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Exquisite fragrance lingers, with a long aftertaste.
Lin Baici didn't know what language the voice was speaking; he couldn't understand a word, but its pronunciation was full of beauty.
Pleasant to the ear! Ethereal! Carefree!
It gave him a refreshing feeling, like that of a mountain after new rain!
Lin Baici even forgot his hunger, immersed in the chant that was like the music of immortals.
Life is like a boat, navigating through winds and breaking waves.
At the age of seven, Lin Baici, with a small bucket and a little fishing net, ran barefoot by the creek, trying to catch the little loach that just slipped away.
He picked a green apricot, its tartness almost too much for his young teeth.
At seventeen, Lin Baici sweated on the sports field, dashed off his pen on exam papers, and would gaze from the classroom window at the cherished girl's receding back as she walked home.
He wanted to catch that cicada, to seize the summer that belonged to him.
At twenty-seven, Lin Baici was full of energy in the office, drinking and enjoying kebabs at street stalls, and in the middle of the night in his rented room, he was making life plans.
He thought himself capable of anything, able to pluck stars with one hand, ride dragons, and slay whales.
At thirty-seven, Lin Baici had achieved nothing and was unemployed at home.
No girlfriend, no salary, no friends—he tightly drew the curtains, dreading the rising sun each day.
At forty-seven, Lin Baici was a walking corpse, lying on the bed, waiting for the Death God to knock on his door.
Life is like a boat, battered and bloodied from collisions!
"Fuck."
Lin Baici couldn't help but blurt out a curse in his native tongue.
Is this my life?
It must be a joke!
Lin Baici was extremely unhappy, wanting to fight ten people to vent his rage.
Suddenly, a severe pain erupted from his stomach area, and an overwhelming hunger brought a mouthful of saliva to his lips.
Gurgle gurgle!
This pang of hunger pulled Lin Baici's consciousness back, and then he saw everyone sprawled haphazardly on the floor.
Everyone's expression, whether twisted, excited, or angry...
Listening to the chant?
Everyone had long forgotten about that!
What's more terrifying was that Lin Baici noticed the vine noose around his neck was slowly tightening, and he was already struggling to breathe.
[This chanting sound will weave a dream that spans ages!]
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Lin Baici roared inwardly, thankful to the jolt of hunger that had pulled him out of the illusion.
The pressing matter now was to finish listening to the chant, to complete this Taboo Game.
However, because his mind was filled with distracting thoughts, and the suffocating tension was palpable, Lin Baici simply couldn't calm his mind to listen to the chant.
What to do?
Lin Baici grabbed the torch lying next to him.
Should he light it?
He hadn't taken action when entering this meditation room, fearing that disturbing the Taboo things might lead to his instant suffocation, but now, it seemed he had no choice.
The vine noose around his neck was tightening ever more.
Lin Baici hung on, preparing to stand, but when his left hand touched the backpack, a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind.
Those tea leaves!
Interpreted simply, the sentence formed by the incense smoke meant that by adopting a lotus position and listening to the chant, one could remain unmoved and in silence reach the other shore.
"The other shore" was likely a metaphor for survival.
The problem everyone was facing was that the sound of the chant stirred up all sorts of distracting thoughts, making it impossible to concentrate.
Lin Baici hurriedly opened his backpack, grabbed a handful of hollow Iron Buddha tea leaves, and stuffed them into his mouth.
Biting down hard, the juice burst forth.
The Eater God had mentioned that after drinking this tea, one would lose all emotions, have a heart as cold as iron, become a hollow person, instantly losing interest in dreams, women, and the like, and entering a period of enlightenment.
Doesn't that mean it could remove the distracting thoughts?
Lin Baici decided to give it a shot, thinking if the Iron Buddha leaves didn't work, he would set the incense burner on fire!
"I wonder if chewing it dry will work?"
Lin Baici had no time to look for boiling water to brew the tea. However, after swallowing the tea leaves, in just a dozen seconds, all the chaotic thoughts in his head were washed away like dust in a downpour, gone without a trace.
Even the ever-tightening vine noose around his neck seemed irrelevant to him now.
So what if it's death!
Come on then,
I'm all laid out. You might as well put a little more effort in.
The chant was clear to his ear,
Lin Baici, seated in the lotus position, didn't miss a word, and the vine noose slowly loosened around him.
"It worked!"
Lin Baici smiled slightly.
The others weren't so lucky.
The man with the big belly, who was accustomed to overindulging and not exercising, had the weakest body. His face was now turning blue, and he was close to suffocating to death.
Lin Baici glanced at him, grabbed a handful of hollow Iron Buddha leaves, quickly got up, and rushed to Kim Myungjin's side, "Quick, eat the tea leaves!"
The woman from Goryeo had her eyes tightly closed and was unresponsive.
Lin Baici pinched her chin, forcefully opened her lips, and stuffed the tea leaves into her mouth. He then repeated the process with the old lady.
After feeding Sima Mu and Hua Yue Yu, Lin Baici ran out of tea leaves, but luckily, Kim Myungjin had some more, which he hurriedly took.
Next were Sister Xiao Li and Brother Gu.
Lin Baici finally looked at the big-bellied man. This man hadn't left a good impression on him, but since it was a matter of life and death, he decided to help him anyway.
After administering tea leaves to everyone, Lin Baici quickly assumed the lotus position again.
One by one, the people who swallowed the hollow Iron Buddha leaves began to regain consciousness.
"What happened?"
The old lady was completely baffled.
"Do you still have tea leaves in your mouth? If so, swallow them quickly. Don't think about anything, get in position, and listen to the chant!"
Lin Baici instructed.
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"Tea? What did you do?"
Hua Yue Yu felt a taste in her mouth, somewhat like Nutrient Express.
Eh?
Why don't I care about whether I can survive anymore?
"Oppa..."
Kim Myungjin knew Lin Baici had helped everyone, and a nervous yet excited look appeared on her beautiful oval face.
My Lin Oppa is indeed awesome!
The pot-bellied man, stiff from suffocation and lack of oxygen, struggled several times but failed to assume the lotus position, so the vine noose around his neck tightened once again.
This was adding insult to injury.
"Help... help me!"
The pot-bellied man's instincts still drove him to seek help, but because he had eaten the hollow Tieguanyin, he did not scream hysterically.
No one saved him, not due to a lack of compassion, but because of the effects of the tea leaves.
When the chanting ended, the vine noose around the pot-bellied man's neck had tightened completely, forcibly breaking his cervical vertebrae.
Afterward, his body noticeably dehydrated, cracked, and crumbled as if it had been weathered for a thousand years, leaving behind only a patch of dust.
This horrific scene sent shivers down everyone's spine, causing them to subconsciously touch their necks.
Huh?
The noose is gone?
"Did we pass?"
A look of wild joy spread across the old lady's face.
"Haha, we survived!"
Laughing heartily, Sima Mu leapt up and rushed to Lin Baici: "Baici, thanks to you, let's become sworn siblings!"
"What did you do?"
Hua Yue Yu finally had the leisure to seriously observe this big boy.
He had a youthful face and seemed naive, probably still a high schooler, tall enough that a little more jumping ability would let him slam dunk.
"I fed you guys tea leaves!"
Lin Baici made up an excuse: "I was very hungry and didn't have anything to eat, so I stuffed the tea leaves I had picked from the yard into my mouth. I didn't expect to actually wake up from that delirious dream and calm down!"
"What tea leaves?"
Sister Xiao Li was puzzled: "How come I haven't seen them?"
"It's that plant with leaves shaped like Guanyin sitting on a lotus!"
Jin Ying interjected.
"Ah? That one!"
Brother Gu had seen it, but everyone was afraid to touch the strangely shaped plant, fearing it might be dangerous, especially since they all had vine nooses around their necks.
Who would have thought it was the key to survival?
In reality, no. As long as one has no desires, sees through the worldly distractions, and keeps the heart undisturbed, one won't be contaminated by the Taboo things.
It could be said that almost any child under the age of three could leave this meditation room alive.
"I'll go pick some!"
Sima Mu darted out.
Seeing this, Little Li and Brother Gu also rushed out. The tea leaves seemed like good stuff, and it wouldn't hurt to pick some as a precaution.
"Baici, you just finished yours, didn't you? I'll go pick some more for you."
The old lady knew she wasn't capable of much, so she tried to make herself useful in little ways.
Upon hearing this, Kim Myungjin lifted her leg and ran out.
I definitely won't give up the chance to ingratiate myself with Lin Oppa.
"Thank you! Let me introduce myself properly; my surname is Hua and my given name is Yue Yu. You're not older than me, right?"
Hua Yue Yu actually wanted to hurry and pick the hollow Tieguanyin, but she held back, knowing she should thank him first.
After all, if she wanted to survive and leave God's ruins,
she would surely need to rely on this big boy, so it was best to establish a good relationship first.
"Lin Baici!"
Lin Baici looked down at Hua Yue Yu, whose height reached only his chest and who was dressed in a sailor suit: "I'm definitely older than you!"
"I'm a university student, alright!"
Hua Yue Yu covered her mouth and giggled lightly: "I just look like an underage girl, that's all."
"..."
Lin Baici fell silent.
With women, you could only judge by their faces; guessing their age was impossible.
"So dating me wouldn't be illegal!"
After saying this, Hua Yue Yu remembered something and quickly added, "By the way, Hua Yue Yu is my real name; it's written just like that in my household registration book!"
When introducing herself in the past, people often felt she was reluctant to give her real name, using a nickname instead, as if she were looking down on them.
"The surname Hua isn't common!"
Lin Baici smiled slightly.
"Yeah, the most famous would be Hua Mulan!"
Hua Yue Yu thought too much.
Lin Baici didn't care whether she gave her real name or not; if you couldn't get out of God's ruins, being called the Queen Mother of the West wouldn't help.
"Why don't you go pick some tea leaves to keep for self-defense as well?"
Lin Baici, holding a torch, looked at the incense burner.
Burn the damn thing and save it from hurting anyone else.
"Then off I go!"
Hua Yue Yu, with her legs clad in over-the-knee black stockings, stepped out of the meditation room.
[Pre-dinner exercise finished, time to eat!]
"Eat what?"
Lin Baici was amused: "Are you asking me to chew on the incense burner or swallow the incense ashes?"
[To use a concept familiar in the Human kingdoms, there is a Divine Grace on this cushion, named Guo Er Cheng Song. If you eat it, you can possess it!]
[Guo Er Cheng Song, as the name suggests, means that once you hear something, you can remember it all and immediately repeat it!]