Chapter 77: 巴虺

A single tongue turns the wheel! A single lash holds a universe! Wondrous peaks, beyond all words! Heaven is so wondrously strange, surely etched by the very breath of creation! My Lord is supreme! How dare I be startled!?

As the wooden bamboo slip spoke these words through a human tongue, everything around them began to twist, and simultaneously, the five senses of everyone on the island started to transform. Sight, taste, smell, and hearing—all these senses gradually merged, forming a completely new form of perception, incomprehensible to ordinary people.

Through this extremely peculiar sensory ability, Li Huowang and the others broke through the limits of human perception. They saw something stirring in the deepest reaches of the sky, within an immeasurably vast and dark abyss where countless even darker black worlds and suns rotated.

Li Huowang smelled a gaze originating from that entity, tasted the terrifying aura of that gaze that made him tremble uncontrollably, and even saw the strange rhythm generated by its subtle movements.

Thump~ thump-thump~ thump!!

Li Huowang felt it was incredibly far away, yet its rhythm was so captivating and clear. He couldn't find any real-world equivalent for this rhythm; the only thing remotely similar was the sound of thunder preceding the God of Joy's appearance. But this thing was far, far more powerful than the God of Joy; the weak God of Joy was like sand compared to a mountain in its presence. Li Huowang made this judgment almost without hesitation, even though he had no idea what he was truly perceiving.

"Kill myself to bring Dan Yangzi forth? No! Dan Yangzi is utterly insignificant before it! The disparity is immense!!"

Li Huowang realized this in despair; before that thing, mortals had no chance of resistance whatsoever.

Just as Li Huowang had completely given up hope, standing there awaiting death, his distorted five senses inexplicably returned to normal.

"Hmm?" Before Li Huowang could fully comprehend what had happened, his expression hardened. He decisively drew his sword and rushed towards Yuan Er outside with the utmost speed.

At that moment, the completely blind Yuan Er was on his last breath. He only managed a slight turn of his head before Li Huowang swung his sword forcefully, instantly severing his head.

As the head fell to the ground, everything around them returned to normal.

Gasping for breath, Li Huowang stood there, holding his sword, looking up at the pitch-black sky, still shaken. There was nothing there now, as if everything before had been an illusion, but Li Huowang knew it was definitely not an illusion; that thing truly existed. He tried to piece together what he had previously perceived, but was startled to find that he could no longer recall what that thing felt like. With his current five senses, he couldn't comprehend what the sensation of what he had encountered earlier truly was.

Though the danger had passed, the island was eerily quiet. Everyone stood frozen, profound fear in their eyes; they had seen what Li Huowang had seen. Everyone's faces were pale, and their bodies began to tremble uncontrollably. They all felt a biting cold, an internal chill that seeped from their very core.

"Was that all? Yuan Er poured everything into this, was he only trying to scare us?" Looking at the others around him, unharmed, a hint of doubt arose in Li Huowang's mind. Their current safety, paradoxically, made him feel inexplicably uneasy.

Li Huowang took a deep breath and used his blood-stained longsword to pry open the curled red bamboo slip, finding that the flesh and organs inside had dried up and turned black. He knelt on one knee, vigilantly observing the contents of the red bamboo slip. The black characters carved on the red bamboo slip were tiny and extremely strange. He had never seen such writing before, yet as he focused, he surprisingly found himself able to recognize what was written on it.

"White pills... precious dew... swallow its belly... pluck its bones..."

This was an extremely evil bamboo slip; its contents detailed how to exchange one's utmost pain and flesh for things with a certain entity. Among the less severe methods described was how to insert a bamboo sliver horizontally under one's fingernail and pry upwards, completely extracting the nail. A more severe method involved chewing and swallowing a large bag of rusted iron filings. And finally, it even instructed the reader on how to sacrifice their own flesh and blood relatives to make deals with certain entities. The further one read, the more gruesome and terrifying the methods became, almost exceeding Li Huowang's endurance.

Finally, after reading half of the contents, Li Huowang couldn't help but vomit profusely. After throwing up all the pork he had eaten earlier, his face pale, he forced himself to endure the nausea and grit his teeth, continuing to examine the slip. He wouldn't feel at ease until he found out what Yuan Er had been doing; if it was some kind of curse, they would be in serious trouble. Enduring the nausea, he continued flipping through, finally finding Yuan Er's method on the fourth and last bamboo slip.

"No, Yuan Er wasn't trying to scare us; he was trying to summon something, but he failed."

'Ba Hui' was the name of that entity, and also the source of all the suffering described on this bamboo slip. Yuan Er failed because he couldn't pay the price to summon it. According to the slip's requirements, although his body was already in extreme pain, his inner anguish was not profound enough; even though his entire family had just died, it was still far from sufficient. To invite Ba Hui, one needed extreme physical and mental suffering.

Li Huowang turned his head and looked again at Yuan Er's head, which had no eyes or mouth. It seemed he had only recently learned how to use this bamboo slip and was not proficient. However, this was normal; most methods on the slip were fatal after just one use, making it impossible to survive long enough to become proficient.

Although they were safe now, Li Huowang's heart was far from settled. He didn't care where the water bandits got such a repulsive bamboo slip; what he cared more about was who wrote it. Could there be a sect similar to Zhengde Temple? But instead of cultivating flesh-and-blood techniques like the monks, they pursued extreme suffering? However, if one were to practice according to the contents, few would likely survive.

"Unless their sect had a way for disciples to endure so much suffering and still live." Li Huowang mused wildly as he looked at the bamboo slip in his hand.

At this moment, Li Huowang realized that even his darkest previous assumptions about this place had been far too optimistic. This place was far more dangerous than he had imagined; he already knew about special existences like the Immortals and the God of Joy. But today's experience truly opened his eyes; some things were far more terrifying than those.

"Ba Hui…" Li Huowang muttered to himself, standing frozen in place.