The next day.
The entire city of Chang 'an, from the imperial palace to the government, from the mansions of the high officials to the houses of the common people, was decorated with white lanterns and mourning clothes.
Fireworks were banned for the entire day. No one in the city was allowed to cook, and no one was allowed to offer sacrifices to the cold.
In the evening, the evening bell rang in the city. All the markets were closed in advance, and a curfew was imposed. The common people could only move about in the market, and were not allowed to set foot on the main roads of the city.
In the square in front of the imperial city, hundreds of monks from Xiangguo Temple sat cross-legged on the ground. Each of them had a lotus shaped oil lamp in front of them. They held a wooden fish in their hands, and as they knocked on it, they chanted the Rebirth Mantra.
On the altar in the center of the square, there was a wooden altar that was thirty feet high. On it stood six eminent monks from Baoxiang Temple, Transforming Temple, and Jinshan Temple. They were also holding Buddha beads in their hands and chanting scriptures.
Among them, Chan 'er, who looked young, had also changed into a brocade cassock. Because of her young age, she stood out among them.
The chanting lasted for a full two hours.
It was not until the evening that the religious ceremony ended. The monks began to parade along the main roads of the city with lotus lanterns in their hands. Along the way, they summoned the souls of the common people who had died tragically in the city.
As the lanterns lit up everywhere in the city, horrible figures of resentful spirits began to appear. Some of them had lost consciousness and floated blankly behind the monks. Some of them were still wailing and crying. Their voices were like human whispers, densely packed.
In addition, some resentful spirits had turned into wandering evil spirits. They wanted to attack the monks, but were repelled by the light emitted from the lotus lanterns.
These lotus lanterns were all Everlasting Lanterns brought from the Temple of Baoxiang. Inside the lanterns were the oil that was added by thousands of believers. The evil spirits had attacked several times, but not only were they unable to harm the monks, they were instead purified by the light of the lanterns. The black evil spirits around them gradually peeled off, revealing their true appearance.
However, near some wells and ice cellars where the Evil Qi was strong, there were still some evil spirits that could not be purified by the everlasting lamps. In the end, they were all killed by the monks arranged by the government.
As midnight approached, Shen Luo, Bai Xiaotian, and some officials of the Imperial Court stood on top of the northern city gate, gazing into the city.
Although the city didn't allow the commoners to leave the square, there were still flames lit up in the square. The commoners were spontaneously paying tribute to their loved ones who had died in this disaster.
A Kongming lantern made of paper rose into the air from one of the squares. Then, one after another, Kongming lanterns that carried the grief of the living floated into the air from every square.
White lanterns leaped into the sky, varying in height and resonating with the stars in the sky. It was as if a bridge of communication had been formed between them, slowly drifting toward the north of the city.
Shen Luo's gaze slowly fell. He saw that near the city gate, monks holding lotus lanterns were lined up on both sides of the road. In the middle of the main road, there was only a small lonely figure. He was wearing a kasaya, holding Buddhist beads and chanting sutras with his head lowered.
Behind him, hundreds of thousands of evil spirits floated, following his footsteps toward the outside of the city.
With hundreds of thousands of Yin Souls gathered in one place, even if they were just ordinary Yin Souls without evil intentions, the Yin Qi gathered together had reached a terrifying level. Ordinary people would not be able to withstand it at all.
However, at this moment, Chan 'er's body was emitting a layer of hazy white light. It was as soft as moonlight, but with a hint of warmth. It was like a candle in the cold night, illuminating the path for these evil spirits.
Chan 'er slowly passed through the city gate of Chang' an. The moment he stepped out of the gate, light suddenly gathered under his feet, and the shadow of a golden lotus appeared. After that, with every step he took, a golden lotus would appear on the ground.
At this moment, he was really like the reincarnation of the Buddha's disciple, the Golden Cicada, with the Light of Buddha around him, delivering all living beings from suffering.
When the people on the city gate saw this, they felt that it was the manifestation of the Buddha, and they all bowed down in worship.
They saw Chan 'er leading the ghosts out of the city gate. A hundred feet away from the city, layers of night fog suddenly rose on both sides of the road. In the fog, there were faint leafless flowers blooming, swaying strangely.
Shen Luo recognized at a glance that those flowers were the Red Spider Lilies that only existed in the Umbra Land.
Chan 'er walked to a place where the fog met a hundred feet away and stopped. He did not move, but put his palms together, and the light on his body became brighter.
The ghosts that had followed him all the way here floated forward one after another. Like a river, they went around his body and walked into the fog, disappearing one by one.
However, at this moment, the Buddhist beads on Chan 'er's chest suddenly flashed with a strange light. A blood-red fog surged out and spread in all directions, drowning Chan' er and hundreds of evil spirits.
"Oh no, something has happened." Seeing this, Shen Luo's expression suddenly changed, and he directly leaped out of the city gate.
He stepped down along the city wall and stomped heavily on the city wall. His body leaped up, and he rushed into the evil spirits like an eagle, sweeping in Chan 'er's direction.
The evil spirits around were affected by the blood fog, and their originally orderly situation instantly reversed. The green pupils of a large number of evil spirits suddenly turned blood-red, and they directly turned from evil spirits into evil spirits.
Sensing the majestic aura of the living spirits in the city, these evil spirits immediately rushed madly in the direction of the city gate like hungry beasts.
Wherever they passed, a large number of evil spirits instantly turned into evil spirits like a plague. For a moment, the entire city gate fell into a state of chaos.
The monks of the Baoxiang Temple in the city gate immediately rushed out with magic weapons in hand. Elder Zhe Shi and a few others also flew to the front, chanting the Rebirth Mantra and the Meditation Mantra in an attempt to pacify these evil spirits.
However, the evil spirits infected by the blood fog did not seem to hear these Buddhist chants at all, and continued to rush back, turning more and more evil spirits into evil spirits.
"Disciples of the Baoxiang Temple, set up the formation." Zen Master Lu De saw this and shouted.
All the monks of the Baoxiang Temple leaped out and formed a human wall, dividing the entire army of evil spirits. On one hand, they prevented the evil spirits from coming out of the city, on the other hand, they prevented the evil spirits from counterattacking.
These monks knocked on the magic weapons in their hands, such as the wooden fish, and the mantras they chanted changed from the Rebirth Mantra to the Exorcism Mantra. All the voices mixed together and turned into a solemn Sanskrit sound.
The Sanskrit sound waves grew from weak to strong, each louder than the last, and gradually became a tsunami, turning into a translucent sound wave that surged toward the evil spirits.
The moment the evil spirits rushed into the range of the sound waves, they seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall of air, and their forward momentum suddenly stopped.
However, the evil spirits were ferocious, and when their forward momentum was blocked, they became even more ferocious. They continued to charge forward without fear of death, and their combined strength grew stronger each time.
Every time they collided, the invisible wall of air would shake violently, and the monks who activated the sound barrier formation would be hit. After a few times, some of the weaker ones were already groaning, and blood seeped from the corners of their mouths.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
