Chapter 117: Human-Skin Ghost Painting (2)

When the movie ended, I had absolutely no idea what had just played. I had dozed off in a daze, but it was actually a comfortable rest.

Walking out of the theater, I stretched. "Sakurako, let me take you home."

The little girl seemed reluctant, which made me somewhat curious. I casually voiced the question on my mind, "Why are you always hiding from your mother? Onitsuka Ayaka might be rather open-minded, but she is completely sincere toward you. I can see that much."

At the mention of Onitsuka Ayaka, Sakurako reverted to her usual self, unwilling to speak to anyone.

"Alright, can I ask a different question, then? Late the other night, I met a girl on the Route 14 Spirit Bus. She looked different from you, but your voices were exactly the same. Was that child you?"

Sakurako neither admitted nor denied it. She merely said enigmatically, "I can only say one sentence in a dream."

"Only one sentence?" Thinking back carefully, whether it was during the Xinhu High School stream or at Bridge No. 3 Crematorium, it seemed Sakurako had indeed only spoken a single sentence the entire night.

"Could it be that you can't speak freely in a dream? Or is it that the Dream Realm can't be easily altered or broken?" I didn't press for details. The Dream Realm was too mysterious to casually figure out.

"The Underworld Live Show offers the Secret Dream-Making Art for exchange. Once I have enough spare points, I could redeem a copy to broaden my horizons."

I escorted Sakurako back to the Blues Bar. Onitsuka Ayaka had been waiting at the entrance the whole time. The stunning boss personally standing out on the street had naturally drawn countless eager men into the bar to spend their money.

"Sakurako, why didn't you come home at all last night?"

Sakurako kept her mouth firmly shut about the previous night's ordeal. Maintaining her abnormally cold attitude toward Onitsuka Ayaka, she silently walked into the bar alone.

Having dropped Sakurako off, I considered my task complete. I had just turned around when a jade-white arm hooked over my shoulder. "Gao Jian, trying to run away after having your fun?"

"Listen, boss, you should take some time to learn a few more Chinese phrases. Our Huaxia civilization is vast and profound. With so many good expressions available, why must you use something like 'having your fun'? It sounds terrible," I said, shaking off Onitsuka Ayaka's arm.

"Jokes aside, why didn't Sakurako come home last night? Did she run into some kind of danger?"

"You could say that. She got into a conflict with someone over a Talisman Paper."

"Did you get a clear look at who it was?" Onitsuka Ayaka's voice lowered, shedding some of its charm and taking on a freezing edge.

Considering Lu Jin's terrifying background, he was absolutely not someone Onitsuka Ayaka could afford to provoke, so I prevaricated, "I didn't get a clear look. By the way, where is Bai Qi?"

At the mention of Bai Qi, Onitsuka Ayaka reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Her pitch spiked. "Don't mention that perverted dog to me! If I see it again, I'll treat you to authentic dog meat cuisine!"

"It's not that serious, is it..." I broke out in a cold sweat. Only then did my eyes drift to a row of shallow teeth marks on Onitsuka Ayaka's ample cleavage. "It's getting late. See you around!"

Watching my retreating figure, Onitsuka Ayaka pressed a finger to her lips. "Covered in blood... saving Sakurako couldn't have been easy. Should I call you smart, or should I call you a fool?"

...

Returning to Ting Tang Road, I briefly tended to my wounds. I was just about to wash my bloodstained clothes when I unexpectedly pulled out a crumpled exercise book.

I hadn't paid it any mind at first, but there seemed to be something wedged inside the book—a thin layer adhered to a blank page at the back.

"What's this?" I carefully peeled off the page, which was as thin as a cicada's wing. It felt soft to the touch, and even slightly elastic.

"It doesn't feel like paper." Only when I flipped the page over did realization dawn on me.

The surface was densely covered in complex patterns, as if the entire starry sky had been condensed onto this tiny sheet.

My fingertips twitched lightly, and the airflow channeling through my Governing Meridian grew somewhat turbulent. My consciousness felt as though it was going to be ripped from my spirit platform and sucked right into those intricate patterns.

Cupping it in both hands, my eyes filled with disbelief.

"An Upper Vehicle Talisman—the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman!"

Sitting at the desk, I lit a cigarette. Through the curling smoke, I stared intently at the Talisman Paper.

This was a genuine treasure. Although I didn't know how to actually use it, I could tell its value simply from Lu Jin's attitude toward it.

'Lu Jin, who comes from a prestigious sect, traveled to Jiangcheng this time specifically for this Talisman Paper. What kind of secrets does a mere Talisman Paper hold?' After a fierce mental struggle, I picked up my phone and dialed Blind Liu's number.

"Old Liu, I think I've picked up something incredible."

Blind Liu, who was usually stingy to a fault, actually took a taxi straight to my shop. He looked even more nervous than I was. The moment he entered the room, he locked the door behind him and drew the curtains.

"Bring that talisman out and let me see it."

I had never seen Blind Liu act like this before, and I subconsciously lowered my voice. "It's on the table."

Blind Liu didn't touch the talisman right away. Instead, he took out a porcelain bottle, moistened his hands with the purified water inside, and then lit a stick of sandalwood incense, letting the smoke naturally dry his hands.

Once he was fully prepared, he removed the black blindfold covering his eyes and picked up the talisman with both hands.

"Old Liu, can you make any sense of it?" I squeezed in next to him, not even daring to speak too loudly.

He didn't answer. Instead, his fingers formed an incantation seal and tapped a specific spot on the talisman. Then, a jaw-dropping scene unfolded before me.

The complex patterns on the talisman began to flow on their own, like a massive swirling nebula.

"Human-Skin Ghost Painting, rivers of stars entering a dream. There's no mistake—this is the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman that vanished in Jiangcheng five years ago!" That brief incantation seemed to have drained most of Blind Liu's energy. He slumped back into his chair against the wall, carefully cradling the talisman.

"What exactly is the origin of this talisman?" I asked, burning with curiosity. After hesitating again and again, Blind Liu finally told the truth.

"Five years ago, Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple was robbed, and a talisman embryo was stolen. You could also call it a star map. It was drawn by generations of cultivators at Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple to correspond with the sun, moon, and the Big Dipper. Although it was originally an ordinary object, because it was infused with the insights of numerous cultivators, it developed some rather profound and mystical properties."

"What kind of properties?"

Blind Liu set the talisman down and covered his eyes with the black cloth once more. "Drawing people into dreams, allowing them to comprehend the profound mysteries of heaven and earth within the Dream Realm, tempering the six senses, and accelerating cultivation."

"Can dreams be artificially controlled?"

"Not controlled, exactly, but they can be interfered with. Because of the unique nature of this talisman embryo, it was originally meant to be drawn into a Talisman Paper that would help junior disciples cultivate and stabilize their Daoist hearts. Unfortunately, it fell into the hands of a wicked person."

"Speaking of which, the person who stole the talisman was incredibly meticulous. He knew exactly what Xiao Zhuang Taoist Temple was capable of, and he knew they could follow the clues to track this talisman down. He simply decided on No Stopping Halfway. Using a sky-piercing surge of resentment to mask the karma, he borrowed the hands of ghosts to refine the talisman embryo into a complete Upper Vehicle Talisman!"

"But what does this have to do with Jiangcheng?" I asked, my doubts lingering.

"Five years ago, when this talisman was refined, it triggered numerous anomalies. This was likely something even the thief hadn't anticipated." Blind Liu seemed to be recalling that very night from five years ago. "Torrential rain poured from the heavens, and there was a hundred ghosts weeping for the dead!"

"Torrential rain? Five years ago?" The torrential rain from five years ago was equally fresh in my memory. That rainy night serial murder case had been the start of my life changing. "With anomalies constantly occurring, they naturally couldn't escape the discerning eyes of the local cultivators, so everyone gathered and headed toward the source of the disaster."

"It was a private school located between Jiangcheng and Xinhu City. The talisman lost control at the time, and the entire school was shrouded in Yin energy. The horrific scenes inside were like a living nightmare on earth."

"By the time the talisman was exposed, the thief had already left. All that remained in that school were the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends that had fused with this talisman."

"At the time, we were all shocked by this person's techniques. To think that he was able to integrate the Paulownia Mulberry dream-making method with the ultimate arts of fate-reading, allowing the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends to achieve a near-immortal body. It took the combined efforts of many of us cultivators, paying a tremendous price, to barely manage to seal the Yuan Chen away."

Blind Liu still harbored lingering fears when speaking of that night from five years ago. "We exhausted our lifeblood, but we could only seal it. We used the Yuan Chen Soul-Hanging Art to continuously weaken the Divine Fiends' power, but trying to completely destroy it was simply too difficult."

"Afterward, we scoured the entire school searching for this talisman, but it had vanished into thin air. We only saw the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends send it away at the very last moment, but we couldn't determine the talisman's exact location. At the time, many people deduced that the Talisman Paper must have been hidden in some corner of that school, waiting to be awakened by the Yuan Chen once again."

"The world only knows that the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman is the most unique among the Upper Vehicle Talismans, but how many people know that this talisman was made from human skin and drawn by ghostly fiends?"