Chapter 44: Fighting Out of the Encirclement and Looting Corpses to Get Rich

With the successful birth of the Poly-Auditory Buddha-Eggplant, the sacrificial ceremony reached its absolute climax.

Centered entirely around it, countless flower-plate faces gazed upward at the starry sky, while the interconnected Buddha-cocoon relics burst with a blood-red starlight, channelling streams of foul bone-demonic blood directly into the bodies of the common people.

At this moment, whether they were eggplant-people with crimson heads or ordinary human beings, everyone looked up at the stars, greedily suckling on the falling "Starlight Imperial Flow-Nectar" that filled the skies—a scene that carried an inexpressible, uncanny sort of romance.

As the starlight entered their bodies, it converged within their personal green skeleton-demon cocoons, transforming into a dense, foul-blooded vitality that reinforced their bones and tendons, tinging their eyes with a verdant hue.

Those citizens with weak wills stopped chanting scriptures; their skeletons underwent secondary developmental growth instantly, and their muscles rapidly expanded, turning them into super-warriors. In some over-developed parts of their bodies, sharp bone spurs simply burst through the skin to serve as natural weapons.

Sniffing around as they raised their heads, they would suddenly pivot, burst into a sprint, and lurch toward nearby peers. With a sweep of sharp claws, they snapped a victim's cervical spine, while their other hand rapidly tore the green skeleton-Buddha-cocoon from the corpse, tossed it into their mouths, and chewed vigorously before swallowing with an expression of supreme bliss.

Unlike those mindless, frenzied beasts, the residents of that leaf-country, though infected by the foul blood, retained a shred of sanity under the enhancement of the skeletal demon cocoons. They even carried a bloody, demonic sort of buddhahood, like a Buddha entering a demonic state, transforming into terrifying expressions of wrath.

The harder they tried to suppress the bloodlust in their hearts, quell their murderous intent, and painstakingly chant scriptures to subdue their inner demons, the less they could resist the temptation of the splashing, bloody eggplant-juice and gore. With a roar, they plunged straight into the demonic path, lost themselves in the slaughter, and ruthlessly butchered the delicious prey beside them.

Amidst the attacks and close-quarters combat, these civilian demon-men—who had never learned any martial arts—would occasionally display a few moves of Buddhist martial arts purely by instinct. Combined with their super-strong life activity and somewhat reckless intelligence, their threat index climbed repeatedly, utterly outclassing the trashy foul-bone beasts.

At this point, Yuan Zhu and his companions, mingling within the crowd, appeared exceptionally conspicuous.

Uninfected by the foul blood and devoid of any skeletal demon cocoons on their bodies, their auras were exceptionally pure. Appearing so abruptly among the clustered foul-bone demon-men, they instantly became the focal point of the killing field.

Fortunately, having journeyed this far and taken turns using the lone minor monsters along the road for practice, they were no longer completely inexperienced novices.

Even Mai Lili, the most timid of them all, gritted her teeth and fired her rifle, letting out a desperate shriek of "Ahhhhh...!" that not only drowned out the gunfire but also overpowered the shrill roars of the demon-men, easily earning her the title of the squad's best banshee.

For a time, six tongues of fire spat simultaneously in a crossfire, sending green flesh splashing everywhere and causing the demonic monsters to shriek repeatedly.

Granny Yu, the shortest of the group, was transformed by her uniform into a rifle-toting, hardcore gangster old lady. Expertly weaving back and forth while firing, she guarded the shivering little mountain goat behind her, pelting the lunging foul-bone demon-men with continuous bursts that forced them back in a constant spray of blood. From time to time, she even executed a high-altitude flying kick, leaving Lü Rang green with envy.

Why couldn't his uniform cultivate such capabilities?

This brief clash immediately revealed the difference between the demon-men and the frenzied beasts.

The group of contaminated beasts lacked brains, capable only of blindly charging to their deaths. But these infected humans and eggplant-creatures were different; after being savagely beaten back in a wave, they actually stopped closing in and instead retreated and dodged repeatedly.

Yet they did not leave entirely. A gleam of intelligence flashed in their eyes as they hid behind companions while pacing back and forth to seek opportunities. Yuan Zhu's squad quickly changed their magazines, chose a direction with fewer enemies, and charged toward a breakthrough.

The lingering foul-bone demon-men who refused to leave closed in like a tide, moving along with the squad. Still not launching active attacks, they instead fought among themselves over companions lying on the ground who had been riddled with bullets yet still struggled to crawl. Delivering ruthless finishing blows, they dug out the green skeleton-Buddha-cocoons, swallowed them eagerly, and then swarmed together to carve up the remaining flesh and bones.

Mysteriously, they even muttered chants under their breath—things like "My Buddha is merciful," "Thank you for the alms," "Heaven's grace," and "An offering of flesh and blood."

Lü Rang cried out in shock, "They actually still have intelligence?!"

"Don't make a fuss over nothing. The more powerful and terrifying a foul-bone demonic monster is, the better it can suppress its own desires, acting just like a modest and polite normal person. Yet the more normal the exterior, the more twisted and repressed perverted desires are accumulated deep within," Zhou Chu briefly explained, reciting the stereotypes she had learned at the Security Bureau.

It was evident that those green demon-cocoons had also morphed into some sort of energy core after absorbing the starlight.

Yuan Zhu recalled the captain mentioning earlier that they could consider feeding the monks' "Buddha-cocoon + Buddha-blood" to their uniforms to nurture a seed of power leaning toward the Buddhist path. Right now, all the reliable monks had been lured into head-exploding demises by the Vimalakirti Abbot and refined into red Buddha-cocoons connected to his head-flower.

Now, since they no longer feared the polluting side-effects of the foul-bone demonic blood, they could use these skeletal demon cocoons as substitutes to feed and cultivate their uniforms.

Seeming to sense the thoughts of Yuan Zhu and the others, Zhou Chu warned them as she retreated, "Unless absolutely necessary, under no circumstances should you use these demon-men to strengthen your uniforms. Once this mission ends and we return to the real world, I will immediately report all your information!"

Hearing this, Lü Rang wore a look of despair: This elder sister is so ruthless! To think we were companions going through life and death together. Had he known this earlier, he definitely would have given a fake identity during the self-introductions.

Yuan Zhu didn't react too strongly. With his cheats, this small scene was nothing to be afraid of! In fact, his heart stirred with restlessness, yearning to slaughter everything in sight. What he worried about instead was the mastermind behind everything: the Poly-Auditory Buddha-Eggplant.

When he glanced sideways, the Abbot Buddha-Eggplant had stopped moving. Was he dead?

Perhaps he had consumed too much magical power transmitting the foul blood to save all living beings, or perhaps he had voluntarily lifted the magical barrier. At this moment, the abbot dragged a dozen tomato-monsters to the center of the plaza, sat cross-legged, and remained completely motionless.

The ground, previously stained red by the tomato-monsters exploding their own heads and drenched in eggplant-juice, was now sprouting countless green eggplant seedlings. Bathed in the starlight, they grew wildly, transforming into a small eggplant forest that enveloped the abbot and the dozen tomato-monsters, forming a gigantic green hemisphere that isolated the inside from the outside.

Consequently, the "Poly-Auditory Buddha-Eggplant" remained completely indifferent to the slaughter outside.

Seeing that the abbot made no further moves, Yuan Zhu shouted loudly, "Great opportunity, let's run!"

Zhou Chu nodded, "You guys go, I'll cover your retreat!"

With that, she discarded her emptied firearm, and a red glove materialized on her right hand. With a vigorous swing, she whipped out a long chain from thin air, whirling it into half a massive arc to lash and beat back the approaching demon-men, safeguarding the others.

Although she had threatened that no one was allowed to touch the foul-blood demon-cocoons, stepping up in a moment of crisis showed she possessed a true sense of responsibility.

Meng Xiyue fawned over her, "Sister Zhou, you're the best! Love you!"

As the squad continuously fought their way through, killing and crippling a large swath of demon-men, the rest grew smart. They continued to trail not far behind, constantly scavenging the pathetic creatures severely battered by the squad. The remainder continued to absorb the chaotic starlight darting overhead, accumulating their foundations and growing stronger bit by bit.

At that moment, a thought stirred in Yuan Zhu's mind, and countless transparent threads instantly surged from within his uniform, piercing into the skin all over his body.

After a bout of stinging numbness and tingling, he successfully harnessed his uniform. Then, bending the five fingers of his right hand with force, a massive amount of threads gushed out from his sleeve, wrapping around and enveloping his right hand to mold it into a black glove.

He ran over to Zhou Chu, bending over frequently to drive his five fingers into the bodies of the foul-bone demon-men—creatures that seemed impossible to kill completely—and grabbed the elastic green skeleton-demon-cocoons. Stepping onto a victim's chest and exerting his full body strength to pull the cocoon taut, he used a dagger in his other hand to slice through the connecting fascia, harvesting the green demon-cocoons one by one and tossing them into his pockets.

The uniform unconditionally accommodated all the host's actions; the moment he reached for his pocket, the pocket opened automatically. Once he threw the cocoon inside, the pocket automatically sealed shut, isolating any leakage of aura.

Having bound a demon-men with her chain and whirled it like a meteor hammer to smash and beat back wave after wave of attackers, Zhou Chu turned around to check if the squad had evacuated cleanly, only to catch sight of a bent figure diligently harvesting crops.

In a fit of fury, she hollered, "Yuan Zhu! What are you doing?"

Yuan Zhu looked up, beaming with a warm, bright, and sunny smile, "I'm just pulling out the weeds by the roots! If you exterminate monsters without cutting down the demons, the spring breeze will cause them to grow all over again."

"You..." The young lady wanted to curse aloud but held it back, demanding fiercely, "I said you are not allowed to use these demon-cocoons to feed your uniforms! Have you grown tired of living?"

With fluid movements, Yuan Zhu kicked the neck of a demon-man trying to bite him, then snatched the cocoon on its right shoulder with practiced swiftness. Stretching it taut with force, he sliced the adhesions with his knife and replied without raising his head, "Don't worry, I'm not feeding my uniform at all; I'm simply collecting these items. The captain said it himself: Buddha-cocoons are the monks' energy cores and physical relics. This stuff can definitely fetch a high price in the Gods' Space. Isn't tonight's trial mission all about getting rich through one's own abilities?"

Zhou Chu was driven mad with anger, choking out the words, "Those are my spoils of war!"

"Don't be impatient, a fifty-fifty split, how about that?" Yuan Zhu stood up, shook the green blood off his blade, and looked eagerly at the young lady, asking in anticipation, "Shall we hit them for another batch?!"

*Crack, crack, crack!*

Zhou Chu angrily clenched her delicate fists, venting her fury by fiercely swinging her chain. The chain transformed into a wave-like arc flowing forward, effortlessly shattering the head of the nearest foul-bone demon-man and causing Yuan Zhu's eyelids to twitch wildly.

"Forget it, forget it! Running away is top priority, safety first!"