Chapter 28

After chatting with He Man for a while, I went out alone.

Because when I was eating, I saw a little boy on the street, the same one who was crying at the door of my room.

Last time at Fayan Temple, I saved so many infant spirits that I actually forgot about it.

I walked across the street and followed it.

The roads in Thailand are not as well-connected as those here. They are mostly dirt roads, just like the rural areas of 20 or 30 years ago.

Fortunately, I grew up in the countryside and am not unfamiliar with such roads.

The grass here is very tall, and it led me up the mountain. Many of the mountains in Thailand are round and not very high, but the weeds are very dense. There was a path at the beginning, but as I walked, there was no path.

But the ghost of the child was still walking ahead, so I had to follow. After walking for a long time, just when my patience was about to run out, a cave appeared in front of me.

The lights in the cave flickered, and the ghost of the little boy stood at the entrance and waved to me, then walked into the cave.

I entered the cave. It looked like a shrine, but it was dedicated to a Kumantong. This must be the body of the little boy. It led me here, probably wanting me to break the Kumantong's restraints and set it free so it could be reincarnated.

That was easy enough. I went forward and took the body down. But when I turned around, the candles in the cave had all gone out. Suddenly, a chattering sound came from outside. It was Thai, which I couldn't understand at all, but I knew it must be the Kumantong worshippers arriving.

I hurried out in the dark, a sinister aura rising from above. I looked up and saw a gaunt, over ten-meter-tall monster staring down at me. It looked like a dryad, its torso and limbs like those of a thick tree.

I ignored all that and continued running, holding the Kumantong. The tree spirit swung its arm, blocking my path.

I hurled the golden-feathered arrow straight at the arm blocking my path, and the obstacle exploded. It was just a small tree demon, no way to stop me. The shouts from behind me grew closer, but I didn't stop, running wherever the road led, leaving them behind. I don't know how long I ran before I saw a village ahead. A village meant a road. Seeing no one was following me, I pulled out my phone and checked the navigation. It was an hour's drive from Chiang Mai. It turned out I was coming down the other side of the mountain.

It was so dark, and it was a village. There was no transportation in Thailand. I didn't speak Thai, so I had no idea where to go.

At this moment, the Kumantong in my arms suddenly moved, and the ghost of the little boy came out and pulled me forward.

I followed it for more than twenty minutes and saw an abandoned Buddhist temple. With the help of the light from my mobile phone, I could tell that this temple should have been built by nearby villagers. I don’t know why no one worshipped here, and it became like this over time.

As soon as I entered the temple, I was in a trance. As the saying goes, one person doesn't enter the temple, and two people don't look into the well. Surprisingly, there is still a trace of divinity in this temple. In folk custom, the statues enshrined in such dilapidated temples are called "luannan gods", which means gods that have lost their worship.

I cleared out a piece of space and will have to stay here tonight.

As I leaned against the wall, I saw a patchwork of will-o'-the-wisp fires outside the temple. They weren't just a few, but like a fire, stretching out in the distance. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Could the empty space before me be filled with graves?

After what happened, I couldn't sleep at all, and curiosity drove me to check it out.

As I approached, a strong ghostly aura swept over me, as if it wanted to eat me alive.

I became alert because I smelled a hint of evil spirits.

The Kumantong kept trembling in my arms and was very scared.

Suddenly, a female ghost, head bowed, dressed in white, bloodstained, appeared not far from me. From her, ghosts followed one after another. All of them, without exception, wore coarse linen and were covered in blood. The one closest to me had lost its right arm, and the wound dripped foul-smelling blood.

They surrounded me, at least twenty of them.

But I didn't take these little ghosts seriously at all. With my current strength, I could easily deal with them. What I wanted to know was why the will-o'-the-wisp appeared in such large numbers. The will-o'-the-wisp I'd seen before were just one or two floating in the cemetery.

More than twenty ghosts came towards me, wanting to catch me as a scapegoat.

I summoned a fire bell and burned it in a circle around, and those little ghosts were instantly reduced to ashes.

A cool breeze came from behind me.

I quickly dodged, and behind me was a human head.

The head mumbled something, but I had no idea what it was saying. I shot a golden-feathered arrow at it, blowing it apart. I vaguely heard screams coming from the mountain.

Just as I was looking towards the scream, a hand suddenly emerged from the ground, grabbed my ankle, and tried to drag me into the ground.

I burned it directly with the fire bell. The hand that was touched by the flames immediately shrank into the ground. Is this the end? Why are there only little ghosts? I hugged the Kumantong and prepared to leave, thinking that there were some powerful ghosts here, but I was disappointed in the end.

I spent the night in the temple, and after daybreak I found a family and returned to Chiang Mai on a motorbike. Yes, a motorbike, and it was an ancient one.

When He Man saw me coming back with a Kumantong, she asked me in surprise, "Why did you bring this thing back?"

"This is the child you saw. When we were having dinner yesterday, it was watching us from the side of the road. I thought it must have something to ask me, so I followed it. I didn't expect that it wanted me to break its Kumantong golden body so that it could be reincarnated." I said.

He Man was a little wary of this Kumantong, so she stood a little distance away from me and said, "Do you need any help?"

"No, I'll get it done in a minute."

After greeting her, I returned to my room. I'd heard of this Kumantong before, but I'd never actually observed it in person. There was an evil aura about it, imprisoning its soul like a kite tied to a string, unable to escape.

I first used my spirit to dispel the evil spirit, then checked for any other restrictions. I opened the golden body, revealing a complete skeleton. This is rare in Thailand, as many Kumantongs are made from a single bone or ashes. I sensed this wasn't just any Kumantong, so I placed my hand on the skull. A black aura, visible to the naked eye, emanated from its head.

I quickly wrapped its entire body with ghost spirit to purify it.

Its body suddenly caught fire. I withdrew my hand and looked at the scene in front of me.

The little boy jumped out of the corpse and smiled at me, thanking me. This kind of spiritual communication can only be understood by the heart. Then I saw its soul slowly disappear, and its bones turned to ashes.

I gathered up all the ashes and planned to throw them into the river, hoping that they would be free in the afterlife.

I finally understand why so many people who worship Kumantong suffer backlash, because even if the Kumantong is enlightened by Buddhist teachings, it is still an infant spirit that cannot escape into reincarnation. It is against the harmony of nature, and if you are not careful, you will definitely be punished by heaven!