Wandering Gods of Day and Night-Chapter 39 - 36 Blood Well
39: Chapter 36 Blood Well
39 -36 Blood Well
“Feet, walker?
So the Alien Ghost needs the Big Belly Monk to roam the human world?
If Alien Ghosts are on par with gods, why rely on humans to walk?”
Yuan Buyu nodded solemnly and said, “It’s necessary, like humans, Alien Ghosts also go through a phase when they babble like infants.
A newborn Alien Ghost has its innate magic, but it’s too weak and needs someone to feed and protect it until it slowly grows.
Once the Alien Ghost matures, it might be dissatisfied with its initial walker and look for a new one.”
Zhou Xuan understood.
The pair of glowing red eyes watching the villagers in the forest, in the blood sacrifice memories of the Earth Temple, were not of the Big Belly Monk but those of the Alien Ghost.
“Each Alien Ghost has a different diet.
The one inside the Big Belly Monk loves to devour human spirituality, so the Big Belly Monk, by pretending to be a Buddhist name, lured followers and secretly selected spiritually gifted children to consume.
This was the truth of the Earth Temple back then.”
This resonated,
with the past of the Big Belly Monk that Yuan Buyu spoke of, matching the five images Zhou Xuan saw in the blood sacrifice scenes of the Earth Temple.
Many doubts were cleared up, giving Zhou Xuan an indescribable sense of relief.
He continued to ask, “And what happened afterward?”
“What do you mean, afterward?”
“Where did the Big Belly Monk go?
Did the Alien Ghost at the Corridor River grow up?”
Now, in Zhou Xuan’s eyes, Yuan Buyu was like GPT-4, capable of answering any question, so he simply poured out all his doubts.
Yuan Buyu gritted his back teeth and squeezed out, “I think you’re making it difficult for me.
I’m a storyteller, not a deity!”
“Then I’ll change the question.
You mentioned there’s a Stone Talisman behind the Great Buddha at the Earth Temple in the Corridor River.
What’s the origin of that talisman?” Zhou Xuan asked.
Picking up the newspaper again, Yuan Buyu pointed to a news photo and said, “You see all these skulls on the ground?”
“I see them.”
“These are the remnants left from the Earth Temple blood sacrifice back in the day.
The scene was terrifying—over a hundred villagers from Corridor River, holding human heads, walked into the belly of the Great Buddha,
because they were bewitched by that Stone Talisman, their spirits controlled by the Alien Ghost.
As for that Stone Talisman, it was a Taoist peach blossom charm, but the writing used was from the Alien Ghost’s script.
The Alien Ghost’s script carries its unique understanding, having an extraordinary effect.
Each time a new Alien Ghost emerges, before its script is deciphered, it would be challenging to counter it for both ghosts and divine people, even if the Alien Ghost is still very weak.”
“Is there anyone who can decipher the Alien Ghost’s script?”
“Of course, there was a Tangkou in Mingjiang Prefecture specializing in deciphering Alien Ghost scripts.
But in recent years, the emergence of new Alien Ghosts has been too rare, leaving the Tangkou with no business, and they dispersed long ago.
The disciples who once paid homage at the Tangkou have now all scattered among the people, and if you want to decipher the Alien Ghost’s script again, you must find those disciples among the populace.”
Yuan Buyu continued, “The Alien Ghost at the Corridor River, its script was deciphered ten years after the Earth Temple blood sacrifice, and a divine person then understood how to break the talisman.
They hurried overnight to the Corridor River to carve a Calming Talisman on the blank part of the Stone Talisman, making it a talisman within a talisman, rendering the Alien Ghost’s Stone Talisman ineffective.”
Oh?
“Really?
If it was ineffective, then why, when digging the Earth Temple this afternoon, did I…
uh…
my buddy get bewitched by that Great Buddha?”
Zhou Xuan almost slipped out the truth.
“You probably stumbled upon breaking the restriction function of the Calming Talisman on the Stone Talisman, making the Alien Ghost’s talisman effective again.”
“Would peeing break the restriction?” Zhou Xuan recalled that Tong Douzi seemed to have peed behind the Great Buddha.
“Of course, it could.
Filthy things have their limits, though.
They can break genuine Taoist talismans but not the sinister Alien Ghost talismans.”
So, Tong Douzi’s urine broke the Calming Talisman, and the unrestrained Alien Ghost Stone Talisman became effective.
“Another question arises then, why did the Alien Ghost Talisman affect my…
my friend while others were fine?”
“That’s because you’ve already become spiritual, entering the precursor of incense lighting,” Yuan Buyu bluntly pointed out.
Zhou Xuan was still thinking up a story, “It’s not me, it’s my buddy…”
“Stop hiding it.
It’s snowing in your eyes!”
Zhou Xuan: “…”
*So this spiritual awakening thing is impossible to hide?*
“People who understand can see it.
People who don’t will just think your eyes are pretty.”
Yuan Buyu laughed, “The talisman on the back of the Great Buddha, after all these years and with a Calming Talisman suppressing it day and night, its power is far from what it used to be.
Because the talisman power isn’t enough, normal people’s spiritual sense is dull, so they can’t perceive the talisman power.
However, spiritual people, with keen perception, get confused by it.”
*Sometimes, being dull is a blessing!*
“You’ve awakened spiritually, which is a good thing, meaning you’re eligible to worship at the Tangkou, but remember, a person only has one opportunity for spiritual awakening in their lifetime.
The spiritual period is limited, ranging from one month to three months.
If you miss this period without being worshiped into the Tangkou, you will never awaken again and become just another ordinary person.”
Yuan Buyu almost suggested, “Worship in my storyteller’s Tangkou,” but Zhou Xuan wasn’t very interested in joining a Tangkou at this moment.
He was more concerned about his body, saying, “Let’s not talk about the Tangkou for now.
Since awakening, my eyes have been hurting more.
Is there any explanation for this?”
“Heaven doesn’t give freebies.
The side effect of spiritual awakening is physical pain.
Wherever you awaken, you’ll feel uncomfortable.
It’s inevitable; it’s just pain, right?
Just endure it.”
“Will enduring make it better?”
“Uh, usually, it will.” Yuan Buyu was very cautious in his wording.
“And if it’s not the usual case?”
“There are people who have died from the pain.”
“…” Zhou Xuan.
*Well, let’s endure it for now.
At least it’s not too serious for the moment.*
“It’s about time we discussed what’s on the menu for tonight’s banquet.”
Old Man Yuan stopped the conversation about Alien Ghosts and started focusing on the menu.
…
Zhou Xuan, worried about his eyes, wasn’t very interested.
From his memory, he picked out ten Huaiyang dishes and talked Old Man Yuan through the key points of making them.
When lunchtime came, he casually grabbed a few bites, drank a few beers, and went back to his room to rest his eyes.
“Oh, my eyes…”
*He wondered if it was just psychological.
He hadn’t felt much in the kitchen before, but now Zhou Xuan only felt as if needles pricked his eyes, aching unbearably, and he couldn’t stand the wind.
If the wind blew, his eyes would water.*
“Old Man Yuan told me to endure it—can you really endure this?
What if I go blind from enduring?”
He lay down on the bed, closed his tired and swollen eyes, performed an eye exercise, and then fell into a deep sleep, aided by the alcohol.
When he woke up,
Zhou Xuan’s eyes felt much more comfortable.
He picked up a mirror and found they were still swollen.
“Still this swollen…
huh…”
“Is it snowing again?”
In his eyes, Zhou Xuan saw the snow-covered temple once more.
However, unlike the previous time, the temple door was not closed.
The door,
was open,
and inside the temple, there wasn’t a Treasure Hall, a statue of the Buddha, or a portrait of the Taoist Ancestor Master, but a well.
The well’s mouth was spattered with blood, and snow from the sky seemed to be dyed scarlet half a meter above the well mouth by the blood aura inside.
…
*Zhou Xuan couldn’t quite grasp what the Blood Well represented, so he went to the kitchen, but Yuan Buyu wasn’t there.*
*He then went to Yuan Buyu’s dormitory.*
*The door was open, and Yuan Buyu was using a palm fan, resting on a bamboo bed in the corner, facing the wall.*
“Old Man Yuan…
Old Man Yuan…”
“Weren’t you nursing your eyes?”
Yuan Buyu replied lazily without even opening his eyes.
“The snow temple in my eyes, its mountain gate opened.”
“What did you see?
A Buddha, a Taoist, or a shaman?”
“None of those, a well!”
“What?”
Yuan Buyu sat up with a start, without even wearing his slippers, and walked barefoot to Zhou Xuan.
He spread open Zhou Xuan’s eyelids and stared intently, freezing in place.
“It’s actually a Blood Well?”
