Chapter 153
Chapter 153
The pounding on the courtyard gate grew louder and louder. Bang! Bang! Bang! The female corpse had begun slamming herself against it.
She howled and shrieked, repeating the same words as she battered the gate. “Give me back my Buddha Eyes! Give me back my Buddha Eyes!”
In the front hall, several pairs of eyes were fixed on the paper effigy’s chin. It was blackening at a visible rate, the discoloration gradually spreading like soot across its face.
Drip…
Several minutes later, a drop of pale yellow liquid streaked with blood fell from the paper effigy’s chin and splattered across the floor.
A faint scent of sandalwood wafted from it.
Then came a second drop… and a third…
As the liquid continued to drip, the paper effigy began trembling uncontrollably. The Buddha Eyes also seemed to be veiled by a layer of black aura, no longer as clear as before.
Yu Nian’s brows remained tightly furrowed, her fingers moving constantly as she calculated.
I was even more nervous than she was.
The paper effigy’s life was bound to Guo Zhen’s. The moment the first drop fell, I realized that the other party was probably extracting the life-essence oil from Guo Zhen’s body.
Roasting the chin of a dead body over a flame was one method of extracting Corpse Oil.
Now, the other party was using the same method to roast the purest essence out of Guo Zhen’s blood and vitality.
That essence contained the Buddha nature bestowed by her fate.
Of course, the trace of Buddha nature in Guo Zhen’s body was nowhere near enough to convince the other party to spare her life. The addition of the Buddha Eyes was the key.
The Buddha Eyes were the trap Liu Junyan had laid for him.
No matter what method he used to steal the Buddha nature from Guo Zhen’s body, he would inevitably be drawn to the Buddha nature emanating from the Buddha Eyes. There was no way he would let such an opportunity pass.
From the looks of things, everything was proceeding exactly as Liu Junyan had planned.
At that moment, Liu Junyan clutched the Prayer Beads in one hand and stared unblinkingly at the paper effigy. He was clearly waiting for the right moment.
The moment when he could deal the other party a fatal blow!
Just as I finished piecing everything together, Yu Nian’s calculating fingers abruptly froze. Almost simultaneously, a Copper Coin shot from Liu Junyan’s hand.
My heart lurched. No matter where the Copper Coin struck the paper effigy, it could cause irreversible damage to Guo Zhen. Even if she survived, she might be left permanently disabled.
But the next moment, the Copper Coin stopped abruptly less than two centimeters from the paper effigy’s chin. It was as if some hidden mechanism had been triggered. More than a dozen strands of Red Thread extended from the central hole of the Copper Coin, connecting one Copper Coin after another and rapidly weaving a web around the paper effigy’s entire body.
Liu Junyan’s fingers flew through a hand seal, and he barked, “Constrict!”
Every Copper Coin surrounding the paper effigy suddenly tightened inward, inch by inch. A burst of black aura then erupted through the gaps in the Copper-Coin Formation. The scene was exactly the same as what had happened at the Dou Family Ancestral Tomb when Bai Xian’er died.
Liu Junyan dropped his stance and turned to Yu Nian. “I’m leaving this place to you. Hold it!”
Yu Nian nodded. “I’ll do everything I can.”
I hugged her. “Yu Nian, you have to be careful.”
Yu Nian shook the Thousand-Soul Banner in her hand and smiled. “I have a protective artifact. No ordinary person can get near the Main Hall.”
I knew she was powerful, but there was still a female corpse outside, and we had no idea what kind of being might be lurking behind it.
Once we left, we would have no attention to spare for this place.
Liu Junyan suddenly waved a hand, and the Black Cat sprang out. It leaped toward Liu Junyan’s shoulder, but he stopped it.
Liu Junyan ordered the Black Cat to stay behind and help Yu Nian guard the paper effigy.
The Black Cat was somewhat reluctant, but it was obedient enough. Looking back every other step, it entered the Main Hall and took its place beside Yu Nian.
The little guy was quite formidable. With it helping Yu Nian, I immediately felt much more at ease.
The moment the Black Cat appeared, something suddenly occurred to me.
The Black Cat had come from the Buddhist fold as well.
Fragments of the Lotus Sutra were hidden within the nine pieces of Cat Bone along its spine.
And back then, the Black Cat had been under the control of that Great Lama.
So… had that Great Lama wanted to reclaim the piece of Cat Bone in my possession, then send the Black Cat to the Temple on Niuhu Mountain?
If the Black Cat had been sent there back then, would what happened to Guo Zhen have been avoided?
Then what about the Buddha Eyes?
Could the Buddha Eyes have been a replacement they found after unexpectedly losing the Black Cat?
From the Black Cat to the Buddha Eyes, then to the Buddha Head and Guo Zhen… It all seemed to form a single chain, with every link connected!
The more I thought about it, the more shocked I became.
Just how wide a net had Niuhu Mountain cast?
And every last part of it was connected to the Buddha.
I instinctively glanced at Liu Junyan. So when he told the Black Cat to stay behind, it wasn’t just to have it protect the paper figures and Yu Nian. He must also have feared that it would be in danger if it entered Niuhu Mountain, especially the Temple.
Boom… Roar…
Just as we turned around, preparing to deal with the female corpse outside before hurrying to Niuhu Mountain, a tremendous explosion suddenly came from the mountain’s direction.
A powerful shockwave accompanied the deafening blast. It swept across the entire town almost instantaneously, making even the ground shudder violently.
Immediately afterward, that roar, which sounded like both a bull and a tiger, rang out again. The red haze once more descended over Niuhu Mountain, particularly around the prison.
The chanting at the ritual grounds instantly fell into chaos.
Before long, the entire town was in an uproar as people rushed outside to see what had happened.
Even the female corpse that had been pounding relentlessly on our door seemed to have received some kind of summons. It quickly left.
It seemed Liu Junyan’s counterattack had already begun to show results. Something major had happened inside the Temple.
We raced toward Niuhu Mountain. The roars continued throughout the journey, startling the birds and beasts in the forest and sending them charging wildly in every direction.
The restaurant proprietress had said that in the past, whenever those roars sounded, people nearby were certain to die. And it was never just one or two.
That had only stopped after the Ascetic Monk appeared.
The Ascetic Monk’s ritual always began with the tolling of the Bronze Bell.
The Ascetic Monk had already performed the ritual once before and expended too much of his strength. That was why Guo Zhen had been needed as a Sacrifice.
In his current condition, he couldn’t possibly endure the same thing happening again.
It would hardly be easy for him to perform another ritual now.
That was why the Bronze Bell had yet to ring again.
By the time we reached the foot of the mountain, however, the place had already descended into complete chaos.
The senior lamas who should have been conducting the ritual near the prison were now locked in battle with Hui Moqiong and the others.
Among Hui Moqiong’s disciples and descendants, some had already assumed human form, while others remained in Giant Rat form. There were quite a few of them.
Li Qingying and Jin Wuya immediately joined the fight.
At that moment, more people unexpectedly charged in from the outskirts. They made no distinction between friend and foe, simply taking advantage of the chaos to kill indiscriminately.
Hui Moqiong spotted us at once and hurried over. With a grave expression, he said to Liu Junyan, “Seventh Master, the mountain is difficult to storm. If I’m not mistaken, the area surrounding the Temple is guarded by…”
He trailed off, seemingly unable to find the words to describe it.
Liu Junyan asked, “A force of yin corpses?”
“They are yin corpses. They should all be death-row inmates from the prison at the foot of the mountain,” Hui Moqiong said, though he did not sound entirely certain. “But they don’t seem to be mere yin corpses. They… They look as though they’ve all entered the Buddhist fold…”