Nightmare Light

Chapter 16 The Myth of Blood

In the library, the soft light from the dome remained, falling into the library along the huge bookshelves, mixing with the endless books, and warming Lin Wang and all the teachers and students.

After hearing Lin Wang's question, the teachers and students looked at each other, all with confused and embarrassed expressions.

Although the Federal University and the Temple have always been at odds, theology is an important subject after all, and students have more or less knowledge about religion.

But no one dares to say "proficient".

The students looked at each other in confusion. After a long while, a boy timidly raised his hand and said, "I... I understand a little bit."

Noticing that all the students' eyes were focused on him, the boy shrank his neck again and said, "I'm just interested! I'm not an undercover agent of the temple!"

"Religious knowledge is also part of the truth. No one will blame you." Lin Wang strode forward, patted the young man on the shoulder, and pulled him towards a table not far away. "Now, we need your knowledge."

Lin Wang was tall, his voice steady and powerful, with a strong sense of conviction. When he said this, many students in the room looked thoughtful.

The young man also breathed a sigh of relief, his expression became much more relaxed, and he followed Lin Wang to the table.

At this time, an old voice came from the crowd.

"Religious knowledge is also part of the truth... That's a very good thing to say."

The crowd parted, and an old man walked out from the back of the crowd. He was dressed in simple scholar's clothes, with very thick glasses, and his eyes were bright behind the lenses.

The old man looked up at Lin Wang with a gentle smile on his face. He stretched out his hand slowly and shook hands with Lin Wang: "Your words give me the feeling of a real professor."

Before Lin Wang could respond, the old man changed the subject: "But... even without your words, I believe our students can distinguish between knowledge and blind faith and will not maliciously attack their classmates."

After the old man finished speaking, the expressions of the other group of students changed slightly, and many of them nodded.

"My last name is Qin, and I'm a professor of history." Old Qin said slowly, moving closer to Lin Wang and lowering his voice, "Thank you for protecting my students."

"Anyone with a conscience would do the same." Lin Wang said politely, then asked, "What do you know about religious studies..."

"I'm also a professor of religious studies." Old Qin said with a smile.

Why does this old man breathe so hard when he speaks?

Lin Wang complained in his heart, and then saw the old man turned his head and winked at the volunteer. "Kid, you don't mind if I take your 'job' away, right?"

The boy waved his hands quickly and left in a nervous and flustered manner.

Only then did Old Qin turn his head and say, "Young Northerner, you can now state your problem."

Lin Wang simply spread out the map on the table.

Tian Taozi leaned over and saw that what Lin Wang spread out was a map of Tangsheng City.

Lin Wang picked up a pen, found the correct location on the map, drew a few circles, connected the circles with lines, and finally connected the circles to the center of the map - which was the location of the Federal University.

After connecting a few lines, he asked Mr. Qin, "Can you analyze what kind of formation this is based on these diagrams?"

"Oh, a magic circle... let me think about it." The old man adjusted his glasses, squinted his eyes, pulled over a whiteboard, and drew a standard hexagon on it.

"A standard hexagonal magic circle... In popular magic, summoning and curse types are more commonly used, like the Nuo opera-style summoning of wild spirits and the arrival of ancestors. The impermanence-style includes the day and night wandering gods... and ancestral worship..."

"What if it's related to blood?" Lin Wang interrupted the old man, adding a few more lines on the map. "Is that how you see it?"

Tian Taozi was puzzled: "Hey, I understand that the locations Lin Wang mentioned earlier were the sites of previous crimes, but what do these clues mean?"

Lin Wang recalled the posture of Director Xiao's corpse: "This is the direction the corpses were looking at."

Tian Taozi slowly opened her eyes wide: "How could you even care about this detail...what's wrong with your brain?" Qin Lao raised an eyebrow: "Oh, if you put it together like this, it will be more specific...let me think about it."

He pondered for a moment. Strangely, as time went on, Old Qin's brows gradually furrowed, a solemn, even somewhat uneasy look appearing on his face.

The old man pushed his glasses, frowning, and said solemnly, "This image of yours, combined with the blood... reminds me of a very scary myth."

"A myth? What does it have to do with our case..." Tian Taozi started to speak.

"Child, haven't you heard that saying?" the old man interrupted Tian Taozi. "All myths are artistic interpretations of historical events."

Old Qin spoke in a lecture-like tone, casually drawing a strange hexagonal magic circle on the whiteboard beside him. "The current temple, including the entire religious field, worships only one deity, the goddess we call 'Mother'."

"Through numerous historical documents and ancient myths and legends, many historians... and religious scholars have come to the conclusion that in the early days of the Three Emperors period, our world... was once polytheistic."

"Polytheism?! How is this possible?" Tian Taozi looked surprised.

"It's hard to believe, isn't it? But the fact is... if we don't consider the disrespect to the goddess, this inference is closer to reality." The old man pondered and casually drew an inverted triangle on the whiteboard. It was the pattern that priests drew on their chests when praying.

"Weddings, funerals, kitchen stove sacrifices, witchcraft and incantations, rites of death, heaven and earth, dreams and the underworld... There are so many kinds of folk arts in the world, so many different kinds of power. Rather than having just one god, wouldn't it make more sense to have different gods supporting different folk arts?"

After hearing the old man's words, although Lin Wang's face remained calm, his heart was in turmoil.

Are there gods in this world?!
If you think about it carefully, it makes sense...the magical power of those "ordinary teachers"...

At this time, Tian Taozi's face changed slightly: "Ah! I suddenly remembered that in the early days of the temple..."

"No, child, don't mention that name." Old Qin interrupted her with a stern look, "You know I'm not talking about that."

After interrupting Tian Taozi, he regained his gentle and wise expression and said with a smile: "Okay, now it's time to tell stories to the good children..."

Hey kids...is this story time in kindergarten...?

Lin Wang's face twitched, but thinking that the other party was indeed an elder, he suppressed the urge to complain and listened attentively to the other party's explanation.

The next second, the old man's voice sounded slowly in the light of the library.

"In the early Three Emperors period, approximately two or three thousand years ago, when the goddess and her... companions came to this world, they used their power to bless all living things in this world."

When Tian Taozi heard the word "comrades", she frowned - what Old Qin said was completely different from the history she had learned, but she also knew that the old man was telling another version of the story, so she did not question it, but instead became rare and quiet, listening quietly.

"The gods brought various powers to the world, and among them there is a god who controls the power of health, offspring, and...bloodline."

After hearing this, Lin Wang already had a vague idea of ​​the answer in his mind.

Sure enough, the next second, the old man said: "That god is called the Blood God."

After a pause, he added, "It's not an evil god."

Qin Lao's words surprised Lin Wang and Tian Taozi. Tian Taozi said quickly, "Ah? Not the evil god? But these blood cultists..."

"There is never a necessary connection between the position of God and the good and evil of human beings..." Lin Wang narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke in a deep tone.

"Oh, that's a great point. If you were a teacher at our school, you'd surely be well-liked by many students." Old Qin nodded and continued, "In fact, that's indeed the case... I've seen records in many documents from that time—the followers of the Blood God prayed to blood, using crimson power to help the world."

The old man's voice gradually deepened, and a bloody story gradually unfolded before the two of them.

　Oh, my brain... what should I say in the message...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)