Yin Yang Lantern Man

Chapter 264 Letting Go of Human Thinking
The old monk repeated the words in order to let Chen Ning'an follow the plot in order to achieve his unknown purpose.

There is no free lunch in this world, the old monk said, staring at Chen Ning'an with ambiguous eyes, reciting Buddhist scriptures and waiting for his reaction.

This Buddhist scripture is the ubiquitous Sanskrit chanting in the realm of Death Lamp.

"Heh." He smiled.

…………

At this time, Chen Qingfeng and Yu Bingshan also found themselves waking up from their beds and transformed into little monks.

As the old monk spoke, they suddenly felt weak, and the power of the nightmare was suppressed and could not be used.

The sudden disappearance of the power he relied on for survival made Chen Qingfeng panic. He suppressed his composure and chose an ambiguous answer.

"Is there nothing to eat outside the mountain?"

"Where can we get food during this period of war?"

The old monk slowly stood up and opened the door, only to see a desolate scene outside.

What meets the eye is a world of yellow sand, with dead tree roots and vegetation having long been eaten up.

There was hardly any green to be seen and the air was so dry it seemed to burn.

It was quiet all around, as if the world was dead, with nothing but the wind.

Chen Qingfeng was shocked when he saw this. There really was not a single bite of food left.

"Why is this happening?" he asked subconsciously, but the old monk clasped his hands together and closed his eyes.

"You can only hold on for one more day now. After one day you will starve to death and have no strength left."

He chanted Ramatu Buddha with a smile on his face, letting Chen Qingfeng make up his own mind.

"There's still one day left?" Chen Qingfeng forced himself to cheer up, which meant that he would most likely die in one day.

He must find something to eat to break this situation.

Must go out.

The old monk's chanting came from behind him. He was already waiting to die, but he couldn't do that. He still had a wonderful life that had just begun.

The temple is not big. After passing through the dilapidated gate, there is yellow sand and the soil underfoot is particularly rough.

It was a piece of soil that was dried out and had no moisture at all. Originally there were plant roots underneath, but now the roots have been dug away.

Feeling hungry all over his body and his throat burning dry, Chen Qingfeng closed his eyes and looked for water.

According to the feeling of the wind, you can tell which side is more moist. If it is dry where the wind comes from, then go towards the wind, as this is your only chance.

As he walked along the road, he soon saw a shabby house, which should have belonged to the indigenous people of this era.

The house was really only the size of a palm, it could only block the rain but not the wind, and the wooden door was open.

He struggled to get closer, half of his foot sinking into the yellow sand, hoping there was some water in it.

but……

There was only a half-rotten corpse at the door, which had died long ago.

It is so dry here that even crows cannot survive, but it has been well preserved.

"Is this the... Stove Famine Rebellion in history?"

Chen Qingfeng vaguely remembered that the predecessor of the New Qin ended its rule in such a disaster.

Based on the memories of the Death Lamp Realm and current phenomena, he roughly guessed that this was the only famine disaster a thousand years ago that fit the current environment.

During the Kitchen God Rebellion, a severe drought enveloped the entire empire for more than twenty years. All the flowers, plants and trees were eaten up, and the water sources dried up.

This is a disaster for the entire planet. It is said that it is caused by some kind of lantern world. Every household leaves their doors unlocked and nine and a half out of ten rooms are empty.

Young children starved to death, old people died of thirst, young and strong men and women ate each other, the price of mutton skyrocketed, and villages became deserted one after another.

It is impossible for people to survive in such an environment. Anything that can be swallowed will be eaten.

Those who are full and have round bellies, but they have eaten Guanyin soil and will not live long.

Many people use this as a way to fill their stomachs before they die.

However, later the water source dried up and Guanyin became a mess, and countless people died with grievances.

"Why is it here? Could it be that the Light Realm has reappeared in time?"

Chen Qingfeng walked out of the room feeling increasingly hungry and dazed.

He even had hallucinations. Not to mention eating, even drinking a sip of water could save his life!
Dry and painful, finally it was dark and he could not walk anymore and fell in the yellow sand.

As the temperature dropped, he felt colder and colder, as if the temperature had disappeared along with the night.

This is when the body can no longer squeeze out even a trace of energy, and people who starve to death may even suffer symptoms of freezing to death.

Chen Qingfeng lost consciousness.

I don’t know how long it was, or maybe it was just a moment, he opened his eyes drowsily as if he had just woken up.

"you're awake."

The old monk appeared before him and said the exact same words, "Let's chant the sutras and recite the Buddha's name."

"No!"

Chen Qingfeng sternly refused and struggled to stand up: "I'm going to find a way to survive!"

He understood that this light realm was similar to a puzzle, and all the living things in it were trapped in a time of starvation.

Find a way to relieve them of the regret of starving to death, perhaps this is the only way to escape from the cycle of reincarnation.

The route he chose yesterday was to go east, so this time he should go west. There will always be a way.

Chen Qingfeng didn't want to waste any time so he went out and headed west, but he found this side was even more desolate.

There is a dilapidated thatched hut on the east side, and there is nothing on the west side, not even any signs of human life, just barren mountains and dead trees.

Wrong move.

As this thought arose in his mind, he was quite certain that he was unlucky, but it was too late to turn back now.

To leave here, he could only hold on and hope for a miracle.

There are no miracles.

When he woke up again, he heard the same familiar words. This time he changed direction, unable to believe that his luck was so bad.

Every time he was resurrected, he felt like he was losing something in himself. Maybe if he died too many times, he would really die in the end, and after one of his deaths he would never wake up again.

There is no solution in the south.

Every time Chen Qingfeng became fuzzy, he could hear the old monk chanting. The sound was like bees, mosquitoes and flies circling in his mind, making it increasingly difficult for him to concentrate.

When he woke up again, the old monk clearly didn't say a word, but he could hear the sound of chanting.

"Did you hear it?" Chen Qingfeng said to the old monk, "It's the sound of you chanting sutras!"

“I didn’t recite any sutras.”

The old monk's smile looked weird and distorted at this moment, but when Chen Qingfeng blinked, the old monk did not change.

He felt gloomy in his heart, thinking that he probably wouldn't be able to make it through this level. He didn't know what happened to those people who came in with him. They must have left.

Yu Bingshan is not that bad, his condition is similar to Chen Qingfeng's.

But he was holding a scripture and a piece of gray ink in his hands.

This ink is made of Chinese herbal medicine. It can fill your stomach if you eat it. Adding scriptures to it, it can barely sustain you.

Therefore, he walks further and has a deeper perception of the surrounding information.

With the ubiquitous sound of Sanskrit chanting in his ears, he forced himself to calm down and sort out his memories.

To the east, there was a house with a half-rotten corpse. To the north, there was a yard with a dry well. The well was cool, and he thought there was water in the sand at the bottom of the well, but after he climbed down, he no longer had the strength to climb out.

The west and south are completely deserted, with no trace of human existence. The most urgent thing is...

"Valukti, Shopraya, Bodhisattva, Vaya, Maha..."

As he thought about it, he couldn't help but chant Buddhist scriptures, and he began to feel confused.

"wrong!"

He shook his head vigorously to regain consciousness. If he followed the chanting without looking for a way out, he would be dead!
"Have I died too many times?"

His face looked grim. If he died again, would he be able to resist the chanting next time?
I don’t know what happened to Chen Qingfeng and that brother.

Yu Bingshan set out on his journey again, and the Chen Ningan he mentioned was still in the temple.

"If you keep waiting, there will really be no hope at all."

During these few days, Chen Ning'an just stared at the old monk and watched him recite scriptures.

He dies when the sun sets and falls into eternal sleep with the old monk. When the sun rises, the old monk always wakes him up in advance, saying the same lines.

Then... chant the scriptures, over and over again.

"I'm looking to see if you're dead or half dead."

There was still a smile on Chen Ning'an's face, as if he didn't hear the old monk's chanting everywhere.

"Tell me, am I a dead thing or a half-dead thing?"

The old monk said this and stopped chanting.

"You are a half-dead thing, neither human nor ghost."

Chen Ningan smiled and said, "A person who is trapped does not belong to the present world, nor to the Light Realm, but is a wandering ghost in the world of Light Realm products."

This was the conclusion he came to after watching the old monk for four or five days.

"Look, it's useless for me to do this. Those who deserve to die will die."

The old monk looked outside and said, "It's been 20 years of drought. Not a drop of water has fallen. The rivers have dried up. The rivers have stopped flowing. How can we survive in this world?"

As the old monk spoke, he actually started to cry, tears and blood streaming down his face. “If it rains, Buddha will have mercy on me. I will dedicate the entire Xilin Temple to Buddha.”

"Your Buddha sees you suffer and doesn't care about you."

"Buddha cultivates for the next life, but the next life will not be you anymore, so what's the point of cultivating?"

Chen Ningan sat cross-legged: "But I am different. Taoism focuses more on this life."

He stood with his five hearts facing the sky and recited the "Taiyi Jiuku Du'e Zhenjing". Then, another voice was interspersed in the original Buddhist scriptures.

When Yu Bingshan, who was in a daze, heard the voice, he suddenly felt a start and woke up from his coma.

He found himself lying on the bed, and the old monk was looking at him with surprise.

Surprised he was still awake.

"I don't believe it! I don't believe I can't find the way!"

The same was true for Chen Qingfeng. He refused to admit defeat and used all his strength to walk eastward. Perhaps he would go further and get out.

Seeing the rotting corpse, he decided that he must not be like him.

For his efforts.

The two voices of chanting mixed together, the contents of the chants were different, and he vaguely felt a sense of being watched.

Chen Ning'an created two more songs, and six eyes looked at three different pictures.

The scriptures of Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun made him sober and see more. There was no reason in the lamp realm.

The old monk stopped chanting and sighed, "We can't get out. We have walked countless times. There are 28 monks in the temple, from the abbot to the novice monks, but no one has walked out."

"But one of you has to go out, right?"

Chen Ningan's Yin Shen head mocked: "So, this is why your Death Lamp Realm was banned."

Some light realms that cannot be resolved can only be sealed, and this light realm is one of them.

The light realm that can crush nightmare abilities is indeed unusual. He looked at the paths of Yu Bingshan and Chen Qingfeng again, and saw them struggling, dying, and refusing to admit defeat.

As the night wore on, his voice grew fainter and fainter.

"Baby, after you fall asleep this time, you may never wake up again."

The old monk sighed, clasped his hands together and chanted Rama Buddha.

"I won't sleep."

Chen Ning'an smiled, bit his finger, and squeezed out blood with great effort.

He felt his brain was dizzy and black.

He drew a talisman on his forehead, a calming talisman to help him stay awake.

On the other side, he stood up leisurely.

"Just because you can't find a solution doesn't mean I can't find one. It's just a multiple-choice question."

He took the initiative to walk out the door, and it was Ye An at this time.

The cold wind was howling as he headed east without stopping for a moment.

The shabby thatched house is here.

It was a dark and windy night with five people. He closed the door and waited until the second half of the night before leaving.

There was a more foul smell on his body, and he walked directly to the east.

The Taoist scriptures temporarily disappeared in the sound of Sanskrit chanting in the Death Lamp Realm. At this time, he spoke again so that the chanting would not affect him.

Naturally, the affairs of gods and Buddhas need to be dealt with by gods and Buddhas. Chen Ning'an kept walking, and heat continued to radiate from his body.

The reason why people are trapped is because they are influenced by their emotions, self-cognition, and their own bottom line. Only by abandoning human thinking can they find more ways out.

That's what Chen Ning'an did. He went eastward. As long as he found the second thatched house, or something else, he would win.

No... he has already won. If he walks east for about three days, he will see the town. Although it is miserable inside, there are things that can keep people alive.

He used reality to tell the old monk that he had found the way.

"Wow!"

Everything was back to normal and Chen Ning'an reappeared in the temple, but this time the old monk looked at him with a very complicated expression.

"Does it have to be this way? You are a monk, but you broke the precepts against meat and killing. Are you still a monk?"

"Old bald man, you are about to die, why are you still thinking so much? Don't you just want to find an answer? What is my answer?"

He slowly walked to the old monk and stared into his cloudy eyes with a burning gaze: "I haven't asked you to accompany me yet, otherwise you should know that there is a better way."

These words made him close his eyes, and the sound of chanting in the temple became louder and louder.

The goal was not achieved, so he planned to take action against Chen Ningan.

"I had expected this a long time ago. I played with you only to see if there was a safer way in this Light Realm."

Chen Ning'an's spine straightened, and his spiritual consciousness broke out of his body and directly enveloped the temple.

"With just a bucket of water, do you really think you are the entire Death Lamp Realm?"

He made a sun seal with his hand and drew a thunder talisman in the air. With a loud bang, the old monk was struck into ashes.

A crack appeared in the world because of this, and Chen Qingfeng and Yu Bingshan, who were struggling to hold on, were so scared that they looked back.

(End of this chapter)