Chapter 39: Red Helmet
Quickly leaving the rock wall area, the squad, under the guidance of Ku Cao the monk, found a small path leading to the Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom, greatly increasing their travel speed.
Not long after, the group followed the small path and vaguely saw a dilapidated and abandoned small village.
Upon closer inspection, judging from the new and old conditions of the houses and the traces of life, the village had been abandoned for no more than a month. Everywhere were signs of man-made destruction and beast bites, and now it was completely deserted.
Here, Yuan Zhu finally saw the long-awaited Yellow Springs Ghostly Creature, which surprisingly wasn’t completely dead? It couldn’t even be described as ‘dead’, but rather not thoroughly destroyed yet.
Instead, it had been deliberately pinned to the ground with a hard wooden spear engraved with Buddhist mantras.
Green plants had taken root and sprouted inside the wound, crawling along the ghostly creature’s body and growing wildly in all directions, fixing it to the ground. No matter how weakly it struggled, it couldn’t break free from the seal of the mantra spear and plant vines, remaining nailed in place, growing weaker the more it struggled.
To be honest, after seeing this ghostly creature, Yuan Zhu felt a bit disappointed inside. It was far less madly terrifying and challenging-looking than a green version of a Filthy Bone Demonic Creature, perhaps because it had been dealt with by someone?
This Yellow Springs Ghost was a Corpse Ghost with a physical body, its skin shriveled and wrinkled, eyeballs cloudy, like a dehydrated mummy. Its clothes were long tattered, emitting a faint rotten stench, which was masked and suppressed by the fresh scent from that strange plant.
If there was anything uniquely strange, it was probably that it had three arms. Besides the two normal human hands, near the left scapula on its back, there was a large bulging flesh tumor in the shape of a Buddha Head, but with a ferocious and evil face, more like a Shura Ghost Face.
At the mouth position of the Buddha Head, a long left arm protruded. The length of this arm was about 1.5 times that of the mummy’s two arms. Even though dehydrated and shriveled, it was still stronger and more powerful than its own arms. The fingers were slender, nails sharp and pointed, like ghost claws.
Even pinned by the wooden spear, this flexible third hand could still bend unnaturally against human anatomy, gripping the wooden spear tightly, with sizzling burning sounds from the palm, exerting full force to try pulling the spear out of its body. But no matter how hard it tried, the wooden spear remained motionless.
Zhou Chu observed the scene: “The ghostly creature here has been cleaned up by someone, probably monks from the Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom.”
Yuan Zhu: “This victim also has a Buddha Head Flesh Tumor on his back, so was he also a monk?”
Ku Cao the young monk clasped his hands together, bowed to the Corpse Ghost, and then said: “This is a warrior monk from Vajra Temple. The arm on his back is Vajra Temple’s Buddha Palm. Every warrior monk who has achieved cultivation possesses a Buddha Palm, though in different positions. The more Buddha Palms, the higher the Buddhist Dharma realm. Legend has it that among the Bodhisattvas on Spirit Mountain, there is one Thousand-Armed Guanyin.”
Is that how Thousand-Armed Guanyin is interpreted?
Yuan Zhu recalled the Buddha Cocoon on Ku Cao’s body, which was only the size of a pigeon egg. But the Buddha Cocoon on this dehydrated mummy in front of them was half the size of a ball, even larger than an adult shoulder by a circle.
“Hey, young monk. Why is your Buddha Cocoon so much smaller? Is it because your aptitude is insufficient? Your Buddhist Dharma shallow?”
Hearing this, Ku Cao’s face turned beet red, ashamed and unable to respond.
The captain spoke up to relieve him: “Buddhism has two major cultivation directions: one cultivates the physical body to be indestructible like Vajra, abiding in the world eternally, achieving Buddhahood in this life. The other tempers the divine soul, with the true spirit undying, reincarnating and reborn, also able to achieve Buddhahood. This Yellow Springs Ghost cultivated its physical body to be indestructible like Vajra, so its Buddha Cocoon also mutated, giving birth to flesh limbs or other flesh organs. As for the young monk, he has just entered the gate and isn’t qualified to choose a cultivation path yet; his Buddha Cocoon is still in its most primitive state, not yet gestated into a [Seed], and hasn’t brewed magic power.”
Ku Cao nodded repeatedly and replied to Yuan Zhu: “Exactly so! I don’t yet qualify to claim Buddhist Dharma, but the Buddha Cocoon is the aptitude.”
“Continue checking to see if we can find other useful information.”
Not long after, the group found 7 more Corpse Ghosts in the village one after another. 3 of them were completely worn away and gone, while the remaining 3 were still weakly struggling.
That wooden spear containing special power was both a seal and a means of torment, used for venting anger and revenge.
Besides the occasional wooden spears blessed with Buddhist Dharma, the squad also found another type of ghostly creature resembling formless soul Vengeful Spirits, similarly dealt with and sealed in very common black jars, half-buried in the soil with the other half exposed on the surface.
On the jar’s surface, the same thorny plants climbed and grew, weaving into a cage that pinned the jar to the ground.
Due to the continuous high-intensity contact with various pollution sources over the past two days, especially after joining [Happy Home] and receiving explanations and guidance from Meng Xiyue, plus getting a set of pollution test papers from Zhou Chu as a souvenir (to increase records).
Now, the [Immortal Scripture] was no longer like when it first descended, completely blind to Du Ling Star, marking every harmful substance it saw as [Pollution]. Nowadays, he could vaguely make rough judgments and distinctions on the types of pollution sources. It was like smelling the stench so much that he could now appraise and comment on it.
The [Immortal Scripture] captured special fluctuations similar to ‘Holy Light’ from these plants and wooden spears wrapping the black jars. The game sprite guessed it was some kind of ‘light attribute’, matching Yuan Zhu’s expectations for Buddhism. After all, Buddha Light shines for miles; these plants very likely had ‘demon-subduing Buddha Light’ blessings inside?
“These plants contain special energy inside, which can confine and wear away the Vengeful Spirit in the jar. As long as it’s not broken, over time, they can absorb supplementary energy from the outside world, continuously suppressing and eroding it until ultimately eliminating the Vengeful Spirit. Similar to those nailed Corpse Ghosts, it should be a local Buddhist demon-subduing method.”
Meng Xiyue rested her chin on her hand and asked puzzledly: “Young monk, have you seen this demon-subduing method before? This doesn’t seem like the Buddhist style in my impression. I heard that traces of leftover Buddhist Magic Power would make people feel like they’ve smelled sandalwood or heard Zen Sound, producing a delusion of inner purity. Your Buddha Cocoon has this effect, but these wooden spears and vines don’t.”
Ku Cao shook his head: “I recognize these jars; they’re containers from the market for holding food or preserving alcoholic beverages. But this method of exorcising and destroying ghosts, along with the wooden spears and plants, I’m seeing it for the first time too.”
Meng Xi continued: “Could it be the new power for suppressing and eliminating Buddhist Ghosts that the new abbot found, as mentioned in that letter?”
Zhou Chu: “We’ll know once we get to Na Ye City. Speed up!”
…
The group set off again, heading straight to the Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom along the main road.
Along the way, they encountered multiple villages, almost all empty of people, with remnants of nailed Corpse Ghosts, Vengeful Spirits sealed in jars, and Filthy Bone Demonic Creature remains cut into pieces and charred by fire.
Under the captain’s guidance, Yuan Zhu and the others pulled out a few wooden spears that had already tormented the Corpse Ghosts to death, using them as self-defense weapons.
Additionally, the captain commented that those third limbs (Buddha Palms) from the dead Corpse Ghosts could be exchanged for a few small coins in the Space of Gods. If they didn’t mind the dirtiness or stench, they could collect a batch, but not let the uniform absorb them.
On the subsequent journey, occasional stray ghostly creatures posed no threat. Their uniforms also had resistance to [Yellow Springs Aura], so the captain arranged for squad members to take turns fighting, beating Corpse Ghosts to temper their courage.
With the wooden spear as a weapon that countered Corpse Ghosts, Yuan Zhu easily burst the heads of ordinary Corpse Ghosts one by one, but still couldn’t complete the kills unless he left the wooden spear behind to nail them down.
Helplessly, he pulled out the in his hand, hoping to find new methods. However, the enclosed environment + chlorine gas fumigation, high-concentration holy salt solution, scientific Holy Light/ultraviolet light… recorded in the book—he had none of the materials.
In the end, Yuan Zhu summarized a most primitive exorcism method for everyone: fire burning. First burst the head with the wooden spear, then break a leg, finally insert a burning torch into the belly to ignite the methane, quickly burning up the Corpse Ghost.
Using primitive flames to purify all uncleanliness.
As for the other kind of formless Vengeful Spirit? During its first attack, the invisible mental attack invaded the mind, then was repelled by everyone’s uniforms. It had no choice but to switch targets, attacking and successfully possessing the little goat.
Then, it was taken out by Zhou Chu.
This was her first display of Law ability. Yuan Zhu saw a fingerless red glove materialize on her right hand out of thin air; with a swing of her arm, a chain shot out from her palm, firmly wrapping around the little goat.
Then the goat twitched violently as if being continuously electrocuted, letting out miserable screams, quite like believers possessed by demons being tortured and abused by clergy in exorcism rituals; the ground was scattered with a large pile of black pearls.
Finally, the last trace of that formless Vengeful Spirit’s power disappeared inside the little goat. The rescued little goat became half-dead, limping along, doing its utmost to avoid Zhou Chu, bleating little and silent, not even interested in eating roadside weeds.
Yuan Zhu didn’t understand the whole process; he just saw the young lady abusing an animal and earning the old woman’s gratitude.
…
Finally, as evening approached in the Bubble World, the team arrived at the outskirts of Na Ye City. From afar, they saw the blurry outline of the city walls and the towering pagoda buildings in the city.
As Yuan Zhu’s group approached, a team of people appeared at the city gate, galloping on horseback to meet them quickly.
The two teams rushed toward each other, the distance closing, the scene gradually clarifying. From far away, Yuan Zhu saw through the scouting mice he sent out that a group of red helmets was approaching.
Why weren’t they wearing armor but topping off with bright red helmets? Weren’t they afraid of attracting attention?
But as the distance drew even closer, he realized those weren’t helmets at all, but…
“Human heads?”
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