Chapter 56: Bliss
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The call to the Special Affairs Bureau went through.
The female customer service representative on the other end of the line spoke in a delicate voice, "This is Yin City Red Star Organic Fertilizer Co., Ltd., your go-to for purchasing fertilizer. How may I assist you?"
Li Ang roared, "Maple Road in the northern city slums, hurry!"
The customer service representative's voice became instantly stern, "Could you please describe in detail what exactly happened, so we can dispatch the police force according to the situation..."
"At least a Lv7 threat, look at the satellite map yourself." Li Ang cut off the customer service representative mid-sentence and hung up the call.
Armed with the weapon of dialectical materialism, Li Ang didn't ponder Zou Zhengze's words too much, as the information he had was far too scant to draw any objective conclusions.
Whether Zou Zhengze's theory of rebirth was true or false, right or wrong, objective or radical, wasn't important in this time and place.
Above the slum area, dark clouds brooded, thick and swirling like a whirlwind, stirring up a howling gale that lifted the dirty water, sand, stones, garbage, and even entire chunks of concrete walls and rooftop floors into the swirling black clouds.
Even some children who stuck their heads out of windows were swept up by the strong winds, but luckily they were pulled back into the homes by their parents holding onto their wrists and ankles, pushing against the walls.
Cries of panic rose and fell in waves, and Zou Zhengze, standing beneath the whirlwind, wore a look of unwillingness to bear witness. He waved his hand, summoning a high-speed stream of Demonic Qi, shredding Li Ang's thrown Battle Axe to pieces from several meters away.
Though he had only lived here for a few months, he had grown deeply attached to these simple people.
Old Zhang, who was bedridden with silicosis and depended on his wife, Old Chen, who lost an arm in a factory machine, Granny Luo, who was abandoned by her children because of leukemia and had to survive by picking trash, Xiao Lin, a young man who was blind but supported his mildly mentally challenged parents through his massage skills, and those cheeky yet inherently good children...
They represented the bottom of the social food chain.
"People in a society that preys on its lower echelons are crude and full of spite, always thinking about revenge on society—it's so disgusting and terrifying."
"You're poor because you're lazy."
"Who told you not to study hard when you were young? You deserve to stay at the bottom for life."
"Don't blame society for your misfortune."
Thus spoke the successful individuals in the modern city, their tone filled with a detached sense of superiority.
Zou Zhengze surveyed the rundown slum, the familiar faces, the bleak lives ahead, his eyes brimming with sympathy and compassion.
"Suffering," he sighed. "For people burdened by a harsh life, there's no hope of turning things around, let alone preserving the essence of their souls for the next life.
Even humble insects cling to life, how much more should humans? Since you have no hope in this lifetime and can't bear to end your lives with your own hands, let me help you. Merge with me, and when the Six Paths of Reincarnation begin anew, we will together welcome the arrival of a new world."
Zou Zhengze opened his mouth, absorbing the decades of sorrow, desolation, and negative emotions accumulated in the slum area. His originally thin body quickly inflated to the point where his clothes tore.
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack—
Bones throughout his body were growing and extending, making crackling sounds like popping soybeans, as numerous barbarically growing bone spurs mercilessly tore through tendons, skin, and blood, exposing them to the air.
His muscles swelled and expanded, and his firm, bronze skin was covered with red and black runes filled with dirty, sinister meanings. Just one glance from Li Ang made him feel dizzy, as if he could hear the chanting of scriptures defying all that was sacred.
So powerful...
Even the Mountain Demon of Solitary Cold Temple never had such a terrifying aura.
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Li Ang's figure swiftly retreated, like a rabbit diving and a falcon landing, stopping atop a rooftop two or three buildings away; his body still quivered instinctively, and the black umbrella behind him seemed equally shaken and intimidated, trembling abruptly with fear.
Between his eyebrows, a lump of flesh throbbed and swelled until it burst through the skin, splashing pus in all directions, revealing a crimson, burning vertical pupil that surveyed this wholly unknown world with a gaze of chaos and malevolence.
The Heavenly Devil Skill was an undoubted demonic text, advocating the consumption of flesh and blood, the mastication of souls, and the nourishment of one's self.
As for the Yin Yang Dual-Demonic Path within the Heavenly Devil Skill, it embodied the purest form of selfish and greedy malice.
Zou Zhengze, a veteran player, barely began to circulate the Yin Yang Dual-Demonic Path before he felt overwhelmed, unable to maintain his human form, transforming into a three-meter-tall giant covered with osseous spurs and a third eye.
The transformation of his life's form was excruciatingly painful, but Zou Zhengze's face betrayed only tranquility and serenity, a gentle expression of compassion.
"I am known as Ksitigarbha, in this defiled Age of Dharma-Ending, among humans and in hell, I shall constantly manifest myself to save all beings and relieve them of disasters. Seeing you, elder, makes me feel as if I am in the presence of my own kind. I now go to that household, especially to protect it."
Zou Zhengze, both Buddha and demon, twiddled a black lotus fashioned from pure demonic Qi in his hand and chanted, "There is no peace in the Three Realms; they are like a house on fire. Filled with endless suffering, truly daunting and frightful, if I do not enter hell, who will?"
Once again, he began to take deep breaths.
In the slums, the bedridden workers with pneumoconiosis, the middle-aged women who ran a small business behind half-closed doors to provide for their children, the elderly scavengers abandoned by their families, the abandoned infants born with cleft lips... all felt a warm, serene breeze gently blowing over them.
Their bodies had never felt so light and healthy, their minds had never been so peaceful and joyful; the happiness of ascending to Blissful Wonderland cleared away a lifetime of sorrow and misfortune.
Is this Blissful Wonderland?
Smiling, the souls headed towards the Buddha-demon in the sky, while the silent, smiling Zou Zhengze saw the sinister scriptures on his skin slowly circulating as if ready to welcome the "guests."
"There is no place for you in this Blissful Feast," Zou Zhengze looked towards Li Ang in the distance, smiling as he spoke, "You should leave, I don't want to kill you."
He had run this slum for a long time, with yin energy and demonic Qi deeply buried like columns underground, just waiting for this moment to arrive when the circumstances were ripe. Even without Li Ang's visit, he would have absorbed all the souls of the slum's residents before the police investigating Wang Fangni's case arrived tonight.
As for the pursuit by the Special Affairs Bureau, he was not too worried; he was confident that he could rely on certain artifacts to escape capture.
Once he broke free from the encirclement, he could change his identity again, seeking those in the world who were mired in hopeless suffering to provide them with compassionate salvation and offer them a genuine hope for their next lives.
Yes, salvation. Zou Zhengze firmly believed that what he was doing was just, moral.
One must not be intimidated by the horrors of truth, for all is but an illusion,
One must not be bound by moral codes, for all is permissible,
Serving the light yet tilling in darkness, even if he were to become a demon, he still wished to be the compassionate Buddha who carries all beings out of a world as perilous as a burning house.
Li Ang clenched his teeth tightly, looking towards the shantytown outside, which was still enveloped in the silence of the night.
Special Affairs Bureau, could you possibly be any slower?!!!
"Damn it!"
Li Ang drew his black umbrella from behind him and said with a wry smile, "Looks like I'll have to face this head-on after all..."
Chai Cuiqiao's head emerged from the black umbrella, her glistening, large eyes fixed on Li Ang, "Stall for a while, back down when you must, flee when you should. You promised to buy me a cell phone."
"Buy, buy, buy, alright?" Li Ang sighed and took out the Conscienceless Cannon from his backpack slot, firing at Zou Zhengze in the air.