Chapter 63
Chapter 63
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unknown]
Chapter Title: The Living Porcelain and Talismans of Weakness
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Chen Shi arrived at the great mountain occupied by the Great Serpent Xuan Mountain, Blackie Pot in tow. It was now the sixth day of the magical transformation, yet astonishingly, there were still over a thousand villagers on the mountain who had not been turned into porcelain.
However, food, drink, excretion, and sleep posed a grave problem for these people. It was already hard to find sustenance in the mountains, and most spirit beasts had vanished without a trace. The forests held only porcelain spirit beasts, with no signs of life anywhere. For those sheltered by Xuan Mountain, starvation was only a matter of time.
The Great Serpent Xuan Mountain sustained itself on wind and dew, needing no food or drink, but these were mere mortals—surviving on wind and dew would kill them.
Some, driven mad by hunger, ventured down the mountain in search of food, but they often turned into porcelain before reaching the base.
When Chen Shi arrived at the foot of the mountain, he saw many porcelain figures. Some stood frozen in place, while others had toppled over and shattered into pieces.
These porcelain figures included both men and women, though most were men who had shouldered the responsibility of providing for their families and thus braved the dangers. But now, with the porcelain transformation growing stronger, venturing out meant certain death.
"Even the Great Serpent Xuan Mountain can't solve the problem of food. If these people have nothing to eat, I'm afraid they'll resort to eating each other."
Chen Shi thought to himself.
Beneath the Great Serpent Xuan Mountain's head, Chen Shi found Grandpa, who was examining a porcelain figure.
Chen Shi excitedly rushed over and hugged the old man tightly, refusing to let go.
The old man chuckled warmly, patted his head, and waited until Chen Shi's excitement subsided before saying,
"You've done very well these past few days. Not only have you become self-reliant, but you've also protected many people."
Chen Shi grinned.
"Grandpa, I can suppress the Ghost Hand Seal now—I won't have another episode! You don't need to worry about me anymore!"
His heart was filled with peace.
He had imagined countless grim possibilities before: Had Grandpa wandered off due to senility? Had he been devoured by a strange beast? Had he been turned to porcelain? Or perhaps sold off to some distant land by human traffickers? Now, seeing Grandpa again, he could finally relax.
Blackie Pot, by contrast, was far more composed, rubbing against the old man's legs and tilting its head up, waiting for a pat on the head.
Sure enough, the old man casually gave the dog's head a couple of strokes, and Blackie Pot was overjoyed.
"Grandpa, I've thought of a way for us to survive!"
Chen Shi said excitedly.
Chen Yindu looked at him in surprise and smiled.
"I've made a peculiar discovery too. Do you want to go first, or should I?"
Chen Shi laughed.
"You first, Grandpa."
Chen Yindu crouched down to observe the porcelain figure before him. Chen Shi leaned in close to examine it as well. This was just an ordinary person turned into porcelain, indistinguishable from the others outside. After careful scrutiny, Chen Shi couldn't discern anything unusual.
Chen Yindu said,
"I've been watching to see if it moves."
"Moves?"
Chen Shi was stunned.
"Yes. And after observing it these past few days, I've got results."
A smile spread across Chen Yindu's pale, ashen face as he said,
"It is indeed moving. Four days ago was when the first batch of ordinary people turned to porcelain. I brought this figure here and placed it right there. Over these four days, I've found that one of its hands has shifted four milli—inches."
A milli-inch was the width of a hair strand, ten times the thickness of silkworm silk, one-thousandth of an inch. In other words, the porcelain figure's hand had moved the width of a single hair in four days.
"Do you know what this means?"
"It's still alive."
Chen Yindu laughed.
He straightened up, gazing at the porcelain figures at the mountain's base, then toward the broader mountain region, and said,
"They're all still alive! Including these people who've turned to porcelain, the spirit beasts, flowers, grasses, trees, birds, beasts, insects, fish—even the porcelainized food— they're all still alive! They've just become porcelain lives!
Their movements have slowed to an unimaginable degree: so slow it might take a year to take a single step, months to blink once, a breath might take ages, years to sprout roots and bud. But they are indeed still alive! That's my discovery!"
Chen Shi was equally thrilled and laughed.
"They're not dead! Which means, as long as we kill the Evil Bodhisattva, they can return to normal!"
Chen Yindu smiled.
"It's not just possible—it's certain. This is the lifeline the True King left for the common folk."
Chen Shi puzzled over why Grandpa was so sure.
Suddenly, enlightenment struck him.
"Those seeking to plunder the Tomb of the True King aren't the commoners, but cultivators! These cultivators entered the Kiln Works to probe the tomb's location, triggering the Evil Bodhisattva. It erupted, turning the surrounding hundred li into a demonic domain. So the cultivators within this hundred-li radius will come one after another, desperately trying to eliminate the Evil Bodhisattva! As long as it's defeated within a hundred days, we can seize this lifeline and save everyone!"
But you have to be able to seize it.
If not, when the hundred days pass, everything turns to ash!
But how to eradicate the Evil Bodhisattva?
The Evil Bodhisattva wields immense magical power, its demonic domain enveloping a hundred li, trapping people inescapably as they turn to porcelain.
The Evil Bodhisattva's combat prowess is staggering too—Young Master Xiao, Granny Sha, Li Jindou, and Jin Hongying clashed with it, and the four experts were reduced to cripples!
Right now, what method is there to deal with the Evil Bodhisattva?
"Little Ten, what's your method for survival?"
Chen Yindu asked.
Chen Shi pulled back his wandering thoughts and said,
"The Evil Bodhisattva's demonic domain covers only the阳间 world—it can't reach the underworld. So I plan to use the great kun fish in the De River to go to the underworld's River of Forgetfulness. Follow that river downstream a hundred li to exit the domain's range, then return to the阳间 via another great kun. That way, we escape the demonic domain."
Chen Yindu shook his head.
"The great kun in the De River now are either porcelainized or fled to the underworld or upstream and downstream—I'm afraid there are none left inside."
Chen Shi's eyes sparkled as he smiled.
"The De River's waters flow ceaselessly, unpredictable, and so do the fish. If we guard upstream or downstream, we'll surely encounter great kun that stray into the domain. In other words, we still have a chance to escape!"
Chen Yindu thought for a moment and said,
"One great kun can only carry us two grandsons, maybe Blackie Pot at most. The three of us can sit inside the big fish's mouth as it carries us roaming between yin and yang realms, escaping the demonic domain!"
At that moment, Li Tianqing's voice came,
"Little Ten, we're planning to challenge the Evil Bodhisattva again. We need your help cracking the talismans on its body!"
Chen Shi stood and looked toward the voice. Young Master Xiao's carriage was parked outside.
"Grandpa, I'll go help them first."
Chen Shi walked out, then suddenly paused and turned back.
"Two days—two days at most. If we still can't deal with the Evil Bodhisattva, our family leaves the demonic domain! As for the others... let them face their fates!"
Chen Yindu nodded with a smile.
"Good, Little Ten. That's our deal. Go on now."
Chen Shi hurried to the carriage, hopped on, and it sped away.
This time, Blackie Pot didn't follow but stayed by Chen Yindu's side.
The Black-Clothed Xuan Mountain approached Chen Yindu, gazing at the departing carriage, and said,
"Chen Shi has become a remarkable young man. Perhaps he doesn't need your care anymore and can live well on his own."
Chen Yindu was gratified and smiled.
"He's indeed grown a lot—even found the loophole in the demonic domain."
The Black-Clothed Xuan Mountain said,
"He's like a weed, with tenacious vitality. You always worry he can't survive without you, but I think he's trying hard to show you he can live on, so you don't have to worry."
Chen Yindu's spirits lifted as he said,
"Xuan Mountain, you should let these people turn to porcelain—no more delaying. Porcelainized, they might still live; protecting them forcibly might really starve them to death."
The Black-Clothed Xuan Mountain asked,
"Once they're porcelainized, will anyone save them?"
"There will be. There definitely will be."
The Black-Clothed Xuan Mountain gave him a deep look. Suddenly, the invisible spiritual force blanketing the mountaintop began to dissipate, and the Evil Bodhisattva's power started invading.
On the mountaintop, people continued their tasks—caring for the elderly, nursing children. In others' eyes, their movements slowed, gradually turning to porcelain.
But in their own eyes, the world remained unchanged; they conversed and lived at normal speed.
This was the world of the porcelain people, unknown to outsiders.
The carriage carried Chen Shi straight to Bridge Bay Town, with Young Master Xiao and Li Tianqing aboard. Upon reaching the town and turning through several streets, they arrived at the local paper mill.
The town was long deserted, save for a few porcelain figures standing about and some evil spirits skulking in the shadows. Seeing the carriage, the spirits dared not approach.
The paper mill drew water from a small river, using the drop to power a waterwheel. The wheel drove the grindstone, rotating circle after circle, pulverizing the near-rotten shreds of bamboo and grass into pulp.
Outside was a pool soaking more bamboo and grass shreds, rotted to a stinking mess—long overdue for retrieval. But the mill workers, turned to porcelain by the waterwheel, left no one to work.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing hauled stack after stack of paper. Relying on his near-demonic memory and observation, Li Tianqing sketched the talisman patterns he'd seen on the Evil Bodhisattva, while Chen Shi filled in the gaps and corrections where he'd missed or erred.
The two worked in perfect tandem, swiftly.
The Evil Bodhisattva bore countless talisman patterns, some hidden in secretive spots like ear holes, navels, weapon-gripping palms, and insides of fingers.
Though Li Tianqing observed meticulously, for these hidden talismans, he could only draw halves or even fragments.
That's when Chen Shi, drawing on his talisman knowledge, completed the missing parts.
A day later, Young Master Xiao brought Granny Sha, Jin Hongying, and Li Jindou to the paper mill. The four entered and were deeply stunned.
The two-to-three-acre paper mill was plastered and hung everywhere with talisman sheets—hundreds, perhaps four or five hundred!
Some talismans were simple in structure, others exceedingly complex.
"I've categorized these talismans into eight major classes based on the power they contain and the Evil Bodhisattva's weapons."
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing looked fatigued yet spirited. They moved to the first class of talismans, where Li Tianqing said,
"This class belongs to the solar system, corresponding to the sun pearl in the Evil Bodhisattva's grasp. Represented by talismans like Solar Divine Fire, Nine Yang Thunder Fire, Six Yang Heavenly Ledger, and such. Its activation path starts from the talisman in the left eye of the Joyful Head, flowing down through the heart, along the arm holding the sun pearl to the palm, igniting the Five Yang True Thunder talisman in the palm center and those on the fingers, then activating the sun pearl to form an assault."
Chen Shi held a thin bamboo pole and said,
"This assault combines fifty-two talisman powers, plus its own vast demonic might—immensely powerful. When it raises the sun pearl, strike the Yang Fire True Talisman at its sun-pearl-holding wrist to sever the chain, reducing this strike's power to two or three tenths."
Young Master Xiao, Granny Sha, and the others were profoundly shaken, finding it hard to believe.
Could two children really have figured this out?
Li Tianqing also wielded a thin bamboo pole, pointing to an image of the eight-armed, four-headed Fighting Mother Bodhisattva, and said,
"This pathway has several intercept points: at Sibai, Futu, Wrist Five Li, Hand Three Li, and Hegu. Hitting these acupoints in battle can halve the Evil Bodhisattva's solar-system spell power."
The two moved to the next class of talismans, the lunar system, corresponding to the right eye of the Wrathful Head and the moon-pearl-holding arm.
They explained methodically, detailing the major lunar talismans, then revealing how to counter their weaknesses and disrupt activation arrays. The four listeners were utterly astonished.
Jin Hongying whispered,
"If we'd known this method earlier, I alone could have taken down the Evil Bodhisattva in the first battle."
Young Master Xiao praised,
"The young are to be feared."
Though mere boys of ten-odd years, Chen Shi and Li Tianqing simplified the complex, classifying over four hundred talismans, explaining them fully, and detailing counters for all eight classes—igniting greater hope.
"This battle, we've got an eight-in-ten chance of victory!"
Li Jindou laughed.
Young Master Xiao headed out and said,
"Time to find the Evil Bodhisattva and end this magical calamity!"
Granny Sha lifted her Sheep-Horn Heavenly Spirit Lamp and laughed.
"These two little ones contributed so much to slaying the demon—we old folks have no choice but to fight with our lives!"
They boarded the carriage, which departed.
Li Jindou poked his head from the carriage and laughed.
"You two little guys, find a safe spot to hide and await our good news!"
Li Tianqing watched them go and said,
"The adults go to fight—what do we do?"
Chen Shi's eyes gleamed as he said,
"Tianqing, remember the Zhao camp's location? If the adults defeat the Evil Bodhisattva and everyone returns to normal, won't the Zhao family just swagger back to the provincial city without punishment?"
Li Tianqing probed,
"You mean...?"
Chen Shi grinned.
"God Machine Battalion's cannons—left unused long, might they rust?"
Li Tianqing jumped in shock.
"Using the Red夷 cannons to blast the Zhao camp—won't that be too flashy?"
Even as he spoke, excitement flickered in his eyes. Chen Shi cracked his knuckles.
"I wonder if that Golden Core expert from the Zhao family can withstand the Red夷 cannons."