Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

The old man's face turned ashen. He bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood mist into the air.

"disease!"

The puppet suddenly stopped in mid-air, quickly turned back, and instantly cut off two or three leeches that were flying towards the old man.

The severed leech lay on the ground, black viscous fluid oozing from its wound, its body still writhing desperately, crawling towards the old man.

But there are too many left.

Sun Gui was the fastest of the three porters. He swung his carrying pole and swept it horizontally, swatting away the two leeches that were lunging at him.

"Let's go! Let's go towards the door!"

He yelled at Liu Mancang and Zhou Dayou, then ran towards the temple gate.

Liu Mancang lay sprawled on the ground, still unable to get up. He shuffled backward, supporting himself with his hands, muttering repeatedly, "Amitabha... Amitabha..."

A leech sprang to his calf, its barbs piercing the fabric and taking less than two seconds to gnaw through the rough cloth and burrow into his flesh.

"ah....!"

Liu Mancang let out a scream. He could clearly feel something drilling into his calf, like a red-hot iron nail, burning and painful, with a strange tingling sensation.

He reached out to grab it, and just as his fingers touched the leech's slippery body, a second leech sprang to the back of his hand...

Zhou Dayou was terrified. He huddled against the wall, covering his head with his hands, trembling like a leaf.

A leech crawled along the ground to his ankle and then burrowed into his trouser leg...

Sun Gui used his carrying pole to swat away two more leeches, then retreated to the temple entrance, his hand already touching the door frame.

But he glanced back.

Liu Mancang and Zhou Dayou were covered in leeches and were on the verge of death.

He gritted his teeth, turned around, and was about to step out the door.

A leech fell from the lintel and landed squarely on the back of his neck.

He felt a chill on the back of his neck, followed by a sharp pain.

In despair, Sun Gui reached out to slap it, but by the time his palm touched the back of his neck, the leech had already burrowed in most of its length, leaving only the slippery tip of its tail...

The old man's condition wasn't much better.

His skills were considerable, and the puppet was indeed formidable. With a flick of its fingers, it had already severed more than a dozen ghost leeches, their severed limbs scattered on the ground, still writhing on their own.

But there were too many leeches.

The demon mother's abdomen was like a bottomless pit, from which leeches poured out endlessly, as if they could never be killed.

No matter how fast a puppet is, it only has two hands.

A leech silently crawled over from the old man's feet, slid down his trouser leg, and bit the inside of his ankle.

The old man groaned and looked down to see a lump on his ankle.

He gritted his teeth, made a hand gesture, and the puppet immediately turned back and ripped out the bulge, skin and flesh.

The old man gasped in pain; a chunk of flesh was missing from his ankle, and blood was gushing out.

But he couldn't care less about that, because three more leeches simultaneously lashed out at his face.

The puppet twisted in mid-air to block, intercepting two of them, but the third flew past its arm and slapped directly in the old man's face.

The leech opened its disc-like mouth and instantly bit his nose.

The old man staggered backward, his back hitting the altar.

He looked down at his right forearm, where the leech had crawled up to his elbow. He could see something moving under his skin, bulging and slowly arching upwards.

He made a hand gesture with his left hand, as if trying to summon the puppet.

Only when I looked up did I see that the doll was already entangled by leeches.

Countless leeches coiled around the doll's body, densely packed like a writhing snake, completely enveloping it and rendering it unable to move.

The old man suddenly laughed.

Laughter echoed in the dilapidated temple, carrying an indescribable sense of sorrow.

"Thirty years of wandering the martial world... and I've actually fallen for this..."

......

Inside the dilapidated temple, the fire was still burning, its flames flickering.

The smell had become indescribable.

The smells of blood, decay, and the fishy odor from the riverbed made Chen Mo frown slightly.

He stood in the deepest shadow of the temple, observing coldly, without moving an inch from beginning to end.

The leeches seemed oblivious to him, preoccupied with burrowing in and out of the four corpses, their color changing from dark brown to dark red, their bellies full and their movements sluggish.

The ghost mother, who had been standing still, suddenly moved, her head slowly tilting towards the direction where Chen Mo was standing.

.....

"Excellent, excellent! What is your purpose in inviting me to watch this play?"

Chen Mo clapped his hands, ignoring the ghost mother in the middle of the temple, and turned his gaze to the mountain god statue on the altar.

His voice echoed in the temple, carrying a hint of mockery and a touch of wariness.

The statue gave him the same feeling as the one at the Land God Temple in Linhe County—it was filled with an ominous aura.

He had sensed something was wrong when he was looking for those beggars in Linhe County.

Thinking it best to avoid trouble, he abandoned his plan to visit again.

I never expected that the other party would follow me here.

"Not going to say anything?"

Chen Mo stared at it, then suddenly chuckled, "So, am I about to leave?"

The moment the words were spoken, the statue changed.

The originally blurry clay face suddenly became clear, with a blue face, fangs, and features twisted into a face that was neither human nor beast.

Eight black snakes coiled around its body, their mouths agape as if roaring.

The dilapidated temple suddenly fell silent.

The four corpses were gone, the demon mother was gone, and the campfire was gone.

Not a single drop of blood was left on the ground.

It was as if none of that had ever happened.

It turns out that from beginning to end, it was all just an illusion.

.....

The statue slowly lowered its head, and its clay eyes rolled, landing on Chen Mo.

"As expected of the divine child of our Moon Worship Cult, his cold-heartedness is outrageous."

It spoke, and its voice seemed to come from all directions, making it impossible to discern its gender or age.

"Son of God?"

Chen Mo's pupils contracted slightly, and his expression immediately turned cold. "When did I become a member of your Moon Worship Cult? Don't make unfounded claims of kinship."

The statue ignored his mockery. A ghostly light flickered in its clay eyes, and its voice suddenly deepened, as if it were recalling something distant.

"A hundred years ago, a red moon hung in the sky. That night, the sky and the earth were all red. Rivers flowed backward, and a hundred ghosts roamed the night. It took three days and three nights for the red moon to fade away."

"Our leader burned away his entire life's cultivation on that very night and saw what would happen a hundred years later."

"He saw the moon goddess descend to earth again, and he even saw a face..."

The statue's gaze was fixed intently on Chen Mo.

"Our Moon Worship Cult has searched for a full hundred years, we've practically worn out the portraits..."

"I recognized them immediately when you went to see those beggars in Linhe County a while ago."

The statue's mouth was wide open, and its fangs gleamed in the dim light.

"It's you."

"Don't rush to deny it, you carry the aura of the moon goddess within you..."