Mani Pile

The sky was a deep, clear blue.

It was already dusk, but the sky still didn't look like dusk.

That snow-capped mountain, shrouded in clouds, was austere and noble, mysterious and sacred.

It didn't seem like a scene from the mortal world.

Compared to the snow-capped mountains in the far distance, Narong Mountain at Zhou Yang's feet looked quite ordinary.

The meadows grew in patches here and there, interspersed with clumps of withered shrubs and wild grasses, the whole mountain was a mixture of yellow and green colors.

Occasionally, a foul-smelling mountain wind would blow by, revealing the skeletal remains of the dead hidden in the grass, causing one's pupils to shrink and a feeling of unease similar to that experienced when gazing at the distant snow-capped peaks.

Gonpo walked unsteadily along the mountain path, his steps hurried.

Zhou Yang followed him and walked very fast.

It took them about half an hour to go up the mountain, but now, going down, the master and his apprentice only took a quarter of an hour to reach the foot of the mountain.

"Master!" Zhou Yang suddenly called out to Gonpo.

Gonpo turned his head and frowned at him.

"Do you remember what I said?" Zhou Yang asked.

"I don't remember!" Gonpo waved his hand impatiently when he heard this question. "You went mad this morning, caught Lung Disease on the mountain, and now you're even mader!"

Along the way, Aji kept asking him questions in various ways.

He took the words he used to answer the monks' questions as fact.

What I said offhand is now completely true.

Zhou Yang laughed.

Seeing his grin, Gonpo's expression turned worried. "If the monastery finds out you have the disease of the dragon, will they arrest you, like that Yixi Jiacuo Ajia mentioned, and dismember you to use you to make ritual implements for them?"

"Probably not." Zhou Yang shook his head.

Before dismantling this "Lung Madness Disease" and preparing his ritual implements, Jiawang Riba must have been eager to learn the secret of Zhuoma becoming the Lung Demon Queen.

As long as this secret isn't revealed immediately, he won't be in immediate danger of being killed. Ultimately, it's because Aji's current status is too lowly; he's not even a free man.

Killing someone like him would actually come at no cost.

Thinking this through, Zhou Yang asked Gonpo, "How can we shed our identity as Black Bones?"

Upon hearing his words, Gonpo smiled indifferently.

It seemed he had heard this question from others far too often, and he himself had asked others about it many times.

And the answer is always the same:

"There's no way to get rid of it."

Even a tantric practitioner like Gangba Aga, who has already obtained Terma treasures, is still a black-boned being.

"He was a man of great authority and reputation even among ordinary people like us, but the lord and the lama could kill him with just a word."

"Deqin is also a tantric practitioner, and he seems very powerful, doesn't he? I didn't dare look him in the eye when I spoke."

"But if any monk from Zongcha Gompa Temple goes to his house and asks him to offer his skull, he has no choice but to obediently go with his head in his hands. If he doesn't go, the skulls of everyone in his family will have to be offered to the monastery."

"Let's wait for the next life. If we accumulate enough merit and good fortune in this life, we can be reborn into a good family in the next life..."

When Gonpo mentioned blessings and the afterlife, a radiant smile appeared on his face.

Zhou Yang had seen that expression on Naren Brothers's face before.

Zhou Yang felt that deep chill return to his heart!

Even a blind sparrow will have some food left by God.

But it seems that the "lords" who hold the supreme secrets in this region are not as merciful as the ruthless Heaven.

Is it now that every path leads to a dead end?

The relatively stable external environment we have today is no longer attainable.

However, Zhou Yang's Karmic Retribution Body was not without basis.

"Luodu Terma Mind Consciousness," this Terma consciousness that caused the chaos of the Karmic Retribution Body and soul, is Zhou Yang's greatest reliance.

Since he could not rely on external forces, he could only rely on his "internal strength" to create a stable external environment for himself step by step! Zhou Yang felt relieved.

He gazed at the sky once more.

The vulture that Zhuoma had transformed into circled far above his head.

Compared to the filthy and terrifying world here, the plants and trees that are naturally grown and nurtured by nature are all the more moving.

"Ajia! Ajia!"

Zhou Yang followed Gonpo into the courtyard, and as soon as they entered, he shouted, "We're back, Ajia!"

"Oh!" came Big Zhuoma's response from inside the Shitou house. She Gate of Opening and came out, first bowing to Gonpo, then looking at Zhou Yang with a smile, "I saw you just now, so I'll go back inside to boil water."

"It's almost cooked, it's getting dark, come and eat."

"Oh, oh! That's great, I'll have dinner ready when I get home!"

A smile immediately spread across Gonpo's face, and he forgot all his worries.

The master and apprentice followed him into the house and put down the felt cloth.

The sky outside was blindingly white, and the cold wind was still howling. Inside, the fire in the hearth burned bright red, creating a warm and cozy atmosphere.

As Zhou Yang was about to enter, he glanced outside— Little Zhuoma was standing on a rock on the hillside opposite their house, idly preening her feathers.

The iron kettle, covered in black ash, sat smoldering in the fire, spouting plumes of white steam with sharp, piercing sounds.

Big Zhuoma grabbed the handle wrapped with straw rope and poured the boiling water into another mottled copper kettle.

A tea aroma with a milky, slightly fishy smell wafted from the copper kettle.

She then took out three pieces of wood.

The wooden bowls were more than half full of roasted barley flour. After distributing the two bowls to Zhou Yang and Gonpo, Big Zhuoma smiled and said, "You can eat now, eat up!"

As she spoke, Big Zhuoma set out three more rough earthenware bowls, picked up a copper kettle, and poured the milky-yellow butter tea mixed with crumbs into the bowls.

Gonpo placed the fried noodles on the ground to his left, picked up the bowl of butter tea, and, ignoring the still-hot salty milk tea inside, dipped his finger in the tea and flicked it around, chanting, "Om Mani Padme Hum..."

Big Zhuoma does similar things.

For them, chanting scriptures is an essential daily practice.

Zhou Yang was looking at the water and flour in the two bowls, still wondering how to eat them, when he saw Gonpo holding a ceramic bowl, pouring a small amount of butter tea into the bowl of roasted barley flour, and gently stirring it with a wooden spoon. Once the flour had formed a clump, he reached out, grabbed a handful, and put it in his mouth, enjoying it.

Seeing that Zhou Yang didn't move, he chuckled and gestured to Zhou Yang with the bowl, "Eat, eat."

Zhou Yang finally made his move.

This kind of food can hardly be considered delicious.

But compared to the food Zhou Yang ate in Guan Village, he found this simple food quite delicious.

"After you've eaten, go and dig up some Shitou and build a mani stone pile outside the yard."

"Mold Zhuoma into a clay figure."

Gonpo instructed Zhou Yang, "After you finish this, go to bed early."

"You're sick, you need to sleep more so you can recover quickly."

"Sigh, I didn't get paid for dismantling the corpses today, and even the tsampa tastes bland..."

"Okay." Zhou Yang's heart skipped a beat, and he nodded in agreement.

"What illness?" Upon hearing Gonpo's words, Big Zhuoma immediately looked at Zhou Yang anxiously. "Aji, what illness do you have? Are you going to mold someone into a clay figure?"

"The deceased we sent to the mountain to dismember today was also named Zhuoma," Gonpo answered Big Zhuoma's question, standing ahead of Zhou Yang. "That person died a violent death; she has become Tsen Demon..."

After that, Gonpo told Big Zhuoma the story that Zhou Yang and he had discussed.

Big Zhuoma was momentarily stunned by what she heard.

It took her a while to react, and she said to Aji with great concern, "After you woke up, you didn't remember anything from before, and now you've got this dragon-induced illness. What will happen to you in the future? Will you never be able to get your past memories back?"

"I don't know."

Zhou Yang shook his head and said with a smile, "Although I am sick now, I feel much more energetic than when I first woke up."

Sometimes I can hear sounds that others can't.

"Oh dear!" Zhuoma's expression grew increasingly worried.

Gonpo chimed in from the side. "That's what Lung Madness Disease looks like."

"People who are sick can understand some incredible things and hear some incredible sounds."

"For him, this might be a good thing. A corpse exhumerist inevitably comes into contact with ghosts and spirits; his illness means he's gained the ability to communicate with them ahead of time."

In Gonpo's description, this "Disease of Lung Madness" seemed somewhat like the kind of sorceresses and shamans Zhou Yang had heard of before.

Most of those sorceresses and shamans suddenly fell seriously ill.

After recovering from the illness, I gradually began to hear or see some incredible things.

Then, they use this ability to solve paranormal problems for people.

Big Zhuoma was also helpless regarding Aji's Lung Madness Disease.

She gave Zhou Yang some instructions, and after finishing her meal, she cleaned up the dishes and went to wash them.

Zhou Yang followed Gonpo outside and brought back many stones of various sizes. He used a knife to carve the six-syllable mantra on the Shitou by the roadside outside the courtyard gate, and piled the Shitou into a mani stone pile as high as his calf.

Mani stones, also known as "divine piles".

The people of this region have built a sacred mound with Shitou engraved with the six-syllable mantra, which is believed to ward off evil, dispel calamities, and suppress demons.

Sky burial practitioners make more use of mani stones.

Often, clay figures containing the bones of the deceased are fired and placed in mani stones. This is regarded as a place for communicating with the spirit of the deceased and for entrusting the wishes of the deceased's spirit.

For sky burial masters, mani stones are similar to the altars of tantric practitioners, or the mandalas and temples of lamas—important nodes for interaction with the supernatural.

After the mani stones were set up, Gonpo helped Zhou Yang mix the soil.

Zhou Yang took out the lustrous jade bone wrapped in a piece of coarse cloth, covered the bones left by Little Zhuoma with mud, shaped them into a chubby clay figure, and placed it on the edge of the hearth.

When the charcoal fire has baked the clay figure until it turns a dark reddish-brown, and it is getting dark, the clay figure is considered to be finished.

"Place it in a mani stone pile, and it will guard your courtyard at night, preventing Tsen Demon from disturbing your home."

"Carry it with you, and it will bless you with a smooth journey and a safe trip."

"It's not too dark yet. Recite the Rebirth Mantra a few more times in front of it."

Gonpo and Zhou Yang's conversation.

He had placed great hopes on this little clay figure.

It's as if they've become omnipotent.

However, when Zhou Yang finished firing the clay figure and held it in his hands, he truly felt an unseen connection between himself and it. An invisible thread, using the clay figure as a relay, was projected onto a distant black mountain range. Under the dark blue sky, the scenery on the mountains was no longer clearly visible.

But the invisible threads emanating from the clay figure, reaching into the mountains, must also be connected to Zhuoma, the incarnation of the Dakini.

"Good."

Zhou Yang echoed Gonpo's words.

He put the clay figure into the mani pile, and white light, like tadpoles, began to move around in the pile.

Then I closed my eyes and began to chant in my mind:

"Fairy Tale 1: The Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood."

Once upon a time, there was a lovely little girl named Little Red Riding Hood. She lived with her grandmother in a forest...

Let an eight- or nine-year-old child listen to fairy tales she has never heard before, and taste the sweetness of fantasy.

It was the "secret" hidden in this very place that killed her. Why bother using those scriptures and mantras connected to that secret to feign a prayer for her rebirth in the Pure Land?

As Zhou Yang was telling the fairy tale, he heard a fluttering sound of wings coming from the sky.

He sensed that the innocent yet bold Little Zhuoma was sitting beside the mani stone, her chin resting on her hand, her clear, large eyes on her dark red face staring intently at him, listening to the fairy tale with great interest. When the story ended, the clay figure in the mani stone leaned against Zhou Yang's feet.

The thread emanating from it, connecting Zhou Yang at one end and Little Zhuoma at the other, suddenly seemed to thicken a bit.

Zhou Yang had a sudden thought and opened the "Knife Credit Ledger".

On the pages of the book, the Dakini Incarnation Primordial Right Consciousness (Zhuoma), suddenly undergoes transformation.

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