Chapter 120: The true devil

“When Patel and I were talking, I knew that things had become irreversible. There are people who will not be softened by kindness, and will only remember hatred. And you can’t blame him for that, because he is only saying what is unfair, and whether he repays kindness or not is not a constraint, but a personal moral issue. Obviously, Patel thinks this morality is not worth mentioning, and has long abandoned it, or it has been covered up by the reason for his hatred. But in any case, at that time, the last conversation I had with Patel still gave me a sense of humanity. But after another three years of despair, another major event occurred that completely changed Patel.

“What changed?” I asked softly. This past event was so heavy that it was hard to breathe. It involved the unfairness of society as a whole, and it was difficult to judge who was right and who was wrong in the past. It only showed us a black ending. I asked this because I felt that things had come to a head, and my master might soon be involved in the incident.

“What has changed? That is, he has completely changed, becoming completely inhumane, and his noble eyes look at everyone like ants. Such a Patel has brought a great tragedy.” Uncle Johnny said this without adding too many adjectives, but the trembling tone already made it clear that it was a terrible memory.

No humanity, noble… I seemed to have caught the key point, and suddenly looked up at Uncle Johnny.

“You are right in your thinking. There is a reason for this change. In our temple, there are many mysterious things that are either worshipped or suppressed. Among them is a special group that is both worshipped and suppressed. The high priest of the temple said that it is the soul of the gods, but it is also a very dangerous soul… Patel… I don’t know how long he secretly plotted, but one night, he secretly fused it.” Uncle Johnny’s voice was full of bitterness.

I thought of the lord of the lake of a thousand ghosts, who fused the soul of Kunlun in a state of soul. It was so terrible, and Patal was a living person…! What can I say? I can only say that he was a genius, a crazy genius. I could also imagine what the tragedy was that Uncle Johnny was talking about.

It was indeed the most painful memory. When talking about the next event, Mr. Johnny again painfully grabbed his hair and said, “Who would dare to touch Parthir after he fused with the soul? He really did it, and his status rose to an incredible level. Not everyone was willing to admit his status. After all, he was a Dalit and secretly fused with the soul. The point is that no one could suppress him, including me! Because at that time, I didn’t know what kind of power the soul had injected into him, and I couldn’t activate the ‘bomb’ buried deep in his soul.”

“You mean that at that time, you had already given up on Zia and were ready to use that power to kill Patel?” Chengzhen whispered, her tone full of pity. I understood that she was pitying Zia, an innocent girl who had been abandoned at such a time.

Uncle Johnny stood up and said, “There was no way I could give up Dya. I was prepared to take responsibility for everything, including Dya’s life. You didn’t witness that tragedy, so you have no idea how desperate things had become. Patel did not know what he was doing. Using the power of religion, he began to make innocent people sacrifice their lives. At least ten people died every day. These people were from the lower castes of the Brahmin and Kshatriya, but not the Dalit. At this time, Patel’s excuse was that the blood of the Dalit was unclean and they were not qualified to sacrifice. I don’t know if he despised the Dalit himself, or if his revenge had already begun. In any case, no one could stop this trend. Whether the religious ascetics sent someone to assassinate Patel or prepared to jointly sanction him, they all ended in failure because he became stronger and stronger every day. I became the last… last force.”

“Can’t the entire circle of Indian ascetics stop one Patel?” Chengzhen asked, and it seemed that as a woman, she could not accept sacrificing Zhenya in any way.

“If the entire circle of religious practitioners were mobilized, of course it could be stopped! But the cost would be too high, and it would shake the foundation… There were many things involved at that time, and I can’t explain them in detail. For example, the religion itself had to cover up the shame of the sacrifices for Patel. For example, at that time, India was not an India that could make its own decisions. For example… In short, the temple where I practiced became bloody, and Patel built a blood pool for himself! This was not a holy temple at all, and it became a place where real demons lived… Do you know? Someone always has to sacrifice themselves. Both Zia and I were prepared to be sacrificed on the altar. Whether it was moral, benevolent, or due to various pressures, I was destined to take action, but I failed.” Uncle Johnny said bitterly.

This must be the tragedy caused by Patel, right? A large number of people were sacrificed, sacrificed… But it was also a tragedy that was covered up by history. Only a small number of people still remember this incident. After all, history that is not written down will gradually cover up the truth over time.

For some reason, when he talked about this, Lushan’s whole body trembled. He had been listening to Uncle Johnny’s story in silence, but suddenly he said, “I understand Uncle Johnny. If it were me, I would have to sacrifice like that too. Those who have not witnessed the tragedy of the sacrifice cannot understand the cruelty.”

Uncle Johnny sighed and echoed Lushan’s words in this way.

And I also seemed to see the “glorious” era of Patal, when innocent lives were sacrificed in droves, and rivers of blood were shed in the name of the ignorant sacrifices, forming what Patal called the Blood Pool!

“Did his radical wishes come true?” Yue couldn’t help but ask.

“In just three months, everything he wanted had been achieved. He began to rectify his family name, tracing it back to his ancestors, who were actually a pure-blooded Brahmin. He was given the Brahmin surname, and he forced my family to become his subordinate. No one could do anything about it! He also prepared a ceremony for himself, in which he would officially reveal his identity, announce that our family had become a subordinate, and then he would ascend to the pinnacle of religious power and marry Ziya.” Uncle Jonny said all this in a few words. Perhaps he did not want to recall the pain of that time, so he did not say what his family had to endure at that time.

Hinduism is not Buddhism, so marriage is naturally allowed. Nothing could prevent Patel and Zoya from getting married. Even if marriage was not allowed, Patel would probably change the rules and marry Zoya.

“If that’s the case, at least Zoya can be happy, right?” In our silence, Uncle Johnny said this with a self-deprecating tone, and then continued, “During that time, I had already disregarded religious restrictions and began to use alcohol every day to get drunk. Do you know the feeling of being powerless in the midst of suffering? That’s what I was like at the time! And Zoya’s happiness became the only excuse for me to comfort myself. I comforted myself with the thought that at least Patel had never denied that he loved Zoya, that he had the status to give Zoya happiness… But how could a devilish Patel possibly give Zoya happiness?

“So what happened in the end?” Ruyue couldn’t help but ask, obviously concerned about the fate of the girls.

“What happened? Patel’s great ceremony was scheduled to take place a month after everything happened. He was so impatient, and fifteen days before his ceremony was to begin, Zia returned to our manor. Unfortunately, all she could see was her father, who was seriously ill after being hit by everything, and the grave of her mother, who had passed away a few months earlier due to excessive longing and shock. Oh, and my brother, who had become an alcoholic… At that time, Patel had already made everyone lose their heads, and no one paid any attention to whether the son of God had violated the rules and become an alcoholic. Uncle Jonny’s tears rolled down his cheeks and landed on the petals of the red flower that had been trembling non-stop, as if Dya was crying too.

“That must have been very hard for Dya. Where has she been all these years?” Cheng Yuan couldn’t help but whisper, as if he could understand Dya’s heart-wrenching pain. In order to fulfill her love, she came back to find a messy home and loved ones who had become like that.

“It’s funny, she was hiding in the neighborhood of our temple, in that ordinary town, among the people, and we couldn’t find her… Of course, she must have lived a secluded life, away from the world, right? Otherwise, how could she not be discovered? She loved Patel so much that she was willing to make such a sacrifice, right? When I saw her, she was drunk. I was drunk too, and I yelled at her. I only had complaints for her. Of course, it was hard for me to hate her, because I had loved her so much! I said that Zoya was hopeless, and that she loved the devilish Patel too. “Uncle Johnny couldn’t finish his sentence, but he forced himself to continue: “I probably stabbed Zoya at that time, but I had no choice! Patel had indeed become a demon, wrapped in airtight, luxurious robes, wearing a cloak that covered his face, building blood pools… He was nothing like a normal person, but a real demon.”

“What happened next?” Chengzhen asked, his voice trembling. Throughout the story, the saddest part was undoubtedly Zhenya.

Uncle Johnny wiped his tears and looked into the deep pool. He said, “Next, Zoya stayed at home for three days. By then, she had already lost the lively and lovely innocence of her childhood. She was still beautiful, but she had lost a lot of weight and became very sad. She had almost no sense of existence because she didn’t want to talk. She just silently accompanied her seriously ill father. Even when her father was agitated, he would tell her to get out and go to the devil! Hurry up and marry that devil! It was only three days later that she told me she was leaving. She said she didn’t know what she could do, but if she could stop Patel, she would sacrifice her life to persuade and restrain him at all times.

“I thought she still wanted to marry Patel, but was just making an excuse for herself! And I knew in my heart that although she was very important to him, she was not important enough to interfere with all of his actions. I just let her go… but I never knew that that would be the last time I would see her.” Uncle Johnny’s voice choked up.

“Why?” Tears also hung on Ru Yue’s cheeks. In fact, this was a predictable ending, and Ru Yue just asked in a reluctant tone.

“Why else? Patel refused to listen to her advice and was determined to continue his behavior. She was completely desperate and chose to commit suicide… This reason was mentioned in a long letter that she wrote to me before she killed herself. She was so miserable, caught between love and family. After years of struggle, she lost her loved ones and her lover became a devil. She said so innocently that she could do nothing to change it! She couldn’t bear the pain anymore, so she chose to commit suicide. My poor Yaya.” At this point, Uncle Johnny began to sob.