Chapter 123: The Ritual
The next day,
Marcus went to the temple and told Master Yuan that he had a method he needed to try.
Perhaps it could save the girl.
And if successful, it would also cause backlash against the Mother Buddha Deity, which would be beneficial in eliminating the evil entity.
As for the outcome of failure, Marcus naturally didn't mention it.
However, he estimated that the girl definitely wouldn't survive, but she was already close to becoming a malevolent spirit and would die sooner or later anyway, so he might as well try anything.
After explaining the situation to Master Yuan,
Marcus left the temple with the devotee and found an abandoned farmhouse along the way.
Although the temple was safe, the ritual he was about to perform was, by all accounts, a rather dark one.
The altar still possessed divine power and was still consecrated in the temple, covered with a red cloth!
Performing such a ritual under its presence could easily cause problems.
He nailed the dilapidated wooden windows of the farmhouse shut with some boards and pasted blessed papers around the perimeter to prevent the deity from interfering.
Next, he buried holy water he had obtained from Master Yuan in the four corners, following the same method.
Then, Marcus placed the unconscious devotee on a makeshift wooden platform.
He glanced at the 'Seven Souls Reincarnation' ritual he had written,
and following the instructions,
he took out a white cloth and wrapped the devotee tightly from head to toe, like preparing a body.
He then used seven red cords to tie the white cloth around her entire body, leaving seven loose ends.
He then lit a circle of red candles around the devotee's body, and placed the clay vessels he had sealed at the corresponding positions of the seven souls.
Each clay vessel was covered with a blessed paper.
Marcus took out a syringe, found the devotee's brow through the white cloth, and extracted seven drops of blood, dripping them onto the heads of the seven clay vessels.
He then took the ends of the seven red cords from her body, looped them down from the high wooden beam, and tied them around the necks of the seven clay vessels.
They were all suspended in mid-air, swaying slightly.
Then Marcus took out the core component of the ritual: the Soul Dagger.
This dagger had fallen out after the Soul Collector statue cracked.
Its system appraisal result was: a core item for spirit possession, possessing a trace of suppressive power on malevolent entities, and capable of transforming them into suitable ritual components.
Because the Soul Collector statue itself already had this dagger, it didn't need to use it again when it planned to reincarnate.
However, the corrupted spirit formed by the devotee now did not have the dagger within its essence.
Following the requirements of the ritual, Marcus aligned the dagger along the spot between the eyebrows where he had just drawn blood with the needle, aimed at the red dot on the white cloth, and plunged it in hard. A large amount of blood stained the white cloth red.
If the ritual failed with this strike, the little girl would surely die.
Then he quickly removed the seven blessed papers from the clay vessels and chanted the incantation of the ritual.
The vessels, suspended in the air, were pulled by the red cord and began to tremble incessantly.
"Waaah!"
A series of childlike cries echoed from the clay vessels, the anguish in their voices sending chills down one's spine.
A swirling, supernatural wind seemed to rise within the room, and the candlelight flickered violently with the rhythm of the vessels, as if it might be extinguished at any moment.
In the distance, a dense, malevolent force seemed to be rushing towards them, traversing mountains and valleys.
That was the power of the Mother Buddha Deity; it sensed something wrong with the devotee!
This feeling was strangely familiar to it.
It was panicking.
The trembling clay vessels began to shed layers of material, cracking open to reveal the slender skeletons of children inside.
Some of these children were even less than a year old.
The size of the vessels varied, as did the size of the skeletons inside.
Seven black streaks, following the red line on the neck of each vessel, spread upwards, crossed the beam, and burrowed into the devotee's body.
The red cord was also stained black, as if soaked in dark oil.
The devotee, wrapped tightly in white cloth like a cocoon, suddenly sat up straight.
It was impossible to see what lay beneath the cloth; blood still flowed from the dagger on her forehead, dripping from the hilt onto the white cloth—more than a normal person's blood volume.
Marcus's chanting continued.
After a minute, the clay vessels hanging from the red cord had completely shed their material, leaving only small skeletons.
The devotee, wrapped in white cloth, fell straight back onto the platform, like a corpse.
The white cloth covering her entire body was now completely stained red with blood, like a crimson shroud.
A series of banging sounds came from outside; the wooden boards nailed to the window were being hammered and were shaking, but surprisingly, they remained sturdy because of the blessed papers stuck to them.
The Mother Buddha Deity arrived late.
Marcus ignored the situation outside and continued chanting.
After a moment, an invisible force slowly pushed the dagger from the devotee's forehead until it completely protruded from her brow and slid to the side.
The skeletons on the red cord also completely disintegrated, falling to the ground. The cord, having lost its burden, snapped back, hanging limply from the beam.
"No!"
As the skeletons fell, Marcus's chanting stopped, but a painful cry rang out from outside.
Marcus recognized the voice; the strained pronunciation was clearly Li Ronan's voice, which he had heard just yesterday.
However, it was strange that this voice would be in this place.
The only explanation was the Mother Buddha Deity.
Moreover, its ability to produce such a sound signifies that it is using Li Ronan's voice to practice speaking.
This clearly indicates a change in strategy, prompting the entity to personally take charge of spreading the curse.
This is foreshadowed in the original story; Li Ronan ultimately dies before the deity, yet her recorded video is still sent out.
The deity's appearances always interfere with cameras, causing static, except for the last time when she didn't appear at all. Aside from the live stream format, the later video was likely orchestrated by the deity itself.
However, it's clear that Marcus has once again disrupted the deity's plans; the dissipating power outside the door indicates she has been injured again.
Marcus approaches the devotee, unties the red cord, and slowly removes the blood-red white cloth binding her.
A little girl with wide, curious eyes lies quietly on the platform, watching Marcus.
"Uncle, who are you? How did I get here? Where are my family and the others?"
the little girl asked in a clear, sweet voice.
Having spent many years in contact with the deity, she had witnessed far too many terrifying scenes. Having grown up in the Hsu family's compound, she had never encountered any outsiders and didn't understand the concept of being wary of strangers.
(End of Chapter)
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