Chapter 88: I've Reached Enlightenment! A Foot Massage Is Also the Dao!

"Look at this Pocket Watch." A dark gold Pocket Watch adorned with an Ouroboros pattern entered Jun Wushang's line of sight.

A moment later, Jun Wushang threw his eyes open. He stared at Su Mu in mounting excitement. "Brother Su, I've reached enlightenment! A foot massage is also the Dao! The Dao is everywhere. As vast as the high heavens and the deep earth, as small as a single flower or tree—all conceal the rhythm of the Dao. It can be the first ray of morning sunlight, or it can be the bed that Number 6 made for me, and the bowl of clear soup Number 8 brought to my lips."

Beside them, Yang Dongqing stared in dumbfounded shock. "You actually ordered two at once?"

Jun Wushang grew increasingly animated, as if he had finally brushed against the Dao he had spent his life bitterly pursuing.

"Brother Yang, you're clinging to superficial appearances. How many I ordered isn't the point. The point is, how can one transcend the world without first plunging into it? Without experiencing the temptations of the mortal realm, how can one comprehend the profundity of the Great Dao? Strip away the flesh, and a person is nothing but two hundred and six bones. Put on clothes, and they take on eighteen thousand different forms. Viewing a beauty as a dry skeleton frees me of desire; viewing a dry skeleton as a beauty frees me of fear. Without desire and without fear, the Great Dao is within reach..."

Staring at the pontificating Jun Wushang, Yang Dongqing held his tongue for a long time before finally squeezing out a single word: "Fuck!"

"So that's your excuse for getting a foot massage without paying?"

"Enough, Jun Wushang. Go back in front of the statue, answer its question again, and change your faction." Su Mu really didn't want to listen to these two bicker anymore and flatly hurried him along.

"You got it, Brother Su." Having glimpsed the Great Dao, Jun Wushang walked briskly up to the divine statue and answered its question once more.

Just as expected, now that he firmly believed a foot massage was also the Dao, the rot covering his body vanished, replaced entirely by burn scars.

"Yang Dongqing, your turn." Su Mu glanced his way.

Yang Dongqing took a deep breath, his eyes brimming with distrust. "Don't use this as an excuse to brainwash me with any weird ideas."

Su Mu couldn't even be bothered to respond. This kind of hotheaded fool was someone he could easily control without needing an Illusion Technique. Unless absolutely necessary, he didn't want to waste his mental energy on Yang Dongqing. He'd be better off feeding it to Bubai.

A moment later, Yang Dongqing's eyes regained their clarity. "I've figured it out now. Robbing the rich to help the poor is an act of justice, and no one ever made a rule saying you can't rob the wealth of others to relieve your own poverty."

He then went to the divine statue and switched his faction as well.

Finally came Zhao Yongqiang, who had practically zero presence. Considering the man was a member of the Bronze Coffin and thus counted as his subordinate, Su Mu hypnotized him and changed his faction too.

With that, the number of Angel Believers rose to four, while the Demon Believers were reduced to just two.

Due to this shift in numbers, Su Mu and the others noticed the burns on their bodies beginning to fade. Conversely, the rot afflicting Tie Feng's duo rapidly worsened.

"Brother Su, since we can change factions this way, we don't need to slaughter Tie Feng and his partner. Can't we just hypnotize them too?" Jun Wushang suggested.

Su Mu simply shook his head. "Do you think Tie Feng and his partner would ever agree to that?"

"They..." Jun Wushang faltered, the rest of his sentence catching in his throat. He was right. How could Tie Feng's duo ever agree to be hypnotized? It would be the equivalent of handing their lives completely over to someone else. If Su Mu harbored any ill intent and slipped hidden commands into the hypnosis, those two might be reduced to lifelong slaves.

"How about I go try to persuade them?" Jun Wushang offered after a moment's thought. "They're only refusing the hypnosis out of fear of being controlled. But I've already accepted it, and aren't I perfectly fine? Maybe a little friendly persuasion will work."

Su Mu smiled faintly. "You want to persuade them? Take a wild guess—do you think they'll assume you're speaking freely, or that I'm already controlling you to trick them?"

"That..." Jun Wushang was instantly at a loss for words.

"Besides, who told you I wouldn't use the hypnosis to control them? Why would I turn down two powerful thugs?"

"Brother Su, stop joking around. You're a good person. If you really wanted to do that, I'd definitely be the first one you brainwashed."

"Oh? And how can you be so sure you haven't been brainwashed by me?" A mysterious smile played at the corners of Su Mu's mouth.

Jun Wushang snorted with laughter. "Brother Su, listen to yourself. Wouldn't I know if I'd been brainwashed or not?"

Su Mu smiled without saying a word. Standing beside them, a bizarre feeling crept into Yang Dongqing's heart. 'Something is fucking wrong with Jun Wushang. The guy just straight-up told him the truth, yet he still thinks Su Mu is a good person? Fuck! Has he actually been brainwashed?'

A wave of panic washed over Yang Dongqing at the thought. He even began to wonder if Su Mu had taken the opportunity to brainwash him just now. But on second thought, he figured it was unlikely. After all, he had already agreed to work for him for three years; there was no need for brainwashing. Reassured by this logic, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

...

...

"Ah! My arm!" Tie Feng, who was currently running for his life, suddenly let out a miserable shriek. He raised his arm, only to discover that the rot that had previously healed had reappeared, and it was rapidly spreading.

The man with the Blazing Sun Chains was suffering the same fate. Panic was written all over his face. "What's going on? Why is the rotting speeding up? Could it be that Su Mu killed Jun Wushang and the others, strengthening the Angel faction?"

Suddenly, Tie Feng looked back at the Shadow Legion relentlessly pursuing them. The ruthless glint of a man forced into a dead end flashed through his eyes, making him look like a heavily injured beast preparing for a desperate final strike.

"We can't keep going like this. If we drag this out any longer, even if the Shadow Legion doesn't kill us, the demon's curse will! We have to fight!"

Tie Feng let out a furious roar, abruptly spinning around and charging headlong into the Shadow Legion.

Seeing this, a look of utter madness overtook the Blazing Sun Chains man's face. "Motherfucker, let's do this!"

The two of them launched a suicidal charge against the hundreds of shadowy entities of the Shadow Legion.

However, the moment the two sides clashed, the pair froze dead in their tracks. Their attacks passed right through the Shadow Legion, as if they were swinging at thin air.

"This..."

The two exchanged a look of pure disbelief, each seeing the shock and fury reflected in the other's eyes.

"Fuck! This is an Illusion Technique too! We got fucking played!" Tie Feng roared in fury, feeling as though Su Mu had dragged his intelligence through the dirt. Being tricked wasn't what terrified him; what terrified him was falling for the exact same trick twice in a row.

"Wait, that's not right. If this is an Illusion Technique, then how did Xie Quan die?"

A vicious glint burst from Tie Feng's eyes. "You're asking me? Who the hell am I supposed to ask? I don't care how Xie Quan died! All I know is that if we don't kill Su Mu right now, you and I are both dead men! Come on, we're going back to kill him!"

It didn't take long for Tie Feng and his partner to charge all the way back. However, when they finally found Su Mu, they discovered him standing in the middle of a pile of corpses. His pale hands were stained with fresh blood, and lying at his feet were the gruesomely dead bodies of Jun Wushang, Yang Dongqing, and the others.

Tie Feng's pupils shrank. It was exactly as he had suspected! Su Mu really had slaughtered Jun Wushang and the rest, which was why the curse afflicting the two of them had grown so intense.