“I just find him pleasing to the eye,” the Unraging Monk said as he chuckled. He could sense something special from Li Qingshan.
Just when the Dauntless Monk wanted to ask further, the Unraging Monk said, “Look, they’re already there.”
……
It was as if they had been sucked into a black vortex, reaching the bottom of the water, passing through and setting foot in a different world.
Li Qingshan and Xiao An stood hand in hand. They looked around, only to see they had already arrived in a magnificent room. The ground was layered with golden tiles, while gold leaf covered the walls, detailed with graceful patterns. It resembled an imperial palace, forming a clear contrast with the gate that was close to falling apart.
However, when Li Qingshan studied the surroundings carefully, he discovered this was not an imperial palace, but a prison.
The room they were standing in was a cage. Before him was a row of glistening bars, blocking the path out, while opposite of the bars were similar rooms.
Li Qingshan walked over and pushed gently. With a clank, the prison door opened.
He arrived in a wide passageway, which was also beautifully decorated, but on the two sides of the passageway were various cages of different sizes.
Li Qingshan asked in confusion, “Why is the Demon Suppression hall built like a prison?”
When the Demon Suppression hall was first constructed, it did indeed function as a prison. The monks of the monastery would capture and subdue demonic cultivators, throwing them into the Demon Suppression hall to be detained, giving them the opportunity to turn over a new leaf.
However, during the several millennia since the Great Xia empire was established, the world experienced peace and tranquility, and demonic cultivators faded away from public sight. The conflict between good and bad ceased to exist. Even if cultivators made trouble, there was the Hawkwolf Guard that could capture them or hunt them down. There was no need for the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga to do anything.
As a result, the demonic cultivators originally suppressed in the hall either reformed and became buddhists, or they downright died from old age. The original purpose of the Demon Suppression hall was gradually abandoned, but it was soon repurposed with a new function. It had been turned into a ground of trials for disciples.
True, large sects would always remain vigilant. They were aware of the nature of bloody conflict of the cultivation world. They would never be corroded away by the false impression of “a peaceful world”. They ground their blades constantly, ready to confront bloody conflict at any time. If buddhist scriptures, dharma, and benevolence were the only things they had relied on, the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga would have been destroyed countless times already.
While internal competitions could maintain a competitive mindset, it was nowhere near true conflict. As a result, whether it be the Sword Collection palace or the Umbral Yin sect, they all established facilities like these.
……
“Argh!”
A shrill shriek rang out from the end of the passageway, filled with pain and refusal. It echoed throughout the magnificent prison, enough to send chills down the spines of people.
Li Qingshan’s eyes narrowed as he withdrew his aura. He flew over to the end of the passageway with great speed and agility, only to see a group of people kneeling on the ground, huddling into a group. Fresh blood flowed out between them, dyeing the golden tiles red.
Among them was a child around seven or eight with his guts spilling out. They were grabbing his innards and shoving them into their mouths. The child was still alive, putting up a desperate struggle as he shrieked in pain and hatred.
“Stop!” Li Qingshan bellowed. The group of people looked over, all covered in blood and hideous. It basically resembled the classical scenes of zombie films from his past life.
But to Li Qingshan’s surprise, they did not lunge over immediately. The burliest man among them even wiped the blood from his mouth as he asked, “You a newcomer?”
The tone of his voice was rather strange, but he was clearly intelligent and not a mad, wild beast. Yet, he behaved like he was not doing anything wrong at all. The child continued to scream. It was truly as strange as it could get.
“Release him!” Li Qingshan was taken aback before shouting out coldly. He had never thought something as tragic as cannibalism would happen in the renowned Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. These monks were far more vicious than he had imagined them to be.
“Do you want some?” The burly man’s expression changed, but his tone seemed like he was talking about a pig or a lamb, not a child.
At this moment, Xiao An arrived too, standing beside Li Qingshan. The burly man’s eyes lit up, filled with undisguised lust. His crotch actually responded immediately, and he stood up without the slightest hint of shame.
The other men were no different. They opened their mouths and drooled. They were clearly people, yet they seemed to become wild beasts in the heat all of a sudden.
“Is that woman yours? Give her to me or die!”
The man pointed at Xiao An and said to Li Qingshan. Before he had even finished, there was a bang, and his head exploded like a watermelon. Brain matter and blood covered the golden walls nearby.
“You better use your head before you talk!”
Li Qingshan pulled back his leg as he said that.
“Roar!”
The other men lunged over wildly. Veins popped from their bodies, their muscles bulged, and teeth protruded from their mouths, producing howls like wild beasts.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The group of people all collapsed as headly corpses. Blood flowed on the ground with broken bones and brain matter splattered everywhere.
Li Qingshan was bewildered. These people had bodies far tougher than regular people, but they also did not seem like cultivators. They could not even be regarded as wild beasts. Wild beasts would always flee when they faced danger, but they seemed to be completely under the control of their urges.
The child no longer shrieked. He propped himself up and extended his hand, covering his belly and shoving all the organs and intestines back inside. His life force was unbelievably tenacious. Afterwards, he threw himself at a headless corpse nearby and began ripping away at it, not for revenge, but purely because he was hungry and wanted to eat something.
Li Qingshan found this all absurd. He actually had no idea what to say. After the child had his fill, the wound on his belly had basically recovered completely.
The child asked rather bashfully, “Thank you for saving me. Can I follow you?”
“What’s your name? Who are they? Why were they…” Li Qingshan paused for a moment. “Eating you?”
“I’m Duoge. This is my dad. I don’t know the others. Why were they eating me? Obviously because they were hungry!” The child called “Duoge” pointed at the first man that Li Qingshan had killed with a kick and answered innocently.
Afterwards, he waved his arm around and advertised himself. “I can fight for you. If you get hungry, you can eat me too. My flesh is very tender.” His eyes swivelled craftily, and he pointed at the corpses on the ground, including his father’s. “These are enough to eat for many days!”
Li Qingshan felt mentally overwhelmed. These “people” were not powerful, but the things they did and said was horrifying. It proved that their natures were twisted to the limit, so hideous that it was repulsive.
A father had brought a group of people to eat his child. The child treated his father as food. If any regular people were present, probably even their view on life and values would be heavily impacted.
Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 501-Chapter 600)
Dream Teller's books
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 1-Chapter 100)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 101-Chapter 200)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 201-Chapter 300)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 301-Chapter 400)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 401-Chapter 500)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 601-Chapter 700)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 701-Chapter 833)