Volume 4: The Undead Chapter 190: Cannibal Ghost
After A-machi and Ogata took turns taking a bath and changing into the clean monk robes provided by Sokai, it was almost evening.
Zong Hai and the others were almost done preparing tonight’s dinner.
Neither Ogata nor Atachi had studied Buddhism, so they didn't know what kind of Buddha the statue enshrined in the Buddhist hall of Tenmanji Temple was.
The back of the Buddhist hall is connected to the back hall.
The back hall is where Zong Hai and Xian Hai usually live.
On the east side of the Buddhist hall is a vegetable field.
The well of Tenmanji Temple is located next to this vegetable field.
On the west side is a small ancestral hall with a closed door. I don’t know what is enshrined inside.
Ogata and Atachi were now kneeling in a small room in the back hall.
In front of the two of them was an iron pot that was being roasted by flames and from which hot steam was constantly coming out.
There is fragrant vegetable porridge cooking in the pot.
On the other side of the iron pot were Sokai and Xiankai, who were sitting opposite Ogata and Atachi.
Zong Hai looked at the porridge in the pot and confirmed that it was cooked. He then extinguished the flame under the iron pot and smiled at Ogata and Atachi:
"My two benefactors, please enjoy your meal."
Since arriving at Tenmanji Temple, Ogata and Atachi have been extremely cautious.
When drinking water from the well at Tenmanji Temple, first check the bucket you are using to draw water and the well water to see if there is any problem.
While taking a bath in the bathroom, they checked to see if there was anything unusual about the bathtub and the monk's robes provided to them by Zong Hai.
Ogata and Atachi were also not careless about the meals that Zong Hai provided them.
The two of them did not use the bowls provided by Zong Hai and others to serve the porridge, but instead made do with the bamboo tubes they saw in the village today.
These bamboo tubes have been cleaned with the well water from Tenmanji Temple.
After serving Zong Hai and the others' porridge in a bamboo tube, Ogata and the others did not rush to eat it. Instead, they watched Zong Hai, Xian Hai and the others eat it with relish before they dared to eat it with peace of mind.
Naturally, the two of them did not dare to use the chopsticks provided by Zong Hai and others, but because they were eating porridge, they could still eat even without chopsticks.
Zong Hai and Xian Hai seemed to understand why Ogata and the others did not use their bowls and chopsticks and only started eating .
Sokai and the other two understood Ogata and the others' behavior very well, so they didn't say anything and let them do as they pleased.
After taking a few sips of warm porridge, Soumi smiled at Ogata and Atachi:
"You two, you can now slowly ask us questions. We will eat and talk at the same time. Xianhai and I will answer all the questions we can."
As soon as Zong Hai finished speaking, Ating asked hurriedly:
"Please tell me what happened on this island? Where did those cannibals come from? Do they really eat people?"
A-Ming asked three questions in a row.
The reason why Atachi came to this island was because the leader of Shiranui gave her a task to "check the true face of the cannibal ghost."
So she cares more about those cannibals than Ogata.
Zong Hai showed no impatience towards the three questions that Ah-Ming asked him in one go. He took another sip of porridge and said calmly:
"I don't know where these Rakshasas, or the man-eating ghosts you call them, came from."
"To make it easier for you to listen to my story, I will call those monsters what you usually call them - cannibals."
"About two years ago, the cannibals suddenly appeared."
"The first cannibal appeared in Fengji Village."
"An old man in Fengji Village died of old age - this is a very common thing."
"However... a very unusual thing happened to this old man..."
"He should have stopped breathing, but he stood up again after a few breaths."
"He was resurrected in public, and his eyes turned purple."
"Then he started to attack people around him crazily."
"You mean..." Ating hesitated, "that old man came back to life and became a cannibal?"
"That's right." Zong Hai nodded. "You two have already encountered cannibals today, so you should be aware of some of their characteristics."
"Ogres have no expressions or language."
"They always have blank expressions and are silent."
"They can't be killed no matter how hard you try. They are tireless and will frantically attack all living people within their sight."
"Fortunately, they only attack living people, and not other living things."
"Moreover, the animals on this island die normally, and they will not come back to life and become immortal."
"Although you outsiders call them 'cannibals', they don't actually eat humans."
"They will only use their teeth, fingers, and feet to madly attack any living thing within their field of vision until it dies."
Hearing this, Ogata and Atachi couldn't help but recall at the same time the corpses covered with teeth and scratches that they saw in the village today.
"Because they couldn't kill the old man who had turned into a cannibal, the villagers of Fengji Village could only trap him with fishing nets."
"It's a pity... this is just the beginning."
"After this incident, all the villagers in this island will be resurrected if they die."
"After resurrection, they will become cannibals."
"But this is not the scariest thing."
"The most terrifying thing is that the villagers later discovered that it was not just the dead who would be resurrected and turned into cannibals."
"Even living people can become cannibals."
"The process of a living person turning into a cannibal is even more bizarre."
"The sign that a living person will turn into a cannibal is crazy vomiting."
"Many people were fine one moment and suddenly started vomiting violently the next."
"After vomiting almost all the bile, his eyes turned purple, and he turned into a cannibal."
"Even living people can turn into cannibals..." Ating felt a chill in his heart.
"We don't understand why everyone turned into cannibals. We also don't know how to kill them." Zong Hai continued, "Sprinkling salt, chopping up bodies, burning them, attacking with blessed weapons... In short, the islanders used all the methods they could think of, but they couldn't kill even one cannibal."
"The villagers are gradually unable to control the increasing number of cannibals."
"So, those who are still alive have no choice but to inform the government and seek help from the government."
"The government also takes this matter very seriously."
"We immediately dispatched a large number of troops to the island to exterminate the cannibals."
"However, the army sent by the government was defeated as expected."
"Even the military is helpless in the face of an unkillable monster."
"The army, which had no way to deal with the cannibals, withdrew from Butterfly Island."
"When evacuating the island, the government did something... quite cruel."
A bitter smile appeared on Zong Hai's face at this moment.
"When they evacuated the island, the government destroyed all the ships and shipbuilding tools on the island."
"At the same time, there is no intention to bring everyone on the island to the mainland."
"So they destroyed all the islanders' boats and abandoned the islanders on this island."
"The government destroyed all the ships on this island?!" Ogata, who had been listening quietly since just now, widened his eyes.
"That's right." Zong Hai nodded. "The government officials probably think that the reason why the people on this island turned into cannibals is because they were infected with a special disease."
"So in order to prevent the spread of the disease, it was decided not to allow any islanders to leave the island."
