Hearing Liam's request, the elder of the Black Mist Lions was a little displeased. "The temple is my clan's holy land. How can I just take you humans there?"
Shizuku said, "Since that Leader is also wearing your necklace, he must have been to that temple more than once. He's also a human."
"He was raised by our clan and grew up listening to the stories I told—like the little lions of my clan. How can he be considered a human?" The elder said fairly. "At most, he can only be regarded as half human, half Magical Beast. Hahaha..."
"Great Elder, it's because you always say this that the kid became neurotic!"
"That's why he ran away to the mountains and never came back."
"What is a human? What is a monster? Who am I? I heard him say it multiple times..."
The surrounding Black Mist Lion tribesmen started shouting.
Liam wasn't interested in the background story of the Leader who harmed ordinary people. He directly said to the Great Elder, "Have you forgotten something? It wasn't just these two who attacked us before. There were two others. They got transported. I think they haven't come back yet, right?"
The expression of the Great Elder suddenly changed. Ryan and Rand—the two Black Mist Lions who'd led Liam and the others here—shouted, "Tibo and Harun haven't come back yet? Are they still in the temple?!"
"I'm afraid it's not that they don't want to come back, but that they can't come back." Liam said. "The little lion you raised in your mind isn't just some confused kid who talks to himself and doubts his identity. He's completely insane. He likes gouging people's eyes. He also likes to perform tricks like magic. Since he's neither human nor Magical Beast, how can he have any moral? He can be merciless to fellow humans—how do you think he'll treat two monsters delivered to his door?"
Rand clenched his fist and shouted, "Great Elder, we have to get them both back!"
"Yes, Great Elder!" The crowd grew emotional.
But some Black Mist Lions expressed confusion. "Why should we listen to what this human says? Maybe Tibo and Harun just chatted for a while after meeting Helmando in the temple?"
Only then did Liam and the others realize the Leader was originally named Helmando.
The Great Elder had a sullen face and finally said, "Ryan, Rand—you two are coming to the temple with me. You three human guests can come too."
He looked at Liam and the others.
"How do we get there?" Shizuku looked curiously at the small jade Buddha hanging around the elder's neck, pointed at it, and asked, "Use this?"
"Of course. How else would we get there?" Ryan stood beside the Great Elder.
The elder held the small jade Buddha in his hand, but Liam said, "Don't you know the way? Can we walk?"
Essi nodded secretly. It's only right to be cautious.
Who knows what the so-called teleportation ability of this small jade Buddha is? Who knows what the so-called temple is like at the other end?
Obviously unreasonable to rush into the other party's Nen ability without knowing anything about it—and without fully trusting them.
What's more, over at the temple, the two Black Mist Lions that escaped before haven't returned yet. Very likely they were caught by the Leader hiding in the temple. Those two lions might tell him what happened. The Leader would most likely already know the three of us are coming here to rescue Kurapika.
As long as the Leader's brain isn't completely broken, he shouldn't think a few of us who've mastered Nen can't deal with a few Magical Beasts.
Even if there are no traps in the Great Elder's jade Buddha teleportation, the Leader at the other end might have already designed a trap—waiting for the humans who come through to fall into an ambush where the teleportation appears.
"It's possible to walk, but it's a bit far." The Great Elder said.
"Then let's walk." Liam gestured for him to lead.
The journey was uneventful. When the scattered Black Mist Lions in other mountain ranges passed by became less and less frequent, the so-called temple wasn't far away.
After climbing over a mountain, under the stars and moonlight, the Great Elder pointed to the canyon between two mountains ahead. "The temple is at the bottom of that canyon."
Ryan and Rand's beast pupils shimmered with dark gold. Looking far into the distance, they seemed to have night vision.
"Why in a canyon again?" Liam wondered. "Does your species like this kind of terrain very much?"
The place where the Great Elder and many Black Mist Lions lived was on flat land between valleys.
"We didn't choose the place for the temple." The Great Elder smacked his lips.
Liam and the others suddenly understood.
It seems the so-called temple was built by the human who carved stone statues on the seashore hundreds of years ago—the one the old lion mentioned.
It's not even certain whether what he built under the canyon is actually a temple.
The Magical Beasts at that time may have seen the man placing the stone statue among them and thought it was a statue of a god... especially for a powerful Nen user. Yes, there's no doubt he's a master among humans. When all the imitations left for the Black Mist Lions have unique teleportation abilities, it doesn't seem surprising the Black Mist Lion clan regards them as temples and statues to worship.
A group of six quickly went down the mountain and approached the canyon between the two mountains ahead.
From a distance, Liam seemed to see the gate of a dilapidated Buddhist temple.
Then suddenly—
Billowing black mist surged in from all around, submerging everything in just an instant.
The three people and three beasts weren't far apart as they moved forward, but buried in the black mist, they couldn't see each other. Couldn't see any way forward.
Every step felt like walking on a black cloud. Always suspecting the next step would miss. Couldn't tell direction. Then came an illusion of weightlessness.
Rand lost his balance and fell to the ground, dazedly touching his lion's head.
"Thousand-Armed Tathagata, Inanimate Guanyin..."
A dreamy chanting sound came from the black mist.
"Helmando, is it you? Are you really back?" Ryan shouted in the fog. "Where are the others? Great Elder! Rand! Great Elder!"
"The Thousand-Armed Tathagata, the Inanimate Guanyin... the true Buddha's angry eyes, the blood-red world..."
Rand slashed his claws toward the direction where the chanting came from. Black fog rolled. A black figure disappeared into the distance with the chanting.
He shouted, "Great Elder! Ryan! Tibo! Harun! And humans! Humans! And... humans! Where are you all?"
Suddenly, something came toward him in the black mist.
"Thousand-Armed Tathagata, Inanimate Guanyin..."
"Okay, you know how to recite these lines, right?"
The Great Elder stood motionless in the fog, looking coldly at the black fog around him, listening to the dead silence except for the faint chanting that came from nowhere.
Finally, he said impatiently, "When you were a child, who picked you up and fed you with every mouthful of milk and meat? I told you so many stories, but in the end you only remember Tathagata and Guanyin? Where's God? Where are the angels? Where's the great legend of the thirty-six saints?"
In the billowing black mist, a black silhouette vaguely emerged, roaring angrily. "The Buddha is dead! The saints are dead!"
On the face of a black Buddha statue, a blood-red eye suddenly opened—as if weeping blood, burning with endless anger.
"Angels have broken wings. Gods are dead. This human world has no future..."
Above these blood-red eyes, another pair of equally fiery red pupils opened.
Is anyone talking?
Essi maintained Ken to ensure defense in the face of emergencies, looking at the billowing black mist around him with vigilance. What on earth is happening? Is that Leader causing trouble? He's indeed alive!
"Liam! Shizuku! Liam!" Essi shouted loudly, but no one responded. He suddenly swung his fist to the side, but only hit black mist. Nothing unusual.
Could this black mist have a hallucinogenic effect?
Disturbing my perception and judgment!
Essi wanted to take a deep breath, but worried that inhaling the black mist would worsen the situation. He was quite distressed.
After calming down for a moment, he couldn't help but be even more shocked.
How come my aura is being consumed so quickly?!
[Liam, this black mist seems to speed up aura consumption.] Shizuku's voice entered Liam's mind.
With the ring and Moon Mark, even if she and Liam couldn't see each other, it didn't affect their communication at all.
[Liam?] She was confused.
[Someone died?] Shizuku asked keenly.
[Mm...] Liam grinned and covered his chest. Just now, cold air—both cold and hot—came from the black mist and penetrated his heart inexplicably. [It's one of the two lions.]
[The Star Mark was destroyed?] Only in this way could the lion die and let Liam draw conclusions based on the Star Mark's disappearance.
[Yes. It's been a long time since I was attacked by death energy. I'm really not used to it.]
[Don't worry. It seems I haven't reached the stage where I'll transform yet...]
[Oh.] Shizuku paused, glanced at the boundless black fog around her, and listened to the faint chanting coming from the billowing black fog. [Liam, can you come to me?]
[I was thinking the same thing.] When Liam's voice appeared in Shizuku's mind, a hand lifted from the black mist and held Shizuku's delicate, cold hand.
With the Moon Mark, they could communicate regardless of the black mist.
With the Star Mark on Shizuku's body, Liam could find her with his eyes closed.
"God is dead! Buddha is dead! Saints are dead!"
"Angels break their wings, gods die, and this human world has no future!"
"Guanyin, Thousand-Armed Tathagata..."
There was a faint roar in the black mist. Liam closed his eyes and muttered, "This guy's brain really is broken. Since the Buddha is dead, why are you still calling on the Thousand-Armed Guanyin? What kind of angry look does the true Buddha have?"
The aura on Liam's body dispersed, spreading rapidly outward from the center of his feet...
Shizuku held Liam's hand with one hand, and released aura with the other—manifesting Blinky.
She waved one hand. The fangs on Blinky's head flipped and turned into a sharp-toothed chainsaw, buzzing and roaring!
"Thousand-Armed Tathagata, Inanimate..."
The Leader was still mumbling to himself. At this moment, a roar came from the thick black fog in front of him.
A delicate hand was holding a vacuum cleaner. The sharp-toothed chainsaw on its head was rapidly rotating toward the Leader.
The head that was still chanting was cut off by the chainsaw, flew up high, and rolled down to the feet of Liam and Shizuku—holding hands—with two thuds.
All the black fog around them suddenly dissipated!
Only then did Liam see clearly they'd unknowingly entered the so-called temple at the bottom of the canyon.
It was more like a Zen monastery than a temple. They were currently in its main hall, with a headless Buddha statue several meters high sitting in front of them.
The headless Buddha statue made a seal with its hands. What was held in its palms were the mummies of two Black Mist Lions—the two that had attacked Liam and the others before teleporting. Their withered dead faces had expressions of disbelief. The small jade Buddha necklaces hung on their necks, shaking gently.
Embarrassed, Essi pulled his fist out from the monastery wall and looked around as if nothing had happened.
The Great Elder fell to the ground, exhausted.
Ryan's legs were similar to the two mummified Magical Beasts in the palms of the headless Buddha statue. They seemed to have been drained of flesh and blood. He couldn't walk. He painfully crawled on his knees to the body of his companion Rand, who'd been hit on the head from behind.
Damn... If I remember correctly, when I was possessing Shizuku at the time. The Star Mark I attached to Rand was on the back of his head.
The Star Mark on Ryan's body was still intact. The injuries he suffered were slowly recovering. Rand was unlucky. The Star Mark was destroyed. He died on the spot.
"The gods are dead, the saints are dead..."
The Buddha's head rolled to Liam's feet and was still mumbling to itself.
Liam breathed a sigh of relief. "I just said it was a Buddha statue!"
If it were a real person and Shizuku had decapitated him with that saw, the death energy would sneak up on me again.
On the face of the Buddha statue were three pairs of eyes.
The lower two pairs were filled with scarlet red eyes.
There was nothing in the top pair of black holes. I estimate this was the position prepared for Kurapika's tortured eyes.
"I will become a god... I will become a god... I will become a god..."
The pairs of eyes in the Buddha statue were twisting in disorder as if out of control. The Great Elder sighed and walked over. "I raised you all for nothing. Alas!"
As he spoke, he raised his old foot to crush the Buddha's head.
Liam stopped him, took out the scarlet eyes, and let the old lion trample the muttering Buddha's head to pieces.
Stone chips flew. A cloud of resentful aura flew out of it. Vaguely, it transformed into the cult Leader Essi had seen before—but compared to the fatness before, now he was skinny as firewood.
The twisted resentment after death alternated between reality and illusion. It seemed to want to materialize into a flesh-and-blood entity. Unwillingly flying toward the headless Buddha statue.
"I will become a god... I will become a god!"
Liam fired a spirit gun at it, blowing it up into a ball of black fireworks.
The headless Buddha statue quickly cracked and collapsed with a bang, revealing a half-human-tall Buddha statue inside that looked like it was carved from black jade.
However, this Buddha statue was also full of cracks and had become dull.
Essi's scalp suddenly became numb. He felt endless black energy rising from the ground, flooding the dilapidated Zen monastery.
Liam recognized the black aura that emerged like a tide. This feeling—this is the environment Kurapika was in?
In the billowing black air, Liam once again saw a figure standing at the end.
"Hey! Who are you?" Liam called out loudly.
The figure turned and walked away. What also disappeared was the black energy around them—suddenly appearing and disappearing like a dream bubble.
Fortunately, not everything was a fantasy. At least after the black energy dissipated, Kurapika appeared out of thin air.
It's just that he looked a little bad. He was so thin he'd lost almost all human shape. Describing him as skin and bones was more appropriate...
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