Master of Ten Thousand Foxes-Chapter 49 - 48: The Slave Capture Talisman and Zhao Jing’s Face (Double - ) (Part 2)
A few boys laughed carefreely.
A group of girls frowned and rolled their eyes.
But Bai Mo suddenly realized that although Fang Yuan hadn’t been in the grove for long, Zhao Jing, who went in first, had been in there for quite a while now. Could it be too long? Why hasn’t she come out yet?
Looking around, there was a deep and eerie grove. The trees weren’t very tall, but they were uneven and grew wildly. The entire forest stretched far into the distance, its depth unknown.
"Could something really have happened?
"It can’t be, right? I’m not Conan, walking around and finding trouble wherever I go?"
He glanced at the girls beside him.
"Should we go into the forest and look for Zhang Jian and Fang Yuan?"
The girls sneered. They didn’t find Bai Mo creepy after all, with Bai Mo’s looks, no matter how you look at it, creepy is not a word that comes to mind.
"Bai Mo, don’t be silly!"
"You’re not allowed to ruin their good time."
Bai Mo shook his head. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
"What about Zhao Jing? She went in and hasn’t come out for a long time.
"Is it possible she encountered some situation in there?"
After considering for a moment, whether it was a big deal or a small matter, good or bad, it wasn’t appropriate for so many people to go in.
"You all wait here, I’ll go in myself to see if there’s anything going on."
With that said, he stepped into the grove.
...
Deep in the forest, the scalpel behind Zhao Jing was still flexibly dancing, drawing one bright red stroke after another, forming a complex, eerie, yet uniquely beautiful hieroglyphic symbol.
The person holding the scalpel had chubby white hands.
The owner of these hands was... Fang Bo!
He wore a school uniform, sleeves rolled up, holding the scalpel, carving down stroke by stroke, occasionally flicking his wrist to shake off the blood droplets from the blade. A smile hung on his face, the previously timid and ever-cloudy grievances long gone!
At this moment, he was no longer the fat son slapped by his father, nor No. 47 Middle School’s perennial second place, but a genius Talisman Master! Learned ten thousand runes in a year, ascended to Sequence Nine. In two years, completed all Sequence Nine practices, only one final step away from Sequence Eight!
He didn’t know Zhao Jing... Maybe they had crossed paths at school before, maybe even exchanged a few words? But that didn’t matter anymore!
As his scalpel danced, leaving strokes behind, his mind already had no room for "Zhao Jing." What he could perceive was the resistance of this slightly yellow skin to the scalpel; the life and soul beneath his brush were coursing and transforming into another form by the runes under his brush.
In his mind, the vast knowledge of the Talisman Dao surged, collided, and verified itself!
"Yes!
"It’s done!
"Exactly!
"Just like that!
"I understand now..."
More and more questions in his mind were resolved; more and more knowledge glittered. Everything learned over the past three years was mobilized, his state, his emotions, his Forehead Sea of Consciousness... all mobilized!
His scalpel descended with the final stroke, heavily leaving a thick ink dot on Zhao Jing’s spine!
Clang...
He seemed to hear a crisp sound; it was as if something shattered in his mind, as if some acupoint was opened!
"Huh? I’ve ascended?"
His Divine Sense acupoint in the Sea of Consciousness had been opened, and his Divine Sense flowed out like an invisible breeze, blowing through the forest, touching his scalpel, brushing the Blood Talisman on Zhao Jing’s back.
Zhao Jing’s rune-covered back skin suddenly began to tremble and twitch, separating itself from her back, jumping and contracting on its own, turning into a narrow strip of the Yellow Talisman, and in the wind fluttered into Fang Bo’s hand.
"Ah hahaha!"
Fang Bo’s eyes gleamed with ecstatic light, grinning as he looked at the Yellow Talisman.
As for Zhao Jing’s bloody back, he didn’t even glance... After all, Zhao Jing’s Three Souls and Six Spirits had already been absorbed into this Human Skin Talisman, and that body was now an empty shell.
...
In the woods.
The Slave Capture Talismans hanging on the trees still swayed in the wind.
Zhang Jian kneeled deeply.
Dozens of students kneeled deeply.
One after another, more students came by, curiously looking over, locking eyes with the sinister vertical eye drawn on the talisman and then kneeling deeply.
Amidst the "tap, tap" of footsteps, Fang Bo, clutching the Soul Talisman he had just crafted, walked over to see dozens of kneeling students.
He grinned.
"Oh, classmates, I’m about to roam the world.
"Need a few Soul Talismans for protection.
"Need you to lend a hand.
"Lend me your skin for once, a set of Three Souls and Six Spirits!
"If I ever make it big one day... well, it seems like there’s no chance for me to return it. Hehe."
He stepped forward carelessly reaching toward a girl, none other than Bai Mo’s class representative, Fang Yuan.
At this moment, Fang Yuan kneeled deeply, laid down by Fang Bo, manipulated and placed flat on the ground, totally motionless. She seemed completely numb, turning into a puppet that only breathed and whose heart still beat.
Fang Bo pulled out the scalpel, using Fang Yuan’s clothes to wipe away the blood stains on the blade.
The first Soul Talisman was the hardest to craft, but since he had already grasped the basics, it would only take a dozen minutes to refine all of them present into Soul Talismans!
His chubby hand pulled on Fang Yuan’s clothing, ready to tear it open...
Suddenly.
Footsteps rang out.
He raised his head, seeing someone else approaching through the forest.
"Bai Mo?"
Inexplicably, Fang Bo shuddered, feeling a moment of fear.
But then he thought, what was there to be afraid of?
This wasn’t an exam, nor was it about studies.
He was a genius Talisman Master, already Sequence Eight; how could he possibly fear Bai Mo? Bai Mo was also just a Sequence Nine Beast Master, wasn’t he?
Today, Bai Mo came at just the right time; just in time to also turn him into a Soul Talisman using his skin and Three Souls and Six Spirits!
Bai Mo was so smart, surely a Soul Talisman made from him would be of better quality?
All the while thinking this, he grinned.
Suddenly, he realized something wasn’t right... Why was Bai Mo still walking over? Why wasn’t Bai Mo affected by the Slave Capture Talismans? Even a Sequence Nine should be mentally disoriented or in a daze, right? Why was Bai Mo unaffected at all? Could it be that Bai Mo hadn’t seen the Slave Capture Talismans on the trees?
With a clever thought, he raised his head and shouted, "Bai Mo, there’s something wrong with our classmates, they’re all kneeling here.
"Quickly see what’s going on with them!
"Look at the trees, there are many strange talismans!"
Yet, as Bai Mo walked over, his gaze swept over the Slave Capture Talismans pasted on the trees.
Where Bai Mo’s gaze landed, each Slave Capture Talisman quivered violently, seemingly fearing Bai Mo’s glance! Amidst the shaking, smoke emerged from them! From the black smoke, flames sprang forth! In the blink of an eye, the Slave Capture Talismans pasted on the trees were incinerated into flying ash by the leaping flames, carried away by the wind.
Dozens of students who had been kneeling suddenly collapsed to the ground, unconscious and unaware. Their spirits had been suppressed for too long and would require considerable rest to recover.
Bai Mo walked over to Fang Bo, looking at the unconscious Fang Yuan, observing Fang Bo squatting beside her, seeing the scalpel hidden within Fang Yuan’s clothing, with only a bit of the handle showing.
He let out a quiet sigh.
"I’ve seen those talismans.
"And then?"
Squatting beside Fang Yuan, Fang Bo pulled out another talisman. It was the Soul Talisman he had just crafted using Zhao Jing’s skin and Three Souls and Six Spirits.
"You should also take a look at this one."
Between them, Fang Bo’s Divine Sense erupted from the acupoint in his Forehead Sea of Consciousness, activating the Soul Talisman, targeting Bai Mo’s face, and with a "whoosh," it flew over!
In an instant, Bai Mo saw the talisman flying towards him clearly.
It was a Yellow Talisman. Zhao Jing’s originally fair skin had been compressed into a narrow strip as long as a palm, turning yellow. The blood-red symbols carved on it danced in dragon-like, iron-brush, silver-hook strokes outlining a simple sketch of a face, a girl’s face, almond-shaped, small eyes, high nose bridge, thin lips, with a black mole at the corner of her mouth.
Bai Mo thought it wasn’t pretty.
But it was very familiar.
Because...
That was Zhao Jing’s face.
Three years of being classmates, not deeply connected, few words exchanged, but just recently took many photos together, Zhao Jing’s face.
