94 Sacrifice Corridor 8 || Corpse Burning Temple
"When you first arrived, wasn't this young man curious about the temple across the street?" The old man looked at Jing Ning and said, "That's where they should go."
Temple burial?
Since ancient times, there has been a saying that burying the dead in the ground is peaceful and burying the dead in a temple is sacred. This shows that burying the dead in a temple is a more honorable burial method.
Many temples are places for praying for blessings and peace, and for the deceased to be liberated to the afterlife. But don't temple burials always involve the ashes or personal belongings of the deceased? How can you just carry the body?
Yan Shuang thought about the bell ringing last night. Could that sound have come from the temple across the street? If so, were the ghosts that escaped from the temple also former residents? How many people had died here?
"Don't just stand there. Come with me. The weather is already bad and it will stink soon." The old man said and walked forward without looking back.
Lin Hai hesitated for a moment, cleared his throat and said, "Boys, go together. Girls, wait for us here."
Soon the men followed the old man and returned with two stretchers.
At this time, the number of onlookers was gradually decreasing, but it was not much smaller.
"Get out of the way, make way..." The old man shouted majestically in the crowd, and the onlookers who were watching the excitement suddenly fell silent and made way for the person who shouted.
The residents all lowered their heads slightly, as if they were collectively mourning for the deceased.
The crowd also came closer and saw two bodies lying on the ground. They were lying twisted in a pool of blood, with their limbs bent unnaturally. Because their heads touched the ground, the back of their heads was completely sunken. White brain matter flowed out through the gaps and mixed with the blood. Many flies landed on them and began to feast on them.
Suddenly there was a loud "wow" sound from the back, and the newcomers couldn't help but start retching.
Jing Ning and Yan Shuang squatted beside the corpse and began to carefully check for clues.
Lin Haichen was no exception, while Xu Yaoyu hid behind Tian Yiyi. Although she was not as nauseous as the newcomers when she saw the corpse, she was not much better. The color on her face disappeared in an instant.
"Why doesn't it feel like he fell from the fourth floor?" Yan Shuang looked for a while and raised his head slightly, looking at the deceased's dilated pupils.
"It's certainly not like that. Jumping from the fourth floor wouldn't have resulted in such a severe fall. With luck, at most, he'd have suffered a broken bone, not been fatal." Lin Haichen pressed his hand against the deceased's skull. "Looking at this skull, it must have taken a fall from at least the tenth floor to have resulted in such a fall."
"Could it be that the two of them went out at night and ran to the roof and jumped down?" Xu Yaoyu asked.
"The highest floor in the building we live in is only the ninth floor," said Tian Yiyi.
Jing Ning stood up, squinted his eyes, and thought about something.
After the training of pulling corpses every night in the previous game, Ye Jing'an has now become a mature porter. Holding two bundles of white cloth in his hands, he said without blinking or beating his heart, "Have you finished checking? If you are, I will cover it with white cloth."
Jing Ning stared at one place in a daze, and after a while he said, "Let's build it."
There was a rustling sound, and Ye Jing'an spread out the wrinkled white cloth and covered the dead body with it.
The old gatekeeper urged, "Let's go, it's just in time."
It was ten o'clock in the morning. The old player carried the two corpses and walked towards the temple on the other side of the river in the high temperature.
The newcomers followed listlessly behind. This temple made people feel inexplicably depressed, but they had to abide by the rules. No one wanted to become the next one, and they also felt the powerlessness of being pushed by the game.
Yan Shuang thought that these residents who came to watch the fun would disperse soon, but she didn't expect them to follow the team silently and come to the temple.
The roof was covered in gray tiles, with eaves and corners rising and falling. The air was still filled with the strange smell of barbecue. There was something red and black mixed in the stones in front of the steps, and two strange Buddha statues were placed on either side of the door.
The temple gate was still closed, and the old man raised his hand to ask them to stop.
The players didn't know what the old man would do next, so they stopped immediately.
The original residents in the back seemed to respect the old man very much, and stood there properly when they saw his gestures.
The old man did not knock on the door immediately. Instead, he reached into his trouser pocket, took out something, held it in his hand, then bowed three times towards the door before scattering the things in his hand on the steps.
Yan Shuang guessed that what the old man threw out was cinnabar.
Cinnabar quickly covered up the original black and red color, turning it into a dazzling bright red.
Just then, the temple door opened and a monk covered in white powder came out.
The two of them saluted each other.
The old man said, "Excuse me for disturbing the monk."
The monk looked calm, half bowed his eyes, and clasped his hands together, "I brought it."
"Here I come." said the old man.
The monk then raised his eyes and finally set his gaze on the person standing behind the old man. The moment Yan Shuang's eyes met his, his intuition told him that this person was very dangerous, and a chill surged up in him on this hot day.
The monk retracted his gaze and nodded, "The time is just right, let's begin."
Everyone was confused.
In contrast, the residents dispersed immediately after hearing this, walked around to the backyard of the temple with ease, and stacked bundles of firewood in an orderly manner on the flat ground.
"Old man, what does this mean?" Lin Haichen didn't understand and asked humbly.
The old man laughed, and the wrinkles on his face could kill mosquitoes. "Burn it."
burn?
What's burning? It can't be—
Yan Shuang looked at the two corpses behind him.
"This temple, we locals also call it the Corpse Burning Temple. We usually don't come here unless someone has died and is bringing them here," the old man explained. He also felt that the others were worried about their friend's untimely death in a foreign land. "Don't worry, the monks here have been doing this for decades. They were personally selected by the Buddha and have profound magical powers. They will let your friend's soul rest in peace."
If he looked more closely, he would find that there was no sadness on their faces, only fear and disbelief.
"What does it mean that the timing is just right?" Tian Yiyi asked.
The old man looked at the group of young people, putting on the air of an elder. "Noon is also called the time of extreme yin. At this time, the sun is bright and the yang energy reaches its peak. Then the yang declines and the yin rises. Under the scorching sun, the yin and yang complete their transition, and thus the time of extreme yin arrives. This is when the deceased passes away."
"Thank you so much." Lin Hai thanked him with a serious face.
At this time, a woman with sweat all over her face came running over and said to the old man, "It's ready."
The old man nodded and invited them to move so that they could watch more easily.
The dry firewood was neatly piled into tofu blocks, and the two bodies were placed on top.
The residents who were busy just now were now standing on both sides. The monk in the middle held a torch in one hand and placed the other hand on his chest, chanting scriptures that were incomprehensible. After chanting for about ten minutes, the monk bowed to the corpse and then threw the torch into the dry firewood.
Only then did everyone realize that they were going to watch a complete cremation here.
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