"Flesh... delight... this cauldron's life force... excellent... excellent..."
The Blood-Robed Buddha spoke, its voice shifting from the shrill pitch of a little girl to the deep rumble of an old man.
Its eyes, streaming tears of blood, ignored Yue Changkong entirely and fixed on the Life-Force Cauldron hanging in midair, greed laid bare in its gaze.
The eyeballs embedded in the surface of its kasaya turned in unison. Some looked toward the cauldron, while others swept eerily across the battlefield, as if searching for something.
Yue Changkong's expression was graver than ever. "Blood-Robed Buddha! Withered Bone Venerable! How dare you inhuman, ghostly things set foot in the Anomaly Suppression Bureau's territory?!"
"We have not set foot here. We have returned—to spread great freedom..."
Withered Bone Master's jawbone opened and shut, producing a clacking sound like bones grinding together. Ghostly flames danced in his hollow eye sockets as he fixed his gaze on Yue Changkong.
Almost at the same time, Master Liu, who had originally been lunging at Yue Changkong, gave up trying to suppress the backlash within him. His clothes shredded to pieces, exposing skin covered in fine, gray-black scales.
His joints bent backward, and several writhing tumors bulged from his back.
His head stretched longer, his mouth split open to his ears, and rows of serrated fangs filled it. His eyes turned completely black, with no whites—only pure malice.
A dark red tongue, slick with slime and forked at the tip, slipped from his mouth with a hissing sound.
This was Master Liu's true form!
The result of years spent practicing the Moon-Worship Cult's wicked arts, his body deeply corrupted and polluted by the Red Moon's blood!
"Hiss... Yue Changkong... you ruined my plans... Today is the day you die!"
Master Liu's monstrous form surged forward again at greatly