Chapter 256 Apricot Leaf Sutra

The name of the book is "Apricot Leaf Sutra". It looks quite thick, but it's just because the paper is thick. The actual content is not many pages, it's just a short story.

Ning Zhe flipped through the book briefly, and the story was roughly as follows:

This world is a dream of the great creator God. When God wakes up, the dream will shatter like a bubble.

The Apricot Leaf Sutra warns believers:

Believe in God, because God created this world and us in his sleep.

Fear God, for God is omnipotent in His world.

We must offer sacrifices to God, because God’s awakening is inevitable.

When God wakes up, the whole world will be shattered like a dream. Only the most devout believers will be chosen by God, appear beside God and become His favorites. The rest of the unblessed creatures will return to nothingness along with the dream and cease to exist.

What is considered pious?

Offering large sacrifices to God is called piety, and donating large sums of money to the church is called piety. The great prophet who wrote the Apricot Leaf Sutra said so in the book.

"The Apricot Leaf Sutra says that if you offer the souls of filthy people who are not blessed to God, the world will become better. God will then indulge in a beautiful dream and be reluctant to wake up, and the world's 'lifespan' will be extended accordingly."

"On the contrary, if the world is full of filthy people who are not blessed, this world will be a nightmare for God. God will be displeased by the nightmare and will wake up earlier."

The world will be destroyed sooner.

"Hmm..." Ning Zhe closed the scripture, not knowing what he was thinking.

As the name suggests, the Apricot Leaf Sutra was originally written on the leaves of ginkgo trees by a great prophet. However, it is well known that ginkgo trees are native to the Kyushu continent, which means that the birthplace of this religion is actually in China.

However, Ning Zhe had never seen any belief in the Apricot Leaf Sutra or the so-called "Sleeping God Creation Theory" in China.

In a sense, this can be considered as flowers blooming inside the wall and smelling good outside the wall?
Ning Zhe put the Apricot Leaf Sutra into his arms, carefully picked up the corpse oil lamp, ignored the lifeless "audience" under the lecture platform, and turned to walk towards the side door of the lecture room.

For the time being, he was not interested in trying what would happen if he were exposed to the light in front of those who were listening to the sutra.

Going out from the side door of the lecture room, there is a fresh path surrounded by flower beds. At the end of the path is a cleansing room, or in layman's terms, a big bathhouse. The believers of the "Sleeping God Creation Theory" need to wash their bodies in the cleansing room first and change into clean clothes before they can walk through this flower-filled path to the lecture room to listen to the sermons.

The rose garden, which is already brightly colored, looks even more gorgeous under the illumination of the corpse oil lamp. The tender and juicy stamens are as red as fresh blood released from the veins, carrying the temperature of the human body.

As light and shadow intertwined, Ning Zhe vaguely saw a pale arm tremblingly stretching out from the soil under the flower bed, and then it disappeared when the light flashed.

Walking into the cleansing room, it was still gloomy and dim inside. Only a little outdoor light shone in through the skylight on the roof, illuminating the bathing pool in the center of the hall, making it sparkle.

The water in the bath was crystal clear. Even in such a dim environment, Ning Zhe could still clearly distinguish the texture of the stone slabs at the bottom of the pool, like a large piece of transparent glass. But as soon as he got closer, the clear and transparent water became turbid under the illumination of the corpse oil lamp. The bottom of the pool was filled with messy daily necessities, and the floor tiles under his feet became damp and sticky.

There were branches, cabinet doors, broken chairs and table legs floating on the water, and a pale human back was floating quietly among the debris, which was particularly conspicuous. Ning Zhe bent down to pick up a branch and poked the floating corpse in the water. Waves of rotten stench floated out of the water.

There was a sudden sound of splashing water, and a defeated hand swollen by blisters stretched out from the water. It grabbed the branch that was poking at the back of the floating corpse and pulled it hard to the bottom of the water, causing Ning Zhe to stagger. He lost his grip and the corpse oil lamp fell out of the skin.

For a moment, the dim cleansing hall became exceptionally bright. The floating corpse in the water, the shriveled hands grabbing Ning Zhe's feet, and the "audience" who had walked through the flower garden path and came here at some point, all appeared under the light, and Ning Zhe was instantly surrounded by "people".

"call--"

At the critical moment, Ning Zhe, who had fallen to the ground, crawled on the ground, picked up the lampshade and blew out the corpse oil lamp. The ghost shadows surrounding him disappeared in an instant.

"That was a close call." Ning Zhe wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, stood up with the lamp in his hand, and looked at the flower garden path behind him with lingering fear.

There are more and more "things" following him, and he cannot afford to make mistakes during the exploration. If he is not careful, he will be doomed.

"Speaking of which, what exactly is that thing?" Ning Zhe reinstalled the lampshade and the skin, and suddenly felt curious.

The headless corpse on the execution platform, the audience in the lecture room, the floating corpse in the bath, what are these strange things that only appear within the lighting range of the corpse oil lamp? What is the core rule of the strange events in this castle?
After reinstalling the glass lampshade and tightening the cover to reinforce it, Ning Zhe took out his lighter and relit the corpse oil lamp.

He slightly lifted the cover on the lampshade, revealing a corner of the light. A swollen and pale corpse had crawled out of the water and onto the shore, lying quietly at his feet.

Ning Zhe turned around holding the lamp and saw three or five tall and thin ghost figures standing silently behind him. Their facial features could not be seen clearly because of the wide robes covering them. They were the people who were sitting on the benches in the lecture room before.

"Why did they follow me?" Ning Zhe frowned slightly, thinking of the "Apricot Leaf Sutra" that he had put into his arms.

After hesitating for a moment, Ning Zhe took out the "Apricot Leaf Sutra" and placed it on the ground, then slowly backed away holding the lamp.

This time, the audience did not follow up.

"I took something I shouldn't have..." Ning Zhe breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and left the cleansing hall through the archway on the other side.

Connected to the cleansing room is the laundry room, where the dirty clothes taken off by believers in the bathhouse will be sent directly to be washed by the maids of Vanessa Castle.

Ning Zhe walked into the laundry room holding a lamp. Folded sets of clothes were piled on the long table in the middle, and the bamboo baskets against the wall were filled with dirty clothes that had not yet been washed. Apart from some sinks for washing water and some cleaning utensils, there was nothing else.

"Wait, that is..." Ning Zhe covered the kerosene lamp to make sure that what he saw was not an illusion.

In the far corner of the laundry room, between two laundry baskets, a petite blonde girl sat motionless, her hands on her knees and her face buried in her arms.

Her entire body was buried in her clothes, making no sound, and even Ning Zhe almost ignored her.

Looking at the corpse oil lamp that had never been lit at the girl's feet, Ning Zhe suddenly felt that she looked somewhat familiar.

(End of this chapter)

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