plumnovel Chapter 23 As long as there are no bottom lines, we're all one family.
Chapter 23 As long as there are no bottom lines, we're all one family.
He hadn't caught his breath yet.
Then a noise came from the shadows.
Creak, creak.
That sound was like a dull saw grinding against rusty iron bones; it made your teeth ache and your molars tremble.
The darkness behind the thatched hut was torn away.
A creature that was half human and half ghost emerged.
The wide black robe only covered half of his body; the other half was made of cold, dark iron forcibly pieced together with unknown spirit wood.
The left arm is a sophisticated metal mechanism; the knuckles turn, and the meshing of the mechanisms makes a fine, delicate sound, like silkworms eating mulberry leaves.
His right leg was a piece of lightning-struck wood engraved with dark red runes. With each step he took, a charred footprint was left on the bluestone slabs of the ground.
He was dragging a giant serrated knife that was half a person's height.
A roll of dark red ink line was wrapped around his waist, with a few pieces of meat still hanging on it.
The single eye flickered with a ghostly blue flame, like a night vision device, locking onto Yu Liang's spine.
"Master, is this the 'Dao Embryo'?"
The sound was like two pieces of iron grinding against each other, with a frenzied intensity.
"Exceptional bone structure."
"But this shell is too fragile, and it reeks of mundane sourness."
The single blue eye flashed; it was the butcher's gaze as he selected livestock.
"Tsk, a defective product."
The monster is approaching.
His tone was so sincere, it was as if he were promoting a buy-one-get-one-free deal on a crematorium.
"Junior brother, don't move."
"Senior brother will perform a 'Puppet Ascension' for you. I'll remove this rotten flesh and replace it with my 'Nine Heavens Profound Iron Bones' and 'Ten Thousand Year Spirit Wood Core'."
"To be made into the most perfect human puppet, so that he will never feel pain again and will live as long as the heavens!"
"Trust your senior brother's skills, it won't hurt at all, it will only feel a little...cool."
Crunch-!
The giant saw pulled, sparks exploded.
The cold light was less than three inches from Yu Liang's neck, and the strong wind ripped off two strands of hair from his temples.
"Screw you!"
Su Xiu couldn't hold back any longer.
The girl's legs trembled like a leaf, her teeth chattered, but she still jumped out suddenly, like a little hen with its feathers standing on end, blocking Yu Liang's way.
She pointed at the monster, her voice trembling with tears:
"He's made of flesh! Once it's sawed off, it can't be put back together!"
"If you're going to saw... if you're going to saw, saw this pig first! It has a lot of meat! Besides, it's a pig, it's meant to be slaughtered!"
The pig on the ground was still pretending to faint.
Upon hearing this, his eyelids twitched violently, his four legs kicked in the air, and white foam instantly spilled from the corner of his mouth.
This time, it really got so angry it passed out.
The monster's one eye rotated.
A ghostly blue light swept over the pig foaming at the mouth in Su Xiu's arms, and the saw paused.
"pig?"
Mo Ju tilted his half-iron, half-flesh head, seemingly contemplating the feasibility of turning this pig into a mechanical beast.
Yu Liang reacted quickly and pulled the silly girl back behind him.
I casually flicked her forehead.
"Are you stupid? Pork is so expensive now. If you cut it and hurt the pig, I won't be able to afford to pay for it even if I sell you."
After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Mo Ju.
There wasn't a trace of fear on his face.
Instead, he displayed an air of expert appreciation, even taking a half-step forward and reaching out to touch the cold, serrated teeth.
"Fourth Senior Brother, right? How sophisticated!"
"The angle of the saw teeth, the energy circulation of the mechanical arm—it's clearly top-tier craftsmanship from the Mo family!"
Yu Liang gave a thumbs up, his face full of regret.
"Although my flesh is rotten, it is still the 'Dao Embryo' that Master just took in."
"If you saw me off, my master might not be able to use me to test medicine."
"Drug testing?"
Mo Ju was taken aback.
The blue light in his eyes flickered twice, as if he was weighing whether "making him into a puppet" or "leaving him to his master to test medicine" better reflected the sect's value.
"Knock!"
Gu Santong slapped Mo Ju's half-iron skull, producing a dull metallic echo.
"This is your fourth senior brother, Mo Ju. He's a madman from the Mo family's puppeteer lineage, always thinking about 'removing the flesh but keeping the soul, turning the body into a weapon.'"
"Last time he wanted to carve me out and make me into a stone beast to guard the mountain, but I hung me on a tree and exposed me to the sun for three days. The wood cracked and then he finally behaved himself."
"Get out of my way, lest you scare my medicinal ingredients!"
Yu Lianggang wanted to breathe a sigh of relief.
Suddenly, everything went blurry before my eyes.
A face as white as paper, devoid of features, was suddenly pressed against the tip of his nose.
The distance was less than a finger's width.
You can even feel the coolness of the foundation falling off the other person's face.
"Wow, what beautiful cracks..."
It was a person dressed in a colorful theatrical costume.
She held a thin embroidery needle in her hand.
The needle was not dragging a thread, but a blood vessel that had just been pulled from a living creature, still pulsating and dripping blood.
On that face devoid of features, a mouth was forcibly drawn on with rouge.
It is currently spreading out in an exaggerated arc.
It looked like a smile, yet also like a cry.
"Junior brother, your skin is damaged and leaking air."
"How about I sew it up for you, senior sister? I have the best 'human skin embroidery needle,' and after it's sewn up, it won't leak air anymore...hehehe."
Su Xiu's pupils suddenly contracted.
His legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.
She covered her mouth tightly with both hands, afraid that if she screamed, this ghost-like senior sister would sew her mouth shut.
Yu Liang's Adam's apple bobbed.
But he didn't back down.
He even leaned forward slightly, staring at the still-dripping needle, a playful smile curving his lips.
It's like haggling with an old lady at the market.
"Fifth Senior Sister? The stitches are so fine and the lines so fluid; it's clearly the work of someone who works in the imperial court."
"What a pity, junior brother is a penniless pauper, and this body of mine is worthless. I'm afraid I can't afford to pay senior sister's craftsmanship fee."
Yu Liang pointed to the pig that was pretending to be dead on the ground.
"How about... you sew double eyelids on that pig? It has small eyes and is always very self-conscious about them."
"This is your fifth senior sister, Painted Skin."
Gu Santong calmly extended a finger and pushed away the needle that was about to pierce Yu Liang's eyeball.
"Don't worry, she just has a bit of OCD; she wants to mend any cracks she sees."
"She used to be the chief embroiderer in the palace, but later she found embroidering cloth boring and switched to embroidering human skin."
The voice just fell.
squeak - creak -
A mournful erhu melody suddenly erupted.
The sound was shrill, like rusty iron nails frantically scraping against glass, or like a hundred ghosts scratching at your heart.
Yu Liangtian felt a jolt in his skull, and his soul was almost sawed in two by the sound.
Su Xiu covered her ears in anguish, curled up into a ball, and couldn't stop the tears from flowing.
On the roof of a thatched house.
A blind old man was sitting there sometime later.
He held a broken erhu with only one string in his arms and played it with complete absorption.
As the music played, the air distorted, and countless black, illusory crows appeared out of thin air, circling and emitting mournful cawing.
"A terrible omen! A very bad omen!"
The blind old man played his violin while wailing, his voice hoarse as if he were chewing sand.
"Junior brother's forehead is dark; he's cursed by fate and will surely suffer a bloody disaster today!"
"Why don't you let your senior brother play a 'Rebirth Mantra' for you, sending you on your way early to avoid suffering!"
"I've got the suona band all ready, waiting for us halfway up the mountain! A complete service, give me a good review!"
"Sixth Senior Brother, the ghosts are wailing."
Gu Santong sighed and casually picked up a stone to throw at it.
boom!
The old man fell off the roof, and the erhu music stopped abruptly.
"He used to be a top musician for a full-service funeral service, but later he went mad with enlightenment and felt that the living were too noisy and only the dead deserved to listen to his music."
"Ignore him unless you want to die."
Dead silence.
The wind blew up a tattered piece of yellow paper money, and with a snap, it accurately smeared it onto Yu Liang's cracked face.
He didn't pick it.
Through the holes in the paper money, he looked at the six "masters" in front of him.
A zombie face carrying a coffin.
The Mad Beauty Who Used Poison Pills.
Plant your own Bald Qiang.
Half a piece of iron to make a human puppet.
The faceless woman who sews human skin together.
The blind man leading the funeral procession.
And there's that cheap master next to him, holding a gourd of wine and watching the show, with a look on his face that says, "This team is hard to manage."
What kind of cultivation sect is this?
This is clearly a Qingxuan Sect intensive care mental hospital combined with an illegal funeral home!
But oddly enough.
Yu Liang did not feel despair.
Instead, he gently twirled the cold copper coin between his thumb and forefinger, which were hidden in his sleeve.
A strange sense of security arose spontaneously.
Normal people have their way of living, and madmen have their rules.
Compared to those hypocrites who spout benevolence and morality but stab others in the back,
This group of lunatics, whose desires and fanaticism were written all over their faces, actually made him feel more... at ease.
At least, their knives are out in the open.
"Master."
Yu Liang slowly removed the paper money from his face, folded it neatly, and solemnly stuffed it into his pocket—after all, this thing could be sold for money.
He looked at Gu Santong and asked that soul-searching question.
His tone conveyed a sense of satisfaction at having found his tribe.
"Does Zizhu Peak... cover workplace injuries?"
Gu Santong was taken aback for a moment, then grinned, revealing a set of yellow teeth, and smiled like an old fox who had stolen a chicken.
"As long as you have a breath left, I guarantee you won't die!"
Yu Liang turned to Su Xiu, winked, and lowered his voice:
"Girl, it seems we've stumbled into a paradise this time."
Su Xiu rolled her eyes, tears still welling up, and gritted her teeth as she muttered under her breath:
"A lucky nest? I think it's a wolf's den!"
"Yu Liang, you liar! If you dare die here, I'll haunt you even in your next life... You'll have to pay me back the money you owe me, even in your next life!"
"Exquisite".
Yu Liang grinned, but his smile was more like a grimace.
As long as someone remembers this debt, he won't die.
Life on Zizhu Peak is about to get lively.