"Found it!"
The influencer shook the rich kid’s arm excitedly. "We passed!"
"Yeah!"
The rich kid let out a long breath.
As for whether the Great Buddha would take Lu Jiuling’s head, they couldn’t care less—as long as they survived.
"Brother Lu!"
Song Xue clasped her hands together, her face full of worry.
[Give me the head quickly!]
The headless Buddha roared, its tone brimming with impatience.
"..."
Lu Jiuling wanted to ask, how am I supposed to give it to you?
Even if I wanted to chop off my own head, I don’t have a knife.
The headless Buddha sitting upright on the lotus platform began to writhe, every muscle on its body squirming, the posture like tens of thousands of maggots beneath its skin simultaneously waking up and crawling together.
The rich kid and the influencer, witnessing this grotesque scene, shrank back in terror behind the main hall doors.
The headless Buddha’s stomach bulged like a toad’s throat, then with a wet pop, split open. Dark red mucus sprayed out, along with a wrist-thick section of large intestine.
A rancid stench filled the air!
The slit looked like a vertical, gaping mouth.
The headless Buddha reached out, pried open its stomach, and pulled out a tangle of intestines. After rummaging through them, it found a one-foot-long shortsword and threw it at Lu Jiuling.
Shing!
The shortsword embedded itself in the stone slab before Lu Jiuling, vibrating violently.
[The head...]
[Cut it off...]
[Give it to me!]
The ten-plus-meter-tall headless Buddha rose from the lotus platform, cradling its intestines, walked up to Lu Jiuling, and squatted down.
[Quickly!]
Lu Jiuling gripped the intestine shortsword and pulled it out with force, but instead of cutting off his own head, he asked in return,
"Isn’t your head inside your stomach?"
While the headless Buddha had been rummaging through its entrails, Lu Jiuling had caught a fleeting glimpse of half a Buddha’s face, which stunned him.
Could it be that this headless Buddha’s head was in its own belly?
[Inside my stomach?]
The headless Buddha let out a confused question. It bent down and plunged its mucus-covered hands back into its abdominal cavity, rummaging around.
As the intestines were churned into a mess, a Buddha head clattered out.
[Haha, found it!]
[This time I really found it!]
[It’s my head!]
The headless Buddha cupped the head in both hands, its bare feet stamping on the floor as it danced a bizarre dance, laughing heartily.
Coupled with its split-open belly and intestines scattered across the ground...
This scene,
was as horrifying as it could possibly be.
Lu Jiuling didn’t move, kneeling quietly on the prayer cushion.
"Quick, get in there and kneel!"
The rich kid urged in a whisper, pulling the influencer as they ran into the main hall.
The influencer instantly understood.
The Great Buddha had found its head and was in a good mood—she and her boyfriend should claim some credit. At the very least, they had to let this monstrosity know that it finding its head was partly thanks to them.
"Buddha above, congratulations on finding your head!"
The rich kid dropped to his knees and kowtowed three times solidly, thump thump thump.
The Buddha, which had been dancing, stopped and turned to face the rich kid.
[I found my head. What does that have to do with you?]
The Buddha retorted.
Hearing this, the rich kid broke out in a cold sweat. He thought, oh no, and before he could explain, a section of the headless Buddha’s large intestine shot out like an octopus tentacle and coiled around his neck.
Whoosh!
The mucus-dripping intestine dragged the rich kid before the headless Buddha.
"Sa... save me!"
The rich kid hung in the air like a dried fish, strangled by the intestine until he couldn’t breathe.
The Buddha held its head in its left hand and swung its free right hand at the rich kid.
Smack!
The rich kid was like a swatted fly—most of his body shattered into a puddle of meat paste.
Splat!
Only two legs fell to the ground.
"Ah!"
The influencer was scared senseless. She turned and ran outside, urinating as she fled.
Thud! Thud!
The ten-plus-meter-tall headless Buddha charged forward with massive strides. In the blink of an eye, it caught up to the influencer and brought its bare foot down.
Watching that filthy sole descend like Mount Wuzhi, the influencer screamed.
"No..."
The influencer’s shriek cut off abruptly.
When the headless Buddha lifted its foot, only a bloodied, flattened human skin remained on the ground.
The influencer was dead, like a bug crushed underfoot—not even a chance to resist.
"Run!"
Lu Jiuling shouted at Song Xue, who stood frozen in the doorway.
His deduction had been correct—this game would only have one final survivor.
Song Xue woke from her trance and fled toward the courtyard.
As it chased, the headless Buddha threw the head it cradled in its left hand.
"Ah!"
A scream rang out.
Lu Jiuling quickly got up and chased after them.
Song Xue lay sprawled in the courtyard, covered in blood.
[Where is my head?]
The headless Buddha regretted throwing its head the moment it did, but it was too late.
The courtyard was full of Buddha heads, all kinds of them, dazzling this monstrosity—it couldn’t find its head again.
[Ah!]
The headless Buddha went mad. It stamped its feet on the floor a few times, randomly kicked away several Buddha heads, and ran out of the courtyard.
[My head?]
[Where are you?]
Seeing the headless Buddha leave, Lu Jiuling quickly ran to Song Xue.
"Brother Lu... cough cough!"
The moment Song Xue opened her mouth, she began coughing blood.
"Don’t talk!"
Lu Jiuling tore open Song Xue’s upper garment, trying to stop her bleeding, but what he saw were several broken ribs piercing through her flesh, exposed to the air.
Song Xue had been struck by such a massive Buddha head. Forget ribs—her spine was broken. There was no saving her.
"My home... is at... sister... help me..."
Song Xue had dying words she wanted Lu Jiuling to bring back for her, but her breath was faint, her sentences fragmented, and in the end, she couldn’t finish.
The high school girl was dead!
Lu Jiuling wiped the blood from her face, straightened her hair, and buttoned up her school uniform.
Her remaining body heat still lingered at his fingertips.
Lu Jiuling searched Song Xue’s pockets and found a wallet.
Inside were sixty-seven yuan and a family photo.
The girl with her arm around Song Xue should be her older sister—tall and quite beautiful.
"Rest in peace. If I can find your family, I’ll tell them what happened to you!"
After making his promise, Lu Jiuling stood up and glanced at the courtyard gate.
He didn’t know if that crazed headless Buddha would return, but leaving this place quickly was definitely the right move!
However, even at a time like this, Lu Jiuling wasn’t in a hurry.
He ran to the office worker’s corpse, picked up the black briefcase, opened it, and searched for valuables.
Bank cards—useless, tossed aside.
ID card—useless, tossed aside.
...
Lu Jiuling scavenged over three hundred yuan, stuffed it into his pocket, then ran to the office lady’s side.
Her black stockings were torn and bloodstained, her tight skirt hiked up to her thighs, giving her a tragic beauty like she had been ravaged.
After checking the office lady’s wallet and pockets, Lu Jiuling only found a dozen or so yuan in change—apparently she was someone who lived paycheck to paycheck.
However, the office lady had quite a few accessories: a gold necklace, earrings, a jade bracelet...
Lu Jiuling didn’t touch them.
Consider it leaving her with some final dignity.
In the main hall, the influencer had been stomped into a meat pancake. Lu Jiuling really didn’t want to touch that.
Fortunately, there was still the rich kid.
His wallet was bulging like a well-fed toad. Besides seven or eight credit cards, there was also a thick stack of bills.
All hundred-yuan notes!
Lu Jiuling roughly estimated there were six or seven thousand yuan.
He’d struck it rich!
Lu Jiuling stuffed the money into his pockets.
"If I can meet your family, I’ll bring them news of your death too. Consider this money my delivery fee."
Lu Jiuling was about to leave, but after a few steps, he returned and took the watch off the rich kid’s left wrist.
He had noticed before that the muscular guy had looked at this watch several times with envious eyes—meaning this watch was definitely one of those absurdly expensive luxury timepieces.
If he found an opportunity to sell it, he could probably get tens of thousands for it, right?
When the landlady came to collect rent, he could just slap a year’s worth of rent in her face.
Lu Jiuling exited the main hall and surveyed the courtyard. He hesitated for a moment, then ran up to one of the Buddha heads.
This was the one the headless Buddha had pulled from its own belly.
Lu Jiuling gripped the intestine shortsword and prodded the Buddha head.
Unexpectedly, the Buddha head crumbled with a rustle, disintegrating into a pile of fine sand, leaving behind only a bronze Buddha mask in a wrathful Vajra expression.
Lu Jiuling remembered what the rich kid had said.
In this world, there were some items with mysterious properties called Taboo Items.
This bronze Buddha mask and the intestine shortsword in his hand were most likely this type of item.
"I wonder what this mask does?"
Lu Jiuling turned the mask over and examined it a few times, seeing nothing unusual. Subconsciously, he held it up to his face to compare sizes, but the mask suddenly latched onto Lu Jiuling’s face with tremendous force, slapping against his skin.
"Holy shit!"
Lu Jiuling instantly broke out in a cold sweat and quickly tried to pry it off, but the bronze Buddha mask was like an octopus sucker, clinging tightly to his skin.
He pulled at it several times with force but couldn’t remove it. Lu Jiuling was stunned.
He had been careless!
Lu Jiuling had thought he was temporarily safe, let his guard down, and an accident happened.
However, after donning the bronze Buddha mask, Lu Jiuling suddenly felt extremely exhilarated. It seemed an endless surge of strength welled up in his body—he could probably run a marathon right now without issue.
"Forget it, let’s get out of here first!"
Lu Jiuling entered the adjacent courtyard.
He hadn’t been head-exploded like the delivery guy, and there were no bizarre Buddha heads scattered on the ground—it was clearly an ordinary temple courtyard. This made Lu Jiuling breathe a sigh of relief.
No one?
Lu Jiuling scanned the area but didn’t see the headless Buddha that had run in earlier, nor did he want to pay attention to it.
Time to slip away!
There was a large gate in the southern wall. Lu Jiuling ran over, pulled the bolt, cautiously pushed it open, and walked out.
A sea of golden light instantly filled his vision.
...
[Congratulations, you have completed the Divine Game and obtained the admission ticket!]
[Welcome to the Divine Council!]