¶ Magical Crystal Bulbs
See also: Roots of evil, Weredemons, Celestials and demons.
¶ Bulbs are Prisons
From the magical perspective, demons (and other being beyond mortals) are kept — most often, imprisoned — in magical crystal bulbs.
¶ Properties
The bulbs are about a size of a tennis or ping-pong balls — somewhere in between those two sizes. They are comfortably held by one held, though holding several bulbs in one hand is cumbersome.
When a bulb is held in a hand, the owner of the hand feels tingling, like if something trying to get into the skin.
The bulbs are fragile. If they are thrown against a wall, or dropped to a hard floor, they are smashed, and the content of it is released.
Certain magical powers are required to capture a demon into such a bulb. Common mortals or even celestials can't do that; some gods, however, can (not that they would do it). Yanwang is given powers to hunt demons and capture them in bulbs.
¶ Colours
| Green |
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|---|---|
| . Blue |
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| Red |
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| Jet Black |
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| Bright |
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¶ Quotes
Yanwang quickly caught all the demons who committed atrocities in the Imperial Palace and its heavenly environs. The captured demons he enclosed in crystal bulbs which he put into the furthest closet. On the door of this closet was a huge lock, and above it was a sign: ‘Salted Anchovies’.
The inside of the closet was dim and dusty. Streaks of light passed in through cracks in the walls and bleakly illuminated tall cupboards where bulbs stood in rows. Some of the bulbs were covered with thick rags, through which only flickers of light were breaking through. But most bulbs didn’t need a cover, for their dark blue, deep green or burgundy glow was soft and subtle. The most dangerous demons were imprisoned in these bulbs, those who absorbed the true roots of evil: ignorance, anger and greed.
“What’s there?” the monk asked, looking at the bulbs of thin tea glass laid out in a honeycomb-like pyramid.
“This is another sacred relic,” the abbot said. “It was given to us by the Ruler of the Under Realm, Yanwang Umma-ö, when he visited the monastery at the very dawn of time.”
In truth, Yanwang Umma-ö simply forgot his bag at the monastery, and now these bulbs were on display in the treasure room. Inside each of the bulbs swirled smoke of different colours.
One of the magical bulbs must have somehow fallen out of the travel bag. The bulb was now smashed, and its contents burst out with green smoke. The smoke began to wrap around Takuan’s leg, climbing higher. Frozen, Takuan watched as the green mist ran down his chest and made its way to the back of his head — where the seed of good luck had rooted.
But no demon emerged from the bulb. It held not an imprisoned weredemon, but only a potion of truth. Inhaling the dark blue smoke, Bing Lieu’s face changed. He looked guiltily at Bricabrac and told him the whole truth about the Dark Lord’s command in one long breath.