Ten minutes ago
William and Catherine passed through the cave entrance and stepped into the mysterious cave where the main statue was sealed.
Suddenly I felt completely isolated from the outside world.
An uneasy, weird and eerie feeling drifted from the depths of the cave, and one could even faintly hear laughter, singing and crying, very small but real.
The cave has been artificially repaired, and the ground and walls have been leveled.
What was very strange was that although the entrance to the cave and the woods outside were covered with yellow talismans, there was not a single piece of yellow paper used to suppress evil spirits inside the cave, nor were there any hemp ropes.
In addition, the cave passage is not straight but has a slight downward slope. Due to its proximity to the sea, there is severe water seepage in the passage and the humidity exceeds 100%.
The two of them only stood there for a moment, and their clothes were completely soaked.
He even felt that the water droplets on his body would continue to penetrate his skin. Even William's body could hardly resist it. Once any moisture penetrated his body, he would feel a little "weakness", which would accumulate over time.
That is why,
The investigators who came to the village did not really go deep into this strange cave.
Or maybe they knew about the existence of Flower Sea Buddha, and knew that such a deity was not easy to offend, so their investigation was limited to the "stability of the village."
As long as they are sure that there will be no obvious deaths of tourists in the village, they will report to their superiors and the Flower Sea Village will open again.
After walking for a while, William sat cross-legged directly, focusing on the abyss in his abdomen. As the abyss rotated, streams of water flowed out along the edge.
He also felt relieved, as if the weight accumulated in his body had been taken out.
Catherine's situation is even simpler. Her octopus legs are exposed and attached to her thighs. If any moisture invades her body, the octopus legs will expel it immediately.
It looks like water flowing as you walk.
"It's really interesting. I can feel that there is something big in here! Not only these villagers, but even the investigators in the city are very afraid and don't approach easily.
William, please drain the water faster, I can't wait any longer!"
At Catherine's urging, the two soon came to the first fork in the cave passage, with three roads in different directions to choose from.
However, there was a person, or rather a corpse, standing at the fork in the road.
Its eyes have been replaced by flowers, and it holds a weird smile and points to the passage on the right, as if directing the 'visitor'.
"Catherine, is this the direction?"
"That's right. The direction given by this dead man is correct. The remaining induction of the statue in my body also points in this direction. It seems that the other party seems to want to meet us very much."
"Be careful."
William took the initiative to walk in front and stepped into the right passage first, making sure everything was fine before letting Catherine follow.
Not long after the two of them walked past each other, they suddenly felt a chill coming from behind them and turned their heads at the same time.
I saw that the "flower man" standing at the fork in the road actually changed his posture.
No longer pointing the way, but waving,
The mouth that should have been stiff long ago was still moving, as if saying "Welcome".
The next second, his mouth opened completely, and the flowers filled inside gushed out wildly.
Such a strange phenomenon made Catherine feel uncomfortable. She took the initiative to take a step closer to William, and the octopus tentacles wrapped around William's arm were also wrapped tighter.
William wanted to show off his eloquence and tease Catherine's fear, but in the end he didn't say it and just kept it that way.
Soon we came to another fork in the road.
This made William feel that the so-called cave was more like a man-made underground maze, deliberately trapping the Flower Sea Buddha inside.
Similarly, there was a flower man standing at this fork in the road, but he did not raise his hand to point the direction.
When the two of them went forward to check the situation,
Swish! The flower man suddenly turned his head and put his blooming face next to Catherine's ear, making sounds through the growth and friction of the flower in his mouth.
"Left~"
Catherine was so frightened by the sudden jump-scare that she almost screamed, and the octopus legs between her thighs were completely stretched straight.
"Katherine, are you okay?"
"Ahem~ What's good or bad about it? These things are not threatening at all."
"I mean, is this fear acceptable? Catherine, your fear shouldn't be of this type, right?"
"Of course not. What I'm good at is nightmare phobia, not this weird stuff... I just walked in this liminal space for too long, and I'm a little uncomfortable mentally."
"It may also be because you, Catherine, absorbed the replica of the statue. The deeper you go, the more you are affected by the invisible influence."
Having said that, William quickly grabbed Catherine's hand, intending to relieve her mental discomfort through this simplest and most direct contact.
Catherine instinctively tried to break free, but William held her tightly.
After failing to break free once, I just let it go.
It turned out that this kind of hand holding was indeed effective. The diversion of attention made Catherine calm down a lot. In order to ease the embarrassment, she even began to actively find topics to talk about.
"This fear mode is really good. When I return to the circus, I might be able to learn from it and improve the fear effect."
"Um."
Next, you will get a reminder from the flower man at each fork in the road. After passing seven forks in the road, a large amount of ocean water will begin to accumulate in the passage in front of you.
The sounds of crying, singing, and laughing became clearer.
“Since we entered the cave, the passage has been tilted downwards. Our current location should be lower than the sea level, and the sea of flowers may even be connected to the bottom.
The main statue is most likely at the end of this passage."
"William, let's go quickly~ Let me see what the 'god' related to the sea in this world looks like, and how it compares to me?"
Along the way, William also learned that he didn't need to meditate, but could expel the seawater from his abdomen while walking.
When the two of them walked out of the passage in the knee-deep water, the view suddenly became clear.
There was a different world at the deepest part of the cave, which was completely different from what William had imagined.
An underground temple appeared before our eyes.
Four columns covered with flowers serve as the support of the temple.
The ground was covered with half a meter high sea water, with more than a hundred cushions floating on the water, invisibly maintaining equal spacing.
On these cushions, there were drowned people kneeling sparsely, with their eyes wide open, showing a pious posture even though they were dead.
The direction in which the drowned person was facing was exactly where the main statue was.
In front of them, a censer was floating on the water, with several burning incense sticks stuck on it.
Behind it is a statue of the main deity, the "Flower Sea Buddha Mother", which is more than 30 meters tall.
The bloated and swollen body sat cross-legged on the lotus, with layers of fat piled up, as if it was full of oil and water. The skin on the surface was wrinkled, and it was unknown whether it was due to recent malnutrition or because it had been soaking in the sea for too long.
The gestures of the Buddha Mother are similar to those of the idols in the villagers' homes.
The left hand is in the lotus mudra.
He held up the white jade bottle in his right hand, but the inside of the jade bottle was filled with flesh and blood, and was covered with circular teeth, like a special living magical weapon.
Keep looking upwards.
I will formally look upon the head of the Buddha Mother, which is difficult to describe in detail. All the voices I heard before came from it.
The replica statues in residents' homes simply have densely decorated flowers on the face of the Buddha Mother to represent her facial features.
And in this underground temple, the face of the real statue is indeed covered with flowers, but each flower corresponds to a corpse.
Or,
The face of the Buddha Mother is covered with densely packed "holes", the size of which is just big enough to "vertically" fit a person, a corpse, or it would be most appropriate to describe it as a sacrifice.
The body was completely stuffed inside, leaving only the head outside.
As time goes by, the hair exposed on the mother's face will fully bloom, presenting a dignified appearance of "Buddha's face blooming".
When the flowers on the face wither, it means that the sacrifice has been sucked dry, and the corpses kneeling on the mat are substitutes.
In the past,
When Flower Sea Village operates normally as a tourist attraction,
This underground temple is always crowded with people and has a lot of incense. Not only are there people kneeling on every cushion, but there are also a large number of "queueers" floating in the sea.
They all 'can't wait' to be embedded in the face of the Buddha Mother.
Catherine was also stunned by the scene. How could such a huge statue be absorbed