Chapter 36: 35, Strange Lotus Root

35, Strange Lotus Root

Hum!

Zhou Chang stepped with the paper-faced one into the Tan water; the Tan remained utterly silent, as if turned into a clear, transparent bog, swallowing Zhou Chang and the paper-faced one—

His body sank slowly downward, the Tan water surrounding him soft and mushy as mud.

The Tan water submerged his head; for an instant, the invisible, colorless Tan water around him flickered with illusory, colorful vapors—only to revert to normal in the next breath—this deep Tan was saturated with heavy “Feast Qi.”

The rich Feast Qi had even become the water of the Tan pool!

The Tan water, returned to its normal state, flowed gently beside Zhou Chang, like a woman’s clinging, supple lotus arm.

The moment Zhou Chang thought of this, the soft, mud-like Tan water around him transformed into countless snow-white, tender arms!

Beautiful, youthful women’s hair floated like clouds in the water.

“They” linked arm to arm, circling Zhou Chang beneath the water, dancing gracefully!

Zhou Chang’s vision began to blur—this was the sign of Feast Qi corrupting the soul!

At that moment, strands of snow-white, transparent lotus root filaments drifted from Bai Xiue, winding around Zhou Chang again and again; these filaments connected to his thought-threads, causing them to grow, preserving his sanity amid the chaotic Feast Qi.

The paper-faced one pulled him, continuing downward.

Those warm, transparent women were pushed aside by Zhou Chang’s body.

Their translucent, colorless shells crowded densely in the Tan water, like hollowed-out rotting logs, drifting helplessly with the current.

Fine, pale-white threads streamed from their shells, dense and countless, hanging straight down to the Tan pool’s bottom.

At the very bottom of the Bride’s Tan , there were indeed sections of lotus root.

Beneath the black, filthy mud, snow-white lotus roots, resembling human limbs, lay stretched out; as the Tan water swept away the mud, fragments of the root segments briefly appeared.

Countless lotus root segments, sunk deep in the mud, clustered around a single lotus root that pierced through the mud, swaying in the Tan water.

That lotus root had nine segments, its surface covered in fine filaments.

The countless warm, transparent “women” crowded in the Tan water—all their drifting filaments originated from this nine-segment lotus root.

The nine-segment lotus root continued to emit vast quantities of filaments.

A small portion drifted toward Bai Xiue, connecting with the filaments on her body.

The vast majority wrapped layer upon layer around another lotus root at the Tan pool’s bottom.

Beneath the piled, tangled filaments, that lotus root gradually took on a human silhouette; its pores were finer than needle eyes, like human skin pores.

Looking at the lotus root shaped like a human, Zhou Chang felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

The paper-faced one’s voice came, light and floating, yet crystal-clear underwater: “Have you ever heard the opera ‘Nezha Rages the Sea’? In that tale, Nezha stripped the Dragon King’s third prince of his tendons and skin, angering the East Sea Dragon King.

The East Sea Dragon King gathered the spirits of all four seas to flood Nezha’s hometown; Nezha was thus scolded by his father, so he cut his bones to return to his father, shed his flesh to return to his mother…

In the end, he entrusted his soul within a nine-segment immortal lotus root and was reborn.

Do you think a lotus root can truly become a human?

If a lotus root can become a human, might it have once been a human corpse?”

Nezha, lotus root, corpse…

As Zhou Chang listened to the paper-faced one, he vaguely sensed she was hinting at something.

But her words were veiled; with only these few cryptic phrases, he could not yet connect the clues to uncover the hidden truth.

At that moment, the paper-faced one suddenly hummed a song in an unknown language, its melody ethereal and distant, like snow softly falling in the mountains: “Weng da lie, du da lie, du lie suo ha… Weng da lie, du da lie, du lie suo ha…”

Accompanying her song, the Tan water, which had just become clear and transparent, once again turned illusory and colorful.

Rolling Feast Qi flooded his vision!

He saw the lotus root segments buried in the mud transform into the swollen, pale corpses of women!

Dozens of female corpses, wrapped in colorful rags, clustered around the lotus root piercing through the mud—the nine-segment lotus root had become nine young women, each with distinct features!

The lowest segment, the root of the lotus, was a woman dressed in bridal attire; after many years, her phoenix crown and red veil had faded into mottled red and white, yet her face remained unchanged—her flowing hair revealed a visage eight-tenths like Bai Xiue’s!

This woman, resembling Bai Xiue, emitted clinging lotus filaments that wrapped around the other seven women, each dressed in patterned cloth garments.

The seven women, like lotus seeds, tightly encircled another woman in phoenix crown and red veil at the lotus heart.

The bridal attire on this woman remained vivid, untouched by fading.

Yet on her delicate, frail face, her exposed hands were covered in countless lotus pores, from which colorless filaments flowed like water!

This woman was Bai Xiue!

The nine-segment lotus root was in fact composed of Bai Xiue, seven other unnamed women, and the suspected “White Family Granny”—nine women total!

“Run… run…”

Bai Xiue whispered softly.

Her tear-streaked face suddenly transformed into the paper-faced one’s.

The ethereal, pure song lingered around Zhou Chang’s ears, yet his vision grew ever blurrier; his consciousness slowly sank into darkness, as if returning to his mother’s embrace—

His gaze finally fixed on the other lotus root segment, entwined in countless filaments, taking on a human silhouette.

As his soul was about to plunge into complete slumber, passages from the “Great Essence Heart Elixir Scripture” he had once read surfaced again from his eyes; the fragmented, twisted Chinese characters rapidly rearranged before him.

He saw a voice in his eyes: “Lotus body, strange lotus root, divine essence…

Divine essence unrefined by heaven, mind-identity chaotic and empty…

Chanting the sudden spell, essence awakens, wisdom connects with me…

Sudden spell, sudden spell, summoning black deceit and madness, now heaven and earth are vast…”

Divine essence, divine essence…

Zhou Chang’s mind seized the key information in that message, and countless other associations arose in his thoughts.

He recalled when he first understood the “Great Essence Heart Elixir Scripture,” and its mention of “egg-sheath embryonic form Nana Tian…”

Divine essence, egg-sheath embryonic form…

His final thought rolled in his mind; he could no longer resist the drowsiness, as if returning to the womb—his consciousness sank fully into darkness.

…

“Thud! Thud! Thud!”

The sound of a cleaver chopping flesh and striking a chopping board rang incessantly in Zhou Chang’s ears.

He did not know how long he had slept in darkness, but these violent, agitated chopping sounds finally roused him.

He slowly opened his eyes—

Rows of skinned, white-fleshed dogs hung on iron hooks came into view.