Wandering Gods of Day and Night-Chapter 383 - 218: Three-headed Stone Buddha

"Those fierce beasts, are they members 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 merely 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 member passes away, the family uses their own blood to tattoo the deceased, expressing longing for their loved one.

In short, tattoos permeate every moment of our lives, from the moment we’re born until the moment 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 me."

Peng Sheng’s words left Zhou Xuan feeling ashamed.

He had made significant sums of money from tattoos and done many things with them, yet he had never truly delved into their meaning. Hearing Peng Sheng’s story now, he finally understood what tattoos meant to the Tree Clan.

Peng Sheng carefully put the tattoo away and said, "The Tree Clan has made too many tattoos. Almost every clan member bears one upon their skin, and the walls of every household are adorned with them.

One day...

The tattoos created by the Tree Clan came 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 time, 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 member named 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 came to life. It spoke to Peng Jia Tree with care and concern, and other clan members believed that Peng Jia Tree’s father had returned. They rushed to his home to offer their congratulations."

Peng Sheng continued, "At the time, 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 came 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 consumed 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 members. 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 members, 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 dimmed as he spoke. "When Peng Jia Tree was consumed by the tattoo, his soul merged 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 emerged.

Such an awakening granted Spirit Communicators immense 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 came to life, the Divine Images of our Ancient Tattoo Clan could suppress them, but doing so brought us immense sorrow—because every living tattoo contained the consciousness of one of our clan members.

Suppressing them was no different from suppressing our own kin."

Peng Sheng paused before continuing, "And as time passed, more and more tattoos came to life, while the power of the Divine Images became insufficient. Countless clan members’ souls were fused with these living tattoos, turning into cursed tattoos.

The cursed tattoos, in turn, slaughtered large numbers of our clan members 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 overcome the tattoos. We retreated, with the last few thousand clan members, 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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