Chapter 356: The Strange Sights of the River of Forgettance
A moment later, Jing Xin opened his eyes and eyed the passengers on the boat scornfully.
“See? I know you guys aren’t good people. One look from the Sinner of Ten Lifetimes, and you villains nearly lost to your own dark desires. Amitabha...”
And there he is. We all knew it wouldn’t last. The group rolled their eyes but decided not to retort on account of the monk saving their lives.
It was at this moment Jing Xin noticed that Ye Qing still had his eyes closed. He exclaimed in surprise, “Hmm? Why hasn’t he awakened? Is my sutra not effective against him?”
As if on cue, Ye Qing opened his eyes. A pulse of spirit washed out of his body, and his eyes shone like stars at dawn.
Realization struck Jing Xin. “Did you achieve a breakthrough, benefactor?”
“It’s a small one, but yes.” Ye Qing smiled. “It is all thanks to your sutra, master. Thank you very much for your assistance.”
“Hahaha! If your conscience is clear, and you are true to your heart, then you may meet Tathagata himself! You are extremely gifted, benefactor. I can tell you are destined with the Buddha[1].” Jing Xin laughed boisterously before shooting the others a scornful look. “Unlike some filthy and treacherous scumbags.”
Everyone except Ye Qing: “...” What the hell is your problem? If you wanna praise someone, then praise them! Don’t insult us in the same sentence!
At the same time, the group watched Ye Qing as if seeing him in a new light. What’s with this guy? We nearly lost ourselves to the Sinner of Ten Lifetimes, but he achieved a breakthrough? Is he really that gifted?
Ye Qing ignored them all and engaged Jing Xin in small talk. From time to time, he would glance at the Sinner of Ten Lifetimes almost as if he wanted the Stranger to look at them again.
In fact, he did. Contrary to his claim, his breakthrough had nothing to do with Jing Xin whatsoever. It was all because the Sinner of Ten Lifetimes had looked at them.
As expected of the Sinner of Ten Lifetimes who, if the legends were to be trusted, committed at least ten lifetimes worth of sins, one look was enough to draw out their malice, desire, greed, anger, Five Poisons and more. However, he had the demonic lotus. It had absorbed it all like a sponge and grew stronger.
He had used a golden rune prior to entering the Yin Market, so he was one step away from fully blooming the demonic lotus’ second petal. This unexpected boon was just what he needed to enter the middle-stage of the Spirit Purification Realm.
If the Sinner of Ten Lifetimes shot him a couple more glances, he was sure his cultivation of the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” would advance considerably. Unfortunately, the Stranger couldn’t care less about him. He eventually and his mountain of ghosts eventually vanished into the fog.
It was at this moment Greenlake’s sound transmission entered his head. “Husband, your breakthrough has nothing to do with Crazy Monk, am I right?”
Ye Qing smirked. You found out?
In any case, the encounter was a wakeup call for everyone. They realized that they weren’t completely immune to danger even if they stayed firmly inside the boat.
As the boat sailed deeper into the fog, the things they saw grew increasingly strange, beautiful, and dangerous.
They saw a fake Tathagata who was half-glass and half-bone, half-Buddha and half-Mara. The good people saw the dark side of the Buddha, and the bad people saw the good side. It was trying to tempt everyone into straying off their chosen path, and it almost succeeded.
They encountered a gigantic baby who was sleeping on the river surface, and its dreams were visible for all to see. When it slept, it dreamed of beautiful, everchanging humanity. When it awoke, the dream world was annihilated like it was struck by a comet. Some of them almost got pulled into the dream, so that would’ve been bad to put it mildly.
They saw a great serpent over thousands of meters long and covered in eyeballs swimming at the bottom of the river. Every time it opened or closed its eyes, the waters of the River of Forgettance would turn clear or murky.
They saw a giant lady with a bulging stomach that gave her the impression of a pregnant lady, and a giant ox with a human head. Both were guzzling down the waters of the River of Forgettance and causing a massive whirlpool as a result.
They also saw a giant, colorful butterfly flying across the river. When it flapped its wings, countless ghosts wailed like it was the end of the world.
......
As bizarre, gorgeous, and anomalous these creatures were, no one could deny that it was an eye-opening experience. It was also one that tested the heart. As they ventured deeper still into the River of Forgettance, the smell of blood grew thicker, and they started experiencing all kinds of hallucinations. Their temper had become unnaturally short as well.
This illuminated Ye Qing on what the ferryman meant by, ““Do not waver when crossing the river.” There existed all kinds of anomalies and temptations within the River of Forgettance. He could easily die or go insane if he didn’t steady himself.
Ruyan was pressed up against Fu Hengcong’s chest and sobbing uncontrollably, “Uwah... I’m scared, Brother Fu. I’m scared. Are we going to die here? Uwahhh!”
If the group was confident that nothing could threaten them before, now that confidence was nowhere to be seen. No one knew what was going to happen next, or if they were going to die here.
“Hey... Does this happen every time someone wants to travel to the inner market?” Ye Qing glanced at Greenlake. He would never have agreed to come here if he knew the journey would be such a thrilling experience.
“I told you that the Yin Market is a place for champions and geniuses. Anyone who couldn’t even overcome such a small obstacle does not deserve to enter the inner market,” Greenlake replied softly. “Honestly, this has been a fairly easy journey so far.”
Ye Qing blinked. You’ve got to be kidding me.
“You’re such a cute boy, husband. I’m loving you more and more.”
Greenlake laughed at his reaction. “Did you notice? Except for the attack at the beginning, none of the Strangers we encountered so far had tried to attack us. At most, we were affected by the wisps of energies they released by nature or by accident. All we need to do is to steady our mind to overcome them. If this isn’t easy, then what is?”
“You... are right,” Ye Qing agreed reluctantly after thinking back on what had happened to them so far.
“Why are you so quiet, Brother Fu?”
Meanwhile, Ruyan finally looked up from Fu Hengcong’s chest after sobbing for a bit and failing to elicit any response from her man whatsoever. This was strange considering Fu Hengcong prided himself as Ruyan’s lapdog. It was at this moment she noticed that his eyes were glazed, and he was staring into the river with an odd smile on his face.
Realizing that something was wrong with Fu Hengcong, Ruyan shook him urgently, “Brother Fu? Brother Fu! What’s wrong? Don’t scare me, Brother Fu!”
“Hehe...” Fu Hengcong abruptly raised his hand in a girly fashion and let out a girlish giggle.
“Something’s not right!” Song Qingyu immediately pulled Ruyan away from him.
Ye Qing and Jing Xin too noticed that something was off with Fu Hengcong, but the danger wasn’t apparent at first glance. Fu Hengcong was staring straight into the river and acting like a weirdo, but besides that, he wasn’t dying or anything. They couldn’t see anything but red and yellow when they looked into the river themselves.
“Strange. There’s nothing down there. What is that idiot looking at?” Jing Xin scratched his head in puzzlement before grabbing Fu Hengcong’s shoulder with his right hand. “Hey you. What are you looking at?”
In response, Fu Hengcong slowly turned toward Jing Xin and made a feminine hand gesture. He then let out a feminine giggle and asked coquettishly, “Hehe... do I look beautiful?”
“By the Buddha! Why is he acting like a girl all of a sudden?” Even Jing Xin, the Crazy Monk couldn’t handle such a drastic transformation.
Ye Qing frowned deeply as he scanned Fu Hengcong with his demonic thoughts. However, he couldn’t sense any anomalous energy from the young man. What happened to him?
“Brother Fu! What’s gotten into you? Please don’t scare Ruyan!” Ruyan sobbed loudly. “Please save Brother Fu, someone! Please!”
“My dear aunt, don’t get angry.
Please listen to what I have to say.
Su Baotong rebelled against the law,
And my husband, the emperor's son-in-law, went to the battlefield.
Knowing our son’s reckless nature,
We locked him in the study with a stone lock.
But our son is fiery and wilful,
So he smashed the stone lock and went fishing at Golden Water Bridge...”
Fu Hengcang was dancing and singing like he was an opera actor. Not only that, he was playing the famous “To Kill Qin Ying[2]”.
Fu Hengcong was a tall, handsome, and masculine man, but right now he looked prettier than even a songstress in a theater or brothel in every sense of the word. His dance moves were sexier than a young woman in her prime, and his timbre and intonation were even more seductive than a famous actor.
“By the Buddhas, his singing is better than the Dans[3] of famous troupes. He would be world famous if the world were to discover his talent.”
There was only one man on the boat who could say something that ruined the eerie atmosphere so thoroughly, and he was of course the Crazy Monk, Jing Xin.
“Maybe he’s secretly a girl in disguise? Let’s see!”
Jing Xin actually made a grab for Fu Hengcong’s chest after saying this.
Everyone: “...”
Are you serious, monk? Whatever’s going on with Fu Hengcong, it clearly isn’t ordinary. Are you so eager to commit suicide?
Also, there are countless ways to check someone’s gender. Why must you grab his boobs? And judging from how practiced your movements are, you must have done this plenty of times in the past, haven’t you? Are you a fake monk?
Ye Qing agreed with Jing Xin’s action, however. He looked like he was acting reckless and crazy as usual, but in reality, he was holding the lion mudra with his left hand. The lion mudra represented self-control and the intent to suppress evils, so Jing Xin was really checking to see if he could awaken Fu Hengcong with the lion mudra. Even if the young man suddenly attacked him, he would be able to respond at first notice.
The young man froze for a second when Jing Xin’s hands made contact with his chest. Just when everyone thought he was cured, he started singing again and even caressing Jing Xin’s face like he was his lover.
“By the Buddhas!” Jing Xin flinched back with disgust. He hurriedly took a few steps away from Fu Hengcong and said, “I tried everything. I leave it to you guys to find a way?”
Everyone exchanged glances with each other. No one was feeling particularly confident when even a Buddhist monk had failed.
“I’ll give it a go,” Song Qingyu started, but before he could even make a move, Jing Xin’s eyes abruptly glazed over like he was possessed by something. Just like Fu Hengcong, he let out a silly chuckle before beginning to sing with a loud, powerful voice. The monk was surprisingly talented considering his martial arts usually involved a lot of shouting.
Jing Xin fell for it too?
Everyone subconsciously pulled away from Jing Xin. Jing Xin was fine right up till the point he touched Fu Hengcong, meaning that physical contact could cause the condition to spread. Until they found out exactly what the hell was going on here, it was best not to make contact with the patients anymore.
Unfortunately, the boat was only so big, not to mention that they were in the middle of the River of Forgettance. There was literally nowhere they could go.
The good news was Jing Xin and Fu Hengcong weren’t trying to “infect” them or anything. They just kept singing to themselves. In fact, the singing was pretty amazing. If the situation wasn’t so abnormal, Ye Qing wouldn’t mind returning to his seat and enjoying the show.
As they continued, the two suddenly-opera-actors stopped singing their own songs anymore. They came together and performed a two-man show where Fu Hengcong played the female lead, and Jing Xin the male lead. They looked so absorbed in the act they looked like they could do this forever.
“What... what do we do?” Ruyan stuttered.
“You said you wanted to give it a go? What are you waiting for?” Ye Qing looked at Song Qingyu.
“Er... how about we just toss them into the river and forget this ever happened?” Song Qingyu was going to try and save Fu Hengcong with his mental art, but he changed his mind after what happened to Jingxin.
“I believe... that’s a good idea.” Ye Qing nodded in agreement.
“You can’t do this! Please save Brother Fu and Master Jing Xin!” Ruyan begged loudly when she heard this.
“It’s just a joke.” Ye Qing waved her off. Of course he wouldn’t do that unless he had no other option.
But how was he going to wake them from their stupor?
“Why don’t we... observe this for a little while longer,” Lu Hui suggested.
“Why not?” Song Qingyu didn’t really care.
“Sounds like a plan. It was getting a little boring.” Ye Qing shrugged.
If he was alone, he could try asking the Annon Sutra for a solution. But he was surrounded by both humans and ghosts right now, so the only option now was to wait and see what happened next.
At first, things were relatively normal—if you pretended that two people suddenly singing and dancing in the middle of the River of Forgettance was normal that was—but eventually, inevitably, things took a turn for the sinister. The duo weren’t performing lively, cheerful-sounding operas anymore. No, they were performing operas that could only be described as fit for a ghost; dark and sinister.
1. He’s destined with many Buddhas... some more unnatural than others. XD ?
2. I translated the lyrics myself, but the Chinese opera is very real. Don’t ask me what it’s about though. ?
3. Dan is the general name for female roles in Chinese opera, often referring to leading roles. They may be played by male or female actors. ?
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