6kv Chapter 116 Beauty Porcelain
Chapter 116 Beauty Porcelain
Night completely swallowed the last trace of the mountains.
Manager Hu carried in a greasy wooden tray, his footsteps sounding particularly clear in the quiet dormitory.
There are five bowls of hot noodle soup on the tray.
The soup was murky and cloudy, with a few wilted vegetable leaves floating on the surface, and two thin slices of fatty meat that were translucent and greasy on the side.
A cloyingly sweet aroma mingled with the steam, forcefully penetrating the nasal cavity.
It wasn't the aroma of food; it was more like a piece of rotten fat sprinkled with damp, cheap rouge powder.
"Please enjoy your meal."
Manager Hu put down the tray, and his left sleeve inadvertently tucked up half an inch.
Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened.
On the shopkeeper's hand, a small patch of skin was a deathly porcelain white, with slightly raised edges.
Like a poorly made glaze that failed to fire, it has the flaw of "glaze peeling".
"Shopkeeper."
Lu Yuan's voice was calm, yet it carried a resounding weight in the room.
"How long have you been open this shop?"
Manager Hu paused for a moment as he put down the tray, his cloudy eyes turning to Lu Yuan, a flash of wariness and impatience crossing his face.
"It was passed down from my ancestors, and it's been there for at least seventy or eighty years."
Lu Yuan picked up his chopsticks but didn't touch them. He simply tapped them lightly on the rim of the bowl, making a crisp sound.
"So, is this skill also passed down through generations?"
His tone remained unchanged, and his expression remained blank.
"The noodles are a complete mess, a failure!"
"The soup smells fishy; it's a failure!"
"The side dishes weren't fresh; it's a failure!"
"Especially these two pieces of fatty meat. If you want to slice them thinly, then slice them properly. Look at what you've sliced!"
"It's nowhere near as good as Lanzhou beef noodles!"
"A complete failure!"
Lu Yuan's words left Shen Shulan and her group, who were standing nearby, completely stunned.
ho~
My uncle is quite the foodie!
Manager Hu was completely bewildered. What was this kid babbling about?
Lu Yuan's question was abrupt, and even carried a hint of nitpicking.
But that was exactly the effect Lu Yuan wanted. He wanted to see what secrets this shopkeeper, who was clearly hiding something, would reveal when pressed. However, Shopkeeper Hu didn't seem to have any intention of getting entangled with Lu Yuan.
Manager Hu's face twitched, and the fresh scratch gleamed a dark red under the oil lamp.
He forced a stiff smile:
"A small shop in the mountains can't compare to a fancy restaurant in the city."
"Please make do with the food, I'll go check if we've added enough hay for the horses."
Manager Hu turned and left, but the moment the curtain fell, the sweet and cloying aroma became even stronger in the dormitory.
The fragrance is all-pervasive, like invisible maggots, trying to crawl into a person's seven orifices.
At this moment, Shen Shulan had already made a move.
He immediately took out a silver box, placed it on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), and opened it gently.
The box was lined with dark green velvet, on which seven objects were neatly arranged.
"Uncle-Master, could you please move the oil lamp closer?"
Shen Shulan's voice was cold, but her eyes were unusually focused.
Before Lu Yuan could even make a move, Tan Jiji immediately stepped forward to help.
Lu Yuan pursed his lips, said nothing, and turned to carefully examine the items in the dormitory room.
Shen Shulan picked up a three-inch silver needle with her delicate hand.
The needle is as thin as a hair, but the tip is triangular and engraved with fine cloud and thunder patterns.
Her wrist was as steady as a rock as she slowly inserted the needle tip into the murky noodle soup.
The moment the needle tip pierced the murky soup
Nourish
The sound was extremely faint, like a drop of water splashing onto a red-hot iron.
Centered on the needle tip, the color of the soup noodles changed drastically, from a murky yellowish-white to a strange, nauseating pinkish-white!
Even more alarming, the rising heat did not dissipate.
They twisted and condensed into a few wisps of pale pink tobacco, swirling and sinking an inch above the rim of the bowl.
Like a vengeful spirit imprisoned, unable to escape, it can only fall back into the soup.
"The heat condenses and does not dissipate; when it encounters the Yang needle, it displays a different color."
Shen Shulan frowned slightly and took out a silver needle.
The tip of the triangular needle was already covered with a sticky, pinkish-white paste, which was slowly flowing downwards.
"It's not poison."
Lu Yuan stood not far away, staring at the paste-like substance, and said in a deep voice:
"Poisonous gas harms the body, foul air harms the spirit."
"This thing is meant to replace a person from the inside out."
Shen Shulan completely agreed with Lu Yuan's words, and nodded repeatedly as she looked at him:
"Uncle-Master is right, it is indeed about changing one's Qi!"
Shen Shulan truly admired Lu Yuan immensely; he seemed to know everything.
Of course, Shen Shulan had met people like this before.
Or rather, such people are not uncommon in Wuqing Temple. Take Shen Shulan's father, Shen Jizhou, for example.
I've watched Shen Shulan grow up since she was a child.
But all of those people were old men, unlike Lu Yuan, who was so young yet knew so much.
Shen Shulan had never seen anything like it before!
Moreover, Shen Shulan was present when Crane Celestial Venerable spoke with Shen Jizhou that night.
He also learned that his Uncle-Master Lu Yuan was someone who had only been in the sect for a year and a half.
Knowing all this at the time, Shen Shulan was incredibly impressed with Lu Yuan.
As soon as Shen Shulan finished speaking, Tan Jiji curiously leaned over and asked:
"Convert to gas?"
It's unclear whether Tan Jiji genuinely didn't know or was trying to find an opportunity to get closer to Shen Shulan.
However, it was obvious that Shen Shulan didn't like this way of trying to get close to him, hmm...
Of course, it could also be that they dislike Tan Jiji as a person, rather than her methods...
But due to the politeness he had cultivated since childhood, Shen Shulan still responded earnestly:
"It's about changing a person's original aura and complexion."
Then Shen Shulan looked at Lu Yuan, who was wandering around the room examining things, and said:
"With long-term consumption, a person's yang energy will be gradually eroded and replaced by this 'porcelain powder' energy."
"The skin will gradually lose its natural luster, becoming smooth, cold, and reflective... like porcelain."
Shen Shulan felt that what she said was absolutely right, but she still subconsciously wanted to gain Lu Yuan's approval.
This feeling is still quite strange.
Just like one plus one equals two, that's absolutely true.
But Shen Shulan just wanted to see Lu Yuan nod, so that she would feel that she really did nothing wrong.
Lu Yuan, who was observing the room, nodded slightly and said:
"That's right."
A hint of joy at being recognized flashed in Shen Shulan's beautiful eyes.
Xu Erxiao and Wang Chengan, who were standing to the side, subconsciously touched their faces.
Then, seemingly remembering the pale, bluish face of Young Master Sun from earlier, he quickly moved away from the soup noodles.
I'm terrified that I'll end up like that.
Shen Shulan then put down the silver needles and picked up a jade bowl.
Carefully pick up a piece of fatty meat with chopsticks, along with a little noodle soup, and place it in a bowl.
She made a hand seal with her fingertips and quickly recited in a low voice:
"The Supreme Purity Mirror reveals the form, and the impure substance manifests!"
A tiny speck of light, the size of a grain of rice, flicked from her fingertip and fell into the bowl.
哗
The soup in the bowl caused the meat to tremble violently!
An unbelievable scene unfolded.
The soup naturally separates into layers, with a rainbow-colored oil film floating on top, which is corpse oil mixed with aged rouge.
The middle layer of soup turns into a pure pinkish-white color, which is made of porcelain clay and unknown pollen.
And that thin layer of fat shrank and faded at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It eventually becomes a translucent, creamy texture with a layer of oily glaze on the surface!
It was no longer meat, but a... tiny piece of porcelain!
"At the very bottom..."
Shen Shulan's voice trembled slightly as she gently used the tip of her chopsticks to remove the grayish-white residue at the bottom of the bowl.
Mixed in with the dregs were tiny, crystalline particles that reflected a chilling, fragmented light under the lamp.
"It's bone meal..."
Shen Shulan gasped and looked up at Lu Yuan.
"Uncle-Master, it's not animal bones, it's human bones!"
"It's a woman's finger bone, which was fired in a kiln for who knows how many years before being ground into powder."
"This soup... uses human bones as seasoning and corpse oil as the broth. It's meant to turn anyone who eats it into a 'beauty porcelain'!" Lu Yuan's expression remained completely calm, as if Shen Shulan's astonishing discovery was exactly what he had expected.
He simply turned around and waved towards the corner of the wall.
"Come here, everyone."
Look here.
His voice was soft, yet it was like a nail, piercing the tense hearts of everyone present.
Tan Jiji and Xu Erxiao immediately followed, surrounding Lu Yuan from behind, even their breathing became soft.
Lu Yuan stood by the earthen wall at the innermost side of the dormitory.
The dim light of the oil lamp cast a long shadow of his, like a silent ghost on the mottled wall, swaying gently with the flame. He did not turn around.
He simply raised his hand, his index fingertip brushing against the wall.
It was covered with a layer of yellowed old newspapers, the edges of which were already curled up, revealing the dark mud and ash underneath.
Lu Yuan's fingertip finally stopped at a corner with lead type printing.
Fengtian Commercial Daily, July of the 23rd year of Guangxu's reign.
Below the date, there is a line of blurry small print.
"Kiln owner Liu respectfully announces to all that the newly fired 'Beauty Porcelain' will be opened to the public during the Mid-Autumn Festival. We cordially invite you to appreciate it."
"Guang...Guangxu?"
Xu Erxiao leaned closer, his eyes wide open:
"Senior brother, this newspaper... is it from the Qing Dynasty?!"
His face was full of disbelief, then he scratched his head and muttered something awkwardly.
"Well... what's wrong, Brother Lu?"
"Isn't it normal to use old newspapers to wallpaper walls in the countryside?"
"There are plenty of those old mud-brick houses in our village."
However, without Lu Yuan needing to explain, Wang Cheng'an slapped Xu Erxiao on the back of the head from behind and muttered a curse:
"You're so stupid!!"
"Look at this newspaper. It's old, but you can still tear it off if you touch it!"
"If this really existed from the 23rd year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign until now, it would crumble at the slightest touch!!"
"This newspaper will only be up for a few years at most!"
Before Xu Erxiao could react after Wang Cheng'an finished speaking, Lu Yuan spoke up again:
Look at this!
Lu Yuan turned and walked to an old square table in the corner, where a pair of chopsticks sat alone.
It's made of bamboo, and it's very ordinary.
But at the end of each chopstick, a small piece of faded red string is tied with a simple auspicious knot.
"Chopsticks tied with a red string."
Lu Yuan picked up the chopsticks, holding one end in each hand, and pulled them sharply to the sides.
The red rope was taut, making a slight "creaking" sound, but it was exceptionally strong and did not break.
"In the past, there was a custom in the old kiln sites outside the Great Wall: 'The kiln site meal is tied with a red string.'"
His voice sounded exceptionally clear in the quiet room.
"When kiln workers eat, their chopsticks must be tied with red strings to prevent the 'porcelain spirits' fired in the kiln from stealing the yang energy of the living."
Everyone was stunned.
Lu Yuan put down his chopsticks and glanced at them.
"But this old method was abolished in the early years of the Republic of China. The kilns outside the Great Wall adopted Western methods and stopped using this method."
"If these chopsticks were left over from a long time ago, they wouldn't be this new, and the rope wouldn't be this strong either; it would break so easily." For a moment, after Lu Yuan's words, the four of them looked at each other.
I think I understand what it means now...
Everything here seems to have been moved here exactly as it was from a point in time long ago.
At this moment, Lu Yuan's gaze fell on an object in the far corner of the heated brick bed.
He pointed in that direction.
"If everything before was just a coincidence..."
"Then adding this makes it definitely not true."
It was a ceramic chamber pot, crudely shaped, with a somewhat crooked spout.
However, on its earthen-yellow body, a few simple lotus patterns are painted with black pigment.
The lotus flower was drawn upside down.
The lotus seedpod faces downwards, while the petals face upwards.
"Upside-down lotus".
Lu Yuan said coldly:
"These are funerary objects used to accompany those who died violent deaths."
"A living person, especially one in an inn, would never use utensils with such patterns, unless..."
Xu Erxiao swallowed and said:
"Unless this house was originally intended for the dead."
Lu Yuan neither nodded nor shook his head, but continued:
"It's not that simple."
"This is not only a graveyard from the Guangxu era, but we have also entered the illusionary formation of this graveyard."
At this point, Lu Yuan paused, thought carefully for a moment, and then said:
"To be precise, we have already entered the breeding ground of the Beauty Porcelain."
"This is the kiln site."
"It's an outer kiln where 'living human porcelain' is being fired..."
Ignoring the bewildered looks on the faces of the crowd, Lu Yuan walked to the door alone and looked out again.
The corridor was pitch black, but the sweet, cloying fragrance was even stronger, seeping in through the cracks in the doors and windows.
From the direction of the main house, the woman's giggles could be faintly heard again.
This time the sound was clearer, and it was mixed with the gentle clinking of porcelain, as if someone was playing with the cups.
"Listen carefully again."
Lu Yuan lowered his voice.
Everyone held their breath.
That giggle... didn't seem to be coming from the main room next door, which was separated by only one wall.
It seemed as if it were drifting in from a very, very far place, across water and mist.
The laughter trailed off with a strange, hollow echo.
It's like a person speaking inside a huge porcelain kiln; the sound hits the smooth kiln wall and bounces back again and again.
Even more bizarre was the rhythm of the laughter.
It's too predictable.
It's like a recorded play being played repeatedly.
Every giggle, every pause, even every breath she took was perfectly timed.
After listening to it several times, everyone could even predict when the next laugh would break out.
"This isn't a living person laughing."
Tan Jiji, who had been silent all along, suddenly said:
"It's a phonograph..."
"Or rather, it is a kind of recorded 'sound remnant'."
"Playing on and on repeat..."
The oil lamp flame flickered on its own without any wind, suddenly leaping up and stretching the shadows of the people on the wall into ghostly shapes.
Dead silence.
The air inside the dormitory seemed to be permeated, solidified, and weighed heavily on everyone's hearts by that sweet aroma.
Who are these people?
Lu Yuan and Shen Shulan, two legitimate Taoist masters!
And Tan Jiji, standing next to her...
It's hard to say.
However, since he dared to go looking for trouble with the Ghost-Controlling Liu family all by himself, he must be quite formidable.
Of course, Tan Jiji also said that it was because the Xingyou family's methods were a natural counter to the Yugui Liu family's methods!
But you can see the true nature of Tan Jiji after spending a day with her.
He is a very low-key person, and when he says those things, it's mostly out of humility.
Tan Jiji's strength should not be underestimated; she should at least be around the Celestial Master realm.
I've already mentioned how rare these Celestial Masters are.
Looking at Lu Yuan, and seeing that everyone around him seemed to be a Taoist master, made him think that Taoist masters were commonplace.
In reality, there were only a handful of Celestial Masters in this vast area outside the Great Wall.
The Celestial Masters can truly be considered the top-tier combat force among the Taoist sects outside the Great Wall.
These three celestial masters, without even realizing it, stepped into someone else's illusionary formation.
This is enough to show that the danger here is far beyond imagination.
Lu Yuan's gaze fell on the chamber pot painted with an inverted lotus.
He got it.
No wonder the Nourishing Ground of Fallen Face Slope has been able to operate safely for decades, and no one has been able to break it.
The root of the problem lies in this inn, which is off-limits to the living.
Countless curious people have entered this door, only to never leave again.
"Gulp."
Xu Erxiao and Wang Chengan's Adam's apples bobbed, and their faces turned somewhat pale.
But upon seeing Lu Yuan's calm back, that deep-seated fear was forcibly suppressed.
With Brother Lu around, the sky won't fall down!
Xu Erxiao steadied himself and mustered his courage to speak:
"What kind of bullshit illusion array is this? It's only good for scaring laymen!"
"Isn't it because you glared right through me, Brother Lu!"
Wang Cheng'an nodded repeatedly beside him, as if encouraging himself:
"That's right! They're all paper tigers in front of Brother Lu!"
Despite the two teenagers' flattery and encouragement, Lu Yuan showed no sign of relief.
He shook his head, his voice filled with an unprecedented solemnity.
"No, it's very powerful."
"The formation is so profound that it can trap the three of us without us even realizing it."
The reason why so many "loopholes" are left is not because it is weak, but because it is "invisible".
Lu Yuan's words made everyone's expressions stiffen.
Can't see it?
Seeing the puzzled looks on everyone's faces, Lu Yuan slowly explained:
"This entire illusion array is built upon Liu Ruyan's resentment and memories."
"In other words, everything here is a reflection of the world she lived in before she died."
At this point, he noticed that even Shen Shulan and Tan Jiji's expressions were extremely tense, and the atmosphere in the room was so oppressive that it was about to explode.
Lu Yuan changed the subject abruptly, deliberately adopting a relaxed tone:
"It's like a baby having a wet dream. It wakes up at the crucial moment, or it moves on to another dream."
"Because the young child has never experienced it, he cannot even dream about it."
Everyone:....
Oh, I forgot, everyone present except Lu Yuan seems to be...
Ignoring the awkwardness of the crowd, Lu Yuan looked around the room, which exuded the style of the late Qing Dynasty.
"Liu Ruyan died in the past, so in the illusion she created, there are newspapers from that era and the old rules of the kiln workers."
"But she hasn't seen things from our time, so she can't 'think' about them."
"She could only clumsily imitate and replace things using objects from her memory, which is why we could see the flaws everywhere."
"So, it's not that the illusion is weak."
Lu Yuan's voice trailed off.
"But we... come from a future it cannot comprehend."
These words caused Shen Shulan and Tan Jiji's faces to darken completely.
They instantly understood the deeper meaning behind Lu Yuan's words.
The power of this illusion array lies precisely in its "realism".
If they were truly a group of travelers from the Guangxu era, they probably wouldn't have noticed anything amiss until they were turned into "living porcelain"! "We must break through this formation immediately!"
Shen Shulan's voice was cold and clear, and her fingertips had already formed a magic seal.
"That's right."
Tan Jiji also said in a deep voice:
"If you stay in a place like this for too long, the yang energy of a living person will be gradually worn away. Even if the formation is broken, the person will be ruined."
Just then, the commotion from the main house suddenly intensified.
It was like a silent film reaching its climax.
Everyone immediately crowded to the window and pried open the hole again to look outside.
Inside the main room, the three "women" who had been serving drinks had somehow stood up and were now surrounding Young Master Sun.
One of them, wearing a light red shirt, had his back to the window, raised his arms high, seemingly stretching out in an incredibly alluring way.
Under the light, a clear line appeared on the back of her bare neck.
That's not the texture of human skin.
It is the "joining line" left when two pieces of clay are joined together during the firing of porcelain!
The lines are eerily smooth, extending downwards from the center of the back of the neck and disappearing deep into the collar.
"It's not parasitic."
It's "substitute"!
Lu Yuan said firmly.
"for"?
Everyone suddenly turned to look at him.
"Some evil entities cannot directly possess a living person's body, so they use special materials, such as jade, porcelain, and wood, to first create a 'false body.' Then, they gradually extract the living person's three souls and seven spirits and guide them into the false body."
Lu Yuan's voice was terrifyingly low.
"This process is very slow. The person being 'replaced' is completely unaware, only feeling that they are becoming more and more 'beautiful,' and their skin is becoming smoother and smoother. 'Until one day, his soul is completely drained, becoming one with that object, while his original body turns into a skeleton.' Xu Erxiao gasped, his teeth chattering."
"That...that Young Master Sun..."
Lu Yuan lowered the window paper, his eyes cold.
He is already in the process of "replacing" someone, and it is almost finished.
"His skin and flesh are becoming porcelain, his yang energy is mixed with death energy... He is not far from becoming something."
The voice just fell.
Suddenly, a soft rustling sound came from outside the door.
The sound was very soft and fragmented.
It's like countless feet wearing embroidered shoes gently rubbing against the ground.
It was like... a pile of porcelain colliding with each other in the dark, making a faint, crisp sound.
The sound grew louder as it approached, finally stopping outside the dormitory door.
crunch.
The flame of the oil lamp suddenly dimmed, the light became thirty percent dimmer, and the whole room became gloomy.
The heavy curtain, without a breath of wind, slowly opened a crack on its own.
One eye.
An eye without a pupil, its whites displaying a cold, porcelain-like luster, pressed itself tightly against the crack in the door, peering inside.
Finally, he met Lu Yuan's gaze.