Chapter Twelve: The Dog Food Bowl

“Discovered!” Lei Xiang was stricken with alarm. With a flick of his storage pouch, seven beast-hide tents flew out, layering over each other to shield his entire body. He clutched the Purplewood Spirit Root in his hand, his nerves taut as he stared at the Greedy Mouth.

Boom!

The fiery red lips smashed fiercely against the outermost beast-hide tent, which shattered under the force.

Lei Xiang hastily pressed his right hand against the inner tent, pouring his spiritual power into it, while the spirit root in his other hand, attuned to his will, supplied an endless stream of energy.

The second layer barely withstood the onslaught of the Greedy Mouth, and Lei Xiang’s suspended heart began to relax.

Suddenly, Gao Tiancan’s hands shifted, forming a new spell.

“Devour!”

Two rows of jade-green teeth, each the size of a cucumber, gleamed within the great mouth, biting down with a hungry crunch.

In just ten bites, the second layer was breached.

The red lips pressed in relentlessly, the green teeth gnawing like a force of nature.

Third layer—shattered!

Fourth—broken!

Fifth—gone!

Only two layers of beast-hide remained. Gritting his teeth, Lei Xiang made a desperate gamble. He sent a thought to the Purplewood Spirit Root, and the root, understanding instantly, flashed with pale violet radiance and embedded itself into the tent.

The withered, decrepit beast-hide suddenly swelled, emitting a beam of energy over half a foot long, forcing the Greedy Mouth to retreat.

“Hm?” Gao Tiancan’s voice was tinged with surprise. This minor cultivator of the eleventh layer could actually resist the ‘Maw That Devours All, Swallowing the World’?

He pressed his index finger and thumb together, weaving another strange spell. The red lips and green teeth doubled their assault, and the sixth layer of the tent trembled on the verge of collapse.

“Let’s see how long your power lasts. I’ll torment and consume you at my leisure.”

Under Gao Tiancan’s venomous gaze, Lei Xiang calculated quickly. With the Purplewood Spirit Root, he had no fear of running out of spiritual energy, but even at full strength he would not last long.

Suddenly, a streak of red light shot in from the left. The Greedy Mouth, seemingly sentient, dodged the surprise attack and turned to battle the red light.

It was Old Zhang, who had once again unleashed the Scarlet Luan Blade talisman, drawing the Greedy Mouth away just in time. Seizing the chance, Lei Xiang fished four Oil-Tied Needles from his storage pouch.

“Courting death!” Gao Tiancan snarled, his chanting intensifying. The Greedy Mouth abandoned the Scarlet Luan Blade and lunged at Old Zhang.

Old Zhang summoned the blade back with a gesture, intercepting the monstrous mouth. Lei Xiang watched coldly from the sidelines, seeing Old Zhang’s continuous hand seals and the exhaustion written on his sweat-drenched, pallid face as his spiritual power ebbed away. Gao Tiancan, on the other hand, remained composed, as though victory was already in his grasp.

Old Zhang was clearly about to lose. Gao Tiancan’s lips curled in a cruel smile as his hand motions became even faster. The Greedy Mouth had the upper hand; the Scarlet Luan Blade retreated step by step—defeat was only a matter of time.

Old Zhang was gasping for breath, soaked in sweat as if he’d just been hauled from a river.

Meanwhile, Gao Tiancan strolled towards the Tibetan mastiff’s den with the leisure of a man in a garden.

“He must be stopped! The dog’s food bowl must be protected!” The thought struck Lei Xiang, but before he could react, he saw Old Zhang hurling himself forward, and Gao Tiancan’s contemptuous gaze.

No—this was a trap.

“Haha, too late. Now I know the treasure you’re guarding is this dog’s food bowl. You can die now.”

The blood-red mouth suddenly broke off from the Scarlet Luan Blade and snapped at Old Zhang midair, while Gao Tiancan simultaneously reached for the dog’s food bowl.

Lei Xiang’s right hand snapped forward, four fingers together.

A blue arc!

A pale blue blade flashed out, spinning toward Gao Tiancan. Old Zhang, too, made a desperate charge, a long sword appearing in his grasp from who knew where.

Gao Tiancan ignored the blue arc, merely channeling his inner force and raising his right palm, which was now pitch black, as if poisoned.

The blue blade struck, only to be rebuffed by Gao Tiancan’s protective aura. Spinning, the blade sliced towards the back of Gao’s neck, but was again scattered by the aura. Old Zhang’s sword, however, pierced through the shield, aiming straight for Gao’s throat.

Gao Tiancan smiled coldly and, with a blackened hand, deflected the sword along its edge.

Just then, the Greedy Mouth clamped down on Old Zhang’s leg. Startled, Old Zhang swung his sword at it.

With a thunderous crash, Gao Tiancan’s blackened hand broke through Old Zhang’s guard, slamming into his chest. Old Zhang cried out as his internal organs were shattered.

Now without a commander, the Scarlet Luan Blade talisman fell to the ground, reverting to an ordinary strip of talisman paper, its spiritual energy depleted—nearly useless.

The Greedy Mouth turned again to Lei Xiang, continuing to devour the beast-hide tents. Gao Tiancan paid him no mind, convinced that Lei Xiang was already a dead man.

Lei Xiang’s slender fingers gripped the four Oil-Tied Needles tightly, forcing himself to remain calm. He was about to utter the secret phrase Zhu Chi had given him to summon help, when Gao Tiancan seized the dog’s food bowl.

A scream rang out. Gao Tiancan’s right hand erupted in electric arcs, his entire arm charring black, his body hurled ten yards away before slamming to the ground.

This was what Lei Xiang had waited for. His left hand flicked, emitting a sharp whistle, then struck his storage pouch—two streaks of black light shot out.

Enraged by his grievous wound, Gao Tiancan was about to unleash the Dark Demon Hand when sudden pain flared in his chest, throat, brow, and the back of his head. The two streaks of black light pierced his skull, and he collapsed, unconscious.

Seizing the moment, Lei Xiang wasted no time. The blue arc flashed out, circling Gao Tiancan’s neck. A massive head thudded to the ground.

Lei Xiang retrieved four Oil-Tied Needles and two glossy, black Shu-ox horns from Gao Tiancan’s throat and neck—refined by the methods from the Divine Spirit Manual—and finally grasped the Vermilion Banner. With a snap in the wind, he recalled the Greedy Mouth and let out a long breath.

Suddenly, Gao Tiancan’s corpse underwent a dramatic change. Thick black smoke poured from his seven orifices, swirling around an area ten feet across, refusing to disperse and growing ever denser.

Within the smoke, Gao Tiancan’s corpse was invisible, but his frenzied, hysterical shrieks could be heard: “Qiu’er, earth escape…Lei Xiang, you just wait…” At that, Gao Qiu curled himself up like a ball and rolled away, vanishing into the earth after a few revolutions.

How could the dead still speak?

Yet Lei Xiang was unsurprised. Blue light flashed in his eyes as he peered into the smoke, then sneered, “A mere avatar, and you still hope to escape?” He flung a beast-hide tent into the air, which expanded to the size of a roof.

“Seal!”

A pale green sphere was sucked into the tent from within the dense smoke. Lei Xiang grabbed it as the tent shrank to palm-size in his hand.

He cast a single-handed incantation, and a net of yellow-green light instantly wrapped the tent, binding it tightly.

Binding Seal.

Lei Xiang tossed the palm-sized tent into his storage pouch, thus trapping a wisp of Gao Tiancan’s spirit. He would deal with it later; for now, his focus was on the dog’s food bowl.

That grimy, foul-smelling bowl was apparently the treasure coveted by the Heaven’s Remnant Sect—the very thing which had drawn forth Lei Manor’s patriarch from seclusion, and for which so many of the Lei clan had died. It was hard to believe.

Lei Xiang’s eyes flashed blue again, only to be met by a merciless reflection from the bowl. “Ah!” He felt as if blue lightning had seared his vision, leaving him blind. “Could this bowl be related to the blue lightning from before?”

Suddenly, two wild barks rang from the northwest—“Woof! Woof!”—as a massive black shadow bounded toward him. Its target was not Lei Xiang, but the bowl in his hands.

“Ah!” Lei Xiang cried as searing pain shot through his right hand. He flung the shadow away, and with a hand-chop from his left, a burst of red light erupted as the pure black head of a dog thudded to the ground.

Lei Xiang’s sight was restored. Clutching his bitten hand, he stared in confusion at the huge dog—now recognizing it as the Tibetan mastiff raised by the old master of the Lei clan. Dogs will guard their food, and this fierce beast would certainly not let anyone steal its bowl.

Lost in thought, Lei Xiang glanced down at the dog’s food bowl—only to leap back in shock.

His blood, recently dripped onto the bowl, was multiplying at an incredible rate. In moments, the bowl was brimming, even beginning to overflow, enveloped in a thick mist of blood.

Then, something even more astonishing happened. The blood mist churned, and the filthy bowl gave a series of crisp cracks. The greasy, grimy crust fell away, revealing a nine-inch wide, half-inch deep blue dish.

The marvel was not yet over. The dish spun three times of its own accord, then from its four sides, nine stone lotus buds emerged, each hungrily absorbing the surrounding blood mist.

Once all the mist was gone, the dish suddenly shone with spiritual light, and one of the buds bloomed—a blue lotus flower.

Lei Xiang was overjoyed. He knew he had found a true treasure, but how should he use this Blue Lotus Dish? Was it meant to be thrown as a flying weapon?

“If only it were a bit bigger for that…” he muttered. As if sentient, the lotus dish swelled by another three inches. Lei Xiang was delighted. “Bigger! Even bigger!”

Cradling the now two-foot-wide lotus dish, Lei Xiang felt a satisfaction beyond words. Even if it had no other powers, its obedience to his will alone was priceless.

He walked to Old Zhang’s side and sent a wave of spiritual power into his brow. Old Zhang slowly regained consciousness, then started in alarm. “What is this thing? Where did you get it?”

When he learned that this was the dog’s food bowl they had protected, Old Zhang let out a long, weary sigh. “Perhaps it’s fate. This treasure is meant for you. Can you make it smaller?”

Lei Xiang grinned, revealing small tiger teeth. “That’s easy. Lotus dish, shrink! Smaller!”

Sure enough, the lotus dish shrank to palm size, and Lei Xiang stowed it in his pouch. “Senior, what exactly is this treasure? And why is Heaven’s Remnant Sect after it?”

Old Zhang sighed. “I’ve been struck by the Dark Demon Hand—I won’t survive twelve more hours. Let’s make this brief. If you promise to return this treasure to the Myriad Talismans Ancestral Sect, I’ll tell you everything.”

Seeing Lei Xiang nod readily, he began his tale.

“The dog’s food bowl is the Myriad Talismans Ancestral Sect’s supreme treasure. Old Lei and I both belong to that sect. Over fifty years ago, Heaven’s Remnant Sect set their sights on the bowl. Unable to protect it, we devised a plan—Old Lei brought the bowl here and founded Lei Manor, while I posed as a dog-keeper to secretly guard it with him.”

“To avoid suspicion, we deliberately altered the Dragon-Elephant Divine Art, and Old Lei forbade anyone in Lei Manor from advancing to Foundation Establishment. We hoped that would keep attention away, but Heaven’s Remnant Sect still found us.”

The bleak wind wailed; low clouds pressed down.

Having just paid his respects to the two elders, Lei Xiang walked slowly along the road, then suddenly stopped.

Ahead stood a man—Lei Yunlong, forever straight as a spear, but his eyes were red and his voice hoarse. “Lei Xiang, you took all my glory. I once hated you. But today you saved Lei Manor. I respect you.”

Lei Xiang smiled faintly and shook his head.

Suddenly, Lei Yunlong knelt. “I beg you—avenge my grandfather!”

Lei Xiang hurried to help him up. “Senior brother, Master Lei raised me as his own. I will avenge him…” As he spoke, Lei Xiang raised his gaze to the distant horizon.

Was that the forbidden land Master Lei spoke of on his deathbed—the place where Lei Xiang was born?

ps: As usual, another chapter to come.