Chapter 31 - 31 28 Reciting Scriptures as Buddha on Earth

31: Chapter 28: Reciting Scriptures as Buddha on Earth 31: Chapter 28: Reciting Scriptures as Buddha on Earth Qiao Yu tilted his face upward and saw his nose, swollen and huge, engorged and fiery red. Even the soft flesh on either side of his nostrils was more swollen, looking like two red sea cucumbers dangling on his face. In Zhou Xuan’s eyes, Qiao Yu’s current appearance resembled a game character—Void Mask! Zhou Xuan originally felt sympathy for Qiao Yu, but upon seeing his tragic yet funny look, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Did you faceplant into the ground? Can’t you be a bit more careful? Don’t you know to protect your nose with your hands when you fall? You’re holding up my big plans!” Director Liu’s suggestion was quite against human nature. Falling from a high place and using hands to protect the nose? Sure, the nose might be saved, but the person would probably be gone. “Director Liu, should we withdraw for now?” Qiao Yu discussed with Liu Tianen. “No way, we must locate the corpse qi and Yin Sha Qi today. Your nose is broken, think of a way to treat it.” Liu Tianen couldn’t bear to push today’s solvable case to tomorrow. “There’s no way to treat it, my nose needs to recover, let’s do it some other day,” Qiao Yu complained. “Nonsense, I’ll figure something out.” As Liu Tianen walked, he activated his limited wisdom and finally… had an idea. “I remembered, there’s a traditional remedy.” Director Liu said earnestly: “Child’s urine! Child’s urine can quickly reduce inflammation and heal injuries…” Zhou Xuan really didn’t want to laugh unless he couldn’t help it, “Ku ku ku!” It had to be Director Liu who could come up with such a clever idea. But no one else laughed; they all thought Liu Tianen’s suggestion made some sense. “Hisss!” Zhou Xuan couldn’t help but reflect whether his threshold for humor was too low, but soon he figured it out. The contrast between him and the others stemmed from the differences in cultural upbringing. Although Zhou Xuan wasn’t a top student, he attended a full-time undergraduate program and learned about the composition of urine in biology class. Other than water and salt, urine contains uric acid and urea. None of these compounds can sterilize or reduce inflammation, But the people of Ping Shui Prefecture naturally trust child’s urine, always believing it could cure diseases. The main reason most people don’t use it is simply because it’s too unconventional and they’re not accustomed to it. Growing up in this cultural atmosphere, they don’t find anything inappropriate about using child’s urine. The only hardship they felt was—where in this place could they find child’s urine… Qiao Yu’s hopeful gaze turned to the laborer closest to him. In the understanding of the people of Jing Country, anyone who hasn’t tasted the pleasures of a woman or been with one counts as a virgin. The laborer hastily retreated, waving his hands and saying: “Mr. Qiao, I’ve already got three kids, definitely not a virgin!” “Then you…” Like drafting men for military, Qiao Yu pointed out another laborer. “Eh… I was still a virgin last month… but I visited a brothel midway, so I’m not one now.” After asking around, there wasn’t a single virgin. Seeing no virgins around, Director Liu, who was smoking, was very frustrated. “Laymen! A bunch of laymen obsessed with the pleasures of flesh!” He fiercely stubbed the cigarette into the soil, making a “righteous indignation” gesture and started unfastening his belt while muttering: “It all comes down to me at the critical moment…” Damn! Zhou Xuan quickly restrained Director Liu: “Director Liu, don’t be rash. It’s no big deal if solving the case is delayed by two days, but you can’t deceive yourself.” “Brother Zhou, believe me, I truly am a virgin…” A virgin my ass, You’re old enough to pee out kidney stones! “Isn’t it just looking for child’s urine? I have plenty in my theater troupe.” “Right…” Director Liu then remembered there were kids playing monkeys in the troupe. That was genuinely and absolutely child’s urine. “Wait, I’ll get someone to come over and pee for you…” Zhou Xuan really didn’t believe child’s urine could treat Qiao Yu’s nose, he just wanted to broaden his horizons. … “Aim properly.” Zhou Xuan instructed about ten children lined up to pee into soda bottles. Just simple guidance, Director Liu was the one holding the bottles. “Aren’t we about done? It’s just to reduce inflammation in the nose, we’re not preparing a bath…” Zhou Xuan looked at the two full bottles of amber liquid next to Liu Tianen and advised. “It’s not easy for kids to pee just once, better have more in case something goes wrong… Next one.” He planned to later use a rope, tie the urine bottles securely, and lower them down to the Earth Temple. Below people said, the pit in the Earth Temple had strong winds that could blow the bottles against the cave walls, shattering them, thus wasting the urine. So, there must be a backup plan, get more bottles of urine, first lower half, then the rest. Director Liu ushered the next child after the one pulling up his pants. The line was quite long, At the very end of the line was a kid nicknamed Tong Douzi. Tong Douzi was his stage name. Right now, he was squeezing his legs together tightly, his thighs vigorously rubbing against each other because he urgently needed to pee, very urgently, extremely urgently… The reason he was so desperate was mainly because he had a sweet tooth. When Zhou Xuan went to the troupe to gather kids for peeing, fearing they wouldn’t have enough urine, he gave each two bottles of soda. Tong Douzi usually got soda only during festive seasons and had to share it with several fellow apprentices. This time, unusually, he could drink as much as he wanted and couldn’t control himself, chugging down the soda gulp by gulp. After finishing his own, he even coveted his junior’s. Zhou Xuan saw this and asked, “Want more?” “Mhm” Zhou Xuan added two more bottles. Soda makes you urinate, who drinks it knows. Tong Douzi drank four bottles initially, only feeling a slight bloating in his belly. When lining up, he realized its power. He felt like torrents were filled in his belly, constantly needing to burst the dam. At this moment, he peeked towards the front of the line; there were still several people ahead. When would it be his turn? He hoped not to end up wetting his pants. Wetting his pants was something he was very reluctant to do. His master cared for him, seeing that it was his first time on stage, his master had even picked out fine fabric from the tailor to sew him new clothes. He would be upset for days if they got wet. “This is the only way…” Tong Douzi made up his mind, took the chance while Zhou Xuan and Liu Tianen weren’t paying attention, and sneaked off to urinate. It was an open space with no trees or grass, standing to urinate would definitely be noticed. He was brave, found a low edge near the pit, and crouched to urinate. This place was behind Maitreya Buddha’s Earth Temple and nobody noticed. He urinated freely, the liquid, pale as water, drawing a transparent line into the pit. He had only sprinkled around a meter when a cold wind from the pit hit it, blowing it off course towards the Buddha’s head. The urine flowed over the Buddha’s head, and from there down to the neck. At the junction of the Great Buddha’s neck and back, there was a stone talisman engraved. The talisman was quite small, the size of a palm, and its script was neither the Buddhist Sanskrit Mantra, nor a Taoist talisman, nor a witch’s Plow Head Talisman. Neither Buddhist, Taoist, nor witchcraft—this talisman’s origin was hard to explain, but it held great significance on the Buddha’s body. The talisman was engraved, with its text recessed in the body of the Buddha; skillfully carved lines by the sculptor at the Buddha’s head and neck guided rain down into the talisman. With the essence of raindrops nurturing the Stone Talisman—this was the sculptor’s initial ingenious idea, but his intelligent mind never envisioned that someone would pee on the Buddha’s head. Tong Douzi had an excess in his belly, he urinated for a full minute, all blown onto the Buddha’s head by the cold wind, then skillfully directed into the stone talisman, gradually saturating the script within… Child’s urine doesn’t cure disease or inflammation, but as a famously unclean substance, it can break certain restrictions and functions of a talisman. … “This naughty kid, can’t hold it and just finds anywhere to pee, running to such a dangerous place.” Tong Douzi was noticed by Zhou Xuan just as he began to undress. But Zhou Xuan didn’t shout out loud. It wasn’t a time to shout. After all, Tong Douzi was squatting right at the dangerous edge of the pit. If he suddenly heard a shout, he might get frightened, jump, and fall into the pit… Dong! Dong! Dong! Zhou Xuan was watching Tong Douzi, when suddenly a deep bell sound along with chanting was heard nearby. “Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Amitabha Buddha.” The chanting sound was strong and resonant, very dignified. “Who is chanting? Where is this bell coming from?” Zhou Xuan carefully discerned the source of the bell sound. Boom! Boom! Boom! The bell sound didn’t rise again, but a fierce drumming sound emerged. In the drumming, chanting was also mingled. “Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Amitabha Buddha.” This chanting sounded feminine, like a charming woman was reciting. “Bell, drum? Chanting?” “Morning bell, evening drum?” Zhou Xuan realized, in his previous life he visited temples a few times where monks chanted while ringing bells in the morning and drums in the evening. But where do bells and drums take turns like this? “No, this isn’t normal chanting, this is a sound I shouldn’t be hearing…” The area was open, the only possibility for unexpectedly hearing chanting was the Great Buddha in the Earth Temple. As he was figuring it out, the chanting suddenly became frenzied, not like monks chanting but like madmen. “Namo Amitabha Buddha…haha… haha… Namo Amitabha Buddha.” “Teehee…teehee… Namo Amitabha Buddha…teehee… teehee… Namo Amitabha Buddha.” Whether the robust or the feminine chanting, it grew crazier and eerier, sending waves through Zhou Xuan’s mind. “Can’t listen, can’t listen.” Zhou Xuan quickly covered his ears, trying not to hear the chants, but it didn’t help. And the more he resisted, the more sinister the chanting sounded, the two chants nearly overlapped. Within Namo Amitabha Buddha, the ‘Buddha’ word in this overlap, became indistinguishable in pronunciation from ‘Buddha’ or ‘Devil’. Searᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. “Namo Amitabha Devil.” “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” Devil, Buddha, Buddha, Devil… The two words endlessly tormented Zhou Xuan’s ears. “Is it Buddha or Devil?” His mind began to falter, his eyes red as he looked towards Maitreya Buddha. The statue of Buddha no longer looked majestic, its lips bloody red, its eyes seductive like a fox, its belly expanding and contracting. “I feel like, I’m hungry…” A strong, inexplicable hunger arose in Zhou Xuan as he locked eyes with the Buddha, growing wildly within his body “Namo Amitabha Devil, Namo Amitabha Buddha.” The eerie chanting intensified the feeling of hunger. Every time it circled around Zhou Xuan’s ears, his sensation of hunger intensified greatly. “So hungry, I need to find something to eat… where is there food…” Zhou Xuan’s gaze turned to the rhythmically expanding Buddha’s belly… perhaps, there was something there. Once this thought emerged, Zhou Xuan decisively lifted his leg and walked forward, no longer caring that just a short distance away was the deep Earth Temple… “Even if I fall into the Earth Temple, even if the fall kills me, I will turn into a Fierce Ghost Zombie…crawl…crawl towards the belly of the Buddha… there is food there…eating it, I will no longer be hungry.” “Can’t go forward, the Buddha is bewitching me, he is not a Buddha, he is not a Buddha, he is a Devil… Is he Buddha or Devil?!” Zhou Xuan’s mind was drawn into a frenzied whirlpool by the Buddha statue…