Chapter 36

Later In The Day…..

Yun Xie sat in a patch of dead grass, watching as the larger-than-life Snail stewed about in a pot. Though he had tried escargot in his previous life, Yun Xie wondered if this would be any different if eaten. Sometimes, Li Qi Ye could come up with the most hilarious forms of torture.

It was a large brass pot, circular in shape, with two giant handles and carvings down its sides. The water was boiling, as the Snail inside panicked, its weird tentacles attempting to reach out, to no avail.

Just a few moments ago, Li Qi Ye had hacked at it with his blade, drawing that fancy thing called Longevity Blood out of the Snail, which now caused it to be terrified. Gamabunta, having nothing better to do, just smoked his pipe, strolling around the Cleansing Land like it was a Park.

"Ah..!!!! Please don't kill me. No kill me! Please!!!!" The Snail was screaming its lungs out, shaking frantically as the water boiled, and blood filled the pot.

"Hm. Snails, really are quite eccentric!" Yun Xie laughed cheerfully, Li Shuangyan watching in morbid curiosity, as Li Qi Ye taunted the Snail, prodding it with a random stick. Nan Huai Ren sighed, thinking that he himself would feel the same if someone tried to boil him alive….

"How about this then? You can be my mount and I won't cook you alive…." Li Qi Ye glared at it, prodding the creature's shell.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" The Snail nodded its two bulbous eyes and head in terror and some respect. In the original, it had taken some more convincing, but with the presence of the giant Toad, things had sped up quite a bit. Not like Yun Xie would complain. His Bandit King plan had been going on for quite a while, and Aoi Todo and friends were becoming pretty well known.

Taking out a bottle of apple cider, Yun Xie watched as the two comedians, the Snail, and Li Qi Ye went about. Later, his name was revealed to be Niu Fen…. And, he turned into this grim old man, his second body. For some reason, in many canon situations, he felt the best route to go was to sit back, relax, and drink some random thing. It was almost a habit now….

"Huh! Niu Fen as in Bull-" Nan Huai Ren's eyes literally popped out of their sockets, as he covered his mouth, trying not to laugh.

(A/N: Just to clarify, Niu in Chinese means cow, or bull, and fen means poo. So…. You get the idea.)

Niu Fen scratched his head in embarrassment, muttering something, before replying. "It is Niu Fen(effort), Fen as in to put in effort!"

"He's become a lot more docile it seems…." Yun Xie chatted with Li Shuangyan, who spoke back.

"After being thrown around by a Giant Toad, and almost being boiled alive, it would make quite some sense….." Li Shuangyan sighed, looking as Nan Huai Ren profusely apologized, being the polite guy he was. But wasn't he just laughing at the Snail moments before? Now that she was around Yun Xie, she seemed to have changed. Now she thought over more menial things that a normal cultivator would do in a new view…...

Few Minutes Later….

"So, you want to be buried alive. Seems fun…." Yun Xie smiled as he watched Li Qi Ye and the rest dug a hole. Gamabunta sat behind Yun Xie watching over the procession curiously.

"Hmm… Humans. I can never understand what is going on in those dumb little brains of theirs…." The Toad sighed, plopping onto the floor, beady yellow eyes darting around.

"That was uncalled for…." Replying, Yun Xie looked up at the giant amphibian, who peered down at him in return, sloppily lapping his hair with his giant toad tongue.

Getting up, he patted some dirt off his pants and walked over to the rest, who were watching as Li Qi Ye got into the hole, the rest staring at him, deep in thought.

"Seems to be doing a ritual of sorts…" Niu Fen commented, looking down at the hole. Li Qi Ye had told them to completely bury him. "Most likely to communicate with something." He spoke again, musing as if it was anything interesting. Actually, it was interesting, but not something a normal person would profoundly contemplate over.

"Eh…. Well, Qi Ye seems like he is going to be preoccupied for a while….. " Yun Xie looked down at the patch of freshly dug earth, faintly hearing the sound of someone breathing below. What was he, a worm? Looking up, he turned around to Nan Huai Ren and Li Shuangyan, who stared back at him expectantly. Honestly, now it felt like Yun Xie and Li Qi Ye was the ringleaders and the two were lackeys or something.... Suddenly, Yun Xie smiled, eyes lit up.

"Senior Xie…?" Nan Huai Ren spoke carefully, not knowing what Yun Xie was up to now...

"While Li Qi Ye is out doing his.... Secret Earthern Communication Art or whatever it called, wanna go on vacation? He must be driving you pretty hard after all….." Stretching his shoulders, there seemed to be an evil glint in Yun Xie's eyes….

Nan Huai Ren had an ominous feeling about this….

Three Hours Later…..

[Amplify], a beautiful and overpowered ability. It could be used for many things, but one of the more useful ones that Yun Xie thought, was when used on summons, like Shikigami and of course, Summons. When one was "summoned" or conjured or whatever with [Amplify] in effect, all of their previous abilities were enhanced by quite a bit. Gamabunta was no exception, now a….. Super Toad of sorts.

"AAHHH!!!!!!!" Nan Huai Ren hung on for dear life as the Toad lunged through the air at top speeds, over trees and mountains with ease. Li Shuangyan was doing a bit better, with her higher cultivation base and such, her clean white dress billowing in the wind, a small grin on her face. Yun Xie smirked as he looked at Huai Ren. They were heading west of the Cleansing Incense Sect, towards a….. Place of interest. He had attached some Bungee Gum to the poor guy so he wouldn't fall off even if he let go.

"Where are we headed?" Li Shuangyan asked, trying to stay calm as momentum shook her around as Gamabunta hopped on.

"You'll see….." Yun Xie grinned, sitting in a lotus position on the top of Gamabunta's head. Li Shuangyan and Nan Huai Ren sat upon his back.