lcionline Chapter 344 Hateful and Sad
Chapter 344 Hateful and Sad
Lu Wensheng was just taking back the magic mirror when the remaining golden light peeled off his body like a cicada's molt. When the spots of light fell to the ground, they made clear sounds like chimes, waking up the sparrows sleeping on the beams. The birds flapped their wings and flew over his shoulders, their feathers dyed a light sandalwood gold, as if they were carrying away scattered Buddhist verses.
Xiaoman touched her heart, and the rhythm of the beating heart there subtly coincided with the frequency of the people's whispered prayers.
Wu Feipeng looked at the people with compassion in his eyes: "Greed is caused by excessive desire."
Yu He: "The evil soil watered by the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance will only produce evil flowers that devour people."
Tang He was touched for once: "This lady was actually created by mortals... They worshiped the clay figure like lambs to be slaughtered, but they dared to place their compatriots on the altar as sacrifices."
Qin Xiao: "It's hateful, but also pathetic."
The dark red candle tears meandered on the altar like a prophecy. The believers boiled their fear into incense ash and mixed it with blood-soaked buns to offer to the clay figurine. This crazy belief concealed three delusions:
One is the "debt collector" knot. When the demon's claws cut through the window paper, mortals always need a specific enemy.
They molded thousands of years of accumulated resentment into kind-looking clay statues, so that the cannibalistic world could show the outline of cause and effect - so the dismembered corpse of a demon became the appearance of the goddess, and the death of a young child was determined to be a debt of sin from the previous life... The poison of cognitive dissonance must be covered up with the honey of miracles.
The second is the "gambler's curse". The last half liter of rice is offered in the broken tile cold kiln, and the person seeks the crazy pleasure of risking a small amount to win a big amount.
An old man sacrifices his sick grandson in exchange for his own health, a widow stakes her chastity in the hope of bringing her late husband back to life, and the money from incense offerings is always mixed with human blood and interest. The more absurd the efficacy, the more it feeds the addiction that runs deep into the bone marrow.
The third is "the joy of the ghosts". Those whose necks were bitten off by tigers turned around and helped the beasts to trap their own kind.
The shroud hanging from the beams of the new temple has not yet been removed, and the widower who cried at the funeral the night before has become the most pious temple priest. All living beings are devouring each other's flesh and blood in the feast of fear, and what is placed on the top of the altar is nothing but a flesh and blood sacrifice created by collective hysteria.
Duan Jiashu murmured, "People always want to deceive God."
Lu Wensheng crushed the blood bead in his palm and let it fall into the incense burner, stirring up green smoke. The people trembled, and the incense ashes in their hair fell like gray snow. They continued Duan Jiashu's words.
"But they didn't know that when they pushed the first innocent person onto the altar, they themselves became the pigs and sheep to be slaughtered in the chain of cause and effect."
Lu Wensheng sighed.
People in the world are greedy and always want to have it all. But if they indulge in selfish greed, they will be doomed to eternity.
Hide from God's will, avoid cause and effect, and be trapped by all kinds of shackles.
Following the will of heaven and accepting the cause and effect, today I know that I am who I am...
Lu Wensheng put away the magic mirror, and when he raised his eyes again, hundreds of kneeling backs were rising and falling like waves in the twilight. The incense ashes in their hair flickered with their breathing, like thousands of dying sparks. However, he could still see the piety in the faces of the people towards him.
Lu Wensheng paused: “???” What happened?
The magic mirror flashed, hiding the merits and fame.
There were still beads of undried blood on Lu Wensheng's fingertips, and the magic mirror in his hand was still warm. The golden light flickering in the eyes of the kowtowed pilgrims had not yet faded, dyeing the black hair hanging by his temples like fireflies, outlining an illusory divinity in the twilight.
Tang He couldn't help but make a joke, his voice neither too loud nor too soft: "Brother, this is the opposite of worshipping you as a deity."
Yu Shuoyang peeled pine nuts while leaning against the remaining dragon pillars of the "Niangniang Temple": "If that's the case, Senior Lu will have to pay a lot of money for the incense."
I don't know when he brought the pine nuts, the sound of the shells falling to the ground was as crisp as a mockery, which made Wang Yanzhi next to him feel irritated and he glared at him with wide eyes.
As soon as Yu Shuoyang finished speaking, because he shook the fruit flesh in his hand provocatively, Wang Yanzhi snatched the peeled fruit flesh from his hand and threw it into his mouth, which made Yu Shuoyang speechless and muttered that the other party was childish.
Lu Wensheng glanced at the two people who were watching the fun, turned back to look at the crowd, and said seriously: "Everyone, the demon has been eliminated, you can get up, don't be afraid." He can't bear the title of a god, and he has never done anything that will go down in history, so he doesn't expect the people to deify him...
Lu Wensheng had no interest in asking people to kowtow to the ground, but seeing that these people were still bowing their heads, he used his spiritual power to help them up.
Those spines bent by life trembled in the spiritual power, and the shoulder blades exposed under the tattered linen clothes were as bony as a bird with broken wings.
The crowd became more and more panicked and guilty.
“I was really rude before. If the immortals hadn’t put aside their past grudges, we would have been afraid…” The leading old man was filled with fear and his knees went weak.
"Forgive me, Immortal!" The man knocked his forehead until it was red, "Just now I was blinded by greed and followed that demon..."
Just now, this group of people swore to defend the "Queen" to the death and dared to drive them away, but now they are willing to offer their softest throats to the "sword" - people are really contradictory.
Lu Wensheng frowned: "Stand up, don't kneel casually."
It was clear that he did not use any strength at all, but his hunched back seemed to be weighed down by an invisible burden. He only lifted three inches off the ground when he knelt heavily again. He was incredibly skillful.
"Master, please forgive me!" Based on their past experience, the people thought that these immortal masters were angry. The crowd suddenly burst into pleas for mercy. Several women hurriedly pulled the collars of the children next to them and asked the children to follow their actions.
“Hurry up and kowtow to the Immortal and admit your mistake!” The three-year-old child’s forehead hit the bluestone slab, and the dull sound caused Lu Wensheng’s spiritual power at his fingertips to suddenly become disordered.
Yu Shuoyang chuckled, and the pine nuts bounced into the trembling collar of a certain country gentleman: "Didn't you hear what the senior said?! Is the rickets in your bones? Are your knees naturally bent?"
He suddenly waved his sleeves, and the black crane pattern embroidered on the cuffs seemed to come alive. The crane's clear cry, carrying with it spiritual power, shattered the spider webs on the eaves and startled the crows all over the city. The copper bells under the eaves jingled, mixed with the suppressed gasps of the crowd.
Suddenly, the cry of a young child pierced the stagnant air. The three-year-old child who had been forced to kowtow just now broke free from his mother's shackles and staggered towards Lu Wensheng.
His chilblained hands grasped the fairy's snow-white skirt, and he asked in a childish voice, "If you don't kneel, will mother still be able to get the corn for disaster relief?"
Amid the dead silence in the room, Yu Shuoyang suddenly chuckled, with a sarcasm in his eyes that no one had ever seen before.
"The corn you kneeled down..."
He casually grabbed the collar of the gentry's brocade robe with a floral pattern and pulled out an oil-paper package from his trembling arms. He peeled off the layers and found a gold-painted lacquer box inside, which contained enough bird's nests to feed an ordinary farmer for half a year.
"It's all turned into golden juice in the master's stomach!"
The gilded lacquer box flew through the air, and the bird's nest cup fell to the ground and cracked.
How much blood and sweat does it take to make bird's nest? On the cliffs hundreds of feet high, countless bird-collectors hang on the vines like ants, with their fingers worn to the bone for just one nest.
The bird's nest cups were shattered on the bluestone slabs, the crystal clear gelatin mixed with the blood and tears collected by the swallow hunters on the cliffs, emitting an eerie light in the twilight.