On the Path to the Great Dao Chapter 169: Enfeoffing the Gods: Min River Dragon King

Granny Sha and the bearded giant felt a chill in their hearts. Playing around with a demon like that?

These guys weren't really afraid of things spiraling out of control?

The bearded giant hesitated. "If they wait until this demon seed matures and then find they can't subdue it, won't a bunch of loose cultivators die? Would loose cultivators do sothing that stupid?"

Qingyang said coldly, "Think about our friend Chen Yindu, and you'll know what loose cultivators are like."

The bearded giant recalled Chen Shi's actions. Back when they road the world together, he had indeed stirred up plenty of massive troubles.

The old lady was also a loose cultivator, but far more mild-mannered.

He thought to himself,

But then he rembered Granny Sha's obsession with her deceased son's soul, and he dismissed the idea.

Granny Sha would do anything to retrieve her son's soul!

In the teahouse, the blue-clothed musician gazed at the seated golden-body Buddha, his eyes flashing with surprise as he said softly, "The demon seed matured fifty days early, probably because it had already ripened once before."

He was referring to when the Great Ming soldiers first landed in West Ox New Continent, and the monks of Great Bao Guo Temple suppressed ninety-nine demon gods. The current golden-body Buddha was just one of those ninety-nine demon gods from back then.

After being suppressed, this demon god had endured thousands of years of Buddhist refinent, greatly weakening it, allowing Zen Master Kuzhu to take it into his body and suppress it.

It already had one experience becoming a demon god, so the second demonization would naturally be faster than a normal hundred-day transformation!

Lady Hua Li smiled. "Does Musician Master have designs on it?"

The blue-clothed musician replied, "The monks of Great Bao Guo Temple chanted sutras day and night at it, tainting it with Buddha-nature, making it neither fully demon nor fully Buddha. Plenty of people must have ideas about it.

I'm not guaranteed to succeed."

His gaze fell on the golden Buddha's chest. "Its fleshly body is Kuzhu's body.

Kuzhu cultivated the Great Wheel Wisdom King Golden Light Mantra to the pinnacle. Even headless, this body is enough to dominate the world.

Few could match him in strength.

Yet, Kuzhu's golden body was once breached by soone, leaving a flaw."

His eyes sharp, he added, "That flaw remains to this day."

Lady Hua Li followed his gaze and saw a hole at the golden Buddha's chest acupuncture point, spewing spores outward.

She was slightly startled. "This spot is Zen Master Kuzhu's flaw? Even such an elder predecessor had a weak point he couldn't refine?"

At the sa ti, many others in the city were watching this golden-body Buddha.

Young Master Xiao wiped his longsword, while the shrike sword danced around him like a cheerful bird.

The demon seed maturing early might also be because it knew the hundred-day transformation would draw the True God's attention.

It didn't want to be reduced to ashes, so it ripened ahead of ti.

Young Master Xiao finished wiping his longsword and set it aside, then wiped his shortsword, murmuring, "Maybe it even sensed other threats in the city.

Like loose cultivators! To protect itself, it had no choice but to erge early.

What do you think—possible?"

The two swords danced around him, ringing like bells.

The old beggar heard the sword hums from upstairs, spat out a turbid breath, and limped away.

He had been gravely wounded by the golden-body Buddha, diverting disaster eastward by luring it near the Gao family to barely escape with his life.

He'd been recuperating these past few days, and his injuries had improved sowhat.

The sword qi upstairs was so sharp.

The old beggar muttered to himself, "Young Master Xiao is even stronger than ten years ago.

Young people progress so quickly! Sadly, Great Vehicle Realm is the peak."

He spotted a few more loose cultivators but didn't approach.

Sotis loose cultivators are more dangerous than demons.

With his injuries, he didn't want to cross paths with them.

This demon was getting more interesting—maturing fifty days early.

The old beggar looked toward the golden-body Buddha, thinking, "A demon seed and demon Buddha—plenty of people want to study them, figure out the demons' principles."

The city's officials hid with their families, dodging and weaving, but the loose cultivators in the demon domain lounged about like they were at ho, utterly unconcerned as the air grew thick with spores. Eyes fixed on the great Buddha grew ever more fervent.

The golden-body Buddha had been spewing spores for two straight days, blanketing Gongzhou inside and out.

The air turned colorful, sowhat murky.

Otherwise, you'd inhale plenty of spores no matter where you hid—unless you stopped breathing.

Those still surviving were often elite cultivators; ordinary ones had either starved or turned into mushrooms.

Even experts now felt their throats and lungs burning, as if tiny things were taking root and sprouting in their throats, slowly growing.

Or perhaps their lungs were filled with little growths, making them damp and shadowy, an incessant urge to cough.

Coughing up a slimy mushroom cap from the mouth.

Many used their golden cores or nascent souls to illuminate their bodies, refining the mushrooms away.

But so spores burrowed into veins with breaths, rooting in the heart—hard to refine then.

Others word into the lower body, bone marrow, growing slowly.

So into nostrils, ears, brain.

Or under the eye sockets, growing until eyeballs could barely move.

If in the pupils or brain, they'd conjure illusions, blurring fantasy and reality.

Lately, the city had more mad folk—often young scions and kin of great clans. Parasitized by mushrooms, hallucinating, laughing and crying chaotically, abandoned by their families.

They didn't last long, muttering to themselves before their heads suddenly leaped from their necks, shouting, "I've attained great freedom at last!"

Mushroom legs sprouted beneath the heads, scampering fast, yelling, "Co with to the paradise!"

The headless bodies sprouted even larger mushroom caps from necks, chasing after.

They clambered onto the golden-body Buddha hand and foot, leaped high, floated up, rging into the mushroom ga-wheel.

I've ascended to the Western Paradise!

They giggled.

The city saw more and more abandoned due to mushrooming, joining the ga-wheel.

With the Buddha rooted and unmoving, survivors erged from hiding, faces tightly covered, constantly wetting the cloths over mouths and noses as they foraged.

But skin was hard to protect.

Walking along, skin would pop-pop as mushrooms burst from pores.

At first, people painstakingly plucked or refined them with cores and souls, but later, fed up, they let them grow.

In these chaotic tis, killing for food was nothing—what's a few mushrooms?

"Hahaha, mushrooms I grew myself—eating them doesn't count as cannibalism!" one lunatic laughed.

Fewer living in the city.

So couldn't bear the terror, tore off their veils, gulped air, and raced to the golden Buddha, shouting, "Even if mushroom assimilation cos, so what? The Mushroom Paradise—isn't that paradise too? Hahaha!"

Pfft!

Heads detached, soaring skyward.

I've attained great freedom!

The head shouted midair, turning mushroomy.

"Hahaha, wife, kids—hurry up! So joyful here!"

The man-turned-head-mushroom called to his living family.

"I feel others' thoughts and minds! So many people around ! They're all alive! We connect, share—we sit amid golden light. This is paradise!"

On the third day of the Buddha's sitting,

Suddenly, mushrooms large and small in the ga-wheel behind its head began withering, rotting.

The heads trapped in the Mushroom Paradise wailed凄厉ly, rotting as they scread, black juices oozing from decayed flesh, dripping from the wheel to form black rivers on the ground.

They struggled to break free, but each twitch dropped chunks of black rot.

Soon they were bones exposed, yet undying.

Worse, their minds linked—pain from others amplified ten thousand, hundred thousandfold!

Still undying.

The demon seed was absorbing nutrients.

The blue-clothed musician lightly tapped the teahouse table in rhythm, eyes narrowed, as if the screams were music to his ears.

In truth, the wails were horrific, but matched to his beat, they oddly turned pleasant—most wondrous.

Once the demon seed absorbs all nutrients, it'll be ripe for harvest.

The blue-clothed musician smiled. "Just wondering which fellow daoist will claim this Paradise Demon Buddha."

Outside the city, Chen Shi, Li Tianqing, and Blackie Pot had Clean Dust Talismans shielding them from mushrooming, but hunger had them front-to-back concave, seeing food shapes everywhere.

Their fish and at were gone; field crops, river fish, mountain beasts—all petrified. Even fresh rats hadn't escaped.

Chen Shi hungered madly, scrounging everywhere, digging three feet for sweet potatoes. Finally one—turned to hard stone.

Furious, Chen Shi punched the stone sweet potato thrice.

Li Tianqing, weak and listless, said, "Save your strength. Dig deeper—might find an unpetrified one."

Both sallow-faced, eyes greenish.

The sweet potato field was full of petrified vines—easy to trip and cut oneself.

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing reached the riverbank, hoping to snag a fish monster. Though demonized, the Min River connected upstream-downstream; so blind fish demon might swim in.

They waited eagerly half a while—no dumb fish erged.

Chen Shi sighed, straightened. Li Tianqing picked a fist-sized field snail by the water. "Back to let Blackie Pot boil it—maybe so aty soup."

"The snail shell's stone."

Chen Shi said.

Li Tianqing still didn't toss it.

Back in the village, Chen Shi froze, then yelled, leaping into the wooden cart to rummage. Monts later, he found the Western King Jade Seal, discarded in a bookbox corner!

I've got a way to get food!

Chen Shi clutched the Western King Jade Seal, kissing it repeatedly, choking up. "We're saved! Tianqing, we have food!"

Li Tianqing held the snail shell, begging the dog for snail soup. Blackie Pot scorned him—it's stone, inedible.

Chen Shi grabbed the basin holding Min River Granny's face and ran to the Min River bank.

Inedible!

Red Mountain Lady hurried after on short legs, yelling, "Scholar, inedible! Can it be red-braised?"

Chen Shi poured out the black carp dragon from the basin; it leaped, splashing into the river.

Suddenly, waves surged; a small island-like massive black carp slowly surfaced—dragon head, fish body, black scales.

Min River Granny leaned on her cane atop the black carp dragon's head. "What does Scholar Chen command?"

Chen Shi raised his hand; the Western King Jade Seal floated up. Gravely, "Min River Granny, today I enfeoff you as Min River Dragon King, to govern twelve hundred li of Min River waters. All aquatic life under your domain.

Min River banks free of floods, dikes unbreached, fish and shrimp abundant, people secure and prosperous!"

The Western King Jade Seal blazed light; Gongzhou's map projected. Twelve hundred li of Min River territory erged; the great seal stamped down on a dragon scale behind the black carp dragon's head.

Min River Granny received the decree, startled. Instantly, her mind filled with every waterway creature in the great river, the twelve hundred li domain crystal clear!

Moreover, the movents of river fish demons and monsters—all in her grasp!

Shocked and delighted, she'd long been an evil in Min River waters. Though villagers revered her as godmother, others hunted her.

And Min River held more evils, so mighty.

But now enfeoffed as Min River Dragon King, she felt linked to the river's breath, commanding its waters—other evils no match!

Min River Granny hastily dropped her cane, kowtowing on the dragon head. "Thanks to the lord for the boon!"

Chen Shi said, "Rise. Quick, get us so food!"

"As decreed!"

Min River Granny rose, pondering fish catches—suddenly her mind linked to river fish.

Stunned, "The lord is mighty! I truly am Dragon King!"

Red Mountain Lady, Li Tianqing, and Blackie Pot caught up, seeing fish suddenly leaping from the Min River—plop plop onto shore!

All shocked and joyful, grabbing fish.

Monts later, hauling big fish back, they lit fires, cooked.

Soon bellies round, sprawling.

Red Mountain Lady rolled over, belly-flopping onto Chen Shi's gut, eyes sparkling. "Scholar, how'd you enfeoff Granny? Can you enfeoff too?"

Chen Shi twitched, couldn't budge, weakly. "Yes.

What office do you want?"

Red Mountain Lady opened her mouth—Blackie Pot's ears perked, paw quietly tapping Chen Shi.

Outside the village, Tianlu's head floated midair, sniffing hard. "Fishy sll! Living people here! Food!"

Chen Shi startled, bolted up. "Tianlu Society folk! Hide quick!"

Tianlu Society hall master Wu Daozheng's voice rang: "Lord Fei, Lord Yan—they've got food!"

Footsteps approached rapidly.

Wu Daozheng led six or seven Tianlu Society instructors and incense masters bursting into Chen Shi's courtyard, searching—no one, just leftover bowls, plates, fish bones.

Still warm! They haven't gone far!

Wu Daozheng shouted. "Search quick!"

All scattered searching.

Tianlu's huge head soared skyward. "I sll Min River Granny's fishiness!"

Governor Fei Tianzheng, General Xia Chuli, and other Gongzhou bigwigs entered; hall master Wu Daozheng swept tableware aside, fawning, "Lords, please sit."

A snail shell swept aside, rolling.

Inside the snail shell, Chen Shi and others tumbled, barely steadying.

Chen Shi hushed them, ears to outside din.

Just now, no ti to flee, so he'd cast an immature Taotie Devouring Heaven thod on the snail shell, sucking everyone and cart inside, himself last.

End of chapter.