Chapter 34

Black Glasses looked at Beliak and then pointed to Yuri’s body. “Did you do it?”

“Well, we all volunteered our lives.” Beliak was smiling as he said this but he looked very weak. “You guys are amazing. I thought all three of you would die tonight but none of you did.”

Black Glasses looked at Beliak and smiled, “Why are you guys so concerned with other people’s investigation? In fact, all you have to do is give us some money and we’ll leave.”

“Still, I was hoping you would all die here,” Beliak said.

“Why?” Black Glasses looked at Yuri’s body. “Isn’t it good to live well? A lifetime isn’t that long.”

“Yuri became too involved. He was seriously ill, so for him, such a death could satisfy his own interests,” Beliak said. “He really wanted to know whether those rituals in the Bon religion’s ‘Hundred Thousand Dragons Sutra’⁽¹⁾ were really effective.”

“Couldn’t he just ask the local Bon Masters for a demonstration?”

“We went all over Tibet and had various mages perform those spells, but there were some huge rituals in the ‘Hundred Thousand Dragons Sutra’ that require a lot of sacrifices. No one can do them anymore,” Beliak said. “Interestingly enough, the effects achieved by those little spells were actually very real. I believe they were effective, but those effects can’t be quantified.”

Beliak walked past Black Glasses and looked at the ancient corpse in the coffin, “For example, Yuri had a fever that subsided after the exorcism ceremony was performed. We can’t prove if it was the spell that made the fever go away. It might have been the herbs we burned in the air or it might have been the work of Yuri’s own immune system. We thought it was a coincidence at first but it wasn’t. Later, we realized that only those large-scale ceremonies could truly determine whether the ceremonies in the ‘Hundred Thousand Dragons Sutra’ really worked.”

“They can’t be done because there aren’t enough people to offer up as sacrifices.”

Beliak nodded, “Yes, those spells require a lot of people’s limbs and blood. Of course, that was a Neolithic religion, and humans during that time weren’t completely civilized and extremely pragmatic. Later, we met a mage who told us that only one of the Bon religion’s gods can be called upon now—Xingchou.”

Yuri found a record of the summoning ritual from the “Hundred Thousand Dragons Sutra” so he wanted to see if it would work before he died.

As Beliak spoke, he found that Black Glasses didn’t seem very interested. “Don’t you want to hear it?” He asked with a smile.

Black Glasses just laughed, “It’s a bit boring. I’ve heard this kind of motive too many times during my previous jobs.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” Beliak looked at Black Glasses, “Although you don’t look like an ordinary person at first glance, you should still prepare yourself. You’ll die tonight.”

Black Glasses laughed even more. “What nonsense are you talking about? Has the sun come out yet?” Black Glasses asked.

“Not yet.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard that I’m invincible before the sun comes out,” Black Glasses said.

“I thought you sacrificed yourself to save your friends and stayed here because you knew that I only needed one person. But as it turns out, you’re just arrogant,” Beliak said. “I quite like your friend, though. I didn’t want him to come into this room so I let him leave. After all, having you here is enough for my purposes.”

“I want to ask a question. Your summoning ritual hasn’t been completed so why are you so confident?” Black Glasses asked.

Beliak glanced at his watch and said, “Because it will be finished.”

“Do you know who you’re going to kill in the end?”

“I know.” The other man lit a cigarette and added, “Do you know who I’m going to kill?”

“Um…” Black Glasses smiled, “Could it be me?”

<Chapter 33><Table of Contents><Chapter 35>

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TN Notes:

(1) The “Hundred Thousand Dragons Sutra” (十万龙经) records information on the dragon god, an important deity in the Bon religion. The dragon god is considered the mother of the world so it’s also called the “Dragon Mother”. It’s said to have a snake or fish tail but its head can be anything from a human head, horse head, snake head, tiger head, bear head, mouse head, etc. (basically any kind of animal head). Not finding anything in English so here’s the Chinese wiki link.

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Beliak! You’re pregnant, you can’t be smoking! Think of the demon baby in your belly!