The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Panda Novel

Clang!

A metal door slowly opened, and the creaking old doorknob produced a groan.

At the same time, a gust of cold wind blew in from the outside. The strong wind was mixed with snowflakes as it hit the four people’s faces like blades. Tojo subconsciously touched his face, only to find it ice-cold.

“Snow?” asked Tojo subconsciously. However, when he placed his hand in front of him, his eyes instantly widened. It was not snow, but blood!

“Blood, it’s blood! Where is this? Tojo, where is this?” the youngest Sakata exclaimed with a sobbing tone.

“Tojo, Sakata, Yamamoto, where… Where are we? This can’t be hell, right?” Matsushita’s voice was trembling. It was obvious that he was frightened.

Yamamoto said, “Our spirits and souls belong to Japan. Even if we die, we shouldn’t have to enter the hell that belongs to the shinajin. We should be in Japan’s heaven.”

Tojo remained calm, seemingly unfazed thanks to his experience. He said in a low voice, “No matter where we are, since we’re already here, let’s head out and take a look.”

With that said, Tojo led the way. Sakata, afraid of being abandoned, followed closely behind. Matsushita also followed after them, with Yamamoto at the back.

The four of them passed through the large metal door one after another. Hearing the sound of the large metal door closing behind them, the four of them felt a chill down their spines.

Almost at the same time, a series of tragic cries sounded. The mist in front of them shattered as the four of them saw a tiny stream. There were no cobblestones on the stream, as only corpses were strewn across!

To be precise, there was no stream here. The so-called stream was just a flow of blood that had come to be after it had all mixed together!

Not too far away, a few Japanese soldiers in military uniforms pulled out their bayonets from a corpse. Finally, the screaming came to a halt.

“It’s the taijin!” Sakata asked excitedly.

There was a smile on Tojo’s rigid face, as if he had seen hope.

Matsushita shouted. “Taijin! Taijin!” At the same time, he ran over.

Yamamoto said, “It looks like we didn’t go to hell but came to heaven! Let’s go and pay our respects to the taijin.”

However, the moment he said that, he saw the four Japanese soldiers raise their heads and glance at them. It was especially so for Sakata who ran over. The quartet simultaneously revealed a strange smile.

Bam!

With a gunshot, Sakata fell to the ground with a tragic cry. He held his leg and cried out in Japanese. “Taijin, I’m one of you. Don’t shoot, you hit the wrong person…”

However, before he could shout, a chain was placed around his neck. Following that, a Japanese soldier dragged him while saying, “You aren’t human. A dog-like thing like you should be leashed!”

“Taijin, I really want to be Japanese. My heart and soul have been yours for a long time,” shouted Sakata as he tried his best to show his sincerity.

When the Japanese soldier heard that, he sneered. “A dog wanting to be a human? Kneel down and crawl! Otherwise, you’ll die! Any more nonsense, and I’ll cut off your tongue!”

When Sakata heard this, he was instantly displeased. He wanted to be Japanese and not a Japanese dog. He thought that since this person was treating him this way, he would definitely teach him a lesson when he succeeded in pleasing a high-ranking officer. However, he also understood that it was impossible to ‘become a human’ at present.

On the other side, the other Japanese also raised their rifles at Tojo and company who had rushed over. They were also on their knees, but when they started climbing over the pile of corpses, they truly felt the terror of war. This was especially so when they saw the people on the ground. Not a single one of them was wearing military uniforms. They were civilians—old people, children, and women…

Looking at the corpses of the civilians, Matsushita said to Yamamoto with a sobbing tone in Chinese, “Didn’t you say that this massacre was fake? What… What’s going on?”

“It must be that these civilians wanted to revolt. Otherwise, the taijin wouldn’t have killed them,” Yamamoto said in defense. However, looking at the three-year-old child’s corpse, he suddenly realized how weak his excuses were.

Tojo said in a low voice, “Don’t speak. The people here were not killed by bayonets!”

When they heard this, the three of them heaved a sigh of relief. The corpses on the ground were indeed strange. Some of them had had their limbs chopped off, having turned into literal human sticks. Some were charred and stinking. Others had had their bones and flesh separated, while others were dessicated corpses!

Many of them had been hacked to death. Their heads had rolled far into the distance, eyes wide open—unable to rest in peace.

Also, the bodies were mangled. It was unknown what they had encountered before they died…Read more chapter on vi pnovel

“Walk!” Without giving them time to think too much about it, the Japanese soldiers rushed the four of them to crawl all the way. On the way, they saw too many corpses. At first, they were shocked and frightened, but later on, they became numb to it.

Meanwhile, Yamamoto, who had been insisting that this was a commoner’s rebellion, shut up. He knew that the current situation was probably not related to a rebellion.

The four of them simultaneously thought of the photos in the memorial hall. That pit of ten thousand corpses… Were they all real?

In reality, the four of them knew very well whether it was true or not, but some people would always fabricate lies to deceive themselves in order to sell their souls.

The truth could never be drowned by lies. Only blind people with open eyes would deliberately choose not to see what was in front of them.

The four of them had no idea how long they crawled for. The pants on their knees had long been torn apart, and their hands and knees were covered in blood.

Sakata cried while Matsushita begged. However, the response they received was the piercing, cold stare of the Japanese soldiers. “Either crawl or die!”

In the end, the four of them could only grit their teeth and continue crawling.

After crawling for an unknown period of time, the four of them finally saw a building. At that instant, even the most resolute Tojo nearly cried.

Yamamoto, Sakata, and Matsushita all broke into tears and huddled together.

Bang!

The sound of a bullet piercing a chest sounded. The four of them immediately let go and knelt down to contine crawling like trained dogs. They didn’t even dare let out a whimper.

The Japanese soldiers behind wore looks of disdain and contemptuous smiles, as if they were looking at a bunch of stray dogs who were inferior to reared dogs.

Tojo was relatively calm as he carefully sized up the destination in front of him. There were buildings with several levels and houses here. However, these buildings all had one thing special about them. They were all sealed buildings made of concrete steel.

The outer perimeter was a high wall, and there was a wire net on the high wall. Surrounding it were pillboxes, spotlights, and the Japanese soldiers prowling about with military dogs.

The most eye-catching thing was the Chinese workers who were wearing thin clothes in the snow-covered land, dragging carts in pain. The carts were filled with corpses—corpses of men and women, old and young. The people who pulled the carts weren’t crying, but their faces were blank.

However, what really made Tojo’s expression change was the signboard hanging on top—Shirō Ishii’s Unit!

Tojo trembled and said, “Shirō Ishii’s Unit, this is Shirō Ishii’s Unit!”

Tojo instinctively wanted to get up to escape. He couldn’t maintain his calm any longer, and his eyes were filled with endless fear. All he wanted to do was run!

“Bakayarou!” the Japanese soldier roared in anger, hitting Tojo to the ground with the butt of his rifle.