NOVEL NEXT Chapter 87: Funereal Fragrance
The air shifted.
The flow of the gushing tar oil from the cultivator's wounds — previously reduced to dying trickles — suddenly exploded in intensity. Such was the pressure that the summons wrapped around the well of slime burst apart instantly. A spray of high-pressure tar nearly severed Elder Jun in half. His quick reactions saved him from an untimely death, and he escaped with only his right ear cleaved off.
Half of Shao's assaulting limbs were destroyed in the resulting eruption of cutting streams, but the disciple was fast enough to retreat before more damage was sustained. One of her whirling tentacles wrapped itself around Feng's torso and pulled him to safety before he could get caught in a stray blast.
The trio fled back as they stared at the spectacle. The initial outburst was passed, but now the oil was pulling itself back together, coalescing upon the cultivator to form a massive shape. A giant blob of star-speckled essence soon took form, growing in size until its shadow took up half the stadium.
"What is this?" Feng gasped. "A transformation technique?"
The distorted voice of Shao's monstrous form spoke: "Worse. It's a summoning."
The colour of the tar changed.
Pitch-black darkness gave way to the hue of healthy skin. Two enormous arms bubbled forth from its mass, their colours lightening to that of human paleness as well. An upper torso was formed — feminine in shape and ending at the navel, where a spiral of pinkish intestines spilt out and dug themselves into the ground like roots. It was naked, bosom bare in generous proportions that led up to a slender neck.
From that elegant length of pale skin, however, what sprouted was not a head, but the starburst clusters of a giant golden chrysanthemum, inconceivably vibrant in full bloom. Such was its flourishing brilliance that the tip of its hundred petals peaked out over the open stadium roof.
The looming mountain of a female torso was born in the stadium. The soothing fragrance of mourning became pervasive, inescapable.
Elbows bent, fingers pointing upwards, the enormous humanoid brought its right hand to bear before its heart in reverence — a gesture of prayer.
A single word whispered through the stadium — coaxed from the floral winds themselves, haunting the hearts of all who heard it.
"Amituofo (阿弥陀佛)."
In all his years, few sights compared. This was Divinity on a blatant scale almost never before seen in the Outer Provinces.
Feng stared. Jun was speechless. The stadium spectators — what brave and foolish few were left — were similarly struck in paralysed horror and awe.
Only Shao — unfiltered, uncompromising, and uncouth to the extreme — was unimpressed. "Meh. I've seen bigger tits every time I stare in a mirror."
Feng choked.
Jun stumbled before whirling onto her insectoid form. "Shao, what the fuck?"
"What? It's true," the female disciple shrugged — or at least gave the vague approximation of one in her monstrous body. "You've seen them before."
"Your tits are not the size of a town hall," Elder Jun scoffed, voice a little broken by panic.
"I meant proportional, obviously," Shao countered with an easy tone. "Bet if I were the same size as that thing, I would be packing a more impressive pair."
Elder Jun laughed nervously. His arms were still stumps, but the bleeding had stopped. "Still think we can last six minutes?"
"I'm adjusting my expectations accordingly." The qi in Shao roiled. From her back, twin biomechanical barrels sprouted from her crackling flesh, each cast with the length of several metres and grafted with helical sinews within.
"I'd rather you use what little brainpower you have left in that insect head and find us an escape path," Jun replied, his qi oscillating with each breath he took.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Thinking was never my strong suit. If it were, the younger me would have never joined the Split-Headed Carnivore sect to begin with."
"Are you two always like this?" Feng chuckled, his qi rolling from panicked chaos into a more stable nervousness. "I wasn't aware you two even knew each other before today."
"We have some shared history," Shao answered, readying herself as the giant began to move. "If we survive this, I'll let you in on our sordid tale, Young Master."
The creature before them made a gesture.
The sky fell upon them, tracing slicing lines into the sand where they stood as the trio burst into motion. Jun and Feng activated their movement techniques, narrowly avoiding the rain of razor winds. Shao was less lucky, for her bulk meant that evading an attack of that scale was impossible. Still, her giant form skittled away with skin-crawling swiftness, avoiding the worst of the damage. The twin barrels of calcified bone and hollowed flesh on her back levelled their sights on the foreign summon.
Feng's ears beheld the sound of thunder as Shao's outstretched tubes of flesh cracked and flashed. A roar of unholy volume echoed across the arena. Azure projectiles flew and exploded against the flank of the giant torso, vomiting up blazing plumes of blue flames. Yet, for all their fury, they failed to so much as scratch the surface of the humanoid monster.
"This isn't a foe we can defeat!" Jun shouted, his every step fraught with danger as giant palms of solidified air dogged the ground he stood on. "Run, Young Master! In this state, it might not be able to pursue you! Shao and I will distract it while you make your escape!"
"What, you aren't even going to ask me first if I agree to this?" Shao's distorted voice was nearly swallowed by a gust of screaming wind. Ghostly figures clung to her form as if trying to slow her down. Their reverberating wails seemed to be causing chunks of Shao's armour and flesh to sludge off.
"Well, aren't you?!" Jun screamed back, his voice laced with pain as his right leg was pulverised by invisible pressures. He only survived because Feng summoned a flock of flaming doves to intercept the incoming strikes. Their self-sacrifice upon the descending palms brought the Elder precious time.
For some inexplicable reason, the giant chrysanthemum woman had yet to attack the Young Master.
"Of course I am!" Shao yelled in reply as her twin barrels let loose another volley. This time, the projectiles were aimed at the intestine-like roots of the monster's lower body. They detonated with a cluster of acidic splash, hissing away as the bile ate at the pinkish stems ineffectively. "Lianshi will kill me anyway if I flee and he dies. But it would have been nice of you to ask me anyway!"
"I'm not leaving you two!" Feng shouted as he dashed across the field with an activation of his movement technique. His glaive sliced towards the ghosts clinging to Shao's form, severing them off with surgical precision. Her monstrous form immediately regained speed. Feng leapt upon her back, battling off the wailing ghost approaching her.
"Now is not the time for your idiotic selflessness, Young Master!" Jun roared as his legs hammered down against the arm of the giant. Similar to Shao's attacks thus far, they were utterly ineffective. "For once in your life, be a proper cultivator and prioritise yourself!"
"What proper cultivator?! You tell me to prioritise myself, but the two of you are literally laying your lives down for me!" Feng yelled back.
"Not really." From beneath Feng's feet, a fang-tooth maw opened up on Shao's monstrous back and spoke. "Jun and I are dead if you die anyway, so it's not really much of a choice. He is right. You need to go, or all of us will die here for nothing."
Feng gritted his teeth. The previous words of his wraith echoed in his mind once more.
That 'thing' he picked up from the swamp… It appeared he had no choice.
There was a lull in the attacks as Jun re-joined them, panting heavily as his mounting wounds began to slow him. Shao was similarly injured, with chunks of her transformed flesh peeling off.
"Are you able to distract that thing?" Feng asked the pair.
"It will not be a problem," the Elder immediately replied.
"That's a hell of a promise," Shao spoke up. "You don't even have arms, man."
"I will find a way," Elder Jun vowed. "Please escape now, Young Master."
"No," Feng said. Jun looked ready to erupt, but the Young Master interrupted him first: "Hold off the monster from me for a minute. I'll prepare something that will help us win the battle."
'Win', he had said. Not escape, not assist, but to win. The sceptical looks from Shao and Jun were clear to see.
There was no more time to debate. The winds were shifting again. Before Jun could protest, Shao made a decision for them.
"Fuck it, I'm game. We will get you that minute, Young Master." The transformed disciple readied her weapons. "Show me what the man my mistress chose is made of. C'mon, Jun. One more time into the fray."
Time had run out. Feng leapt off Shao's back as she dashed forth. Jun hesitated for a split second before cursing and following the insectoid beast into battle.
Feng sat down in a meditative stance. He blocked off sight and sound, willing himself to ignore the danger.
From deep within, he sought to call forth a thing most profane and ancient. The memories of it came back…
To a time four years ago, when his rescue of Yunjin from the Blighted Bog came to its most unexpected conclusion.