Chapter 383: Chapter 218: Three-headed Stone Buddha
“Those fierce beasts, are they mbers of your Tattoo Tree Clan?”
Zhou Xuan also gazed outside the town gate. The sky was dim and murky, and he could faintly see a few pairs of glowing red eyes.
The savage malice in those eyes made it hard to associate them with anything human.
“The Tattoo Tree Clan… has suffered a clan-destroying curse.” Peng Sheng’s hand trembled as he held his bowl of wine. He said, “Our Tree Clan’s strength lies in tattoos. We have mastered the ‘twenty-four divine pictures.’ In our daily lives, aside from the Divine Images, we also create other tattoos.”
In this sense, the Tree Clan is quite different from Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan was not a tattoo enthusiast; he simply stumbled upon the Tattoo Hall by chance during the second incense burning. For him, tattoos were rely tools.
But for the Tree Clan, tattoos were both tools and life itself.
“In the Tree Clan, when we marry, we split a tattoo into two, placing one half on the groom and the other half on the bride to symbolize unity in building a life together.
When we worship the gods, every household takes a piece of skin and tattoos their envisioned designs onto it as an act of devotion to the divine.
When a clan mber passes away, the family uses their own blood to tattoo the deceased, expressing longing for their loved one.
In short, tattoos perate every mont of our lives, from the mont we’re born until the mont we die.”
At this point, Peng Sheng reached into his pocket and pulled out a neatly folded tattoo, unfolding it to reveal a piece as large as a newspaper.
The design was that of a white horse.
“This horse… it was my childhood companion, one I cherished deeply. When it passed away, I used its hide to capture its once-glorious image in a tattoo.
In the days that followed, whenever I missed it, I would hold the tattoo in my hands and feel its warmth, feel it galloping in my heart.
Even now, so many years later, as long as this tattoo remains, it’s as if it’s never truly left .”
Peng Sheng’s words left Zhou Xuan feeling ashad.
He had made significant sums of money from tattoos and done many things with them, yet he had never truly delved into their aning. Hearing Peng Sheng’s story now, he finally understood what tattoos ant to the Tree Clan.
Peng Sheng carefully put the tattoo away and said, “The Tree Clan has made too many tattoos. Almost every clan mber bears one upon their skin, and the walls of every household are adorned with them.
One day…
The tattoos created by the Tree Clan ca to life, and the curse began.”
Peng Sheng downed his bowl of wine. Though he was still young, his voice carried the weight of ages.
“When the curse first began, Peng Town… no, it was still Peng County at that ti, and our Tattoo Clan was vast,
the people of Peng County didn’t initially see the curse as a curse, but as a divine miracle.
There was a clan mber nad Peng Jia Tree, who deeply missed his father. He begged his older brother to tattoo his father’s likeness onto his back, capturing his father’s warm smile and presence.
On that day, the father’s tattoo ca to life. It spoke to Peng Jia Tree with care and concern, and other clan mbers believed that Peng Jia Tree’s father had returned. They rushed to his ho to offer their congratulations.”
Peng Sheng continued, “At the ti, the clan chief believed it was a blessing from All Gods of Jing Country upon the Tree Clan, bestowing infinite divinity upon our tattoos.
In the days that followed, more and more tattoos ca to life, filling the clan with joy. After all, our tattoos weren’t created randomly; they represented our longing for loved ones, nostalgia for life, reverence for the heavens, the earth, the gods, and nature itself.
Reviving such beautiful emotions through tattoos couldn’t possibly be a bad thing…
Yet three months after Peng Jia Tree’s father ‘returned,’ he perished again.
Peng Jia Tree was consud by his father’s tattoo…
His entire body was stripped of flesh and bone, leaving only the human skin bearing his father’s tattoo.
The ‘father’ on that piece of skin, with glowing red eyes, attacked other clan mbers. Ultimately, the High Priest destroyed him with a Divine Image.”
Hearing this, Zhou Xuan said, “Brother Peng, the tattoo that attacked Peng Jia Tree wasn’t one of your clan mbers, was it? It was just a tattoo.”
“When the tattoo was shattered, those nearby heard Peng Jia Tree’s voice coming from it.” Peng Sheng’s eyes dimd as he spoke. “When Peng Jia Tree was consud by the tattoo, his soul rged with it.
That tattoo contained two souls, a dual consciousness.”
At this point, Peng Sheng paused,
and Zhou Xuan suddenly thought of the ‘Blood Well Spirit Communicator.’ The Blood Well Spirit was awakened when one’s dual consciousness simultaneously erged.
Such an awakening granted Spirit Communicators imnse perception, but also madness.
The madness of the Blood Well Spirit Communicators was nearly incurable, and only Ancient Clan tattoos could suppress it.
Now Zhou Xuan understood that the curse of the Ancient Tattoo Clan was also driven by ‘dual consciousness.’
“After the tattoos ca to life, the Divine Images of our Ancient Tattoo Clan could suppress them, but doing so brought us imnse sorrow—because every living tattoo contained the consciousness of one of our clan mbers.
Suppressing them was no different from suppressing our own kin.”
Peng Sheng paused before continuing, “And as ti passed, more and more tattoos ca to life, while the power of the Divine Images beca insufficient. Countless clan mbers’ souls were fused with these living tattoos, turning into cursed tattoos.
The cursed tattoos, in turn, slaughtered large numbers of our clan mbers daily.
Our Tree Clan had once viewed tattoos as vessels for beautiful emotions, yet fate forced us to wage war against them in the end.
Ultimately, we couldn’t overco the tattoos. We retreated, with the last few thousand clan mbers, to Peng Town. There, we awakened the Peach Blossom Ancestor Tree and borrowed the strength of the Tattooed Alien Ghost, ‘Peng Hou,’ to guard our tribe’s last refuge.
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