Chương 111: Sheep Are Greedy

Some say the sheep's ancestor is the Taotie, because it is just as greedy as that primordial beast. A hungry sheep will devour every plant in sight. Wild grass, wildflowers, wheat sprouts, bean vines, tree branches, leaves, even bark. Nothing is spared. If it's edible, they'll rip it out by the roots and swallow it whole. They get hungry too fast. Once all the plants are gone, they turn to meat. They'll eat chicks, ducklings, anything weaker than themselves. To fill their bellies, they'll stop at nothing.

Take the running goat, for example. They've mastered the art of climbing cliffs just to reach the wild fruits growing among the rocks. Sometimes they even climb trees to steal bird eggs, one after another, until they've eaten the whole nest. Then they uproot the entire tree and stuff it down their throats. If they eat every living thing in the world, they'll start eating dirt. They'll dig up the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, zinc, even coal from underground. They'll gnaw through the entire planet.

They won't even leave their own droppings behind. From this perspective, sheep are the ancestors of the Taotie, and the Taotie is merely a child of the sheep. The Taotie thinks of itself as a proud, solitary wolf. It disguises itself with a fierce, wolf-like appearance. But no matter what, it can never hide the goat horns sprouting from its head, nor can it hide the hunger in its heart.

"I don't know why, but I'm always so hungry, Mother," Fang Cheng said. Abara replied, "Come, my child. Though I have no milk, I have sweet blood in my veins."

"Haha, Mother is so good to me." Fang Cheng was overjoyed. He threw himself into Abara's arms, acting like a spoiled child, then bared his white, greedy teeth and began to suckle the sweet blood. A sheep's greatest skill is turning its blade against the weak. At the same time, it displays its own helplessness with perfect clarity, whining pitifully: "Mother, your armor is so thick. I can't bite through it. My teeth are going to break. Wuwuwu..."

"Don't worry, my darling. Let me pull off my scales." Abara gently stroked Fang Cheng's head, then began tearing off his own scales, one by one, with his hands. Bright red blood sprayed out, blooming in beautiful, sinister patterns on the ground. Abara's face twisted in pain, but he kept smiling. That was the spirit of the great mother sheep. He remembered his own mother, who had nourished him with her life, who had raised him with such devotion. She had been so brave, so kind. He would be the same.

"Haha, Mother is so good to me." Fang Cheng opened his mouth, using his bloodstained teeth to devour Abara's offering without mercy. He had been starving for so long, he wanted to tear this great mother sheep apart and swallow her whole. Abara groaned in pain.

"Don't be so rough, my child. Let me rest a moment, then I'll give you more. Be good, listen to me."

"No, Mother. You must hold on. Because you are the great mother sheep, and it's precisely because of your greatness that you must have the spirit of sacrifice!" Fang Cheng knelt down, like a lamb awaiting slaughter, and gorged himself on the great mother sheep's gift. A lamb kneels to nurse. Every newborn lamb, in gratitude for its mother's great kindness, kneels before her in reverence. They say, "Mother, you are my lord. You give me food. I will always remember your kindness. You will always be my mother.

If anyone bullies you, they will have to answer to me." Fang Cheng said, "The great little Pu brought us the spark of hope. And the even greater mother sheep brought us the five grains. Remember when we had nothing but wild vegetables and fruit? But you, Mother, a great mother sheep, stole the five grains from the celestial realm and saved us from starvation!

"You are a heavenly maiden, and I am a lowly mortal. You slaughtered yourself to feed me. Wuwuwu, how great you are. Please accept my bow. You are my mother, my own mother!" Fang Cheng bowed before Abara, kowtowing like a pestle pounding garlic, tears streaming down his forehead. His mouth never stopped moving, his long tongue greedily lapping up Abara's power. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Really? Am I that great?" Abara asked, confused.

"Of course," Fang Cheng answered with certainty.

"Look. Whether it's rice or wheat, they all look like your horns. Here, feel for yourself." Abara touched his own goat horns and nodded in agreement.

"No wonder I always found those grains so familiar. So they were shaped after my horns." Fang Cheng continued, "Exactly. The five grains are your five horns. Mother, to prove your greatness, please remove your horns and give them to this lowly mortal."

"Oh, you want my horns? Then take them." With that, Abara tore off his horns, one after another, ripping them out along with his scalp and skull, exposing the soft, white brain beneath.

"Here, child. Take it all." Abara handed over all his horns, his greatest source of power, and placed them in Fang Cheng's mouth.

"Haha, Mother is so good to me." Fang Cheng was thrilled. He grabbed the horns with both hands and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing ravenously. As Abara watched Fang Cheng eat, an emptiness crept into his heart. He looked down and saw that his skin had grown withered, and his body was wasting away. What was happening? Was he dying? No. He was the great mother sheep. How could he die? Wait. No. This wasn't right. He wasn't a mother sheep at all. He was the great Abara!

Suddenly, Abara was seized by a wave of terror. He snapped back to reality. What was happening? He had been enslaved by a lowly mortal cultivator! This wretch was devouring his flesh and life! Could it be that he, the great Abara, would die today at the hands of this miserable brat? Abara roared in fury: "Damn you! How dare you deceive me! How dare you! You worthless slave, how dare you trick your master!"

"Burp!"

"Burp!" Fang Cheng stood up, let out a satisfied burp, licked his lips, and said with complete seriousness: "Mother, you're wrong. You're not Abara. You're the great mother sheep. I am your son. Our relationship isn't master and slave. It's mother and son. Haha, great mother sheep, even though I've eaten most of your power, I still love you. Just as you love me, your love is selfless." Abara was speechless with rage, but then he realized something was terribly wrong. Fang Cheng hadn't stopped feeding.

His power was draining away faster and faster.

"Damn it! You've had your fill! Why won't you stop? Please! Spare me! Wuwuwu, you're my mother now, okay? Just let me go..." Abara was crying now. He finally understood. This bastard had been playing dumb all along. He wasn't some mortal cultivator. He was something so terrifying that even Abara couldn't resist him. He was already exhausted, weak, barely able to breathe. He was going to die. Wuwuwu...

"Burp!"

"Burp!"

"Burp!" Fang Cheng ate happily, letting out several burps. At the same time, he comforted Abara: "Mother, my dear mother, you once taught me not to waste food. I've always remembered that lesson! Haha, I'm going to keep eating. Even if I burst, even if my belly explodes, I will devour you completely. Because that's my love for you! Hahahaha, I will love you to death. I will use your death to show how fierce, how deep, how powerful, how intoxicating my love for you truly is!"

"Hahahaha..." Fang Cheng burst into laughter. Behind him, a colossal phantom began to take shape, writhing and twisting like smoke given form. It rose from his back like a living shadow, spreading outward until it blotted out the sky above the hilltop. This was not merely the Dharma Manifestation of a Sixth Realm cultivator. It was something far darker, far more terrible. The image of Fang Cheng and the essence of the fallen Abara had fused into a single monstrous form, a grotesque union of man and demon.

The phantom's body was massive, towering over the hilltop like a mountain of living darkness. Its flesh was a patchwork of Fang Cheng's human form and Abara's goat-like features, twisted together in an unholy fusion. The skin was ashen and cracked, pulsing with veins of molten, fiery red that seemed to burn from within. Its face bore the vague outline of Fang Cheng's own visage, but stretched and warped beyond recognition.

The eyes were twin pits of abyssal darkness, yet within them flickered embers of crimson flame, like dying stars in a void of pure malice. Its mouth was split wide in a permanent, hideous grin, revealing rows of jagged, razor-sharp fangs, dripping with a black, viscous substance that sizzled and smoked as it hit the ground. Atop its head, five colossal horns spiraled upward, each one a twisted mockery of Abara's own. They were black as obsidian, veined with glowing purple fissures that pulsed like a heartbeat.

The largest of them curved forward like a ram's, its tip sharp enough to pierce the heavens. The others twisted in different directions, some curling back like a demon's crown, others jutting forward like spears. Between them, arcs of black lightning crackled and snapped, scorching the air and leaving trails of ozone and brimstone. The phantom's body was covered in a patchwork of scales and matted black fur, some smooth and hard like Abara's armor, others coarse and bristling like the hide of a beast.

From its back sprouted jagged spines that ran down its spine, each one gleaming with a sickly purple light. Its hands were massive, clawed things, each finger ending in a talon that could rend steel and stone alike. From its mouth, a forked tongue flickered, long and serpentine, tasting the air with predatory hunger. The culmination of Fang Cheng's greed and Abara's power, a demonic fusion that stood at the crossroads of mortal ambition and infernal hunger.

It was a thing of nightmares, a creature that should not exist, born from the unholy union of man and demon.