Chapter 32: True Dharma Blessings, Physical Body Enshrinement
Before the words had even finished, a burst of bullets fired toward the source of the sound. Fortunately, the marksmanship was truly terrible, and all the shots missed, hitting a big tree far away. Tree bark exploded and wood chips flew, scaring the person hiding in the dead leaves pile into screaming nonstop.
“Ahhh! Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!”
Seeing this scene, Yuan Zhu hurriedly shook his head and raised his hands, indicating it wasn’t him.
“I I I, I was a bit nervous. I couldn’t control it and pulled the trigger.” Lu Rang finally realized and spoke up in response, his tone unable to hide his panic, his expression full of regret and fear after accidentally killing someone.
“Holy shit! You?!” The pink-haired one walking in front of him cried out in shock, hurriedly dodging away like fleeing for his life, afraid of getting shot in the back.
The captain didn’t voice any blame. Newcomers, aren’t they all like this at first?
If someone unluckily got shot, there was still the Mao Mao King uniform for defense. If even that couldn’t block it, then it was fate. Even if a deity intervened, you couldn’t ask for more.
“Come out, don’t be nervous. You’re safe now.”
The captain took the lead and stepped forward, walking at the front to shield everyone behind him. This action seemed very responsible and heartwarming. But Yuan Zhu inexplicably felt like he had no hope in the others and had to handle it personally.
The dead leaves pile trembled in fear again, and finally, a short and skinny figure stood up, timidly walking toward the group.
Once closer, Yuan Zhu saw that the other was a young monk with dark skin and an ugly appearance. The uniquely styled ragged monk robe draped over him, along with the signature bald head, looked somewhat similar to monks from Earth’s Southeast Asia.
“Monk?” Meng Xiyue, who had hidden near Yuan Zhu, muttered to herself with a mix of curiosity and surprise, “Is this bubble world based on Buddhism?”
The young monk mustered his courage and looked up to scan the group, finally saying to the captain: “H-hello, I am Ku Cao, a resident of Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom. Are you here to save us?”
“Save?” The captain latched onto the key word, “Can you tell us about the situation in Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom, explain what exactly happened that requires outsiders to rescue? You look like you’ve been hungry for a long time; I can give you some food.”
Seeing the boy named Ku Cao starving and weak with hunger, the captain directly pulled out two red-packaged energy bars from his bag, tore one open, and handed it over: “Tear it open here; the food inside can be eaten directly.”
The never-before-smelled aroma of food immediately made the young monk swallow his saliva, his stomach growling loudly. Ignoring everything else, he snatched it and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing and swallowing voraciously. Eating like a starving ghost reincarnated, he went too fast and nearly choked himself to death.
The captain handed over a water bottle again: “Drink some water.”
“Wahhh… Thank you, thank you! Benefactor is truly a great virtuous person; you will surely be blessed by Buddha Lord!” The young monk painfully swallowed the food stuck in his throat with a look of relief, then knelt and kowtowed to the group in gratitude.
“Get up and tell me about Na Ye Kingdom and your experiences.” The captain helped the young monk up and asked again.
The skinny boy carefully stowed the other energy bar, then nodded repeatedly: “Okay, alright. Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom is a Buddhist city built by Buddha Lords. There were fully ten thousand residents inside, and just the city walls were three zhang high! Originally, we Na Ye people lived a life of revering dharma and Buddha, peaceful with the world. Suddenly, two months ago, many skeletons that died and came back to life crawled out from wild graves in the outskirts, constantly attacking and killing residents farming the fields.”
“The dead and injured grew more and more, followed by a kind of monster invisible to the naked eye that slaughtered wantonly and could possess and hide. Even the Buddha Lords in the temple were caught off guard, suffering heavy casualties. About a month ago, we heard that Vajra Temple in the east of the city fell to invisible ghostly creatures, birthing a terrifying Buddha corpse ghost. Great Buddha Lord Long Yin Abbot decided to personally subdue demons, but was secretly assassinated by a ghost slave hidden among the monk soldiers, falling into a trap with unknown life or death.”
“Seeing Na Ye Kingdom about to fall, we were saved by a dharma master. He repelled numerous demonic creatures and ghostly creatures along the way, rescued hundreds of us, escaped the Buddhist kingdom into the deep wilderness forest, and hid for over half a month. During that time, the dharma master wanted to contact other escaped residents and Buddhism sages to regroup and retake the Buddhist kingdom. Then we heard another Buddha Lord turned the tide in a crisis, suppressed the evil ghosts, retook control of the Buddhist kingdom, and widely accepted refugees.”
“Later, we don’t know what happened, but Xiang Wen Dharma Master gave up the plan to return, stopped other refugees from going to the Buddhist kingdom, and continued staying in the wilderness. It was fine at first, but hunting outside grew increasingly difficult; large animals in the forest were said to be rapidly decreasing. Without food, some refugees couldn’t endure and secretly fled back to the Buddhist kingdom. The rest continued searching for food in the forest.”
“Then about ten days ago, Xiang Wen Dharma Master returned with heavy injuries, too late to explain much. He gathered us boys, passed down dharma and gave precepts before dying, initiating us into Buddhism. After that, the hunting team outside encountered a terrifying beast, three adult hunters died, four were injured. We kids were also forced to join the food-finding teams, but dangerous beasts grew more numerous. Some said to go to the Buddhist kingdom to ask a dharma master for rescue. Finally… everyone got scattered.”
After hearing the boy’s description, the captain asked: “Besides Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom, are there other countries?”
“Ah?” The boy looked confused, unable to understand, and asked back: “Is there a second Buddhist kingdom in this world? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Outside Na Ye Kingdom, are there human settlements?”
The boy nodded: “Yes, there are. In the deep forests outside the city, there are some villages; they all yearn to settle and live in the Buddhist kingdom. Additionally, those in the Buddhist kingdom who anger Buddha Lords, violate precepts, or break laws are exiled to distant places for redemption and reclaiming wasteland.”
With their question and answer, Yuan Zhu could imagine just from listening a backward, ancient, primitive city-state system. The civilization level of this world didn’t seem very high. Who knows if the ‘Buddha Lords’ the boy mentioned wore Mao Mao King’s luxury children’s wear?
Or, maybe sell ‘luxury children’s kesa’ to the Buddha Lords’ Buddha’s children and Buddha’s grandchildren. Who knows if Buddhism here forbids women? From the boy’s words, they seem to be a meat-eating sect?
Captain: “Let me see the precept you received.”
“Okay!”
The boy immediately tore open the ragged monk robe draped over him. Then he raised his right arm high, exposing his dirty armpit.
At the junction of the boy’s armpit and chest, a purple-red flesh tumor protruded abruptly, its surface covered in dense blood vessels, looking like it was about to burst. Even stranger was the shape of the flesh tumor, vaguely outlining a Buddha head.
Only the facial area of the flesh tumor was still very blurry, without clear facial features, but the Buddha head’s structure could be discerned: the topknot area, the blank face area… It inexplicably sent chills, as if a twisted, invisible face was staring back at him.
“Hiss…!” Meng Xiyue made a disgusted sound and retreated repeatedly, no longer looking.
The others showed no reaction, still blankly staring at the pigeon-egg-sized purple-red flesh tumor, their noses seemingly catching a rich, gentle sandalwood scent that evoked a sense of pure detachment.
[Beep beep beep! Detected anomaly pollution fluctuation, spirit suffering tampering attack.]
Yuan Zhu’s spirit jolted, and he stopped observing the eerie flesh tumor by the boy’s side. That thing inside seemed to be incubating a still immature pollution.
The captain said, however: “It’s a Buddha cocoon. Looks like proper dharma blessing. Tell me about the process of receiving your precept…”
“I’m not sure either. At the time, Xiang Wen Dharma Master was at death’s door. He brought out a bowl of viscous blood soup mixed with minced meat from a stone cave and had each of us drink a mouthful. Then we passed out cold and slept soundly. When we woke, Xiang Wen Master had already passed away.” At this point, Ku Cao seemed a bit sad.
“Looks like physical body offering. That Xiang Wen Dharma Master crushed his own Buddha cocoon, mixed it into meat soup, and had you consume it to pass down dharma, hoping to protect you from this calamity. As for the ghostly creatures dying and reviving you mentioned…” The captain looked up, took a long breath, closed his eyes to perceive carefully, then muttered puzzledly: “Yellow Springs?”
Yuan Zhu, standing by like a minion, had a face of not getting it but pretending to. He actually wanted to join in, but his knowledge reserve was too lacking; it was all incomprehensible professional terms.
He seemed to have witnessed another new system, Buddhism’s Buddha cocoon. Something about ‘proper dharma blessing, meat soup offering’? It looked utterly eerie no matter how you saw it, seemingly not as good as the Holy Church’s holy light.
Seeking support!
