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墨書 Inktalez
"Are you saving me?"
"Of course, Saning Brother, I am saving you."
I said, but if you save me, you will die. You're really foolish, I thought. Hurry and let me go, you Clay Bodhisattva; you're just putting yourself in danger.
But the Clay Bodhisattva said, "Saning Brother, I can save you." The Clay Bodhisattva spoke stubbornly.
Suddenly, I raised my voice and said, "I don't want you to save me."
"I won't, I won't, I won't. I want to say it three times."
"Saning Brother, don't you know why the person behind your eyes exists?"
For what? Many figures flashed through my mind. For what? But no matter the reason, I cannot die.
I broke free from the Clay Bodhisattva.
My body quickly sank into the Sea of Blood. In the end, I told the Clay Bodhisattva to leave quickly.
As I sank into the Sea of Blood, slowly I lost consciousness. However, there seemed to be a vague awareness lingering within me. I was thinking about who Wuren was.
Who exactly is that person in the photo? Who created this Sea of Blood that swallowed me? Was it to kill me?
Who is it? My consciousness grew fainter and fainter.
The soul left the body. It scattered into fragments, which then transformed into countless twinkling lights.
Yet within the fading Light Spot, my consciousness still lingered.
The soul detached from the Sea of Blood, floating in the air.
At that moment, I saw a soul approaching me. It was harvesting my essence, and I found myself unable to resist.
I couldn't help but ask, "Who are you?"
The soul was indistinct, so blurred that I couldn't make out its face. It seemed numb as it continued to reap my spirit. With each Light Spot harvested, my awareness grew increasingly hazy.
Damn it, this was truly frustrating.
Until the last Light Spot was consumed, I felt as if I had entered a realm of chaos.
Then, in this place, I saw two figures—more accurately, two masses of souls. One was a monk, and the other was a Taoist priest.
The Taoist opened his eyes and looked at me, saying, "So you've come too."
The monk addressed me, "In the end, your obsession runs too deep."
I told them to be quiet.
The monk and the Taoist fell silent, and I looked at the two souls before me. This unfamiliar place made me feel uneasy.
I asked, "Where is this?"
The Taoist replied, "Dead Land."
"Then why are you still alive?"
The Taoist let out a bitter laugh and said, "Have you ever seen a living person with only one soul left? I won't be alive for much longer."
I turned my gaze to the monk, who was sitting on the ground. He also chuckled bitterly and said, "I won't last long either, just like him."
I looked at the monk and the Taoist with curiosity.
"Why don't you try to escape?" I asked. As soon as I spoke, it felt as if I had told a joke. They both started laughing.
The Taoist said, "Escape? If there were a way to escape this place, it wouldn't be called Dead Land."
Both the monk and the Taoist had only one soul remaining.
Unable to contain my curiosity, I asked, "How did you end up here?"
The Taoist replied, "There's a rumor that a demon resides here. I thought I could come to subdue it, but little did I know there was a trap waiting for me."
"Are there any demons?"
The Taoist replied that there were none. I asked why we were trapped then, and he said, "It's not being trapped; it's death. I've been here for over ten years, and that monk has been here even longer—probably around twenty years."
The monk seemed to have started reciting the Sutra. Suddenly, he asked me, "Saning, was there a Buddhist Disciple outside just now?"
Hearing the monk call me Saning surprised me. I looked at him and asked, "What did you just call me?"
"Saning."
"How do you know my name is Saning?"
The monk chuckled a few times and said, "For a thousand years, all the White-Eyed People have been called Saning. You are a White-Eyed Person, so it must be Saning."
All the White-Eyed People have been called Saning for a thousand years, but isn't there still someone named Lin Li?
The monk continued, "Not only does this old monk know your name is Saning, but that Taoist also knows your name is Saning. It's just that the White-Eyed People have fallen to this fate; in the end, it's because of their deep obsession."
I didn't pay attention to that statement and asked, "White-Eyed People? Isn't there still someone named Lin Li?"
I am a White-Eyed Person, but isn't there still someone named Lin Li?
The Taoist thought for a moment and said, "It does seem like there is someone named Lin Li. However, his white eyes were also given to him by Saning, but his white eyes are different from yours."
Listening to the two discussing Saning, I felt it was strange to be part of the conversation, as I also bore the name Saning.
After the monk and the Taoist finished speaking, a heavy silence fell between them.
It was terrifying to think that after being trapped here for ten or twenty years, only one soul and one spirit remained from what had once been seven souls and six spirits. The pit was stained with blood.
I transformed into a Light Spot, my soul gathering back together.
However, I could clearly feel my soul dissipating, and at an alarming rate. At this speed, I would not last ten years; death would come much sooner.
I asked, "Who trapped you here?"
"Don't you know?"
Damn it, I hadn't even seen anyone. I explained that someone had given me a petal of the Reincarnation Flower, which was why I had come here.
"The Reincarnation Flower?" the monk inquired.
Typically, monks and Taoists were people of few words, yet these two were particularly talkative.
The Taoist said, "Isn't the Reincarnation Flower supposed to grow by the River of Despair? This is a Dead Land, devoid of life."
The monk added, "You should know where the Reincarnation Flower is. How could you be so easily deceived?"
I said I knew where it was, but that place wasn't somewhere I could just enter whenever I wanted.
The monk acknowledged my words. That place, after all, is not one you can just walk into. My soul was drifting in this Dead Land, while the monk and the Taoist continued their conversation.
Dead Land—who brought me here? Was it Wuren? Yet, there wasn't a single memory of him in my mind.
The monk and the Taoist were still talking about the River of Despair, but I had lost interest in their discussion about it.
My soul was rapidly fading away. Humans possess seven souls and six spirits; mine was dissipating. My eyes still held Ke'er's two Souls, but just moments ago, all the souls within me had vanished.
Suddenly, I recalled what that person had said during the time I used my soul for Chen San's Burial: he mentioned that once my soul completely scattered, that would be the moment of my death.
Death signifies complete annihilation.
All that belonged to my soul in this Dead Land felt somewhat desolate. As far as the eye could see, there was no end in sight. Yet, the monk and the Taoist seemed content to remain in this confined space, unwilling to leave.
I approached and asked, "Is there a way out?"
Upon hearing my question, the monk and the Taoist ceased their argument. The monk replied, "There is a way out."
The Taoist countered, "There is no way out."
I pressed for clarity on whether there was or wasn't a way out. The monk suddenly said to me, "We have no way out, but you do. But you—White-Eyed People—are you still afraid of death?"
The Taoist added, "You've lived this long; why not just die and save yourself all this trouble? Aren't you tired of it?"
I didn't know how long I had been alive. At that moment, I felt an impulse to strike both of them.
The monk and the Taoist appeared restless.
The monk said, "I could have lived a little longer, but in this Dead Land, living is no different from dying."
The Taoist echoed, "I share the same sentiment as this monk."
I wondered what he meant.
The Taoist continued, "We both want you to live, but afterward, you must preserve our Seed of Souls."
I looked at the Taoist with some confusion.
He went on, "Saning, you know the master of this Dead Land. One day, you will have to kill him with your own hands."
"Who is he?" I asked.
The monk replied, "You will come to know who he is."
After their words fell silent, the Taoist suddenly said, "Saning, I possess countless demon souls; I bestow them upon you now."
The monk added, "Saning, I have countless benevolent thoughts; I also bestow them upon you now. Additionally, please hand this string of prayer beads to my Buddhist Community's golden statue."
Once they finished speaking, the monk and the Taoist seemed to dissolve like diluted foam, instantly scattering away.
After the Soul Scatter of the two, I saw countless Light Spots. However, these Light Spots were mixed with both good and evil. I thought to myself that the reason these two had lived for so long must be due to these souls.
I just didn't expect that they had hidden away so many souls.
Once the Soul Scatter began, it quickly dissipated, and this Dead Land was frantically devouring everything. The Taoist said, "Saning, what are you waiting for?"
"By obtaining our souls, you will grow stronger. Remember, you must kill him with your own hands."
The monk had even used the word "kill." How much malice did this person harbor?
The monk said that good and evil lie in a single thought. Yiyan said that as long as hell is not empty, all Sentient Beings suffer.
The Taoist retorted against the monk, who replied, "That is the moral perspective of you Mundane beings; a monk killing evil people is a great good."
At that moment, I began to draw the souls of the two toward my eyes. However, having so many souls converge into my eyes at once caused me pain.
Suddenly, I said to the monk, "I once saw a monk in hell. That monk said, 'As long as hell is not empty, everyone still suffers.'"
The monk's soul continued to dissipate, but after I spoke, he suddenly began to cry. He asked, "Who said those words?"
I replied that his name was Yiyan.
The pain intensified as the monk repeated the name Yiyan and then asked, "Are you referring to Master Yiyan?"
I said it was Master Yiyan, but whether he is my Shishu, I do not know.
The monk dissipated, but in the end, he cried out. He told me, "Master Yiyan has fallen into the mortal realm and entered hell, but I know that Master Yiyan must have his reasons."
I did not expect that Yiyan was someone with a story, and by coincidence, he was also the monk's Shishu. After the monk spoke these words, all I heard were a few sobs before he vanished from my sight.
This could be considered a Ritual Burial; a Ritual Burial signifies eternal demise. Yet, this monk and the Taoist still wanted me to preserve their soul seeds.
What are soul seeds? After a Ritual Burial, I thought there would be no more soul seeds.
After the Ritual Burial, can one still live? Can Lin Li live? Can Third Uncle live?
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