Chapter 234: Death

Inside the dimly lit cave, the continuous echoes of bells and drums reverberated: "Ring-ring-ring~ boom-boom-boom!"

Accompanied by these sounds, Old Master You, Ershen, and the other disciples battled the lion dance.

Li Huowang didn't join the fight. He saw the lion dance that had been on the ceiling now descending, and he couldn't allow this monstrous entity to flank their group.

With a clang, Li Huowang drew his sword and charged towards it, radiating immense killing intent.

Beneath the lion's body, adorned with numerous white tassels, dozens of dark, bare feet thrashed wildly, as it aggressively charged towards Li Huowang.

Both sides quickly saw each other's faces, and the murderous intent in their eyes.

As they intersected, the massive lion body, emanating a foul stench, slammed hard into Li Huowang, its white tassels brushing against him.

Yet, Li Huowang felt no impact on his face. He simply raised his longsword and sliced at the empty space beside him.

They quickly moved apart. The result: Li Huowang was completely unharmed, while several bare human feet, severed by his sword, lay beneath the lion dance.

Li Huowang had merely been a phantom. The lion dance hadn't attacked his true self at all, as he had switched his physical body with his phantom long before rushing into the encounter.

As it observed the unharmed Li Huowang, the lion dance's enormous, lantern-like left eye slowly shifted upward, revealing a pitch-black, circular aperture.

Seven or eight dried, dark hands, resembling those of monkeys, extended from within, resting below the eye like grotesque eyelashes.

Immediately, a dozen eyes of various sizes crammed into the enormous eye socket. The entire male face contorted into a malevolent expression, its numerous eyes fixed on Li Huowang's true form.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth, his gaze cold as he stared at the entity. Whatever it was, it was not a lion dance. Absolutely not!

"Thump." Li Huowang tossed aside the crutch from under his arm and firmly planted his weapon into the ground, glaring at the entity before him with eyes brimming with murderous intent. "Come on!"

With his longsword held horizontally before his face, he steeled himself and directly slammed his left hand onto the blade.

With a soft *whoosh*, two of his fingers, spraying blood, flew into the air, growing larger. They were tipped with sharp bone spurs that pierced through flesh, spiraling towards the lion dance.

The severed fingers flew with incredible speed. Before the lion dance could react, two bleeding red marks appeared on its massive, round face.

Li Huowang's two fingers, having pierced the face, continued to bore deeper. The sounds of tearing flesh echoed, and viscous black blood slowly trickled down the exposed feet beneath the lion.

The entity controlling the lion dance was wounded, but it still refused to yield. The lion's body convulsed violently, like an animal thrashing. Its white tassels flew into the air and began drifting towards Li Huowang.

Such a minor obstacle was no match for Li Huowang. A pair of crude iron pliers materialized in his hand. He reached into his mouth and pulled forcefully, extracting two molars.

The white teeth tumbled through the air and then exploded violently. The white tassels were effortlessly severed by the spraying fragments, falling limply to the ground.

The lion's body was also torn by the tooth fragments, and red blood stained its white fur, presenting a gruesome sight.

Witnessing this, the lion dance seemed to acknowledge defeat, yet it made no sound. Instead, the human legs beneath its body thrashed ceaselessly, attempting to drag its broken form back into the darkness.

Li Huowang, of course, wouldn't let it escape so easily. He once again brought the pliers to his mouth.

Faced with Li Huowang's relentless assault, the wounded lion dance couldn't endure much longer and was quickly dispatched.

Without pausing to catch his breath, Li Huowang immediately rushed to assist the others. With his participation, the outcome of that battle also became inevitable.

Li Huowang leaped onto the lion's head, raising his sword and bringing it down fiercely. With a precise circular cut along the edge of the enormous, lifeless face, he peeled off its entire skin.

Without its face, the entire lion dance collapsed. With a thunderous *boom!*, the massive entity crashed to the ground, black, viscous blood slowly seeping from beneath its body and staining everything red.

Li Huowang, still atop the lion's back, withdrew his sword, then flipped and jumped down. Panting, he surveyed the still-shaken group. "Is everyone alright?"

"Nothing serious," Chun Xiaoman replied. "Just Gao Zhijian's left ear was grazed by a white tassel and shifted down an inch. Those tassels are likely the same things that affected Sun Baolu back then."

Li Huowang glanced at Gao Zhijian, whose ears were now visibly uneven, then nodded. He wiped the blood from his sword with the hem of his garment before returning it to its sheath.

He then turned to meticulously examine the two bizarre, grotesque lion dances.

Behind the enormous, flat human face was not a Qingqiu person holding the lion's head, but a grotesque mass of bloody, bloated corpse fragments.

The entire lion dance was a single, coherent entity. The hands supporting the lion's body and the feet propelling it forward all originated from a single, twisted, and horrifying creature.

Inside the bloody lion, various organs hung suspended by blood vessels, perfectly confirming Li Huowang's suspicions.

Li Huowang couldn't tell if it had grown this way naturally or if it had been constructed by humans. Regardless of the truth, either possibility pointed to a grim outcome, or perhaps an even grimmer one.

What was even more chilling was that these entities not only existed in the dark underground but also openly appeared in Qingqiu above ground, where the Qingqiu people treated them as a normal part of life.

What saddened Li Huowang most was his own lack of surprise.

"Oh my god, what *are* these things?" the terrified Gouwa exclaimed, standing by, wide-eyed and dumbfounded.

"But... it wasn't like this before..." Sun Baolu murmured, his expression a complex mix of emotions as he gazed at the scene before him. Decades of his understanding had been completely overturned by this sight.

"Senior Brother Li, what exactly is going on with... *them*?"

Standing beside the fallen lion, Li Huowang paid no mind to the issue of the Lion Dance Palace in Qingqiu. As a mere passerby, he felt no concern for what happened outside.

His mind was occupied with a problem that intimately concerned him.

Li Huowang meticulously prodded the organs within the bloody flesh with his sword, seemingly searching for something specific.

"Senior Brother Li, what are you looking for?" Gouwa asked, but Li Huowang's reply left him puzzled.

"I'm looking for death."

"What?"

Li Huowang offered no explanation, his brow furrowed in deep thought as he stared at the massive remains before him.

"Something isn't right. Zhengde Temple worships the Flesh and Blood Buddha, so they utilize flesh and blood. The nuns of An Ci Temple have rotting bodies, so they manipulate decay. But the giant cauldron earlier, it worshipped death. This lion dance, however, didn't seem to harness death at all."

This thought prompted Li Huowang to turn his head and gaze again toward the giant cauldron. "Could it be that besides the Lion Dance Palace, there are other cults beneath this grassland?"

The moment this idea formed, an inexplicable chill ran through Li Huowang. This place was far more unsettlingly active than he had ever imagined.