The One-Legged Dance

With a whistling roar, Peng Longteng, riding her horse, slammed heavily onto the altar, sending the marble stones on the ground flying in all directions.

Seeing that her attack had no effect, Peng Longteng frowned. She hooked her left heel, kicking the horse's flank. The horse instantly curled its hind legs and kicked toward the chicken-footed freak holding the incense burner on the left.

The figure twisted his body strangely to the left, the curtain of viscera on his face shaking violently. He avoided having his skull split open by the hoof.

But at that moment, he suddenly felt the heavy rain above him stop. As he quickly looked up, he saw the ten-foot-tall woman had already swung her massive halberd, its blade already descending upon his face.

With a sharp flick of his hands, the low table and incense burner in his grip were tossed into the air. Just as he freed up his hands to engage Peng Longteng, he heard a whistling sound from behind.

It was Li Huowang, wielding three swords, attacking from the rear. He and Peng Longteng were closing in from both sides, aiming for a quick kill to take down the one performing the ritual.

Just as both sides were about to strike, the curtain of viscera on the chicken-footed man's face bulged violently. The flesh-curtain split open down the middle, revealing a vertical, savage beast-maw that lunged toward Peng Longteng's face.

As the monstrous jaws were about to sink into Peng Longteng's face—tattooed with the words Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty—the murderous glint in her eyes flared. She opened her own mouth wide and bit back at the face before her.

The moment she locked him in place, Peng Longteng reversed the grip on her halberd and swung it at his body with a blurring speed.

The man's body shrank sharply. With a sudden lift, his single yellow chicken's foot stomped directly onto the halberd's blade. A sound of metal striking metal rang out. Clang! Clang! Clang-clang-clang!!

Facing the thousand-catty halberd, his chicken foot proved no less sharp or hard. Flesh and blood met metal and emerged completely unscathed.

Using the force of the impact, the chicken-footed freak twisted in midair, dodging the combined assaults of Li Huowang and Peng Longteng, buying himself a moment of safety.

Once he landed steadily, his hands reached out and caught the low table and incense burner he had tossed into the air. He resumed the bizarre, grotesque dancing ritual offering incense to the massive statue beside him.

"Fuck your pretentious crap!" Peng Longteng, half her face missing, spat out a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva. The next moment, her entire body was engulfed in scorching flames, and the armor she wore began to glow a dull red from the heat.

"Hyah!" Peng Longteng charged at the chicken-footed man, her halberd now wreathed in flames.

The opponent was clearly tenacious. Even facing Peng Longteng, who was now a pillar of fire, he held his ground without issue.

The rain continued to fall as the two fought a bitter stalemate in the downpour.

When they briefly separated, he slowly took a step back and placed the incense burner and low table on the ground. A low, growling sound—like a beast protecting its food—came from behind his viscera-curtain. His chicken foot spread open, its claws digging into the ground like rivets, scraping backward with a piercing shriek.

With a howl that rose to the heavens, a crippled old jackal suddenly appeared from nowhere. It leaped onto the man's back, its long, thin front paws firmly gripping his shoulders.

Then, the jackal behind him joined him in a cacophony of wails. Invisible things began to emerge from all directions, drilling into his body one after another.

As they burrowed in, his clothes ballooned rapidly, with various animal faces pressing out from beneath the fabric. The cloth strips protruding from his body pulsed like blood vessels.

His entire form became grotesquely twisted, and he began to exude the kind of primal, hair-raising dread of a forest beast.

Peng Longteng naturally wasn't about to let him power up. Just as his aura was about to peak, the halberd spun through the air with a whistling howl and smashed toward him.

Just as the chicken-footed man prepared to counter, the ground beneath him collapsed, throwing him off balance.

Before he could steady himself, an ominous purple-tasseled sword suddenly burst up from the smooth marble floor at his feet.

He lifted his right foot to stomp on the sword. But something else came out of the earth along with it—a crack that constantly spewed strange fluids.

His mutated, beast-claw-like chicken foot stomped directly into the crack. The next moment, most of his body was dragged into the Great Qi.

A mess of deformed entrails and blood spilled everywhere. No matter how powerful this thing was, there was no coming back from that. He collapsed to the ground instantly, motionless.

Li Huowang swam quickly up from the earth. Ignoring everything else, he strode over to the incense burner, swung his sword, and cleaved both the burner and the low table in two.

Seeing the white smoke in the burner gradually extinguish, Li Huowang let out a long, relieved breath.

Then he tilted his head back, glaring up at the massive, hat-wearing deity statue. "You can't get through! Your incense is broken!!"

"Li, kid! Turn around!" Peng Longteng's voice made Li Huowang spin around. "What?"

He immediately saw why Peng Longteng had called for him. A carved incense ball, still billowing white smoke, drifted out of the thin mist rising from the heavy rain.

Then, the master of the incense ball stepped out from the rain as well—another chicken-footed man, his face also covered with a curtain of stitched-together entrails. He, too, was dancing a bizarre, one-footed incense-offering dance before the massive deity statue.

Except the previous one had been hopping on both feet. This one hopped on a single foot.

Seeing this, Li Huowang's heart sank. But it wasn't over. Another chicken-footed man carrying an incense burner emerged from the rain.

This wasn't the end. It was just the beginning. One, two, five, ten—countless chicken-footed men, all hopping on one foot, emerged from the rain at an angle.

Their feet rose and fell in a dense, chaotic rhythm, splashing the water on the altar in all directions.

Watching them, Li Huowang's heart sank further and further. If these things all had the strength of the one just now, this was going to be a real disaster.

"Is the upper level clear yet?! Where are your people?! Are you all dead?!" Li Huowang shouted up at the layers upon layers of red cloth hanging overhead.

With a thump, a big-headed blade-wielding swordsman landed steadily in front of Li Huowang. He had one arm, and on his back was a hideously deformed infant with all four limbs severed.

Following him were Zhao Jiabao, whom Li Huowang had met once before, and the nun who worshipped the Double Joy God, steadily descending as well.

As they landed one after another, the two sides faced off, and the atmosphere became suffocatingly oppressive.

Though most of Li Huowang's side had arrived, they were still clearly at an overwhelming numerical disadvantage.

Sorry, the next chapter will be a bit late. Something came up today.