Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Fang Xushan had just come out of the illusion and was stunned for a while before he realized what Xie Lingya meant. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “I saw evil spirits whipping a rotten corpse, and then someone told me that that was my past life.”
Xie Lingya imagined it and felt that this scene might be even more terrifying than the mountains of bones from his past life.
The illusion was too real, and Fang Xushan’s face turned pale again when he thought about it now. “That evil thing bewitched me. If I believed in it, I would become an Arhat.”
“What? You still have a professional title? I asked it whether it has five social insurances and one housing fund, and it hesitated!” Xie Lingya thought to himself that he was indeed a liar and could not be trusted at all.
Taoists: “…”
“Let’s not talk about that for now. Are you okay?” Xie Lingya asked.
The Taoists were just mentally stimulated in the illusion, and some of them may have been shaken, but fortunately they were able to get out of it in time.
Xie Lingya went to support Shi Changxuan again. His legs were a little weak after using the Flowing Golden Fire Bell. While Lian Tan was still sitting on the ground in meditation.
Xie Lingya stood by the window and looked outside, only to see a figure that was hovering above the woods floating down. It was the Eastern Ghost King. He took a look at the situation inside the house and said, “I couldn’t get into that room just now.”
“I was wondering why I didn’t see you.” Xie Lingya said, “Can you help search around? See if there is anyone there.”
He still held out hope, maybe that Hongyang Taoist hadn’t escaped far.
“What kind of person?” asked the Ghost King.
This was a difficult problem, as they had not yet seen the face of the Hongyang Taoist. Xie Lingya thought for a while and took out the books left in the house, “He may have scriptures like this on him, and he looks more like a cultivator, neither a monk nor a Taoist.”
“Let’s try.” The Ghost King nodded, jumped up, and fell down again in a moment, “That…”
Xie Lingya lifted Liu Lingtong up, “Come on, give the king a call.”
Liu Lingtong: “…”
Liu Lingtong: “Come on, come on…”
The Ghost King laughed eerily, rolled up a few fallen leaves, and flew away.
As soon as he left, Liu Lingtong seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Facing the pressure from the Ghost King, he felt a tense feeling similar to that of humans holding their breath.
On the other side, Fang Xushan looked at the souls in the room and searched for a long time. Sure enough, he saw the soul of Jiang Yuqi cowering in the corner.
“Jiang Yuqi?” Fang Xushan called out.
“…” Jiang Yuqi’s soul had only fear and confusion on his face. He did not respond, but it was much better than the souls around him that were completely like wood. He was taken into the body of the evil Buddha for only a few hours and did not completely lose consciousness like the other souls.
Fang Xushan breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that he could still be saved, so he put him away in a willow wood tablet.
At this time, Lian Tan slowly woke up. He took a look at the souls in the house, as well as the broken Buddha statues, hair, and nails on the ground. “This is…”
Lian Tan did not fail to recognize it, but he hated it very much.
Previously, Liu Lingtong mentioned “installing the internal organs of the human soul”. Installing the internal organs actually referred to a ritual. After a new statue of a god or Buddha was made and before it was consecrated, symbolic internal organs were installed in the hollow interior to allow it to gain spiritual consciousness.
Buddhists usually put up items such as Buddha relics, the master’s clothes, and antique Buddha statues. Different factions also put up different items.
This evil object, which was neither a Buddha nor a Bodhisattva, was filled with human hair and nails. Everyone suddenly understood how Hongyang Dao stole souls and why it harmed people. It was naturally to increase the evil object’s cultivation.
It was unknown how this evil Buddha initially gave birth to spirituality, but afterwards, in order to continue to provide offerings and expand its power, it used human souls to house it and increase its “divine consciousness.”
The human souls used were all people of faith. Since the teachings of Hongyang Taoism were a mixture of several religions, the people selected were from various religions and factions.
What it had shown to everyone in the illusion before were all Buddhist methods. After listening to it, Lian Tan said that seeing the bones of the deceased was a magical power displayed by Maudgalyayana, one of the ten great disciples of the Buddha.
It could be seen that the evil Buddha was indeed knowledgeable. Was this knowledge instilled by Hongyang Taoist, or was it given by the souls of Buddhists in his body? This was unknown.
What was even more terrifying was that this was a vicious cycle. When the evil Buddha had more power, it could harm more people, deceive more believers, and its power would become stronger.
Xie Lingya couldn’t help but think of a question: “…How many such evil creatures do they have?”
It was hard to say whether the Hongyang Taoist left the evil Buddha behind because he was confident that they would be defeated by the evil Buddha, or because there were other evil creatures and he was not obsessed with this one.
Everyone was speechless.
This Buddha statue was difficult enough to deal with. As for the charnel ground outside, if it weren’t for Lian Tan, it would take them a long time to break free. After encountering the evil Buddha himself, they either had to have a strong will like Shi Changxuan and Lian Tan or be able to break the spell with violence like Xie Lingya.
At this time, the Ghost King had returned and squatted outside the window and said, “There is no such person within dozens of miles.”
“He ran away.” Xie Lingya sighed.
“…In any case, this matter is too complicated. I have to report it.” Fang Xushan said seriously. He thought there were just a few victims before, but when he got here, he saw that there were more than that!
And speaking of the cemetery… everyone walked out of the small building and looked into the forest, only to see piles of white bones.
“The corpses are Vimalakirti ghosts. These Vimalakirti ghosts have no souls and have been subdued by me, so they have returned to their previous appearance.” Lian Tan said. He was in a hurry before and did not explain it completely. “If the evil method is practiced more deeply, the Vimalakirti ghosts will become more vicious.”
These bones reminded Xie Lingya of the scene in the illusion. He looked away and said, “It’s time to call the police and collect fingerprints from the house. Maybe we can find the person. But how do we explain to the police?”
“I’ll call the Provincial Religious Affairs Bureau first.” Fang Xushan murmured. Of course, this kind of thing should be handled by officials separately, and it should have been reported to the next higher Taoist Association. After seeing the evil Buddha, everyone realized that the matter had not become a big deal yet, but if the signs were not stopped in time, the consequences would be disastrous.
“Call more people, there are still a room full of ghosts who need to be salvaged.” Xie Lingya said suddenly, “We need more monks and Taoists.”
– The ghosts here have different beliefs, of course we can’t all use Taoist methods to reincarnate. We have to respect the beliefs of the dead souls when they were alive. Otherwise, if you say that they believe in Buddhism and send them to the East, it won’t be good.
The monks and Taoists all became busy in making phone calls.
Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan sat on the steps outside the building to rest. Xie Lingya then asked him, “Are you okay?”
Shi Changxuan shook his head, “It’s nothing.”
The Ghost King floated in the air and said shamelessly, “I’ve been looking for a long time and even called on wandering ghosts to help. I’m very tired.”
Xie Lingya: “…I didn’t ask you.”
The Ghost King smiled, as if to indicate that he had to say it too.
Xie Lingya: “Of course I still thank you. I’ll burn some offerings for you later and you can leave.”
“That’s nothing. Familiarity breeds acquaintance. I have become quite acquainted with Teacher Xie.” The Ghost King looked as if he wanted to come over and chat.
Xie Lingya held the sword upright and supported it by his side, “Oh… I’m so tired.”
“…” The Ghost King’s body then rose straight up and floated to the top of the building at a constant speed.
….
The people at the city police station were shocked.
They had never handled such a strange case before. The details were unclear, but they knew it seemed to be a murder case.
They followed the order and arrived at the place, which was a forest in the suburbs. It was full of bones, both new and old. It made people wonder if there was an ancient cemetery underground. How could so many bones be dug out? Anyway, all of them had to be picked up and sent to the crematorium.
Next, they had to check the information of the house next door, from the owner of the house to who had entered and left, to extract fingerprints, hair and other items inside, to find out the identities of the relevant people…
The strangest thing was that after they arrived, they found several Taoists and a monk at the scene. After that, two more groups of people came one after another, also Taoists and monks.
A group of Taoists and monks occupied one side of the small building and began to perform rituals.
Everyone thought that this is to liberate the souls of those bones, right?
It was scary enough to collect so many bones late at night, and it was even more bizarre to have people chanting scriptures nearby.
Everyone guessed that there was something strange about the case, and it was understandable that they would find some religious people to perform the ritual of salvation, but why did they find two different groups of people? The two groups were quite peaceful, discussing things with each other and taking separate actions.
In the middle, there were also old monks and young Taoist priests sitting together drinking hot water and chatting from time to time.
These were Lian Tan, Xie Lingya and Shi Changxuan. Xie Lingya was persuading Lian Tan to go to the hospital, “You’ve been vomiting blood. You fell so hard, your ribs aren’t broken, right?”
“I was holding a sword and looking like an immortal at the time. I wasn’t hurt at all,” said Lian Tan.
This matched what Shi Changxuan had said at the time, and he was indeed the sword-wielding immortal.
Xie Lingya asked, “Master Lian Tan, as soon as you pretend to be an immortal holding a sword, do you automatically become a swordsmanship expert?”
Xie Lingya was a little envious. He had only learned Tai Chi sword and usually used the Three Treasures Sword, and his moves were all very ordinary and plain. Seeing Lian Tan’s quick and graceful movements, he didn’t look like an old man at all.
“How is that possible!” Lian Tan said, “I taught myself and took part in martial arts competitions in my early years. When I was young, not to mention ghosts, even seven or eight strong men couldn’t get close to me! I could beat fourteen or fifteen people like you!”
Xie Lingya: “…”
Xie Lingya was depressed, and said unyieldingly, “I’m also a strong man!”
Lian Tan smiled but said nothing, and added, “I’m old now. Only when I perform rituals can I find a little bit of the feeling of the past.”
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