Ghosts Underworld, nor even the ferryman. He only saw two underworld generals, one black and one white, waiting in the distance to collect souls.

[Part ② - Calming the Waves]

A morpho butterfly, fluttering its azure scales, flew to him, tearing through the dark sky and earth.

Wu Xiuwen could still hear some sounds; the clanging noise of "obeying orders" lasted for a while, then immediately fell silent.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe just a moment, a few breaths.

His eyes regained their light. In the moment before his death, he saw the two blurry shadows on the low stool opposite the fire pit. The black one was still slapping his thigh and beating his chest in frustration, while the white one was waving the soul-summoning banner in his hand, playing with it like a child's rattle-drum—it seemed he wouldn't have a chance to cross the Bridge of Helplessness either.

Zhang Congfeng sat on the pedestal of the Blood Jade Guanyin Bodhisattva statue.

Wu Xiuwen struggled to get up. He first patted and patted his stomach to see the fist-sized scar below his navel. Then he touched the top of his head, where a patch of skin had just grown out. Touching the soft downy hair on his scalp, he felt an unbearable itch.

His teeth ached unbearably, but after standing up straight, his blood and qi flowed smoothly, and intense pain surged from his limbs and bones. Finally, he managed to choke out a sentence.

"Master."

Jiang Xueming: "Sigh."

Wu Xiuwen, feeling wronged, disregarded the mud and blood covering his body and rushed forward to hug Zhang Congfeng, vowing never to call him father or mother again.

"Master!--Master!--"

At this moment, he finally began to understand why Zhao Jianxiong, this simpleton, would kneel down in front of the four local earth gods, worship the mountains and roads, and kowtow to the Black Wind Village, not wanting to stop even when his head was bleeding.

"Master!"

Xue Ming reacted quickly, taking off the spider silk butterfly-patterned Flash Butterfly Armor. From the high pedestal, she raised her leg and kicked Wu Xiuwen in the stomach, making the clever boy stand up straight. She then stuffed the mask and clothes into Wu Xiuwen's arms.

"I don't have time to catch up with you, keep an eye on this monkey."

As he said this, Jiang Xueming kicked over the jar Bodhisattva statue either side of the Bodhisattva statue. The two guardian ghosts on the left and right were already dead, but they hadn't had time to fall down.

Wu Xiuwen looked closely and saw that the heads of the two pale-faced boys had only just fallen off when the jar overturned.

He hugged the Flash Butterfly Armor and then received a bundle. Upon opening it, he discovered— the Wood Virtue Star Lord was inside!

"Ah! Master!" Wu Xiuwen was terrified. "This is the disciple of the Hundred-Eyed Demon Lord! You want me to keep an eye on it? Why not kill it?"

"The common people of Black Wind Town have been turned into demons and monsters," Jiang Xueming explained. "They can only eat grains because of this old monkey's true energy and magic power. Let's spare its life for now."

Besides this reason, there was another matter that Xue Ming hadn't explained to Wu Xiuwen.

Goddess Zhuzhu is dead. For the people of Black Wind Town, the Rejuvenating Elixir in their spines will inevitably go berserk and out of control sooner or later. Without the golden thread to wrap it, these seeds of power will quickly enter their central nervous system and modify their genes—it's only a matter of time before they become monsters.

Judging from the age structure of the population in Black Wind Town, there are at least three or four hundred children who are not yet adults. Their parents have taken over the family business and inherited the Elixir of Rejuvenation. They are in the growth stage of refining the Elixir of Rejuvenation. Their Grandfather are about to pass away and are entering the harvest stage of the Elixir of Rejuvenation.

If the Wood Virtue Star Lord is killed with a single blow, the blood-soaked monsters in every household will be unable to eat grains and will only be able to eat human flesh. At that time, there will be no living people left in Black Wind Town. Once they are dominated by cannibalism, everyone will have to exchange their own children to eat.

"Furthermore," Jiang Xueming tapped Wu Xiuwen's head, "You shouldn't be afraid of it; that old monkey should be afraid of you!"

Wu Xiuwen suddenly realized. "Oh."

"The Wood Virtue Star Lord?" Jiang Xueming laughed, "It's a disciple of the Hundred Eyes Demon, and you're my disciple—what makes you think you can be afraid of it?"

"Hundred Eyes escaped, I'm going to beat it up now."

Jiang Xueming pointed to the unconscious old monkey in the cloth bag and said to Wu Xiuwen.

"If it wakes up and still acts up, trying to scare or intimidate you, just put on my clothes and mask beforehand, and beat it up."

At that moment, Bai Mu fled back to his cave as fast as he could.

In the mountains and forests, a large centipede was seen circling around a tree, climbing and crawling among the branches and leaves. It had lost half of its body, and pus and black fluid kept oozing from its wound.

The stench of blood filled the air, staining the grass, trees, and vines in the forest, revealing a scene of decay and death.

This centipede is hard to kill; its segmented legs can be spread more than ten feet wide, and its mouth, beneath its flat head and hooked legs, can swallow a sheep whole.

Upon closer inspection of the joints between the back and head plates, one can see a ring of golden eyes, with six eyes on each joint. The Demon Lord's title is derived from these sixteen joints plus the four eyes on the skull, totaling a hundred eyes.

However, at this point, it can only be called the Fifty-Eyed Demon Lord, or the Two-and-a-Half-Eyed Demon Lord.

Back at Yuehe Pass, the demon king wanted to steal some wild food from the demon soldiers and minions, but instead found the demon caves and lairs in ruins. It climbed the mountain and crawled through the caves to find the wild boar monster's house, where it found a pile of charred peat.

More than three hundred households of monster "humans" were all killed, their homes burned to the ground by a raging fire.

The Hundred-Eyed Buddha convulsed and collapsed, unable to catch its breath. It took it a long time to search through all the caves—it still hadn't given up, feeling that the Buddha Sculptor was truly wicked, having led people to cut off its escape route so early.

It then went up to the mountaintop and arrived at its own mossy cave, where it called upon the various demon chiefs of the mossy land to come and help. At first, it started by calling out the names of its own disciples, and later it transformed into human form and spoke human language, but still no one answered.

Then it saw auspicious clouds and rosy light rising from the northern mountains, and the evil mist was no longer lingering. It felt a pang of panic and ran back to the main hall.

Dozens of charred bones stood in the hall. Even if Xia Bang's most skilled forensic doctor came, he wouldn't be able to help Bai Mu distinguish which one was its apprentice and which one was its accountant.

Half-dead, it panicked and headed towards Guanyin Cave. Its mind was still preoccupied with the matter of the Buddha Sculptor —where did that bald monk get such a helpful ally? How could he have wiped out all the demon generals of Black Wind Village?!

Upon arriving at Guanyin Cave and seeing the bodies of A Hui and Ah A Zhen, Bai Mu began to wail in mourning.

It knew that Zhuzhu must have met with misfortune, but it still couldn't believe it.

The celestial embryo hasn't fully grown yet. No matter how ruthless the Buddha Sculptor is, he wouldn't dare to ruin the merits of the Lingguang Buddha, would he?!

Reaching the bronze bed, it couldn't find Zhang Congfeng, but instead saw the spider monster's scattered limbs and its smooth, gourd-like belly, which was empty of everything.

It just felt really stupid, really.

It only knew that the doctor in Chabang might harm patients, but it never expected that the Foreign Doctor sent by the Buddha Sculptor would also harm people. Once it understood this, it went mad with rage.

The centipede demon, its face streaked with tears, transformed into its insect form and, amidst its wailing cries, gnawed at its wife's corpse. Transforming its grief and anger into strength, it regenerated its lower body.

After regaining some of its strength, it still felt it wasn't enough, so it swallowed A Hui A Zhen's essence. Finally, it gained some courage, picked up Zhuzhu's protective heavy sword, and wanted to go out to seek revenge.

It thought that having lost its magic weapon, it was no match for the Lingguang Buddha and the Buddha Sculptor, but it was determined to kill that scoundrel Zhang Congfeng! Otherwise, it would be hard to quell its hatred!

Perhaps if it could find Zhang Congfeng, kill him, and retrieve the immortal embryo, it might still have a glimmer of hope before the Lingguang Buddha. It hadn't given up on the Lingguang Buddha's primordial creation—it desperately wanted to advance.

If we can't take it back

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" A little demon crawled in from outside the cave. It was a survivor from Yuehe Pass. Instead of rushing into Black Wind Town with its brothers, it ran up the mountain.

The little demon was a weasel. As soon as it crawled into Guanyin Cave, it stood up, trying to look like a human, and nervously greeted her.

"Your Majesty! A celestial being has arrived in the village!"

Bai Mu roared impatiently, "What immortal! Isn't he just that Zhang Congfeng?!"

"Hey," the weasel didn't recognize Zhang Congfeng, only seeing a swordsman in white slaughter its entire family. It forced a smile in front of Hundred Eyes Great King, its face contorted with ugliness, and replied, "Your Majesty, there are three people hiding halfway up the mountain, one of them Xiangxiang! I dared not provoke them, so I fled back up the mountain."

Upon hearing this, Bai Mu immediately perked up, drew his sword, and rushed out—since Xiangxiang was still there, Zhang Congfeng couldn't have gone far!

The weasel wanted to say something to show its gratitude, so it quickly chased after the weasel.

Then they saw the giant centipede's head turn back and swallow the delirious little demon whole.