Chapter 87

The black Buddha claimed to have a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, but that was merely a name; in reality, the statue did not actually have a thousand hands or a thousand eyes. The black Buddha statue made of rotten jade was about the height of an ordinary person, with dozens of arms behind it either holding strange magical implements or making hand seals. Over a hundred eyes were scattered all over the statue's body, originally all closed, but now they suddenly opened wide; these eyes had no pupils, yet they seemed alive, wriggling incessantly.

Father Thomas was so frightened by the countless maggot-like eyes on the black Buddha that he was at a loss, and hurriedly asked Elder Dust: "What… what is this? When did these eyes open? Are these eyes or worms?"

Although Elder Dust was well-versed and knowledgeable, he had never seen rotten jade or a black Buddha before, only heard his predecessors mention that such two things existed in the world, and had long since vanished; those predecessors also did not know the details, and what they said was very limited. Could it be that the black Buddha truly contained the undying spirits of the dead? Otherwise, how could the black Buddha seem alive…

Only then did one see hundreds of strange eyes on the black Buddha statue spewing out strands of thick black mist that looked as if solidified; this black mist coalesced into one within the niche, and by the flickering light of the candles, one could see the outline of the black mist resembling a vague black Buddha statue.

At this moment, the "Partridge Scout," who had just vomited blood, also regained his senses, and upon seeing this terrifying black mist, he was as startled as Elder Dust and Father Thomas. Strange and mysterious things in ancient tombs were never few; in his grave-robbing career, the "Partridge Scout" had seen many things so extraordinary that few things could still surprise him, yet this black mist was truly unexpected; if he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not believe such sinister things existed in the world.

Father Thomas thought it was an evil spirit, took out a bottle of holy water, opened the cap, raised his hand, and splashed it toward the black mist. That ink-like black mist had originally been moving very slowly, but upon seeing water splashed toward it, the black mist suddenly split open a large hole in the middle with swift decisiveness; Father Thomas's holy water all splashed into nothing, passing through the large hole in the black mist and falling onto the floor of the tomb chamber; the large hole that split open in the black mist happened to be right in the middle of the Buddha statue's outline, as if the black Buddha had opened its ferocious great mouth like a black hole, silently roaring at the three people.

Seeing that the black mist seemed to fear Father Thomas's holy water, the "Partridge Scout" had Father Thomas splash some more, and Father Thomas shrugged his shoulders and said: "Gone, just half a bottle left."

Elder Dust held his prayer beads and said: "The foreign monk's methods are not bad; it turns out this evil mist fears magical implements. It seems the time of great destruction has passed—what can heretical demons and evil ways do to me? Let me see how the old monk deals with it." After saying this, he broke the string of his prayer beads and hurled the beads headfirst at the black mist.

Unexpectedly, this time the unusually thick black mist showed no reaction to being struck by the prayer beads, as if it felt nothing, and continued to slowly advance forward. Elder Dust secretly wondered: "This is truly strange! Could it be that the Buddha's boundless divine power is actually inferior to Western holy water? Ah… this… what the hell kind of world is this."

Seeing Elder Dust dazed, the "Partridge Scout" quickly grabbed him, and the three were forced to retreat backward by the black mist. This black mist, released from the rotten jade, had two possible effects upon contact: one was like that white skeleton—skin, flesh, and internal organs would instantly rot and turn into pus, leaving only a skeleton; the other possibility was that the black mist was what Elder Dust had said—there were yin spirits at work, and upon touching a living person, they would be entangled by evil spirits.

Either way was horrendous. Having already retreated to the wall corner with no further escape, facing the slowly approaching black mist, the "Partridge Scout" knew his time was up, and said to Elder Dust: "Disciple has burdened the master today; a hundred deaths cannot atone."

Elder Dust was about to say some profound Buddhist teachings to the "Partridge Scout" to show his transcendence over life and death, when he noticed that not far ahead, the black mist, which looked like a wall, was not rushing toward the three of them, but instead was lunging toward the candles in another corner of the wall. The Corpse-Grabbing Colonel had an instinctive reaction to candles, and his heart gave a jolt: "Why are these black mist moving toward the candles…"

The "Partridge Scout" also noticed this situation: "Black mist…"

Elder Dust, Father Thomas, and the "Partridge Scout" almost in unison said: "Candles!"

When they first entered the ancient tomb, the "Partridge Scout" used the phosphor tube on the Diamond Umbrella for illumination, which emitted blue light—a cold light source with no heat, so from entering the tomb until seeing the black Buddha and that white skeleton, nothing unusual had occurred. Only when they wanted to retreat did Father Thomas, who had originally been walking last, become the first person; he had lit the candle the "Partridge Scout" gave him to light the way, and suddenly black mist rose from the passage beneath the Jade Gate. The crowd was driven by the black mist into the niche to hide until Elder Dust lit a candle for illumination and opened the box, whereupon the many-armed, many-eyed black Buddha suddenly appeared and changed—its eyes opened, and it spewed out strands of black smoke.

Indeed, it must be the heat; although I do not know the principle, these black mist are like moths to a flame, drawn out by the candle's heat. They must appear only when the air in the tomb chamber reaches a certain temperature, and it must be a sufficiently high temperature; if one does not light candles or torches, this black mist would very likely not appear at all. These black mist seem to be in a dormant state; once awakened by the high temperature of flames, they will destroy all targets in the tomb chamber that exceed material temperature before they can subside.

Indeed, the black mist first targeted the candles on the ground. The thick black mist appeared formless but actually had substance; in an instant, the candle flames were swallowed by the black mist, and the tomb chamber immediately became pitch black.

Seeing this, the "Partridge Scout" and the others knew that the black mist emanating from the black Buddha would, after swallowing the candles, immediately seek out heat sources like the candles—namely, the three living people in the niche.

(In-book commentary: Rotten jade, also known as 【the traditional character for "spray" with the mouth radical changed to the insect radical】 jade, or called insect jade, produced in a certain valley in Afghanistan, is a very strange thing. This insect jade itself has many kinds of strange properties, and has always been a mysterious substance with legendary color, extremely rare. Ancient people believed this living strange stone had some kind of evil soul attached to it; as long as one burned fire near the insect jade, a large amount of thick black mist, as if congealed together, would emanate from within; after the black mist passed, all substances in the vicinity exceeding a certain temperature would be corroded into pus water. It is not as Elder Dust heard—that touching rotten jade would turn the human body into pus water—but rather, one must first draw out the black mist with high heat, and only then will the black mist exert its corrosive effect on nearby objects; the insect jade itself does not have this effect.

In ancient times, a cult used the black mist emanating from insect jade to form a vague, multi-armed human-shaped outline, giving that human head outline a concrete form, creating a dark Buddha image, proclaiming that darkness would ultimately replace light, and gained many followers; later, this cult was completely eradicated. Thereafter, insect jade, already very rare, also disappeared from the world for a time, until modern times in 1986, when it was rediscovered during a joint archaeological expedition at the Çatalhöyük site in Turkey, in the form of this strange stone that only existed in ancient literary records; as for why this black Buddha appeared at the Çatalhöyük site, it cannot be verified, only judged that it might have been transmitted there from ancient times.

The secret of rotten jade was cracked by American scientists at the end of the nineteenth century; in fact, this mysterious window paper breaks at a poke, similar to China's caterpillar fungus; the so-called caterpillar fungus is the composite of the fruiting body of the caterpillar fungus fungus parasitizing bat moth larvae and the larval corpse, as its name suggests—in winter it is worm, in summer it is grass; while 【the traditional character for "spray" with the mouth radical changed to the insect radical】 stone is stone-like and jade-like at room temperature, and when fire triggers high heat, it turns into worms—a large mass of tiny black worms clustered together, extremely fine; a single 【the traditional character for "spray" with the mouth radical changed to the insect radical】 can barely be distinguished by the naked eye, but when many gather together, they look very much like black thick smoke. Normally in a death-like state, when many 【the traditional character for "spray" with the mouth radical changed to the insect radical】 worm corpses are piled together, they resemble black jade; the worm corpses inside and outside the shell, upon sensing a drastic change in ambient air temperature, undergo an accelerated metamorphosis, shedding their white corpse skins, gathering together and flying out. These worms that break out of their cocoons secrete large amounts of corrosive liquid through constant death, devouring all nearby high-temperature objects, including flames, which can be extinguished by the worm corpses' liquid.

To some extent, insect jade can be said to be a very effective tomb guardian; the countless 【the traditional character for "spray" with the mouth radical changed to the insect radical】 worms emerging from the stone form a worm canopy, sufficient to cover the entire area of the tomb chamber.

Of course, both the "Partridge Scout" and Elder Dust are corpse-grabbing colonels with deeply ingrained superstitious thoughts; upon first seeing the legendary, extremely evil insect jade, and given that the era had not yet solved the mystery of insect jade, in their view, this phenomenon before them must certainly be the work of evil spirits.)

Having already discerned that the black mist prioritized attacking high-temperature targets, to divert this mass of black mist, the three casually lit several candles; the black mist was drawn by the candles' heat to the wall corner, where the wall corner and the sliding panel wall in the tomb's niche revealed a large gap.

Before entering the tomb, Elder Dust and the others had taken the "Red Boudoir Marvel Heart Pill"; this secret medicine can lower body temperature and slow the breathing rhythm, so when the black mist was drawn by the candles' heat, it would not easily detect these three living people. Seeing that counter-tunneling was no longer possible in time, the "Partridge Scout" had no choice but to press himself against the wall to avoid the black mist, preparing to return from the niche to the main tomb chamber, draw away the black ghost mist there, and exit via the passage beneath the Jade Gate.

As Elder Dust was about to leave, he casually took the anomalous text dragon bone from the box; the dragon bone bore many strange symbols, some of which resembled the Dust Pearl, so perhaps the whereabouts of the "Phoenix Gallbladder" Dust Pearl would ultimately be found on this piece of anomalous text dragon bone; this dragon bone, with its bone shell hidden so concealed in the niche, must certainly have its value.

At this moment, the "Partridge Scout" and Father Thomas had already pushed the long-burning lamp mechanism on the wall, greeting Elder Dust to come over. Elder Dust hurried to catch up, but the mechanism wall turned with a click-click, then stopped halfway, as if something was jammed, leaving them caught between front and back, unable to advance or retreat.