Chapter 89: Ouroboros

Mo Lin had no interest in watching Wuzhen perform a live spring palace act, so he broke into the meditation room, rushing straight at Wuzhen.

Inside the room, the naked Wuzhen was shocked and horrified.

He had been planning to use the female worshippers to restore his injuries, yet at this moment someone barged in to disturb him?

Mo Lin revealed his original form from a small grass snake.

In an instant, his massive body filled the entire meditation room, his head pressing straight toward Wuzhen.

Wuzhen only had time to reach for the Golden Circlet before Mo Lin slammed into him.

Although Mo Lin’s body structure determined that his impact was not as overwhelming as the Mountain Lord’s, he was still a land demon.

Wuzhen immediately spewed out another mouthful of blood:

“Pu!”

Struck heavily, Wuzhen’s illusion on the many female worshippers instantly collapsed.

“Hm? Abbot, aren’t you chanting anymore?”

Xiang Ling, in a daze, suddenly noticed that the abbot, who had been sitting cross-legged chanting scriptures, had disappeared.

Replacing him was a massive black-scaled snake.

And within the coils of this snake’s body was a white naked figure—none other than Abbot Wuzhen!

“Ah!!”

Xiang Ling and the other female worshippers, seeing the completely unclothed Wuzhen, immediately snapped awake, their faces flushed red.

Then they realized a chill upon their own bodies—looking down, they discovered that they too were stripped bare!

“What is happening!”

“Abbot! Explain this at once!”

“Weren’t we just chanting scriptures?”

Seeing his vile acts exposed, Wuzhen no longer had the time to care for them—if he could survive Mo Lin’s assault, none of these female worshippers, who had discovered his true face, would live.

By then, he could simply claim that the Child-Giving Temple had suffered an attack from a snake demon.

With one twist of words, he would shift from perpetrator to victim, still the abbot who bestowed children upon female devotees.

Of course, that was only if Mo Lin spared him.

Mo Lin’s ambush was swift and ferocious.

After slamming into Wuzhen, he gave him no chance to breathe.

His serpentine body clung to him like maggots to bone, tightening its coils.

“Haa… haa…”

Wuzhen felt an immense constriction force, his chest cavity about to burst from Mo Lin’s squeeze.

Naked, he could distinctly feel the icy touch of Mo Lin’s scales.

He pushed and pried at the serpent’s coils with his hands, but he was powerless against Mo Lin.

As for the other naked female worshippers, they were utterly terrified by the sight of a giant serpent entwining a man.

Wuzhen pinched his fingers into a seal, causing the Golden Circlet to rise into the air, flying toward Mo Lin’s head to trap him.

But Mo Lin had anticipated this.

He swiftly tucked his head deep into the coils of his body, leaving the Golden Circlet, despite expanding and contracting, unable to find a gap.

If it couldn’t even find an opening, how could it trap Mo Lin as it had trapped the Black Bear earlier?

“Haa…”

The suffocating pressure closed in.

Was he truly about to die here?

A trace of despair welled in Wuzhen’s heart.

The Golden Circlet had the ability to bind, but in other combat arts it was lacking.

Otherwise, with it being an Earth-rank treasure, how could Jingchen have allowed it to remain in Wuzhen’s hands without trying to reclaim it?

Mo Lin’s body structure differed from the Mountain Lord and the Black Bear.

As long as he coiled his head and tail together, the Golden Circlet had no way to restrain him.

No—there was still one way.

Wuzhen’s gaze darkened.

Bound by an Earth-rank demon like Mo Lin, escaping alive was impossible.

Since he would not survive, he resolved not to let Mo Lin have it easy either.

Wuzhen clenched his teeth, decision made:

“Haa… haa… snake demon, if you won’t spare me, then die with me!”

He bit his tongue, forcing out a mouthful of blood, spitting it onto the Golden Circlet, dyeing its patterns blood-red:

“Golden Circlet! Golden Circlet!”

The circlet, stained with tongue-blood, expanded—not to trap only Mo Lin’s head, but enclosing both Mo Lin and Wuzhen within its ring.

What was this lecherous monk attempting?

A flash of dread crossed Mo Lin’s mind.

The next moment, the Golden Circlet shrank fiercely, binding both him and Wuzhen inside.

Blood dripping from his lips, Wuzhen gave a ghastly laugh:

“Snake demon, I won’t live, but the Golden Circlet, dyed with my tongue’s blood, will keep activating even after my death. Even if I perish, you’ll be buried with me!”

Mo Lin looked at him in surprise—he hadn’t expected Wuzhen to possess such resolve.

But Mo Lin had no intention of dying alongside him.

He tried to slip free, but the Golden Circlet tightened with his movements, holding him firm.

Even when he used the Black Bear’s shrinking ability, the circlet shrank with him, refusing to let go.

“When the Mountain Lord, Wuzhen, and Jingchen fought, I was caught by this circlet too, but it wasn’t nearly this hard to escape…”

Wuzhen’s chest was already crushed, each breath stabbing his lungs with broken ribs.

Yet he held on, determined to watch Mo Lin die with him.

“Snake demon, it’s useless, die with me! Hahaha!”

Mo Lin glanced coldly at him, saying nothing.

He kept shrinking his form and spread his wings, preparing to fly.

“If shrinking won’t work, and strength won’t work, then what about speed?”

Yet once again, the Golden Circlet tightened ahead of him.

Still, his struggle was not in vain.

Where it had once bound his whole body, now it only locked onto his tail.

But even binding only his tail caused Mo Lin agony as if it were about to be severed.

Writhing in the meditation room, the burning pain made him roll uncontrollably.

“How could it be this hard? This isn’t the same circlet I observed before.”

Realization dawned in Mo Lin’s heart:

“Could this difficulty be due to that tongue-blood Wuzhen spat just now?”

Though surprised at Mo Lin’s wings, Wuzhen only laughed madly when he saw him still unable to escape:

“Do you feel the pain of the Golden Circlet now, snake demon? That tongue-blood of mine can only be forced out at the brink of death!”

“With tongue-blood staining it, even the Mountain Lord could not break free, much less you, a mere low-grade Earth-rank snake demon!”

“Die with me, snake demon!”

Laughing wildly, Wuzhen’s pupils dilated—his death was imminent.

Indeed, that tongue-blood had altered the Golden Circlet, otherwise Mo Lin would not struggle so hard against even an Earth-rank treasure.

Enduring the torment, Mo Lin cast a cold glance at Wuzhen:

“Is that so? I think not.”

Truth be told, Mo Lin had not expected the circlet to be this troublesome.

He thought killing Wuzhen would suffice, the treasure losing its power thereafter.

But Wuzhen was so ruthless, activating it even in death.

Helpless, Mo Lin made a choice.

A choice he had not made since devouring Hong Tianfeng and becoming a snake demon.

“Snake demon, what are you doing?”

Mo Lin ignored the dying monk.

He slithered his head toward his bound tail, gazing at the Golden Circlet causing him such pain:

“I’d been wanting to test whether my gift could devour even treasures. As my first experiment, an Earth-rank artifact is hardly unworthy.”

The next instant, Mo Lin opened his jaws wide, swallowing the Golden Circlet—tail and all—into his belly!