Where's My Head?
"Hee-hee..."
"I never expected anyone in this little Fan City to recognize me. I thought the name Blood Pagoda had long since been forgotten in the jianghu..."
All ten Blood Pagodas spoke at once, their pitch and tone perfectly matched. Together, they sounded like one person speaking through a loudspeaker, with no hint of disharmony. The only unsettling thing was that their voices clearly belonged to a eunuch, neither masculine nor feminine.
"Blind man, you say you're from the Night-Wandering Gods? Then you're with the Demon-Slaying Bureau..."
"We all serve His Majesty. You know perfectly well that the Three Corpses Life-Extending Pill is meant to extend His Majesty's life. It's a good thing that benefits both the world and His Majesty, so why have you come to stop it?"
Black shadows streamed continuously from beneath Blind Chen's feet, pouring into the darkness below.
At the same time, he said solemnly, "You're wrong. After Great Yong was founded, the Demon-Slaying Bureau did come under the imperial court, but only to help it maintain stability. It never pledged allegiance to that emperor of yours who uses Human Corpse Pills to prolong his life.
"Much less our Night-Wandering Gods, who stand above the Demon-Slaying Bureau. The Night-Wandering Gods roam the world by night, protecting all living beings, not your master.
"Enough nonsense. Either I stop this ridiculous blood-boiling furnace and let that damned emperor die, or we fight. Let's see whether you can kill me, or I can kill you all..."
With that, Blind Chen took a step, quick as lightning.
Beneath the black shadows, his speed was godlike.
"Hee-hee..."
"Night-Wandering Gods, how arrogant..."
At some point, a red thread had flown from each of the ten Blood Pagodas and tied itself to Blind Chen. When Blind Chen took a step, the Blood Pagodas stepped in perfect sync with him, moving at exactly the same speed.
Without his noticing, they had used the red threads to share his speed.
"The Red Strings of Fate have been tied, blind man. Stop struggling. For the sake of the world, His Majesty will send you on your way. With your flesh and blood in the Wine Pool and Meat Forest, the Three Corpses Life-Extending Pill should be at least a little more potent..."
The red bridal veils flew up together and grew in the wind, blotting out the sky in an instant.
Blind Chen shook the white banner in his hand, and gusts of black wind held up all the red veils falling from the sky, keeping them from descending even an inch.
Then he walked toward the Wine Pool and Meat Forest.
As he walked, he suddenly felt his [view] tumbling. Then he saw his own body, leaning on the white banner.
After his [view], it made the motion of taking a step.
And atop the corpse, there was no head.
"Where's my head?" Blind Chen was taken aback, then understood.
"It got cut off." Everything went black before his eyes.
"Hee-hee, so people can still walk after their heads are cut off." A figure stepped out from among the Blood Pagodas. As he walked, the red veils in the sky instantly descended, covering his faceless face.
He made a delicate orchid gesture with his fingers before his chest, instantly drawing back the red threads tied to Blind Chen's body.
"Human Cook, I've left the ingredients for you. Hurry up and refine the pill for His Majesty."
"I'm leaving."
With that, he and the other nine Blood Pagodas vanished in an instant, leaving only Blind Chen's body standing quietly at the crossroads.
The darkness disappeared, and the Wine Pool and Meat Forest returned to its original appearance. Human Cook was about to order someone to bring Blind Chen's corpse up from below.
But then he saw Blind Chen's headless corpse turn and sprint away at tremendous speed, like a sprinter.
The corpse ran on, climbing over dozens of walls before falling into a haystack.
A palm-sized figure made of straw emerged from the smooth severed end of his neck. Paper talismans were pasted to both sides of the straw figure. The front bore the four characters [Uphold justice on heaven's behalf], while a line of tiny black characters was written on the back:
'Blind Chen, born in the wu-xu year, bing-chen month, ding-chou day, at the hour of the rat...'
The two paper talismans burned to ash with a pop, scorching the straw figure gray.
The straw figure then turned into a blind child.
The child felt around until he finally found Blind Chen's corpse, then crawled inside through the severed end of its neck.
Before long, the headless corpse's hands moved. He sat up.
After fumbling around his chest for a while, he pulled out a sheet of sixteen-kai white xuan paper. His hands folded it deftly a few times, producing the head of a paper figure like those sold in coffin shops. Feeling for his severed neck, he pressed the paper head onto the stump.
His vision returned.
Hm? Did I put it on backward? Looking down at his own backside, Blind Chen reached up again, grasped the head with both hands, and gave it a gentle pull.
"Pop~"
With a sound like a piston being pulled out, he removed his paper head, turned it around, and put it back on. Blind Chen walked out of the courtyard.
"I can't do it myself. That kid I met tonight when the yin immortal passed through was pretty special. I wonder if he got away. I'll go look for him..."
With that, Blind Chen vanished into the darkness.
Xu Chunliang stood at the entrance to the Wine Pool and Meat Forest, his face full of astonishment.
Even though he was a transmigrator, the Wine Pool and Meat Forest restaurant before him still gave him an entirely different psychological and sensory experience.
It was a purely ancient style of luxury, much like the museum he had visited in the capital in his previous life.
In every detail and aspect of its style, there was a sense of majesty and luxury befitting the pinnacle of power.
"No wonder it's been so popular in Fan City lately. It's this luxurious. Who in a small place like this has ever seen anything like it? It was bound to be a hit."
After standing in front of the building and admiring it for a while, Xu Chunliang stepped into the restaurant.
As soon as he entered, a beautiful young man of about sixteen came hurrying over, lifting his skirt, and took Xu Chunliang by the arm with a soft, delicate little hand.
He carried himself like someone at the imperial court.
"Leng Cui greets you, young master. Are you here for a banquet or a meal?"
"Mm, a meal. Are there any seats in the main hall? Find me one so I can sit down first, and bring me a pot of apricot blossom wine." Xu Chunliang stepped inside.
"This must be your first visit, young master." Leng Cui covered his lips and smiled as he accompanied Xu Chunliang inside, then continued, "Our Wine Pool and Meat Forest is prepared to the standards of an imperial banquet. We don't have local wines like apricot blossom wine, so if you want a drink, you'll have to have the wine from our pool.
"Look, young master. That's the Wine Pool and Meat Forest. It perfectly recreates the legend from five thousand years ago. Both the late emperor and His Majesty are very fond of it."
Leng Cui raised a hand and pointed. Xu Chunliang saw a huge pool of wine, with rings upon rings of roast pigs arranged around it.
The sight of the roast pigs made Xu Chunliang instinctively uncomfortable.
Of course, it had nothing to do with the pigs. It was simply that he had only recently emerged from the Buddhist Ruin Realm, and the forests of Buddhas carved from bodies and bones, along with the densely packed Human Worms, still kept appearing before his eyes.
He was still rather averse to densely packed things like that.
"Mm, I'll pass on the meat for now. Fetch me a pot of wine. First, I'll taste just how good the wine His Majesty drinks really is."
As he spoke, Xu Chunliang unceremoniously gave Leng Cui's buttock a squeeze, then sat down at his table as Leng Cui's face flushed with embarrassment.
Feeling the smoothness lingering on his fingers, Xu Chunliang murmured to himself, "Wasn't this supposed to be bizarre? Could the Wine Pool and Meat Forest really be nothing more than an imperial banquet?"