Apocalypse: My Tattoos are Ten Yama Kings-Chapter 173 - 167: Buddha Lamp

Upon entering the house, what greeted them were statues of Buddha.

From the outside, this house appeared to be just an ordinary dwelling, but inside, it had been transformed into a Buddhist temple.

In the room, each Buddha statue emitted a dazzling glow, with a seemingly golden Buddha’s Radiance shining above their heads.

They were all Golden Buddhas, seemingly made of pure gold, crafted to the scale of a real person, but how the Buddha’s Radiance formed atop the Buddha’s heads remained a mystery.

Lin Yuan frowned slightly, feeling a bit of unease within his heart.

This was the outskirts of Tang City, seemingly abandoned at the initial stages of the deceitful invasion.

By now, it had been abandoned for at least several months.

Logically speaking, the survivors of Tang City should be around the shelters.

Then, who transformed this place into a Buddhist temple?

Approaching closer and examining the statues more carefully, Lin Yuan’s face was filled with surprise.

Something’s not right, huh?

By general standards, Buddha statues should exude a feeling of compassion and kindness!

At the very least, seeing a Buddha should bring comfort.

However, the Buddha statues before them, despite their radiant golden glow and Buddha’s Radiance, looked vicious and frightening, appearing remarkably eerie and sinister.

Upon entering, the chilling sensation that made Lin Yuan and the others’ hair stand on end was precisely due to this.

In any case, stepping into this room felt akin to entering an ice cellar, with an intense coldness enveloping them.

It seemed the temperature inside the room was significantly colder than outside.

"Damn it!"

"Why do these Buddha statues look so creepy?" Zhang Zhen questioned, reaching out to poke a nearby statue.

"Is it pure gold?"

"If it’s pure gold, its value isn’t low!" He muttered while poking it.

Ever since the deceitful invasion, the original currency had become worthless paper.

In official refuges, they used a rationing system, while those outside engaged in barter trade.

However, since the development of Guardian Demon Alloy, the value of gold and silver had skyrocketed.

As these precious metals were required to create Guardian Demon Alloy, they were slowly becoming a new form of currency.

Zhang Zhen pondered that if these statues were pure gold, Geng Youcai would surely appreciate it if he brought them back.

Lately, Geng Youcai had been troubled about sourcing gold for manufacturing Guardian Demon Alloy.

However, as Zhang Zhen poked a statue, suddenly, it moved.

In the blink of an eye, while Zhang Zhen was momentarily careless, the statue’s hands swiftly clamped around his neck.

"Ah!"

The sudden change scared Zhang Zhen, making him shudder.

However, being a powerful Life Pattern Master, Zhang Zhen quickly regained his composure after a moment’s panic.

He grabbed the statue’s hands, flipping it over his shoulder and throwing it out forcefully.

Zhang Zhen was seething with anger!

What kind of sinister thing dared to strangle my neck?

With that thought, Zhang Zhen grabbed the statue, slamming it hard onto the ground.

"Boom!"

"Boom! Boom!"

Zhang Zhen hit it once, twice, thrice, four times...

In short, he continuously struck the statue against the ground.

As he went on, Zhang Zhen noticed something odd.

The statue in his hands was getting lighter and lighter, until it had almost no weight at all.

Looking closer, Zhang Zhen tossed the statue away.

By then, what he held was no longer a statue, but clearly a corpse.

On the ground before him, there were patches of gold dust and drops of scented oil.

Lin Yuan quickly stepped forward, examining the corpse Zhang Zhen had thrown away.

The corpse’s skull had been opened, and looking inside, its body had been completely hollowed out, with all flesh, bones, and organs removed.

The entire corpse was merely a shell, and having been soaked in scented oil, it neither stank nor dried out; instead it appeared oily, exuding a fragrant aroma.

After a thorough inspection, Lin Yuan suddenly understood.

"I see, someone killed a person and hollowed out the corpse, then filled it with scented oil."

"Then, covered the outside with gold dust, turning it into a Golden Buddha."

"Finally, lighting a wick to burn the scented oil inside the corpse, which created the Buddha’s Radiance we saw earlier." Lin Yuan explained his hypothesis matter-of-factly.

With a thought, Lin Yuan summoned Zhong Kui’s Demon-Slaying Sword into his hand.

"Clang!"

The sword cut through another Golden Buddha statue, splitting it open.

"Splash!"

The statue split open, spilling scented oil everywhere.

Looking at the pool of scented oil was truly nauseating.

"Ugh!"

"Ugh, ugh!"

Zhang Zhen doubled over, dry heaving, as he realized this was the same scented oil he liked to add to his egg tea.

From this day on, he probably wouldn’t be able to look at scented oil the same way ever again.

Seeing the scene before him, Han Kun’s expression changed as well. He frowned and tentatively asked, "Was this all done by humans?"

Lin Yuan nodded and replied, "Without a doubt, it was definitely done by humans."

"Evil spirits killing won’t be this ritualistic."

The reason is simple; the purpose of evil spirits killing is to eat.

Eating humans can enhance their power, just like how humans eat beef or lamb to grow stronger, taller, and fatter.

However, the way of killing now is rather ritualistic.

Like when a couple goes out for a western meal, is their purpose just to eat?

Of course not, their purpose is for the ambiance, to take pictures for social media.

The different purposes are obvious at a glance.

Evil spirits killing would absolutely not have this kind of ritualistic feel.

"Why are they doing this?" Han Kun continued to probe.

The purpose of doing this?

Lin Yuan didn’t know either, after all, he wasn’t a worm in someone else’s stomach.

Moreover, he didn’t even know who did it.

Lin Yuan was about to say he didn’t know either when suddenly he thought of the words he just said.

"Ritualistic?"

"That’s right, it’s about ritualistic feel!" Thinking about it, Lin Yuan immediately said to Han Kun and the others, "Carefully examine this place, the statue, and the surrounding bricks and ground."

"Look carefully to see if there’s anything wrong here."

Once they moved all these statues aside, Lin Yuan and the others discovered that there was a slab of bluestone beneath each statue.

These bluestones had various patterns drawn on them, but the patterns were jumbled and difficult to decipher.

"Assemble them!"

"Put these bluestones together!" Lin Yuan noticed something and instructed immediately.

The patterns on these bluestones seemed jumbled but were actually connected.

Lin Yuan had already seen that these patterns could be pieced together.

Even a three-year-old child has played with puzzles, as had they.

Soon, they all pieced together the bluestones like a puzzle.

After the puzzle was completed, a stone carving appeared on the bluestone.

Once these bluestones were pieced together, what appeared was a Great Sun Buddha Statue.

However, this Great Sun Buddha Statue had a blue face and fangs; even the great sun behind it was a black sun.

Rather than a Buddha statue, it looked more like a demon.

"What does this Buddha statue mean?" Zhang Zhen asked with a face full of confusion after vomiting.

Lin Yuan stood at the front, stared intently at the stone Buddha statue, and said in a low voice, "The sudden appearance of this Deceitful Demon is suspicious. I suspect it’s man-made."

"Maybe someone used an evil ritual to summon this area of Deceitful Demon."

This Deceitful Demon was entirely different from the ones Lin Yuan had encountered before; those were quite harmonious.

But this current Deceitful Demon felt forcibly pieced together.

It was as if the forest they walked out of and Tang City were being forced together.

The likes of Golden Armor Zombie and Mother-Child Deceitful King, these Tier Five evil spirits with their Deceitful Demon abilities, were not initially Tier Five when they first descended to this world.

They were Tier Six and advanced to Tier Five evil spirits after arriving in this world.

Therefore, their Deceitful Demon was refined based on a certain area of this world, making it very harmonious.

However, this Deceitful Demon before them was forcibly summoned from another world, covering all of Tang City.

"Can this broken temple summon such a large Deceitful Demon?" Zhang Zhen looked incredulous.

Low intelligence is ultimately low intelligence!

Zhang Zhen’s intelligence was still somewhat inferior to Han Kun’s.

No sooner had Zhang Zhen spoken than Han Kun added, "There may not be just one such Buddhist Temple in all of Tang City."

Hearing this, Lin Yuan nodded in agreement, "That’s right, this Buddhist Temple is likely just a part of the array."

"We don’t actually know how big this evil array is."

Lin Yuan was now curious about who exactly did it?

Could it be the Deceitful King Faction again?

Bear in mind, Tang City is near Emperor Dragon City.

And now, with representatives from various places gathered in Emperor Dragon City for a meeting, did they bring this vast Deceitful Demon as a threat to Emperor Dragon City?

The Deceitful King Faction couldn’t extend their claws into Emperor Dragon City, so they had to start with the nearest Tang City.

Is this to...?

Thinking about it, Lin Yuan couldn’t help but feel a chill run deep.

"Forget it, don’t think much about it now!"

"Let’s get into the city first and see if there are any survivors left," Lin Yuan said in a deep voice.

At this moment, they had to rely on strength in numbers.

Moreover, if this Deceitful Demon indeed descended directly, covering Tang City,

Then the Tier Five evil spirits within it would have weak control over the Deceitful Demon.

If they want their Deceitful Demon to fully integrate into this world, it will take some time.

As Lin Yuan led everyone away, before leaving, he set fire to the Buddhist Temple and burned the statues inside to ashes.

Previously, the statue had unexpectedly come alive and strangled Zhang Zhen. Although they didn’t know why it revived,

it’s better to burn it just in case.