Chapter 19: Thicket Village (Nineteen)

“I don’t know,” Fu Wuxuan laughed, “but as long as we find him, we’ll know.”

Li Yulin scratched his head. “But the Six-Armed Bodhisattva is hard to find, and so is the village chief.”

“We might not be able to find them, but someone will,” Fu Wuxuan laughed. “The ones who noticed something off about the village chief aren’t just us.”

*

Wu Xue held the lantern as she headed toward the basement.

The student girl followed closely behind her. Besides her, there was also a man dressed in black.

The man had an utterly ordinary appearance—one that would get lost in a crowd. The only distinctive feature was a faint knife scar on his brow bone.

Their group had been nearly wiped out by the Weird, leaving only these three.

The student girl had come out of the basement just two days ago, so she felt a bit traumatized. “Sister Wu Xue, do we really have to go down there?”

Wu Xue wasn’t the talkative type and didn’t respond.

Instead, the knife-scarred man spoke up. “The clues are down there. We have to go.”

With so few people left, the student girl only now noticed the knife-scarred man’s presence. Since she hadn’t interacted much with him and he was a man, she said softly, “Okay.”

They descended the stairs. The basement below was already empty, save for some bloodstains.

The student girl whispered, “There’s nothing here.”

Wu Xue shone the lantern around and looked toward a particularly dim spot. She said flatly, “Oracle: Hidden Ghost, Manifest.”

The already dimly lit basement suddenly went dark. When the light returned, an extra “person” had appeared in the empty space.

The student girl cried out in shock. “Village chief! How could it be you!”

The old village chief appeared right before them, leaning on his dragon-headed cane with a grim expression. “I didn’t expect that even after I faked my death on purpose, you’d still find me!”

“Faked your death?” The student girl looked baffled. “Why would you do that!”

Veins bulged on the old village chief’s face, which flushed red—a sign that he was about to snap. He practically gnashed his teeth as he said, “You injured my son, then killed him! How could I let you beasts go!”

His eyes bulged with rage, his expression growing increasingly manic. “So I teamed up with the Six-Armed Bodhisattva, lured you all into the basement, and planned to kill every last one of you!”

The student girl watched him grow more deranged and felt a chill in her heart.

“You put on quite the act, Six-Armed Bodhisattva.” The knife-scarred man disdainfully dug into his ear with his pinky finger.

“Huh? What do you mean?” The student girl was even more confused.

The “village chief’s” manic expression froze. It lowered its head and muttered, “You weren’t fooled after all?”

Something wriggled out. The “village chief’s” body stretched and widened, gradually flattening until it became a thin sheet of human skin that drifted lightly to the ground.

What emerged was the Six-Armed Bodhisattva. It emitted dazzling golden light from its body, standing as tall as a person with six arms outstretched. Far from beautiful, it looked more like a centipede that had taken humanoid form.

Wu Xue drew her bow upon seeing this and fired a light arrow at it.

Her Ruyue Bow could only unleash its full power under sunlight or moonlight. But in the basement, deprived of light, its strength was greatly diminished.

The light arrow struck the Six-Armed Bodhisattva and simply merged into its body.

Wu Xue frowned. “It’s a light-attribute Weird too.”

She put away the Ruyue Bow and pulled out a handgun, aiming to shoot. But then she heard the knife-scarred man laugh behind her. “That’s enough, Wu Xue. Your Ruyue Bow is useless. Let me handle it.”

Wu Xue didn’t argue and stepped behind the knife-scarred man.

“A-Rank Weird—tricky to deal with. Looks like I’ll have to get serious,” the knife-scarred man licked his lips. “Oracle: Armor.”

Silver-white beams of light appeared abruptly, forming armor that wrapped around his body. With a flick of his hand, he conjured a long spear and charged straight at the Weird!

The Six-Armed Bodhisattva pressed its six hands together, and powerful golden light erupted around it!

The knife-scarred man’s movements stalled; he didn’t dare approach its domain for the moment. Suddenly, Wu Xue shouted from behind him, “Grab it! It’s trying to escape!”

The knife-scarred man’s eyes sharpened. Sure enough, the massive golden body of the Bodhisattva turned into a streak of golden light and fled toward the basement exit.

It really was escaping!

The knife-scarred man seized the moment and hurled his spear!

The spear pierced through the golden light and embedded itself in the wall. The golden light briefly flickered with a hint of red before speeding up its escape outside!

The knife-scarred man rushed over, retrieved his spear, and glanced at the blood on the ground. “I hit it. It’s injured now. Chase!”

Wu Xue and the other two pursued, but midway they lost their way. The Six-Armed Bodhisattva, in its effort to conceal its tracks, had even mustered the strength to trap them in a small Weird Domain.

The knife-scarred man narrowed his eyes at the rising white mist and said quietly to the two women, “Break this environment first. It can’t have gone far.”

The Six-Armed Bodhisattva was indeed in poor shape, just as he predicted.

A hundred years ago, the Calamity Blade had gravely wounded it, and the injury had never fully healed. Even after absorbing centuries of human lifespans, it was merely a drop in the bucket for recovery.

After breaking free from the knife’s seal a century later, it had been backstabbed by the Corpse-Eating Ghost, making the wound even worse.

It had finally gotten fresh energy supplies in Thicket Village, only to run into two tough opponents.

The two humans from the basement had strong Weird Power; a direct fight wouldn’t end well. Better to conserve strength.

With that in mind, the golden light looped around a few turns and returned to the side room of the courtyard house. Afraid the two would catch up, it hastily merged into the Six-Armed Bodhisattva statue. Then it heard someone say nearby:

“Oracle: Binding.”

Li Yulin stepped out from behind the door, clapping repeatedly. “It really came! This ‘waiting at the stump for the rabbit’ trick was brilliant!”

Fu Wuxuan dispelled his aura-concealing domain and emerged lazily from behind another door. “You can run from the monk, but not the temple.”

Li Yulin: “What divine foresight!”

Yun Xueqing pulled a Sealing Talisman from his sleeve and slapped it on the statue’s head to prevent it from breaking free of Fu Wuxuan’s Oracle and escaping.

His expression was indifferent. “Since we’ve caught it, send it on its way quickly.”

The longer they delayed, the more variables could arise.

Fu Wuxuan nodded and took out the Calamity Blade from his Storage Finger Ring. He slashed fiercely at the statue!

The knife clashed against metal, sparking on impact. The blade left only a faint mark on the statue.

Li Yulin rubbed his chin. “This doesn’t seem to be working. Want to try again? Maybe brute force will create a miracle!”

Fu Wuxuan ignored his nonsense. “Oracle: Enchantment.”

He coated the blade with Spirit Energy. The ordinary-looking knife immediately glowed with a shimmering blue light. He raised it again and slashed down at the statue!

Knife qi surged, the blade wind blowing away the talisman paper on the statue. The entire room trembled from the strike!

But the result was disappointing. Even with Spirit Energy enhancing it and greater force, it only worked a little better—it didn’t destroy the Six-Armed Bodhisattva.

Fu Wuxuan set down the knife and tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Li Yulin, you guard here. Yun Xueqing and I will go find a way to use this knife properly.”

Li Yulin scratched his head. “Is it really a matter of usage?” And not the wrong person using it?

Of course, he didn’t dare voice such “blasphemous” thoughts.

Fu Wuxuan ignored his scheming and glanced toward the door as if sensing something. He suddenly handed the knife to Yun Xueqing. “Hold onto the knife for now. Use it if there’s an emergency.”

Yun Xueqing frowned. His intuition told him the other had some scheme in mind.

Fu Wuxuan had already walked out the door on his own. He suddenly turned back to Li Yulin with a meaningful look. “You idiot, keep a good eye on the statue. Don’t let it escape.”

Li Yulin patted his chest. “Leave it to me.”

Yun Xueqing glanced at him and lowered his eyelids, roughly guessing what Fu Wuxuan intended.

But he didn’t warn Li Yulin and followed him out.

The courtyard wasn’t large. Wu Xue and her group had been briefly trapped by the Six-Armed Bodhisattva’s Weird Domain but quickly broke free and emerged, bumping right into Yun Xueqing and the others.

As the two groups passed each other, Wu Xue, who was in front, suddenly said, “Do you have any leads?”

Yun Xueqing and Fu Wuxuan turned back together and exchanged a glance.

Yun Xueqing’s expression was indifferent. “What do you want to know?”

“I don’t care what you obtained,” Wu Xue said abruptly. “I just want the Six-Armed Bodhisattva’s location. Kill it and get out of this Weird Domain.”

Fu Wuxuan chuckled mockingly. “Two A-Rank Spiritual Ability Users entering the same Weird Domain for nothing? You must have some goal.”

The knife-scarred man, who had been hiding among them, was called out and guiltily scratched his cheek.

Wu Xue gave him a cold glance and stubbornly repeated, “The Six-Armed Bodhisattva’s whereabouts.”

“…We’ve already captured the Six-Armed Bodhisattva’s main body,” Fu Wuxuan swept his gaze over the three and suddenly said. “We’re looking for a way to subdue it.”

Wu Xue looked at him, her expression cold. “You’re telling us this so readily?”

Fu Wuxuan raised a brow. “Because the five-day limit is almost up. Working together to find clues will be faster.”

Wu Xue stared at him intently without speaking, as if judging the truth of his words.

Just as Fu Wuxuan thought she wouldn’t respond, she suddenly said, “Leave the rest to us. You don’t need to worry anymore.”

Fu Wuxuan was stunned. A polite smile rose on his face, but before he could ask what she meant, silver handcuffs were already on him.

No—the silver handcuffs weren’t on Fu Wuxuan, but on Yun Xueqing, who had been indifferently watching from the side.

Wu Xue held one end of the silver handcuffs, the other firmly locked on Yun Xueqing’s wrist.

He flashed the shiny silver cuffs on his hand and tilted his head in confusion. “Why?”

Wu Xue had pulled out the handcuffs too quickly. He had been too relaxed and hadn’t reacted in time before they clicked on.

He had no grudge against Wu Xue. Fu Wuxuan seemed to have some beef with her instead. How had he, a mere bystander, gotten dragged in?

Wu Xue remained expressionless, her red snake-like pupils full of cold indifference.

She stared at Yun Xueqing and said word by word, “Got you, Dong Jun.”