You Shall Become One of the Eight Legions

"Ah? What's that?" A startled cry came from the left. Xu Chunliang turned and saw a pure white skeleton sitting cross-legged.

He looked more closely around him and only then noticed many pure white skeletons sitting cross-legged, scattered all around the group.

Some of the skeletons stood, others stood upright, each in a different pose. Though they were all bare bones, Xu Chunliang saw different expressions in their skulls.

Some had their eyes lowered and seemed to be smiling; others had savage faces, as though striking a killing blow.

"Hee-hee~~!" An eerie laugh rang out, and everyone felt a chill on the backs of their necks.

Xu Chunliang turned toward the source. If he had heard correctly, the laughter had come from the pearl in the little girl's open mouth.

"Welcome, everyone, Buddhas," said the pearl girl. Her face strained to make a smiling expression, but because her mouth was a pearl, she couldn't show any smile at all.

It looked worse than crying.

The green-clad swordswoman rolled her eyes with an ugly expression and cursed, "Playing tricks!" At the same time, she drew her sword in a flash.

"Don't!" Li Baiyi hurried to stop her, but he was too late.

The Buddhist blanket wrapped around the pearl girl was sliced open in an instant, revealing the... body beneath it.

If internal organs barely held together by wooden sticks, rusty iron nails, and torn strips of blood-soaked cloth could be called a body.

"What the hell is that?" The green-clad woman who had caused the trouble stumbled back several steps, retreating behind a few men.

The men glanced at one another and lifted their chins proudly. They were clearly proud that the green-clad woman had hidden behind them.

A beauty would only seek a lion's protection, and clearly, they were the lions.

"Hee-hee~" Though the green-clad woman had exposed her "body," the pearl girl wasn't angry. Instead, she laughed again.

As she laughed,

Xu Chunliang noticed that the incense table on which the girl sat cross-legged had begun to turn.

A moment later, the girl once again had her back to everyone. At some point, the fallen Buddhist blanket had wrapped itself around her again.

At the same time, the Buddhist scripture that had been lingering in their ears stopped. Everyone, Xu Chunliang included, was startled to find that they couldn't move.

When the scripture stopped, people couldn't move...

The girl's laughter rang out again. She sounded delighted. "Did you come to play a game with me? All right, all right! Shall we play a game together? Yes."

She asked and answered her own question, deciding that the game would begin...

"What game shall we play?"

"How about [becoming a Buddha]?"

Though her back was turned to everyone, an image appeared in all their minds: the girl's little face.

Xu Chunliang wanted very much to ask what the rules were, but found he couldn't open his mouth or make a sound. The little girl clearly had no intention of telling them the rules, or what the price of losing would be.

But most of them already had an answer in mind.

Lose, and you die.

"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, while practicing the profound Perfection of Wisdom, perceived that the five aggregates are all empty and was delivered from all suffering and distress.

"Shariputra! Form is no different from emptiness, and emptiness no different from form; form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. The same is true of feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness."

The Buddhist scripture sounded again, and Xu Chunliang felt that he could move once more.

For some reason, he thought of the game called Red Light, Green Light. He wondered whether this was the same.

So he stood with his hands behind his back, perfectly still.

Seeing that Xu Chunliang wasn't moving, Li Baiyi, who had been watching him discreetly, didn't move either. Yinjian, who had been watching them both discreetly, held his brothers back and told them not to move.

The others looked at one another, at a loss.

As the girl chanted the scripture, she turned around to face the group.

Once she had turned all the way around, the chanting stopped again, and everyone was once more unable to move.

She looked left and right, then fixed her gaze on a martial artist standing in front of the green-clad woman, his head raised proudly.

"Not bad," the girl said approvingly, making the already proud martial artist even prouder. Fortunately, he couldn't move; otherwise, he would have had to raise his head to give full vent to his pride.

"You know to help the weak and protect others. You have a kind heart and good intentions. This is a Buddha's heart."

The martial artist grew prouder still, but he didn't see the trace of pity that had entered Li Baiyi's eyes, or the contempt filling Xu Chunliang's.

"You have a Buddha's heart, know martial arts, and understand killing. You shall protect my Buddha and become one of the eight legions of heavenly dragons, one of the asuras."

"I grant you Buddhahood today."

As soon as she finished speaking, the Buddhist blanket around the pearl Buddha girl's body flew open. Between the jumbled sticks and rusty nails, tentacles like earthworms wriggled out in an instant.

They shot toward the martial artist.

Layer upon layer of teeth grew from the tips of the tentacles and bit into him all over.

The sound of the girl chanting the Buddha's name rang out again, and everyone regained their freedom of movement. But not one of them dared move a muscle!

The tentacles were tearing into the martial artist, rapidly stripping him of his flesh and blood. Who dared move?

Watching him turn into a ghastly white skeleton, his left arm raised high and his left fist loosely closed as though holding a demon-subduing pestle, Xu Chunliang instantly understood where the ghastly skeleton statues surrounding them had come from.

So that's how they all came to be...

This eerie Buddha-are all Buddhas like this? Or have you, a Buddha, become an anomaly?

Xu Chunliang murmured to himself, unable to help recalling what Li Baiyi had just said: Perhaps our world is mad.

Mad? Xu Chunliang looked up at the pitch-black sky and smiled silently.

If you're mad, you deserve to die.

I'll kill you.

"How fun! What do you think of this Buddha statue? Isn't it a true Buddha?" After the pearl Buddha girl spoke happily, the tentacles instantly withdrew, and the Buddhist blanket covered her once more.

She slowly turned around.

The Buddhist scripture sounded again, but this time, no one found the Buddha's voice pleasant anymore. It wasn't the compassionate voice of a Buddha; it was a blade come to claim their lives!

Seeing everyone glaring at her, the green-clad swordswoman said with an aggrieved look, "Why are you all looking at me like that? You can't blame me for this~"

"How was I supposed to know she'd change if her Buddhist blanket was torn open? Just because she changed doesn't mean I did it on purpose."

"Leaving the facts aside, aren't any of you at fault?"

"My fault, you *ing **!" Another man who had been protecting her glared at her and swung his saber down, aiming straight for the green-clad swordswoman's face.

"Good!!!" Everyone couldn't help cheering!

"Reward him!!!" Li Baiyi couldn't help exclaiming.

"About time, haha!" A slight ripple stirred in Xu Chunliang's otherwise tranquil heart. He found that no matter how terrifying an anomaly was, it was hard to frighten him now. Yet the wickedness and beauty in human nature could still stir some emotion in him. Shi Qin's goodwill, the shamelessness of simps, and the saber now slashing at the green-clad woman, for example.

But just as the blade was about to cleave the green-clad swordswoman's head, the Buddha's voice...

Stopped.