Chapter 568: Overturning Cognition

Eagles fought each other, flesh and blood spattered, feathers filling the sky fell down.

Behind Dìshì, the woman's head finally burst out, bloody and without any skin.

As she kept growing, Dìshì's body kept shrinking, chunks of flesh piling up into the woman's shape, she became excessively tall—two meters, three meters, four meters…

She was formed from piles of flesh, as if endless.

On her upper half of the face, lacking skin, eyes covered it; around her neck hung a string of skull prayer beads, each skull the size of a fist, eyes wide open, mouths constantly wriggling.

And throughout her body, beneath the flesh, one monk's head after another protruded, eyes closed, mouths still chanting sutras.

Arms stretched out from both sides of her body, flailing wildly in all directions…

Such a shocking, bloody scene was beyond anyone's imagination.

I heard a collective intake of cold breath.

I murmured: "This… is that the killing bird?"

The killing bird, a great demon defined as a man-eating bird.

In my imagination, she was a large black bird with a tuft of white feathers on its head.

Not long ago in Wǎngsǐ Chéng, I indeed saw a phantom on the execution platform, exactly this image.

But why does the killing bird that appears today look like this… a monster fused from flesh and many monks' heads?

The killing bird—what on earth is it?!

As she grew larger and stronger, the barrier around the Ancient God Temple began to tremble uncontrollably.

She raised those arms, pushing them outward in all directions, continually squeezing the barrier.

Only then did we realize that the barrier around the Ancient God Temple was not meant to block our entry, but to protect us.

Boom!

At the moment the barrier shattered, rolling heat waves wrapped in thick incense scent swept through the inside and outside of the Ancient God Temple; the impact was so great that it not only overturned many people behind us, but also caused a large section of the mountain behind to collapse.

I heard someone exclaim: "The… the mountain is bleeding."

How could a mountain bleed?

Yet, in the shattered mountain, between the cracks, there truly flowed a blood‑like liquid, gurgling outward, while a blood mist rose in the air.

The broken edges of the mountain stone were also a sheet of blood red.

It was as if this entire mountain range had been forged from blood‑mud.

Thud! Thud!

The flesh‑monster constantly growing inside the Ancient God Temple stirred, each step making the earth shake and the mountains tremble.

Liu Junyan hesitated not at all, instantly flying over, raising the Ancient Bronze Sword high and then bringing it down cleanly.

A blazing‑white sword qi sliced past, and the woman's head was instantly knocked off.

But the next moment, another flesh‑brain quickly grew from the wound on her head.

Sword qi slashed in succession—neck, arms, chest—each strike landed, never missing.

Yet the flesh‑monster feared nothing; a lost head could regrow, a severed arm could regenerate, the chest… she had no heart.

Liu Junyan leapt into the air, gripping the Ancient Bronze Sword with both hands, the blood‑dripping tip aimed at the center of the woman's head, and thrust down fiercely.

At the same time, Liu Junyan murmured incantations; seven strands of golden light flew from all directions into the sword's hilt—those were his seven Golden Scales.

The long sword, empowered by the mana of the seven Golden Scales, sank entirely into the woman's head from above, and Liu Junyan's eyes turned red with killing rage.

The woman let out a shrill scream and struggled desperately.

Her overly massive body made her movements seem somewhat clumsy.

Yet even so, she did not die.

Her head was pierced by the Ancient Bronze Sword; as the sword's blade twisted, it split into pieces.

I clearly saw the woman's head split open.

The next moment, the split head fragments, fused with flesh, turned into several flesh‑brains; soon the Ancient Bronze Sword lost its covering, and the entire blade was exposed.

This scene was truly too bizarre.

But Liu Junyan did not give up; he made a hand seal, struck the sword hilt, and as he chanted the spell, countless long swords suddenly appeared around him.

I have seen a sword mound; I know these long swords are fēnshēn of the Ancient Bronze Sword, condensed from sword qi and imbued with spiritual qi.

Liu Junyan made a seal, waved his sword finger, and the long swords shot like shuttles, each piercing the flesh‑monster's body, instantly turning it into a spiky hedgehog.

Then, under our gaze, the monster split again from each wound where the swords had pierced…

At this moment I finally truly understood the meaning of 'that great demon is immortal'.

But why?

I and Hu Yulin flew up at the same time.

As I unleashed Nirvana Fire, Hu Yulin unfurled his eight tails, slammed a palm down from above, and again forcibly activated the Nine‑Tail Heaven‑Covering Formation.

The Nirvana Fire struck the flesh‑monster's body and instantly ignited.

The Nine‑Tail Heaven‑Covering Formation pressed down inch by inch, squeezing the flesh‑monster's body sideways… Boom!

At the instant the flesh‑monster's body exploded from the pressure of the Nine‑Tail Heaven‑Covering Formation, the whole world turned pitch black.

That darkness was more terrifying than pitch‑black where you can't see your hand, for the air was filled with yin‑evil killing qi and a chorus of ghostly wails and wolf howls.

It seemed as if countless wronged souls were running amok in hell, with nowhere to seek redress…

Liu Junyan's sword, Hu Yulin's Nine‑Tail Heaven‑Covering Formation, and even my Nirvana Fire could not completely kill this flesh‑monster.

Why?

This truly overturned my understanding.

I felt that in this space there was an invisible terrifying force suppressing us.

Where does this force come from, and where is it hidden?

In this darkness, a chanting voice suddenly rang out.

This chanting voice was not that of the Copper Coin Person; I had never heard it before, extremely penetrating, like a divine needle that calms the sea, instantly bringing peace of mind.

The wailing ghosts and howling wolves in the air suddenly grew much fainter, shifting from hysterical howls to sobs of Suppression.

A bright light shone from my body.

The Soul-guiding Lamp flew out.

A sheet of Golden Light suddenly burst forth from the tiny lamp chamber, illuminating a expanse of heaven and earth.

But when I used the light of the Soul-guiding Lamp to see everything around me, I was stunned again.

The Ancient God Temple was gone.

The collapsed mountain was gone.

The people around me had also disappeared.

At the center of where the Ancient God Temple originally stood, a slightly thin little boy sat cross-legged.

He seemed to have just gone through a life-and-death struggle, his head and face covered in large beads of sweat.

He closed his eyes, brows furrowed, a string of skull prayer beads hung around his neck, his palms pressed together before his chest in a devout Buddhist gesture.

It was Xingchen, my child.

Behind him, a phantom of a seated Buddha shrouded his entire body, protecting the tiny infant.

That seated Buddha phantom had a single body but three heads.

The face directly facing me was clearly the original owner of the mysterious cat.

The other two faces, upon close inspection, I actually recognized.

One was that of the Copper Coin Person.

Since the Copper Coin Person last appeared at the Wufu Town Pawnshop, his body has undergone some changes, the copper coins all over him fading, turning into normal flesh.

Liu Junyan said it was because the Copper Coin Person and the Living Buddha Reincarnated Spirit Child within his body had merged souls.

The third face looked very much like Liu Junyan.

At this moment, I wasn't even sure if it was him...