Chapter 36 Traveling Notes

I continued smoking my cigarette as I quietly listened to Wang Meng.

This particular Cambodian religion was always in a very awkward position since Cambodia’s major religions—especially Buddhism—had been in a very strong and stable position for a long time. The native religions were almost entirely extinct, and if any survived, they were the religions handed down by special tribes in the jungle.

It could be argued that the earliest primitive religions in Cambodia were the ancestor worship and nature worship of the primitive tribes. According to Black Glasses, there was even another kind called spectacle worship.⁽¹⁾

Since information about the deities of these primitive tribes was almost impossible to find on the internet, we had to find experts on Cambodia, but their research barely scratched the surface.

During the colonial period, many primitive god statues were brought out from the extinct tribes. Some were transported to museums in the colonizing countries, while some were directly converted into Buddha statues.

However, it should be noted here that the ancient people’s moral values were different from those of modern people, and their sect requirements were completely different. Among the gods that the ancients prayed to, there were evil gods who were used to plunder and attack others.

Those who worshipped these Buddha statues weren’t all good people. Moreover, these ancient Buddha statues weren’t real Buddhas and were very evil in nature. Over time, these temples began appearing deep in the mountains, especially in some of the mountain valleys. Although the monks in these temples were also monks, they were actually different from normal monks. They were able to gradually discover the correct way to worship these gods, but the method was very strange.

So, if you were hiking in the jungles of Cambodia and came across a valley with an isolated Buddha statue made of clay (it would usually be deeply hidden in a place with dense vegetation so you would need to use a high-powered lens to see it), then it was most likely this kind of thing.

It was said that if you kept looking at this Buddha statue, you would be able to see the statue’s original appearance, which was both strange and creepy.

This scaled Buddha would look at the top of your head through a mirror. When it wanted to hurt you, its behavior would be very similar to your own.

To be more specific, this evil thing was like a mirror that reflected your own behavior.

“Did you find anything in the historical records to indicate whether this thing is intelligent or not?”

“I don’t know, I can’t find anything. I don’t know what it really wants. But it’s apparently easier to succeed if you pray to it or perform some kind of evil ritual for it,” Wang Meng said. “The papers written by the person researching it can be divided into two periods. At first, they were still discussing it objectively, but later, they basically kept emphasizing that this thing was a righteous god. Their judgement was clearly abnormal.”

I took a puff of my cigarette and scrolled through the materials Wang Meng had sent me, “So the scholar who studied this thing also became an avid believer.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“And they concluded that this thing is so aggressive because—”

“Because you’re very aggressive. It wants to kill you, and is mirroring your own strength to do so.”

“Is there a precedent for resolving this kind of thing?”

“No. Ever since this thing came into being, there have been 3,042 deaths recorded. It’s easy for the believers to die, but the families of the believers are the ones who are most likely to die. This is because they generally discourage the believers, and then start to die in large numbers.”

“Have you consulted a Taoist priest?”

“I did, but they said that they can’t control what happens in Vietnam,” Wang Meng answered. “They said that in their system, Vietnam is a place that no one manages so that thing can do whatever it wants. If you go back to the mainland, it should leave you alone.”

“It hasn’t hurt me but achieved its goal by hurting others,” I said to him. There was no point in me leaving here since many innocent people would die because of me.

“Oh, by the way, many of the believers’ family members were killed by the believers themselves. They all went crazy. I got in touch with a person who is a master of the Cao Đài Sect in Vietnam.⁽²⁾ This sect is quite special. I went ahead and made an appointment for you. They’ll meet you at the guest house tomorrow.”

I hung up the phone and sent the address of the kindergarten to Wang Meng, telling him to ask the master to visit the kindergarten before coming to see me.

Since we couldn’t go there ourselves, we could have that person examine the scene for us.

When I walked back into the room, Poker-Face looked at me. I asked him if anyone had been here, but he shook his head no.

“In your opinion, what kind of person do you think I am?” I asked him. The reason I was asking this was because according to what Wang Meng said, if the Buddha wanted to deal with me, it had to use my own strengths to do so.

Poker-Face looked down as if he were thinking. I thought about my question just now and decided to ask in a different way, “If I were to fight with someone, what do you think my best skill is?”

“Discovering their weaknesses,” Fatty spoke up casually from the side, and even Poker-Face nodded for the first time.

Being praised like this was a rare occurrence, but I couldn’t help but sigh in my heart. This meant that my opponent should also know my weakness very well.

But what exactly did it want to do?

I thought about everything that had happened here and soon came to a realization: this was an attempt to recreate the nightmare I had experienced here before.

Did it think this was my weakness?

At this time, my phone suddenly rang again. But when I looked at the screen, I immediately froze—it was a text message from the female teacher’s phone number.

I opened it and found that she had sent the following text: “It’s waiting for you below. Are you ready to come down?”

<Chapter 35><Table of Contents><Chapter 37>

****

****

TN Notes:

(1) He means spectacle as in an impressive sight, not spectacle as in glasses (to be honest, I totally expected him to make such a joke).  

(2) Cao Đài (also known as Caodaism), is a syncretic, monotheistic religion officially established in the city of Tây Ninh, southern Vietnam in 1926. Cao Dai uses ethical precepts from Confucianism, occult practices from Taoism, theories of Karma and Rebirth from Buddhism, and a hierarchical organization (including a Pope) from Christianity. The info in this link was easier to digest but here’s the main Wiki article if you prefer it.

****

Pic added 1/10/2023 (fan translation courtesy of me)