Chapter 43: [Eggplant! Eggplant!!!!!!]

Lü Rang, standing behind Yuan Zhu, was terrified by the sight unfolding before them.

He gripped his assault rifle with both hands, his fingers trembling with nervousness as he continuously clicked the trigger. Had the safety not been engaged beforehand, he would have initiated an attack, disrupted the ritual, and been swarmed and beaten to death by those increasingly deranged believers.

Right now, not only had the heads of the monks in the center of the square grown large, round, and eerily red before snapping off their necks to float high in the air, tethered only by their spinal columns.

The outer circle of believers, witnessing this, felt no fear. Instead, because their mental frequencies had been hijacked by the Dharma Net, they chanted with even greater fanaticism, channeling wave after wave of psychic energy to the "tomato-headed" nodes that constituted the Dharma Net, resisting the relentless cascade of starlight.

Because the crowd was massive and everyone was chanting with such uniform fervor, and because the team's position was close to the square for optimal viewing, retreating openly at this moment would have drawn too much attention, making them prime targets for the fanatical mob. Therefore, Yuan Zhu advised Lü Rang to stay calm. "Let's observe the changes for now. We don't yet know if these developments are good or bad."

Meng Xi, standing beside him, analyzed, "I believe all of this remains well within the Abbot's plan; otherwise, he wouldn't appear so composed."

Though the scene unfolding before them was bizarre and surreal, the local residents of Yecheng wore expressions of complete indifference, as if this were entirely normal. Perhaps this was simply the correct way to conduct a Buddhist ritual.

Faced with the philosophy of when in Rome, do as the Romans do, they could only offer their blessings and hope the aesthetic of the proceedings would soon return to something more conventional.

While the group whispered among themselves, an increasing number of false human heads swelled dramatically into spheres, tore away from their necks, and levitated in mid-air, radiating a bloody glow as if yearning to return to the starry sky.

Yuan Zhu could see that the spinal columns connecting the heads to their torsos were entirely devoid of muscle or blood vessels. Yet, between the fractured wounds and the bones, deep green, vein-like tendrils of flesh had grown, weaving and sticking together to firmly anchor each vertebra, preventing the heads from floating completely away.

"Look at those green vessels on the bones. Don't they look a bit like the corrupted flesh tissue of the Filth-Bone Mad Beasts?"

"Huh? They do look a little similar."

Just then, a spherical, blood-red head that had swelled to its absolute limit could no longer bear the endless influx of starlight. It opened its mouth in a shriek of excruciating agony, bursting with a loud "Bang!" in mid-air and scattering thick, bright red tomato-like juices in all directions, splattering the ground.

Instantly, a rich fragrance—somewhere between fruit and fresh meat—diffused across the square.

Following that, one giant head after another, rapidly fattened by starlight energy, burst in quick succession, showering the ground with blood-red jam. The visual was far more R-rated and shocking than blasting wild beasts' heads with a rifle!

*Gurgle... Slurp... Bubble, bubble...*

The civilians around Yuan Zhu chanted with visible difficulty and struggle, yet sounds of swallowing echoed from their throats one after another, and their stomachs rumbled with hunger.

The scent was overwhelmingly alluring—fruity, sweet, and intoxicatingly savory. Even without tasting it, one's brain automatically generated detailed hallucinations of the flavor.

Instructing the little sprite to heighten the screening intensity against external hallucinatory pollution, Yuan Zhu stared intently at the square and noticed that the exact spots where the heads had exploded were still radiating red starlight.

The inflated, rounded tomato heads had burst, but the [Buddha Cocoons] nurtured within them had not vanished. Instead, after absorbing the high-concentration starlight, they had transformed into a hybrid product possessing the dual traits of both "Dharma" and "Starlight."

Their size remained unchanged—about the size of a pigeon's egg—but their color had shifted to a vermilion red, shaped precisely like a compassionate, closed-eyed Buddha head complete with all facial features. However, at the base of the Buddha head's neck, green calyx petals grew inverted.

If viewed upside down, it was unmistakably a small tomato with green sepals!

The tomato Buddha cocoons floated in mid-air, emitting streams of bloody starlight while background Buddhist chanting echoed in the surroundings. The original scent of sandalwood was entirely replaced by the aroma of tomato juice and fruit.

"What on earth is this thing? A Buddha cocoon? A Sarira relic? A Buddha-head tomato? Or a Buddha fruit?"

*Crack! Bang! Boom!*

Head after head suspended in the air exploded amid desperate, mournful wails, spraying and erupting plasma-like tomato juice that was scattered by the wind into a bloody mist, blanketing the entire area like a fine rain.

Even Yuan Zhu could not escape the baptism of the tomato-juice rain; droplets of the lukewarm, sweet fruit juice landed on his cheek, releasing an enticing aroma. He couldn't resist licking a stray drop—it was sweet and sour, with a hint of saltiness. It actually tasted pretty good.

The stone flooring in the center of the square was submerged beneath a vast pool of tomato juice. The stone slabs quickly absorbed the juice and flesh on their surface, emitting a sizzling sound as they softened, bulged, and sprouted vascular networks, taking on the outlines of Buddha faces. Fresh green shoots even drilled out from the mouths of these stone faces, beginning a seductive, twisting growth.

*Rustle, rustle, rustle...* The blood-red ground was rapidly sucked dry, sprouting human-like Buddha faces that vomited out thorny tomato vines, which grew rapidly under the illumination of the starlight. Meanwhile, the stone Buddha faces beneath the plants moaned incoherently, muttering, "Tomato, tomato, tomato! Buddha, Buddha, Buddha!"

Lü Rang pointed at the sprouting green shoots and said excitedly, "Ah! I recognize those. They're the plants used in those villages to seal and imprison ghosts! Were our wooden spears also made from this kind of plant?!"

Yuan Zhu calmly replied, "When those tomato heads exploded, the tomato-juice plasma they sprayed was red. But the blood of those mad beasts is green. There must be some connection between the two!"

Zhou Chu chimed in, "Could it be that once they mature, the blood turns the color of tomatoes, but before maturity, it's the color of plant leaves and stems?"

Meng Xiwei muttered, "Could it really be that crude?"

...

One monk after another suffered exploding heads beneath the starlight, their gushing tomato juice feeding all living beings, leaving behind only a mature, brightly glowing [Buddha Cocoon Sarira]. Meanwhile, more civilians tilted their heads back, greedily sucking down the tomato-juice rain falling from the sky, replenishing their stamina to continue contributing their mental strength to the Dharma Net.

At that moment, the group of special "tomato-headed fake humans" surrounding the Abbot wore expressions of excruciating pain, yet none of their heads swelled or snapped off their necks. Instead, their facial features twisted hideously, their eyes flashing with a green light at times, while at other times they wore pained expressions and struggled to continue chanting.

The distance was too great for Yuan Zhu to hear clearly, but he could confirm that this batch of monsters was not shouting "Tomato, tomato, tomato!" Instead, much like the mad beasts, deep cracks split across their blood-red cheeks, from which green eyeballs burst forth as they hoarsely rasped, "Kill, kill, kill! Blood, blood, blood! Flesh, flesh, flesh..."

Abbot Duwen stepped forward half a step, roaring with a voice like thunderous rolling sound waves, "Evil creatures! Will you not quickly surrender to my Buddha!"

The group of tomato-headed monsters immediately dropped to their knees, kowtowing heavily as they labored to speak: "Master, save me!" "Buddha, deliver me!" "I am willing to surrender!"...

Abbot Duwen raised his palm, his five fingers curling into claws, and viciously clamped onto the head of the entity directly in front of him. His other hand formed a mudra before his chest as he chanted rapidly. The invisible Dharma Net enveloping the entire square utilized the suspended [Buddha Cocoon Sarira] as nodes, ruthlessly extracting the mental energy of the living beings and drawing in starlight to converge upon himself.

Yuan Zhu finally understood. This ritual appeared to utilize the racial innate abilities of these tomato monsters, treating the tomato-headed monks as flesh-and-blood filters to absorb starlight, cause head explosions, and refine them through blood sacrifice to produce [Buddha Cocoon Sariras] possessing the dual properties of "Dharma" and "Starlight."

The Abbot had blood-sacrificed countless monks to forge this "physical Dharma net," simultaneously wielding the collective mental power of the masses and starlight energy to in turn purge the toxic, chaotic green blood from the bodies of the tomato-headed monsters.

He understood now. He finally understood it all!

The tomato-headed monster kneeling before the Abbot emitted pained, agonizing groans, though its expression was one of mingled pain and ecstasy. Simultaneously, sticky, dark-green mad blood welled up and rose from the wound the Abbot had gouged into the top of its skull, flowing into the Abbot's arm where it was suppressed by the power of the Dharma Net.

Withdrawing his fingers from the first tomato monster, the Abbot paced forward to the second, executing another Buddha-touching-the-crown dragon-claw technique. His five fingers pierced the tomato's crown, extracting the viscous green mad blood and leaving behind a five-holed bowling ball of a head before moving on to the third monster, repeating the process in sequence.

As the accumulated mad blood within him grew denser, the Abbot's mental state deteriorated rapidly. His eyes became webbed with dark-green blood vessels, and his expression flickered between boundless compassion and sheer madness...

The "spiritual Dharma net," anchored by the [Buddha Cocoon Sarira] nodes, continuously drained the mental stamina of the civilians. The flesh and blood of the people withered visibly to the naked eye, and their chanting grew fainter as waves of weakness emanated from them.

At that juncture, the bloody Buddha cocoons absorbed another massive wave of starlight, casting beams of crimson light toward the surrounding crowd to nourish their bodies. Their previously shriveled frames slowly plumped back up, and their vitality surged as if they had just chugged energy drinks, prompting them to resume chanting.

It was tragic—utterly tragic! They were treated like mere playthings, like human-grade batteries, subjected to the Abbot's whims, torture, and exploitation.

Yet even this failed to alleviate his increasingly precarious mental state.

After piercing the skulls of ten tomato monsters in succession, the mad blood accumulated within the Abbot reached a dangerous threshold. His aged and frail body swelled visibly, growing stronger and looking more and more like the precursor to a mad-blood eruption.

"Ha!"

Abbot Duwen roared in anger, raising his hand once more. His fingers pierced the skull of the eleventh tomato monster, savagely extracting the mad blood while solemnly swearing a grand vow to the heaven and earth:

"This disciple, Duwen Kamaye, hereby makes a grand vow: I am willing to bear all the suffering and afflictions of this world upon my own body, to deliver all sentient beings, pacify the netherworld ghost calamities, and rebuild the Buddha-land of Naye. Until every living being in this world is delivered, I vow never to attain Buddhahood!"

As the vow was fulfilled, the Buddhist magic power within him burst forth in a fresh wave. Brilliant golden Buddha light surged around his body, beginning to erode and swallow the bloody starlight as the two forces joined hands to suppress the green demonic blood within him.

The twelfth, the thirteenth... One tomato monster after another had their skulls pierced by the Abbot, their mad blood mined out, leaving behind his own Buddha cocoon seeds...

When the Abbot, wearing an expression of agony, dragged his weary steps toward the final tomato monster, he clamped his five fingers onto its face and squeezed hard, tearing the entire face to shreds as his fingers drove deep into the skull to extract the demonic blood.

Simultaneously, the muscles across the Abbot's entire body swelled to an extreme degree, and the sound of tearing flesh echoed from his neck.

A dozen green, fleshy, leaf-like appendages—resembling tongues or calyx petals, edged with sharp barbs on both sides—burst outward radially from his neck acting as the stem, front, back, left, and right, forming a tight circle.

They looked like a collar, flower petals, or massive thorny tongues, cradling the Abbot's head at the center to form a green, bald sun. Then the petals rolled backward, licking his bald head before finally enveloping his skull to form the embryonic shape of a green flower bud.

Abbot Duwen, now headless and topped with a green flower bud on his neck, suddenly pressed his palms together and sat cross-legged. The green flower bud atop his head rapidly swelled into a round sphere.

This time, his head did not burst and spray pulp like those of the tomato-headed monks; instead, it opened automatically with serene smoothness. Once the flower bud unfolded, his original head had been completely decomposed, leaving only layers of thick, flesh-textured red petals marked by translucent capillary patterns.

The flesh petals bloomed layer by layer, ultimately transforming into a gigantic flower nourished by a human body. At the receptacle position at the base of the flower sat the old face of Abbot Duwen, smiling with profound compassion.

The human-flower adjusted its position like a sunflower, turning to face the square. Its eye sockets and mouth stretched open, sprouting dense clusters of red filament stamens that twitched like clusters of writhing blood vessels.

"Compassionate is my Buddha! This old monk desires to deliver all beings of the Naye realm. Let all those who are disciples of my Buddha swiftly assist me in attaining Buddhahood!"

In the sky, the [Buddha Cocoon Sariras] refined jointly by Buddhist magic and starlight fell like swallows returning to their nests toward the human-face floral receptacle of the flesh flower.

Meanwhile, the stamens protruding from the eyes and mouth of the Abbot grew longer and longer under the nourishment of the starlight, drifting toward the sky to connect with the necks of the incoming "Buddha cocoons."

At that moment, as if fruit had found its stem, Abbot Duwen used his head (the human-face receptacle) to bear dozens upon dozens of Buddha cocoon fruits. Was he a human? Or a plant (a tomato)?

He resembled a humanoid stellar tomato plant yielding hundreds of fruits—extraordinarily harmonious, yet reeking of profound Buddhist resonance.

"Buddha, Buddha, Buddha... Tomato, tomato, tomato... Buddha, Buddha, Buddha... Tomato, tomato, tomato..."

Upon connecting with the Abbot, those "Buddha cocoons" seemed imbued with souls; they each began to speak, some shouting "Buddha," others crying out "Tomato."

Empowered by the multitude of [Buddha Cocoon Sariras], the Abbot's magic power surged drastically. Over a dozen green vines suddenly burst out from beneath his cassock, piercing the tomato monsters around him and fusing them into his own body.

The monsters offered no resistance; instead, they wore expressions of utter fulfillment and joy, welcoming the wondrous transformation as if being delivered into Buddhahood.

Meng Xiwei chimed in dryly, "Could this be what they mean by 'bearing all the suffering of the world upon one's body, and vowing never to attain Buddhahood until Naye is fully delivered'? As long as everyone is connected and turned into a single entity, everything is delivered, and thus one can attain Buddhahood?"

Yuan Zhu slapped his palm. "That actually makes sense!"

At that moment, the aesthetic had turned thoroughly surreal. Abbot Duwen, now perfectly integrated with nature (plants), suddenly rotated his flesh-flower receptacle to face the civilian crowd where Yuan Zhu and his companions stood, and spoke via spiritual resonance to preach the Dharma: "If there were no suffering in this world, how would sentient beings ever know my Buddha's boundless magical power and compassionate salvation?! Ha!"

He roared furiously, and the countless "Buddha cocoons" connected to his human-face receptacle began to wail aloud, their eyes weeping blood as they cried out in a chaotic clamor: "Kill, kill, kill... Blood, blood, blood... Flesh, flesh, flesh..."

Above the Abbot, the starlight, which had been gradually twisted and converted into a bloody hue, dragged along streams of green mist and shone down upon the observing crowd. He expelled the "Filth-Bone mad blood" that remained unrefined within his body, transforming it into a rising bloody mist mixed with crimson light that blanketed the entire area.

"Damn it!!! We've been tricked!"

The rat in Yuan Zhu's pocket emitted a piercing screech, and their uniforms rippled uneasily as a dual-layer defense formed to resist the distortion of the bloody light.

The civilians around them were not so fortunate. Their minds remained trapped within the "Dharma Net," leaving them utterly defenseless against the crimson starlight.

As the bloody light poured into their bodies, it brought the power of evolution. The muscles of the people began to swell, their flesh overgrowing until their skin could no longer contain it, splitting open with a harsh ripping sound.

Following that, familiar green eyeballs crawled out from the wounds, darting around with vivid realism... each displaying the distinct traits of green-version Filth-Bone demonic monsters.

Yet unlike those crazed beasts, the citizens of the Buddha-land infected by the "Duwen Stellar Tomato Abbot" underwent Filth-Bone demonization while simultaneously growing pigeon-egg-sized tumors on various parts of their bodies—cheeks, torsos, limbs—which rapidly sprouted the outlines of green skeletal Buddha heads.

Yuan Zhu made a bold guess: the "Tomato Abbot" intended to first refine ordinary mortals into Buddha-ized versions of Filth-Bone monsters, and then use his boundless magic power to gradually ferry them back into the Buddhist fold.

In this way, he would truly fulfill the grand vow: *"All living beings fall to demonic corruption, yet the entire world is delivered. Only by re-establishing the Buddha-land can one attain Buddhahood."*

"Damn it, what a ruthless monk!"

Seeing the surrounding civilians undergoing progressive Filth-Bone demonization, Yuan Zhu and his group hesitated no longer, raising their firearms to open fire wildly in an attempt to blast open a path of blood.

On the other side, the Tomato Abbot was faring no better. The formidable starlight was not a power his Buddhist cultivation could easily command; by using the salvation and assimilation of the tomato monsters as an indirect means of control, he naturally had to pay a corresponding price.

He drove the bloody starlight to such an excess that he fell into a state of severe schizophrenia, raving and screaming madly: "Tomato, tomato, tomato! No, no, no, I am Duwen Kamaye tomato... I am the Buddha of Naye! I am tomato, tomato... I am Duwen... I, I, I... Tomato! Buddha!... Ahhhhhhh..."

The flesh flower trembled violently, and the Buddha cocoons connected by the stamen threads on the human-face receptacle wailed and wept in unison, shouting wildly in a chaotic mix of "Buddha" and "Tomato" as they experienced mass collective madness and tore at each other.

"Ahhhhh... Ahhhhh... Ah, I have attained enlightenment! I am—[Buddha-Tomato]! I am—[DU! WEN! BUDDHA! TOMATO!!]!"

The gigantic human-face receptacle roared toward the heavens, and countless "Buddha head cocoons" connected by flesh filaments also lifted their heads to gaze into the starry sky, shouting in loud unison: "Buddha-Tomato! Buddha-Tomato!! Buddha-Tomato!!!"

The twisted yet mighty starlight descended upon the mortal realm once more, its crimson glow infecting all things.

In that instant, man and plant achieved perfect symbiosis, and Buddha and tomato became one.

The realized Buddha of the bubble world: [Duwen Buddha-Tomato] was born!