Techniques and Dao

Chapter 33 Mysterious Evil Spirit
This time, Taishang Xiaojun conjured several torches on the stone wall, illuminating the space.

Although the stone walls were thick, the rumbling sound of water could still be heard from outside. Everyone had seen the thickness of the stone walls from the outside, so no matter how great the flood, it was impossible for this place to be washed away.

Hua Sheng wiped the water from her forehead and had just steadied herself when she saw Mie Ying running over, but her tone was much calmer: "Little mole ant, thank you for saving me just now!"

The nickname "little mole ant" suddenly changed from "ant" to "little mole ant," and Hanamori felt a sudden sense of being given a nickname, quickly replying, "No... this..."

"Let me see your arm. Where is it injured?" With that, Mie Ying grabbed Hua Sheng's arm and rolled up the sleeve of her Taoist robe.

"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious." Hua Sheng withdrew his hand.

"I'm not a heartless fool! You saved me, so I should at least show some concern." Mieying stared with wide eyes and leaned closer again.

Hua Sheng stepped back against the wall: "It's really nothing."

"What are you doing, you big man hiding from me! Do you think I'm a man-eating tiger?" Mieying pouted, clearly not intending to give up. She then grabbed Huasheng's arm, only to press it right on the wound, instantly causing a piercing pain.

"Ouch!" Hua Sheng instinctively pulled his hand back.

"I told you not to move! Let me see what's going on."

Mieying had no choice but to gently lift Huasheng's hand. Several palm-length cuts, as if slashed by a knife, appeared on both of Huasheng's arms.

"He's seriously injured. If only we had medicine."

"It's really nothing! It's nothing!"

"Here, let me wrap this up."

"Give me a hug?" Hua Sheng looked around. "I don't think I need to hug you."

"Get lost!" Mieying stomped hard on Huasheng's instep. "Who wants to hug you! I meant wrap you in a strip of cloth."

"Ouch!" Hua Sheng had no choice but to stand on one leg, leaning against the wall.

"Don't move! If you dare touch me, I'll break your legs!"

Mieying gently blew on the wound on Huasheng's right arm, and Huasheng felt a warm, itchy, and tingling sensation on her arm. The warm breeze from Mieying transformed into a strip of white cloth, wrapping the wound. Since the wound was no longer touching her sleeve, the pain was significantly reduced, and more importantly, the bleeding stopped.

"Thanks……"

"If you want to thank me, you can become my servant." Mieying raised her head and glanced at Hua Sheng.

"Servant? So lowly?" Hua Sheng frowned. "...Then let's skip that."

"Making you a slave is giving you face! I'm not someone anyone can have." Mieying muttered to herself, "The name 'Louji' doesn't sound good, but you are a 'Louji.' From now on, I'll call you Little Louji, it's more affectionate."

"My name is Hua Sheng! Don't give me random nicknames!" Hua Sheng argued.

But Mieying clearly didn't care about Huasheng's thoughts. She then lifted Huasheng's left arm. She rolled up the sleeve of her taekwondo uniform and gently blew on the wound on the left arm. The warm breeze turned into a white cloth strip and bandaged the wound on the left arm.

After bandaging the wound, Mieying was about to put Huasheng's arm down when he suddenly stopped and asked, "Little Lou, what's this on your arm?"

"Don't call me a little ant!" Hua Sheng didn't understand Mie Ying's words. "What do you mean, what is it?"

“That’s it.” Mieying lifted Huasheng’s arm and twisted it backward.

Hua Sheng's face contorted in pain from Mie Ying's twisting motion: "Ouch! My hand is going to break!"

"Little ant, look for yourself, the back of your arm has... a pattern?"

"A pattern? I've never had a tattoo." Hua Sheng turned his left arm over. It turned out that there really was a pattern on the back of his upper arm.

The pattern was particularly peculiar, consisting of a patchwork of circles and short straight lines without any discernible pattern.

"Are you sure this isn't a birthmark?" asked Mieying.

"Definitely not. I don't have that kind of birthmark."

"Then what is this mess? It looks like it's been scribbled on with a pen." Mieying pursed his lips, his brows furrowed.

"It was probably wiped off at some point."

"This is too ugly, you little ant. Let me wipe it off for you."

As Mieying spoke, she pressed her thumb down and rubbed it hard. Hua Sheng immediately felt an astonishing, piercing pain in her arm.

"Ah!" Hua Sheng immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

Mieying stomped his foot and said, "What's wrong with you, a grown man? Are you made of tofu? I can't even touch you!"

"It hurts so much! And it's an incredibly, incredibly painful pain!" Hua Sheng exclaimed, seeing stars from the pain. "Oh my god! Could it be some kind of terminal illness or tumor?!"

"What are you afraid of! What are you shouting for! Whatever illness you have, I can cure it for you. I'll make you as lively and energetic as a rabbit." Mieying said, reaching out to grab Huasheng's arm.

"Have you two finished flirting here?!"

It turns out that Xuanwen couldn't stand it anymore.

"What are you to me! I can do whatever I want, do you dare to interfere!" Mieying turned around and swung a palm at Xuanwen, but just as she unleashed her wind manipulation technique, Tianjizi blocked her in mid-air.

Tianjizi remained silent, only staring at Mieying.

"Hmph! You dare to stop me? I'll make you regret it!" Mieying shouted at Tianjizi.

Hua Sheng quickly pressed Mie Ying's hand down and said, "Forget it, now is not the time for us to fight amongst ourselves."

Mieying then gave up, glanced at Hua Sheng, and muttered softly, "Let's see how my third sister's Wind and Fire Wheels deal with him!"

Hua Sheng quickly whispered, "We'll talk about it later, later."

At this moment, Taishang Xiaojun, who had remained silent until now, said, "The trial porcelain boxes have all been opened. Let's go out and take a look after the flood stops. Perhaps this game of seizing the clever boxes is about to end..."

Before he could finish speaking, the rocky room suddenly began to shake violently, almost making it impossible for anyone to stand.

Hua Sheng hurriedly floated into the air, only to have his head slammed hard against the ceiling, crashing to the ground. He couldn't understand how this rock, weighing at least tens of thousands of kilograms, had transformed into a lone boat in the sea.
Just before Hua Sheng was about to experience seasickness, the violent up-and-down shaking stopped. Everyone looked at each other, and before they could say anything, the stone gate collapsed with a loud bang.

"Watch out for the water!" Xuanwen shouted, and used his magic to ward off the flood, only to find that it was just raining heavily outside, and the large stone box was not underwater.

Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared, as if a storm was raging.

"Have we surfaced?" Tai Shang Xiao Jun was the first to step out.

Hua Sheng followed closely behind him. But when they reached the outdoors, everyone was taken aback.

The academy where the Daoist arts had just been located had vanished. What Hua Sheng could never have imagined was that outside the stone box lay a ten-thousand-ton cruise ship.

A modern luxury cruise ship. And the stone box is located on the foremost deck of the top floor of this cruise ship.

"What on earth is going on? This is definitely not Shengping Ning! This is the mortal realm? How did we get here?" Xuanwen said. "We didn't even cross the Hunyuan Dao, so why are we in the mortal realm?"

Tai Shang Xiao Jun looked around and said, "Wait! Look at this place, it's very strange, it doesn't seem to be the mortal world."

Hua Sheng quickly looked around and realized that the cruise ship was covered in rust. Looking into the distance, they weren't at sea at all. The cruise ship was actually docked in the center of a city, surrounded by skyscrapers. But these skyscrapers looked as if they had existed for thousands of years. Not only were their windows broken and shattered, but most of the buildings were also covered in vines, making them look like ancient trees.

Standing on the edge of the deck of this dilapidated cruise ship and looking down, the city grounds were overgrown with weeds, some several meters high, everywhere you looked. Although it was designed like a modern city, it seemed to have been abandoned for thousands of years.

The torrential rain continued, accompanied by lightning and thunder, and there was not a single living thing to be seen anywhere.

"Hua Sheng, do you know this place in the mortal realm?" Tai Shang Xiao Jun asked.

“How could I know? If it were a small place, it might be an artificial amusement park. But this looks like a city. I’ve never heard of such a large, abandoned metropolis. This can’t possibly be the mortal world I’ve lived in,” Hua Sheng replied.

"So where is this place? The question is, why did the Heavenly Eye Trial bring us here?"

“Bedelan,” Mieying suddenly said. “What?” Huasheng asked.

Leaning against the deck railing, Mieying pointed to the outside of the ship and said, "This big ship is called the Bedland."

Hanamori carefully considered these words, feeling as if she had heard them somewhere before, but couldn't quite place them. Her arm began to ache again, whether from cracked muscles or from the inexplicable pattern.

The group searched the deck for clues, trying to figure out why they had come here. Suddenly, Xuanwen said, "There's a strange stench on this ship, like the remnants of some kind of strange beast."

A thunderous boom echoed, instantly reminding Hua Sheng of the terrifying monster that had occurred not long ago.

"A strange beast? You mean something like the Qiongqi from earlier?"

Xuanwen took a deep breath: "It smells a bit like a Gu Diao? But it doesn't seem to be a recent scent."

What is a Gu Diao?

“Someone like you, an ant, is illiterate. You wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to you.” Xuanwen seemed to have no patience to explain to Huasheng.

In this incredibly vast, unfamiliar, strange, and unsettling world, standing on what feels like a cruise ship stranded in the city center, what could be more eerie than this?

"Don't you guys think these things are a bit out of place?" Hua Sheng said.

Mieying said, "Incongruous? Little ant, what do you mean?"

Hua Sheng pointed into the distance and said, "Look. This city looks like it has been abandoned for many years. Not only is there no one around, but even the buildings are covered with green plants and weeds. Look at the ground below, you can't even see the roads anymore. You could say this city is like a primeval forest."

He then pointed to the cruise ship: "This cruise ship, called the Bedland, although dilapidated and rusty, is not covered with green plants. In other words, there is a certain disharmony between this cruise ship and the scene. It seems that the cruise ship is an incongruous new thing in this scene, something that has been forced upon it."

"What do you want to say?" It was Tianjizi who spoke, as he rarely spoke.

"What I'm trying to say is that if the Heavenly Eye Trial is corrupted, as you said, then it might not be just one thing that corrupted it. Although I don't know if that's the right way to describe it, the monster in the puzzle box, this desolate jungle-like city, and this cruise ship all seem to come from different places."

"What does that mean?"

"I can't explain it. I'm not sure what happened."

"Isn't that just pointless?" Xuanwen said. "You're just making wild guesses."

Hua Sheng started to feel a headache coming on. Seeing Tai Shang Xiao Jun standing nearby, he asked, "Tai Shang Xiao Jun, from just now until now, what do you think has been going on?"

Taishang Xiaojun shook his head and said, "We don't understand because we are in the very center, so we don't see the whole picture."

What do you think the whole picture is?

"I don't know. But I'm sure what we're seeing now are fragments of something."

"you mean?"

"As you said, there's a clear sense of incongruity between the things we see. This is just what we've discovered; there may be more. But it's certainly not without reason. We see a lot here, some real, some fake. But these real and fake things may not be the most crucial thing; the most crucial thing is who wants us to see these things."

"You mean there's a reason behind what we've seen?"

"Of course there is. It's certain that everyone is still in the Heavenly Eye Trial. However, as Tianjizi said, the Clever Box Seizure has been corrupted, so what we see now is not all an illusion. Some of it is the real Clever Box Seizure, such as those remaining trial rules and porcelain boxes, while the rest should be the 'corruption' that is eroding the Immortal Array. Moreover, there may be more than one kind of corruption, which would make things more complicated. But everything has an origin."

Taishang Xiaojun paused and said, "We are just in the midst of the mountains, shrouded in deep clouds, unaware of the surrounding landscape."

Hua Sheng felt that Tai Shang Xiao Jun's words made sense. He flew to the top of the stone box, where the blood tai chi symbol was still there. However, the eight porcelain boxes had disappeared without a trace, perhaps washed away by the flood.

Just as he was about to look for some clues in the Blood Tai Chi, a deafening explosion suddenly rang out, making his feet go numb.

Immediately afterwards, a burst of flame shot into the sky. Looking up, Hua Sheng saw that the top of the cruise ship was completely engulfed in flames.

Startled by the sound, everyone was about to fly up to investigate when they saw a hunched figure vaguely appearing in the flames. The figure was small and thin, yet it moved through the flames as if walking on flat ground, slowly walking towards them.

The wind fanned the flames, and the fire was fueled by the wind. Despite the torrential rain, it did nothing to diminish the fire's intensity.

“Zhen represents thunder, Xun represents wind, Kan represents water, and Li represents fire,” Tai Shang Xiao Jun ran forward and said, “That’s why the porcelain boxes were opened just now. There’s a connection between what’s hidden in these four hexagrams and what’s invading the magic array, which is why the porcelain boxes opened and triggered something, or something like a condition…”

As if sensing something, Tai Shang Xiao Jun suddenly shouted sharply, "Back off! This guy has an inexplicable evil aura!"

As the figure slowly emerged from the flames, Hua Shengcai realized that it was an old woman who was emaciated and had an extremely ugly appearance.

The old woman was panting heavily, as if she had been walking for a long time and was out of breath. If the flames hadn't failed to harm her in the slightest, Hua Sheng would have thought she was just an ugly old woman.

"Why are you back? Where did Mingyou go?" the old woman muttered to herself.

Then the old woman looked around and muttered to herself, "No, my body is gone..." She looked at her hands, then at her legs, and continued, "Gone! Gone!"

"You crazy woman, what nonsense are you spouting? What do you mean your body is missing? Aren't your hands and feet still intact?" Mie Ying shouted.

"Shadowbreaker! Be careful, she's no kind of person!" Tai Shang Xiao Jun wasn't joking.

The old woman glanced at Mie Ying and muttered in a hoarse voice, "The Spirit Clan? It's been so long." Then she glanced to the side and said, "Supreme Lord Xiao Jun and Tian Ji Zi! What are you doing here? No, you shouldn't belong here anymore!"

"You recognize us?" Tai Shang Xiao Jun adopted a wary stance.

The withered old woman ignored Taishang Xiaojun and instead pointed at Tianjizi with her withered, wooden fingers: "You are already dead!"

Tianjizi did not answer, but just stared at the old woman expressionlessly.

"What nonsense! He's perfectly fine!" Mieying said. "Are you senile?"

Upon hearing Mieying's words, the old woman suddenly chuckled, but her voice was more like a sob. Then she saw Huasheng, and her eyes suddenly lit up as she burst into laughter, as if she had discovered something: "My true form! I never expected my true form to be with you!"

Hua Sheng felt a chill run down her spine: "You're perfectly healthy, what are you doing here?"

"Though it is broken and incomplete, this is indeed my true form."

Before Hua Sheng could finish his "nonsense," the old woman hooked her finger at him. Suddenly, it felt as if a hook had pierced Hua Sheng's left arm, lifting his entire body into the air. A sharp pain shot through Hua Sheng's left arm, and he cried out in pain.

Unable to contain himself any longer, Mie Ying shouted, "How dare you bully my servant!"

She clasped her hands together, and when she opened them again, a sharp sword appeared. She gripped the sword and lunged at the old woman. But the old woman flicked her wrist, instantly sending the curly-haired Shadowless flying several meters away. The sword in Shadowless's hand broke into several pieces and fell onto the deck with a clattering sound.

Mie Ying got up from the ground and cursed, "Ugly old hag!"

Just as Hua Sheng was about to ask Mie Ying if he was alright, a sudden, excruciating pain shot through the back of his left arm, so intense it felt like his bones were breaking and his tendons were snapping, causing him to break out in a cold sweat. He noticed that the sleeve of his Taoist uniform had been rolled up, and the source of the pain was precisely where the mysterious pattern was located.

"Hua Sheng! The pattern on your arm!" Mie Ying shouted.

Because Hua Sheng was hanging in mid-air and couldn't see the back of her arms, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"The pattern is changing! It looks like it's on fire!"

As Mieying spoke, Hua Sheng felt the pain in her arm intensify. Mieying exclaimed, "The pattern seems to have broken down, turning into circles and the character '一' (one). I can't understand it."

"I won't let you off!" Just as Mieying was about to rush forward again, there was a sudden hissing sound, and the strange pattern flew out from Huasheng's arm. Huasheng's arm felt like a layer of skin had been peeled off, and blood immediately flowed out.

The blood-stained pattern flew to the old woman, who opened her mouth wide, and her mouth became larger than her head. The old woman swallowed the blood-stained pattern whole.

"How disgusting! What kind of monster is this!" Mieying shouted.

As soon as the strange pattern left the flower, the flower fell from the sky.

“Good news…” After swallowing the pattern, the old woman began to grin maliciously again, “Although it is badly damaged, it has finally been found.”

and many more!

The pain in his arm jolted Hua Sheng awake. He had seen this strange old woman in his dream before!
By the way, in a dream not long ago, I was on a cruise ship, and it was this scene of rain and fire intertwined!
There's no mistake, I've seen this monster before!

(End of this chapter)