Chapter 10: The Buddhist Sacred Ground Meets the Bewitching Technique II

  Lao Liu's knife fell empty and struck the Bhikkhuni statue behind me, producing a piercing sound of metal hitting stone. As I stood there in confusion, Lao Liu swung his knife at me again. It seemed that this guy had gone crazy and was even slashing at me now. Unknowingly, a surge of anger rose up from within me, and without saying a word, I pulled out my mountain-piercing dagger and charged at Lao Liu.

  "Today, I'll show you what's fierce, or else you wouldn't put your elder brother in your eyes." I cursed while chopping, feeling a sudden surge of anger and the more I thought about it, the angrier I became. Usually, I took good care of him, but now he didn't even spare me. Today, I won't rest until we settle this life or death.

  Lao Liu didn't answer and instead brandished his knife at me. Before long, the two of us had exchanged several rounds of bitter fighting.

  Just as Zheng and Lao Liu were fighting, they suddenly heard a loud noise. It was as if their minds had cleared up a lot. They quickly stopped the fight. Zheng's mountain-piercing knife, which was about to strike Lao Liu, was hastily withdrawn. Just now, for some unknown reason, he had been fiercely fighting with Lao Liu for so long.

  Lao Liu also stopped, knife in hand, and rubbed his head as he said to me: "Big brother, just now I saw the Buddha. The Buddha told me to go and slay an evil demon that was having a hard time fighting him, but when I got there, both the evil demon and the Buddha were nowhere to be seen."

  It wasn't until now that I realized everyone had indeed been enchanted, except for me and my second brother who were not deeply affected. Sixth Brother was probably controlled by the enchantment because of his straightforward personality, which made him think I was a demon.

  "What does that devilish sixth brother of yours look like?" asked the second brother with a smile.

  "I don't remember very clearly, it seems like Qingmian Zangya." Old Six rubbed his head and said with a very puzzled expression.

  "Am I like this?" I asked Lao Liu. Seeing Lao Liu shake his head in denial, I knocked him on the head again and asked: "Did you know when someone knocked you like that just now?"

  "Hehe, I don't feel anything." Lao Liu chuckled.

  It wasn't long before Huo Ling, San Di, and Sima Lin also stood up from the ground, looking at me and Lao Liu with sweat-drenched faces and panting breaths. They looked at us with puzzled eyes. Then I told them in detail about what had just happened. Everyone was amazed and only then did I realize that I had fallen under the spell of this place.

  "Ghost Dao Big Brother, how did our charm get broken?" Sima Lin curiously said "Just now I saw the Buddha's eight-foot golden body."

  "Yes, yes, Ghost Dao brother, I also saw it. That Buddha ancestor is not afraid of pain and is actually cutting flesh from his own body to feed the eagle?" Hook Spirit sighed.

  "This sorcery is different from the illusion produced in Japan, which requires human intervention to take effect. But this sorcery produced in China is even more ingenious and can be triggered without anyone present, as long as you enter the area where the sorcerer has left their magic. It seems that we have been subjected to a very powerful sorcerer's spell here. To break the spell, we must find the source of the sorcerer's magic. My second brother and I have studied Taoism, so we may be less affected by the spell, but if we had known about the spell beforehand, we wouldn't have fallen into that situation earlier. I drew a blood-written fire character on your foreheads as a preventive measure against the spell, but it was too late since everyone, including my second brother and me, had already been affected by the spell. As for how to break the spell, you'll have to ask my second brother."

  "My second brother saw that everyone was staring at him, so he paused for a moment and said: 'Earlier, my older brother drew a fire character on me, and I've already woken up. When I opened my eyes, I saw that my older brother was fighting with the sixth brother, and they were evenly matched. I knew they were still under the spell, and if I went to intervene, it would be like trying to stop a chariot with bare arms - I'm not capable of it because I haven't learned martial arts. I knew that if they continued fighting like this, they would both end up dead. The best way to save them was to make them wake up from the spell. Looking at the Buddha statue, I noticed that the head of the Shakyamuni statue was different from the other Buddha heads. When I touched it with my hand, it turned out to be made of human bones - apparently, that's the source of the spell. So, I smashed it to pieces on the ground."

  "So that's how it is." I couldn't help but sigh. In my heart, I secretly congratulated my second brother on his wisdom, otherwise the consequences would have been unthinkable.

  Just as he was about to urge everyone to move forward, he saw Sima Lin standing alone there, muttering: "It seems that I was wrong earlier when I said this was Cao Cao's tomb. Now it can be concluded that this ancient tomb is not his."

  "Sima brother, you said this is not Cao Cao's tomb, what do you mean?" asked the third brother.

  He shook his head and said, "The owner of this tomb must have been a devout Buddhist. Although many emperors in Chinese history believed in Buddhism, they still mainly followed Confucianism and Taoism when it came to governing the country. It's even more unlikely that they would want to be accompanied by Buddha and Bodhisattva after death. Many emperors had a strong connection with Buddhism, such as Emperor Ming of Han who first introduced Buddhism, Emperor Wen of Sui who was born in a temple, Empress Wu Zetian who was a nun before becoming emperor, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang who was a monk, and Zhu Yuanzhang who was also a monk. But I think the most devout Buddhist emperor must have been Emperor Wu of Liang during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. He had ordained four times in his life, each time being bought back by his officials with large sums of money. During that time, Buddhism was highly valued, as reflected in the ancient poem 'In the Southern Dynasty, there were 480 temples, how many towers and pavilions are shrouded in misty rain?' Therefore, I can be certain that the owner of this tomb must have lived during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period."

  Sim Lin said it was very reasonable and everyone nodded in agreement after listening. Then he invited everyone to continue walking towards the depths of the tomb hall.