Chapter 70: The Star Performer

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

The grotesque flesh beneath him had already spread across the entire ruin, mingling with the ruin's former structures and spontaneously growing into countless structures resembling "Pagodas."

These pagodas, wrapped in flesh, contained broken bricks, shattered tiles, dirt, 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 forth 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 reduced to nothing but a head.

His entire body had melted into that malevolent flesh!

He gazed toward the county town, and through the heavy rain, could barely make out a blurred shadow of the demonic entity, ten zhang tall.

His gaze held a touch of complexity.

He was about to meet his end.

He had once been a Liaodong hunter; 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 lord came to him and offered 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 misfortune befell his household—someone always arranged it for him.

All for this grand performance today!

Among the powerful, people like him had a special name—not "death knight," for such men were too common; those like him were respectfully called: "The Star Performer!"

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 reshaped idol.

This was the "Self-Sacrifice Method."

Behind him, the flesh idol 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 idol.

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 was about to fully dissolve into flesh, merging into this demonic presence…

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…"

Yan Lao 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 to a stop, turned back in confusion; Yan Lao's face was grim: "If it touches you, you'll be corrupted by the demonic influence—you won't even reach the evil inside before you turn into one yourself!"

Yan Lao trembled inside—had we come too late? That sliver of hope had already slipped away!

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

Yan Lao's hands shook as he pulled out his charred abacus, about to move the beads—when Xu Yuan charged unhesitatingly into the bloody mist!

"Hey!" Yan Lao shouted, grasping at empty air.

Xu Yuan had two final talismans—"Soaring Cloud" and "Riding Wind"—stuck to his legs, making him far faster than an old-school cultivator.

Whoosh—

Xu Yuan plunged into the bloody mist and began searching rapidly.

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 the ground, and the filaments lunged uselessly beneath him.

Three to four li wasn't that large—Xu Yuan quickly found the key point.

"It's you!" Mr. Gao laughed with great delight: "To see you become part of this too, just before I die—the heavens treat me well, hahaha!"

Xu Yuan had consumed six clusters of "Water," preventing Mr. Gao from forming a second demonic avatar in the Xu family courtyard.

He had been forced to abandon the plan in disgrace.

He had thought he'd die alone, the ten-zhang demon destroying the county office before dealing with the brat—but now the brat had come to him!

Xu Yuan frowned: "You know me? Doesn't matter."

Xu Yuan was still over ten zhang away; he lowered his shoulder-mounted musket and aimed at Mr. Gao's lone head.

Boom!

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

The shattered flesh, skull fragments, and the bullet scattered over a two- to three-zhang radius—all swallowed by the ground's flesh, fused into one.

"Hahaha!" Mr. Gao's laughter erupted again—this time more demonic than ever!

Xu Yuan scanned everywhere for the source of the laughter.

Vision was limited in the bloody mist, but following the sound, he saw the idol upon the altar.

A face, like an octopus, writhed upward and settled at the idol'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 original position.

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

The tallest and largest upon the flesh carpet.

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

Xu Yuan frowned, floated closer, and spat: "Noisy!"

Then he opened his mouth—his abdominal fire condensed into a thin, straight line and shot directly at Mr. Gao's face.

Sssss!

Abdominal fire suppressed demonic entities—the face immediately melted and burned away.

"It's useless." Mr. Gao's face emerged from another part of the divine statue.

Moreover, countless flesh and blood surged upward from the flesh carpet, quickly replenishing the portion Xu Yuan had just burned away.

"Your level isn't high, is it? How much Fu Zhong Huo do you have?"

"Look at this sea of flesh and blood covering the mountains. Even if you spit out all the fire in your belly, how much can you burn?"

"Stop struggling in your death throes. Come and keep me company obediently."

Xu Yuan withdrew his Fu Zhong Huo, opened his mouth again, and a golden pill flew out.

The golden pill spun around the flesh-and-blood divine statue several times, slowly transforming into a short sword.

This was Xing Guolong's sword pill.

Sss!

The short sword pierced the flesh-and-blood divine statue, spun once, and gouged out Mr. Gao's face!

Yet once that face detached from the flesh-and-blood divine statue, it immediately became a writhing mass of ordinary flesh and blood, falling onto the flesh carpet below to merge once more.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gao's face reappeared at another location on the divine statue, continuing to sneer: "Your methods are far too weak for everything here."

(End of this chapter)