Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 154 - 151 Everywhere Demons, Every Step is Bloody

Chapter 154: Chapter 151 Everywhere Demons, Every Step is Bloody

Turbid River bank, Peach Blossom Valley.

Xuanlong Gate.

For countless years, the Turbid River had been running endlessly from the west to the east.

Now, due to the great flooding in the entire north, the volume of the Turbid River was far more abundant than usual, vast and powerful, like a lake or sea.

In the middle reaches, where the river flowed, it was somewhat better, with continuous mountains and river bends in the way, barely able to constrain this ferocious Yellow Dragon.

But once it passed Peach Blossom Valley, it would be considered officially leaving the mountainous middle reaches.

Reaching the boundary between the middle and lower courses.

It was also the second of the three Dragon Gates on the Turbid River, from upstream to downstream—the Xuanlong Gate.

The giant turbid flow, originally threading through mountains, surged into the downstream plains upon reaching this place.

Because of the massive accumulation of silt it carried, the river transformed from an underground river to a suspended river above ground, hence this second Dragon Gate was so named.

At this moment.

The gradually darkening night sky, together with the heavy rain that had started anew, trapped a group of travelers inside a dilapidated temple within Peach Blossom Valley.

There were old and young, men and women, around a dozen people in total, each and every one of them with tattered clothes and yellow, thin faces.

Clearly, they were a group of refugees fleeing disaster.

In this era, kinship and blood ties were valued; even in fleeing calamity, people moved as family units.

They all came from the same village, somewhat related by blood or marriage.

At least they could help each other, far more reliable than strangers.

Though they were already exhausted, by working together, the group still managed to make the monk’s temple, abandoned for who knows how many years, into a place where they could shelter from the rain and rest their bodies.

Only no one realized that the clay statue of an unnamed Buddha in the temple, though its painted colors had long since become mottled, seemed a bit too clean.

Among the crowd, a girl of about four or five years old, with two braids, tugged gently at her mother’s sleeve and whispered:

"Mom, I’m hungry!

Didn’t you say that Dad and Uncle went to find food? It’s already dark, why haven’t they come back yet?"

Because she was too thin, the child’s big, sparkling eyes stood out all the more.

Seeing these eyes that, despite all the hardship, still appeared innocent and pure, the young mother couldn’t help but shake.

The faces of other people in the dilapidated temple also fell.

Not far from the temple was the Turbid River. Before nightfall, the men from their group had tried to catch a few fish near the river to solve the problem of their only meal for the day.

But just as they approached the river, they were swept away by a mysterious surge of a large wave.

The others only saw a huge blue-black fish tail vanish into the murky waves.

They immediately realized that they had encountered a spirit monster in the water that ate people!

Shocked and terrified, they retreated in extreme fear, not daring to go near the water again.

Even if the hunger was burning their stomachs with pain, they could only endure it with gritted teeth.

With a soft sigh, the young mother stroked her daughter’s head and placed a green, unripe peach, still with white fuzz, in her hand.

This was the last find that her quick-eyed husband had discovered under a leaf while passing through Peach Blossom Valley; not having the heart to eat it himself, he secretly saved it for his wife.

After all, they were not the first group of refugees to pass through Peach Blossom Valley in their flight.

After their hometown was struck by disaster, countless destitute people brought their families, hoping to go to the richer plains to beg for food.

August was the season when the local peaches ripened, and even the wild peaches in Peach Blossom Valley, no matter how abundant, had long since been picked clean by people.

This peach was the last ration for the mother and daughter.

Having lost the pillar of their home, their future was destined to be bleak.

"Mom, let’s eat together."

The little girl begged her mother to take the first bite, and then she began to nibble deliciously with her eyes squinted.

Even a small, unripe peach made her very content.

She even chewed up and swallowed the soft pit that had not yet matured, ensuring not a single speck was wasted.

The wind and rain outside the temple became increasingly fierce.

Just after nightfall, endless fatigue started to weigh everyone’s eyelids down.

The young mother held her daughter in her arms, gently patting her shoulder.

"Sleep now, you won’t be hungry if you sleep."

In a short while.

This group of refugees curled up in corners here and there and fell into a deep sleep.

As the snores began, they could finally eat a full meal in their dreams.

Thick corn porridge, white wheat buns—if they could add a small dish of pickles, it would be utterly satisfying.

For these disaster victims, even their dreams were so modest...

Just then.

Crack!

The clay statue of the Buddha on the stone platform, more accurately, a Mud Bodhisattva, suddenly opened its eyelids, revealing a pair of earthy yellow eyes resembling mud balls.

Looking around in the temple, the corners of its mouth formed a weird smile.

Then...

it climbed down from the stone platform quietly and lightly.

It tiptoed noiselessly to the side of a sturdy man, slowly bent down, and took a deep breath against his face.

Wisps of white and blood-colored smoke immediately rose from his orifices, swiftly entering the mouth of the Mud Buddha.

Subsequently, the mud-sculpted body gradually began to come to life.

Thump, thump, thump...

Even faint but vigorous heartbeats could be heard emanating from its chest cavity.

It was as if, by consuming people, it was itself slowly transforming from a lump of mud into a flesh-and-blood entity!

[Weird · Mud Buddha]

There’s a saying, "Even a Mud Buddha finds it hard to cross the river," let alone protect others when it can’t even ensure its own passage.

Always taking, but powerless to give back.

Taboo: When entering a temple, incense must be offered. If one does not provide incense, a blood meal must be given!

Because a large number of refugees simply could not get through the checkpoints set up by the Government Office on the main roads, they were forced to take these deserted trails that were empty on normal days.

In this period, it’s unknown how many people confusedly delivered themselves right to the mouth of the Mud Buddha.

...

The night grew increasingly dense, and the rain from the sky became heavier.

Two young travelers arrived in the pitch-dark peach forest of Peach Blossom Valley.

A tall and handsome young man in blue, a bare-footed girl in a red dress with jet-black hair, one gallant and dashing, the other charming and lovely, holding a shared oil-paper umbrella, yet not a bit wet from the rain.

A large black dog trailing them got soaked in the rain, yet the water droplets simply slid off its glossy fur.

The family’s Old Black was becoming more and more like a genuine spirit monster, showing signs of otherworldliness.

It would soon start to speak.

"Sister, no need to rush. We’ll just walk across this segment of Peach Blossom Valley on the shore, and we can continue to travel by boat.

After passing Xuanlong Gate, we’ll just go downstream where there are hardly any bends in the river. If we find a few more water ghosts to push the boat, we should reach Yunhe County by tomorrow night at the latest."

Despite the fact that these places only appeared as rapidly flowing waterfalls before the Dragon Gate opened and revealed its divine marvels.

But Wang Yuan still remembered the Helmsman’s taboo concerning the Turbid River:

—Above the Turbid River, there are three Dragon Gates as boundaries; crossing by ferry must not transgress these limits. Once crossed, the boat capsizes and the passengers die!

Before reaching Xuanlong Gate, they would put away the boat and travel by land.

Since they were on the One-Eyed Stone Man’s turf, they naturally had to bow their heads.

He temporarily lacked tens of thousands of Yin Morality to exchange for a new identity.

"Hmm, we’ve already waited fifteen years; a few more days won’t make much difference.

It’s just that I wonder if the people in Yunhe County are like those we’ve seen along our journey."

After saying this, both became a little silent.

Only after seeing the outside world with their own eyes did they truly understand the dire situation described in the history books as "people devouring each other, with emaciated corpses strewn everywhere."

They continued eastward along the Turbid River.

Although Old Xu said, "The road is long, but approaching," the journey had been truly fraught with alarm and fraught bloodshed.

Everywhere on the road, there were refugees who, for just half a blood-stained steamed bun, would kill each other, and blood poured like a river.

Demons can be slain, but what about these people who simply cannot survive?

The problem isn’t with human nature, but with this cannibalistic world.

Wang Yuan once had a very simple dream.

Lively music, streets shrouded in smoke, a night of molten moonlight, a peaceful home of leisure. There, he would lean against the railing to listen to the wind and invite the stars over with his cup in hand.

To take the young ghost girl to watch the sunrise at Taishan in the morning, admire the Qionghua in Luoyang at noon, and drink under the North Sea’s auroras in the evening.

The Mortal World of his imagination should not look like this!

The more they saw with their own eyes, the fiercer the flames burnt at the bottom of their hearts.

Suddenly.

Shriek, shriek, shriek...

An eerie sound of ghostly wailing suddenly penetrated the ears of the two.

Looking up, they saw that the Netherworld Ghost Soldiers had taken into custody two male ghost souls who had been tailing them all along.

They were just the lowest rank of Wandering Souls, their bodies gnawed beyond recognition by something, even more pitiful than "Mr. One-Eyed" had been initially.

The two of them were puzzled.

"There are ghost creatures that dare to actively seek us out?"

After all, in the eyes of all ghost creatures,

there was a Merit Golden Wheel formed of a hundred thousand Yin Morality, radiating golden light for dozens of feet, with a group of imposing Netherworld Ghost Soldiers accompanying it.

They would not even dare to get close, let alone deliberately approach.

But they saw the two ghosts wide-eyed with a stupefied gaze, only desperately kowtowing, repeating incomprehensible ghostly gibberish:

"Begging you... save... the Mud Buddha... is alive!"