novelraw Chapter 50 Death-Substitute Paper Doll
Chapter 50 Death-Substitute Paper Doll
Chapter 50: Death-Substitute Paper Doll
“Hmm? What’s this?”
Inside the jade box lay quietly a bead the size of a dove’s egg. It resembled a drop of crystal-clear water, reflecting a glistening radiance.
Song Changsheng picked it up with his thumb and forefinger. It felt cool to the touch and featherlight almost weightless.
“This looks familiar… Could it be… a Water-Avoiding Pearl?” A flash of insight passed through Song Changsheng’s mind, and he blurted it out.
The Water-Avoiding Pearl was not a magic tool, but rather a pearl formed within a clam demon. It bore no specific grade, but if held in the mouth while entering water, it allowed one to move freely underwater.
It was of little use to high-level cultivators, but for those beneath the Purple Mansion stage, it was still a practical and valuable item.
This was a promising start. Song Changsheng then opened the second white jade box, which contained a shriveled, brown seed. Although not well-versed in the path of spiritual flora, he could still tell that this seed had lost all its vitality.
“Ai… what a pity. For the master of that cave abode to have carried this seed on his person, it must not have been ordinary. What a lost opportunity!”
He sighed in regret but still kept the seed, intending to bring it back to the Grand Elder, who was a third-rank low-grade spiritual botanist. Perhaps he might find some way to salvage it.
“Only this last one remains. I hope it won’t disappoint.”
He opened the final vermilion-colored jade box. At a glance, his brows immediately furrowed, inside lay a paper slip no more than half a foot in length.
Lifting it out, he found it was a carefully cut paper figurine, with simple facial features drawn in cinnabar. It looked rather comical.
Turning it over, he saw a bright red character on its back "substitute."
Song Changsheng’s eyes widened in surprise and delight. “Could this be the legendary Death-Substitute Paper Doll?”
The Death-Substitute Paper Doll was a treasure that could only be crafted by puppet masters at third rank or above. As the name implied, it could take a fatal blow in place of its owner. The one in his hand was a first-rank variant, usable by cultivators in the Qi Refinement stage.
This was a rare and priceless item, not something one could easily purchase even with gold. Even if he didn’t need it himself, he could gift it to a younger clan member or sell it to the family, it was a wonderful find either way.
“With this in hand, it’s like having an extra life.” Unable to suppress his joy, Song Changsheng bit his index finger to draw a drop of gleaming, crystalline blood.
This drop of essence blood, infused with his cultivation, would activate the doll’s effect once it was placed close to his body.
As the blood dripped down, the originally white paper doll turned crimson. He placed it against his chest and immediately felt a sense of comfort settle over him.
“I wonder what was in that jade box Fellow Daoist Zhuang took from me. It probably wasn’t ordinary either.” Song Changsheng mused silently, though he felt no regret.
After all, he had gained quite the bargain from Zhuang Yuechan.
With that thought, he retrieved the two jade slips he had obtained. The one in his left hand he had already glanced through, it recorded a second-rank artifact crafting legacy. It differed from the Song Clan’s teachings and had its own subtleties, complementing what he already knew and yielding great benefits.
One section in particular, detailing the crafting of gourd-type artifacts, had given him much inspiration and allowed him to develop a new method for refining his own treasure gourd.
But that was merely icing on the cake. The true treasure lay in the jade slip held in his right hand, the one containing a formation legacy.
When he had first skimmed its contents, he had immediately resolved to trade for it, no matter the cost!
Previously injured and needing to stabilize his cultivation in formations, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to properly study it. But now, the timing was right.
Placing the jade slip to his forehead, a soft glow shimmered around him, and the contents of the slip surged into his sea of consciousness.
The knowledge came in waves, text, illustrations, and even sound.
They poured in like a tide, forming within Song Changsheng’s mind a phantom figure, a youthful image clad in white robes, a green longsword strapped to his back, smiling faintly at him.
In his spiritual state, Song Changsheng was momentarily dazed. He had not expected these fragmented inheritances to coalesce into a human figure within his mind.
Was it an illusion? A lingering soul?
“Successor, do not be alarmed. This is merely a small trick I left behind within the legacy, it won’t harm you,” the white-robed figure suddenly spoke.
“You are…?”
Before Song Changsheng could finish asking, the figure continued on its own:
“Let me introduce myself first. I am He Yunxuan, from the Array Path Academy.
“At the age of thirty, I reached the rank of peak second-rank formation mastery. But at that time, I encountered a bottleneck. In order to make further progress, I left the academy and began traveling the world, eventually arriving in the cultivation world of Great Qi.
“It was there that I broke through my bottleneck and achieved the rank of third-rank low-grade formation master. Just as I was preparing to return, I happened upon a grievously wounded Purple Mansion demonic cultivator.
“We fought for three days. With the aid of formations and the life-saving means bestowed by my elders, I managed to slay him but sustained severe injuries in the process.
“Knowing my time was short, I established a cave dwelling and decided to pass down everything I’d learned to someone fated.”
Upon hearing He Yunxuan’s words, Song Changsheng’s heart burned with fervor. This person hailed from the Array Path Academy, the sacred land every formation master dreamed of reaching.
Could the legacy within this jade slip truly originate from that academy?
His gaze toward He Yunxuan grew blazing with intensity.
“However, the academy’s techniques are forbidden from being passed on, so what I’ve left behind are merely insights and legacies I acquired during my travels.”
Song Changsheng’s fiery enthusiasm immediately turned to a chill.
“Still, I combined everything I’ve learned to explore a new path, one I call Inscribing Formations Upon the Body. I trust it may bring you some surprises.
“If, in the future, you master this path, I ask only one thing: make a copy of it and deliver it to the Array Path Academy, to a person named Gu Yiyi. This is my one and only wish before death.
“Lastly, about those three jade medallions, they came from the body of that Purple Mansion demon. They appear connected to certain secrets of the Blood Demon Sect.
“Unfortunately, I was too gravely wounded to decipher the mystery. Now I leave it to you. Be warned, it may be perilous. If your cultivation is insufficient, do not throw your life away.
“Yes, that’s all I had to say aloud. The rest… you may study on your own.”
With that, He Yunxuan’s figure gradually grew translucent, finally dissolving back into text, images, and sound, revolving gently within Song Changsheng’s sea of consciousness.
He sat still for a moment, realizing that this elder had likely passed away countless years ago and only now, at last, was truly gone.
Silently, he cupped his hands in salute, a gesture of respect to send off the predecessor.
A long time passed before he began to delve into the formation techniques He Yunxuan had left behind.
Though He Yunxuan had said these teachings did not originate from the academy itself, the profundity of the knowledge far surpassed the Song Clan’s own formation legacy, offering Song Changsheng tremendous inspiration.
Within it, he found the “surprise” He Yunxuan had mentioned, Inscribing Formations Upon the Body.
(Chapter End)