The Quest for Immortality Chapter 2347: Awakening

Crimson stained his hands, his neck felt persistently slick, as if an endless flow of blood continued to pour forth.

A wave of fear washed over the burly man, quickly followed by burning anger. He activated the intricate runes etched across his body, causing sparks to erupt and illuminating his form as his fists, now charged with the might of divine symbols, lashed out.

"You vile creature, I will extinguish you!"

Yet, his powerful sweeps met only empty air; nothing was there to be seen.

He had no inkling of what malevolent entity had "touched" him.

As the burly man's rage intensified, his mind grew turbulent, and a crack appeared in his Dao Heart, accelerating the insidious spread of wicked thoughts.

The crimson lip print upon his neck grew even more vivid, its hue deepening as it began a slow creep towards his chest.

True Man Situ, startled by this development, swiftly deployed the Red Gold Cup, directing its Six Yang light towards the afflicted man.

Under the radiance of the Red Gold Cup, the Six Yang Qi acted like boiling water against the burly man's neck, causing the skin to rapidly char and wither, even emitting wisps of white smoke.

"Sever the flesh!" True Man Situ commanded without hesitation.

The Taoist priest brandished his Peach Wood Sword, swiftly carving into the burly man's neck, excising the flesh tainted by the divine mark and removing the offending lip print.

Though his Primordial Spirit suffered damage, the burly man cried out in agony. Understanding the grave danger, he grit his teeth and endured the searing pain. He conjured a Fire Talisman at the wounded site, unleashing a torrent of blazing flames to purify the evil Qi, cauterizing the flesh to staunch the bleeding and initiate healing.

The others quickly activated their Divine Thought Skills and Magic Treasures, forming a protective cordon around the burly man while maintaining vigilant observation.

The monk, too, invoked his prayer beads, inciting the power of Sanskrit chants to provide a shield for them all.

However, with a fleeting glance to the side, he suddenly perceived a graceful, sinister shadow materializing beside him. A crimson mark began to creep alarmingly close, and his heart leaped in alarm. Without a second thought, he amplified the power of his Sanskrit prayer beads to their absolute limit.

The golden Sanskrit light repelled the scarlet mark and banished the shadowy apparition.

A sliver of calm settled over the monk's heart, but in the very next instant, a damp, clinging sensation spread across the back of his neck.

An icy dread coursed through his entire being.

"Impossible! The Sanskrit of the Great Brahman Temple cannot be so easily thwarted by this malevolent presence!"

"Has my devotion to the Buddha wavered?"

"Am I succumbing to these wicked temptations?"

"No, this cannot be..."

The monk clenched his jaw, silencing his external protests, but his facial muscles betrayed his inner turmoil, twitching uncontrollably.

He felt, deep within, that his connection to the Buddha should be unwavering, yet he found himself questioning the very foundation of his spiritual path, pondering if his cultivation was righteous or misguided, and if his adherence to the monastic precepts had slackened.

The more he strove to reaffirm his devotion, the heavier the burden of self-doubt grew in his heart.

With each surge of doubt, his fear intensified.

It felt as if every step he had taken on his path of cultivation throughout his life had been fundamentally flawed.

This perceived misstep on his cultivation journey, he reasoned, must be why he was vulnerable to the evil object's insidious allure.

Emerging from the lingering gloom, he had traversed a considerable distance, his existence a constant struggle against monsters and spirits, his emotions kept tightly leashed. Now, that pent-up tension surged back like a relentless tide, overwhelming the monk and constricting his breath.

As his mind reeled in confusion, he perceived a figure in the far distance, calmly approaching.

It was an entity of surpassing grace and exquisite delicacy.

With skin like chilled jade and bones of precious stone, her form was draped in sheer fabrics that offered tantalizing glimpses of her alluring beauty, igniting an almost unbearable yearning within his soul. Her countenance was breathtakingly fine, her eyes held a captivating depth, and her fair, jade-like feet seemed to tread directly upon the monk's tormented heart with every step.

The monk fiercely suppressed the desires stirring within him, his gaze hardening as he uttered a quiet vow:

"Vile specter, cease your attempts to corrupt my Buddha Heart!"

"All worldly entanglements are but fleeting illusions; beautiful women are merely decaying corpses."

The monk initiated his mental cultivation technique, softly repeating the mantra, "Worldly dust, illusion; beautiful women, corpses," and as he did, the ethereal, charming figure before him began to visibly transform.

Her exquisitely beautiful face, once radiant, decayed into putrid flesh.

Her skin of flawless jade and bones of precious stone withered and decomposed, revealing the stark white of a skeleton beneath.

The monk's carnal desires subsided, vanishing like ripples on a tranquil pond.

However, before he could fully exhale in relief, it was as if time itself rewound.

The visage, once resembling decaying mud, seamlessly reverted to alabaster perfection, regaining its vibrant beauty.

Flesh regenerated upon the stark white bones, and beneath the flawless skin, the figure once again assumed its alluring, captivating form.

Furthermore, she now appeared entirely unclothed, making her even more intoxicatingly tempting.

The monk's desires flared anew, like a rapidly growing inferno.

"Beautiful women are skeletons..."

The monk desperately clung to his heart-protecting incantation.

Before his very eyes, the woman's spectral form once more dissolved into naught but mud and bone.

The monk’s carnal desires began to subside, but in an instant, the rotting flesh and skeletal form reformed into a tempting body once more.

Despite the monk chanting incantations to safeguard his spirit, the exquisite face and moon-like visage remained captivating, the icy skin and jade-like bones continuously ensnaring his heart.

His mental fortitude teetered on the brink of ruin, and fear began to grip the monk's heart.

Yet, all he could do was watch as the graceful, jade-like figure advanced towards him, step by measured step.

Before his very eyes, the pallor of the form grew more distinct, and the faint, yet distinct, aroma of blood mingled with a bodily fragrance reached his nostrils.

The monk understood that the alluring beauty before him was merely putrid flesh, merely white bones.

However, no matter how he attempted to sever his temptations, how he compelled himself to change his perception, a beauty remained undeniably a beauty.

For a fleeting moment, a thought even surfaced in his mind:

Regardless of whether it's decaying flesh and bone, to be intimate with such a vision would be a fortune granted across three lifetimes. Why should the reality matter?

The instant this thought took root, a blaze erupted within the monk's soul, yet an icy chill simultaneously seeped in.

He knew then, his end was nigh...

A devoted practitioner of precepts should possess subdued desires.

But once those sacred precepts are shattered, desires erupt like a cataclysmic flood, surging and overwhelming everything in their path.

Precisely as if sensing the stirrings of his longing, the bewitching woman graced him with a passionate smile, her eyes swirling with potent seduction.

Her lips, a vivid crimson, beckoned with undeniable allure.

The woman enfolded the monk in an embrace, her ruby-red lips pressing against his cheeks and neck in succession.

An intoxicating desire began to consume the monk.

Within the monk’s heart bloomed a sense of ecstatic joy, yet it was irrevocably intertwined with profound regret and dread, his face contorted in a struggle of agony.

Moments later, a brilliant radiance of Six Yang Red Gold surged forth, incinerating the captivating woman and reducing her to a desiccated husk.