Netherworld Painted Skin Scroll

Chapter 313

She suddenly woke up and found herself covered with Li Wuxiang's Taoist robe, having fallen asleep on the ground. Dawn was breaking, and dappled sunlight filtered through the trees, falling on her.

Li Wuxiang stood a few steps away, with a brick in front of him.

It looked just like that stove brick, but dozens of times larger, square and upright, looking like two small sedan chairs for women and children put together.

Autumn was approaching, and it was a bit chilly in the morning. Xue Baoping, wrapped in Li Wuxiang's clothes, sat up and rubbed her eyes: "Was that you speaking just now, or was I dreaming?"

"It's me, it's me." Li Wuxiang looked very pleased, walked around the stone bricks in front of him, and said, "Look—"

Before he could finish speaking, he vanished without a trace.

Xue Baoping knew he had vanished into that brick. During the great calamity of the mountain fire, she had saved so many people thanks to these broken bricks.

However, this brick was completely different, so she didn't rush to chant the incantation and go in. Instead, she got up, put on her clothes, and looked around.

At first glance, the brick appears square, but after turning it, she realized it had become irregular. It was as if the brick hadn't been fired properly; some parts were wide, and some were narrow, instantly reminding her of the crooked and twisted things that children in Jinshui Town would mold when playing with mud.

The two broken bricks appeared to be pasted together with paper, which was tattered and looked like scraps. It seemed that the paper was not big enough, so it was only pasted halfway, leaving a gap at the top of the two broken bricks, big enough for a hand to stick out.

Xue Baoping walked to the side and peered inside with one eye, but could only see that it was dark inside.

Just then, they heard Li Wuxiang say, "Come in quickly and take a look."

Xue Baoping held her breath and thought to herself, "I'm going to a very secluded place—"

In a flash, I found myself inside this giant brick.

But this place was completely different from where she had been before—the previous half-brick was filled with neat stone walls. Now, however, it resembled a cave room, with walls that, like the outside, were crooked and uneven.

If there's anything good about it, it's that the triangular gap you see from the outside now seems to have become a window, extending from the ceiling of the upper level to the ground, like a floor-to-ceiling window.

But when she approached the crack and looked out, something incredible happened—her field of vision was extremely wide, and she could see the entire scene around the brick with just a slight movement of her eyes, as if the wall had disappeared!

She took a step back in surprise to look at Li Wuxiang—who was sitting on a crooked wooden chair with his legs crossed, looking at her smugly: "How about it? Amazing, isn't it?"

Xue Baoping looked around the room again: "It's gotten bigger, and it's become crooked and twisted."

“But it’s complete!” Li Wuxiang clapped his hands and stood up. “After I got the Ranshan Illusion, this brick became unusable. I used to think that the brick was suppressed by the illusion, but Li Ye told me that it was because the brick was larger than the Ranshan Illusion, so it couldn’t be unfolded.”

"I tried all night last night, and I tried many spells. The first one I tried was—but the process isn't important, what's important is that I've now used the Illusion of Ranshan to piece these bricks together. Last night, a sudden flash of inspiration from Ranshan allowed me to piece these bricks together! Come, come—"

Li Wuxiang took her hand and led her down the crooked stone steps at one end of the room: "Look down there again!"

Xue Baoping went down to the lower level. She had been to the lower level before; back then, all the people of Jinshui filled half a brick completely, and someone even gave birth in it.

Looking down at the lower level, it was also crooked and distorted, but with something new—a statue at one end. The statue looked very much like the image of Taiyi, but only half of its body was visible; the upper half disappeared into the ceiling, as if reaching into an unseen and intangible void.

Elsewhere, the walls are haphazardly arranged, as if there were originally several large houses, now crookedly and randomly embedded in, with the rest still in some unknown place.

Li Wuxiang released her hand and walked towards the half-sculpture, his expression even more smug. As he walked backwards, he said, "This is the original Ranshan Illusionary Realm—I'll tell you what it's all about later. Anyway, the original illusionary realm was all wrinkled and messy, and you couldn't just wander around. But now it's unfolded in this brick—oh, remember, this brick is called the Myriad Transformations Cube—it's unfolded in the Myriad Transformations Cube now. I'd say it's partially unfolded, but it's probably because I didn't completely repair the Myriad Transformations Cube, so the space is still not big enough."

He walked up to the statue and rummaged through the bamboo paper laid out on it: "This is the paper that Ranshan Talisman needs. In the past, it was troublesome for me to get the paper. Every time I got it, I would get scratched. But now, look!"

In Xue Baoping's mind, Li Wuxiang was always calm and composed, as if nothing in the world could make him lose his composure. But this was the first time she had seen him like this, so happy and proud, like a child.

She perked up: "But these bricks... ah, the Wanhua Fang has gotten bigger, how are we going to carry them?"

Li Wuxiang held up two fingers to his chest: "It's not just that it's gotten bigger. Before, when you brought things in, they would be completely ruined when you left, right?"

"Yes. We brought things in while we were in here, and we have to take them out with us when we leave. Otherwise, they'll all break."

“Not anymore. Things brought in from outside won’t break when they go out and come back. As for the fact that these things are hard to transport—we’ll just go down the mountain and find a horse-drawn carriage in a nearby town to load them on. As for the horse, I’ll draw it with a talisman. Don’t worry, I’ll slowly figure out how to repair it better. I feel that if I repair it better, it should become a little smaller.”

Xue Baoping still felt that the bricks were better the way they were before. Easy to carry, easy to hide, and inconspicuous. But Li Wuxiang walked over, looked at her, and said with a smile, "We're going to travel a long way, and we can't always be sleeping in the open. Now we have a small, mobile home—we can move in wherever we see something fun or beautiful along the way, and be comfortable, so we can go anywhere without fear. If we come across a scenic spot, we can stay for two or three days and travel the world—traveling the world comfortably is the best!"

Upon hearing the word "small family," all of Xue Baoping's thoughts vanished instantly.

She smiled and nodded, "Yes, I think it's great too."

……

In the following days, the two did not rush to leave the Great Calamity Mountain. Although the main peak of the Great Calamity Mountain had been destroyed, the side peaks on both sides still stretched for hundreds of miles, forming a vast forest.

This place was once rarely visited, as there were restrictions around the mountain and the paths were difficult to traverse, making it hard for ordinary people to climb. As a result, the mountain forests were rich in resources, which were preserved together after the world was reshaped.

The Central Plains are home to many native food crops, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and corn, which can also be found on the side peaks of the Great Calamity Mountain. The two dug these out and stored them in the lower layer of the Myriad Transformation Cube. The Myriad Transformation Cube weighs only the weight of a brick. The many people hidden inside it also weighed the same amount of weight as a brick. Now, the two of them have stockpiled over a hundred pounds of food inside in the past few days, and it still weighs the same amount of weight as a brick, which is extremely convenient.

Li Wuxiang wasn't surprised to see these things on the mountain. Mount Dajie was once the Daoist temple of Donghuang Taiyi, who lived there with his people before attaining enlightenment. Before it became a completely forbidden area, there must have been people cultivating the land nearby, so these things gradually grew in the mountains and fields. While digging, the two did indeed see some relics and blurred inscriptions buried in the forest, dating back over three thousand years.

What puzzled him was that these potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and beans, after so many years, showed no signs of becoming wild, still looking exactly as the farmers had carefully planted them. If it weren't for their scattered growth and the fact that there were hardly any signs of human habitation around, he would have suspected that someone had planted these things here recently.

As they continued their journey, gathering materials, the two gradually began their descent from Mount Dajie.

Over four and a half days, they dug up a bag of peanuts in their shells, three bags of potatoes, three bags of sweet potatoes, and more than half a bag of soybeans. On the last day, Li Wuxiang and Xue Baoping tried to fish for some more spirits, but Li Wuxiang's aches and pains were less, and Xue Baoping was also struggling. After working for half a day, they barely managed to catch one, so Li Wuxiang put it in a newly made, earth-filled wooden box and kept it in the lower level.

This stuff is so strange and delicious. Although Senior Sister Mei said it's nothing serious, he still wants to observe it further. If there's really no problem, and if the two of them find a good place to stay along the way, they might be able to plant it again.

After descending the mountain, Li Wuxiang used a rope made of tree vines to drag Wan Huafang along. There were few people on the road, and the two, having eaten and drunk their fill, chatted as they walked.

So much had happened to him during the half-year they had been apart, so they had so much to talk about on the way. They didn't even get to the nearest town until they reached Deyang.

I passed through this town when I traveled here with Tang Qi from the Tiangong Sect and Kong Jingci from the Suhua Sect. Back then, the roadside was bustling with activity, a gathering place for martial artists from all over the world, looking like a tourist group. But now, less than two months later, it feels like a lifetime has passed. I wonder if Kong Jingci died from Senior Sister Mei's sword energy at Dajie Mountain, or if he escaped with those corpses.

After that, the town was occupied by cultivators from the Five Mountains True Form Sect, and the townspeople were almost all ravaged. Now it is deserted. Unlike the places Xue Baoping passed through, which were dilapidated and desolate, it is more as if people suddenly disappeared overnight. The streets are relatively clean.

When Xue Baoping said that when she came over, the people on the road were changing their views on the previous catastrophe.

At first, everyone thought it was truly the end of the world—as if everyone had the same dream, a dream in which the world was engulfed in flames, and people died from the excruciating pain of being burned by the flames. But suddenly, in a daze, everyone seemed to wake up from the dream together, and then they realized that the world had changed drastically, and all living things except humans were gone.

Subsequently, with the rise of various religions, people heard all sorts of different stories.

Some say that the world was truly destroyed, but the great emperor, true lord, spirit god, or ancestor worshipped by our religion used supernatural powers to save the world.

Some say it's all a dream, a revelation from someone worshipped by our religion. If you don't believe in our religion, the scenes in your dream will actually happen.

Others say it was actually a battle of magic between immortals on Mount Dajie, and that mortals were merely affected by the supernatural powers, which is why they had dreams.

There were various versions of the story, and the people didn't know which one to believe, so they could only worship Taiyi while also following their own religious beliefs.

But there are really only two things. First, the things these religious sects claim to believe in truly exist in the sacred mountain; they are just using false names to gather worshippers in the world.

Another point is that, regardless of whether the disaster was real or not, it originated from Mount Dajie. Therefore, once the people near Mount Dajie were revived, they immediately fled far away to avoid the disaster, which allowed the surrounding towns to remain relatively intact.

The two entered the town and easily found a cart and a tassel, then loaded the Wanhua Fang onto it. This thing was light, which had its advantages, but also its disadvantages—even now, despite its size, it was still so light that it would easily sway in the wind. Therefore, Li Wuxiang removed the doors from several houses, cut them open, and found some nails to nail a crooked wooden shed onto the cart.

Xue Baoping complained that his wooden shed wasn't nailed well, but Li Wuxiang said it was better this way so it wouldn't attract attention on the road. He then drew a horse on a talisman, harnessed it, and prepared to use it to pull the carriage. Xue Baoping laughed and asked, "Won't this attract attention again?" Li Wuxiang replied, "No problem, no problem. When no one's around, the horse pulls the carriage; when people are around, I'll pull it."

They strolled slowly through the town, like browsing a giant post-apocalyptic supermarket. The survivors had left in a hurry, leaving many things behind. They carefully selected and packed tables, chairs, beds, bedding, pots, pans, and other necessities into their small homes. Li Wuxiang wanted to take some extra with him for future use, but Xue Baoping suggested leaving them behind, just in case more starving refugees arrived. Li Wuxiang agreed.

A few days ago on Mount Dajie, Li Wuxiang had already felt very happy. But he also felt that the happiness was sudden and too intense. Just like when he saw Zeng Jianqiu again, he neither hugged him tightly nor reminisced about the past. Those intense feelings of joy and happiness made him feel a little lost and even apprehensive.

And now, this peaceful and slow happiness made him feel very comfortable. He briefly forgot the worries in his heart and the great uncertainty of the future, and even briefly forgot that he possessed the status of a Great Calamity True Monarch and the realm of Nascent Soul. When he saw the blue bricks eroded by time, the window frames with dust filling the gaps, and the edges of the old quilts worn shiny, he felt that he had finally become a part of this world - no longer running and hiding in the wilderness, but finally coming to the streets and alleys of this world, and having someone to depend on and a small home.

(End of this chapter)