Chapter Seventy-Six: Algae Essence and Demonic Rice, False Form Enters the Belly

"Evil Dog, aren’t you just a dog demon?" Han Chong sneered.

"Ahhh! Die for me!" The dog-headed man threw back his head and roared. In an instant, his body swelled rapidly, transforming into a colossal silver-gray hound, five zhang in length, with the build of a fighting mastiff.

He no longer evaded but leaped into the air, lunging straight at the azure serpent of sword energy, as if possessed.

As dragons have their reverse scales, nothing enraged him more than being called a dog. It was the one thing he could not endure; whenever the word "dog" was uttered, he would tear the offender to pieces.

Han Chong’s lips twitched. He hadn’t expected the sword-energy serpent he had forged at such cost of energy and will to be shredded like rags by the evil dog.

Though the beast’s face was smeared with yellow blood and its jaws and belly were streaming from wounds where the sword energy had cut deep, defeat was only a matter of time.

"Evil Dog, until we meet again!" Han Chong ignored the maddened gray hound, vanished into the earth, and in little more than ten breaths had burrowed dozens of zhang below and surfaced a hundred zhang away.

The beast shredded the sword-energy serpent to nothingness, threw back its head, and howled. Its cry echoed for miles.

But blood loss had sapped its strength; it could not give chase. Instead, it raged through the Innocent Ghost Cliff, reducing it to chaos, venting its fury on the hundreds of little ghosts and spirits, slaying more than half and scattering the rest in mad terror.

This fiend’s cultivation far surpassed the peak of a human’s Qi-Manifesting stage. Though it was only a single realm above the Four Dread Commanders, its strength was a world apart.

Han Chong made his way to the Pine District’s magistrate’s office to await Captain Ning and the others.

The next day, in the rear yard of an inn—

"Gentlemen, I have slain both the Black Mountain She-Devil and the Innocent Judge."

"What? So quickly! Captain Han, you are truly valorous. With this, Yunzhou will know peace!" Captain Ning exclaimed in amazement.

"However, I also encountered that dog-headed demon they call Lord Evil Spirit. I nearly lost my life at the bottom of the Ghost Cliff."

"A dog-headed demon?" The officers exchanged uneasy glances.

"Captain Han, what now?" Captain Ning asked, bowing respectfully.

"The power of that dog-headed fiend is unfathomable. Even if all four district captains and every demon-slaying officer were to unite, I doubt we could kill it. All I can do is continue my surveillance, see what it intends. Report everything here to the provincial headquarters."

"Understood."

Han Chong set out once more for the Innocent Ghost Cliff.

Yet when he arrived, he found only devastation at the cliff’s base—there was no sign of the dog-headed demon.

Days passed, but Han Chong found not a single clue.

By rights, with such power, the dog-headed fiend should have avenged its slain followers in a bloodbath or at least tried to reclaim its lost position. Instead, it had vanished without a trace.

He ordered the officers back to headquarters, then mounted his sword and flew toward Blackwater Lake.

…

Upon reaching the lakeside, Han Chong slipped into the water and concealed himself, moving with utmost caution.

In the depths of Blackwater Lake, visibility was limited to a mere ten feet. At a depth of five zhang, Han Chong discovered what seemed like an entire mountain range pressed down inside the lake, jagged peaks thrusting up like inverted swords.

There were no fish or shrimp, only black water plants and algae, swaying ominously as if to devour the unwary, even attacking drifting plankton as if bent on swallowing every living thing in the lake.

The mountains’ surfaces were wound about with layers of black, velvet-like algae, clustered like mushrooms.

Han Chong moved with care, avoiding all contact so as not to expose his presence.

At the base of the submerged mountains, he saw the algae had gained sentience, drifting in groups, binding up black, grain-like objects the size of bananas, and swimming toward the central mountain.

As they approached the mountainside, an unremarkable patch of black water plants parted, revealing a deep, yawning hole. The algae spirits slipped inside, and the opening sealed up again, indistinguishable from the rest—a marvelously concealed place.

Han Chong followed them in. The passage was lined with strange, velvet algae, winding for dozens of feet before the tunnel suddenly sloped upward. A glossy black membrane barred the lake water from entering.

Rising up, Han Chong stood and beheld a series of stone halls, each guarded by sentinels. The algae spirits hopped past the sentries, making for a massive hall at the rear.

Moving silently, Han Chong looked in from afar. There he saw the silver-gray giant hound sprawled on a stone platform, savoring the black rice brought by the algae spirits, the aroma of meat rich and mouth-watering.

Beside it, a man in black sat straight-backed, slowly savoring the black rice by the handful.

Surprisingly, this rice was not meat, yet its savor surpassed any flesh Han Chong had ever known. The smell alone made his mouth water.

"Heh heh, Lord Evil Spirit, what brings you back to Yunzhou at such a time? The Black Jade Demon Rice is in season—please, feast to your heart’s content! Stay a while longer before you go."

The black-robed man inquired deferentially, seizing the pause as the great hound took a drink.

"Hmph, do you think I relish coming to such a backwater? Only this Blackwater Lake has anything worthy of my palate. I’m merely passing through.

Yet you lot are so pathetic—unable to seize a mere outlying province, and losing three of your number instead. Truly useless!"

The hound’s words were harsh, and the man in black forced a wry smile.

"We three were merely supporting that girl, Yue’er. Who could have foreseen her flawless plans all foiled by a single human youth? It defies expectation.

That youth is uncanny—he pursued us all the way to Blackwater Lake, only turning back because he could not see beneath the water. Then, daring to venture alone to the Ghost Cliff, he slew both the Innocent Judge and the She-Devil. He’s a formidable adversary."

"Hmph. Yue’er always pleased me, but she proved useless in the end. Let their deaths stand.

Your secret hall is well hidden—no matter how slippery that youth, if he tries to sneak in, the ten thousand algae spirits will surely catch him. It’s perfectly safe."

The black-robed man was startled. By the Evil Spirit Lord’s vengeful nature, he ought to have unleashed carnage upon Yunzhou City, yet he showed no such inclination. It was most unusual. Could it be that he’d already fought that youth?

It was possible. Faint scars were visible around the fiend’s jaws—could these be the youth’s handiwork?

Eavesdropping from afar, Han Chong mused: So the dog-headed fiend was only passing through Yunzhou, and cares little for the failure of his plan. Does this mean he harbors even greater ambitions?

Noting their addiction to the black demon rice, Han Chong formed a plan. He retreated quietly to the outer hall, cast a transformation spell, and became a caterpillar, latching onto a grain of black rice bound by an algae spirit, boring a tiny hole and slipping inside.

Han Chong intended to emulate the Monkey King’s method of invading a demon’s body—taking advantage of the fiend’s gluttony.

One by one, the grains of black rice were delivered to the gray hound and swallowed whole. Within, Han Chong, in caterpillar form, dodged the sharp teeth and made his way into the beast’s liver and intestines.

There, he transformed again, becoming a savage tiger and raked at the fiend’s innards.

The man in black saw the gray hound’s face freeze mid-bite, then contort in agony. The beast let out a terrible howl, thrashing and clawing at its belly in wild distress.

"Lord Evil Spirit, what’s wrong? Could you have eaten something bad? Impossible…"

"You wretch, Black Lotus! I’ve treated you well, and this is how you repay me? What did you feed me—are you trying to poison me?"

"No, my lord! I ate the Black Jade Demon Rice right alongside you!" The man in black waved his hands frantically in denial, as the gray hound spewed foul energy from its jaws, filling the entire hall.

All the algae spirits transporting rice and every sentry within were melted into puddles of sludge by the miasma. The man in black barely resisted the evil power’s invasion, stumbling back in panic.