All the evil beasts in the world, I feed on demons and monsters

Chapter 403 The Buddhist Kingdom and the Mortal World
now.

The two monks, one tall and thin, the other with a large head and a round belly, merely squinted and smiled as they examined the ghost-headed chariot, without saying anything further.

But at that moment, several more figures appeared in the mist not far away.

An elderly man was leading a boy and a girl, walking step by step towards this place.

The old man was dressed in tattered clothes, his face weathered and worn, the marks of time seemingly carved into his features like a field crisscrossed by furrows after a lifetime of plowing.

His back was hunched, and he led a child by the hand in each of his arms. The boy was dressed in thick cloth and was headless. The girl was wearing an adult's coat and was barefoot; as she walked by, the wound that had ripped open her entire body was revealed on her back.

"Stop!"

The two senior monks spoke in the same voice, saying, "Ahead lies the Western Paradise, where entering will lead to rebirth in the Pure Land!"

Hearing the sound, the girl trembled with fright and immediately shrank behind the old man. The old man looked at the monk and was initially intimidated, but he actually knelt down on the ground, chanting Buddhist mantras and not daring to raise his head.

However, the headless boy continued to stride forward, and the girl shuddered, forcing herself to grab her brother despite her fear.

Hey!
But suddenly a senior monk stepped forward, revealing a smiling face, and said, "Female benefactor, do you wish to enter my Buddhist kingdom?"

The girl's dark face revealed timidity, carrying the sturdiness and bewilderment of rural life, and she dared not move forward.

Just as the headless boy was about to walk past the two monks and head towards the rushing moat, a figure in white robes stepped past the senior monk and grabbed the boy's hand.

The little devil was obedient; his hand was pulled, his empty neck tilted slightly, and he stopped.

"Benefactor, do you wish to enter my Buddhist kingdom?"

At that moment, Li Hanzhang, who had grabbed the boy, turned to look at the monk, but felt a chill run down his spine—the big monk still had a smiling face on the back of his head!
"Do not want to."

Li Hanzhang immediately refused, pulling the boy away from the monk. The head monk didn't stop them, just watched with a smile in his eyes.

Li Hanzhang brought the headless boy to the old man's side. The girl immediately grabbed the boy's hand tightly and said timidly, "Thank...thank you, sir."

The ghost-headed chariot was right beside me.

The two red-clad figures stood with their fists clasped, and Fox Spirit Lord landed in front of the carriage. With these two around, Li Hanzhang felt very at ease and wasn't afraid of ghosts at all.

"How...did you get here?"

Although Li Hanzhang was asking the girl, his gaze was fixed on the old man beside him. But the old man was just muttering nonsense like "Buddha" and "I am guilty," behaving timidly and not daring to look up at all.

"A monster is haunting the village."

The girl timidly said, "Everyone is hiding in the attic of Liu the Rich Man's house."

"When the food ran out, everyone drew lots, and whoever's lot they drew would eat from."

"We were chosen..."

Li Hanzhang's eyes trembled, and he was speechless for a moment. No matter the situation in the Tang Dynasty, even in the face of a major disaster, there was always the imperial court and the Daoist sects involved. Such open cannibalism was extremely rare.

At that moment, the old man straightened up and said to the great monk, "I...I want to enter the Buddhist kingdom!"

"I want bliss, I want bliss!"

The old man raised one hand, making a prayer-like gesture in front of him, while his other hand gripped the ground so tightly that his fingernails snapped. His eyes were bloodshot, and the immense grief and struggle had completely overwhelmed him.

Upon hearing this, the senior monk immediately smiled, cupped his hands, and said, "This way, please, benefactor."

boom!
The old man immediately got up, took the girl and the boy in his arms, and headed towards the city of Buddha.

"Goodbye, big brother!"

The girl waved to Li Hanzhang, who wanted to chase after her, but was blocked by another monk.

Looking at that eerie smiling face, Li Hanzhang felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead and stopped in his tracks.

At that moment, the hunched old man took the hands of the two children and stepped onto the stone bridge spanning the moat.

As soon as they stepped onto the bridge, their souls began to change little by little—

As if an invisible hand were manipulating time, the old man's body began to straighten visibly, the wrinkles on his face faded rapidly as if ironed smooth, and his withered white hair began to turn black from the roots. His steps became lighter and lighter, and his posture more and more upright. In just a few steps, the frail old man had disappeared.

In the center of the bridge, a dark-skinned boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, was replaced by a spirited young man.

He casually slung a hardwood bow over his shoulder and carried a brightly colored, fresh leopard skin in his hand. He strode across the long bridge, the undried bloodstains on the skin splashing dark red across the bridge surface with each step.

The vendors' cries and the crowd's cheers, like a triumphant song, perfectly highlighted the young hunter's triumphant return with his bounty.

Meanwhile, the two children, like seedlings receiving timely rain, gradually grew stronger and regained their health. The boy grew a head, and the girl's back was stitched up.

At the end of the bridge, amidst the dazzling lights of the city, a neatly dressed middle-aged couple smiled at them.

The man held aloft a glistening, fragrant roast chicken, while the woman tightly clutched a brand-new, bright piece of cloth.

"Father! Mother!"

The two children were stunned at first, then their eyes lit up with unbelievable joy, and they cheered like fledglings returning to their nest, rushing into that almost forgotten warmth.

Children and teenagers pass each other by.

One journeys towards reunion in the present, the other towards a glorious past; each fades into the pervasive Buddhist light of chanting, like two waves flowing in opposite directions in the long river of time.

"Illusion?"

The man with the double red stick frowned and asked the fox spirit.

"Do not."

Fox Spirit shook her head, a look of astonishment on her face. "It's a change in the soul," she said. "Look—"

Fox Yao pointed to the old man who had transformed into a boy and said, "The old man's soul was withered before, but now it has been reborn and even has a trace of wisdom."

"Hiss~ Does this kind of ghost-baiting work really require such a large investment?"

"Does it cultivate wisdom?"

At that moment, the carriage curtain opened, and Ji Ran bent down and jumped down from the carriage.

"No."

Fox Yao explained, "Some people are born with wisdom, but if they struggle in the mortal world, their wisdom will be worn away and scattered between heaven and earth."

As she spoke, Hu Yao raised her chin and pointed at Li Hanzhang, saying, "Look at that young man, the noble air about him is a sign of his innate wisdom."

“Those who are wealthy and powerful will not have their talents and wisdom worn down by trivial matters throughout their lives. Therefore, even in their later years, kings, nobles and generals can still look on with fierce eyes and wolfish gazes, without losing their spirit.”

"But ordinary people waste their lives, and by middle age, they have long lost their wisdom and spirituality."

"That old man simply regained his original wisdom."

"but……"

Fox Yao shook her head and said, "Ordinary people's wisdom is only a little bit clever and intelligent, far from enough to be considered a cultivator."

"Ah."

Ji Ran's gaze pierced through the mist, revealing the "Illustrated Record of Cause and Effect." The illustration of the Dragon Horned Ghost King was now entirely radiating purple light.

It's right here, but it should be in the mortal realm.

"Let's go back to the mortal realm first."

Looking at the magnificent golden palace behind the mist, Ji Ran guessed that this Buddhist kingdom was probably closely related to the Dragon Horned Ghost King.

But I still can't figure out the reason, so I might as well take the easy way out of the chaos and just kill that Dragon Horned Ghost King!

He had given Shuanghua Honggun a gene seed, and his alien body had recovered. With three fifth-rank combatants on his side, what ghost king couldn't they handle?
"boarding."

Ji Ran gave a shout, and the three of them leaped onto the ghost-headed chariot. The next moment, the wheels rolled, kicking up a cloud of ashes.

Then, the car gradually faded away.

Ji Ran's gaze remained fixed on the two roadside monks.

The two eerie monks bowed to Ji Ran with smiles on their faces. Behind them, a golden light shone through the mist, and Buddhist chants echoed, lingering with the sound of wind chimes.

As everything went hazy, my ears seemed to go silent for a moment, and then—whoosh!

The increasingly loud rain pulled everyone back to the world of the living.

The sky was cold and gloomy, a kind of darkness more suffocating than the grayness inherent in the underworld, heavily pressing down on the surrounding area.

Under a sky full of purple rain, a massive city rose up, resembling a colossal, black beast. The rain washed over its enormous body, but instead of washing away its eeriness, it made the pure blackness gleam with a wet, lifelike, ghostly light.

"Halt—!"

A deep roar, like muffled thunder, suddenly exploded from the city gate! The sound waves rippled visible in the purple rain.

Immediately afterwards, the heavy shadow beside the city gate began to twist and peel away. A slender figure, about two zhang tall, slowly rose from it. It was like a human figure that had been forcibly elongated, with disproportionate limbs and pale skin clinging to its jagged bones.

Squeak!

A grating scraping sound came from behind the city gate. A bald head slowly emerged from behind the gate—the head was as big as half a city gate! Purple rain dripped from the bald scalp, and dark blue veins writhed and twisted beneath the skin, like a strange net.

Those two enormous eyes rolled downwards, their pupils shrinking to pinpoints, locking onto the uninvited guest below the city walls along with the slender figure beneath them.

He is a monk.

Or rather, they were the two road-guarding monks from the underworld.

At that moment, the enormous head slowly parted its lips, revealing a jagged, white tooth. Simultaneously, the slender figure also raised a strangely curved smile.

On both faces, greed and ferocity were identically displayed.

"This is Ghost Temple, one of the twenty-eight temples designated by the imperial court!"

"May I ask, gentlemen, have you brought enough money for incense offerings?"

(End of this chapter)