Headless Immortal

Chapter 33 The mysterious altar attracts monsters

Three legs are indeed different.

Zhao Jia had never seen such a monster before.

It retains the pure nature of a demon, yet seems to have learned human etiquette, still remaining open and honest.

It looked like a black cat less than four feet tall, but Zhao Jia always felt that a three-legged creature should be the real great monster.

Strange things often happen in the world, and who can truly understand them all?

There are advantages to being muddle-headed.

The sun sets in the west.

The group ate their meal hastily.

Zhao Jia led the people to set up the altar.

The altar is made of yellow earth, three feet high, and is protected according to the five elements and directions.

On the altar, a tall banner was slowly unfurled, fluttering in the evening breeze. The Five Gods painted on it were so lifelike that they seemed as if they would jump out of the picture at any moment.

The incense burner, shaped like a small tripod, stood before the image of the True Spirit, covered with a thick layer of incense ash made of a mixture of coarse and fine sand.

The red felt was weighed down with freshly sun-dried yellow soil.

"It's even more impressive than the execution platform." The short man crossed his arms and looked at the soldiers coming and going.

The brothers did not participate in the construction of the altar, not because of preferential treatment or laziness, but because they had more important things to do, so they needed to conserve their energy and should not move around too much.

As for what that matter is?
You could tell from the hurried manner of the soldiers and bricklayers that they were afraid of being chosen and kept on.

Zhuangzi held a large porcelain bowl, on which coarse grain flatbread and brown rice were piled high. He scooped them out with a wooden spoon and ate them.

Seeing the smaller man's expression, the burly man spread out his wooden spoon: "Here!"

"You can eat it yourself." The little guy smiled helplessly. It wouldn't be bad to die a full ghost on the road to the underworld.

This wasn't him cursing Zhuangzi, but rather he clearly understood the gap between them and the Five Gods. If it weren't for Sanjiao's desperate intervention last time, they would have been digested and left on the mountain ridges and cliffs by the Five Gods.

"This time, Zhuangzi is well-fed and wearing heavy armor, he's not useless!" Zhuangzi pounded his armor.

"We're just lackeys there to boost morale; the outcome will depend on those two and a half."

The smaller one had his nails slightly loosened.

Big Mouth looked around and asked, "Why is there still half left?"

“General Gao, the Demon Suppression Captain, counts as one, the three-legged one, and the leader counts as half, so it’s not two and a half.”

"If you're just a lackey, why are you still clinging on?"

The little man was startled by the voice, looked in the direction of the sound, and exclaimed in surprise, "Why is the old man here instead of recuperating at home?"

The speaker was none other than Lao Cheng, whom we hadn't seen in a long time. Since being seriously injured in the last bandit suppression operation, Lao Cheng had been recuperating, and he was out again after only a few days.

Old Cheng didn't take it seriously and continued to puff on his pipe: "Two taels of silver for nothing. I'd rather die on the battlefield than give up my old life. Magistrate Lü personally promised that whoever can kill the Five Gods will be rewarded with one hundred taels of silver."

"Hey, you still want to earn that hundred taels?"

Everyone knows that this hundred taels of silver already belonged to someone else; it was a bounty that the master had pulled out to curry favor with the Demon Suppression Captain.

While the group was chatting, the altar was already completed.

dusk.

It was not yet dusk.

County Commandant Lei Ji chewed on a flatbread while fifty soldiers ate their meal in silence.

The first two rows were dressed in heavy black armor, while the back row wore light brown armor. There were ten powerful crossbows and twenty archers with bows and arrows slung across their shoulders. They were the most elite soldiers in the entire Meilan County, and also the foundation of his position as county magistrate.

Among them were his nephews, nieces, and godsons, all from respectable families.

When he last raided the river bandits, he only took half of them with him, leaving the other half in the county town to provide support.

This time, to hunt monsters, he brought his entire crew.

"Third Master, everything has been arranged." Constable Zhou Liang was among those present.

He has to come.

Although the tax silver was lost in the hands of everyone, he was actually in charge of escorting it. The raid on Qingquan Temple was only delayed a little. Only by recovering the tax silver could he atone for his crime.

"Lying in a civilian's house."

Lei Ji divided his fifty soldiers into five squads of ten, and they ambushed the surrounding houses, waiting for the Five Gods to appear so that they could quickly surround the mansion.

……

The moon rises above the treetops.

The courtyard was painted a solid white.

After bathing and changing clothes, Zhao Jia held three sticks of incense in his hands, each about the thickness of a thumb, and the sparks drifted down to gleaming ashes.

Zhao Jia walked slowly to the incense burner, bowed and inserted the tall incense sticks into it, then looked up at the leaping ape-like monster that was stirred by the gentle breeze.

He licked his lips, suppressing the pounding in his heart, and with a trembling voice, he chanted: "May the Five Lords manifest their power and spirit."

"The devout believer Zhao Jia respectfully requests the request of Master Wutong!"

The eight strongmen buried in the eight directions of the courtyard held their breath in tension.

silence.

Every breath felt so long.

...Fog,
Arrived as scheduled.

The courtyard was flooded like mercury, as if one were in a dreamlike illusion. In the dim light, a handsome man in a purple robe stepped through the clouds and descended to the mortal world.

"Do it!"

Each of the eight strongmen grabbed a corner and pulled hard, trying to pull out the iron net hidden under the dry yellow soil. However, the eight men suddenly stumbled and fell, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't pull the iron net out.

By the moonlight, one could see that the dry yellow soil had long since turned into a muddy field with flowing water.

The purple-robed man in the hazy mist grinned, tearing off the illusion on his body to reveal his true demonic form.

"Roar!"

The monster roared angrily.

The clouds above suddenly gathered, making a rustling sound.

A swish sound.

The mist condensed into water and fell into the courtyard, barely reaching above the ankles.

The Five Gods opened their arms.

The moon shines brightly in the sky, and the water on the ground is like frost.

Crows cawed overhead, dropping pebbles that tinkled and disappeared into the shallow water.

Flames were lit, and armored soldiers lined up around the compound. The gate was smashed open, with heavy armored soldiers at the front, followed by crossbows and twenty fully drawn bows.

"put!"

Lei Ji shouted.

Arrows rained down, and powerful crossbow bolts chased after stars and the moon.

Wutong God remained fearless. With a sudden movement of his rough, hairy hand, he created a large mud shield from the shallow water and yellow soil on the ground, blocking Wutong God's path.

The arrow shot from the longbow became stuck inside and could not move.

The crossbow was powerful enough to penetrate the mud and water barrier, but it lost its power after breaking through the mud shield and could not harm the Five Gods at all.

Lei Ji's eyes nearly popped out.

Wu Tong Shen took three steps in two, and two steps in one, heading straight for Zhao Jia.

Last time, a believer dared to smash his clay sculpture, and a cat monster even gave him a minor injury. Although it didn't hurt him, it enraged him. He wanted to kill the person who had mocked him to maintain the authority of a preacher.

"Where to go!"

Zhuangzi roared and raised his knife to block.

Bang.

The armored strongman was sent flying backward and crashed into the courtyard wall.

This time he was able to get up, but he was too unsteady to walk.

call out!
Light and shadow overlapped in an instant, making it impossible to distinguish whether it was moonlight, a cold shadow, or perhaps the wind.

Wutong Shen glanced at him sideways.

It turned out to be sword light.

stab.

The Five Gods, who had raised their hands to block, suddenly jumped back, their drooping arms tearing open a gash in their skin.

He turned to step onto the rooftop through the mist, but just as he stood up, a thick, wild beast's claw swept across the sky, and the Five Gods, without any support, fell from mid-air.

I looked up.

A magnificent tiger with piercing eyes and a white forehead is perched on the eaves.

They were watching intently under the moonlight.

The Five Gods recognized the tiger monster.

He was a defeated opponent, and was almost beaten to death by him.

The gilded beast's eyes moved back and looked at the swordsman who had severed his arm.

Gao Qingzhi, the Demon-Suppressing Captain with a leopard-like head and piercing eyes, wearing a dark blue floral battle robe, held a crystal-clear sword.

The sword looked as if it were pieced together from jade and polished together. It gleamed coldly under the moonlight, and the bloodstains on it slowly slid off, as if no blood would remain to corrode the sword.

Gao Qingzhi grinned maliciously: "Fly kites!"

The little one quickly launched the paper kite he had made.

Strange.

The two-foot-long kite swelled in the wind, and in the blink of an eye, it covered the entire courtyard, like a celestial dog swallowing the bright moon, leaving only a shadow that caused panic.

"You beast, your deeds have been exposed."

Gao Qingzhi took a steel knife and cut off the neck of the black-crested rooster.

The chicken blood flowed directly into the shallow water on the ground.

"It can't run away!"

Lei Ji was overjoyed and ordered his soldiers to block the gate.

Zhao Jia, having torn open his outer robe to reveal his inner armor, gripped his broadsword and gradually approached.

(End of this chapter)