Wandering Gods of Day and Night
Chapter 187 - 158: Star Covering Charm

Chapter 187: Chapter 158: Star Covering Charm

"How could it not work?"

Yu Zhaixing spoke from her own experience—her madness had reached an almost incurable stage, but ever since she got the "Buddha’s head" tattoo, the symptoms hadn’t completely vanished, yet for the past few days, they hadn’t flared up at all.

"If there’s a saying ’a flicker before the end,’ then surely there is such a phenomenon."

Jing Deng said in an elongated tone: "The tattoo works this way—by consuming your life force to suppress the madness. And the consumption rate is staggering. From what I divined with Blood Well, suppressing madness for one day requires the loss of one to two years of life. You can calculate how much lifespan would be drained in a month, can’t you?

And how much lifespan do you even have to spare?"

Jing Deng’s words plunged the gathering’s atmosphere to the freezing point; no one doubted what she said.

Through repeated gatherings, Jing Deng had firmly established herself as the authoritative "Blood Well mentor" in everyone’s minds.

The weight of her authoritative words left the attendees unwilling to disbelieve her.

However, two people didn’t trust Jing Deng—Zhou Xuan was one of them. He immediately asked,

"Teacher Jing, may I ask what sort of sacrifice you offered to divine from Blood Well that tattoos cannot truly suppress madness?"

"The quality of the sacrifice was high, equivalent to nearly five sticks of incense!" Jing Deng replied.

Four burning while the fifth awaits its turn?

Zhou Xuan had already preliminarily concluded that Jing Deng was lying.

He continued questioning: "Could it be possible there was an error in your interpretation of the divination?"

The divination results from Blood Well are often cryptic; to obtain more detailed guidance, it’s essential to offer higher-tier sacrifices.

"There won’t be any errors."

Jing Deng added: "The sacrifice offered for this divination was already of a very high tier, which made the results highly focused, exceptionally clear, and required barely any decoding."

Zhou Xuan was now entirely certain Jing Deng was lying.

Based on his recent attempts at divination, any inquiry regarding tattoos required Blood Well to demand sacrifices of considerable quality.

Simply asking about "how tattoos accumulate incense power" with sacrifices equivalent to four burning sticks and a fifth waiting still yielded vague directions.

Ultimately, it was through Yun Ziliang’s assistance that Zhou Xuan tampered with a charm beneath the Old Painting Pavilion’s underground chamber by sheer coincidence, discovering the stone slab and truly learning the method of tattoo-incense accumulation.

Jing Deng claimed that she divined precise and clear guidance using the sacrifices of four burning while a fifth awaits—barely needing interpretation.

Since when did Blood Well become so benevolent?

"So, it’d be best for everyone not to place their hopes in tattoos... it’s no different from drinking poison to quench thirst." Jing Deng continued to propagate her perspective.

"I’ll ask when I go home too." Yu Zhaixing was half-convinced by Jing Deng’s words.

She trusted Jing Deng’s understanding of Blood Well, but she remained skeptical about Jing Deng’s conclusion that "tattoos exploit life force to combat madness."

At the very least, her mother hadn’t detected any signs of her life force depleting rapidly.

"The sacrifices of four burning while the fifth awaits will probably be difficult for you to obtain." Jing Deng dismissed Yu Zhaixing with intended disdain, deliberately bringing up the tier of sacrifices to deter her.

"Not difficult," Yu Zhaixing replied.

Zhou Xuan didn’t speak much; instead, he silently pondered: Jing Deng seems suspicious.

The stated purpose for Jing Deng founding the Blood Well Society, according to her own words, was to benefit more Spiritualists of Blood Well, using her understanding and experience to help them extend their lives and suppress madness as much as possible.

If that were truly the case, then tattoos would signify a major breakthrough for Jing Deng.

Yet, she now wielded lies and her carefully cultivated authority as weapons to discredit tattoos.

This was undoubtedly a move to eradicate the threat tattoos posed to the Blood Well Society.

Once the members discovered that suppressing madness required merely a tattoo, the Blood Well Society would lose its greatest allure—most joined believing they could extend their lives and control their madness.

With its appeal gone, the gathering would soon disintegrate.

Jing Deng clearly cared deeply about her control over the Blood Well Society.

"What exactly does she want to achieve with the Blood Well Society?"

Zhou Xuan realized that Jing Deng seemed to be hiding something...

...

Within the Blood Well gathering, the topic of tattoos was no longer discussed. Only then did Jing Deng say: "Today’s gathering was held because I recently found a set of Buddhist Scriptures. It may help enhance your Buddha nature.

To combat Blood Well Madness, one cannot rely on external objects; it’s imperative to elevate oneself—the Buddha nature alone is the ultimate answer for suppressing madness."

"Teacher Jing, at last, the Buddhist Scripture lessons have arrived."

"Teacher Jing’s lessons on the scriptures always energize me more than other texts I’ve read."

From the attendees’ conversations, it was clear that Jing Deng frequently led them in reciting scriptures during past gatherings.

"Her scriptures seem effective," Zhou Xuan thought.

Since he was already present, he decided to see for himself what made Jing Deng’s teachings unique from other Buddhist Scriptures.

Zhou Xuan joined the recitation.

The first few lines Jing Deng recited were no different from regular scriptures.

"... When practicing deep prajna paramita, one perceives that the five aggregates are empty, thereby transcending all suffering..."

This was the "Heart Sutra," a text commonly recited by Jing Country’s devout Buddhists in their spare moments.

However, as Zhou Xuan continued chanting along with Jing Deng, he began to sense something was amiss.

"When the day of impermanence arrives, one may cast off the flesh, sever spiritual descent into desire, cut out the tongue, bleed, pour molten brass upon the body, endure the agony of utmost suffering, and thereby behold Buddha."

"The Buddha sits upon a lotus of six petals, each petal armed with 149 blades, all slicing away flesh and blood..."

These scriptures grew increasingly sinister the longer he recited them. Zhou Xuan felt no Buddha nature—on the contrary, he sensed Yin Sha Qi curling ominously around him.