Trafford's Trading Club

664: Chapter 77: You Might Be a Fake Person 664: Chapter 77: You Might Be a Fake Person Wang Yuechuan was surprised when they drove all the way out, only to have Professor Cui Fo lead him to a certain hill in the suburbs.

On the way, they only saw a few farmers’ tile-roofed houses; it could be said to be a desolate place.

Finally, the two of them got out of the car and trekked to this hilltop.

As a policeman, Wang Yuechuan was in excellent physical condition, but Professor Cui Fo was not; he was soon panting like a bull, his head soaked with sweat, making Wang Yuechuan worry whether the professor could keep up.

Additionally, as they traveled, Professor Cui Fo kept looking around, frowning from time to time…

Wang Yuechuan believed this was the first time the old professor had come to this place, so he was unfamiliar with it. “Professor, what exactly are you looking for?” Wang Yuechuan asked calmly. “A grave,” Professor Cui Fo said without turning his head, “To be precise, it should be called a mass grave.

I saw some local residents mention this place in an online chat…

Yes, it should be this way, let’s hurry up.”

Wang Yuechuan didn’t say much more…

The Book of the Dead was completely translated by this professor.

Although he had doubts, he couldn’t support them with solid arguments.

But could someone else besides Professor Cui Fo handle the translation?

Wang Yuechuan believed that aside from Professor Cui Fo, there must be others who could do the translation, but they were not easy to find…

More importantly, the less known about The Book of the Dead, the better. “We’ve arrived!” Professor Cui Fo suddenly stopped, smiled, and said, “Wang, if we use your Eastern expression, it would be ‘Heaven rewards those with a willing heart!’ “Is that so?” Wang Yuechuan nodded, “What should we do next?

You mentioned… some sort of ritual before we left?”

This was something Professor Cui Fo mentioned before they set out, that through a specific ritual, one could accelerate the practice of magic and enhance personal magic power, although the conditions were very stringent.

Professor Cui Fo nodded at this moment, looking around.

This was part of the hillside, shaped like an inward arc.

The surroundings were already shady and humid, and the exposed soil still showed the corners of some ‘golden pagodas’ previously used to bury bones. “The Book of the Dead has already mentioned, our magic power is mainly composed of physical strength, will, and spirit and so on.” Professor Cui Fo set down the backpack he had been carrying, taking out some items while glancing at Wang Yuechuan, “That’s why you can master and use magic faster than I can, because you’re younger.”

Wang Yuechuan said indifferently, “I knew that already.

So, what’s the connection with this mass grave?”

Professor Cui Fo said, “The author of this The Book of the Dead is unknown.

Although there are many discrepancies between the translation and modern phraseology, it can still be roughly inferred.

For example, will and spirit, which seem to be the same to modern people, are distinguished in The Book of the Dead.

Physical strength is easy to explain, but why separate will and spirit?

My understanding is that will is actually our thoughts, while spirit should refer to spiritual power, a form of special energy that can be denoted with numerical values.”

Wang Yuechuan frowned, “Are you saying that this place might harbor such special energy… spiritual power?”

Professor Cui Fo nodded, “Exactly.

The Book of the Dead mentions that all living things possess souls, with varying degrees of strength, but the birth and obliteration of souls follow the same process.

If the physical body serving as a vessel dies, the soul in most cases disappears with it…

However, the soul always lags behind the death of the body.

If a soul had intense emotions in life and resides in special places after death, it tends to transform into another form of special energy body.

Such an energy body could be termed a ghost, or a predecessor to that.

By conducting this special ritual, we can absorb the energy from these special energy bodies, converting it into our spirit, which is spiritual power.” “In that case, let’s begin.” Wang Yuechuan said directly.

Professor Cui Fo didn’t delay at this moment, accepting The Book of the Dead from Wang Yuechuan’s hand, opened it to a certain page, and started laying crystals bought from the market at various spots on this humid mass grave according to the pattern on that page.

If these different crystals were connected, they would form a specific pattern… presumably the content found in The Book of the Dead. “Professor, when did you buy this crystal?

Why don’t I remember?” Wang Yuechuan asked coldly, looking at Professor Cui Fo examining a piece of black crystal.

This crystal was actually carved like a common diamond. “Oh?

This?” Professor Cui Fo replied casually, “I bought it the other day while on a walk, passing by an antique store.

This piece of black crystal is of good quality.

I initially intended to use it as raw material for magic use, but since I encountered this ritual, I used it.” “Hmm.” Wang Yuechuan merely nodded.

Professor Cui Fo worked for quite some time, finally completing the setup, then looked at Wang Yuechuan, hesitating, “Wang… between the two of us, who should perform the ritual first?

Honestly, I just finished translating it myself, not entirely sure of its effects or risks.

How about I go first?”

Wang Yuechuan stared at Professor Cui Fo, his gaze seemingly possessing a special kind of magic… of course, not the kind of magic, but a gaze that makes one’s heart uneasy. “No need.” Wang Yuechuan suddenly shook his head, “I can go first.

Your translation work is crucial; if you get hurt, it would only slow down the progress.

Besides, I’m stronger than you, so if an accident occurs, I can handle it better.” “Well… alright then.” Professor Cui Fo nodded, then looked at Wang Yuechuan appreciatively, “Thank you, Wang.” “You’re welcome.” Wang Yuechuan said calmly, “It’s just a matter of priority… so what should I do?” “You go directly into the center.” Professor Cui Fo pointed to the ritual’s formation, “Then I’ll try to activate these crystals from the outside.

If any spirits are lingering around, they’ll be attracted by the crystals.

Upon entering the ritual formation, they’ll be transformed back into pure spiritual power.

You should be able to feel it, and then you can start meditating.”

Following Professor Cui Fo’s instructions, Wang Yuechuan sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.

Professor Cui Fo squinted his eyes… If it were right here… what a good opportunity this was.

But he just didn’t have enough capability, and although Wang Yuechuan offered to try, that recent glance still made Professor Cui Fo wary… Wang Yuechuan still didn’t fully trust him.

However… ever since you sneaked a look at my notes, you’ve already been caught up in it.

Professor Cui Fo thought, as he began to activate the ritual.

As the surrounding crystals suddenly emitted a faint glow from within, the temperature seemed to drop slightly.

Wang Yuechuan also felt something peculiar start to emerge around him. “There are indeed still some spirits lingering!

Absorb them quickly!” Professor Cui Fo hurriedly said at this moment.

Wang Yuechuan felt a very fundamental sensation, since gaining magic power, he constantly felt like there was a special seed in his mind—this was the so-called magic seed.

And now, this magic seed was absorbing the energy from the converted spirits… not much, just a trickle, but it was slowly nourishing the magic seed.

It wasn’t known how much time passed before this nourishing feeling suddenly ceased, and Wang Yuechuan instinctively opened his eyes, “Why did it stop?”

He saw that outside, Professor Cui Fo was pale, sitting limp as if exhausted, “Wang, I can’t hold on any longer; maintaining this ritual is very consuming.”

Actually, improving magic should be about increasing the upper limit of magic power.

Relying on meditation to increase the upper limit is too slow.

This bout of absorption strengthened Wang Yuechuan’s magic seed nearly thrice, and stopping abruptly naturally left a sense of loss.

But since this ritual is effective, there’s no hurry.

Wang Yuechuan stood up briskly: “In that case, teach me how to activate it, and then you can absorb it, Professor.”

Shortly after, Professor Cui Fo also began to absorb the energy converted from the spiritual entities.

He gradually looked healthier…

As for Wang Yuechuan, he was calculating the cost and gain of consumption versus absorption—of course, the gain far exceeded the consumption.

After all, the expended magic power can naturally recover.

With proper rest, it could nearly fully replenish in a day or two, but increasing the maximum limit is not so easy.

While calculating all this, he even observed those so-called spiritual entities absorbed by the ritual.

The Book of the Dead…

What kind of world do these spiritual entities formed after death belong to?

What will the world after death be?

Whether it’s eastern or western, there are many descriptions of the world after death.

For example, the netherworld in the east, the hell in the west.

Or what is known as heaven, Heaven, and so on.

These descriptions have even been artistically processed a lot.

The world after death has become something humans have fantasized into a complete and rigorous world—yet no one has truly seen the so-called world of the dead.

These spiritual entities, if merely pure energy aggregation, why do they appear this way—though almost transparent, one can still vaguely see how they looked in life.

And among them, one spiritual entity, although being absorbed by the ceremonial formation, was looking at Wang Yuechuan at this moment.

Its expression suddenly became pained, began to twist, and eventually revealed a grimace.

Wang Yuechuan could even feel a sense of discomfort from this spiritual entity staring at him… that was hatred.

If it’s merely energy, where would such hatred come from… does it still retain thoughts?

If it retains thoughts, then according to Professor Cui Fo’s explanation, the will in the magic power is equivalent to human thought… does that mean the spiritual entity also retains will?

The world after death… what exactly will it be? … … “Ghosts?” “Yes!

Teacher!”

In the large training ground under the pet hospital, Mo Xiaofei, who had just completed a training session, was resting, sipping a special energy drink made by Long Xiruo, and asked, “The girls in our class started discussing Pen Immortal over the past few days, so I was curious to ask, do ghosts really exist?”

Long Xiruo casually dug in his ear and asked, “Why are they discussing things like the Pen Immortal?” “Because a horror movie about Pen Immortal was released recently,” Mo Xiaofei replied without hesitation, “so they discussed it, it’s a hot topic!”

Long Xiruo yawned, “This such as Pen Immortal indeed exist, but they’re actually a bit different from what you know.” “What’s different?” Mo Xiaofei immediately showed a curious baby look. “Firstly, something like Pen Immortal doesn’t have the ability to answer all your questions.”

Long Xiruo dug in his other ear, “At the beginning, Pen Immortal were actually just some scholars.

Well… should be said those ancient scholars who studied hard for their imperial examinations, right?

Simply put, they were guys who studied themselves to death.

They died in front of books, but their obsession did not disperse, attaching to the books.

Later, such books were obtained by other scholars.

Since they were both passionate about knowledge, they resonated easily.

At this time, the so-called Pen Immortal would appear, the scholar asked the Immortal about the incomprehensible knowledge within the books and received answers…

How this spread is unknown.

Originally, it was just a process of dead scholars teaching live scholars knowledge, and after a long time, it turned into the Pen Immortal being all-knowing, truly hilarious!” “That’s cool though!” Mo Xiaofei immediately looked at Long Xiruo with sparkling eyes, “Doesn’t that mean you get a free personal tutor?”

Long Xiruo, however, waved his hand and said, “Pen Immortals don’t appear so easily, you know?

Only a true scholar, with a heart of a pure child, could become a Pen Immortal, attaching to books, lasting over time.

Generally, it’s just death.

After all, now that the netherworld is closed, the ‘soul and spirit’ can’t last long before being extinguished by the yang energy of the human world.” “Oh, oh!” Mo Xiaofei nodded, then suddenly froze, “Teacher, what did you just say… the netherworld is closed?

Does such a thing really exist?

After death, is there really another world?”

Long Xiruo yawned again, leaning on his little head, “Why, don’t you believe in such things?”

Mo Xiaofei scratched his head, “Not exactly, just feels a bit illogical…

Isn’t the netherworld said to be the place for arranging reincarnation?

In that case, when people die, reincarnating sounds alright.

But the population keeps increasing.

Even if the people who died before really reincarnated, they couldn’t account for so many new people, right?

So, where do the souls of all these new people come from?

It can’t be that after reincarnating, a soul plays a dozen or even more characters, can it?”

Long Xiruo laughed, suddenly saying: “If you put it that way… it’s inherently multiple accounts logged in.” “What?” Mo Xiaofei gaped.

Long Xiruo rolled his eyes, “Otherwise, why do you think it’s called ‘soul and spirit’?

One soul or one spirit can reincarnate.

A complete soul, split apart, can practice on ten accounts, makes no mistake!

As for the reincarnated souls, they’ll gradually grow again into a complete soul and spirit through the nourishment of the body, repeating like this.

So, no matter how the population grows, there’ll still be enough souls.

Sometimes it can even lead to a population explosion in the netherworld, being overwhelmed!

Many years ago, there was an idiot who said something like ‘vowing not to become a Buddha until hell is empty,’ and because of that, got miserably tricked.”

My goodness… “Teacher, the fool you’re talking about wouldn’t happen to be the legendary, Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, right?” “What do you think?” Long Xiruo answered with a question.

Mo Xiaofei realized he asked a rather silly question, and awkwardly chuckled twice, “But, why is the netherworld not open now?

If it’s closed, doesn’t that mean no one reincarnates?”

Long Xiruo shook his head, “I’m not clear on that either… just that the passage between the netherworld and the human world has been closed by someone, or for some unknown reason.

I haven’t seen the large army coming up from the netherworld to collect souls for almost a century.” “Closed…” Mo Xiaofei listened a bit in a daze, instinctively asked, “Then if it’s closed, where do the souls of the newly born people come from now?”

Long Xiruo suddenly said, “That’s why there are so many ‘fake people’ in the world!

Otherwise, how do you think you can still be alive?

Is that boss so kind?

Because you’re a ‘True Soul,’ that’s all!”