Chapter 978

The shaman chief fled a hundred paces, all the way to the Golden Bell Bridge, before finally turning back, his eyes losing their panic.

He gazed deeply at the tiny Embroidered Uniform Guard bridge spanning the North Canal, his hands hanging like a monkey’s before his chest, seeing the willow-boat empty.

Half the northern demons and spirits, seven-tenths of the Shaman Sect’s core strength—all the Daoist companions who came with him to the capital—were slaughtered before even reaching Zhigucheng, just before the second bridge past Sanchahe, by a single disciple dispatched by the Xuanzhen Sect!

“Good, good, good…”

The Shaman chief’s voice echoed like a monkey’s cry: “The northern sects still don’t understand the grandeur of the central lands’ great sects. Outside the pass, you’ve finally seen the true mettle of the Central Plains.”

“Indeed, even a single disciple sent casually could wipe out my entire Shaman Sect!”

Recalling that single punch, the Shaman chief could only admit defeat: on the Embroidered Uniform Guard bridge, he had watched with his own eyes as that mere second-rank youth muttered, each word altering his aura.

He held back, confident in his status, yet never imagined the youth’s aura could rise endlessly to such a height.

The moment he struck, heaven cracked and earth shattered.

Yet he felt no regret—only awe. The Xuanzhen Sect’s master had reached a realm beyond comprehension.

Now it was this youth who acted; thus his Qu Shen Da Sheng transformation still had room to flee. But had the Xuanzhen Sect’s master come himself—even if only one of those fourth-rank stewards had moved—he would have had no hope of escape.

So he accepted his defeat utterly: this time, his Shaman Sect had no ability even to touch the Xuanzhen Sect.

The Shaman chief bowed toward the distant Embroidered Uniform Guard bridge, head lowered: “To all of you of the Xuanzhen Sect, this humble shaman has failed to entertain you. Next time we meet, I shall no longer hold back—I shall give everything, show you all my true methods…”

With that, he leapt away, never looking back.

On the Embroidered Uniform Guard bridge, Du Xiaoling smiled faintly and said to the nearby stewards: “My lords, this disciple failed to stop him.”

The crow nodded: “The master ordered you to act precisely because he never intended to keep him. For our sect’s grand plan, anyone—even rotting wood, stubborn stone, or petty thieves—is useful. This time, you destroyed the northern demons because they attacked you first; they brought their own doom.”

“The Shaman chief is a man of talent—he shouldn’t die here. This shock will ensure he gives his all next time, making him truly useful to our grand plan!”

The crow looked at Du Xiaoling’s abdomen, where the quintessence of the Five Immortal Houses resided.

“The offering is secured. The eight-hundred-year demonic essence of the Shaman Sect still requires you to bear it—the Great Sacrifice draws near. Only three of the Five Pillars have been assembled. If all else fails, you must use the Five Demon Xingtian Sacrifice to unlock the fourth pillar’s attainment ritual!”

Du Xiaoling nodded: “All for the sect’s grand plan…”

The stewards chorused: “All for the sect’s salvation!”

………

In the Medicine King Temple, Dou Dabi Bao rolled his eyes, plucked a blue strand of hair from beneath his eyeball, and with tweezers extracted several black threads crawling beneath his eyelids.

He twisted the hairs together into a single strand and pulled.

The hair grew longer and longer!

No one knew how far the strands extended beneath his eyelids—as if the hair was being drawn straight from his marrow.

Dou Dabi Bao gasped and groaned…

From his open mouth, strands of hair crawled out of his throat, like vines covering his tonsils; similarly, from every other part of his body, as if every pore and orifice was spewing hair.

Blisters of blue rose on his skin, and when they burst, clusters of hair surged forth…

At that moment, Bei Xianyu kicked open the door, holding an iron pot. She lifted the lid, and a blinding light erupted from within.

The enticing aroma exploded with the steam, the air thick with scent as if countless tendrils writhed.

The subtle, exquisite fragrance flooded Dou Dabi Bao’s nose and mouth, seeping into every sense, every perception.

Instantly, a primal, fundamental desire—like the deepest pulse of life—overwhelmed him.

Intense hunger and appetite drowned him in an instant.

Dou Dabi Bao shoved Bei Xianyu aside, buried his head in the pot, and devoured the translucent pink noodles dusted with crisp, golden meat bits, sucking them in frantically with each gulp.

The hairs emerging from his seven orifices, his nose and mouth, even his pores, were sucked violently back into his body like dust in a storm.

Bei Xianyu rolled up her sleeves and untied her headscarf, tidying her appearance.

Dou Dabi Bao, now awake, exhaled deeply, his eyes clear again: “That was delicious!”

“I used this dish, Ants Climbing a Tree, to awaken your primal appetite, strengthen your swallowing, and draw the hair ghost back into your body. The most fundamental human desire is hunger—it is rooted in our flesh, our most primal instinct. Even the hair ghost planted in you, capable of twisting your senses, creating illusions, and manipulating your body, cannot surpass the desire to eat.”

Bei Xianyu shook her head: “Food should bring happiness. This method of dominating appetite above all else borders on dark cuisine…”

Dou Dabi Bao didn’t care about dark cuisine: “What about the hair ghost I sucked back in with my hunger?”

“We must find a way to remove it! Otherwise, that man behind it still controls us!”

Bei Xianyu said: “It’s already been digested clean by your appetite.”

Dou Dabi Bao relaxed, slumping to the floor, releasing his hand from his right eye. The remaining eye was now gray-white—he had just sacrificed one eye to heal his blindness, and now he was blind again.

“I spent half my life relying on these divine eyes, enjoying great glory. The second half, of course, has been ruined by them—plotted against at every turn…”

Dou Dabi Bao sighed: “I finally understand what that man behind it all wants!”

“Too bad I realized it too late!”

The young scholar from Long Yubi led his donkey into the room and smiled: “Dou brother, you’ve figured it out too?”

“Yes!”

Dou Dabi Bao nodded: “He killed the Insect King first to conceal his manipulation of him—on one hand, to make us suspect the Xuanzhen Sect was silencing witnesses; on the other, to steer us toward the foreigners.”

“The foreigners secretly collected immortal bones—their so-called ‘modified organs’—to assemble a ‘god’ from them, through their Jixingrenjiepouxiehui .”

Dou Dabi Bao chuckled bitterly: “No wonder we fell for it. At this medical exchange, besides us—the patients the Xuanzhen Sect lured here—the other three parties? None were good.”

“The Xuanzhen Sect targeted my Illusion-Piercing Divine Eye, your Long Yubi, Bei Master’s Tasting Divine Tongue, and the Insect King’s Heavenly Sound Divine Ear—all corrupted by the hidden man’s mysterious hair. He needed all five senses. Such elaborate scheming must have a purpose.”

“And the foreigners? How many lives did they destroy to harvest so many immortal bones?”

“Someone wants to assemble a Frankenstein-like ‘perfect human’ with immortal bones, or pursue Truth Alchemy, the Philosopher’s Stone… The Xuanzhen Sect is manipulating the foreigners, tricking us into giving them our immortal bones, placing them on the mermaid corpse to assemble a prototype god. The foreigners, of course, seized the chance—secretly replacing the mermaid’s bones with ours, trying to resurrect a ‘god’!”

“Luckily, that foreign woman knew right from wrong and revealed the key.”

“But our destruction of that god was clearly exploited by the hidden man!”

“And the Three Emperors Society? Not good either…”

Dou Dabi Bao’s resentment surged, hard to contain: “Their patron, the Night Demon King, is a demon. They were lured into harvesting living flesh to brew immortal pills. While healing people, they secretly stole immortal bones to make pills. The ‘immortal pill’ was stolen by the foreigners and used to revive the ‘god’—the god was killed by us, and now they’re stealing the corpse to brew pills again!”

“Pill-making for immortality… a bunch of madmen!”

“The hidden man used the foreigners to revive the god, used us to kill him, used the Three Emperors Society to steal the corpse—all under his control…”

“Oh! Only the Xuanzhen Sect can match him in this game. We still don’t know what they want—probably some earth-shattering conspiracy. Let them fight the hidden hand! We’re done!”

“Let’s go!” The scholar slapped the donkey’s rump. “I brought your donkey for you, Dou brother!”

Dou Dabi Bao sighed, turning to Bei Xianyu: “We’ve lost everything—we can leave. But you saved my life, so I owe you one. And the hidden man killed the Insect King—he won’t let us go either. We must take a desperate risk.”

“Bei Master, the hidden man’s vile tricks are all to steal our ‘immortal bones’!”

“Immortal bones?” Bei Xianyu realized: “Ah! You all lost part of your senses. But my Immortal Tongue was already stolen and transplanted onto the mermaid corpse…”

Dou Dabi Bao shook his head: “Though I don’t know how the Xuanzhen Sect did it, your immortal bones were only partially lost. I lost my left eye, but the Xuanzhen Sect left me my right. You lost some taste buds, but only the old ones—your tongue remains, even with potential for renewal. And Young Yang’s Long Yubi is the same…”

“We are still the true owners of our immortal bones. What we lost is merely their transformation.”

“But the hidden man is different—he somehow truly peeled away our immortal bones. I’ve lost my Divine Eye completely. Young Yang lost his Jade Nose. Bei Master, you’re next!”

Bei Xianyu paused thoughtfully: “I still can’t fathom how something inherent to a person can be stolen.”

“Indeed, when I was healed, my taste buds were transplanted onto the mermaid corpse through mysterious medical arts. But even without taste, without a tongue, my memory of flavors, my sensitivity to cuisine, never faded! By that logic, that tongue still lives in my heart.”

“Only when my memory and perception of all flavors are stripped away will I truly lose that tongue.”

Dou Dabi Bao said gravely: “Exactly! Bei Master, beyond the immortal bones themselves, we still have cultivation. Even when I lost my eyes, my spiritual sense for treasures didn’t vanish—it was merely buried under my despair and regret. Back then, I was blind in body but not in spirit; I just didn’t realize my Dao-heart was dusty.”

“Now, even my cultivation in the Bao technique has been fully stripped away.”

“My heart is blind too.”

Dou Dabi Bao said solemnly.

Silence fell. Long moments passed before the scholar spoke slowly: “As for how the hidden man stole our immortal bones, I have an idea. Sorcery is always ritual and talismans. He must have used a ritual. When I lost my Long Yubi, I smelled countless exquisite scents—until a scent, both fragrant and foul, rose up, blinding and deafening my nose, and I lost my ability forever.”

“That scent must have overwhelmed my power—because my memory of all scents was entirely covered by it.”

“When I lost my Divine Eye, though I’d been tricked early on with the hair ghost, it was also because my Illusion-Piercing Eye fell into illusion itself!”

Dou Dabi Bao gasped: “Yes! How could mere hair ghosts obscure my Illusion-Piercing Eye? I reversed cause and effect—it wasn’t that I was infected by the hair ghost and then saw illusions. My eye was broken first, and only then did the illusion slip in!”

“Young Yang, what was that scent—fragrant yet foul?”

Dou Dabi Bao pressed urgently.

The scholar hesitated, lowered his head, thought long, then said: “I think… it was the smell of money.”

Dou Dabi Bao opened his blind right eye to Bei Xianyu: “Bei Master, look at my eyes.”

Bei Xianyu leaned close, staring into the gray-white pupil. She focused, her gaze piercing through Dou Dabi Bao’s pupil—as if gazing into an endless abyss, sinking deeper and deeper… Long moments passed before someone slapped her shoulder, pulling her gaze back.

“It’s a money eye!”

Bei Xianyu said gravely: “Your pupil holds a money eye. All that happened before—you were seeing the world through a money eye.”

“The smell of copper, the money eye!”

Dou Dabi Bao murmured softly: “Now I know how our immortal bones were stolen. What else in this world can so easily take what belongs to others?”

“Master Bei, this man’s power must be tied to money. We are all mortals—the more worldly one is, the more one cannot escape that single copper coin.”