Chapter 192 — Pudu Cihang, Do You Recognize This Old Man!

Beneath appearances that ordinary mortals could not see—

Several beams of divine radiance shot out from the roof of a dilapidated temple, vaulting over the city walls. Within the crisscrossing streets and alleys, lamps lit up one by one in the darkness, and a wave of chaotic noise resounded.

“The earth dragon’s turning over!” “Get out of the house, don’t hide inside!” “Look at the sky—”

“What kind of ghost thing is that? So long—”

“Could it be a dragon…?” “Since when do dragons have that many long legs?!!”

“Heavens have mercy! Last time a divine being ran wildly through the streets, and now another monster this big shows up!!”

The streets were in turmoil, figures crowding together. Forcing down their pounding hearts, countless gazes crossed over the towering city walls. Under the cold, frost-like moonlight, a black shadow wound and swam across the sky.

“Hissss~~”

A long, insect-like shriek carried from afar. Even ten li away, it could be heard clearly, causing faces to turn pale with fright. Timid women and children hurriedly scurried back indoors.

The long body winding and dancing across the night sky went another twenty or thirty li east. Among the low mountain foothills, there were also secluded cultivation sect gates, though they were all small sects with modest courtyards. Sensing the vast demonic aura coiling above the capital, several people were already racing toward it; among them was one with a tiger-like brow and thick beard, carrying a broad, long sword case on his back.

Half a pale moon shone through the forest. The group drove their techniques, their speed growing faster and faster. As they neared that place, startled birds burst into flight. The demonic aura they felt had already reached an unimaginable degree. On the way, one companion shouted: “There’s movement ahead!”

They saw more than a dozen figures running out in panic. Seeing they were merely mortal martial artists, the thick-bearded man with the sword case waved for them to pass. One woman ran a few steps, then looked back.

“There’s a monster over there! Don’t go—you’ll die!”

Among the group, the thick-bearded man snorted.

“Just heretical fiends and crooked demons. We cultivators, should block them even at the cost of our lives!”

Cultivators?

That woman was precisely Min Yuerou. When Pudu Cihang’s true body had burst out of the earth earlier, she had fled this way in panic together with a group of guards and mounted constables from the Apprehension Office. They couldn’t even contend with it in human form—let alone now that it had revealed its true shape.

Watching those cultivators depart, Min Yuerou cupped her hands and bowed to them, and also bowed toward Lu Liangsheng, who still remained over there.

“May he be safe…”

After running out of the woods and onto the road beyond, she looked back. Beneath the clear moon, the long body winding through the sky suddenly let out a shrill hiss and plunged straight downward. A fierce wind pressed down; nearby leaves thrashed wildly, and with a series of cracking sounds, tree trunks snapped stiffly and toppled in succession.

The Daoist bit his fingertip, wrote a talisman in his palm, and waved it repeatedly toward the long shadow diving from the sky.

“Still! Still! Still…”

The gigantic insect body twisted, its hundred legs thrashing, utterly unaffected. Sun Yingxian turned his head and shouted, “Damn your granny, why isn’t it working?!”

His body bent under the pressure of the gale. He collapsed to the ground and was blown several zhang away, rolling and scrambling.

Lu Liangsheng flicked his wide sleeve and pointed a hand seal at the tumbling figure, casting the mountain-stone technique upon the Daoist, finally stabilizing him. Just then, a voice suddenly rang out from the forest:

“Fellow Daoists, do not panic—”

With a long shout, five figures carrying various ritual implements rushed forward at great speed. In the corner of the scholar’s eye, he saw the tiger-browed, thick-bearded man at the front slap the wooden case on his back, and with a shua, sword-light shot out.

The four at his sides revealed their own implements, each glowing, leaping into midair to meet it, striking toward the centipede demon plunging from the night sky. Streak after streak of spell-light struck the creature’s hard shell, producing a chaotic barrage of bang bang bang sounds.

“Don’t get too close to it!” Lu Liangsheng shouted, unable to stay calm.

Puff, puff, puff…

The jointed long feelers lashed through the air, sweeping across several figures mid-flight. A cloud of blood mist burst open and spread beneath the moonlight. The man with the sword case blocked once with his flying sword, but his whole body was blasted backward like a cannonball. Lu Liangsheng rushed forward, raising a hand to support him through the air and dispel part of the force, yet he still smashed through a large tree, tumbled twice, and slammed heavily onto the ground.

Seeing the big man still struggling on the ground, Lu Liangsheng clenched his teeth. He shifted from where he stood; the instant he warned the Daoist to leave, his body stepped onto a tree trunk, shaking the branches and leaves violently.

At the moment the falling insect body struck the ground, he leapt straight onto it. From his sleeve pouch, the few copper coins he had left burst forth in spell-light, bang bang boom boom, bombarding the creature’s shell in a frenzy.

The coins shattered on impact, fragments scattering. Spell-light and sparks flashed like a torrential storm, illuminating the pitch-black carapace—at last, a thin crack split open.

“Hisss—”

The insect’s body writhed wildly. Golden light shone out from that fissure. With a low roar—“Haah!”—Lu Liangsheng hurled his final copper coin.

It struck the golden light.

Boom—

Pudu Cihang paused midair for an instant. Above, the scholar’s figure dropped, and the whipping feeler slammed across his waist. His body spun and flew sideways.

“Old Lu!”

The Daoist clenched a bronze mirror in his teeth and sprinted madly, reaching out to catch him. A flash like lightning—suddenly the old donkey came galloping, hooves flying. It leapt into the air, turned its body sideways as a cushion, and blocked its master’s hurtling fall. With a bang, they collided and rolled across the ground.

In the forest—

Webbed feet pata-pata slapped across the thick layer of fallen leaves as the Toad Daoist came panting out from the edge, his tongue even dangling from the corner of his mouth with each breath.

Patting his round belly, his gaze swept over the enormous centipede coiling in the air, then finally fell upon the figure rolling together with the old donkey. Red dots flared within his toad eyes.

“Liangsheng!!!”

With a shout, he pumped his two short legs and charged, demonic aura surging from his whole body. Fixing on the writhing insect form, he kicked off with his webbed feet and leapt high.

“This old man will eat you!!!”

His toad head swelled instantly, expanding more than tenfold, and he opened his jaws wide and bit down.

Ahead, behind Pudu Cihang’s long body as it slithered toward the man and donkey on the ground, something suddenly clamped onto its tail. With a sharp snap, the tail feeler broke off—and a stab of intense pain shot through it.

A toad that seemed almost nothing but a head—its skull enormous beyond proportion—was clamped onto its rear, biting so hard that one of the tail feelers snapped under its jaws.

“Hisss—”

“You again, you damned toad!!”

It had yet to transform into a dragon, yet already one tail feeler was gone. Even if it rose to the Ninth Heavens in the future, it would no longer be perfect. A furious shriek shook the entire wilderness. Countless long legs stamped the air; its long body writhed wildly, smashing upright trees until they snapped.

The Toad Daoist, biting its tail, had its bulging toad eyes wide. From the impact, he was flung far away, tumbling into the ruins of the collapsed ritual altar. Pa-ji! He slammed heavily onto broken stone slabs, limbs sprawled wide. His tongue shot out from his mouth, stretched taut in midair, then finally drooped down and stuck to his pale belly.

Lu Liangsheng climbed up from the ground, his hair knot loosened and hanging, his robe torn in places, blood still at the corner of his mouth. His eyes, lit by moonlight, fell upon that small figure in the ruins.

“Master—”

The Veiled Moon Sword trembled wildly within its sheath. With a hoarse shout, the scholar stepped onto the old donkey’s forehead and shot forward with a shua, charging straight across.

Pudu Cihang turned its enormous crimson head. Two long feelers waved, one missing a section—the very one the scholar had once severed with the Mountain God’s inscribed strike.

Seeing Lu Liangsheng rush in with sword in hand, its densely packed hundred legs strode through the air as it twisted forward to meet him. Its scarlet eyes, like two lanterns, swayed faintly with excitement.

Come… draw your sword and strike it down…

In the distance, the swaying red head saw several streaks of divine light flying in from the direction of Tianzhi City.

“Heh heh… Revealing my demon body really did draw you all here. But tonight, this Venerable Master will let you witness well how a demon who has attained the Dao transforms and releases the Nine Heavens’ Dragon Cry!”

The divine lights flashed. Above the devastated forest, five figures revealed their Dharma forms. Wearing gauze-capped robes, tall and upright, swordlike brows slanting into their temples, hair bound and crowned, beneath their robes, cloud-patterned shoes stepped as if walking on solid ground, suspended above the treetops.

“For such a great demon to have lurked in Jiangnan for so long without discovery—this is Yu’s fault.”

In one hand, he held a ceremonial staff of command, in the other a tiger tally.

“Department Lords, quickly go aid those mortal cultivators and seize this fiend!”

The City God division chiefs, each holding ritual implements, accepted the order and transformed into streaks of spell-light, shooting instantly to the area around the battling demon and man. Driving their arts, they linked together into sheets of spell-nets, weaving and casting them down.

Amid the collapsed ruins, bricks and stones slid down with soft rustling sounds.

The small figure sprawled flat against the slab twitched. Amid the booming clashes in the distance, the closed toad eyes trembled, then slowly opened.

Reflected in their depths was the scene ahead: the gigantic centipede sweeping the white-robed, blue-gowned scholar through the air.

“…Liangsheng…”

The Toad Daoist braced his webbed hands against the slab and pushed himself upright. In his field of vision, the scholar who had been struck flying cast an arc of blood through the cold moonlight as it scattered down, glaringly vivid in his eyes.

In his clearest memories—

It was as if he had returned to that fiery night on the hillside. The boy, pale-faced, blood still flowing from nose and mouth, stood before him wearing an innocent smile.

The boy had said: “…You’re my master, after all. I can’t just ignore you.”

Memories surged. Dragging his weakened body, the Toad Daoist swayed as he forced himself up, looking toward his disciple falling from the sky. His eyelids lowered.

…This old man has only you as a disciple.

“Mortal cultivator, stand down. This demon will be seized by us, the City God of Tianzhi!”

A net of divine light interwove and descended. Amid the sound of iron chains dragging, four division judges trapped Pudu Cihang. In the distance, the Daoist scrambled over on hands and knees to one side, lifting the nearly unconscious scholar onto his lap and patting his face.

“Old Lu…”

“Master Lu!” “You softhearted fool, don’t pass out on me—!”

Seeing an old monk slowly emerge from the forest, Sun Yingxian knelt on the ground holding Lu Liangsheng and shouted toward him:

“Master, help!”

Over there, Zhen Kong glanced at Pudu Cihang bound in spell-light, then looked toward the ruins and bowed his head, shaking it.

“All causes and effects have their destined ties.”

“Can you damn well say something people can understand?!”

Guuu—

The Daoist roared, then suddenly froze. Amid the thunder of battle, a different sound had begun to carry through.

Over there, Pudu Cihang’s wildly thrashing body burst forth with serene Buddhist radiance, tearing apart the densely interwoven spell-net. Raising half its body, it shrieked toward the heavens.

With a booming explosion, the four division judges were all blasted backward, their divine souls—condensed from faith—trembling violently.

Just then—

Guaaa—

A toad’s cry rang out between heaven and earth. The City God of Tianzhi, who had been about to make his move, frowned and turned his handsome face toward the direction the sound came from.

Demonic aura spread through the air, faintly even denser than that of Pudu Cihang.

“Another… great demon.”

Leaning against the Daoist’s legs, Lu Liangsheng opened his eyes and forced himself upright, looking in that direction.

“…Master.”

Guaaa—

The croak rang like morning bells and evening drums, echoing beneath the cold moonlight. The Toad Daoist’s cheeks swelled and shrank as his webbed feet stepped forward one pace at a time.

This old man… once stood on the verge of becoming a Demon King. Back then, several great sects fled in disgrace beneath my hands…

His toad eyes fixed on the long insect that had torn free of the spell-net. With each step he took, flesh and skin bulged outward, swelling larger by a full circle. The short body dragged along the moonlit ground, growing bigger and bigger. The black-patterned gourd lying nearby flew up and fused into his toad mouth.

“…And now, how is it that this old man can’t even defeat a mere centipede demon… heh… I cannot possibly fail to defeat it.”

His voice grew louder. Over there, Pudu Cihang turned its head. In its insect eyes, a gigantic shadow blocked out the moonlight—blocking its vision, blocking the Daoist’s widened stare, blocking the sight of the City God’s divisions, and blocking everything visible to the people atop the distant city walls and within the city.

A colossal figure, vast as a mountain, stood in the moonlight, revealing a toad’s face.

“Hahaha—”

“HAHAHAHA!!”

The laughter rolled like thunder, resounding across heaven and earth. From the giant toad’s mouth, rows of dense, razor teeth opened and closed. His majestic, booming voice could be heard clearly for a hundred li:

“Pudu Cihang—do you recognize this old man?!”

Vast demonic aura surged, shaking the wilds in every direction. The entire city trembled within the force of that voice.