The Lost Tomb : The Southern Archives Mysteries

(Extra Story: Spin Off Case) Chapter 4: The Sorcery Temple

Spin-Off Case: The Map In The Dream

Madison's church was in Wenxiena, so they had to pass through a village called Wubang and a logging station built by the Dutch before they entered the rainforest.

The logging station was now a distribution center where the English were stationed. The center provided supplies for people who were going into the rainforest and was also in charge of transporting mahoganies and fur out of the rainforest. There was even a post office for expedition teams to transport specimens back to their countries.

The two men were silent as they walked. Madison had become quiet and taciturn because of Nanre's body. Zhang Haiyan didn't ask him to help carry the body as they continued moving forward silently. That first day's itinerary didn't require any tracking skills since they just had to focus on getting to Wubang. Once they reached Wubang, it would take another day for them to get to the logging station.

They were staying the night in a temple outside Wubang Village. The local monks had felt very sympathetic towards them when they found that there was a corpse on Zhang Haiyan's back.

They chanted sutras for Nanre all night long while Zhang Haiyan sat on the temple's roof and watched the sun set over the nearby rice fields.

He noticed that there was a very small building across from the temple's door. It was about half a person high and also looked like a temple. The South Sea style's characteristics were more obvious and there was something being worshiped in it.

"That's a sorcery temple." Madison said from behind him. "I've been here before. That temple worships a piece of skin from an unknown animal. The whole piece of skin is wrapped in a strange kind of grass that forms a cocoon around it. A sorcerer put it there more than two hundred years ago."

Zhang Haiyan looked back at him. "Do foreigners believe in sorcery as well? Oh, you basically work in the same business."

There was a kind of mysterious sorcery that was popular in Southeast Asian regions such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Africa. There weren't any written records about it and it was very obscure. The legends of this sorcery technique were often incredible, and no one was able to explain what it was or what it could accomplish.

Sorcery was an extremely mysterious profession. In other words, it was so mysterious that the practitioners were often demonized. Most of the time, sorcerers in folklore were more like evil ghosts instead of human beings.

Madison's long blond hair was tied up in a bun as he sat down next to him and said, "It's not like that, A Bin. I'm a registered priest. I serve God and listen to people's confessions, but I don't help people solve practical problems."

Zhang Haiyan stared at the sorcery temple. It looked like a tomb with multiple mountains around it.

"I know what this sorcery temple's purpose is. The locals told me that the rainforest is right on the edge of this temple. After the Dutch came, they began to cut down the rainforest and turned these places into rice fields. As a result, many strange corpses would flow out of the forest after the rainy season. They carried the plague with them and many people died. So, a sorcerer built this temple here to keep the plague in the forest," Madison continued.

"Have you ever entered the rainforest?" Zhang Haiyan asked him.

"I have gone into the rainforest, but I didn't go far. I visited some of the tribes there," Madison said. "I made some notes about it. Would you like to read them? I heard that your English is very good."

Zhang Haiyan shook his head. Madison was right. He could speak many languages ​​and dialects due to his job, but he didn't need any notes about the rainforest. He was already aware of the dangers hidden in southern Perak's rainforests.