Red Helmet

Quickly leaving the cliffside area, the team found a small path leading to the Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom under Monk Ku Cao's guidance, greatly increasing their travel speed.

Before long, following the path, they spotted a ruined, abandoned little village in the distance.

After drawing closer, they judged from the age of the buildings and the traces of daily life that the village had been abandoned for less than a month. Everywhere bore signs of deliberate destruction and beasts tearing at things. By now, it had long been deserted.

Here, Yuan Zhu finally saw the Yellow Springs ghost he had been thinking about day and night. It actually had not been completely killed? Though "dead" was not quite the right word—it had simply not yet been utterly destroyed.

Instead, someone had deliberately nailed it to the ground with a hardwood spear engraved with Buddhist mantras.

Green plants had taken root and sprouted within its wounds, crawling from its body and growing wildly in all directions, pinning it to the ground. No matter how feebly it struggled, it could not break free from the restraints of the mantra spear and the plant vines. It remained nailed there, growing weaker the more it struggled.

Honestly, Yuan Zhu felt somewhat disappointed upon seeing this ghost. It looked nowhere near as crazed, terrifying, or challenging as the green Foul Bone Demon. Perhaps it had already been dealt with by someone?

This Yellow Springs ghost was a corpse ghoul with a physical body. Its skin was shriveled and wrinkled, its eyeballs cloudy, like a dehydrated mummy. Its clothes had long since become tattered, giving off a faint stench of rot, which was suppressed and covered by the fresh scent emitted by those strange plants.

If there was anything strange about it, it was probably its three arms. In addition to the two arms of a normal human, there was a huge lump of flesh protruding near its left shoulder blade. It was shaped like a Buddha Head, but its features were savage and vicious, more like the face of an asura demon.

From where the Buddha Head's mouth should have been extended a long left arm. This arm was about one and a half times the length of the mummy's two arms. Even shriveled from dehydration, it was stronger and more powerful than its own arms. Its fingers were long and slender, its nails sharp as blades, like ghost claws.

Even though it had been nailed down by the wooden spear, this nimble third hand could still bend in ways no human arm could, gripping the spear tightly. Its palm gave off a sizzling, scorched sound as it exerted all its strength in an attempt to pull the spear from its body. Yet no matter how hard it tried, the wooden spear did not budge.

Zhou Chu surveyed the scene. "The ghosts here have been cleared out. It was probably done by monks from the Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom."

Yuan Zhu said, "This victim has a Buddha Head tumor on his back too. Does that mean he was also a monk?"

Little Monk Ku Cao pressed his palms together and bowed to the corpse ghoul before answering, "He was a warrior monk of Vajra Temple. The arm on his back is the Buddha Palm of Vajra Temple. Every accomplished warrior monk possesses a Buddha Palm, though their locations differ. The more Buddha Palms one has, the higher one's realm of Buddhist Dharma. It is said that among the bodhisattvas of Spirit Mountain, there is a Thousand-Hand Guanyin."

So this was how Thousand-Hand Guanyin was interpreted? Yuan Zhu recalled the Buddha Cocoon on Ku Cao's body, which was only the size of a pigeon egg. Meanwhile, the Buddha Cocoon on this dehydrated mummy was half the size of a ball, more than a full circle larger than an adult's shoulders.

"Hey, little monk. Why are your Buddha Cocoons so different in size? Is it because your spiritual roots are lacking? Because your Buddhist Dharma is shallow?"

Ku Cao's face turned bright red at those words, and he was too ashamed to answer.

The captain stepped in to smooth things over. "Buddhism has two major paths of cultivation. One cultivates the fleshly body: indestructible as vajra, enduring in the world forever, becoming a Buddha in one's present body. The other tempers the soul: the true spirit remains undying, reincarnating through the cycle of rebirth, and can likewise become a Buddha. This Yellow Springs ghost cultivated an indestructible vajra body, so its Buddha Cocoon mutated as well, producing fleshly limbs or other organs of blood and flesh. As for the little monk, he has only just entered the path. He is not yet qualified to choose a cultivation route. His Buddha Cocoon remains in its most primitive state and has yet to develop into a Seed Rank or brew Dharma Power."

Ku Cao nodded repeatedly and replied to Yuan Zhu, "Exactly! I am not yet qualified to presume to speak of Buddhist Dharma, but the Buddha Cocoon is spiritual root."

"Keep searching. See if we can find any other useful information."

Before long, they discovered another seven corpse ghouls throughout the village. Three had already been completely worn away and annihilated, while the remaining three were still struggling weakly.

The wooden spears containing special power were both a form of sealing and a method of torture, used to vent anger and exact revenge.

Besides the scattered wooden spears empowered by Buddhist Dharma, the team also found another kind of ghost that seemed to be an incorporeal wraith of the soul. It had likewise been dealt with, sealed inside ordinary black jars that were half-buried in the earth, with the other halves exposed aboveground.

The same thorny plants grew over the surfaces of the jars, interweaving into cages that trapped the jars firmly against the ground.

After days of constant, high-intensity contact with all kinds of Pollution Sources—especially after joining Happy Home, receiving Meng Xiyue's explanations and guidance, and getting a set of contamination test strips from Zhou Chu as a souvenir for additional records—the Immortal Scripture was no longer as utterly in the dark about Du Ling Star as it had been when it first arrived, labeling every harmful substance it encountered as pollution. Now, it could vaguely make rough distinctions between different types of Pollution Sources. It was like smelling enough foul odors to begin appraising and reviewing them.

From the plants wrapping the black jars and the wooden spears, the Immortal Scripture detected special fluctuations similar to "Holy Light." Little Elf guessed that it was probably some sort of "light attribute," which matched Yuan Zhu's expectations of Buddhism. After all, Buddhist light was said to shine ten thousand zhang. Perhaps these plants had been blessed with "evil-dispelling Buddhist light"?

"These plants contain special energy that can bind and wear away the wraiths inside the jars. As long as the jars are not broken, the plants can absorb energy from the outside to replenish themselves over time, continuously suppressing and erasing the wraiths until they are ultimately destroyed. Similar to those corpse ghouls nailed down with spears, this should be a local Buddhist method of subduing demons."

Meng Xiyue propped up her chin and asked doubtfully, "Little monk, have you seen this kind of demon-subduing method before? This doesn't seem like the Buddhist style I remember. I heard that traces left behind by Buddhist Dharma Power can make people feel as if they smell sandalwood incense or hear Zen chants, filling their hearts with serenity. The Buddha Cocoon on your body has that effect, but these wooden spears and vines do not."

Ku Cao shook his head. "I recognize these jars. They are containers used in markets to hold food or preserve wine. But this method of exorcising and destroying ghosts, along with the wooden spears and plants, is something I am seeing for the first time as well."

Meng Xiyue added, "Could it be the new power for suppressing and eliminating Buddha ghosts that the new Abbot found, as described in that letter?"

Zhou Chu said, "We'll know once we reach Na Ye City. Pick up the pace!"

The group set out again, racing along the main road toward the Na Ye Buddhist Kingdom.

Along the way, they passed several more villages in succession. Nearly all were empty, and all that remained were corpse ghouls nailed to the ground, wraiths sealed in jars, and Foul Bone Demon remains hacked into pieces and charred by fire.

Under the captain's guidance, Yuan Zhu and the others pulled out several wooden spears that had already tortured corpse ghouls to death, using them as weapons for self-defense.

The captain also remarked that the third limbs—the Buddha Palms—of those completely dead corpse ghouls could be traded in Gods' Space for a little spending money. If they did not mind the filth and stench, they could collect a batch, but they were not to let their Uniforms absorb them.

During the rest of their journey, the occasional straggling ghost posed no threat. Their clothes also had resistance against Yellow Springs Aura, so the captain arranged for the team members to take turns fighting, beating up corpse ghouls to temper their courage.

With wooden spears, weapons that specifically countered corpse ghouls, Yuan Zhu easily smashed the heads of one ordinary corpse ghoul after another. Yet he still could not finish them off unless he chose to leave the wooden spear behind and nail them in place.

Left with no choice, he took out his copy of "13 Exorcism Rituals," hoping to find a new method. Yet the methods recorded in the book—an enclosed environment plus Chlorine Gas fumigation, high-concentration holy salt solution, scientific Holy Light, ultraviolet rays...—all required materials he did not have.

In the end, Yuan Zhu summarized the most primitive exorcism method for everyone: fire. First, use the wooden spear to burst its head, then break one of its legs, and finally stick a burning torch into its stomach to ignite the marsh gas and rapidly set the corpse ghoul ablaze.

Use primitive flames to cleanse all filth.

As for the other kind of incorporeal wraith? When it attacked for the first time, its invisible mental assault invaded their minds, only to be bounced away by the Uniforms they wore. It had no choice but to change targets, attacking and successfully possessing a little goat.

Then Zhou Chu took it out.

This was the first time she displayed the power of her Law Decree. Yuan Zhu saw a fingerless red glove materialize out of thin air over her right hand. With a sweep of her arm, she flung a chain from her palm, binding the little goat tightly.

Then the goat convulsed violently and screamed as though it were being continuously electrocuted. It had the distinct air of an exorcism in which a demon-possessed believer was brutally tortured by clergy. A huge patch of black pearls scattered across the ground.

In the end, the last trace of the incorporeal wraith's power vanished from within the little goat. The rescued goat became half-dead as well. It limped when it walked, did everything it could to avoid Zhou Chu, became silent and listless, and no longer had any interest even in eating the roadside weeds.

Yuan Zhu failed to understand any of it. All he saw was a pretty young woman abusing an animal and earning an old lady's gratitude.

Finally, as evening approached in the Foam World, the team reached the outskirts of Na Ye City. From afar, they could see the hazy outline of its walls and the towering pagoda-like structures within.

As Yuan Zhu's group drew closer, a troop emerged from the city gate as well, spurring their horses and racing straight toward them.

The two parties charged toward one another, the distance rapidly shrinking as the scene gradually came into focus. From far away, Yuan Zhu had already seen through the little mice he had sent ahead to scout that a mass of red helmets was approaching.

Why were they not wearing armor, yet had bright scarlet helmets perched on their heads? Weren't they afraid of drawing attention?

But as the distance closed further, he realized those were not helmets at all, but...

"Human heads?"

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