Starting from the steel of the heart, slaying demons and monsters.

Chapter 43 Blood and Flesh Buddha

He had never heard of any of these place names.

However, judging from Jiang Ning's serious demeanor, it must be somewhere else in the world.

The monkey and Zhou Zheng now look at each other with even more admiration.

The wood in the fire crackled, sending sparks flying.

Zhang Ping opened his mouth, about to speak, but then thought of a way to smooth things over without losing face.

Jiang Ning suddenly frowned, her face showing displeasure, and her gaze went straight to the outside of the palace gate.

Seeing this, Zhang Ping was puzzled, but he still followed his gaze and looked outside.

Upon seeing this, he was no different from Jiang Ning.

Seeing that both of them were like this, Zhou Zheng looked over at them.

Then, they saw a gray mist rising outside the palace gates, which they didn't know had appeared at some point.

The fog came strangely. When the group was talking, it was dark outside the hall, but the moonlight was bright enough to make out the outline of the courtyard wall and the dilapidated gate.

But at this moment, gray fog surged in from all directions, like a pot of thick porridge, bubbling out and swallowing the entire courtyard in the blink of an eye, making it impossible to see anything.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Ping's eyes turned serious, and his hand had already gripped the hilt of the knife.

After all, in this situation, it's likely that something bad has happened.

Just then, a sound came from deep within the fog.

"Hehehehehehe..."

The laughter was sharp and piercing, like someone scratching a blackboard with their fingernails.

The sound came from all directions at the same time, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes far, sometimes near, making it impossible to tell the direction. It was as if countless mouths were emitting the same laughter at the same time.

"Hehehehehehe……………"

Zhang Ping drew his sword, stepped out of the main hall, stood on the steps, and glanced at the hazy mist.

This scene should have been very serious, even extremely dangerous.

But when Zhang Ping heard that laughter, the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

"Depend on."

He muttered a curse under his breath, his tone tinged with exasperation, "So there really are villains who laugh like that."

In his past life, he read novels where the villains would often laugh cacklingly, and he always thought it was just something the authors made up.

After all, what in real life would laugh so outrageously? But he never expected to encounter it today.

Zhou Zheng followed half a step behind him, drawing his knife as well.

Zhang Ping glanced back.

I must say, this kid is really brave; he didn't show the slightest fear in the face of such a situation.

The monkey wanted to come out too, but its legs went weak as soon as it took a step.

Despite how smug he was when he scared Liu Dazhuang earlier, he was now leaning against the door frame with both hands, his legs shaking like a leaf, unable to take a second step.

Liu Dazhuang was still asleep, snoring as usual.

The monkey kept calling out in a trembling voice, but couldn't wake him up.

Zhang Ping couldn't care less about them at the moment; he couldn't afford to be distracted by the strange fog.

The laughter then abruptly stopped.

But the moment the laughter stopped, the scene before them suddenly changed.

White bones.

There were bones everywhere.

The ground was covered with white bones, some human, others of various unidentifiable shapes, densely stacked together, stretching to the horizon.

Furthermore, there was flesh and blood mixed together, red and white, making it impossible to distinguish which parts were from a person and which were peeled off from something else.

In short, the air was filled with a strong, fishy stench.

The moonlight had disappeared overhead, replaced by a dark red dome, like the inner wall of something, rhythmically undulating slightly, as if it were the cavity of a living being.

They were inside something.

The thought appeared in Zhang Ping's mind almost instantly.

Jiang Ning also emerged from the palace at some point. He calmly observed everything before him, showing no sign of panic.

On the contrary, they were quite displeased.

"Damn, I never expected to be this unlucky."

Upon seeing this, Zhang Ping muttered a curse, his voice not loud, and his tone not particularly tense, as if he had seen this kind of thing many times before.

After all, while the scene before them was indeed horrifying, it paled in comparison to the hellish imagery they had imagined.

"Boss, aren't you afraid?"

As Zhou Zheng was speaking, Zhang Ping noticed that his voice was trembling slightly.

Zhang Ping didn't turn around, observing what lay ahead, his tone utterly casual, "What's the use of being afraid? Will being afraid get you out of here?"

Zhou Zheng nodded upon hearing this, and after a moment's thought, he realized that it did indeed make sense.

Finally, the monkey managed to squeeze out a sentence, its voice soft and ethereal, "Boss, I'm scared."

Zhang Ping turned his head slightly, glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, saw his expression, and shook his head.

After all, he knew that some things couldn't be overcome just by being brave.

This was probably the first time the monkey had faced such a situation; it was quite a feat that it didn't faint on the spot.

It was Jiang Ning who spoke up at this moment. Although his voice was not loud, it was surprisingly steady: "Don't panic, everyone. This thing is nothing to worry about."

Zhang Ping glanced at him.

This scholar was just talking about his encounters with those monsters, and I thought he was just bragging, but when it came to the real thing, he was more composed than Zhou Zheng and the monkey.

It seems that those experiences on the road were indeed worthwhile.

However, upon hearing the words "not worth mentioning," his heart stirred slightly.

From the moment this scholar entered the temple until now, he had been speaking and acting with a gentle and mild manner. He was polite in his bows and salutations, and he recounted his experiences on the road in a detailed and detailed manner. Why did he suddenly become so assertive now?

It wasn't that he was being paranoid; it was just that his tone was too certain, not like he was comforting someone, but rather like he really knew the inside story of the thing in front of him.

"Brother Jiang, does this mean you know about this strange and monstrous creature?"

Zhang Ping gripped the knife, his gaze sweeping across the dark red dome and the white bones scattered on the ground, but he couldn't find anything strange.

At times like these, every bit of information increases the chances of survival, and he wouldn't hold back from asking just to save face.

Jiang Ning nodded, his expression calm. "This thing should be practicing the flesh and blood Buddha."

He raised his hand, stretched out his finger, and pointed behind him.

It was pointing to the main hall where they had just rested.

"The mountain gods and land gods of this place have disappeared, and the area has lost its protection."

"Although the incense has been burned out, the temple still stands, and places where incense has been burned are always more suitable for spiritual practice than other places."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear: "The one occupying this place must be a ghost cultivator. With all these bones and flesh, he must want to cultivate into a flesh-and-blood Buddha, reunite his physical body, enjoy incense offerings, and become a wild god."

Zhang Ping listened, his brows furrowing slightly.

The flesh-and-blood Buddha, the ghost cultivator, reunited in a physical body.

He had seen these words in some supernatural tales in his previous life, but those were just things on paper, completely different from the living scene before him.

Jiang Ning spoke eloquently, as if he were talking about something very ordinary. But how could a poor scholar who hadn't even passed the county-level imperial examination know so much about this?

However, now is not the time to dig deeper; we need to get past this hurdle first.

As he was thinking, a deep voice suddenly rang out from all directions at the same time.

"This little kid is quite knowledgeable."

"It's a pity that it's about to become part of my flesh and blood, my bones and bones."

The arrogance and smugness in his voice were blatant.

It's like a cat playing with a mouse; it could easily kill it in one bite, but it chooses to tease it instead.