Chapter 64: Flesh and Mud Idol

Xu Yuan had already cut the fleshy tentacles缠绕着他 with his dagger the moment he saw the gun being raised, holding his umbrella before him as he swiftly dodged behind the wall.

A wave of heat, carrying countless pellets, shot past with a whoosh.

The half-burned flesh monster was instantly riddled like a sieve.

A dense patter of cracks echoed across the two wooden gates of the courtyard, and over a dozen pellets flew inside, striking the windows and walls of the main hall.

Xu Yuan dodged most of them; only a few grazed his left arm, leaving behind several bloody grooves!

A numb stiffness spread from the wounds; Xu Yuan looked down and saw the wounds already turning blue, the blood oozing out now black.

"The pellets are coated with poison—truly vicious!"

Xu Yuan charged out under his umbrella, only to see the driver standing frozen in place after firing that single shot.

Rain soaked the paintings on its body; the recoil of the gun had cracked the wet areas, revealing the dark red flesh beneath.

The flesh suddenly lost all vitality, peeling off in chunks, quickly piling into a pool on the ground!

The flesh was a grotesque mix—Xu Yuan saw shattered parts of snakes, rats, cats, dogs, sparrows, and more within it.

The one manipulating it from behind, seeing the assassination had failed, abandoned them outright.

Xu Yuan held his umbrella warily, glancing a few times into the alley outside, but ultimately did not step out; instead, he retreated cautiously, burned the fleshy monster inside to ash, then dragged the raised gun inside and shut the courtyard gate behind him.

The courtyard gate was made of old wooden planks three fingers thick, riddled with transparent holes from the pellets!

Back inside the house, Xu Yuan finally released his medicinal pill to detoxify and heal.

"So it's begun already…" Xu Yuan's face wore a solemn expression.

…

Uncle Mao Si stepped out wearing a conical hat and a straw rain cape.

He didn't even glance at the flesh and broken carriage on the ground, but followed some "trace" only he could see.

His face, already full of sorrow, now twisted with rage.

…

The real Yan Lao's carriage continued slowly through the rain.

When they set out, it had been a light drizzle, but now the rain grew heavier; Yan Lao grew increasingly uneasy, so he reached out from beneath his sleeve, pinching his fingers to calculate.

"Bad!" Yan Lao's expression changed drastically; he shouted: "Turn back—immediately turn back!"

…

Mr. Gao stepped out of his home, clutching a bundle, and exited through the Beicheng gate.

Chen Liangxuan's men followed behind in a carriage, covered with oiled cloth; beneath it lay five corpses.

There was also Mr. Gao's wooden chest.

The bundle in Mr. Gao's arms was strange—it looked remarkably like… a baby's swaddling cloth.

After leaving the city, the rain intensified; the world grew cold and grim with yin energy. Suddenly, the thing inside the bundle writhed and struggled.

Mr. Gao patted it gently, as if soothing a baby to sleep, murmuring: "Don't rush, don't rush—we're almost there."

Yet his arms clamped the bundle with all their strength, tendons bulging on his forearms!

The swaddling cloth inside his arms thrashed three times along the way; each time, Mr. Gao struggled harder than before.

Finally, they reached a ruin four li outside the city.

Not a single intact building remained—only broken walls and shattered pillars, overgrown with wild grass.

But the area was vast, clearly once prosperous.

Mr. Gao's group of "intruders" startled many snakes and rodents, as well as wild foxes sheltering from the rain.

Upon arriving here, the swaddling cloth suddenly fell "silent."

Mr. Gao carefully searched and identified the location of the ruin's former "main hall."

He pulled up the wild grass, shoved aside broken logs, and finally cleared away enough debris to reveal the approximate outline of the former "altar."

Then he carefully unwrapped the swaddling cloth and取出 a damaged clay statue.

The clay statue was unrecognizable; its painted surface had flaked and faded, dull and lifeless.

Mr. Gao ordered his attendants: "Bring them over."

Chen Liangxuan's men had been trembling since leaving—when they set out, it had been a light drizzle, yet the rain had grown heavier and heavier.

Today was "Jin Lin River"—such heavy rain meant stepping out of the city was like walking straight into a monster's mouth.

Several times along the way, they felt something in the roadside puddles trying to crawl out.

But it seemed to fear something, swirling a few strange ripples before sinking back into silence.

But by then, regret was too late.

Turning back would have been suicide—without Mr. Gao to hold them steady, the strange things in the water would have surged out and devoured them.

Their legs shook as they dragged the corpses and the chest over.

Mr. Gao opened the chest and取出 various "tools."

First, he bound each of the five corpses with a bundle of red thread, using a special technique.

Among Chen Liangxuan's men, a manager surnamed Liu led them; he was also one of Old Master Chen's "death servants."

Manager Liu recognized the technique immediately—it was sealing the dead souls back into their corpses.

Mr. Gao then picked up the knives and axes beside him and began chopping the corpses.

Mr. Gao's face remained calm, yet within the span of a single incense stick, he had completely chopped the five corpses into pieces!

Blood and shredded flesh splattered over him, yet his expression never changed.

The men under Manager Liu were too terrified to make a single sound.

Mr. Gao cupped the flesh paste in both hands and smeared it onto the clay statue.

One handful after another, he reshaped the clay statue into a divine idol.

Raindrops fell with a pitter-patter, yet they could not wash away the new statue.

A servant's lips trembled; gathering his courage, he asked Manager Liu in a low voice, "Boss Liu, may we leave now?"

Before Manager Liu could answer, Mr. Gao turned around, glanced at everyone, and smiled.

Only then did everyone notice that Mr. Gao's lower body had, at some unknown moment, fused together with the leftover flesh paste!

His upper body remained human, covered in fresh blood and chunks of meat.

His lower body had melted into a carpet of flesh, writhing incessantly, as if taking root and growing!

He now looked like a terrifying anomaly!

On a small earthen mound in the distance, two fox heads popped up—they had been sheltering from the rain under a collapsed wall in the ruins and had been startled away by Mr. Gao's party.

But their nature being curious, they had not gone far; now, poking their heads out to look, they were instantly so frightened that every fox hair on their bodies stood on end.

"What in the world is that thing?"

"It looks more like an anomaly than we do!"

"Run, run!"

"The city is too dangerous; let's return to the mountains and seek refuge with the two aunts..."

In the ruins, countless red threads shot out at high speed from the flesh carpet of Mr. Gao's lower body, binding and hoisting up Manager Liu and everyone else.

"Ah—"

The crowd was so terrified their souls fled their bodies: "Boss Liu, speak to him quickly! We are one of your own..."

Manager Liu's face grew somewhat stiff; he did not answer the crowd, sighed inwardly, and accepted his fate.

On the statue Mr. Gao was reshaping, flesh and blood began to wriggle like countless earthworms.

The flesh and blood of Mr. Gao's lower body also began to grow upward; Mr. Gao found he could not suppress it and showed a hint of surprise: "This thing... has tremendous power!"

He flicked his finger, and a hoisted person flew into his hand; amidst that person's desperate, terrified screams, he bit down on their neck!

After drinking his fill of blood, the flesh carpet beneath him was temporarily satisfied and ceased its upward erosion.

Yet, on Mr. Gao's skin, a patch of fine, dark-red blood vessels began to grow!

"Since you are filled with hatred, why do you not seek revenge?" Mr. Gao said to the statue: "I have reshaped your body using the genuine flesh and souls of the people of the Huangming Dynasty; the talismans of the Huangming court can no longer stop you..."

Happy holidays, everyone!

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(End of this chapter)