Rules of Strange Tales and Extraordinary Files

Chapter 31 Deep in the forest, no ancient temple is visible; only the sound of Buddha's chantin

……

"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat..."

As the helicopter slowly ascended, the noise in Li Jiu's ears grew stronger and sharper.

Gradually, a strong sense of unease surged up like a tide, enveloping him in an instant. He felt an invisible force stimulating his skin, and his scalp suddenly tingled, and his hair stood on end.

Li Jiu subconsciously looked around.

In a daze, he felt as if the originally clear sky had suddenly turned gloomy and dark, and the whole world seemed to be wrapped in a water-soaked quilt, making him feel uncomfortable and oppressed.

"call--"

Suddenly, a gust of wind arose in Fulong Mountain. The wind was not strong, and it was only a gentle breeze. But as soon as the wind passed, Li Jiu suddenly felt that all the sounds around him had been soothed away.

The "putt-putt-putt" sound of the helicopter gradually disappeared, but the buzzing in his ears grew stronger.

Before long, he caught some murmurs in the buzzing sound. The murmurs grew louder and louder, and finally, they turned into those eerie chanting sounds again!

However, this time the chanting was completely different from the Jataka tales he knew, both in terms of pronunciation and rhythm!

【…】

【「सर्वंलौकिकंरूपंमरय्मयम्रर ्धरःप्रोणिनोमोहजरलेनबध्यन्ते।..."]

(All things in this world are fleeting illusions; we are trapped in the web of worldly desires.)

["बुद्धेनप्रज्ञरप्रकरररू न्यतरंदर्शयति, सर्वप्ररणिनरंदुःखरत्तररयति।..."]

(The Buddha spoke of Prajna, which dispels illusions, illuminates emptiness and clarity, and liberates all beings from suffering.)

【「किन्तुश्वेतनागपर्वतेनगतेजोनिगूढं, पर्व तरःश्न्तगुप्तर्र्रेण

(However, in the Bailong Mountain region, the dragon's energy is deep and dormant, the mountains are hidden and silent, and the true secrets are shrouded in mist...)

【…】

As the chanting began, Li Jiu suddenly felt a throbbing sensation in his head.

He saw the White Dragon Pool in the distance, and also the small waterfall cascading down in front of it, but the flow of the waterfall seemed to have been slowed down, appearing incredibly viscous.

He then saw the plants and flowers in the surrounding mountains and forests. There was clearly a breeze, but the swaying of the leaves seemed to have been slowed down.

Everything seemed to have slowed down, including his speed.

But this does not include his thoughts and perceptions.

He soon discovered that in this slowed-down world, something moving at a normal speed had appeared—a hazy mountain mist!

The mist, like a living thing, silently seeped out from every crevice in the rocks and the soil of Fulong Mountain, then quickly evaporated and spread out...

The mist seemed to ignore the traces of the wind, quickly filling the entire space. As it twisted and writhed, the compassionate face of Buddha appeared within the mist, but in the next moment, the face became wide-eyed and furious, its emotions shifting between joy and anger.

The chanting was deep and drawn-out, like Mongolian throat singing, filled with a suffocating low frequency and a sense of oppression. Li Jiu felt as if a boulder was slowly pressing down on his chest, making each breath incredibly difficult.

Within this sensation, he also felt something flowing along his ankle...

Is there really some spiritual energy from heaven and earth? But why is it right at my feet? Am I connecting with the earth?

Li Jiu's delirious mind conjured up unrealistic and absurd ideas, but he truly perceived something.

He then looked down.

LOL.

There's no flowing spiritual energy of heaven and earth here.

—It was all snakes.

They're all fucking snakes!!

Densely packed! Endless! In all shapes and sizes!

snake!!!

In the brief moment he was in a daze, the thick gray fog had already spread to his feet, rolling and surging along the ground like dry ice, quickly covering the soles of his feet.

What he thought was the gentle caress of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth on his body turned out to be the sensation of countless cold, slippery little snakes swimming at an astonishing speed across the back of his feet and coiling around his ankles, all shrouded in gray mist...

Such skin contact made Li Jiu, who had a congenital fear of snakes, feel a chill run down his spine and turn pale...

Li Jiu felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

The biting cold shot from the soles of Li Jiu's feet straight to the top of his head. Every inch of the skin on his feet covered by snakes convulsed uncontrollably, and finally his whole body was covered in goosebumps!

Beneath the gray fog, the ground seemed to have transformed into a rolling swarm of snakes, with countless tiny snake heads rapidly moving about. An intense feeling of nausea and an instinctive fear gripped his throat like an invisible hand, causing his stomach to churn, but he was unable to vomit due to the tightness in his throat.

The hissing of snakes never ceased, nor did the chanting of scriptures.

Li Jiu's face was ashen, his lips trembled but he couldn't make a sound, his mind was filled with pure fear and he had almost stopped thinking.

His innate fear of snakes was amplified at this moment, making every second feel like torture.

Even the ripples writhing in the gray fog appeared to transform into the shape of snakes in Li Jiu's terrified vision.

Li Jiu suddenly felt dizzy and his legs went weak. He was about to fall headfirst into the swarm of snakes, but the extreme fear instantly triggered his adrenaline, and a brute force made him hold his body still.

Just as his consciousness was fading and his sanity was teetering on the brink of collapse, an even more bizarre scene suddenly appeared before his eyes.

He saw an ancient temple covered with white snakes, and inside the temple, monks wore robes covered with snake scales and sat cross-legged on futons made of giant snakes.

Their bodies were twisted in a strange way, as if they had merged with the snake beneath them.

There were no Buddha statues inside the hall, only a huge white snake sculpture coiled around the beams and pillars, its eyes gleaming with eerie light, like burning ghostly flames.

The monks, however, were chanting in a completely different, cult-like, and eerie rhythm:

【「सर्वंलौकिकंरूपंमरय्मयम्रर ्धरःप्रोणिनोमोहजरलेनबध्यन्ते।..."]

(All things in this world are fleeting illusions; we are trapped in the web of worldly desires.)

["बुद्धेनप्रज्ञरप्रकरररू न्यतरंदर्शयति, सर्वप्ररणिनरंदुःखरत्तररयति।..."]

(The Buddha spoke of Prajna, which dispels illusions, illuminates emptiness and clarity, and liberates all beings from suffering.)

【…】

He seemed to sense something, and a strong intuition compelled him to look up sharply into the deepest part of the dense forest and gray fog!

However, the ancient temple was nowhere to be seen deep in the forest, and only the sound of Buddhist chants could be heard in the clouds.