Closed eyes.
A benevolent smile.
[Everything in the secular world is foolish and futile. Only those who are unblemished and have not committed sins can escape the great wheel and finally find peace.]
With a black body whose composition was unknown and white hair, Ksitigarbha approached them and spoke.
It seemed unable to cross the gold thread, wandering around its edges, gesturing for them to come out, while constantly transforming the shape of its insect-like hands, defiling the meaning of the sacred hand signs.
[All beings in the world are committing sins. Ah, I see. I see the suffering beings tormented by their karma.]
Ksitigarbha formed a single hand sign with its insect-like hand.
It was a bizarre sign that seemed to indicate something with just the index fingers of both hands extended straight.
[From the Eight Hot Hells to the Abijyo Hot Hell. From the Five No Interval to the Thought Hell. Everything is visible. Countless beings suffering from their karma. Poor beings being eaten by insects, shredded by the rain of blades, and pitiful beings constantly pecked at by birds with diamond beaks!]
Despite the tranquility of its white head, the voice was fervent.
[Oh, sinners. Everyone is a sinner. There are those who have eaten what should be used by the ill without being ill, killing human lives; those whose greed has led them to steal from the poor; those who indulge in lewd acts and are punished; those who do not value food and those enchanted by alcohol; there are those who tell lies like daily meals, paying the price; those who have taken life and those who have trampled on the dignity of others. All are sinners, and all must suffer to repay their sins!]
That voice resembled that of a truly compassionate person, filled with the painful sentiment of not being able to stop the tragedy due to the limits of their power.
[In this seemingly endless end, there lies the noble value of salvation for all beings. To achieve that, we must reduce the number of those who sin. We must save the unsullied from the cycle of reincarnation, allowing them to escape the suffering of hell, and those who have suffered must, upon being reborn in this world after paying the price of all their sins, make offerings before they commit sins again.]
The ‘Fourth Ksitigarbha’ came closer to them, speaking in a poignant yet dog-like manner.
[Make offerings.]
And it demanded as if it were only right.
[To those unblemished, the children, the babies.]
Wearing the benevolent smile carved into stone as a mask, it glided closer with its ominous black body, murmuring from outside the gold thread.
[Sacrifice to me.]
A human sacrifice.
A human sacrifice of children, no less.
Continuing to utter the revolting demands that made one feel nauseous just by hearing them.
But did it realize that mere words were not enough to sway them?
Turning slowly towards the master, Ksitigarbha began to speak horrifying words.
[O beings. Those who take life as their trade and wield swords will fall into hell and pay the price. The boiling copper will be poured into your mouth, and you will be devoured for countless eras by the crocodile with an insatiable appetite who chews on souls, not flesh.]
The moment Ksitigarbha’s eyes met the master’s, they twisted as if smiling.
[I see. I see you falling into hell, and I see how your wife, subconsciously guilty by association, is also doomed to sin, and I see the baby in her belly, too, falling into hell. I see it. Oh, beings, how can such a terrible thing happen? Poor beings. Burdened by the karma of their lives, your family will endlessly suffer in hell. There is still an opportunity to cut the chains of karma and escape reincarnation to become Buddhas, so make your offerings to me.]
The master’s face twisted in disgust.
“Such dog-like nonsense.”
He gritted his teeth as if he didn’t want to hear what Ksitigarbha chattered on about, his hand hovering near the sword’s hilt, ready to split the head in two at any moment.
“Just wait a moment.”
But Jinseong stopped him as if he shouldn’t go out, trying to calm his agitation.
“When facing an evil spirit, one must manage their emotions well. Intense emotions will inevitably reveal weaknesses, and those weaknesses will become easy targets for an evil spirit to attack. No matter how much that thing may not even be a proper evil spirit, that fundamental principle does not change.”
Jinseong subtly turned his head to the master, grimacing as if he didn’t like the situation either, whispering softly.
“I find that dog-like apparition’s words equally irritating. But just wait a little longer. I will create an opportunity for you to split that head.”
“…Understood.”
The master nodded as if agreeing with Jinseong’s words, pulling his hand away from the sword’s hilt. But he glared at Ksitigarbha, as if declaring that when the ‘opportunity’ arose, he would be the first to leap forward and split its head in half.
[An unblemished child can easily save a town marred by sin, akin to how a Buddha can save all of humanity, and how the Buddha’s teachings can spread throughout the world, saving everyone. You must surely make offerings of the unblemished child to procure the town’s safety and wash away a bit of your own sins to lighten the burden of sin that might lead you to hell in the future.]
Jinseong stepped behind the master and emerged from the tent with a large water container and a wooden ladle. He opened the container and used the ladle to scoop water, pouring it towards where Ksitigarbha was.
Splash!
The water flew towards Ksitigarbha, tracing a line in the air. Seeing the water approaching, Ksitigarbha seemed to not want to come into contact and slid back out of the way.
Seeing this, Jinseong massively scooped more water and began to splash towards Ksitigarbha, who kept avoiding it with each splash as it retreated repeatedly. As this occurred several times, the area outside the gold thread became damp with the water spilling from the wooden ladle.
[O beings, how dare you do this to me? Are you not afraid of the consequences of your sins overtaking you?]
With that, Ksitigarbha stopped moving altogether.
Not only could it not touch the water, but it also appeared unable to traverse the wet spots, moving only within the small remaining dry ground, its hands, which had formed signs, simply clumped together like noise, failing to take shape.
[O beings, how could you pour water onto a Buddha and commit such rudeness? If my smiling face is insulted three times, my anger will arise, and I will drag you directly into the deepest recesses of hell to impart upon you terrible pain and regret. So cease this behavior at once.]
Hearing this, Jinseong chuckled softly and whispered to the master.
“This thing is neither an evil spirit nor a Buddha, but it sure knows how to boast.”
“But it’s so boastful and arrogant that it’s making me nauseous just listening to it. How much longer do we have to wait?”
Jinseong laughed softly at the master’s urging and pulled out a bundle of talismans from his pocket. The talismans, tightly rolled up like triangular rice balls, flew from his hand directly into Ksitigarbha, which had no place left to escape because of the water.
Snap!
As the talismans struck Ksitigarbha, a cracking sound echoed, and small lights began to flicker across its black body. Upon seeing this, Jinseong shouted urgently to the master.
“Now!”
Hearing the cry, the master sprang forward as if he had been waiting for this moment, easily leaping over the gold thread, drawing his sword from the air and letting out a battle cry.
“Kii—yooooo!”
A massive war cry that resonated throughout the mountain.
And with that war cry came an immense and intense sword energy, descending from above as if it could split the very mountain.
Swish-!
With all the muscles and spirit he could muster for that strike, he cleaved Ksitigarbha’s body in half, creating a vertical line from head to toe with a speed unseen by the eye, and the head, which had been hiding maliciousness behind the benevolent smile, rolled to the ground.
As the head vanished, the torn body began to crumble like a plant deprived of its roots.
Crumble.
[O beings, you are about to become sinners. Everyone has turned away from the good path, choosing to endure suffering instead. Ah, how pitiful. Those who have settled in the mountains will naturally face retribution for their deeds, and down below, those who have committed sins in their lifetime will pay the price.]
Even with its head split in two, Ksitigarbha continued to speak.
Its voice, mixed with crackling noise, relentlessly uttered ominous words.
Like a dying gasp before death.
Or a curse hurled at the instigator before being killed.
[Ah, how tragic. A curse will befall the town. The due price for sins will surely come to be. You could have—stopped—it—but—.]
“Shut your mouth, you vile thing.”
The master, as if he couldn’t bear to hear Ksitigarbha’s words any longer, began to move the sword again, starting to chop at the head.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
With each cut downwards, its speed increased, and soon, it moved so fast that it became invisible to the eye, creating a blur of the blade’s color.
As the successive strikes bore fruit, Ksitigarbha’s head was reduced to a mere powder.
Once the master saw that Ksitigarbha’s black body had completely vanished and its head had turned to dust, he walked over, holding his water container and poured it over the remnants. The powder that had once been stone dissolved into the water like it was melting away.
But the peculiar events didn’t stop there.
The water that absorbed the dust began to glow softly as if a light had been switched on, gradually emitting a bluish light. This softly glowing blue light increased in intensity, spreading not just to the area where the water was poured but also across the entire wet ground, becoming a lantern that illuminated the darkness outside the gold thread.
And amidst the glow of that bluish light, the master frowned.
“This feels familiar…?”
The bluish light emanating from the water and the strange sensation it brought felt oddly familiar. Yet, despite the familiarity, he couldn’t quite remember where it came from.
However, as Jinseong beside him murmured softly, the realization dawned.
“This is mana…isn’t it?”
“Mana!”
Mana!
The power used instead of Qi by Yatadoarangkryu, a branch of the Shiheng Style!
As he recognized the origin of the déjà vu, the master felt a blocking sensation clear up. But that was fleeting; soon he could only feel the rising skepticism within him.
‘But why is there mana here?’
