[Volume I: The Hollowed Eyes]
(The Reverse Cultivation Sutra)
"A scripture born from a mad monk who gouged out his own eyes a thousand times in search of the "ultimate truth."
"Each time he tore one eye out, a new one grew…until he became something neither man nor god.
This sutra is written in his blood and bound in his flesh. When activated, the user inherits that cursed revelation."
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While Omen was busy reading the introduction, he couldn't help but occasionally shiver at the events that occurred after Lilith had barged in to save him.
He was currently seated in the middle of a half burnt forest, wearing the smooth and rich looking robes she had changed him into with an expression of absolute dismay in front of him.
The 5 feet 10 inches girl was currently moving from one tent to another, her body still covered in blood as she picked body by body and carried it on her shoulders until she walked towards the circle with blood made around Omen and threw the bodies over the already existing pile of them.
It was almost night time and Omen was mesmerized to find 7 moons revolving around it's surface instead of a single one.
Lilith had commented that only during a single day in the month would the 6 silver moons disappear, leaving only a single red one hovering in the night sky.
Trying to ignore the blood soaked grass he was currently sitting on, he tried focusing back on the scripture.
————
"To see beyond death, one must first feed death itself."
—Verse I, The Hollowed Eyes.
***
Omen started to feel uneasy ever since he got to know that he had to die to become a ghoul.
"Ughhh-"
'Stella's waiting for me…' The boy wondered, reassuring himself that she wouldn't be very mad at him for leaving her behind.
Then, like a bulb suddenly turned on, Omen realized it was his birthday today.
The 1st of February…
He was finally 19 now, but that also meant the his time to enroll into the military was here.
'Before the messenger comes for me, I have to start Reverse cultivating or I'll be left to defend myself with nothing.
Just the thought that he would be weak and bullied even in the military academy made him feel a hurried need to learn the first volume.
The Thousand Eyes Sutra, as Omen had started to call it because that felt more suitable, it wasn't a scripture meant for mortals to ever lay eyes upon.
It was written in the age before the sun first split into three, or that's what the texts say.
The Sutra spoke of true awakening, not the shallow gifts of awakening an affinity or blessing that mortals chased, but an ascension born from the carcass of humanity itself, to becoming a Ghoul.
Looking at the eleven circles made around him along with the countless bodies placed atop it made Omen pale and he almost wanted to puke again, but instead the boy tried to collect himself.
He had long been bewitched by the thought of being even half as powerful as Lilith ever since he saw her fight.
The first law of the Thousand Eyes Sutra stated that the practitioner must be surrounded by death, enough to drown in.
But blood alone was not enough. The second law of the Thousand Eyes Sutra speaks of the sacrifice of vision.
To awaken as a Ghoul through this path, one must sacrifice not only their eyes, but that of others as well.
Eyes that have witnessed life, eyes that have seen fear. Each pair of eyes holds memories, sins, and truths…and the Sutra demands them all.
It is said that the more pair of eyes offered to the ritual, the greater the chance of awakening. Every set adds another layer to the Sutra's verse, every stolen gaze opens another gate to the realm of hunger.
When the practitioner chants the verses, each sacrificed eye turns blue and melts, forming markings along the user's skin that resemble closed eyelids.
When these markings reach the heart, they begin to open, not as eyes that see light, but as eyes that see hunger.
This is where the Sutra earns its name, The Thousand Eyes.
For each awakened Ghoul carries the weight of every gaze they've consumed. Their skin may appear smooth, but beneath it lies countless eyes, sealed and sleeping, forever whispering.
The strongest Ghouls born from this Sutra are said to have truly manifested these eyes, hundreds of them crawling beneath their skin, twitching, watching, and never closing.
They do not crave flesh for taste, they crave it for the need to grow stronger and gain more 'eyes'.
Their bodies evolve endlessly, becoming stronger with each body devoured.
The final lines of the Thousand Eyes Sutra are carved in crimson:
"He who feeds shall be fed upon."
***