Chapter 266: Beast Of Hundun
Lin Ling held the nail hammer and walked toward Fang Mu, chuckling as he said, “Just kidding, I’ll carefully tell you the method of using them.”
Fang Mu instinctively retreated half a step, but soon realized that such performance seemed too undignified and might cause the other’s dissatisfaction, so he forcibly tensed his muscles and stopped retreating, steeling himself to watch Lin Ling approach him.
At a position about one step away from him, Lin Ling stopped, lifted the nail with its tip aimed at his heart, raised the hammer as if ready to smash down at any moment, and Fang Mu’s tense limbs couldn’t help but tremble.
Lin Ling pretended not to notice and slowly said, “The method of using them is also very simple: just aim at the body and hammer down.”
“……You want me to chisel who with it? The Toad God?” Fang Mu’s facial expression changed drastically. He was an ordinary person who might not even beat a local dog, and asking him to attack a sinister deity—wasn’t that sending him to his death?
Lin Ling smiled faintly, retracted his dangerous action, handed the nail hammer to Fang Mu’s hand, and said eerily, “Not necessarily, you could also chisel yourself.”
Fang Mu’s lips twitched. This boss was indeed not normal. Looking at the nail hammer in his hand, he said sullenly, “Does this nail hammer have any use?”
Hearing this, Lin Ling didn’t answer him immediately, but said, “Do you want to know the origin of this nail hammer?”
“Please tell me.” Fang Mu nodded.
Lin Ling sat back down on the recliner and spoke leisurely, “Once there was a…… strange beast called Hundun. It had eyes but couldn’t see, ears but couldn’t hear, a nose but couldn’t breathe, a mouth but couldn’t speak or taste flavors, yet it had human-like awareness. It had two neighbors, one living on the sea to the south, one on the sea to the north. The two neighbors often visited it, and it liked these two neighbors very much, often warmly receiving them.
Over time, the two neighbors were very grateful to Hundun for his warm care of them, but also felt embarrassed because they always ate well, drank well, and played well each time, while Hundun, as the host, couldn’t enjoy the same pleasures with them. So the two neighbors discussed helping it, making it like them.
Making its eyes able to open and see all things in the world; nose able to breathe and smell fragrant scents; ears able to hear and listen to the sounds of all things; mouth able to speak and taste flavors, express feelings and enjoy delicious food.
They got to work, forging the nail and hammer, opening one acupoint on Hundun’s body each day. As a result, after seven days, Hundun died.”
Lin Ling’s story ended here. The plot was jumpy, bizarre, beyond human logic, thinking, and understanding.
Fang Mu trembled all over, feeling the nail hammer in his hand become extraordinarily heavy. “Could it be that this nail hammer…”
“Yeah.” Lin Ling smiled faintly. “It’s what Hundun’s two good neighbors left behind.”
“So…… this nail hammer can kill a god?” Fang Mu breathed heavily, his eyes gleaming, feeling like he had obtained a divine weapon and sharp tool.
Lin Ling blinked, neither confirming nor denying, “As long as you can hammer it in.”
Fang Mu quickly regained his calm, feeling his earlier thought was a bit foolish. This nail hammer might really have divine power, but he was just an ordinary person. Not to mention using this divine weapon to attack the Toad God—he didn’t even have the chance or courage to face the Toad God directly. If the Toad God appeared before him, he would likely be effortlessly eliminated by the other without even seeing their shadow.
So, this nail hammer definitely wasn’t for dealing with the Toad God…
Thinking of Lin Ling’s earlier joking tone saying “you could also chisel yourself,” Fang Mu shivered, a bad premonition surging in his heart.
“That’ll be 500 yuan.” When Fang Mu’s gaze turned to Lin Ling, he saw the other smiling at him and speaking.
……
Fang Mu felt like he had had a dream, but the weight and feel of the nail hammer in his hand let him know he had experienced a strange encounter.
Fang Mu wanted to look back at the forest he had walked out of, but discovered there was no road back. That forest was gone, and he was back in that dark and deep cave, with Toad Frog chirps echoing around him from near and far.
Thinking of the method to use the nail hammer—chisel into his own seven orifices—Fang Mu immediately felt a chill, but he gritted his teeth and thought: “If…… if I really am Jianhua and Jingjing’s father, if I returned to the past from the future for some reason, then it means I won’t die next, at least not here, not at this time, so even if I really chisel into my own seven orifices, I’ll be fine, right?”
Fang Mu raised the nail hammer, nail tip aimed at his eye, thought for a moment, then turned it to his left ear.
In the darkness, a sound of increasingly rapid breathing came.
Dang!
With a metallic collision strike, the sound of flesh and blood being pierced rang out simultaneously, followed by a heart-wrenching wail echoing through the entire dark cave…
After Fang Mu left, the three employees of the forest cabin were still savoring the story Lin Ling told. The white-clothed woman Chen Xiaolin curiously asked Lin Ling, “Boss, is there a continuation to that story about the strange beast Hundun you just told?”
“Yes.” Lin Ling, leisurely sipping tea, nodded lightly after taking a sip.
“Can you tell us what happened next?” Chen Xiaolin asked curiously. Though she had died as a human, her curiosity as a reporter had continued.
Lin Ling looked emotional and said, “What else could happen? They had personally killed their friendly neighbor and friend, so they went mad.”
Chen Xiaolin was somewhat stunned to hear this. She hadn’t expected deities to have such fragile hearts—just this and they went mad?
While Chen Xiaolin was muttering to herself, the black-clothed employee Li Duojin was flipping through a strange book in the shop named 《Divine Wonders Classic》. Boss Lin had said they could read any books on the corner bookshelf if interested, and he vaguely remembered seeing an introduction to the strange beast “Hundun” in this book.
He flipped through for a while and finally found the text describing the strange beast Hundun: In the west of Kunlun there is a beast, shaped like a dog, with long hair and four feet, like a bear but without claws, with eyes but sees not, cannot open its stride, two ears but hears not, knows when people come and goes to them, has belly without five organs, has intestines straight without turning, food passes straight through. If encountering a person of virtue, it butts and collides with them; if encountering a person of evil, it approaches and allows itself to be used. Heaven makes it so, named Hundun.
The translated meaning is roughly: In the western part of Kunlun Mountain there is a strange beast, shaped like a dog, with fur and four legs, like a bear but without claws. Has eyes but cannot see, cannot move; has two ears but cannot hear, goes when knowing someone comes; has a belly but no five organs; has intestines but straight without coiling, food passes straight through. If meeting a person of noble character, it resists and collides with them; if meeting a person of vile character, it draws near and submits to them. Heaven ordains it so, named Hundun.
“Confuses good and evil, chaotic and unbearable, a beast that inverts black and white.” Li Duojin murmured to himself, “Then the two deities kindly treated by Hundun must be…… not good?”
He flipped through a few more books on the bookshelf and discovered that this Hundun beast had quite a background, actually bearing the title of one of the four great vicious beasts.
One of the ancient manuscripts he was reading even specifically noted Hundun’s ability. While reading, Li Duojin couldn’t help glancing at Boss Lin, because he recognized it as the boss’s handwriting.
The manuscript wrote in straightforward text: Hundun is the reverse of all positives, the inversion of beauty, the root of confusion, the manifestation of turbidity. After Shuhu unexpectedly chiseled it to death, Shuhu was forced to bear its karma, and thus went mad.
What is Shuhu?
Shu and Hu dwell in the seas of south and north, presiding over time and space. After bearing Hundun’s karma, the two mingled in turbidity, became indistinct, spacetime entangled, all things returned to one, one transformed to all things, transcending and detached, now widely known by the name—Transcendent of All Things.
