Chapter 70: The Star

Mr. Gao “ate” County Clerk Liu half a quarter-hour ago.

The grotesque flesh beneath him had spread across the entire ruin, mingling with the ruins’ former structures, spontaneously growing into countless structures resembling “Pagodas.”

These pagodas, wrapped in flesh, contained broken bricks, shattered tiles, soil, branches, insect carcasses, and other debris; each level’s “windows” were breathing pores that opened and closed, causing the pagodas to expand and contract, each time spewing a cloud of bloody mist.

At this moment, this bloody mist had coalesced into a vast crimson cloud around the ruin, engulfing the entire site.

Mr. Gao was now only a head left.

His entire body had melted into that malevolent flesh!

He gazed toward the county seat, where through the heavy rain, he could barely make out a shadow of the demonic entity, ten zhang tall.

His gaze held a complex emotion.

He was about to end.

He had once been a Liaodong trapper; at twenty-nine, he encountered a bear in the old forest, used every trick he knew to kill the mountain monster, but took a claw to his groin and lost his manhood forever.

Fortunately, he had already married and fathered children; later, a subordinate of that nobleman came to him, offering many conditions to recruit him.

In the decades since, Mr. Gao had cultivated only one technique: the “Self-Sacrifice Method,” and needed to worry about nothing else.

Whatever he lacked, whatever trouble his household faced, others would arrange it all for him.

All for this grand performance today!

Among the powerful, men like him had a special name—not “death knight,” for there were too many of those; men like him were respectfully called: “The Star!”

When he chopped up those corpses, no one noticed he had also chopped off his own lower body—his own flesh was part of the divine statue’s reformation.

This was the “Self-Sacrifice Method.”

Behind him, the flesh statue upon the altar was growing continuously! It had once been one zhang tall; now it had reached ten zhang.

Countless malevolent flesh strands, like earthworms, slithered from the flesh carpet toward the statue.

Mr. Gao had lost control of this thing.

The only thing now restraining this demonic entity was in Chen Liangxuan’s hands.

Mr. Gao knew he would soon fully transform into flesh, merging into this demonic force…

Suddenly, Mr. Gao’s ears twitched—he heard rapid footsteps approaching.

He bared a cruel smile: “Someone’s come to keep me company—how wonderful! Hahaha…”

Old Yan grabbed Xu Yuan, staring at the bloody mist covering the land, spanning three to four li, his heart sinking: “Don’t let that mist touch you!”

Xu Yuan, pulled back, turned in confusion; Old Yan’s face was grim: “If it touches you, you’ll be corrupted—before you even find the demon inside, you’ll become one yourself!”

Old Yan trembled—had they arrived too late? That sliver of hope had already vanished!

No, let me calculate again—there must be another way…

Old Yan’s hands shook as he pulled out his charred abacus, ready to move the beads—when Xu Yuan charged straight into the bloody mist!

“Hey!” Old Yan shouted, grasping at empty air.

Xu Yuan had two final talismans—“Ride the Clouds” and “Ride the Wind”—stuck to his legs, moving faster than any old Qi cultivator.

Whoo—

Xu Yuan plunged into the bloody mist, swiftly searching.

The malevolent flesh on the ground suddenly sprouted countless crimson, leech-like filaments, frantically reaching for Xu Yuan—if they stuck, they would turn him into crimson flesh too.

Xu Yuan flew three chi above ground, and the filaments lunged uselessly.

Three to four li wasn’t that large—Xu Yuan soon found the key.

“It’s you!” Mr. Gao laughed with delight: “To see you become part of this too, just before I die—Heaven treats me well! Hahaha!”

Xu Yuan had devoured six clusters of “Water,” thwarting Mr. Gao’s plan to form a second demonic avatar in the Xu family courtyard.

He had been forced to abandon it in disgrace.

He’d expected only to die—after the ten-zhang demon destroyed the county office, he’d deal with the boy—but now the boy had come to him!

Xu Yuan frowned: “You know me? Doesn’t matter.”

Xu Yuan, still over ten zhang away, lowered his shoulder-mounted musket and aimed it at Mr. Gao’s lone head.

Boom!

A bullet the size of a baby’s fist shattered Mr. Gao’s head into fragments.

The broken skull fragments and the bullet scattered over two or three zhang, all swallowed by the ground flesh, fused into one.

“Hahaha!” Mr. Gao’s laughter erupted again—this time more demonic.

Xu Yuan searched for the source of the laughter.

Vision was limited in the bloody mist, but following the sound, he saw the altar—the flesh statue.

A face, like an octopus, crawled upward and stopped at the statue’s waist—Mr. Gao’s face.

“It’s meaningless,” Mr. Gao boasted: “I’ve merely gone ahead—you’ll join me soon.”

This place is perfect—I’ll save you a spot! Hahaha!”

Xu Yuan dropped his musket and drew his umbrella.

The moment the musket hit the ground, it was swallowed by flesh, then writhed to Mr. Gao’s former position.

Mr. Gao’s body, already wrapped in flesh and towering above the rest, had become a new flesh pagoda!

The tallest and largest on the flesh carpet.

The musket was buried inside, only a short length of barrel protruding.

Xu Yuan frowned, floated closer, and spat: “Noisy!”

Then he opened his mouth—his internal fire coalesced into a thin, straight line, shooting directly at Mr. Gao’s face.

Sssss!

Internal fire suppressed demons—the face immediately melted.

“Useless,” Mr. Gao’s face reappeared elsewhere on the statue.

Countless strands of flesh surged upward—the part Xu Yuan burned was quickly restored.

“Your level is low—how much internal fire can you muster?”

“Look at this sea of flesh—if you spewed every last bit of fire in your belly, how much would you burn?”

“Stop struggling. Come join me willingly.”

Xu Yuan retracted his internal fire, opened his mouth again—and a golden pill flew out.

The golden pill circled the flesh statue a few times, slowly transforming into a short sword.

It was Long Jian’s sword pill.

Ssshit!

The short sword pierced the flesh statue, twisted, and carved off Mr. Gao’s face.

But the moment the face detached, it became a writhing lump of ordinary flesh, falling onto the carpet below and merging back in.

Mr. Gao’s face reappeared elsewhere on the statue, sneering: “Your tricks are too weak against all this.”

(End of Chapter)