The Lion Dance

When he realized that all these dead sheep could have been people, he was utterly shaken.

But after the shock, new questions filled Li Huowang’s mind.

“What are they worshipping? Who are they?” These two questions kept circling in his head.

He desperately needed to figure this out. If a cult like this was still deeper in the cave, he’d have to reconsider whether it was worth the risk to keep going. The Black Tai Sui was worth taking a risk for, but it wasn’t worth dying for.

After learning all this, Sun Baolu spoke up. “Senior Brother Li, this isn’t right. Look at how the sheep, cow, and pig heads are placed on the platter—they’re arranged backwards. These offerings are being given to the dead sheep.”

“They’re not worshipping a god? They’re worshipping these sheep?”

Frowning, Li Huowang stood nearby, his gaze flickering back and forth between the offerings and the dead sheep.

“Is it for a Sheep God? Old Sun, do you people of Qingqiu have a sheep immortal?” Gouwa asked from the side.

“Sheep are livestock. Why would we worship livestock as gods? That’s not our way in Qingqiu.”

When he heard this, all the factions Li Huowang had encountered flashed through his mind.

The lecherous Buddha of Zhengde Temple. The suffering Bashe of the Ao-Jing Sect. The rotting Bodhisattva of Anci Nunnery.

A sudden spark of insight lit up his mind, and the words poured out before he could stop them.

“I get it. They’re not worshipping the sheep. The sheep are just props they need to manifest what they’re actually worshipping. They’re worshipping death—worshipping death itself!”

“Huh?” The others clearly didn’t follow.

They didn’t understand, but Li Huowang did.

He stood on top of the great cauldron, once again looking down at the sheep corpses below.

Some entity had herded hundreds of people—maybe thousands—into this place, and turned them into sheep. The ones who failed were cast aside. The ones who succeeded were gathered together and killed all at once.

The moment these sheep died was the start of their worship. They weren’t worshipping the sheep. They were worshipping the deaths of these sheep.

As he pieced together each detail, he felt he fully understood the behavioral logic of the entities that had done this.

Beneath Qingqiu, there wasn’t just a mess of random evil spirits. There was a religion that worshipped death itself!

And to make it worse, Li Huowang didn’t even know if the things that believed in this religion were human or something else.

From what he’d seen before, if they worshipped death, then they definitely had some kind of power over it. Just thinking about it was enough to tell him how dangerous they were.

Once he fully grasped what this meant, Li Huowang tensed up and looked at the others.

“Go. You all get out first. This is no longer just a matter of evil spirits!”

With that, Li Huowang started leading everyone back toward the entrance. But they had barely taken a few steps when—

Clack. Clack. Clack.

A wooden knocking sound abruptly rang out.

Startled, Li Huowang immediately gripped his sword hilt, scanning the darkness around them.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

The sound of wood striking wood carried a melody, echoing from every direction. The overlapping echoes made it impossible for Li Huowang to tell where it was coming from.

Without knowing where the enemy was, he didn’t dare rush blindly, afraid of crashing right into it.

Gritting his teeth, Li Huowang’s ears twitched slightly as he focused all his energy on pinpointing the source of the sound.

As the noise grew closer, his sharp hearing finally paid off. He locked onto the direction.

“Found it! It’s… above us!”

Li Huowang jerked his head up, looking toward the pitch-black ceiling. He quickly raised the luminous stone in his hand and hurled it straight toward the sound.

The stone wedged itself firmly into a crevice in the ceiling. In an instant, a human face—bigger than a round table—suddenly appeared before them in the sickly green glow.

It was a man’s face, utterly flat and featureless. His skin was deathly pale, his mouth wide open. His pupils, the size of lantern holes, were a mix of red and white, staring down at Li Huowang.

Behind the man’s neck, there was no torso or limbs—just a long, caterpillar-like body. Countless hands of various sizes pushed outward, straining the white cloth that covered it.

Li Huowang also found the source of the unceasing wooden knocking. It was coming from inside that long, cylindrical body.

That strange sound immediately reminded Li Huowang of what he had seen at Woman Mountain.

“Is this the lion dance from the Lion Dance Palace? No… this isn’t any lion dance. Which lion dance uses a flat, dead human face instead of a lion’s head?!”

“Was it them? Did they pull off that grand sacrificial ceremony just now? Is it not the Lion Dance Palace, but the Death Dance Palace?”

But no matter what it was, seeing that huge, wriggling mass clinging to the cave ceiling, Li Huowang couldn’t just pretend he hadn’t seen it. He decided to try making contact first.

After a moment’s thought, Li Huowang spoke slowly. “Masters of the Lion Dance Palace, I, Xuan Yang, offer my greetings. I am merely passing through your esteemed territory with no intention of causing offense. Matters of urgency have brought me here.”

In the blink of an eye, he had come up with a new excuse.

“I am currently refining a pill and require a Black Tai Sui as an ingredient. I heard one might be found in these parts, so I came to look. If you, masters, could help me find one, I would be heavily indebted to you!”

Never mind how he would repay them later—Li Huowang had said his piece. Now it was up to them to respond.

But to his surprise, the lion-dancer just hung there from the ceiling, saying nothing at all. It made no move, as if it were nothing more than a stone lion statue.

“What does it mean? Are the lion-dancers all from Qingqiu, so it doesn’t understand me?”

Thinking this, Li Huowang turned and instructed Sun Baolu to say it again in the Qingqiu dialect.

Just as Sun Baolu started speaking, Li Huowang’s entire body suddenly tensed. Sensing danger, he instinctively lunged to the left.

But it was already too late. A sharp pain shot through his back, and a tremendous force slammed him sideways, sending him flying.

“I was ambushed. The lion on the ceiling was just bait!”

Realizing this, Li Huowang crashed heavily into the darkness. When he scrambled back up and reached to feel his body, he found he wasn’t actually wounded.

“What…?” He subconsciously reached back to touch his spine.

When his fingers brushed against the Thousand Greats Record embedded under his skin, he understood. The Record had taken the hit for him.

The process of burying the Record under his skin had been agonizing, but at least now it served as a thick layer of armor on his back.

A flicker of relief crossed Li Huowang’s face, but it vanished just as quickly. There was no time to dwell on that. Leaning on his cane, he rushed back toward the others.

He saw what had attacked him. It was another lion dancer, identical to the one on the ceiling except for its flat face—a woman’s face, with blood-red lips and black pupils!

Thank you to our盟主 Li Chou the Great for the 100,000 Qidian coin tip!

(End of Chapter)