The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 565 Susanoo
The headless corpse fell to the ground.

This was a Buddhist master of the same or even higher level as Yuan Chaoliang, a leader of Japanese Buddhism, and perhaps one of the few contemporary masters in Japan who could hold his own against Li Miao. Yet, he lost his life so inexplicably.

"Master!"

The sword-wielding monk lying on the ground had eyes wide with rage, but no matter how he tried to control it, his once-powerful internal energy and muscles, as hard as steel, were completely unresponsive.

"Cough cough."

Yuan Chaoliang coughed a few times, finally healing his injuries. He stood up, took a few deep breaths, and then stepped forward, unleashing dozens of palm strikes at the old monk's corpse as if venting his anger.

Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!
With a series of sounds, the corpse exploded into a puddle of mud, smearing Yuan Chaoliang's body and staining his white priest's robes a mottled scarlet.

After venting for a while, Yuan Chaoliang slowly stopped.

"Whew—that feels so good."

"The feeling of crushing the strong is so exhilarating."

He turned around with a smile and looked at the four Celestial Warrior Monks.

The sword-wielding monk struggled and cursed angrily.

"What on earth did you do!"

"Look at you, you're not as smart as the Master, nor as smart as your fellow disciples—look, haven't they all noticed?"

The monk with the sword turned his head and looked over, then froze in surprise.

The other three monks had been silent for a long time. The monk with the weakest martial arts skills, who used palm techniques, died with blood flowing from all seven orifices. But the monk with the best martial arts skills, who used fist techniques, had a mouth full of bits of flesh—he had committed suicide by chewing his tongue!

The sword-wielding monk was still in a daze when a sigh came from the side.

"Senior brother, stop talking and just die."

It was the monk with the knife who spoke with his eyes closed.

"Now that I'm dead, at least I can have peace of mind."

The sword-wielding monk couldn't understand what he was saying at all.

Fortunately, Yuan Chaoliang enjoys explaining things to his opponents.

He reached into his robes and pulled out a heart.

This heart, though separated from the body for several hours, was still faintly beating. Its exterior even radiated a warm, translucent quality like jade.

Yuan Chaoliang held up the heart, knelt down in front of the sword-wielding monk, and placed the heart in front of him.

"See? This is what I do."

"Originally, it required the combined heart of four elements to be refined, but the heart of a Buddhist celestial being with perfected life cultivation in three elements, plus the blood and qi of nearly ten thousand monks who died at Toshodai-ji Temple, roughly resulted in this flawed product."

"Actually, you can't control the master for long with such a defective product. It's just that he figured out some things through it and willingly died at my hands."

The monk with the sword was taken aback.

"What did you say?"

Yuan Chaoliang gave a cruel smile.

"of course--"

puff!

A dagger plunged into the throat of the monk wielding the sword, taking his life.

The monk next to him, who was holding a knife, was bleeding from all seven orifices, and there was a cut on the corner of his mouth from when he bit the blade and threw it away.

Yuan Chaoliang looked at him with great interest.

"What, a pledge of allegiance?"

The monk with the knife shook his head.

"No, it's just that I don't want my junior brother to die with his eyes open... It's a good thing for him that he can't guess that we are just idiots who betrayed our master and were used as tools. At least he can die in peace."

"Oh!"

Yuan Chaoliang smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"A venerable monk!"

The monk with the knife smiled bitterly.

"Please kill me quickly."

Yuan Chaoliang shook his head.

"I do not."

He walked up to the monk with a smile, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and lifted him up. Then, he suddenly punched the monk in the stomach.

"You dare to make decisions for me!"

Bang!
"Why did you steal my fun before I did?!"

Bang!
"You ant! Maggot! Stupid pig!"

A dozen or so punches, their force penetrating the monk's body, twisted his internal organs into a tangled mess, bringing excruciating pain. The monk's face turned pale; he almost fainted from the pain, his expression one of utter astonishment.

He suddenly understood why Yuan Chaoliang had whipped the old monk's corpse... His kindness on the surface was all an act; he was actually a petty person who enjoyed torturing opponents who couldn't fight back and couldn't tolerate the slightest disobedience!

So he whipped the old monk's corpse because the old monk offered himself up to be killed in despair, rather than being killed while desperately and miserably wailing. He was unhappy about that!

You interrupted his "pleasure" process, which is why he became furious and tormented himself!
After smashing it for a while, Yuan Chaoliang finally let go, satisfied, and threw the tattered monk to the ground.

"Phew, you should thank Li Miao. If he hadn't been chasing after you, I would have cut off your limbs and kept you in a cesspool for ten years."

He grinned maliciously as he held up the heart.

"But for now, let's get down to business first."

"Don't worry, you'll definitely be the last one to die. You'll be my only audience—before you die, hahahaha!"

Yuan Chaoliang placed his heart on the ground, sat cross-legged, clasped his hands together, and then suddenly began to rapidly change his hand gestures while chanting incantations.

“临、兵、闘、者、皆、阵、烈、在、前——”

As his hand seals changed, the monk with the knife heard a sticky, watery sound, like a grape bursting open. A black, grape-shaped object fell in front of him. Looking down, he saw a pupil, iris, and blood vessels on the object.

It was an eyeball.

Or, to put it another way, "the first eyeball".

The next instant, a dense, unsettling, sticky sound rang out from the faces of the monks lying prostrate on all sides, as if countless eyeballs had been ejected from their sockets, revealing dark, hollow eye sockets.

Countless streams of blood flowed from these eye sockets as if they were alive, meandering towards the heart in front of Yuan Chaoliang.

"This is--"

"It's a hoarse voice," the monk with the knife said.

He already had a general idea of ​​Yuan Chaoliang's character, and he wouldn't mind explaining it to a mortal enemy; it would make him feel good.

As expected, Yuan Chaoliang smiled.

"Well... how should I put it? You've already guessed that Enryaku-ji Temple is a tool left to us Shintoism by Amaterasu Omikami, right?"

"In short, besides using you as whetstones to hone our believers, He also used you as a means of passing down through generations—to deal with the demons who have not yet reached their full potential."

The blood of all the remaining monks at Enryakuji Temple pooled into a lake of blood, with the heart at its center. Waves of blood surged and washed over the heart without wind. With each wash, the heart became increasingly translucent and its beating grew stronger and more frequent.

The scarlet color faded little by little.

“In the past, Amaterasu Omikami left behind 803 divine paintings, each depicting a deity, and each deity corresponds to 10,000 contemplators. This is the origin of the 8 million deities in Shintoism.”

"That was the most glorious era of Shintoism, also known as the Age of Gods."

Yuan Chaoliang's voice suddenly turned low.

"But a thousand years ago, a demon named Bodhidharma came to Japan."

"He traversed Japan in three days, destroying 1,800 shrines, killing 97 celestial beings, and destroying 717 sacred paintings, single-handedly severing the Age of Gods. Only after Amaterasu Omikami personally intervened and killed him was Shintoism able to continue."

"However, that's not what we're talking about today."

Yuan Chaoliang then changed the subject.

"Do you know why there are only 800 of the 803 divine paintings left by Amaterasu Omikami, but only 800 of them have corresponding visualization methods?" "Because there are three of them that ordinary people cannot visualize."

"The creator god, the supreme god of heaven."

"The true form of Amaterasu Omikami."

"And, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, Susanoo-no-Mikoto—Susanoo-no-Mikoto."

As they spoke, a crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the heart, which was being constantly washed by the tide of the blood lake.

Seeing this, Yuan Chaoliang sighed, flashed to the top of the blood lake, and reached out to scoop up the heart in his hand.

"As expected, the material wasn't good enough, so this heart will ultimately be a defective product... But it should be enough to deal with the seriously injured Li Miao."

He suddenly turned around and walked towards the monk with the knife.

"Getting back to the main point, the reason why these three great gods cannot be visualized is because Amaterasu is too ethereal, and Amaterasu is too noble. Even if one visualizes their divine paintings for a lifetime, one will not gain any understanding."

“But Susanoo’s divine painting is an exception. It is not that he is incapable of contemplating it. Those with sufficient talent can even comprehend it with just a glance… but those who contemplate it all die.”

"Susanoo, who was banished from Takamagahara, was beyond even the power of Amaterasu, and who slew the Yamata no Orochi, is the most ferocious god. Mortals who merely contemplate him will be pierced through the heart by the sword energy of the Totsuka Blade and die."

Yuan Chaoliang squatted down and looked at the monk with the knife.

"Amaterasu Omikami did not want to waste this divine painting."

"After killing Bodhidharma, He thought: If mortals are not enough, can the power of Susanoo be reproduced by borrowing the successor of the Heavenly Demon?"

"He tried, and he succeeded."

He reached out and placed his hand on the monk's head.

“You are not only tools to hone believers, but also consumables for sealing Susanoo-no-Okami—Enryaku-ji Temple is the place where Susanoo-no-Okami is sealed.”

"The key to your cultivation technique is a crucial part that Amaterasu extracted from the painting of Susanoo. When you practice your internal cultivation, you are essentially visualizing Susanoo's heart."

"Now, I will break His seal."

His fingers slid down the monk's scalp, stroking the back of his head, the back of his neck, his shoulder blades, and his spine, before placing them on the monk's vest—and then pressing down hard!
puff!

The monk no longer had any internal energy to protect him, and his muscles and bones were weakened. His physical body was only slightly stronger than that of an ordinary person. He was directly crushed by Yuan Chaoliang's palm, and his heart was crushed into mincemeat. He finally died as he wished.

Yuan Chaoliang shook his hand dismissively and carefully placed the heart into the hole in the monk's chest.

As soon as it was placed in, countless slender fleshy strands suddenly extended from the jade-like heart, sticking to the surrounding organs and fixing itself in the center of the corpse.

Yuan Chaoliang took a few steps back and stared intently.

After the heart stabilized itself, the blood vessels at its tip began to grow and extend, connecting with the severed blood vessels inside the corpse. Then the heart began to beat, pumping blood into the blood vessels.

thump.

thump.

thump.

The heartbeat, which started out faint, gradually grew louder over time, eventually turning into a deafening roar.

Thump, thump, thump thump thump—

Yuan Chaoliang frowned and used his inner energy to protect his ears.

Huge plumes of white smoke rose from the wounds on the corpse. Through the smoke, countless tiny blood vessels could be seen protruding from the wounds, clinging to the skin and flesh on both sides of the wounds, tightening little by little.

The corpse's fingers began to twitch, its arms trembling eerily as it braced itself against the ground, slightly raising its upper body. The eyeballs beneath its eyelids moved strangely, occasionally revealing glimpses of the blackened whites of its eyes.

The strange phenomenon lasted for about half an hour, until at some point it suddenly disappeared.

The corpse's arm went limp, and it collapsed again.

The eyeballs stopped moving.

It was as if it had been restored to a corpse.

Yuan Chaoliang frowned and clenched his fists.

"What happened...it failed?"

"Could it be because the quality of the materials is insufficient? Or did Jianzhen manipulate the inheritance of Enryaku-ji Temple far more than we know? Or is it simply that this method inherently has a chance of failure?"

He cautiously stepped forward, placing his fingers on the side of the corpse's neck.

"No heartbeat, no circulation of true qi."

"Really failed?"

"What should we do! Li Miao could arrive at any moment. Most of the warrior monks of Enryakuji Temple have already perished, and Ji Tianrui is still consuming most of the Shinto Sect's energy. We can't just leave her alone... If we fail today, facing two Heavenly Demons at the same time, even if they haven't grown up yet, could still be a catastrophe that shakes the Shinto Sect's heritage!"

"Just like Bodhidharma a thousand years ago! Just like Jianzhen eight hundred years ago! Or perhaps just like when that demon came two hundred years ago!"

"What should we do? Should we leave?"

Yuan Chaoliang was somewhat impatient.

He wanted to leave, but he knew perfectly well that if he wasted the entire Enryakuji Temple today and failed to kill Li Miao in the end, even if he returned to Ise Grand Shrine, he would have to commit seppuku to atone for his sins!
But if he didn't escape... he really was no match for Li Miao. Even though he had figured out Li Miao's injuries, and even though Li Miao was still seriously injured, he didn't think he could compete with Li Miao.

His confidence was based on the belief that "this was a method left behind by Amaterasu." Now that the method had failed, it proved that Amaterasu was wrong, which was the reason for his impatience.

After a long pause, he slowly shook his head.

"No, we can't leave."

"Even disregarding the consequences of seppuku, if I were to die today, how could I face the sacred paintings of Amaterasu Omikami in the future!"

"Perhaps... we don't have enough material!"

Yuan Chaoliang gritted his teeth.

"Perhaps the heart didn't absorb enough blood, which led to the failure. There should still be many other monks at Enryaku-ji Temple who haven't arrived yet, as well as their female relatives and servants. Killing them all might remedy the heart's defect!"

He turned around decisively, preparing to go to the monks' quarters behind Enryaku-ji Temple to hunt down and kill living people.

He had only turned halfway around when he suddenly stopped.

Breathing.

I could hear breathing behind me.

The cold breath landed on the back of his neck, stirring up a tuft of hair.

Yuan Chaoliang shuddered and prepared to turn around to look. But as soon as he moved, a hand suddenly pierced through his chest and ripped out his heart with a snap.

"Bah, bah, bah—"

The sound of chewing.

The person behind him was chewing on Yuan Chaoliang's heart.

Yuan Chaoliang suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's not Li Miao, it's Susanoo!"

"The methods left behind by Amaterasu were indeed correct!"

"A mere heart can be reborn later! Right now, I just want to see what the legendary Susanoo looks like!"

Yuan Chaoliang clutched his chest, circulating his healing techniques to regenerate his flesh and blood, while turning to look behind him at the face of Susanoo, the younger brother of Amaterasu, whom he had never seen before.

He was stunned at first glance.

Because the left half of that face was exactly the same as the image in the painting, with wide, angry eyes and an indescribably noble air.

However, on the right side of his face, his eyes were lowered and the corners of his eyes were down, like a high monk raising his hands to his chest in a gesture of respect.

With a bang, a fist smashed Yuan Chaoliang's head.

Yuan Chaoliang's eyes, filled with confusion and fear, rolled on the ground and eventually disappeared into the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood.

The empty Enryakuji Temple was completely silent.

All sounds are silent.

Outside the temple, a figure in a dark black cloak drifted in.

(End of this chapter)