Cultivating Immortality from the Book of Life and Death

Chapter 206, Beyond the Scene. (Thanks to fellow cultivator "Danny Lou" for the generous donation!)
Baozhen Valley.

The clear stream meanders, enclosing a particularly lush bamboo grove on the flat land. This bamboo grove is quite sparse, and the dappled sunlight falls on the ground, reflecting the bright flowers and plants.

Amidst the babbling of the stream and the mountain breeze stirring the mist, the bamboo archway inscribed with "Baozhen Yaji" (Elegant Gathering of Embracing Chastity) ripples through the forest, creating a series of picturesque scenes.

As the white paper gently swayed, a ghostly creature with a blue face, fangs, and a mane on its back seemed to come alive, almost leaping up to devour people.

Beside it were even more lifelike ghostly creatures, some crawling like beasts, their blood-red mouths opening and closing, their long tongues like pythons, sometimes unfurling and sometimes curling; some seemed to be randomly piled up flesh and blood, dripping blood as they wriggled, like the liquid of centipedes, wetting the places they passed; some were covered in festering sores, and after only two or three steps, the ground was already covered with large and small pieces of rotting flesh and pus...

As you walk along the path through the woods, the scene unfolds even more vividly. Besides the ghostly figures, there are also human figures: a cultivator sits cross-legged by the water, letting the torrential rain pour down on him, deep in thought, seemingly comprehending the Dao; a young girl dances gracefully among the flowers, her dress fluttering as if trying to catch a butterfly; an old man, wearing a straw raincoat and hat, carries a bamboo basket and a small hoe, gathering wild vegetables; a middle-aged man, his face weary from travel, helps the elderly and carries the young, braving the wind and snow, his face filled with helplessness and sorrow…

A gentle breeze stirred the scrolls, making them flutter as if the figures within them had come to life.

Beneath the trees, a graceful figure moved slowly and elegantly, traversing the landscape like a painting.

She wore an ivory-yellow dress, its color old and without any patterns, yet she was tall and slender, with her black hair piled up like clouds. As she walked, her steps were graceful and unrestrained, exuding a free and easy charm, quite like a beautiful woman in the woods.

A moment later, the figure stopped in front of a blank painting.

He gazed at the horizontal scroll painting, seemingly contemplating something.

Soon, the figure in the ivory-yellow dress took out a wolf-hair brush dipped in ink and quickly began to paint on the blank scroll. The soft rustling of brushstrokes filled the quiet bamboo forest, like the gentle rustling of silkworms eating leaves.

The varying shades of ink, as the wrist turns and blends, quickly emerge, gradually outlining a mountain scene of distant mountains, streams, bamboo forests, pebbles, colorful butterflies, wildflowers...

On the path that appears and disappears, a caravan is moving along, but the carts are not pulled by ordinary oxen or horses, but by pairs of corpse puppets.

Each vehicle was decorated with several bright flags, marked with the following order: "D", "Wu", "Ji", and "Geng".

Each of these vehicles was surrounded and protected by cultivators. However, the first three vehicles were each guarded by five cultivators, while the last vehicle was escorted by only three.

The convoy was located in the center of the painting, surrounded by layers of green mountains and winding paths that disappeared into the vast bamboo forest, giving it a sense of the difficulty of the journey.

The figure in the ivory-yellow dress painted extremely quickly. After finishing the last stroke, she seemed a little tired, got up, and walked outside.

Soon, the swaying bamboo shadows concealed her beautiful figure, and the bamboo forest returned to tranquility.

But the horizontal scroll he had just painted, as it swayed slightly in the wind, made the figures in it seem to come alive and begin to move within the painting.

First, the person at the back of the last carriage moved towards the front of the carriage.

However, the movements in the painting are extremely slow; a simple step seems to be slowed down dozens or even hundreds of times.

click, click, click...

The footsteps came from the horizontal scroll painting. They weren't loud, but they immediately startled another scroll painting next to it.

The painting depicts a hideous monster, its entire body red, its head resembling a fleshy tumor, with five eyes, eight ears, no nose, and a vertical slit in its mouth from which a long, bright red tongue curls up.

The ghost's five eyes darted around, immediately fixing their gaze on the figures on the newly painted horizontal scroll. The next moment, the ghost sprang into action, using both its hands and feet to crawl out of the painting and quickly arrive in front of the horizontal scroll, its eyes greedily fixed on the figures within.

At this moment, the figures on the horizontal scroll seemed to come alive and begin to move in various ways, but everyone's movements were incredibly slow.

In the painting, a tall, burly monk carrying a long sword walked to the front of the first car. This simple journey took him several hours!

The hideous ghost stood before the painting, staring silently into it.

In its view, the figures in these paintings, though constantly exuding a fresh and delicious aroma, each also possessed a strong yang energy, making them unappetizing.

However, with each movement these figures make, their yang energy is greatly depleted...

Time passed, and the light and shadow in the forest changed. Several more hours went by. Finally, the tall and burly cultivator in the painting, carrying a long sword, arrived in front of the first carriage and gathered with the five cultivators around it, seemingly engaged in conversation.

The hideous demon, seeing the delicious food gathering, could no longer resist. It suddenly opened its mouth, extended its long, thin, bright red tongue, and licked the face of a tall cultivator among them.

Suck...

With the sound of swallowing saliva, the tall cultivator being licked seemed to realize something and immediately reached out to scratch his face.

The tall cultivator's other movements were very slow, but the action of scratching his face was incredibly swift.

The first thing it scratched was his face. The ink that had just been wetted by the hideous ghost was immediately destroyed, flowing down rapidly as if a breach had been opened in a dam.

At the same moment, the hideous ghost outside the painting was still licking the tall cultivator's face with ecstasy. Suddenly, it seemed to have tasted blood, and its eyes immediately flashed with intense ferocity. Its tongue was no longer limited to the tall cultivator's face, but began to lick his entire body rapidly.

The tall cultivator suddenly seemed to go mad, his whole body a mess, his face contorted, and he began to frantically scratch his entire body.

The ghostly creature outside the painting immediately intensified its licking, and at the same time, it began to make "crunch" and "crunch" sounds as if it were chewing something.

At this moment, the tall cultivator suddenly widened his eyes and looked outwards, as if he had finally seen the ghost licking him. Its eyeballs bulged high, its muscles were tense, but it could no longer put up any resistance.

The next moment, the tall cultivator seemed to have all his flesh and bones drained away, turning into a pool of thick ink and quickly disappearing from the painting.

The same strong stench of blood permeated the bamboo forest.

After finishing off a cultivator, the ferocious demon licked its lips, still seemingly unsatisfied, and looked at the scroll again.

At that moment, the burly, sword-wielding cultivator who had walked from the last car in the painting seemed to sense something and immediately returned to the last car.

This cultivator seemed to have used some kind of escape technique. Although his speed still appeared extremely slow to outsiders, it was much faster than when he had come over before.

The hideous monster ignored the departing cultivator and instead extended its ink-stained tongue to lick the other four people in the first vehicle...

(End of this chapter)