Chapter 129 Xiawei Temple's mind was completely destroyed, yet she still remembered it vividly...
A grotto is a special type of temple architecture, referring to various landscapes such as Buddha statues, murals, and engravings carved into mountain cliffs.
The four major grottoes in China, besides the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, are the Longmen Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, and Maijishan Grottoes.
The Mogao Grottoes are mainly composed of murals, while the Longmen Grottoes and Maijishan Grottoes are mainly composed of Buddhist statues.
Yu Naixin had visited both of these grottoes, which primarily feature Buddhist statues, before. The Longmen Grottoes are large and scattered, while the Maijishan Grottoes are small and concentrated.
The grotto where the headless stone ghost is located is much smaller in scale than the Maijishan Grottoes. Yu Naixin tried her best to adjust her perspective as much as possible under the limited conditions. There should be no more than ten Buddha statues on this side of the mountain.
There are definitely more than three statues; given Buddhism's preference for numbers, it's either seven or nine.
The artisans coming and going all wore simple clothes that allowed them to move around easily. They were all laborers who were neither rich nor noble, and they often took off some of their clothes to work. Yu Naixin found it difficult to determine the dynasty they belonged to based on their clothing.
These were all pieces of information that Yu Naixin subconsciously began to explore and collect as soon as her sensory abilities returned. However, Yu Naixin soon realized that her actions were not actually very meaningful.
Because the headless stone ghost's special memory illusion is different from that of the butter flower monk, it is not revealed little by little according to the normal flow of time.
It's more like a "movie" than the illusion of the butter flower monk, with built-in editing and time-jumping functions, only lacking the ability to change perspectives and fast-forward or slow-motion.
Yu Naixin had just seen a craftsman suspended in the air by ropes from the mountain, shirtless in the sweltering summer heat, carving a headless stone ghost. In the blink of an eye, the forest below had changed from lush, deep green to a mix of yellow and green. Another unfamiliar craftsman was painting the headless stone ghost with a bucket of dye in the autumn wind.
In the blink of an eye, autumn turned directly into spring, and men, women, and children came to the grottoes one after another to burn incense and worship. Judging from their clothing, they included everyone from ordinary people to landlords and officials.
Before you know it, spring turns into winter, and the snow-covered grottoes only occasionally receive one or two visitors who kneel eagerly at the feet of the Buddha statues to pray and make supplications.
Yu Naixin estimates that this is likely the result of severe mental damage to the headless stone ghost.
She discovered while reading the fragments of the headless stone ghost's memory that the headless stone ghost's memory was much more chaotic and incomplete than that of the butter flower monk. The mess was even worse than that of the main hall in the backyard of Xiawei Temple. If it weren't for the fact that the content of the few remaining memory fragments was too distinctive, even a master like Yu Naixin would have had a hard time reading them effectively.
Reflected in the special memory illusion, the scene inside only shows the fragmented pieces that the headless stone ghost could remember when it entered the "Xiawei Temple" instance. The illusion simply plays them one by one in chronological order.
[Great! Great! Seeing the headless stone ghost's original appearance gave me a jolt. The past experiences of a single stone Buddha are at least dozens or even hundreds of times greater than those of the Butter Flower Monk. If this were to proceed in a rigid, step-by-step manner, like the Butter Flower Monk's illusion, how long would this live stream take to finish!]
[Yes, we viewers can easily quit halfway through, since the time flow inside the illusion is different from the normal flow of the program's instance. But the Little Witch has to experience it from beginning to end in real time. Just thinking about it is terrifying!]
[I remember the longest time a guest on "Heartbeat 1000%" had stayed in a dungeon was one year and one month, right? This female guest stayed in the last dungeon for a full year and a half! Even if the timeframes are slightly different, these kinds of dungeons are incredibly rare, and this female guest genuinely stayed in the dungeon for that long, breaking all historical records!]
[Oh no, why am I not surprised at all by the words "breaking historical records"? Instead, it feels perfectly normal. This is definitely a side effect of watching too many of the Great Demon King's streams; I'm used to these things now!]
[I've exited the Butter Flower Monk illusion scene almost ten times. It's either endlessly tedious and monotonous or a cruel tragedy of helplessness; frankly, it's not very entertaining. It's hard to imagine how the female guest persevered. She even maintained almost the same mental state both when she went in and out. That takes incredible mental fortitude!]
[! I didn't even notice until you mentioned it. Seriously, the female guest was in the illusion for a year and a half, but it was like she'd only been there for an hour and a half. She didn't show any change at all. The level of misery in that illusion was among the most tragic in "Heartbeat 1000%".]
She is a truly versatile and well-rounded guest with no weaknesses.
Before entering this special memory illusion, Yu Naixin had already prepared for the worst. At worst, she would just consider it as spending decades or even centuries with Mr. Stone, and she would cherish this memory.
Knowing that we don't have to face the worst-case scenario is a pleasant surprise.
The scenery before her eyes kept changing. Yu Naixin saw that the four seasons of this mountain forest rotated in an irregular order. Judging from the details of the cave and the people who came, sometimes the previous season of the year would follow the next season, sometimes the season of the year would jump to another season after several years, and there were also times when the seasons jumped to the same season twice.
The biggest geographical factor that led to the formation of grottoes was not so much the location itself, but rather the condition of the mountain walls; not all mountain walls are suitable for carving grottoes.
This small grotto is located in a remote area. From Yu Naixin's and the headless stone ghost's perspective, they can only see a few scattered small villages in the distance. However, the number of people who come to burn incense far exceeds this number. People from some surrounding villages and towns, and even the county town, probably come here specifically to burn incense.
Yu Naixin had heard them mention it several times, saying that the gods and Buddhas here are efficacious, especially the headless stone ghost statue, which is a place that every visitor will definitely worship.
"Is this really true?" One of the first visitors asked with skepticism.
"Of course it's true!" The person next to me nodded repeatedly. "I prayed to Buddha for good fortune last time, and guess what? When I got home, I ran into a businessman from out of town who bought all my long-unused items at a high price!"
“Exactly! Exactly!” Another person also spoke with certainty, full of admiration for the headless stone ghost. “I prayed to Buddha to bless my mother with good health, and her cold was cured the very next day!”
This is actually based on some evidence. Of all the Buddha statues in the grotto, only the headless stone ghost has sprouted spiritual power. Every day and year, the sound of prayers can be heard at its feet. Even though the headless stone ghost at this time did not have a complete thinking ability, it would unconsciously send a little bit of spiritual power to those few people.
The coefficient of spiritual power is unknown, but for ordinary people with mortal bodies, even a tiny bit of spiritual power can slightly improve their luck in a short period of time. Even if their wishes do not come true, they will still encounter some good things.
Over time, more and more people became imbued with spiritual power, and the reputation of the headless stone ghost spread further and further, becoming more and more real.
The people became increasingly respectful towards the headless stone ghost. When burning incense and worshipping Buddha, they were afraid of offending the gods and Buddhas. They carefully protected the headless stone ghost's body, and from time to time, some people, or wealthy and powerful people, would come to maintain and care for the headless stone ghost.
Pilgrims came back one after another to fulfill their vows. In this positive feedback containing strong emotions and will, the spiritual power in the headless stone ghost was further increased, and the further increased spiritual power allowed the headless stone ghost to help more pilgrims realize their wishes.
This creates a virtuous cycle.
The spiritual power of the headless stone demon increased particularly rapidly during this period.
Gradually, Yu Naixin could sense that about a hundred years after its birth, the headless stone ghost finally possessed a complete thought system and began to truly understand how to think and handle things.
Compared to the butter-flower monks, the headless stone ghosts take much longer to develop from the initial budding of spiritual power to true consciousness.
However, the butter flower monk had been subjected to too many bloody shocks, and his whole being was forced to grow too fast. He had to seize every opportunity to improve himself, and the headless stone ghost's method of accumulating sand into a tower was the gentle and healthy conventional way.
The headless stone ghost's personality is very similar to that of the stone gentleman that Yu Naixin knows well. Both can be described as very simple, even "naive and ignorant," and they have a very obvious Buddhist nature of benevolence and compassion.
The grottoes are frequented by a large number of people, including adults, teenagers, and children who are equally "naive and innocent".
Young children do not have a concept of reverence for gods and Buddhas. Adults are busy burning incense and worshipping Buddhas, and their attention is not focused on them. Children easily feel bored and have little self-control. They often start to do naughty things, wanting to hit or kick the headless stone ghost.
Adults aren't always able to stop them in time, and there are always instances where children offend the headless stone golem.
These troublemaking children are often severely reprimanded by the adults around them and made to apologize to the headless stone ghost.
Under the adults' firm stance, the children could only kneel at the feet of the headless stone goblin, wailing and mumbling their apologies.
Upon seeing this, the headless stone demon couldn't help but feel pity for the children and couldn't bear to see them crying in front of him.
So, after another scene change, many inconspicuous little flowers bloomed on the grotto, centered around the headless stone ghost.
The pink and white petals and dark green leaves trembled in the wind, making their presence as prominent as possible on the bare stone wall.
This is the Rehmannia glutinosa flower that Yu Naixin saw on the snow-capped mountain outside Xiawei Temple.
Children were the first to notice these Rehmannia flowers. Some children even reached out and picked them, then put them in their mouths, tasting the sweetness inside the flowers, their eyes sparkling.
Looking at the dark, thin child whose gender was indistinguishable and whose clothes were extremely old, Yu Naixin knew that nectar was a rare delicacy for these poor children.
The name "Honey Pot" for Rehmannia glutinosa flowers is truly fitting.
Gradually, people who came to offer incense would specially pick one or a few Rehmannia flowers for their young children, using this "honey pot" to comfort them and prevent them from being naughty.
The children also learned that there would be "honey pots" to eat when they came to the grotto, so they all obediently listened to the adults and stopped messing around with the headless stone ghost.
This place is an extremely efficacious place for burning incense and worshipping Buddha. The locals do not over-pick the Rehmannia glutinosa flowers, allowing these small flowers to bloom and multiply year after year, eventually covering the entire grotto.
Yu Naixin looked at the lush flowerbeds with a gentle gaze.
Why was it that in the last simulation, a small Rehmannia glutinosa flower was able to calm the headless stone demon and bring him back to his calm from his uncontrollable madness?
In the headless stone ghost's mind, those who come to pick the rehmannia flowers are all children. Even if adults pick them, it is for the children's sake. These children are young and weak, so he must treat them carefully to avoid frightening or hurting them.
Even after his mind was completely destroyed, the headless stone ghost remembered everything.
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