Chapter 13 The Buddha's Disciple's Gu Poison Takes Effect, Hearing the Truth in a Sea of Blood
"Amitabha."
The moment the chanting exploded like thunder, the false goddess froze, her black umbrella with a human face emitting a mournful wail. It was too late for her to escape.
The next second, as Huali lost her support and fell to the ground, she was supported by a hand. The familiar sandalwood scent wafted over, and Lianzhuo arrived in an instant.
The strong smell of blood made his heart clench, and his pupils instantly contracted to pinpoints.
Lianzhuo held her breath and tore off her kasaya to try to cover Huali's wound, but her craving for blood became stronger than ever before.
The fake goddess was struck by the swastika-shaped Buddhist light and spat out a mouthful of black blood. She looked at Lian Zhuo with terrified eyes, "You actually managed to defeat Qiongqi?" That was the king of ferocious beasts that had already formed a golden core.
"Who exactly are you?"
With the prayer beads still inside the ferocious beast Qiongqi and no longer restrained by external forces, Lianzhuo could only use her spiritual energy to draw blood from her palm, barely managing to suppress her desires with the pain.
"I apologize for the offense, benefactor." After silently completing all this, he leaned Huali's weak body against his shoulder without looking at her. His usually cold voice softened, "Don't move. Your life is slipping away. I will now transfer my spiritual energy to you. Relax and don't be nervous."
"It's useless." Huali shook her head, clutching her arm. "I have no cultivation, your spiritual power has no effect on me, don't waste it." It's better to just take down this fake goddess directly, and her health will naturally return once the mission is completed.
"Keep quiet."
The Buddhist disciple, who was usually devoid of joy or sorrow, rarely let his voice betray anger.
Huali could only weakly rest her head against Lianzhuo's neck. She had lost too much blood and had no strength left.
Looking down at their intertwined hands, Huali smiled unexpectedly. Sensing the Buddha's gaze, she sighed, "This is the first time you've ever taken my hand so willingly."
Lian Zhuo followed her gaze, her eyes turning bloodshot, and she quickly closed her eyes to recite the Shurangama Mantra.
Huali was unaware that her words had caused the Buddhist disciple to lose his composure; she only felt a warm spiritual energy coursing through their clasped hands and flowing through their meridians.
Her body, having lost too much blood, slowly relaxed as if nourished by the spring sunshine, and Huali felt so comfortable that she squinted her eyes.
Meanwhile, the fake goddess, unwilling to be ignored by the two, was almost overflowing with jealousy and resentment in her eyes. "A mortal's body simply cannot absorb spiritual energy. You actually wasted more than ten years of your cultivation for her?"
"What did you say?" Huali, who had been lazily looking around, suddenly opened her eyes. Just as she was about to look up, Lianzhuo pressed her shoulder with his slender fingers.
The scent of sandalwood mixed with the fragrance of Udumbara flowers wafted over, along with a hint of blood.
Huali was taken aback. "You're injured too?"
"With such a massive amount of spiritual energy overflowing, you can only absorb a tiny fraction." The fake goddess stared intently at Huali, who was being protected behind Lianzhuo, tears of blood streaming from her eyes. She murmured, "If there is true love in this world, why would Xiao Lang treat me like this?"
After spending the last few days together, Huali had figured out a bit of the dynamics: as long as Lianzhuo didn't object, it meant he acquiesced. The thought that this person, despite being injured, still wasted so much spiritual energy on her made Huali feel uneasy and depressed.
She can accept other people's malice with equanimity, but she is helpless against warmth.
No matter how much she struggled, Lian Zhuo gripped her tightly like an iron clamp.
"Lian Zhuo, I'm really fine. If you keep doing this, I'll really get angry and ignore you." The girl's voice was like a kitten's, completely harmless, but the Buddha turned his head away.
Lian Zhuo's gaze briefly swept over Hua Li's lips, and after confirming that they were no longer pale, she slowly released her hand.
"Amitabha."
Huali just wanted to finish the mission as soon as possible. She lowered her voice and said, "Stop. You were unlucky in your choice of partner, and you shouldn't let others suffer for you."
The false goddess remained obstinate: "Those people deserved to die! They all failed my test; I was acting on behalf of Heaven!"
The umbrella with a human face burst forth from the sky, revealing its ribs made of stark white bones, accompanied by the mournful cries of wronged souls carried on the wind.
Lian Zhuo raised her hand and drew a talisman with blood on it.
Huali didn't see his movements clearly, but the ground at the four corners where the fake goddess was located collapsed with a roar, and four pillars of light pinned her firmly to the spot.
The umbrella ribs bounced off the barrier as if burned, striking the fake goddess's body and causing her severe injuries, resulting in a shrill wail!
Huali almost clapped and cheered. Lianzhuo's talisman-drawing technique was so cool. If she could learn it, the gold-type cards would finally have a use.
"Trying to trap me? Dream on!" Even so, the fake goddess remained undeterred. Her obsession grew stronger, and she roared hoarsely, "Even if I die, those people will never come back. They all deserve to die!"
"Amitabha."
"All forms are illusory; if one sees all forms as non-forms, then one sees the Tathagata."
The Buddhist teachings and Zen principles spoken by Lian Zhuo formed golden Buddhist light, impacting the fake goddess with each word.
The gathered hostility visibly dissipated, revealing a sorrowful and bewildered face.
The fake goddess's face continued to bleed with tears, "You have feelings for me, but I have no feelings for you. Let's sever our love and go to heaven. Xiao Chen, you have truly ruined me."
Her gaze was strained to focus, and her voice sounded like she was crying: "My name is Ting Nu, and I am a spiritual herb that has cultivated into human form. A hundred years ago, I lived a peaceful life in the mountains until I met Xiao Chen."
“That day I was gathering herbs in the mountains when I saw him injured and unconscious, so I took him back and took good care of him. Although Xiao Chen was a cultivator, he treated me very well. We brewed wine and tea together in the mountains and chatted about human affairs. I originally thought this was what mortals meant by ‘I only envy the mandarin ducks and not the immortals,’ but I never expected that he was a complete fraud.”
"He went to great lengths to get close to me, but..."
"It was all for another woman. That woman was injured and needed your spiritual power to heal her, so he cruelly dug out your heart and told you that all you lost was a heart, while she lost her healthy body?"
Seeing Tingnu's surprised look, Huali gasped, knowing she had guessed correctly.
The melodramatic plots that are so common in this novel are everywhere.
"To cover his tracks, he claimed to have sealed the evil demon here and even sent people to guard the barrier for generations. I swore in the darkness day after day that if I escaped, I would make him wish he were dead!"
"Then why don't you go find that scumbag, instead of hurting other people here?" Huali asked directly and sincerely.
Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. If Tingnu were to seek revenge on Xiao Chen, she would not only not stop her, but would also lend her a hand.
The woman standing to the side looked resentful. "Do you think I didn't want to? That person promised me that as long as I collected fifty hearts, he would completely break my seal. I was about to succeed, but it's all because of you!"
So that's how it is; the seal was indeed broken by someone.
Lian Zhuo subtly gestured, and Hua Li quickly understood and continued to provoke her: "You make it sound so easy. Who knows if you still have feelings for your Xiao Lang and he's changed his mind? Otherwise, tell me, who made you do this?"
Tingnu flew into a rage, "Everything I said is true! It's...uh..."
Just as they were getting to the crucial point, Tingnu trembled and frantically grabbed her own neck with both hands.
Hundreds upon hundreds of black wisps that had just dissipated swept in, enveloping her entirely, leaving only her pale, lifeless eyes visible.
"They deserve to die."
"In this world, all heartless men deserve to die, and all those who believe in true love deserve to die."
Fresh blood poured down like rain in the black mist, one drop, two drops, falling at the feet, thick, pungent, and scalding hot.
Lian Zhuo's pupils trembled, the veins on his arm bulged, and his newly healed wound was torn open again. The Gu poison roared and howled in his blood, and his sanity was on the verge of collapse.
The strong smell of blood made Huali cover her nose and ask Lianzhuo, "What's wrong with her all of a sudden? It looks like she's being controlled."
Not hearing a reply, Huali turned her head in confusion and saw that Lianzhuo's white shirt was soaked with sweat and clung to his body, his strong and upright body trembling slightly.
Huali was startled. "Lianzhuo, what's wrong? Why are you sweating so much? Has your injury gotten worse?"
"In that case, let's all die together!"
Huali was nervously scrutinizing Lianzhuo's body when Tingnu suddenly let out a loud roar, her body rapidly swelling like a balloon.
"Run! She's about to self-destruct!"
A torrent of blood rained down, accompanied by the thunderous roar of Ting Nu's self-destruction. Hua Li pulled Lian Zhuo's hand, but before she could take a step forward, she was pulled back by a tremendous force.
The untainted Buddhist disciple on the altar, with one hand gripping her throat, slowly approached with bloodshot eyes.
"Your blood...smells so good..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
