With the Nine Netherworlds Ghost Lamp tattoo, it should lead to whatever this mountain netherworld is. If we can draw out the Sister's good soul, we might be able to help her move on, and then the nunnery's problem would be solved.
Stein says there's no time to waste - it's almost dawn, and once day breaks, the mountain netherworld will automatically close. Then we'd have to wait until the next night.
Fortunately, I brought my tattoo ink with me in my backpack, so I can tattoo anyone, anywhere, anytime.
To help Dreaming Nun's Sister move on, the tattoo would have to be on Dreaming Nun herself. There's no better candidate than her among the three of us. But the tattoo placement is a bit awkward - it needs to be on the chest.
Those with good intentions can hold the Nine Netherworlds Ghost Lamp in their heart's palm and cross over to the Netherworld.
Dreaming Nun's ears turned red as she considered this. After a moment's thought, she finally bit her lip and agreed.
"If I don't go to hell, who will?" Embarrassment was secondary - for Sister Watanabe's sake, she had no choice but to do this.
Right there in the Buddha Hall, facing the beautiful woman's corpse, I nearly messed up. Fortunately, Dreaming Nun is over a decade older than me, so I didn't have any improper thoughts in my heart and could focus on tattooing the Nine Netherworlds Ghost Lamp.
After Stein and Antonio went outside, I gulped and began tattooing the Nine Netherworlds Ghost Lamp on Dreaming Nun's chest.
Tattooing a lamp doesn't require much effort, but the canvas was no ordinary person - she's a stunning beauty who drove many men wild. Though Dreaming Nun's looks have faded somewhat over the years, she's still extremely beautiful.
My nervous hands worked slowly. What should have been an hour's work took me over an hour and a half. By now it was already past five o'clock, and dawn was approaching.
Wiping sweat from my forehead, I announced the tattoo was finished. Dreaming Nun immediately dressed and turned away, somewhat ashamed. She made me promise not to tell anyone about today's events. As a nun, such matters had to remain secret. Though she'd had an affair with Arturo, they hadn't gone all the way, making me essentially the first to see her body.
I smiled awkwardly and nodded. "Of course. What happened today stays between us. I'll take this secret to my grave."
With the tattoo complete, our next step was finding that mountain netherworld. Stein said with this tattoo, as long as Dreaming Nun walks into the mountains, she'll naturally find her way straight to the mountain netherworld. Of course, she must return before sunrise - otherwise she'll be trapped there forever.
Dreaming Nun nodded in understanding. The four of us once again walked out of the nunnery, and this time the nuns rushed out immediately, armed with sticks and knives, seemingly determined to kill us this time.
Antonio pushed us forward at this point, telling us to escape while he stayed behind to hold off the nuns.
There was no other choice - if we had kept fighting these nuns until dawn, who knew what might happen when night fell again?
Before we three left, Dreaming Nun pulled out a Buddhist scripture. She said if these nuns performed any evil acts and took out that black comb, Antonio should read from the scripture to counteract the grudges and ghostly power within it.
After Antonio received the sutra, we didn't dare delay and hurriedly ran out of the nunnery. The nuns tried to chase us, but Antonio blocked them all.
Antonio fought fiercely, single-handedly holding off dozens of nuns. After snatching a stick from one, he crossed it before his body like a barrier, preventing any nuns from getting through.
We quickened our pace and soon left the nunnery, reaching the main mountainside. The other side of the slope dropped into cliffs - any further would mean certain death. Yet Dreaming Nun didn't stop, walking forward as if there was still a path beneath her feet.
"Dreaming Nun, you—" I tried to grab her, but she shook off my hand.
"Don't worry," Dreaming Nun said. "I can see the path - a black road paved with skulls, surrounded by black fog, but clear beneath my feet."
"It's the path to the mountain netherworld - she can see it!" Stein sounded excited, though neither of us could see anything but sheer cliffs ahead.
We dared not proceed further, but Dreaming Nun showed no fear. She stepped forward - and miraculously didn't fall. It was as if she walked on air, her figure vanishing into nothingness within moments.
"She's in?" I asked Stein.
He nodded. "Let's wish her luck." We crouched there, waiting anxiously.
Then, inexplicably, after several minutes came a sudden thud. A vortex formed in the air, revealing a mirror-like black hole.
Through this mirror, two figures appeared faintly visible: one seemed to be Dreaming Nun standing at a room's edge, the other the ghostly woman sitting before a mirror, endlessly combing her bare scalp.
The images remained somewhat blurred yet barely discernible.
"Little Boss," Stein asked incredulously, "what's happening? We don't have the tattoos - why can we see them too?"
After a moment's thought, I suggested that perhaps a living person entering had forced open the gateway to the underworld, creating this passageway. Stein nodded without refuting my point - there was no other plausible explanation.
Not only could Stein and I see the images clearly, we could also hear the sounds distinctly.
"Elder sister, I've come," Dreaming Nun said timidly as she took a cautious step forward. Even in that place, she couldn't completely suppress her fear.
"Kongqing, do you think I'd be prettier than you if I had hair?" the female ghost asked suddenly.
Dreaming Nun nodded earnestly. "Elder Sister has always been more beautiful than me. With hair, you'd be absolutely stunning."
At this moment, the female ghost suddenly flew into a rage. Her face turned bruised and swollen, her characteristic long tongue lolling out grotesquely. "Lies! You hypocritical woman! Don't you know nuns shouldn't lie? Look at me now - do I look beautiful?" With a furious sweep of her hand, she smashed the mirror before her. The glass shattered into countless pieces, releasing tendrils of black smoke - yet the fragments immediately reassembled themselves.
"Senior sister, I'm not lying! I truly believe you're more beautiful than me," Dreaming Nun pleaded, her voice trembling with urgency and the beginnings of tears.
"Sister... during our days in the nunnery, you always took care of me. When the master punished me by making me face the wall without food, it was you who brought me meals. You'll always be my dear sister... sob... I don't want to be like this... I really don't... Sister, please come back!" Dreaming Nun broke down completely, weeping openly.
"False! All false! If you truly loved and respected me, why did you steal my man? Why did you leave the order? Why abandon me and this nunnery? Why let him come to kill me? You... you hypocritical woman! It's all lies!"
The female ghost's fury unleashed a maelstrom of ghostly resentment. Black smoke erupted from her body like a raging flood, terrifying to behold. Yet Dreaming Nun, incredibly, stepped forward fearlessly and embraced the enraged spirit - an act that stunned us completely.
Was she truly unafraid of death?