RNP Chapter 1020 Despicable Evil Arts
Chapter 1020 Despicable Evil Arts
Chu Yang, Sun Wukong, and Tang Sanzang were all stunned the moment they heard those words.
In the extremely prosperous and decadent Tianfeng City, the seven-year-old child, who was beaten and bruised and starved to the point of eating only dirt, desperately protected the half of the dirty bun to fill his own stomach, while he refused to take a bite of the good meat bun because he wanted to save it for his sick younger sister.
Chu Yang clenched his fists tightly inside his sleeves. He looked at the stubborn little boy in front of him, and an extremely strong emotion surged violently in his chest.
He stood up, walked to the little boy, squatted down again, and gently touched the little boy's messy hair.
"Tell your brother, what's your name?" Chu Yang's voice was extremely firm. "Where is your sister? Take us there. Not only do I have steamed buns, but I can also cure your sister's illness."
The little boy looked up at Chu Yang's extremely bright eyes, which seemed to dispel all darkness.
"My name is Shitou (Stone)." The little boy's voice was still hoarse, but his eyes were gradually reddening. "Big brother, can you really save my sister? Doctor Li in the city said... said my sister is possessed by an evil spirit and can't be saved..."
"Evil spirits?"
Chu Yang and Sun Wukong exchanged a glance, their eyes simultaneously becoming extremely sharp.
In Tianfeng City, which seems to be devoid of any demonic aura, evil spirits are actually lurking.
"Lead the way." Chu Yang stood up, picked up Shi Tou, and let him sit on his shoulders. "With us here, don't talk about evil spirits. Even if the King of Heaven himself came, your sister wouldn't die."
The prosperity of Tianfeng City is like a gorgeous robe embroidered with golden peonies on the surface; if you lift just a corner, you can see that it is crawling with disgusting lice.
Shi Tou sat on Chu Yang's broad shoulders, his thin, bony hands gripping Chu Yang's collar tightly. He seemed unaccustomed to being held high up, but the warm body heat of a grown man emanating from Chu Yang, and the reassuring sense of strength, gradually calmed his wildly beating heart, which had been pounding like a frightened deer.
The deeper the group walked into the alley, the dimmer the surrounding light became.
The bluestone pavement underfoot had long since disappeared, replaced by black sludge that emitted a foul stench. The buildings on both sides of the street had changed from brick and tile houses to low adobe houses, and finally to shacks haphazardly built with broken planks, rotten thatch, and a few pieces of tattered tarpaulin.
The air was filled with an extremely pungent smell of sourness and stench of urine, as well as an indescribable, deathly aura, similar to moldy rotten wood.
"What a lousy place! The city gate tower is more magnificent than the Southern Heavenly Gate, yet inside there's this stinking mud pit!" Sun Wukong covered his nose, tiptoeing to avoid soiling his newly changed boots with the black mud, and couldn't help but complain, "Brother, do you think these mortals are out of their minds? There's so much empty land outside, why don't they grow crops instead of crowding into this dilapidated city and smelling the stench!"
Chu Yang, protecting the stone on his shoulder and dodging a broken wooden beam that was about to fall from above, said coldly, "Brother Monkey, you don't understand. There is land outside the city, but it belongs to landlords and gentry. The poor have no land and can only come to the city to do hard labor. Although the city is smelly, at least you can scavenge some leftovers behind the restaurants and taverns and not starve. The prosperity of Tianfeng City is built on squeezing the blood and sweat of these people."
Tang Sanzang followed silently behind. He didn't cover his nose, and he didn't even care that the mud under his feet had soiled his clean linen clothes that he had just changed into.
His gaze swept across the dark shacks. Occasionally, he could see a pair of eyes that gleamed with numbness, hunger, and wariness in the darkness. Those eyes were devoid of life, like those of still-breathing corpses.
"Amitabha..." Tang Sanzang murmured a Buddhist chant, but this time, his voice lacked the empty lament of compassion; instead, it carried an extremely heavy sense of oppression. "Behind the vermilion gates, meat and wine go to waste, while on the roads, the bones of those frozen to death lie. When I was in Chang'an, I saw wealthy and powerful officials donating to temples, spending fortunes in hopes of a rich and noble next life. Little did they know that the distance between paradise and hell in this world is often just a street away."
Chu Yang glanced back at Tang Sanzang, a slight smile playing on his lips. "Master, the fact that you can see this far means your eyes are truly open. The Bodhisattvas speak of equality for all beings with their eyes closed, but that's because they don't have to go hungry. Since we're walking through this mud, we must open our eyes wide and see clearly who is actually eating people."
"Big brother...it's just ahead...that black shack is my home." The stone on his shoulder suddenly pointed timidly to an extremely dilapidated corner ahead.
It was a makeshift shack clinging to the base of a section of crumbling city wall. A few layers of tattered, rotten mats, barely held together by a few stones, covered the roof. There wasn't even a door; only half a tattered, dark burlap sack hung there to block the wind.
Chu Yang put the stone down. The stone immediately slithered into the tattered sack like a little eel, and then his extremely anxious and panicked voice came from the shack.
"Little Grass! Little Grass, wake up! Brother brought you back some meat buns! They're hot! Little Grass, open your eyes and look!"
Chu Yang, Sun Wukong, and Tang Sanzang exchanged a glance, then quickly lifted the tattered sack and went inside.
The shack was extremely cramped; once the three of them entered, there was barely any room to turn around. There was no bed; the floor was covered with a layer of moldy dry straw, and in the corner sat a chipped, broken earthenware pot—this was all the belongings of this "home."
Lying on the haystack was a little girl who looked only four or five years old.
She was so thin she was practically skin and bones; her once innocent and cheerful face was now covered with an eerie, deathly gray. Her breathing was so faint it was almost imperceptible, and her small chest rose and fell only slightly after a long while.
What's most shocking is her forehead and neck.
Beneath what should have been translucent, fair skin, thick, black, worm-like blood vessels were writhing extremely slowly. The fluid flowing within those black vessels didn't seem to be blood at all, but rather a black mist emanating an extremely chilling aura.
Stone knelt beside the haystack, shaking the little girl's shoulders desperately, and carefully brought the hot meat bun, which he had been holding tightly in his arms and which still carried his body heat, to the little girl's dry, purplish lips.
"Little grass, smell it, it smells so good... Can you take a bite... If you take a bite, you'll get better..." Stone's tears fell in large drops onto the little girl's ashen face, his voice already hoarse from crying.
But the little girl didn't react at all; her body temperature was as cold as ice.
"Move aside, let me see."
Chu Yang pulled aside the collapsing stone and knelt on one knee beside the haystack. He extended two fingers and placed them precisely on Xiao Cao's thin, twig-like wrist.
The moment he touched it, Chu Yang felt an extremely cold and highly corrosive chill trying to penetrate his meridians along his fingertips.
"snort!"
Chu Yang snorted coldly, and the two-colored sword spirit in his dantian trembled slightly. A wisp of extremely pure Yang true energy surged out instantly, shattering the Yin cold energy directly at his fingertips.
"How's it going, little brother?" Sun Wukong came closer, his fiery eyes suddenly lighting up in the darkness like two golden searchlights, staring intently at the little grass.
Chu Yang's expression turned extremely ugly.
"This is not an ordinary illness, nor is it a plague." Chu Yang withdrew his finger, his gaze coldly fixed on the writhing black veins on Xiao Cao's neck. "The life force within this child is being frantically devoured by something. Her internal organs have been frozen by this yin energy. If we had arrived half an hour later, even a divine being could not have saved her."
"I, Old Sun, see it!" Sun Wukong's fiery eyes shone brightly. He gritted his teeth and pointed at Xiaocao's chest. "This isn't some kind of evil spirit possession at all; this is man-made! A 'Life-Devouring Gu'—made from the resentment of the dead and the filthy water of a sewer—is coiled around this girl's heart meridian! This Gu worm is sucking away her lifespan bit by bit!"
"The Life-Eating Gu? Man-made?" Tang Sanzang was shocked and clenched his fists in anger. "Who could be so vicious as to lay such a cruel hand on an innocent child who knows nothing of the world?!"
"Big brother...is my sister going to die...?" When Shi Tou heard Chu Yang and Sun Wukong's words, although he didn't understand what Gu was, he understood that "even a great immortal can't save her." He instantly collapsed and knelt down in front of Chu Yang with a thud, frantically kowtowing.
"Please! Please, gods and immortals! Save my sister! I'm willing to be your slave! I'll give you my life! Please!"
"Stone, rise!"
Chu Yang grabbed Shi Tou by the back of his collar and forcibly lifted him up, looking intently into his eyes filled with despair.
"A man's knees are worth gold, don't kneel so easily! I said, with me here, not even the Heavenly King himself can take her away!"
Chu Yang turned his head, took a deep breath, and suddenly formed an extremely complex hand seal in front of his chest.
"Brother Monkey, seal off this shack! Don't let even a trace of Yin energy leak out. These Gu worms are incredibly cunning; once they sense danger, they might bite through the child's heart meridian and kill him too!"
"Leave it to me, Old Sun!" Sun Wukong paused with his golden cudgel, and an invisible golden barrier instantly enveloped the entire hut, preventing even a wisp of wind from entering.
"Master, come here." Chu Yang called out without turning his head. "Your mind is clear now. Use the purest Buddhist compassion, without chanting scriptures, just use your intention to soothe this child's soul, so that she is not afraid and can maintain a sliver of clarity in her mind."
Without uttering a single word, Tang Sanzang immediately walked to the haystack and sat down cross-legged. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together. There were no complicated scriptures, no empty slogans, only the purest compassion and prayer from an elder who had experienced life and death and seen through illusions for a dying life.
A layer of extremely soft, warm, and oppressive golden light emanated from Tang Sanzang and slowly covered the grass.
Under the golden light, the little grass's tightly furrowed brows miraculously relaxed slightly, and even its faint breathing became a little more even.
"Now!"
Chu Yang suddenly opened his eyes, his left eye gleaming with golden light and his right eye glowing with red light.
He extended his right index and middle fingers, forming a sword shape. Within his dantian, he carefully extracted the faintest flame from the extremely domineering Crimson Lotus Karmic Fire, mixing it with the Pure Yang True Fire, and condensing it at his fingertips.
"laugh!"
Chu Yang's finger landed precisely on Xiao Cao's heart pulse point on her chest.
An extremely hot but harmless masculine energy instantly pierced through the grass's cold skin, heading straight for the "Life-Devouring Gu" that was entrenched in its heart meridian.
"squeak--!!!"
A piercing scream, as sharp as a baby's cry, suddenly rang out in the small shack!
It was a piercing scream from the depths of the soul, inaudible to ordinary people, yet capable of sending chills down one's spine. Stone was so terrified by this silent scream that he collapsed to the ground, clutching his ears and trembling.
As Chu Yang's fingertip flames drew closer, the black veins on Xiao Cao's neck and forehead began to twist and struggle wildly, as if countless black worms were about to run rampant under her skin.
"Trying to run? Get out here!"
Chu Yang's eyes flashed with cold light, and he suddenly flicked his finger upwards!
"Pfft!"
A drop of extremely thick, black, poisonous blood seeped from the skin on Xiaocao's chest. Immediately afterward, a bizarre worm, only the length of a little finger, jet black, covered with countless tiny hairs, and shaped like a centipede, was forcibly forced out of the wound by Chu Yang's true fire!
The moment the Gu worm left the grass's body, it immediately sensed the pure Yang energy surrounding it, which terrified it greatly. It let out a desperate cry, suddenly sprang up, and transformed into a black lightning bolt, actually trying to pounce on Tang Sanzang who was standing to the side.
"You still dare to act wildly?!"
Sun Wukong, who had been waiting for this moment, snorted and stretched out two hairy fingers, which, like iron pincers, precisely clamped the black Gu worm in mid-air.
"Squeak squeak squeak!" The Gu worms writhed wildly between Sun Wukong's fingers, spewing out streams of foul-smelling black poisonous mist, attempting to corrode Sun Wukong's fingers.
"How dare you show off such despicable evil magic in front of me, Old Sun!" A flash of golden light appeared at Sun Wukong's fingertip, and the extremely troublesome Life-Devouring Gu was instantly annihilated into a pile of black ash before it could even let out a final scream. The ash scattered on the ground.
As the Gu worms were removed, the deathly gray on Xiao Cao's face faded visibly. Although she remained extremely pale and thin, her breathing became noticeably stronger. The terrifying black veins gradually disappeared beneath her skin.
Chu Yang withdrew his fingers, exhaled a long breath, and a fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead. This kind of operation—operating on the fragile heart meridian of a mortal and removing the Gu worms—was even more mentally taxing than fighting Bai Ling. A slight mistake could burn the little girl's heart meridian along with it. (End of Chapter)