As night fell, it began to drizzle in Luoyang. The flames in the city continued to burn, and cries could be heard from afar.
Lu Xu left the Ten Mile River and walked through the city. He saw a person under the roof, half of his body burnt to a crisp. He was moaning in pain, and his body emitted a black aura that rose into the sky.
"Shh." Lu Xu knelt on one knee and pressed one hand on the burnt man's forehead. He chanted an incantation in a low voice, and his face seemed to glow with white light. The burnt man closed his eyes and closed his blood-red mouth, becoming a peaceful corpse.
Suddenly, an arrow flew past his ear, and the sound of a door collapsing came from behind him. Lu Xu turned around and saw a rebel soldier drop his sword and press down on the arrow in his throat. He turned his head again and saw Mo Rigen standing across the street. The bowstring that he had just released was still humming, and he maintained his posture of releasing an arrow.
Lu Xu did not reply. He turned around and walked through the ruined streets of Luoyang. There were corpses everywhere in the alleys, and there were also people who were still breathing. Luoyang had become a ghost town.
Two monks were offering prayers for the dead at the corner of the street when the sound of horse hooves came from behind them. The rebel soldiers rushed over, and with a wave of their swords, a monk's head fell to the ground. The other monk had a rope wrapped around his neck and was forcefully pulled, causing him to fall to the ground. He was dragged along for the fun of it.
Lu Xu was instantly enraged. He chased after them, but a shadow flashed past him. Mo Rigen shot two consecutive arrows, killing the rebel soldier. Lu Xu hurriedly chased after him and used his dagger to cut the rope and save the monk.
"Master?" Lu Xu hurriedly asked.
The monk was knocked unconscious. Lu Xu hurriedly carried him to the side and massaged his philtrum. Mo Rigen followed and handed over a water bag, indicating for him to drink.
Lu Xu only wanted to go far away, but saving people was more important. He could only take Mo Rigen's water and feed it to the monk.
"Leave through the South Gate." Lu Xu said. "Don't stay here. Hurry, we won't be able to save you next time."
The monk sighed and recited the name of Buddha before walking away from the mountain of corpses.
Mo Rigen said, "You hurt me. Can you take a look?" He turned his face to show Lu Xu the wound on his face.
Lu Xu did not answer. He turned around and left. Mo Rigen followed him from a distance.
"Get lost!" Lu Xu turned around and shouted at Mo Rigen.
Mo Rigen said, "Elder Shi, are you happy that you're going to be my target?"
Lu Xu really wanted to slap him, but Mo Rigen said again, "Fight? You'll be happy. "
In the blink of an eye, Lu Xu turned into a gust of wind and pounced on Mo Rigen. Mo Rigen did not fight back, he allowed Lu Xu to trip him and fall backward. His back landed on the ground first, neutralizing the momentum and avoiding the back of his head. Lu Xu pounced on him, the dagger in his hand aimed at Mo Rigen's eyes.
Mo Rigen just looked at the dagger quietly. Lu Xu nailed the dagger to the ground, exhausted.
Mo Rigen said, "What happened just now, you ruined everyone's good mood."
"What does it have to do with me?" Lu Xu replied coldly. "You asked for it."
Mo Rigen said, "I have something for you. It's here." He pointed to his chest and said, "Take it yourself."
Lu Xu wanted to get up, but Mo Rigen grabbed his hand and said angrily, "What do you want? Elder Shi and Hongjun are both back! There should be a limit to your temper! "
Lu Xu shouted at Mo Rigen, "Nothing! Who ever promised you anything? So what if Elder Shi is back? Do I have to go along with you? "
Mo Rigen just looked at Lu Xu without saying anything. After a while, he reached for his chest, but Lu Xu blocked his hand.
"I don't want it!" Lu Xu said angrily. "You can keep it for yourself!"
Mo Rigen was at his wit's end. He said, "Slap me. Come on, slap me. Slap me a few times. "
Lu Xu said, "You think I don't dare?"
Lu Xu sat on Mo Rigen and slapped him twice. Mo Rigen didn't resist.
"Is that enough?" Mo Rigen said. "Is that enough? Are you still angry? "
Lu Xu didn't say anything. He just stared at Mo Rigen, his eyes red.
Mo Rigen pointed to his chest again, motioning for Lu Xu to take something.
"I really don't want it." Lu Xu said, "It's just that … my heart feels stuffy. I don't know why either."
Indeed, when he heard Li Jinglong's plan, Lu Xu suddenly felt very sorry for Hongjun. Although Hongjun didn't know that Mo Rigen was the one who was supposed to activate the energy of the ley lines.
But this way, Mo Rigen could be burned to death by the powerful energy, and it wouldn't be of any help to An Lushan. Letting Li Jinglong go was the best outcome.
Lu Xu left Mo Rigen and turned to walk down the street. Mo Rigen straightened up and reached into his chest. He took out a brocade pouch and chased after him.
"What's wrong with you now?" Mo Rigen said.
"If Elder Shi doesn't come." Lu Xu tried to calm his trembling voice and said, "You're the one who's going to assassinate An Lushan, right?"
"Yes." Mo Rigen answered straightforwardly.
Lu Xu turned around and looked at Mo Rigen.
"I was." Mo Rigen said, "If Elder Shi is locked in the pagoda and doesn't come out, I'll go tomorrow. Before I go, I want to have a good talk with you."
Lu Xu looked at Mo Rigen's bright eyes in the dark night, but there was a hint of loneliness in those eyes. For a moment, he didn't know how to answer.
"Talk about what?" Lu Xu said.
"Let's talk about us."
Mo Rigen handed the brocade pouch to Lu Xu.
Lu Xu looked up at him, then at the brocade pouch, then back at him. The two looked at each other in silence for a moment.
Luoyang City. A gust of wind blew. The dark clouds dispersed, and the moonlight shone on Luoyang City.
There were corpses on both sides of the street. Lu Xu walked among the corpses and walked towards Mo Rigen. The scene was like a purgatory of blood. Blood flowed along the corpses on the street. Every step he took left a purple-black footprint.
"Elder Shi taught me." Mo Rigen said, "You just have to say, 'Tonight, Chang' an is beautiful. 'You'll understand. But I … really can't say it. "
Lu Xu suddenly stopped in his tracks. After a moment of silence, antlers appeared on his forehead. His long robe fluttered in the air, bringing with it the light of the moon.
Suddenly, the moonlight was like a silver waterfall, covering the sky and covering the earth. The corpses piled up like mountains on the street emitted bursts of black gas. They rose into the sky and merged with the rolling dark clouds.
Lu Xu said, "All living beings have Buddha nature."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Xu put his palms together. In an instant, the light of the silver moon spread out. The black gas on the corpses on the street turned into specks of light and rose into the sky.
Mo Rigen hurriedly followed Lu Xu. He also put his palms together and stood tall. The Grey Wolf and the White Deer stood facing each other. The power of dawn and dusk revolved around them. The souls of the mortals who had died unjustly in the war were sent to the heavens in the dusk.
Lu Xu opened his eyes in the splendor of the sky. He raised his eyebrows at Mo Rigen but didn't say anything. The movement of his eyebrows spoke louder than a thousand words.
Finally, the surroundings returned to silence. The thousands of wronged souls had been purified by Lu Xu's power of nightmares. Dark clouds covered the sky, and the moonlight dimmed once again.
Mo Rigen understood. He looked into Lu Xu's eyes and replied, "You are spiritual. You are the Deer King in front of the Buddha. I am but a wild beast in the mountains. Following me will be a waste to you."
"It's good that you know." Lu Xu mocked him mercilessly.
Mo Rigen handed over the brocade pouch again and said, "If you don't mind, please accept it. It's a token of my appreciation."
Lu Xu had been waiting for these words. He looked up at Mo Rigen. At that moment, he seemed to have many things to say to him, but felt that there was no need to say anything.
He took the brocade pouch. Mo Rigen pointed to the side of his face, indicating that he should look at the wound on his face.
"Okay, okay." Lu Xu said, "I've already accepted it. What else do you want?"
"Open it and take a look?" Mo Rigen said.
Suddenly, the ground shook, and a roar sounded. The long street tilted strangely. Mo Rigen lost his balance and suddenly slid towards Lu Xu.
"Be careful!" Lu Xu shouted.
Mo Rigen quickly grabbed Lu Xu and jumped to the side of the street. He reached out and grabbed the doorframe of a house. The two of them hung on the doorframe. The entire long street tilted steeper and steeper, as if there was an invisible hand from the depths of the earth pushing the ground up!
Lu Xu's eyes were filled with shock. Mo Rigen immediately said, "Don't speak! Look down! "
Lu Xu looked down and saw a huge demonic beast crouching at the end of the long street. It opened its huge mouth and let out a roar. The demonic beast had the head of a lion and the body of a dog. Its eyes were the size of car wheels. It let out a few more roars and opened its bloody mouth, revealing sharp teeth.
As the long street tilted, the corpses on the street continued to slide down, one after another, into the demonic beast's mouth. When the demonic beast opened its mouth, it actually covered the width of the street. It swallowed more and more corpses, swallowing all of them.
Then, the demonic beast closed its mouth, turned around, and left. The long street tilted back again, returning to its original state.
Lu Xu and Mo Rigen looked at each other, their eyes full of shock.
"Let's go and take a look." Mo Rigen said, and then turned into the Grey Wolf. Lu Xu put away the brocade pouch, mounted the Grey Wolf's back, and followed the demonic beast.
Every time the demonic beast reached the end of a street, it would let out a few roars, and every street would tilt. The corpses would slide down and be swallowed by the demonic beast. And there was more than one demonic beast! That night, there were actually eight demonic beasts that went out to eat corpses. Each of them had swallowed nearly a hundred thousand corpses in the city. They met on the main street, lined up, and hopped toward the Ming Hall in the north of the city.
The Grey Wolf climbed over the outer wall of the Ming Hall. When it reached a high place, Lu Xu leaned over and whispered in its ear, "Look."
In the middle of the Ming Hall stood three Demon Generals. They were Chao Yun, Liang Danhuo, and An Luzhuang. Behind the three of them was An Lushan whose entire body was rotten and emitting bursts of black gas!
The Grey Wolf's ears twitched. It raised its front paw, indicating that Lu Xu didn't need to say anything.
The eight demonic beasts with huge mouths stood in eight different directions outside the Ming Hall. They began to roar again and spit out the corpses one after another.
More and more human corpses were spat out, mixed with broken limbs and even heads, piling up outside the Ming Hall. Even Lu Xu, who had been fighting against the Hu invaders in the northwest all year round, had never seen so many corpses.
At that time, Luoyang had a total of two hundred thousand households and a population of nearly a million. Nearly half of them had escaped before the war began, but there were still four to five hundred thousand people stuck in the city with no way to escape. In the end, the people Li Jinglong had saved were the minority. The people who had been burned to death, shot to death, humiliated to death, and trampled to death in the city numbered at least three hundred thousand.
These eight demonic beasts searched everywhere for human corpses. Each of them sucked in nearly twenty thousand people. After they spat them out, the square in front of the Ming Hall was piled with a total of one hundred and sixty thousand corpses. This scene simply shattered Lu Xu and Mo Rigen's understanding.
After this massacre in Luoyang, one hundred and sixty thousand corpses piled up outside the Ming Hall. They practically filled the entire square. Inside the walls on all sides, there was a pool of blood that was almost three meters high. When it was spread out, it was no less than a sea of corpses!
In the eyes of the three Demon Generals, this was like pouring out a huge pool filled with fish or other animals.
"I want them alive!" Liang Danhuo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What's the use of dead ones?"
An Lushan's voice was low and hoarse as he said, "The living ones have been caught by the boys. We've already caught quite a few. They're in the back hall. I'll let you enjoy them tomorrow morning. Finish this for me first tonight. Li Jinglong won't run away so easily. He'll definitely come back. We must make ample preparations before he arrives. "
As he spoke, An Lushan slowly walked down the steps. He opened his mouth wide. His body was even more rotten than when Mo Rigen and Lu Xu saw it a year ago. It was almost unrecognizable, and looked remarkably like a mud-like demon.
An Lushan's mouth erupted with black gas. The countless corpses in the sea of corpses melted in this black gas, turning into sludge and rotten flesh. An Lushan continuously sucked them in.
The three Demon Generals each released their inner cores, which rotated above An Lushan's head. Their inner cores emitted bursts of light as they channeled their transcendence energy into An Lushan's body, helping him maintain his rotten flesh form.
Lu Xu gently tugged on the Grey Wolf's ear, making it turn its head.
The Grey Wolf turned a very small angle and saw an extremely small black shadow beside Liang Danhuo's feet.
The Carp Demon was sitting on the steps, dozing off. Not long after, a wriggling earthworm fell from the roof and hit its head.
It looked left and right and saw that An Lushan had grown quite a bit. He was greedily sucking in the corpses in the sea of corpses. The more he ate, the more corpses there were. The corpses emitted a black gas of resentment, which was all absorbed by An Lushan.
"How terrifying …" The Carp Demon muttered to itself. It then noticed the earthworm beside its feet.
"Eh?" The Carp Demon immediately reached out to grab the earthworm. However, the earthworm was too slippery. It twisted a few times on the ground before crawling into the hall.
The three Demon Generals were all concentrating on releasing their inner cores to help An Lushan cultivate. No one had the time to care about it. The Carp Demon chased after the earthworm, flipped over the threshold, and entered the Ming Hall hall.
As soon as it entered the hall, a cloth bag covered its head. Then, it was hit on the head with a stick through the cloth bag. The Carp Demon immediately fainted and was taken away.