The Unwanted Separation

Deep within a dense forest, tentacles covered in suckers and hooked barbs burst forth from Li Huowang’s left arm, wrapping tightly around a tree trunk. Another tendril erupted from his right abdomen, coiling around a second tree.

“Hold it steady! Grip tight!” Li Huowang commanded. He pulled out a short blade and began to cut slowly along the edge where the tentacle root met his skin. Thick, crimson blood, mixed with searing pain, sprayed from the wound.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. Li Huowang did not dare slack off. He drove the knife deeper into his own flesh, beginning the slow, meticulous work of separating himself from the part of him that was fused with Li Sui.

Back then, it was the Heavenly Calamity that had caused Li Sui to merge with Mantou. But he never imagined this would ever happen to him, to his own body.

Li Sui’s understanding nature had made Li Huowang completely forget that she was a creature of filth, a Black Tai Sui that could seize a person’s body for itself!

He couldn’t let Li Sui stay inside him any longer. If he did, her instincts would devour his flesh and blood, and take his body for her own.

“Hah…” Li Huowang trembled from the sheer agony. It felt as brutal as being sliced by a thousand knives. Because what was fused with Li Sui wasn’t just the external tentacles, but also the internal organs inside his body. Peeling off his own skin and scraping his bones clean could not have hurt more.

“Dad, do you hurt? Do you want a rest?” Li Sui’s voice sounded in Li Huowang’s mind.

“No!” Li Huowang shook his head forcefully, his hands continuing their work.

The rapid healing ability that Bashe had gifted him had now become a hindrance. If he didn’t do this all in one go, if he stopped halfway to rest, the wounds he had worked so hard to separate would likely fuse back together.

“Dad, it’s my fault. I’m sorry,” Li Sui’s voice carried a note of self-blame.

“It’s fine! This has nothing to do with you! Stop talking! Keep those tentacles tight! This is just a small problem! It won’t beat me! I’ll get it done soon!”

The process was incredibly difficult, no less challenging than manually separating a pair of conjoined twins.

“Amitabha. Benefactor, what… what are you doing?” When Chan Du, the abbot of the Great Qi’s Zhengde Temple, walked into the grove, he was met with an utterly bizarre sight.

That red-robed Daoist who was so hard to deal with was hanging himself in midair with a mass of tentacles, all while gripping a knife and cutting into his own flesh?

A thin stream of blood dripped from him, soaking the ground beneath him into a deep red.

Upon learning from Li Huowang what the trouble was, Chan Du pressed his palms together and bowed to him. “Amitabha. Benefactor Er, why didn’t you say so sooner? We can help.”

The hand holding the knife paused. Li Huowang stared at the old monk before him. “You? Really? Do you even know what kind of trouble I’m in?”

“Amitabha. The Ratnasambhava Buddha of the Southern Joyous Realm saves all living beings. His infinite flesh means his goodness is boundless. This body of ours is merely a stinking bag of skin. Benefactor, you are a man of great kindness. The Ratnasambhava Buddha will protect you.”

“Ratnasambhava Buddha?” Li Huowang’s brow furrowed as he studied the old monk. The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt. He asked, full of suspicion, “You don’t mean you want me to give birth to Li Sui the same way that eunuch was made to give birth, do you?”

“Ah, no, not at all. Benefactor, put your clothes on and follow me.”

Chan Du led Li Huowang, now dressed, to find the other two monks. After a brief exchange, he had Li Huowang sit cross-legged on the ground. Then the three of them circled him and began to rhythmically strike their wooden fish.

“Shi la seng he mu qie ye… Du lu du lu fa she ye di… Yi xi li…” As the three began chanting their obscure sutra, Li Huowang slowly felt a tingling sensation spread across his scalp.

When he reached up to scratch it, he was shocked to find his scalp peeling off in his hand. Then, it wasn’t just his scalp; the rest of his body began to collapse and melt as well.

Looking down at his own flesh, Li Huowang suddenly felt he understood a little bit of how the Vase-Girls were made.

Just as Li Huowang and Li Sui’s bodies began to slowly separate, Chan Du took the prayer beads from around his neck and tossed them into the indescribable mound of flesh before him.

In the next instant, a swastika shining with Buddha’s light appeared on Li Huowang’s body. The separation accelerated drastically, and soon, he was completely detached from Li Sui.

As the sound of chanting faded, Li Huowang’s form returned to its original state, but this time, Li Sui was no longer fused with him.

Li Huowang, his eye sockets empty, felt around him. “Sui Sui, give me one of your eyeballs!”

He took the eyeball passed to him by a tentacle and shoved it into his socket. The familiar world reappeared before his eyes.

Looking down, he saw his body was perfectly healed. Li Huowang couldn’t help but think to himself that the supernatural powers of Zhengde Temple, when used for the right purpose, were actually quite effective. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

“Amitabha. Benefactor Er, you are too kind. One good turn deserves another. Consider this repayment for your great merit of donating rice to us back then.”

Li Huowang walked over to Li Sui’s side. He looked at the skinned dog-like creature covered in tentacles before him. “Are you alright? Everything okay? Check to see if you’re missing anything.”

“Dad, I’m fine!” Li Sui opened her arms and hugged Li Huowang, her mouth splitting into a wide, joyful grin.

“Benefactor Er, is this a creature of filth you have subdued? Excellent. All things have spirit. Back at Zhengde Temple, there were many such creatures who took refuge in the Buddha’s teachings.”

“Took refuge in the Buddha’s teachings?” Li Huowang looked at him with some contempt. “And after taking refuge, did they help the monks in your temple with their cultivation, just like those pigs, cows, and sheep?”

Unfazed by Li Huowang’s jab, Chan Du only chuckled and spun his prayer beads. “Benefactor’s skin is not yet fully stable. Please try not to move around too much for the next few days.”

“Fine. I’ve got it.” Li Huowang picked up his belongings from the ground and turned to walk out of the woods. Chan Du and his two monks followed behind.

Since the other party had been so helpful, Li Huowang’s opinion of the man improved somewhat. “Abbot, don’t hold my earlier attitude against me. There’s also a Zhengde Temple in the Great Liang, and I have a grudge against them. It’s hard not to take it out on you.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

“I had a friend. He was a Heart-Element. But those monks were so obsessed that they insisted on keeping him. Compared to you now, their level of cultivation is still too low.”

Chan Du’s expression tightened slightly as he shook his head. “Benefactor, you are mistaken. If it were this humble monk, I would have done the same thing.”

Li Huowang’s expression hardened. “Why? Aren’t Heart-Element people human? Can they just be killed at will?”

“Amitabha. Virtue, virtue. Of course a Heart-Element is human. But for the sake of all the world’s living beings, the Heart-Element must be eliminated. Otherwise, that Heart-Element would end up killing even more people.”

“Besides, the body of a Heart-Element is full of treasures. To keep him here, to dissect him, and refine him into ritual tools would bring in rice and grain that could save so many common folk. Don’t you agree, Benefactor Er?”

Li Huowang stared at him for a long moment, then fell silent, choosing to walk on ahead without another word.