This South Seas Jianmu was about the size of a seated adult, roughly a meter across. Saturated with tung oil and covered in gnarled branches and tangled leaves, it possessed the beauty of wild vitality.
Even after so much time had passed since it was cut from the Jianmu, it remained alive.
This was a South Seas Bodhisattva.
The beliefs of the South Seas were more eclectic and less coherent than those of the Central Plains. Two tribes living even a little distance apart might not recognize the Bodhisattvas the other worshipped. Each A Zhan sought bones from different graveyards and created different Bodhisattvas. White Wizards and Black Wizards also used different materials.
The transmission of their Dharma Lineage was shrouded in secrecy.
They could accomplish many things, and naturally, their taboos were even more numerous. The consequences of violating a Shaman's taboos were utterly wretched.
Worse than death.
Take their Bodhisattvas alone.
The South Seas had more than just the Mahayana and Theravada branches of the Buddhist Order. There were numerous spectral Bodhisattvas as well. This South Seas Bodhisattva, for instance, somewhat resembled a female manifestation among Guanyin's thirty-two forms. The design was correct. Had she merely been a female form with male characteristics, she might not have looked so sinister.
More importantly, beside the carved Bodhisattva were Wet Bones.
She looked as though the bones of a living person had been stuffed into a large, hollowed-out plank. By the firelight, Lin Feng saw the Bodhisattva's eyes shift as though she were alive.
Masses of green vines entwined the bones inside.
Wood and bones coexisted.
Together, they formed a South Seas Bodhisattva in an Uncanny symbiosis.
Lin Feng stared at the bones, the Yin God's fire reflected in one eye and the light of Moonlight Essence in the other.