Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

Chapter 132 Stream of Consciousness Specialization

If it were nighttime, this zombie-like tiger would add an even more eerie atmosphere to the ruins. This place already has elements of a murder scene, ghost stories, and cult tales, plus a zombie-like tiger, making it a free horror movie experience at night.

Unfortunately, it's daytime now, so the atmosphere of the scene is a bit lacking. Among the main characters facing these challenges are two bodyguards with innate martial arts skills, plus two seemingly timid but actually incredibly audacious artists.

Because of the enemy's unique ability to appear and disappear unpredictably, the fact that the other party could know their movements so quickly and then react accordingly was not surprising to Shuangxiu. Shadows are indeed difficult to defend against.

If he could remain calm and hidden in the shadows, Shuang Xiu would have a hard time detecting the enemy's proximity, only realizing their presence when they attacked. In previous encounters, the enemy frequently employed this tactic—a highly effective assassination method. Unfortunately, the two possessed high defense and quick reflexes, preventing their sneak attacks from succeeding.

But the fact that he's so eager to reveal his previously hidden abilities shows that this place is truly special to him. It's probably not a coincidence that he was chased here; he genuinely wanted to do something here.

Even if they're being chased and can't return to their base or get close to other strongholds, they can still manage to do other things that seem to be part of the illegal transmigrators' plans while escaping alone. So how come these people are so persistent? The illegal system really hit the jackpot by choosing you guys as villains.

"This tiger is already dead; let him rest in peace."

The closer the tiger got, the clearer its wounds became. Juan Shoutian had only left a shallow mark, enough to draw some blood and be fine. What truly killed it was a tiny penetrating wound on its head, as if someone had used something like a thin awl to pierce through the tiger's skull.

Thus, the tiger died, its body controlled by an unknown force, and it walked step by step towards this place. The person controlling it probably thought they would be afraid because of the tiger's appearance.

Juan Shoutian decisively chopped off the tiger's head. As a result, even after the head was severed, the body continued to move forward, and the head that rolled to the side was still making low growls. However, because the neck had been cut off, all that came out of its growls were strange sounds of blood foam and air leaking from the trachea.

It can move even without a head. It's basically a tiger toy with puppet strings tied to it. No matter how badly it's destroyed, as long as the strings are still there, the controlled parts can keep moving.

Ultimately, in order to ensure that the tiger's body was completely "dead," Juan Shoutian used one of the most common outcomes when innate humans fought, blasting it into a pile of fragments.

Even after the tiger's body was shattered, no trace of it appeared on the ground. When the bits of flesh mixed with blood mist were scattered on the ground, some black, liquid-like substances spread out on the ground, spreading out like a large puddle of ink.

But in reality, there was no other liquid on the ground besides bloody stool; this "ink" was actually just a shadow that appeared suddenly.

Upon seeing this thing, Juan Shoutian and Yuan Wuxiang almost reflexively rushed forward to attack. This was not the shadow of a tiger, but an illegal traveler controlling the tiger's corpse.

The opponent clearly knew he was going to be attacked, and he fled very quickly. After fighting for so long, he and Shuangxiu had developed a certain tacit understanding; if one of them attacked quickly, the other would run away quickly as well.

Only Juan Shoutian's sword struck the shadow. Based on experience, this sword should only damage the ground where the shadow was located, and the shadow itself would be unharmed.

"what--!"

But the next instant, a heart-wrenching scream rang out. Even Yuan Wuxiang was startled by the piercing scream. At this moment, the shadow on the ground had already quickly fled into other shadows. In the absence of light, it was truly impossible to catch him.

The person ran away, and Yuan Wuxiang decisively gave up the attack. He turned to look at Juan Shoutian. The scream just now was because Juan Shoutian had attacked the shadow. Unlike before, this time he actually injured the opponent.

But this isn't right. It didn't work so many times before, so why did the opponent cry out as soon as Juan Shou Tian attacked today?

"Friend, what did you just do?"

"I will try to attack using techniques other than the Nine Yang Heavenly Technique."

"Besides the Nine Yang Heavenly Technique, there's... wait, so you can use it directly?"

Judging from his expression, what surprised people more than the fact that he had successfully attacked an enemy with unpredictable abilities was the principle behind Juan Shou Tian's attack.

The Nine Yang Heavenly Technique is a cultivation technique that Juan Shoutian mastered in Dao Zhen. However, beneath this Daoist cultivation level, there is another technique. Generally speaking, only when the surface Daoist technique is destroyed will the suppressed layer be revealed.

It's like the final boss of the game, with a second phase after the first. Oh well, let's not worry about the details.

"Well, let's go back first."

Yuan Wuxiang pulled Juan Shoutian back to the location of the mural. Everything had happened too fast. Bai Huashi and the others only saw the tiger's body being smashed, and then the two people in front of them suddenly rushed up to attack the place where the fragments fell. Immediately afterward, there was a piercing scream, and then a black thing disappeared into the depths of the jungle at an incredible speed.

The whole process happened very quickly, in just a few breaths. Yuan Wuxiang pulled Juan Shoutian back. They rushed directly into a blood mist and returned without a drop of blood on them, which was truly unbelievable.

"What just happened?"

The two ordinary people were completely bewildered. Their main purpose here was to hang the arrows, and before they could even react, it was all over.

"How did you do it?"

Upon returning, Yuan Wuxiang first questioned Juan Shoutian, explaining that according to the system's setting where one aspect of his power suppresses the other, it's impossible to switch between them at will. Moreover, given the system's card pool's mechanism of dismantling disguises based on appearance, it's unlikely that Juan Shoutian and Tianjian Feitian would completely merge.

To be honest, it would be terrifying if they really merged.

"Only a very small portion can be mobilized, which will not shake the foundation of the cultivation. It may be... related to the Tianyu Sword Clan."

In fact, what happened just now was just a sudden inspiration for Juan Shoutian. He had thought that shadows only have a visible shape because of light, and light and darkness are opposites. His own power is closely related to the sun. Ignoring the possible system incompatibility issues, if they wanted to attack the enemy's "shadow", they would have to use some special methods.

"Not Heaven" refers to a special state that is neither god, ghost, nor human, but somewhere between them. This stream-of-consciousness setting is somewhat similar to the enemy's strange shadow, so perhaps it's worth a try.

However, he didn't intend to have Tianjian Feitian appear directly. Given the Schrödinger's luck of their main body, Liu Qingyuan, the possibility of accurately drawing the card was not high, but rather that he had no hope at all. Currently, there are several alternate identities that Liu Qingyuan redeemed as needed, such as after taking down Jie Qingyangzi and the others.

After having this idea, Juan Shoutian realized that directly changing his cultivation body wouldn't work, but it seemed feasible to extract some power to "enchant" his weapon. This was probably because, regardless of whether he was Juan Shoutian or Tianjian Feitian, his body was always the same, as was his race, and his power was always there; it was just a matter of the conditions for using it.

"I see."

"...What? So that's how it is?"

The White Painter looked at Juan Shoutian, then at Yuan Wuxiang. Had anything been said just now? Juan Shoutian Daoist only said "what Sword Clan?" How did it all become like this? What exactly did "it all became like this" mean? Can someone translate this for me?

The white-clad painter attempted an encrypted conversation between the two, but ultimately failed to understand. The Wu-clad painter had given up; he couldn't understand either side, so what could he do? Just follow orders.

The enemy has temporarily fled. Their arrival and departure were both inexplicable. In fact, many times, they felt that these illegal travelers seemed to have some kind of obsession, determined to complete their so-called sabotage mission, as if they would have to go back and experience the Ten Great Tortures of the Qing Dynasty if they didn't complete the mission.

The group dug up the blood-stained section of the broken wall and found a large box buried deep beneath it. Surprisingly, the box was unlocked and showed little damage on the outside. However, judging from the soil they dug up, the box had been buried underground for at least several decades. The fact that it was so little damaged suggested that it was protected by some special force.

"That guy rushed out so urgently because of this box?"

The box was covered with circles of Sanskrit characters. Although they were legitimate scriptures, the person who wrote them didn't seem to be very good at it. The characters were crooked and some even looked wrong. In short, it looked like a half-baked attempt.

When the box was opened, a wind chime and a notebook came into view, with a thick red cloth underneath. Judging from the checkered pattern on the cloth, it should be a kasaya (Buddhist robe).

"...It seems like we've wandered onto the wrong set."

Starting with the murals, the temple ruins, the treasures beneath the murals, the kasaya—this doesn't make sense, does it? This kind of plot shouldn't be brought up by the Taoist sect; it should be brought up by the Buddhist sect.

The wind chimes are very ordinary, just the kind that hang under the eaves. They are already rusty. When the wind chimes are picked up, the wind blows around them, the chimes ring, and the murals begin to glow again.

The light was far less dazzling than it had been before Meng Danqing disappeared, and only a small patch of brightly colored area was illuminated. Even so, it was enough to demonstrate the importance of the wind chimes. Moreover, the closer the wind chimes were to the mural, the brighter the light emitted by the mural became.

Looking at the somewhat worn notebook, Juan Shoutian opened it, and the very first sentence made him frown.

"Blood is refined as a catalyst, insects are quenched as medicine, demons extract souls, and souls extract spirits; the method of achieving immortality will bring chaos to the world."

These words sounded ominous, and it seemed like something bad would happen if he continued reading them. Juan Shoutian decisively closed the notebook and turned to look at the kasaya spread out underneath.

The robe is double-sided. One side has a very ordinary seven-striped pattern, while the other side has a bunch of crooked and irregular patterns, like the meridians of the human body, or like mountains and rivers.

Everything here is extraordinary; this ruin is truly a place where hidden talents reside.

As the wind chimes and murals complemented each other, everyone watched as the wind chimes transformed into beams of light and disappeared into the wall. The colors on the murals then gradually became more vibrant, as if someone had repainted the murals, making the picture brighter and the figures on it more lifelike.

No, they really are moving. The figures in the murals have come to life; they are moving. But once they start moving, their appearance changes. They are no longer depicting Buddhist stories, and their clothing is no longer ornate; they look like ordinary commoners.

Then more and more civilians gathered, and three figures who appeared to be leaders emerged. They seemed to possess magical abilities, summoning demons and monsters. Some people in the crowd were raising flags made of rotten sticks and rags. The scene was just like...

"The people rose up in rebellion."

……

"...No wonder I can no longer return to Jinling through the murals."

After listening to Mo Xunzong's words, Meng Danqing suddenly realized that after the matter in the capital was resolved, he originally wanted to use the shortcut of the mural to return to Jinling first and then come to Zhaoyue Wuque. However, the old monk told him that the mural in Jinling had completed its final mission, its spiritual energy was exhausted, and it could no longer be used.

Finally, it was Shu Longqin who went to the north to bring Meng Danqing back, and only then did the Yue family's team-building plan finally take shape.

"Based on the enemy's movements, Master and the others suspect that the pattern on the kasaya is related to the spiritual veins."

On the table in front of Mo Xunzong was a paper rubbing of the pattern of a kasaya. Because the pattern was abstract and had not been labeled, it was currently unclear what it depicted.

If it's described as the blood vessels and veins inside the human body, the overall shape is incorrect; if it's described as a map depicting mountains and rivers, it doesn't match any particular place.

Since the old monk was born from the combination of the painter's blood and a Bodhisattva image from the mural, and also possesses the painter's memories, we can just ask him directly. Anyway, everyone is already planning to take action against the illegal transmigrators, so it's time for Liu Qingyuan and the natives to unite and cooperate.

Moreover, there was a wind chime in the box. Meng Danqing knew the significance of the wind chime to the murals and the old monk, so the box was very likely left behind by the old monk from back then.

But when Shuangxiu made a rubbing of the picture on the kasaya and was just waiting for someone to take the picture to inquire, the old monk suddenly disappeared. It was probably because what happened in the temple was too eye-catching, and the capital was now paying close attention to it. The Yan family was in deep trouble, and he went to hide away in peace and quiet in order not to arouse suspicion.

Why are you hiding away for peace and quiet? Come out and answer my questions, master! You disappear halfway through the riddle, the riddle teller vanishes without a trace, are you paying homage to the plot-driven death scenes in a martial arts drama?

In short, the old monk who was suspected of knowing the truth has disappeared, and everyone can only figure it out themselves. Mo Xunzong was ordered by his own master to come to Yue Wuque to communicate information so that they could figure it out together.

As for Shuangxiu, they continued to hunt down the enemy. Juan Shoutian confirmed that some stream-of-consciousness settings can damage the enemy's stream-of-consciousness abilities, which may also be related to the fact that the world of Liaozhai itself is very stream-of-consciousness.

"In other words, we still have to be constantly wary of the changes at Peking University's Fangxiu and Jian Feitian?"

Yue Wuque seized another key opportunity: if the final guy whose ability was linked to the shadow could only be killed by Tianjian Feitian, Liu Qingyuan would definitely have to reveal his true identity.

What? Why let the system catch them directly? Aren't they face-to-face? Shuangxiu has been chasing them for so long. If Xiaowu could catch them using the system's privileges, he would have caught them long ago. The fact that the shadow is visible but intangible also helps the system catch it.

Having evolved to this level of ability, does it really have to involve destroying the world? The price paid for acquiring this ability is definitely not small. Having the ability to equip oneself with such special powers, why would one need to keep working for the system?

Could it be that this guy acquired his abilities through loans and is currently paying off debts to a bad system with which he signed contracts?