A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth, and I weakly said, "I guess... you've been working very hard... to deal with her..."
"But you... can't do it..."
"You... have no time... for it, she... is actually... not watching you..."
"She... is watching me..."
"Thrice above, there are deities. You fear the people of your own level, yet why can't your deities protect you..."
The words were spoken in fits and starts, and it was hard for me to squeeze out this long string of speech.
Xinbo didn't say any more. It seemed that adding one more word to his weak state would have been too much for his body to bear.
I could even see the wound on his head, because his physical functions were too old and had not recovered, and there were even some signs of rotting!
He took something out of his chest.
It was a lotus platform made entirely of copper brown, with a hint of black gold shimmering on its surface.
He placed this lotus platform on one of my hands.
The lotus platform was obviously dry, yet it seemed to overflow with viscous water, combining heat and cold, which made me feel even more repulsed and nauseous.
I had no strength to shake it off, and even if I had the strength, I couldn't have shaken it away.
"Not only one..."
"You... still have... "
"He followed your father, and then followed you... He... is very weak now..."
"He... once tried to sneak a look at me..."
Finally, Xinbo spoke up.
As expected, he was talking about the High Immortal Daoist.
Indeed, there is still a faint remnant of soul that has not completely dispersed!
However, in doing so, he has suppressed that residual soul...
After all, the High Immortal Daoist himself was sealed and suppressed by Lei Ping, and he had also been struck down from his realm by me.
Just a faint soul, discovered by Xinbo, would naturally have nowhere to hide.
"You are right."
"Looking up three feet, there are deities..."
"Deities require offerings and need to be made manifest through material forms..."
"The Black City Temple... hasn't had a true sacrifice in many years..."
Xinbo was very tired, and it took him half a minute of gasping to be able to continue with the next sentence.
I nodded again.
A sense of inexplicable panic rose within me.
My gaze involuntarily shifted away from Xinbo to the four-faced deities surrounding him.
They seemed to be looking down on me from a higher position.
One of them I could recognize as the Goddess of Ghosts. It was certainly not just a painting; its essence had condensed into a tangible form.
Beside the Goddess of Ghosts, there was a statue with a face as red as fire and a faint hint of sharp teeth at the corners of its mouth. The armor on its body was pure silver, which had acquired a trace of blackness due to the erosion of time.
There were many statues, not one per side, and they were very dense, with at least a dozen of them.
The fierce forms, combined with their golden and silver attire, were neither ghostly nor Buddha-like.
Xinbo whispered a few words, and the black demons surrounding me all retreated.
After they left the hall, they hurried away towards the distance.
The entire Buddhist hall exudes a feeling of decay.
The stench of blood filled my nostrils, combined with the gaze of the statues, gave a feeling of dizziness.
I faintly felt...
The gaze seemed to be receding.
It came to a stop at a certain point, becoming very weak...
It's as if, Ding Ruipo dared not stop in this Buddhist hall...
Involuntarily, a trace of panic finally appeared on my face.
"The cost will make people suffer, but the reward will come from paying it."
"Isn't that so?"
"She is watching you, and there are deities above you."
"I, when pleasing the deities, they will watch me."
Xinbo's lips curved into a smile.
The sound of footsteps echoed again, and the hair of the silver-white Lopian was brought into the temple, all the way to Xinbo's side, where she was forced to her knees by two black demons.
Those two people retreated and walked away from the temple.
Lopian stared blankly at me, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Shaking and trembling, she bowed to Xinbo and pleaded, "Even a tiger does not eat its cub. Mu Ye is your son, and Xian Shen is your grandson. Can you not spare them?"
"Please, let them have a chance at life... Why do you always remain within these chains? Why not break them?"
Lopian's voice sounded extraordinarily old and tormented, with a more intense plea.
"Everyone has chains, and everyone knows how to untie them. The Living Buddha likes to say that untie the chains, but in reality, they are no different from me."
"Alive, and dead, the mundane world, and the transcendent - I don't like emptiness, I prefer reality."
"I haven't tried my grandson yet, and that excites me," Xinbo explained quietly.
He slightly bowed his head, looking at his own body, and then smiled, "To be fair, in secular terms, you need to keep a level playing field, and that's also my child."
"They exist because of me, and they offer themselves because of me."
"You are a ghost!"
"You're not human!" Lopian scolded sharply.
Xinbo raised his head and looked directly at the hall outside, without paying attention to Lopian.
Two elderly monks went to Lopian's side, holding her down and preventing her from approaching Xinbo.
I caught a glimpse through the corner of my eye that there were still a few people at the entrance of the temple.
They didn't know what appeared there.
One was my father, and the other was a black demon.
It was only when Xinbo nodded to indicate that my father was pushed over to his side.
My father's eyes were gushing blood, flowing down his face.
Evidently, he had overheard some of the previous conversation.
There was confusion on his face, but more so, pain.
"I'm sorry, I promised Xian Shen to choose him and let him go if I agreed."
"Unfortunately, he cannot make the hidden 'person' appear, and that's why I have to pay enough to perform a sacrifice. Now the Black City Temple is not what it used to be. I can't find as many clean people who like the deities anymore. What they prefer even more are the flesh of my lineage."
"You will not become a Xinbo, but the offering for today's sacrifice."
Xinbo looked at my father with a full face of regret.
"But you don't need to be too upset, she is also an offering. Mother and son going together, at least there's a companion."
Between the words, Xinbo glanced at Lopian sidelong.
The black demons behind my father also left.
In their place, a group of aged monks appeared outside the temple, kneeling in meditation with various relics in their hands, showing great devotion.
"There's no need to wonder whether A'gong will come. I suspect he won't come. He has gained what he wanted, and he has become the new Living Buddha. He wouldn't want to disrupt everything. The Black City Temple will reach a new balance with the Five Lamasery, and we won't attract too much attention, so we won't be baptized."
"The black demons guard the four directions and prevent A'gong from causing trouble."
My lips trembled slightly as Xinbo had prepared for everything.
There are sacrifices inside, statues, and obstacles to prevent Ding Rui Pu from approaching!
Externally, there is his judgment of A'gong's status as the Living Buddha, with black demons guarding, even if there are problems, they can buy time.
Xinbo has become a demon, terrifying and unsolvable!
At this moment, he slowly stood up, reached into his sleeve and tremblingly took out a thin, sharp knife. Immediately, an old monk brought out a bone bowl decorated with gold, silver, and gems, which stopped beside Xinbo.
I tried to support myself to sit up, but I couldn't, I could only watch helplessly as Xinbo slashed at Lopian's throat with a single blow.
