Fangxian Heretical Path

Chapter 2: The Most Poisonous Thing is the Human Heart
But there were no shops left in front of Fang Shu.

The old fox and his accomplices all ran away in a flash.

The monsters in the building either climbed onto the roof beams or went into their caves. Some monsters were so frightened that they became paralyzed and lay stiffly on the spot, pretending to be dead.

At that moment, a figure walked against the flow of traffic at the entrance of the restaurant.

The monsters that had managed to escape all returned, looking flustered and scrambling back in.

Fang Shu looked over.

"Don't try to evade your debts, all of you get back inside." A muffled voice rang out from outside.

The monsters who had returned to the building looked at Fang Shu in fear, then at what was behind them.

They dared not go forward or retreat, and could only stand obediently at the entrance of the restaurant, motionless and holding their breath.

Whispers could be heard from the crowd: "The boss, the boss is here!"

"Old Fox has finally managed to invite its godfather."

Fang Shu was surprised. Wasn't that old fox the one in charge?
Suddenly, a tiger's head with a bitter expression peeked in from outside the curtain.

It did resemble the old fox somewhat, frowning as it surveyed the scene inside the building before slowly hopping into the hall.

The tiger was extremely thin, with protruding shoulder blades and a listless appearance.

(Bee and Tiger Painting - Painter Hua Yan)

If it weren't for its large frame, it would look no different from a sick cat.

However, Fang Shu dared not be careless when looking at the skinny tiger.

Skinny Tiger stood up, picked up a wine jar from inside the shop, looked at Fang Shu, and asked, "Is this young Taoist priest asking for wine?"

Fang Shu scrutinized the other person, nodded calmly, and tapped his wine bowl with the copper bell in his hand.
"Fill it up."

The thin tiger's face remained troubled, and it said, "No rush, no rush."

This fellow, carrying a wine jar in one hand, walked over to a deer spirit, snapped off a bloody piece of antler, and muttered, "Wine really doesn't taste good if it's not soaked. It needs a lot of ingredients to make it flavorful."

Before it could finish speaking, it walked up to a bull demon and gouged out its two eyes.

Finally, it carried the wine to Fang Shu, placed it on the table, and gulped down two bull's eyeballs and three demon hearts into the jar.

"Alright." The skinny owner then withdrew, saying with a bitter expression, "Sir, please finish this jar of wine and then get on your way."

"Which road should we take?" Fang Shu asked.

Skinny Tiger forced a smile: "Of course, it's the road we came from."

Fang Shu slammed the wine bowl upside down on the table and laughed:

"Take it, take it. What I want is wine made with human hearts, not demon hearts."

The smile on Skinny Tiger's face vanished.

It stood in the hall, its tiger-like frame slowly rising, its eyes gleaming with ferocity.

Roar!
Its tail was like a long scorpion, its hair was like copper wire, and its teeth were like steel saws. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a ferocious tiger with arms thicker than Fang Shu's waist, a body nearly ten feet long, and a foul stench emanating from its mouth.

The building fell silent instantly; you could hear a pin drop.

However, Fang Shu sat upright, his smile widening as he stared directly into the tiger's eyes.

Aww! Suddenly, the tiger-headed man put away his airs.

It pounced on the ground again, looking down at Fang Shu: "If you're not leaving, sir, then I'll leave."

Fang Shu neither agreed nor disagreed, but simply pointed to the three "human sacrifices" in the hall.

Seeing this, the skinny tiger sighed and explained:

"Young Taoist priest, our shop is just a small business. Although we sell people, we don't sell many."

Besides, they are not even human; please, Daoist, understand."

The skinny tiger roamed the hall, pointing its paw at the two skinny dogs and the white pig tied to the benches:
"This woman committed adultery with a dog, causing her husband to die tragically in the dog's mouth, his penis severed."

This man, by having intercourse with a pig, brought shame upon his family, and his parents hanged themselves in the main hall.

Fang Shu listened quietly without saying a word, only frowning.

The skinny tiger then pointed to the old sheep on the beam:

"And this old bastard, as the saying goes, 'Even a tiger wouldn't eat its cubs,' but this old bastard drowned his three granddaughters in a cesspool, leaving none alive."

After speaking, it bowed respectfully to Fang Shu and asked, "May I ask, young Taoist master, are they human or not?"

Fang Shu's brows relaxed, but he remained silent, only his throat gurgled.

Suddenly, he reached up and wiped his lips, removing the long tongue from his mouth.

The object was initially soft and pink, shaped like a belt, but when he stroked it with his hand, it became hard and stiff, transforming into a three-foot-long sword.

With a clang, Fang Shu flicked the blade of his sword before exhaling and replying, "Whether it's real or fake, human or not, what does it have to do with me!"

Before he finished speaking, he sprang up from the table and thrust his sword forward.

Although the skinny tiger didn't look at Fang Shu, he remained vigilant.

As soon as Fang Shu sprang up, its pupils contracted, and its tiger tail, like a long whip, lashed out, easily pulling the old sheep off the beam and throwing it towards Fang Shu.

As for Skinny Tiger himself, he didn't even look back before running out of the building.

Pfft!

Fang Shu faced the old sheep that was thrown at him. He didn't dodge it. Instead, he stepped forward and swung his sword, splitting the old sheep in two without any hesitation.

The long-tongued sword flew out like a bolt of lightning, aiming at the skinny tiger who had just come out.

The blood sloshed around.

Skinny Tiger's face showed surprise: "What a ruthless heart, what a fast sword!"

It had no choice but to abandon its idea of ​​escaping the restaurant. Instead, it rolled around at the entrance, shrank its body, and scurried into the tables, chairs, counter, and piles of liquor like a big cat.

Seeing that the skinny tiger had escaped unharmed, Fang Shu's face showed no regret, but rather joy.

He didn't go after them, but turned around and stood in front of the two curtains.

Looking back into the building, a hazy mist had already begun to rise silently from the hall.

The monsters that were trembling in the building just moments ago are now getting up one after another as if possessed, staring at Fang Shu with green eyes.

Even Fang Shu himself felt slightly dizzy. He immediately reached out and flicked the copper bell hanging at his waist.

Ring ring! My mind cleared up instantly.

The monsters inside the shop had already started moving, crawling and walking towards him, crying out, "Master, spare us! I didn't eat a single bite!"

"Please have mercy, there are still eighteen hungry babies in my cave."

The cries for mercy were deafening.

Upon hearing this, Fang Shu showed a shy expression and replied, "Alright! I am kind-hearted and cannot bear to see pitiful things."

Chi Chi!

He casually flicked his sword, saying, "Today I'll send you all on your way and that'll be the end of it."

A rat spirit and a chicken spirit were pierced through each other and fell to the ground.

Ahhhhh!
Seeing this, the other monsters' fear intensified, but they squeezed even harder toward the doorway, ignoring everything else.

Fang Shu didn't care about that; he blocked the monsters and acted swiftly.

Old ones come, kill the old; young ones come, kill the young; flirtatious ones come, kill the flirtatious; flying, crawling, jumping, walking, vegetarian, meat, whoever comes, kill whoever comes.

He killed one person with each sword, or two people with each sword, killing with great gusto, his swords dripping with demonic blood.

After killing for a while, the monsters downstairs were sparsely killed, so Fang Shu simply took off the copper bell from his waist and hung it on the curtain to suppress the exit.

He himself strode forward.

Once he left the protection of the copper bell and was inside the building, he found the scene before him blurry.

The monsters that were still emerging from inside the building had also transformed. They were no longer just scared out of their wits, but instead began to kowtow and bow, and they looked quite human.

But Fang Shu didn't care at all.

A man shouted, "I am willing to be your slave and guard your house."

"You dog lackey, you dare to say that?"

An old man kowtowed, saying, "I am a grass eater, and I am the one being eaten."

"Why should you eat grass?"

He first fought his way around the ground floor, and then fought his way up to the second floor.

On the second floor, Fang Shu's view changed again, and he saw that his relatives and friends had appeared.

He smiled.

He continued walking with his sword, killing everyone he met, killing those on the road, killing his parents, and killing his relatives.

He killed anyone he encountered, as easily as chopping melons and vegetables, leaving the huge restaurant filled with rolling heads and piles of corpses.

Finally, after killing his way through the area, Fang Shu returned to the main hall of the restaurant, his long tongue sword now saturated with the blood of demons, glistening with vibrant color.

Even he himself was flushed and swaying, as if he were drunk.

At that moment, in the main hall, a ragged woman was kneeling, holding a swaddled baby, whose cries could be heard from inside.

The woman looked at Fang Shu with a pitiful expression: "Taoist priest, please have mercy! I was captured. I don't ask to live, I only beg you to spare my son. He doesn't understand anything..."

"Okay." Fang Shu stepped forward, making a gesture to take the swaddling clothes.

The woman was delighted and immediately wanted to send the swaddled baby out.

But then, a loud cracking sound rang out as the jar shattered!

Fang Shu swung his sword with the momentum, not only piercing the swaddling clothes in the woman's hands, but also pinning her to the ground, blood flowing incessantly from her chest.

Whoosh! The surrounding scenery changed instantly.

The restaurant swayed, the tiles, beams, and bricks fell away, leaving only human hair turned into felt, rotten bones piled up, and blood stuck together to form a tattered curtain.

The curtain covered three sides, with cliffs on all three sides, hundreds of feet deep, shrouded in mist.

The original entrance to the restaurant is now the only passageway leading down the cliff. In the center of the passageway hang two wet human skins, with a copper bell hanging from them.

When the wind blew, the human skin rattled.

As for the corpses of the old and young in the restaurant, they had all turned into chickens, ducks, cats, dogs, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, snakes, insects, rats and ants, all of them dying tragically on the ground. Only in the main hall were two halves of a emaciated human body lying there.

Fang Shu glanced at the woman in the hall and realized that she was none other than Hu Dongjia.

The swaddled baby in its hands was the jar of wine that was to be given away earlier.

The wine was dark red, and as it was spilled, it sizzled. A swarm of poisonous bees emerged from it, buzzing and stinging the thin tiger. The bees immediately burrowed into its flesh, causing it excruciating pain and making it howl incessantly.

The old demon lay sprawled on the ground, glaring venomously at Fang Shu. Knowing its life was in danger, it could only grumble softly, "What a ferocious and vicious creature! What a ruthless killer..."

Fang Shu looked at the tiger demon, somewhat surprised.

He wasn't surprised by the other party's cunning and hypocrisy, but rather by how easily this fellow could be killed, being finished off with a single sword strike.

However, Fang Shu didn't waste any words. He swiftly sheathed his sword and continued to stab the other man through the heart, severing his head as well.

Only then did he notice something amiss, and he used his sword to lift the tiger demon and gave it a slight shake.

Roll!

A gaunt fox body rolled out of the tiger skin, and the huge tiger head transformed into a long, thin fox head—it was the old fox herder from before.

It died with its eyes wide open, glaring venomously at Fang Shu, its mouth still slightly agape.

Fang Shu suddenly realized: "So it was 'the fox borrowing the tiger's power'."

His body swayed, as he nimbly dodged several poisonous bees that emerged from the old fox's mouth.

The poisonous wasp wobbled and fell to the ground, turning into pus that even corroded the rocks on the ground, making them hiss.

Fang Shu raised an eyebrow at this.

He then strolled among the corpses of spirits and monsters scattered across the mountains and cliffs, checking their condition before swallowing the sword.

He stopped, suddenly looked back at the old fox's corpse, and shook his head, saying, "Why use poison? Has the shopkeeper forgotten?"

"The mouth of a green bamboo snake, the stinger of a wasp's tail. Neither of them are poisonous—" Fang Shu recited.

He smiled gently:
"The most poisonous thing is the human heart."

(End of this chapter)