The thick, black soup was poured into Heart's mouth. The keratin mask on his face seed incorporeal as the black liquid stread down his cheeks and dripped from his chin.
He drank about half of the thick soup from the small cauldron, then imdiately prepared to chant the so-called Spell.
"On Jiangcheng's ancient road, a century old, is there a Xian?~
The Xian hears the people's plight, better to be beasts than n, yea~
Pulling guts for rope and loop, drinking blood from bottled wine, tsk~
Swallowing grain is hard, with no at to eat, children stew like porridge, oh~
We beg the Xian, we beg the Xian~ We beg the Xian, we beg the Xian~
Does the Xian hear?~ Does the Xian hear?~
Save our flesh~ Save our bones~ Save us from hunger~ Save our mortal shells~
Does the Xian hear?~ Does the Xian hear?~"
Yang An, White Bird, and the Child all took two steps back, forming a circle around Heart and watching his every move.
He swayed his head back and forth.
As the low chant slowly emanated from his mouth, each utterance of the word "Xian" was like a drumbeat, creating a peculiar frequency that seed to make his voice slowly spread in all directions.
The chant was sotis short, sotis drawn out; sotis a whisper, sotis a shout.
By the ti Heart finished this Xian-calling delirious chant, more than a dozen breaths had passed—not too short, but not too long either.
A faint anomaly seed to stir in the surroundings, but Heart's delirious chant didn't stop.
The first repetition failed to elicit a response from the Xian, so he began a second ti.
It was at this mont that Yang An noticed the exposed flesh on Heart's body beginning to rot before his very eyes.
Gray spots appeared first, like drops of ink spreading on water. Their color deepened as if seeping into the flesh, and then sections of skin began to sink inward, rapidly decaying.
Even with the Undying Body of the Visceral Stone Realm, his regenerative abilities seed suppressed by the decay, and his healing slowed to a crawl.
anwhile, as Heart continued his low, delirious chant, blood began to seep from beneath the keratin mask on his face, dripping to the ground. DRIP. DRIP. DRIP.
Blood also oozed from his fingers and seeped through his shoes, soaking his clothes a dark, blackish-red.
Without any other visible action, the rot on his body slowly vanished. After two breaths, it was gone without a trace, and his body returned to normal.
All the while, his delirious chant continued uninterrupted, a constant, low drone.
'So this is the Innate Flesh Mushroom?'
Yang An watched this clearly from the side, a little shocked. The Child and White Bird, however, had no reaction, apparently accustod to it.
He could now finally confirm that his own special ability and the Innate Flesh Mushroom were two completely different powers.
'Based on Heart's actions, it's clear the Innate Flesh Mushroom requires one to first bear the cost, and only then can one suppress the consequences that have already appeared.'
'But I don't need to bear any cost. I can erase it from the very beginning, remaining completely unaffected.'
Soon, Heart finished the second repetition and began the third.
Yang An noticed that the corrected chant was beginning to take effect. Subtle changes were starting to occur in their surroundings.
The sky grew a little darker than before. At the sa ti, a faint scent drifted through the air, like a very, very faint mixture of perfu and rot.
It felt as if sothing unseen was watching them. The feeling was epheral, appearing and disappearing at random.
Not only did Yang An sense it, but the Child and White Bird did as well. They scanned their surroundings, on alert for any unexpected developnts.
The third ti... the fourth ti... the fifth ti...
Heart continued his delirious chant, repeating it over and over, enduring the cost and then suppressing it.
As he chanted again and again, the area around them transford dramatically.
The sky had beco so gloomy that they could barely see. A hazy mist arose, rolling in like waves, one after another, washing over the area.
The mixture of perfu and rot grew stronger, becoming almost intoxicating.
Just as Heart began the sixth repetition of his chant, he suddenly stopped.
The others turned to look at him in unison.
"It has responded..."
Heart said in a low voice. Then, without any warning, his body exploded.
Flesh, shattered bone, and viscera splattered across the ground, dyeing it red. Only his head remained, rolling a few tis before coming to a stop.
From within his exploded body, countless streams of black liquid scattered onto the ground. Like a swarm of crawling insects, they rapidly converged.
In the blink of an eye, the black liquid coalesced into a twisted, black, humanoid figure.
It seed unable to hold a solid form, constantly shifting like a pool of water.
A severed lower leg lying at Yang An's feet twitched, then shot off in one direction. Soon, Heart's pulverized body had reford.
The group all stared at the twisted humanoid figure.
'This is the Xian?'
As the twisted black humanoid appeared, a faint voice reached their ears.
"Seeker of Xian... seeker of ... devourer of ... seeking release..."
It seed to be saying sothing, but none of them could understand it.
"Senior, we stumbled upon this place by mistake. We hope you will allow us to leave!"
White Bird didn't want to waste any more ti and spoke directly.
But the twisted humanoid seed to ignore her, continuing to mutter its incomprehensible words.
At the sa ti, a series of bloodcurdling screams echoed from the distance. Shortly after, a large amount of black liquid converged from that direction, flowing into the twisted humanoid's body.
The twisted humanoid, originally just the height of a man, rapidly expanded, becoming a giant over twenty feet tall in the span of a single breath.
At the sa mont, Yang An and the others sensed sothing and looked behind them.
In a distant valley outside the city, a massive amount of black liquid was also beginning to converge and flow toward them.
A terrifying aura suddenly erupted from the twisted humanoid.
Oppressive, putrid, and deathly still!
"It doesn't want to let us leave! Stop it!"
Heart suddenly shouted.
As the one who had summoned the Xian, he seed to be able to understand its words.
If they allowed it to absorb all of this black liquid, none of them would be its match, let alone be able to escape.
The mont he spoke, everyone sprang into action.
A phantom infant, even larger than the twisted humanoid, suddenly appeared behind it. It let out a piercing wail that felt sharp enough to pierce their eardrums.
The giant phantom infant lunged, wrapping its arms around the twisted humanoid and opening its mouth to devour it.
But as it took a bite, consuming more than half of the twisted humanoid's body, the phantom infant was instantly stained by a substance like black ink. It let out an even more piercing wail and then abruptly exploded.
The black liquid ultimately returned to the twisted humanoid's body, but the infant phantom was completely gone.
At the sa ti, a jet of white fla erupted from beneath the twisted humanoid, instantly engulfing it.
Countless figures seed to appear within the white flas, tangling with the twisted humanoid and trying to bind it firmly.
Heart's body abruptly swelled, transforming into a monster over ten feet tall.
It was topped by a massive head with a single, enormous eye. Its limbs were short and stubby, and a dense network of veins bulged from its head, writhing and interweaving like earthworms.
The One-Eyed creature's eye opened. Countless mystic runes seed to be inscribed upon the massive eyeball, and corresponding runes simultaneously appeared all over the twisted humanoid's body.
Yang An wasn't idle either. He imdiately activated the Great Brightness Buddha Golden Zen Spell. A massive amount of Golden Radiance ford into sharp spikes that pierced the twisted humanoid's body, instantly turning it into a hedgehog of golden light.
But at that mont, the Bow Lady's voice suddenly sounded in Yang An's mind.
"You little brat! That's a handso man! Quick, find a way to let eat it!"
"A handso man? Its soul is filthy?"
Yang An imdiately understood the Bow Lady's aning. The soul of this so-called Xian had to be incredibly foul for her to call it a "handso man."
But the Bow Lady's next reply was completely unexpected.
"It doesn't have a soul. It's just a soulless vessel. But inside its body are at least several hundred handso n! Quick! Find a way to let eat it!"
If the Bow Lady were human, she would probably be drooling with greed right now.
"...I'll do my best."
Yang An nodded.
Until now, none of them had been able to sense any Cultivation Level aura from the twisted humanoid, making it impossible to know if it was strong or weak. He had initially thought the creature possessed so Magic Technique to conceal its aura.
But now, after hearing what the Bow Lady said, he realized this thing wasn't a single being at all, but rely a vessel containing many souls.
His conversation with the Bow Lady took place in a single breath, but in that ti, the twisted humanoid—engulfed in white flas, controlled by countless mystic runes, and pierced by innurable golden spikes—suddenly expanded once more.
At the sa ti, a flood of black liquid converged from all directions, about to rge into its body.
Just then, several more phantom infants appeared. They blocked the path in front of the twisted humanoid, letting out a series of wails that actually held back the black liquid, preventing it from advancing another inch.
"Don't let it absorb any more of that stuff!"
Everyone clearly knew that if they allowed it to rge with the black liquid, it would only beco more terrifying. They needed to end this fight quickly.
"I'll finish it!"
White Bird shouted. As the one with the highest Cultivation Level among them, she instantly erupted in a massive torrent of white flas.
The flas engulfed her, lting her body away until only her head remained.
In an instant, the flas transford into a giant hand that shot out and seized the twisted humanoid, gripping it tightly. It then unleashed a world-ending torrent of white-hot fire, attempting to lt the creature completely.
The attack was so powerful that even Yang An was stunned just by watching. Its might was likely no weaker than him simultaneously unleashing three of his own Light Magic Techniques at full power.
The twisted humanoid, enveloped in the white flas, contorted even more violently, looking as if it might lt at any mont.
But, to everyone's astonishnt, countless human faces suddenly appeared within the twisted humanoid.
Every single face opened its mouth wide and devoured all of the white flas that White Bird had unleashed!
In the blink of an eye, the raging inferno was swallowed by those faces, and the twisted humanoid expanded once again.
The countless mystic runes that had covered its body also vanished without a trace.
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