Four Continents Zan Dho

There was a ritual arrangement below.

At the front, it began with four cross-shaped spirit mounds standing about two meters forty centimeters tall.

The four mounds were identical in form but distinct in color: white, blue, yellow, and red, corresponding respectively to the symbolic colors of the four great continents in Buddhist cosmology-Purvavideha, Jambudvipa, Aparagodaniya, and Uttarakuru...

Each stood on a hollow square base with sides about two meters seventy centimeters long. The interiors of the bases were the ritual's crucial vessels, which had to be filled layer by layer with more than a hundred kinds of special offerings.

Their contents included animal remains, human bones, skulls, genital tissue from prostitutes, swords, sabers, bows and arrows, sensory organs, limbs and joints, and shinbones...

"Four Continents Zan Dho!" Qu Zan's pupils trembled violently. His scalp crawled at the sight, and horror involuntarily showed on his face.

Four Continents Zan Dho was a supreme execution rite, unparalleled in both scale and destructive power.

Qu Zan had only ever seen this kind of heavy-duty execution rite in scriptures.

The resources it required were beyond what a single monastery could assemble...

At the center of the Four Continents Zan Dho stood a raised square platform, with a human hand pinned to it by a demon-subduing vajra.

The vajra was three-pronged, consisting of a central prong and two curved side prongs.

The hand was deathly pale, its five nails black as ink, like a dead person's hand. Blackish-red blood flowed from its severed end.

The severed hand's fingers were still moving erratically, as though grasping for something.

Qu Zan felt his hair stand on end.

"It takes Four Continents Zan Dho to suppress and seal this thing. Just how terrifying an uncanny entity is it?"

Looking around now, Qu Zan discovered that the soil of the site where the Four Continents Zan Dho had been arranged was completely different from the surrounding soil. The ground even bore the outline of a square cut.

"It looks like this ritual was set up somewhere else, then moved here later for some unknown reason."

Qu Zan rested for a moment. Feeling that his strength and spirit had recovered somewhat, he rose and climbed up the rocky slope.

Whatever this thing was, it was something utterly evil. He had better keep his distance.

Qu Zan could feel the many eyes on that strange ghostly hand behind him glaring at him.

As he moved farther and farther from that place, the sense of terror gradually faded.

He continued feeling his way through the boundless darkness.

"If I keep going like this and can't find a way out, even if no ghost catches me, I'll starve to death here."

Suddenly, Qu Zan noticed a faint orange-red glow ahead.

He slowly approached and saw that the faint glow was actually coming through the rock wall.

"How could that be?" Qu Zan reached out and touched it. Hard and cold-it was indeed stone.

Qu Zan brought his ear close and pressed it against the stone. He could faintly hear people speaking on the other side.

The voices sounded familiar. They belonged to people from Corpse Camel Temple.

"I encountered a ghost before. Once I figured out the pattern behind its killings, I escaped with my life...

...Whatever you encounter, don't be afraid. First, we look for the signs that precede a ghost's killings. That's what my junior brother said."

The voice on the other side spoke confidently and at length. It was unmistakably Doje's.

"We aren't afraid!" another female voice said. Qu Zan found it familiar too. It was Tuya's voice.

"Daughter, from earlier until now, this monk has been like an echo bug, saying nothing but 'Whatever you encounter, don't be afraid...'" another man said.

"I don't know." Tuya shook her head in confusion.

Judging by the voice, that was Tuya's father, the Dzongben.

"Miss, is this monk an idiot?" a maid asked in a disdainful tone.

"Zhuoma, no nonsense. Show respect to the venerable monks, even this one."

"Yes, Master Zhunnie."

The Zhunnie was the steward responsible for welcoming and receiving guests.

After listening for a good while, Qu Zan realized that these five people were Doje, Tuya, the Dzongben, the young maid Zhuoma, and a Zhunnie.

Pressing against the wall, Qu Zan said quietly, "Senior Brother Doje, it's me. How are you all doing?"

On the other side of the wall, Doje said, "Listen, my junior brother is speaking. Of course, you can't hear him.

"My junior brother is encouraging me. Doje, whatever you encounter, don't be afraid!"

Doje clenched his fists and looked up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, as though gazing at a guardian deity who wasn't there.

"What encouragement... We heard him too," Tuya said. "It sounds like it's coming from inside the rock wall!"

"Really?" Doje was half-convinced.

An unfamiliar, gruff voice also spoke. "Everyone, be careful. It could be a Vengeful Ghost pretending to be human."

"That's my junior brother. I recognize his voice," Doje hurriedly said. "How could my junior brother be a ghost?"

"I'm not a Vengeful Ghost," Qu Zan said. "I'm a living person. I suddenly ended up in this damned place."

"How could there be someone inside the stone?" The maid Zhuoma's teeth chattered with fright, but she still shielded her young mistress.

"Let's search and see whether there's a hidden door," the Dzongben said. "This is an uncanny place. Anything is possible."

The people on both sides of the rock wall ran their hands over the stone.

Suddenly, Qu Zan discovered that when he touched a certain spot, his hand met empty air and actually reached inside the rock wall.

It was like clipping through the terrain in a game in his previous life.

On the other side, a woman screamed.

"A hand! I saw a hand coming out of the wall!" It was the maid Zhuoma's voice.

Qu Zan felt his way straight into the wall and passed through it. A dazzling patch of light lay on the other side.

Suddenly, he sensed a rush of air. A short blade slashed straight at Qu Zan's face.

"Junior Brother, watch out!" another voice cried.

Qu Zan instantly activated the Lion Ghost Curse Seal. His hand took on a lion's form, and his sharp nails struck the curved blade, throwing off sparks.

"And you claim you're not a Vengeful Ghost!" the gruff voice said coldly.

Only then did Qu Zan get a clear look at the man facing him.

He was a burly man fully eight chi tall, wearing a fox-fur hat and a thick warrior's braid wound with red silk cord, with a large round amber bead dangling from it. A huge silver earring hung from his left ear. Spell tattoos covered his body.

Qu Zan looked at that thick single braid, his heart tightening. It was the mark of a Rebudian Chieftain.

Rebudian Chieftains were executioners who collected human skin, heads, internal organs, and other sacrificial supplies for monasteries and nobles.

Back then, Qu Zan had fled the manor precisely to escape a Rebudian Chieftain who was trying to capture him and turn him into a Five-Extremities Offering.

The burly man was about to swing his blade again.

Qu Zan saw that everyone was staring at him in horror.

The round amber pupils in his eyes shifted, turning black, and the power of the curse seal receded. The lion fur on his body withdrew...

Both young women cried out and ducked behind the others.

"Why did you come out without any clothes on?" Tuya asked.

"I received an infusion through the temple's teaching transmission. When I used the uncanny power, I burst out of my clothes," Qu Zan explained.

Doje let out a heavy sigh of relief.

He hurriedly took off his outer robe and gave it to Qu Zan to use as an apron, covering his private parts.