A River's Sky Burial

"Hiss--"

Everyone was shocked by Quli's words!

Quli's dream felt incredibly real.

This perfectly matches the background of the Zeweng couple's sky burial of the drowned woman's body!

Zhou Yang then looked at Mr. and Mrs. Zeweng: "The day before yesterday, did Master Zeweng really perform a sky burial for a female corpse?"

"Does the master and Zhima Ajila usually go up the mountain together during sky burials?"

"No..." Zhima shook his head first, "He always asked Brother Gama to carry the body up the mountain, and then he would come to give a sky burial."

"That day, that man— Quzha— said he insisted on carrying the corpse himself. I was worried about Zeweng going up the mountain alone, so I went with him. Actually, I rarely go up to the body..."

Has Master Zeweng ever checked his dismantling tools?

"After your sky burial, do you have any special habits?" Zhou Yang asked again.

Zeweng looked bewildered. "The dismantling tools are the same as before. Every time I perform a sky burial for someone, I go home and wash off the blood, then use incense smoke to burn the clothes and body I've worn."

"But thinking about it carefully, the day before yesterday... after the day before yesterday, there was no scent of mulberry branches on my clothes..."

Zhou Yang looked at everyone. "Everyone!"

"Where did you see Master Zeweng and Zhima the day before yesterday?"

"Have you seen them, either on Narong Mountain or around the houses at the foot of the mountain?"

Those around him pondered for a long time, then all shook their heads.

"I performed a sky burial for an old man on the mountain the day before yesterday," Gemei said from the crowd. "Thinking back, there was no blood on the platform, and the altar didn't look like it had been used."

"It seems it really was a dream..." Zhou Yang sat down again and spoke softly, "Quzha's dream led the River Tsen Demon to find Zeweng."

In her dream, she asked Zeweng to give her a sky burial.

"This dream is fake."

"But the Tsen Demon in the dream is real."

Looking at the gently flowing river in the distance, everyone felt a chill creep down their spines. "This river is called Sangsang River, isn't it?" Zhou Yang turned to look at the still river and asked the others.

"Yes, it's called Sangsang River."

"Qu" means a small river.

Sangsang is also the name that the Tsen Demon keeps calling out.

"Why is it called Sangsang River?" Zhou Yang asked again.

"Because in the temple on the mountain, there was a woman named Sangsang who voluntarily sacrificed herself to provide for the monks in the temple to study esoteric Buddhism."

"Her body was later thrown into the river, and the monks renamed the river Sangsang River," Gonpo replied.

"What's the name of the temple on the mountain?" Zhou Yang looked up at the hillside above the river. The towering watchtowers on the hillside contrasted sharply with the barren land below.

"..." Gonpo paused for a moment, then replied, "Zongcha Gompa."

"Yes, Zongcha Gompa."

Those around them echoed devoutly, their eyes filled with awe as they gazed at the distant temple.

"That Tsen Demon, speaking in Quzha's voice, said to Master Zeweng, 'You hid its wife. It probably felt that you hadn't been able to let it leave cleanly, and that you had hidden something of its body.'"

So that's why I've started bothering you, huh?

Zhou Yang.

Looking at the quiet Sangsang River, Zeweng was restless. "How could I possibly give Tsen Demon a sky burial?"

"What do we do now?"

"Let's give it another sky burial," Zhou Yang said with a smile, "To let it leave in peace."

"She won't bother you anymore."

The crowd remained silent for a long while.

After a long silence, Gemei, still unable to hide her shock, asked, "How... how do we give her a sky burial?"

How do you perform a sky burial on a river?

"Aren't there any offerings to induce dreams?" If only Quzha could have another dream here, a dream of Sangsang.

"Next, we'll dream with him, and in our dreams, we'll perform a sky burial for the Sangsang River," Zhou Yang said.

He was really saying this to Aji.

Aji actually responded this time:

"Hallucination Offering:"

"Cover your face with a piece of white paper and visualize that the paper is your own face."

Mix incense ash with water to form mud balls, and plug the nostrils.

"Mix cow tears with ghee lamp ash and draw the shape of a door on the palms of both hands."

"Use mulberry smoke to fumigate the door in your hand."

"Afterwards, clasp your hands together and continuously visualize the door in your hands opening as a gateway before your eyes. When the gateway before your eyes becomes real and tangible, that is when the root of illusion has deepened, and your consciousness can enter the dream..."

Jiekan quickly collected cow tears. This strange and unusual substance seemed to be easily found by him.

Gemei went home and had already retrieved the ash from the ghee lamp wick, which came in just in time.

Incense ash and mulberry branches were everywhere. Pingcuo went to a nearby house and soon brought back these two items.

All kinds of items were prepared.

"Aji, how did you know about this Hallucination Offering practice?"

As Gonpo watched Zhou Yang begin preparing the offerings, he finally couldn't help but ask.

None of the three sky burial masters knew about this offering.

But Aji himself explained how to make and use the offering.

Zhou Yang poured the ash from the ghee lamp wick and the tears of cow into a ceramic bowl and mixed them together. When he heard Gonpo's question, he replied without looking up, "Just now, when I said I would give ' Sangsang River ' another sky burial, she seemed to have heard me."

"They told me about this practice of ' Hallucination Offering '."

"Ah, Sangsang River told you himself..." Gonpo looked at him with an expression that said, "I knew it." He turned to Gemei and Zeweng and said, "See? This is Lung Madness Disease."

"Able to hear and see things that others cannot feel." "I see..."

Gemei and Zeweng nodded repeatedly, full of praise.

Gonpo turned back to Zhou Yang and asked, "Since Sangsang River told you, this practice of Hallucination Offering shouldn't be dangerous, right? What about the sky burial in the dream?"

"Then, let's dream together."

"I haven't taught you how to dismantle a body yet."

"I'll go with you," Gemei said at this moment. "I'll set out offerings for you and perform the Five Senses Offering."

When Zeweng saw that both of them had spoken, he simply smiled and remained silent.

This time, in his dream, he created a river for a sky burial, all for the sake of his late father, Zeweng.

He had to enter the dream; there was no need to ask Aji again.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yang's heart tightened.

The claim that "the Hallucination Offering was taught to him by the Sangsang River" is just a fabrication on his own.

The reality is not so. Whether there is danger in the dream, whether one can see the sky burial in the dream, and whether one is willing to be sky-burialed again—these are all uncertain things. If the situation changes, he may not be able to protect these old sky burial masters while he is in the dream.

It was alright only for Zeweng and his wife, and Quzha, to follow him into his dream.

If a few more people are added, the situation will change drastically, and he estimates he'll be overwhelmed.

No, no.

Zhou Yang ultimately shook his head and rejected Gonpo and Gemei's suggestion. "Once we're in the dream, we won't know what's happening outside."

You all have to stay outside.

"If anything bad happens, you must help us break the Hallucination Offering, remove the white paper pasted on our faces, and wipe the door from our palms."

"This is a matter of life and death, we can't be careless!"

He spoke seriously.

Upon hearing this, Gemei and Gonpo had no choice but to give up.

Jiekan, who had been eagerly waiting for an opportunity to speak up and enter the dream world, reluctantly shut up.

Zhou Yang mixed the ash from the ghee lamp wick with cow tears, kneaded the incense ash and water into mud balls, stuffed them into his nostrils, and looked at Quzha. Quzha's face was covered with white paper, and the mud balls were stuffed into his nostrils.

It's just a matter of drawing a "door" on his palm.

But his shoulders kept shaking, and he couldn't calm down at all.

After all, for him, today's events were an entirely unexpected disaster.

Sangsang River has transformed into a Tsen Demon, and this time they went into a dream to perform a sky burial for a Tsen Demon —although Zhou Yang explained the matter in great detail, Quzha had no intention of getting involved.

If we don't get involved, then we don't even need to consider whether things are thorough or not!

Quzha had a thousand reasons to be unwilling and to back down.

Looking at Quzha's appearance, Zhou Yang sighed inwardly.

There are still some hurdles to overcome in using Hallucination Offering.

The recipient must visualize the shape of the "door" in their mind, making the door truly stand before them.

Quzha's current state, he might not be able to visualize that door.

If he couldn't do it, Zhou Yang had to experiment himself to see if he could communicate with Sangsang after entering the dream. Afterward, Zhou Yang drew the shape of two doors in Quzha's palm.

"Don't think about anything else, just think about what your front door looks like. Keep thinking about your front door in your mind, and when you see it, it will be standing in front of you. Then go inside," Zhou Yang instructed Quzha.

Quzha responded to him, but he did not.

Although the face covered by the white paper had its eyes tightly closed, the pupils beneath the eyelids were rolling around, showing no signs of concentration.

Everyone held their breath, observing Quzha's condition.

After a long while, Quzha showed no signs of falling asleep; his shoulders were still trembling, and his breathing was irregular.

"He can't see the door!"

At this moment, Jiekan walked over and ripped the white paper off Quzha's face.

Quzha immediately opened his eyes and looked at Jiekan with surprise.

"He's too timid and too stupid; he can't see the door, he can't even go there in his dreams!"

Jiekan said confidently, "I can!"

Zhou Yang looked at Jiekan and chuckled. After a long while, he said, "Jiekan, you want to come with us into the dream, but do you know that if things don't go well in the dream, you might not be able to come back!"

"Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"I'm not afraid!" Jiekan declared.

"Alright." Zhou Yang nodded. "Then you'll replace Quzha."

Upon Jiekan grinned widely.

Subsequently, Zhou Yang used the "Hallucination Offering" technique on him, telling him the key to it, and then let him try to enter the dream.

Whether his dream can be connected with the Sangsang River remains to be seen.

Zhou Yang did not wait for the outcome of Jiekan's dream. He drew the shape of a "door" in the palm of his own hand and in the palm of Zeweng and his wife's hand. He then asked Gonpo to stick white paper on them and began to visualize the door in his hand standing in front of him.

Before long, the two doors came into view.

Zhou Yang pushed open the door and entered!

The two doors standing before Zhou Yang had no sense of illusion whatsoever.

When he pushed open the door, he saw a world beyond it, but there was no trace of the "dream." Not far away, the Sangsang River still flowed quietly.

The sky had just become very dark.

The shepherd waved his whip, driving the sheep back into the house.

Before long, Zhou Yang was the only one left by the river.

The wind suddenly became very strong.

The overcast sky looked like a heavy rain was about to fall.

Wild grass and withered trees danced in the wind, the increasingly dark sky seemed to rise higher and higher, and human beings living in this place became as insignificant as dust.

The Sangsang River no longer flows quietly; eddies have formed on the river's surface.

Like water in a container, as the container is shaken violently, the water inside constantly churns and splashes.

Hey! Aji!

Someone patted Zhou Yang on the shoulder from behind. Zhou Yang turned around and saw Jiekan.

Jiekan seemed to have always been standing there, but Zhou Yang hadn't noticed him before. Shortly after Jiekan appeared, Zeweng and Zhima also appeared on the shore of the Sangsang River.

The group exchanged glances, each seeing surprise and relief in the other's eyes.

They were astonished that the Hallucination Offering had truly brought them into their dreams.

Fortunately, they were truly in the same dream.

This dream, which seems to be theirs, is actually Sangsang's dream.