Jiuquan Village, a thousand miles away.
“Rumble—”
The earth cracked, and soil churned.
A thick, dark-red umbilical cord burst directly out of the ground from the village's central square.
At the entrance of the village, Su Xue had been leading several villagers to distribute food and medicinal herbs to the refugees who had gathered there.
The hot porridge in the pots was still steaming, and children had just received steamed buns, their faces wearing smiles of gratitude.
The mutation happened too suddenly.
The umbilical cord was like a frenzied earth dragon, instantly flipping half the village over.
Immediately following, countless rotting demons fell from the slit in the umbilical cord like rain, pitter-pattering down.
Accompanying them was a Buddhist light carrying a thick stench of rotting corpses.
“Ah—!!”
The villagers struck by the Buddhist light, whether elderly or children, had their bodies begin to fester instantly.
Skin sloughed off like melting wax. In just a few breaths, living people were transformed into rotting corpses.
“Everyone, get away!”
Su Xue’s pupils constricted, and her heart gave a sharp throb.
She was a healer; she could least bear to see such a tragic scene.
She thrust her hands out, and the massive life-force of vegetation within her poured out without reservation.
A massive orchid phantom bloomed above Jiuquan Village.
The petals closed, firmly protecting the villagers who hadn't had time to flee beneath them.
The Buddhist light contacted the orchid light screen, producing a sizzling sound of corrosion.
Su Xue’s face turned pale; the death qi within this Buddhist light was too heavy, consuming a massive amount of her origin every second.
Her body swayed, but her feet seemed rooted to the ground as she refused to retreat a single step.
“Quickly, everyone get under the orchid.”
“Poison-Wing, Piao! Save them!”
“Coming!”
From a distance, two streaks of light arrived at high speed.
Poison-Wing’s wings shuddered, drawing a trail of purple toxic smoke in the air as purple-black venom-fire poured down.
“Boom!”
Over a dozen wolf demons that had just landed were instantly engulfed by the venom-fire, crackling as they burned.
Piao was even faster than him, transforming into billions of copper-colored locusts. She lifted the villagers running on the periphery and ferried them like mad toward the orchid shield.
Poison-Wing burned, Piao rescued, and the umbilical cord continued to vomit.
“Damn it, why are there so many!”
Poison-Wing felt his scalp go numb as he watched the unending stream of monsters falling from the umbilical cord.
These monsters were not just wolf demons; there were walking corpses in tattered monk robes, strange birds with human faces...
They were all living beings swallowed and assimilated by Ksitigarbha of Great Vows over the past thousand years. Now, they had all become part of his body—rotting enslaved ghosts at his beck and call.
“Sister Su Xue, hold on!”
Poison-Wing roared, his form becoming a blur in the sky. Toxic smoke permeated the air as every dive took the lives of hundreds of demons.
But he soon discovered a bizarre thing.
The villagers who had previously been hit by the Buddhist light and fallen rotting were now being entwined by a burst of pure golden vow power surging from underground.
Under the empowerment of this vow power, the rotting flesh actually began to grow back. The villagers who had died actually stood up again, swaying unsteadily!
“They’re alive?”
Su Xue saw it clearly from beneath the orchid, and waves of shock crashed through her heart.
This vow power... it was the vow power of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows!
But why?
Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, that madman who had caused a bloodbath in the Southern Region five hundred years ago.
Why was he using the umbilical cord to slaughter sentient beings and extract their life-force, while simultaneously using this precious vow power to resurrect them?
Before, perhaps it was to harvest vow power.
But now, most of the villagers had changed their faith, and he was already prepared to harvest their flesh and blood. Why save them?
Su Xue remembered the terrifying methods of that mad old man five hundred years ago, which still made her soul tremble today.
Could there be an even larger conspiracy behind this?
“Pfft—”
Amidst her thoughts, a spray of fresh blood erupted from Su Xue’s mouth.
Because those resurrected villagers also poured into the light screen, the number of people she needed to protect had multiplied instantly, and the consumption of her life-force grew geometrically.
“Sister Su Xue!”
Poison-Wing’s eyes nearly split from rage.
He saw Su Xue’s originally black hair actually begin to show a trace of snowy white—a sign of her destiny being overdrawn.
“This can’t go on.” A ruthless glint flashed in Poison-Wing’s eyes. “I must burn through this pipe and cut off the source of these monsters!”
However, this umbilical cord was incredibly tough; ordinary venom-fire couldn't burn through it.
Images from five hundred years ago flashed through Poison-Wing’s mind.
Back then, he was just an ordinary sixth-stage demon. Facing the demon soldiers of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows, he could only flee in pathetic haste.
At that time, he couldn't even protect himself, let alone others.
“I am now a demon king of the second transformation of eerification!”
“I have the bloodline of the Zhen!”
Poison-Wing let out a roar, and the ancient bloodline within his body began to boil.
Within his destiny palace, a dark-red star suddenly blazed—【Six Disasters】.
This was an extremely dangerous destiny, centered on calamity and deprivation.
“Burn for me!!”
Poison-Wing’s feathers all stood on end as purple flames instantly enveloped his entire body.
【Calamity Venom-Fire (Red): The natal venom-fire mutated, fusing with the power of calamity. When burning, it not only causes toxin damage but can also incinerate the opponent’s providence, leaving them plagued by misfortune.】
He transformed into a purple meteor, ignoring the obstruction of the monsters in the sky, and slammed violently into the umbilical cord.
“Boom!”
The venom-fire was sky-high.
The fire burned the flesh and also scorched something invisible—the providence of Ksitigarbha of Great Vows.
The umbilical cord seemed to feel pain, struggling madly. Its surface began to shrivel rapidly and turn charred black under the roasting of the Calamity Venom-Fire.
“Break for me! Aaaaah!”
Poison-Wing’s usual goofy appearance was completely gone.
At this moment, his eyes were blood-red, like a baleful god crawling out of hell.
He clung tightly to the umbilical cord, letting the Buddhist light corrode his feathers and flesh without retreating a step.
He couldn't retreat.
Behind him was Sister Su Xue and the villagers of Jiuquan Village.
Poison-Wing hadn't amounted to much in his life, but he was stubborn.
Whoever treated him well, he would give them his life.
“Sizzle, sizzle—”
The rotting Buddhist light was also a lethal poison to him. The purple Zhen feathers that Poison-Wing had worked so hard to grow back began to fall off in large patches, revealing charred skin and flesh.
But the fire in his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
“Gueh—”
“Even though... it tastes terrible... I can still eat...”
Piao’s pained voice came from the air as a maw like an abyss appeared above Poison-Wing.
In the process of transporting villagers, the locust swarms had inevitably been tainted by the Buddhist light.
Piao did not choose to dodge; she reverted to her true form and frantically swallowed the beams of light shooting toward the villagers.
Her body began to swell. Her originally tall and slender figure now had a belly bulging like a leather ball, and layers of corpse spots even appeared on the surface of her skin.
“Don’t... don’t die... you stupid bird...” Piao dry-heaved as she swallowed.
Even with Piao’s power of gluttony, it was difficult to quickly digest seventh-stage Buddhist light in a short time.
“Silly girl, don’t push yourself either!” Poison-Wing watched in worry.
For a moment, the battlefield fell into a stalemate.
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