Daomu Biji: Restart

Book 1: Chapter 197

The logic was very simple. Every level of this tower so far had been all about idol worship, and gods from various religious myths were used to create Bodhimaṇḍa (1). But the common people had a low level of education when the Bodhimaṇḍa was made here, so they couldn’t distinguish between the religious attributes clearly. But it didn’t matter because they would worship whoever was best. This was also the reason why cults had prevailed for thousands of years. In essence, it was the inability to control one's own life. Countless natural and man-made disasters made people turn to believing in the power of nothingness.

At least this power wouldn’t turn its back on you. If you had it, you had it. If you didn’t, you didn’t. With the three pillars of incense (2), you could rest easy, which was extremely cost-effective.

But when we got here, two strange things suddenly appeared: one was sealed in the bell that was hanging in mid-air, and the other had sank into the water below. There was a threatening aura of wickedness as all the evil and sinister ghosts of the Jin Tong Sect manifested in an instant. Based on my past experiences, it had to be a corpse that changed into a zombie.

They were all fake clay idols before, but now there were actual dry and wet things here, so I was afraid this floor was more important. It was possible that the floor below this one contained something extraordinary, so that was why there were "things" here.

And this underwater thing may be uncontrollable, so the Jin Tong Sect taught people to use this poisoned bait method to get rid of it. But it appeared to be unsuccessful in the end.

My analysis was perfect, and everyone was deep in thought. If that was the case, then how could we get into the water? It was one thing to have so many dead children soaking in the water, but now we were even more afraid of going down. We couldn't see clearly underwater, so it wasn’t like we could come up with countermeasures.

After thinking for a long time, Fatty said, "Why don’t we try another tower?"josei

No one responded. It wasn’t that we were unwilling to go back, it was just that the appearance of this level actually showed that we were going in the right direction. These two things were meant to prevent us from going down, and they might not even be in the other towers. At least we still had some time now. If we went back and forth between the towers, the poisonous fog above might gather again, and I was afraid we’d have to wait half a month for the next rain.

Time waits for no man.

Fatty saw that no one was responding, so he said, "Then I have a bad idea. Look, there’s one hanging above and one hiding below. Why hang them so far apart from each other? I think these two things can't be put together; otherwise, those people would’ve hung them next to each other. Do you think it’s possible for us to knock that thing down and let it fall into the water? Then we can take a closer look to see whether it’s a dragon fighting a tiger, or the Old Black Mountain Demon fighting the Xiangxi Corpse King (3).”

Everyone was still silent.

Like usual, a bad idea appeared in my mind. Not only was it bad, but it was worse than Fatty's previous ideas. I started to say that we should change to a different tower, but Fatty told me not to talk and went on, "Let me analyze it first. If we can't go down, we’ll have to go to another tower anyways. What if the next tower is the same? We won’t be able to do anything, so it’s better to see what’s going on here. If the thing above is Sun Wukong and the thing below is the Bull Demon King, let's withdraw (4). No more listening to fucking thunder. We should just go home and sing karaoke."

I looked at Poker-Face, but he didn't say anything. Black Glasses suddenly laughed, "This is good, this is good. You can do it, friend."

"Then let's go up and stand on the top part of this floor,” Fatty said. “We’ll remove the spells, break the chains, and then watch the show. If the situation doesn’t look good, we’ll run up and withdraw. Hurry up. Little Brother will help. This is a rare life experience, after all."

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TN Notes:

(1) Bodhimaṇḍa is a term used in Buddhism meaning the "position of awakening". According to Haribhadra, it is "a place used as a seat, where the essence of enlightenment is present". Bodhimaṇḍas are regularly visited by Buddhist pilgrims, and some have gone on to become popular secular tourist destinations as well. In many forms of Buddhism, it is believed that bodhimaṇḍas are spiritually pure places, or otherwise conducive to meditation and enlightenment.

(2) Three-pillar incense is used to worship Buddha. There are three incense sticks, which mean: precept, concentration, and wisdom. They can also be considered as offerings to "Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha". This person explains in more detail on Baidu.

(3) Old Black Mountain Demon is a character from the 1987 movie “A Chinese Ghost Story”.  He’s a black mountain in the underworld that cultivated into a spirit after tens of thousands of years. He was so powerful that he was both the king of monsters and the king of ghosts. He also appeared in “Journey to the West”. Baidu link here. The Xiangxi Corpse King was a Yuan Dynasty general that appeared as an overpowered zombie in “Ghost Blows Out the Light”. Baidu link here.  

(4)Sun Wukong is the Monkey King from “Journey to the West”. Bull Demon King is a major antagonist of “Journey to the West”.