I have a ghost diary

Seeing that Suwozaoxue had left, he temporarily put away his long sword.

As for the Ghost Diary, the Nun Ghost, and the Black Box, those have naturally been put away long ago.

Speaking of the mysterious metal box obtained from the research institute, Chu Jiang increasingly felt that it might be hiding a big secret.

Chu Jiang couldn't violently destroy it with his power; even the Demon Blade Tianqi couldn't leave a mark when it pierced it. This... Chu Jiang couldn't understand it. He hoped that after he fully awakened the power of Chu Jiang, he could open the box and see what was inside.

Chapter 403 Layers of Earth Treasury

After Soga Sayaka broke free from the cycle, she naturally expressed her gratitude to Chu Jiang. At the same time, she was also very curious about the outcome of Chu Jiang's battle with Orochi.

Chu Jiang briefly described his experience and his speculations, and Suwo Zao Xue fell silent after listening.

If everything is as Chu Jiang predicted, then the island nation is in big trouble this time. Once the Ghost Abyss fully erupts, it will likely destroy the country without a doubt.

"What are you planning to do next? Give up or...?"

If Guiyuan is indeed an S-class vengeful ghost, how can it be sealed away?

Not to mention that the bottom of this abyss may well hold the negative emotions of the entire world. The deeper you go, the more dangerous it becomes. With one person's abilities, how can one fight against the darkness in the hearts of the millions of living beings in this world?

When Chu Jiang heard this question, he simply replied calmly, "I have been entrusted with this task, and I will continue to try to see what happens next."

"If things are beyond our control, we can only try to see if we can help you shrink the area of ​​Ghost Abyss, or at least stop it from expanding outwards."

If this Ghost Abyss were to expand without limit, not only would the island nation suffer, but other countries in the world would also face threats.

Suwa Zao Xue nodded, "I'll go with you, I won't hold you back."

Chu Jiang agreed, naturally because of the second half of that sentence.

Even if Guiyuan is the ghost itself, it is not impossible to seal it away and suppress it with violence.

But Chu Jiang was worried that if he attacked Gui Yuan directly, would it cause the negative emotions accumulated deep within him to erupt?

If a catastrophic eruption were to occur, like a volcanic eruption, countless people would die, as not everyone has the capacity to cope with negative emotions.

Based on his own experience, Chu Jiang estimated that people with weak willpower would go crazy and die within a minute or two, or even faster.

......

The two walked down together, and after a short while, they suddenly saw another headless Ksitigarbha.

This stunned them both. Here we go again? Were they trapped in a closed loop again?

However, there were no footprints of two people near the new Jizo statue.

Puzzled, Chu Jiang first tried to leave the vicinity with Suwa Hayayuki, but the result was exactly the same as before! They were trapped.

This made Chu Jiang's expression somewhat unpleasant. "This is a new closed loop. This Ksitigarbha could very well be another Ksitigarbha."

"And if I'm not mistaken, there's also an eight-headed serpent in this Jizo statue..."

"I'll try this," Zao Xue volunteered.

This time, Chu Jiang didn't stop him. He also wanted to see what it would look like from the outside when the person touching the device entered that special state.

Soga Hayashi stepped forward and touched Jizo's shoulder.

Then Chu Jiang saw that she froze, her eyes lost focus, as if her soul had wandered away.

Apart from that, there were no changes around the headless Jizo statue.

Chu Jiang waited patiently for a while, and then saw Suwo Zao Xue take several steps back with an ugly expression, panting heavily.

After the other person calmed down a bit, Chu Jiang asked, "What did you see?"

“The dead, a great many dead, and the Yamata no Orochi, as described in mythology.”

"But what I saw were not the souls of children, but the souls of those who died in war. From their armor and weapons, I could discern the characteristics of several periods in our country, including the Heian period, the Sengoku period, the Edo period, and so on."

"Those souls were forced into an endless war by the Yamata no Orochi; and the Orochi would randomly select some of the defeated souls to eat."

Chu Jiang fell into deep thought. Did the prematurely deceased children and the soldiers who died in war represent different types of negative emotions?

As for the Yamata no Orochi, it may simply be an image unconsciously reflected from Oni-Awakening's murderous instincts.

The reason for this image is simple: after this round of supernatural revival began, Guiyuan first appeared in the island nation.

Therefore, what it receives first is the negative emotions of the island nation's people; and even the negative emotions left over from the past thousands of years on this land.

The legend of Yamata no Orochi is almost universally known in the island nation. Oni-Achi simply extracted an image from the collective consciousness to represent their inner fears.

If it weren't for the Yamata no Orochi, it could be something else, such as the fear of earthquakes ingrained in the hearts of the island nation's people. However, the earthquake doesn't have a concrete image that is widely accepted; otherwise, it should be given more priority.

Finally, the eight-headed serpent within each headless Jizo statue is devouring people, which perfectly corresponds to the divine legend that the serpent eats one person every year.

Chu Jiang even suspected that the reason why the demon sword Tianqi was hidden in the tail of the giant serpent was also due to the influence of the collective consciousness; since there was no Kusanagi sword in the Ghost Abyss, the Yamata no Orochi used another sword that it could find to replace it.

Soga Sayaka is from Japan, so she naturally knows the country better than Chu Jiang. Therefore, after recovering from the accumulation of negative emotions, she thought of everything that Chu Jiang could think of.

After exchanging a few words, Soga Hayate looked into the depths of the Ghost Abyss and said, "If we continue down, we should be able to see more headless Jizos."

"However, each headless Ksitigarbha represents a different type of negative emotion. These emotions should ideally reside at the bottom of the abyss, but now, through these Ksitigarbha statues, they seem to be spreading from within the abyss outwards..."

Even as she spoke, a hint of worry was hard to hide on her calm face.

As for why it's Jizo, it's because the most common sight along the roads in island nations, things that carry a certain mystery and can even inspire fear, are various Jizo stone statues.

Chu Jiang also looked into the depths of Ghost Abyss, "Let's continue down, even if it's just to verify our conjecture."

He didn't say he wanted to seal the giant serpent inside the headless Ksitigarbha; that wouldn't be entirely meaningless, but it would be too costly.

If they were to remove them one by one, Chu Jiang would probably be killed by the demons within his own body first, especially the black sun.

Soga Sayaka naturally did not make such a request. She had personally witnessed those ghosts and the giant serpent, and knew that this was not a task that could be easily completed.

Simply breaking free from the time loop wouldn't be too taxing on Chu Jiang; a quick restart would suffice.

Previously, raindrops were used as a medium to forcibly interfere with the future from the past, which is why Chu Jiang felt a lot of pressure.

After breaking free from the current cycle, the two continued downwards.

Moreover, Chu Jiang discovered that the headless Ksitigarbha was distributed according to depth, not direction.

In other words, no matter which direction you come down from, once you reach a certain depth, you will "naturally" walk to the Ksitigarbha statue at that depth.

Just like Chu Jiang and Suwa Zao Xue before, they didn't come down from the same direction, but they ended up encountering the same Jizo.

Chapter 404 Beneath the Abyss

Just as the two had predicted, they encountered a new headless Jizo every time they descended to a certain depth.

Moreover, each Jizo statue contains a large number of dead souls, negative emotions, and an Yamata no Orochi.

The types of the dead are diverse. In addition to the children who died young and the soldiers who died in battle that we have seen before, there are also those who drowned, died of illness, died in earthquakes, died from bullying, and died in traffic accidents.

Having understood this, Chu Jiang and the others stopped trying to touch Ksitigarbha. Instead, they would break free from the cycle once they encountered one.

After passing at least twenty-one Ksitigarbha, Chu Jiang and Suwo Zaoxue finally arrived at the bottom of Ghost Abyss.

No, we can't say the bottom, because they don't know how deep it is below, but they can't go any further.

They were already thousands of meters deep here, with almost no light. When Chu Jiang and his companion looked down, all they could see was a deep, black "ocean".

This ocean is not calm and still; it is swaying, and faces float on its surface—men, women, young and old, people of all races, including Asians, Caucasians, and Black people.

The only thing they had in common was that their faces were filled with all sorts of negative emotions, such as fear, pain, sadness, helplessness, or even a mixture of emotions that distorted their faces.

On this black ocean, there floated something enormous: a head!

To be precise, it is the head of the Ksitigarbha statue.

Although it is the head of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, it looks like a Buddha's head; its expression is serene, its eyes are closed, like an infant swimming in the amniotic fluid of its mother's womb.

The moment Chu Jiang saw this black ocean, he felt a sense of suffocation; when he turned his gaze to the head of the Earthly King, he felt an even stronger sense of foreboding. What on earth was this thing?

Soga Hayayuki's face was pale, and her eyes revealed an uncontrollable look of astonishment. She couldn't understand either. Was this the true form of that S-rank vengeful spirit? Or was it a collection of the heads of all the headless Jizo statues?

Zao Xue looked at Chu Jiang, who simply frowned and said, "The true form of the ghost should still be the Ghost Abyss itself."

"But this head... is very strange. It may be just a reflection of Guiyuan's instinct, like the previous Yamata no Orochi; but there is another possibility: Guiyuan is creating a body for himself that can move freely."

"Then what should we do? At least we should destroy this head, right? Otherwise, if Guiyuan uses Dizang to invade the outside world, our country may face a catastrophic disaster."

After Soga Sayaka finished speaking, she added, "We can handle this matter ourselves in Seireitei. Thank you for your hard work, Captain Chu."

She clearly understood that the promises she had made were not enough to make Chu Jiang risk his life.

Chu Jiang shook his head. "If dealing with this head alone can yield significant results, then it's not without its value in taking the risk."

"But the problem now is that if we attack the head, it could cause turmoil in the 'negative ocean' below, and I'm sure you are well aware of how serious the consequences could be."

Soga Hayashi frowned, and after a long while she said, "Then we can only retreat for now?"

As she spoke, she muttered to herself, "This operation can't be considered a failure. At least we obtained very important intelligence; even the demon sword that can create illusions was taken away, making it easier to come in next time."

Chu Jiang thought for a moment, "I'll make one last attempt. If it fails, we'll retreat first."

Looking down at the not-so-quiet ocean, Chu Jiang took out a sealed ceramic jar.

This place contains a special vengeful spirit that possesses the ability to hypnotize, literally putting ghosts into a deep sleep.

Last time, in order to compete with Belfast for ownership of this ghost, Chu Jiang didn't hesitate to temporarily entrust a page of his hard-won diary to Sister Bei for safekeeping.

Soga Sayaka asked curiously, "Is this a sealed item from Kyushu? What does Captain Chu plan to do with it?"

In Japan, a sealing stone produced in the Seireitei (Seireitei) is used to suppress vengeful spirits on special soul bottles. Their history also includes a legend of using the "Sessho-seki" (Killing Stone) to seal the nine-tailed fox demon Tamamo-no-Mae.

"It's simple. Since we can't seal it directly, let's try to put Ghost Abyss back into slumber. Even if we can't do it completely, we should at least reduce its activity level. This might shrink Ghost Abyss's range."

As he spoke, Chu Jiang removed the amulet from the jar and took out a pale woman's hand.

In this person's hand, a delicate square music box was held; as it broke free from the seal, its five fingers twitched, gradually showing signs of opening its palm.

Chu Jiang's eyes turned blood red. He quickly used the power of the clown on the music box ghost, trying to temporarily control it and make it work for him.

However, to Chu Jiang's surprise, although the markings were in place, the supernatural power originating from the White Tiger Demon began to gradually subside once it seeped into the music box.

Moreover, this action seemed to have stimulated the music box ghost, which began to recover more rapidly. Not only did it spread its five fingers completely, but the lid of the music box also showed signs of opening.