Chapter 481 — The Shaman God Strikes at the Soul

The nine-headed peacock, its savage might radiating outward, seized Little Tathagata's flesh in its beak and swallowed it down head-first. Its other eight heads cried, "Tathagata, if you want to satisfy my craving for taste, how can a single piece of meat do? My other eight mouths haven't eaten yet—we're still hungry!"

Little Tathagata cut eight more pieces of flesh from his own body and threw them over. The nine-headed peacock's other eight heads each caught a piece and swallowed them down.

The Demon Ape looked delighted and murmured, "Little, meat, guest."

Little Tathagata glared at him. The Demon Ape scratched his head.

Though the nine-headed peacock had eaten nine pieces of flesh, it could not digest them. It coughed again and again, and after a moment, spat out a small peacock, then another small peacock.

The nine-headed peacock spat nine times, disgorging nine peacocks from its belly. These nine little peacocks ran about the ground every which way, stumbling and tottering; then, all at once, the nine little peacocks merged one after another into a single nine-headed peacock, which plopped down on its rump, the feathers on its rear spreading open like a great fan of many colors.

When the nine-headed peacock saw the little peacock on the ground, its heart was profoundly shaken. At once its demonic nature dispersed, and with a shake of its body it transformed back into a bird-headed, human-bodied monk. He sat cross-legged, his face bearing the light of Buddha, and smiled. "Only now do I know that all living beings are as I am. Brother Tathagata, thank you."

"Excellent."

Little Tathagata closed his monk's robe and said, "Junior Brother Ming, sitting in dry meditation on the mountain is of no benefit to cultivation. Take your son down the mountain and cultivate in the world for a time."

The nine-headed peacock rose and, taking the little peacock with it, descended the mountain.

Shen Mu watched the father and son descend the mountain, shook his head, and wore a look of confusion.

Little Tathagata cut his flesh, the nine-headed peacock ate the flesh—why did it then spit out a tiny nine-headed peacock? And why was this tiny nine-headed peacock the son of the nine-headed peacock?

Was it a technique of creation?

Or was there some other spell or divine ability at work?

Xu Shenghua and Jing Yan were equally at a loss. Xu Shenghua said in a low voice, "The cultivation methods of the Little Thunderclap Temple already differ from those of the Great Thunderclap Temple—most likely they've absorbed certain wondrous techniques from the Wasteland."

Shen Mu nodded. The Great Thunderclap Temple had no such bizarre and outlandish spells; and most of the monks of the Little Thunderclap Temple were strange beasts of the Wasteland that had become spirits, endowed by nature with extraordinary abilities.

Some formidable strange beasts had even had fortuitous encounters in the Wasteland, cultivating certain wondrous techniques of the Wasteland. When they joined the Little Thunderclap Temple, they brought these wondrous techniques with them, which made the cultivation methods of the Little Thunderclap Temple more varied and bizarre than those of the Great Thunderclap Temple.

"Please be seated, all three of you, and watch us deliver this demon god and attain the fruit of the Way."

Atop the golden peak, Little Tathagata invited the three to sit. The yellow-robed monks all around took their seats. Little Tathagata took out a golden alms bowl and gave it a gentle shake; the bowl grew larger and larger, and within it was an altar. On the altar a demon god's primordial spirit was trapped, roaring and struggling, rattling the chains of Buddha-light with a ringing clang.

The demon god on the altar was boundless in blood-color, as if standing in a blood-red ocean, with countless wronged souls coiling around him.

All around, yellow-robed monks chanted the Buddha's teachings aloud, the sound of the Buddha reverberating—clearly they were preparing to deliver this demon god.

"With you blood-drinking, fur-eating beasts, you think you can refine me?"

That demon god's primordial spirit was none other than Kui the Shaman God. Unharmed amid the sound of the Buddha, he kept trying to break free of the chains of Buddha-light, laughing. "When I break out, I'll turn every one of you into blood-sacrifice!"

Shen Mu's expression changed slightly. He rose hastily and called out loudly, "Tathagata, this demon god is of the Ghost Race! His soul is incomparably powerful—the mightiest of evil gods. You cannot deliver him! He's using your hands to refine the soul-worms within his body, to break free of the seal placed on him by the Great Venerable of the Golden Palace!"

The monks were at a loss. They looked at Little Tathagata and stopped their chanting.

On the altar, Kui the Shaman God suddenly wrenched his head around and looked at Shen Mu, his face hideous and savage. "So it's Hierarch Shen. My scrapped disciple tried to bow you to death several times, yet could never bow you to death. And now you come to ruin my good work again—truly, you overestimate yourself!"

Little Tathagata and the assembled monks' expressions changed drastically. They hurriedly rose, only to see the primordial spirit of Kui the Shaman God in the altar open its mouth and spit out soul-worms one after another. The soul-worms squeaked and shrieked; meeting the Buddha-light, they dissolved on the spot into wisps of blue smoke.

With these soul-worms removed, Kui the Shaman God's savage might surged to the heavens. An appalling authority spread out; in an instant, the plants and trees atop peak after peak withered, all things blighted. On the mountain, many demon monks of lesser cultivation fell flat on their backs without even a grunt, dead where they stood!

Little Tathagata hastily put away the golden bowl and turned the altar upside down to trap Kui the Shaman God.

Little Tathagata said gravely, "Junior Brother Poying, suppress this demon beneath the Heaven-Seal Pagoda!"

A yellow-robed monk stepped forward, about to take the golden bowl, when suddenly from within came the laughter of Kui the Shaman God. "Your name is Poying? Then take a bow!"

The yellow-robed monk fell flat on his back, his soul scattered and gone!

For a time, no one dared step forward.

"Heh heh heh. I sense that my Book of Life and Death is nearby. You must have obtained my Book of Life and Death and hidden it away, haven't you? Truly, heaven aids me!"

Kui the Shaman God laughed loudly from within the golden bowl. Suddenly a pagoda shook and shattered, and a scroll of scripture flew out from the collapsing pagoda, hurtling toward the golden bowl!