Jin received an unpleasant awakening by the splashing of water on his face though this time, he also hit a boulder sieve which allowed him to stop being carried further down the river. Jin got up and observed the surroundings to make sure it was the right part of the bamboo forest he was moving to. (There was no more Ming to beckon him forward.)
Jin sighed as he knew he’d have to go through the entire process all over again. In the meantime, he carefully touched his neck since there was still the lingering edgy pain from the White Tiger’s bite. The more he traced his neck along with the pain, Jin believed that he could feel some indentations being left at his throat. However, it was just the phantom pain he was experiencing from his past death.
“Urgh, I’m certain it’s purposely aiming for my head. Now it feels all sore.” Jin grumbled as he looked at the bamboo forest with fear instilled into him. “I need to make some progress or else, this nightmare will only repeat over and over,” Jin told himself as he sliced a large bamboo down.
There were no marks or signs to indicate where he went and he needed something to mark whether he had been at a location before. Hence, Jin cut the bamboo into pieces. He found some long leaf bushes and a bunch of bright, colourful flowers.
After which he tied the bamboo ‘cups’ to hold a flower or two and placed it on bamboo branch nodes around his height. That way Jin would know if he was going in circles. If he deviated from a straight path, he would change the colour of the flower. Sadly, he was not able to place any items in his backpack.
Though Ming repeatedly told him not to open it up, curiosity made his fingers feel rather itchy, but the backpack would not budge under any circumstances. After trying for five minutes, Jin gave up the attempt and used his shirt as a temporary knapsack to hold the marking items. There were some inconveniences, but Jin managed to handle it well enough…until he found something out of the norm.
From a glance, it appeared he had encountered an abandoned Chinese temple inside the forest. Jin knew there was a chance the White Tiger might be in there, but he had to find out for sure. If there were any useful items inside or if Jin could create an advantage using this particular Chinese temple, it would be foolish to ignore it.
He placed the items he was using as markers down, wore his shirt and carried his backpack around in case of thieves. Jin read enough books with stupid protagonists who suddenly found the items they were supposed to deliver stolen only because they did not pay enough attention or simply left them in someone else’s care. However, Jin could sympathise with them because he also found it very tempting to leave the backpack alone for a short while so that he could survey the area and be faster and stealthier at the same time.
He first went around the temple, checking for any openings to avoid entering from the front door and noticed some broken windows and even holes in the walls. Vines, plants and insects were also plentiful indicating the temple had been abandoned for quite a long time.
The metal, presumably copper, used for the temple’s pillar supports turned rusty and had a greenish mould, but otherwise, it looked sturdy enough. He had feared entering the temple may have been a trap and he had no desire to experience being crushed under it. If it was on the verge of collapsing, he wanted to take the time to notice it. Before long, he found an unlocked backdoor and decided to enter with his wakizashi unsheathed. (He wanted to bring Bam out but holding the long katana indoors for close quarters defence might not be very feasible.)
The door creaked loudly due to the rusty hinges so Jin opened it only enough for him to enter and he purposely kept the door open by putting a rock he found near the temple grounds. The appliances and the design of the room revealed that Jin entered the kitchen. The first thing he did was to look for any potential kitchen equipment such as knives being left around.
He figured it would be better to have more weapons on him in case he needed them. To his surprise, he found choppers, knives, cutting boards, pots and even useable plates. He tried checking the containers in the kitchen too, but most of them were filled with rodents which did give him quite a scare when opening them.
However, there was one thing that made him very happy. At first, he was unsure, but the smell of it was very familiar. So he decided to take a spoonful and place it in a pan. After which, he went back to the temple grounds to find a few dry sticks to practice the bushcraft Ming taught him. It took him some time to get it right and the dry sticks eventually lit up. That was when he poured the liquid on to the burning fire.
“Yes!!” Jin raised his fist up as a sign of achievement. The fire burned brighter and fiercer from the liquid. Jin had miraculously found a container urn full of cooking oil. Now, this was a game changer. With this, he could try to turn the temple grounds into a hunting ground. Jin got extremely excited about the increased prospect of him surviving the White Tiger’s onslaught, but he reminded himself to remain calm and continued to check on the rest of the temple to make sure it was indeed free from any other predators.
“This temple is huge! It does not look that big from the outside even after scouting the outside perimeters for a round!” Jin was curious if this was some magic at work since he got the perception that it was small from the outside, but it appeared far more spacious on the inside. When he reached the main hall, a giant statue greeted him. Jin was relieved to find no one there but Bodhisattva himself.
He took some time admiring the dusty broken statue before bowing three times as an apology in advance. “I am sorry Venerable Buddha. I desperately want to survive this time around.” Jin placed his hands together and offered a small prayer of gratitude. After which, he went to scavenge the cabinets in the main hall to find anything that could be used against the White Tiger.
“Candles…matchsticks! This will be very useful. Okay, incense paper…joss sticks…” Jin spoke to himself as he found a bountiful amount of prayer supplies in the cabinets. They were naturally dusty and the offering papers had already turned yellow, but they were definitely still usable. What was even more delightful was that he found more bottles of oil.
He was thankful they used those to fuel the oil pot for followers to lit their joss sticks. After which, he checked the other rooms in the temple and incidentally found a bunk room which he had no qualms raiding. There was not much except for books, a few miniature statues for meditation purposes, a few sets of praying beads and even sets of monk clothes in different sizes.
“Nothing much…wait…if there are books…Perhaps I can find something useful on the White Tiger!” Jin suddenly got an epiphany and decided it should be worth it to spend some time to check if there were any books on such a legendary monster.
He was not expecting much but if what Ming said was true, that the forest might be his ally, the temple should have something to do pertaining to that issue. Besides, who in the right mind would put a temple in the middle of a bamboo forest for no reason? For the serenity of the mind with a White Tiger as its hunting grounds? Impossible.
Unfortunately, the more Jin searched for such a book, the more reality disappointed him…until he accidentally fiddled with a cupboard in the bunk room when he found a part of a folded monk’s attire stuck to it. Jin tried to pull on it but to no avail.
He became slightly suspicious.
Therefore, he took his wakizashi and placed it at the corner where the attire got stuck and used what little strength he had to rip it open. To his surprise, he found a classic revolver with six ruby jewel coated bullets. Even more peculiar was that the revolver had an insignia of the Yin Yang circle on the handle. Jin picked it up and inspected the barrel cylinder to find another six more of those jewel looking bullets in it.
Jin felt reassured that this temple was indeed the ally he was looking for. He first unloaded the revolver and checked whether its trigger and hammer of the revolver were still in working condition.
*Click Click*
Those sounds seemed heavenly to jin’s ears after he pressed on the trigger. He hastily loaded up the bullets and stuffed them behind his pants. Thankfully, his backpack at the very least had visible side pockets which he used to place the remaining Ruby bullets for the time being. After which, he closed the door of the bunk and ransacked the entire place. He was not going to leave any stone unturned before he moved on.
It was hard work and Jin’s haul was amazing. He found a second revolver only this one was filled with Aquamarine jewel bullets instead as well as a priest staff. He initially thought it was just an ordinary priest staff which it turned out to be something similar to a sword cane. A Sword Staff perhaps? Jin tried to pull it when he saw the staff consisted of attachments. The good thing was that the sword was still in good condition and it could prove useful.
What was more surprising was the book he managed to find hidden under rolls of bed sheets as it was exactly the thing he had been wishing for when he first saw the revolver. It was a Demon Exorcist Manual. Jin looked at the book with whatever little sunlight left shining through the bunk room. After some quick flipping, he got stuck on a page depicting an image of a familiar looking enemy. The whole section was dedicated to the White Tiger of the West. To these ‘monks’ the White Tiger was just another Demon instead of a legendary monster.
Most legends were created from some form of truth and in their eyes, the White Tiger was merely another sort of demon instead of the legendary protector Jin knew him as. It would prove very useful since it listed the potential weakness of the White Tiger.
The words in the manual were cursive and in traditional form, making it hard for Jin to decipher the entire text in a glance. But he learned that the White Tiger hated fire and the Ruby Jewel coated bullets that he had found were being referred to as Origin Ruby Fire Bullets in the book. Jin truly struck gold with all that persistent raiding. The manual said that the Ruby Fire bullets were extremely effective against the White Tiger. However, it was recommended to use the bullets wisely since a White Tiger could temporarily raise its resistance after repeated attacks.
“So…use fire until he becomes immune to fire and after which utilise the ruby jewel bullets and it should be a near instant kill.” Jin thought to himself as he flipped through the books and saw that the Azure Dragon of the East (東方青龍 Dong Fang Qing Long/Seiryuu), the Vermillion Phoenix of the South (南方朱雀 Nan Fang Zhu Que/ Suzaku) and the Black Turtle of the North (北方玄武 Bei Fang Xuan Wu/Genbu) were listed in the book too. He decided to keep the book for future references in a Demon Exorcist sling bag which he had scavenged and was filled with various tools like a compass, a water flask etc. He also found a belt with a holster that allowed him to keep the revolver, which made it easier to carry it around.
“Now, time to prepare some traps for that stupid oversized cat!” Jin rubbed his nose in anticipation as he carried the pieces of equipment to the main temple hall.
