MOF Chapter 52

Chapter 52: Painting within a Painting, Seeing a Painted Woman

“Is it you? Nangong Ci,…”

Xie Yiling dodged her attacks, seizing the opportunity to run towards the entrance. The talisman chain, moving in the opposite direction, struck the woman with force. He hadn’t held back, directly sending her flying back.

Bai Zhe caught the woman, not forgetting to mock, “So, you’re not a match for him either.”

Xie Yiling didn’t have time to listen to their disguised flattery. Leaving the Jianchun Pavilion, he ran quickly along the street. Far from the Jianchun Pavilion, the last trace of light vanished, and he seemed to step into an immeasurable and bottomless abyss.

Behind him, the woman and Bai Zhe, for some reason, didn’t catch up.

Just as he was about to continue thinking about the unsettling feeling from before, A Si’s voice suddenly came from nearby, “Xie Ci-gege!”

Xie Yiling’s heart filled with joy, and he quickly looked around, “A Si? Where are you?” In the darkness, he heard a faint sound of footsteps, growing louder as it approached, finally stopping in front of him. A Si hugged him tightly, “Xie Ci-gege! I finally found you!”

“A Si, where did you go? Didn’t I tell you to stay inside and watch? What exactly happened?”

A Si held onto him tightly, not letting go, “Because there were bad people, Xie Ci-gege, it’s that person we met before. He has a very powerful brush, he can draw anything and it comes to life. He even wanted to break into the house. To drive him away, I came out. But he took me to a strange place, and I only just escaped.”

Xie Yiling touched his head, not having time to comfort him, and asked, “A strange place? What kind of place?”

A Si released his grip, looked up at him, and said, “Xie Ci-gege, I’ll take you there. I also discovered that the place is related to a painting. There’s a strange mountain drawn on it too.”

A strange mountain? Xie Yiling speculated in his heart, could it be that Upside-Down Spring Mountain (Dao Chun Shan)?

He told A Si to take him there quickly. Both of them had excellent night vision, and although there were no lights around, it didn’t affect their movement. Soon, he arrived at the strange place A Si had described.

It was the end of an alley.

A Si pointed at the alley and said, “Xie Ci-gege, look, there’s a painting on the wall.”

The walls of the alley were made of piled stones, the surface rough and uneven. Xie Yiling used his spiritual power to illuminate the wall, discovering that the painting on the wall was the same as the one hanging in the restaurant, both depicting the withered and decaying scene of Upside-Down Spring Mountain.

Suddenly, Xie Yiling felt a tremor under his feet, and then several rays of light burst out around him. He looked down and found that he was standing in a strange array.

“A Si!” Xie Yiling shouted, but saw A Si standing outside the array, a mocking smile on his face, with a completely unfamiliar expression.

“Playing dirty?” Xie Yiling almost laughed out of anger, “I was going to enter the painting anyway, why bother going to such lengths?” After he finished speaking, the array beneath him activated, and he immediately felt a squeezing pain all over his body.

Xie Yiling was forcibly pushed forward by the array, crashing headfirst into the wall of the alley, losing consciousness.

*

“Xie Ci, Xie Ci, wake up.”

A familiar voice fell from above, shedding the bone-chilling coldness of their reunion, revealing its original, magnificent, and deep timbre.

Upon hearing it, Xie Yiling immediately struggled to get up. His eyes were stuck together like the first time he entered the painting, making it difficult to open them. But he still struggled to prop himself up, throwing himself onto Nangong Ci.

“Is it you? Nangong Ci, are you real or fake?”

Nangong Ci placed his hand over his eyes, casting a spell of spiritual power. The next moment, Xie Yiling easily opened his eyes, seeing the rare expression of surprise on Nangong Ci’s face.

“What do you mean, real or fake?” A faint smile played on his lips. “You just woke up from a nap, how did you manage to sleep your brain away.”

“Where is this?” Xie Yiling’s mind was blank, and he asked stupidly.

“In the painting.” Nangong Ci explained to him, “After we came in, you’ve been unconscious the entire time.”

Xie Yiling stared at him, trying to find evidence in subtle expressions that he wasn’t Nangong Ci.

Nangong Ci let him stare, finally laughing helplessly and pushing him away to sit up, “Or should I prove it?”

“How to prove it?” Xie Yiling’s first reaction was to look at the Azurefall spiritual sword worn at his waist, “Anything in the painting can be transformed, that doesn’t count as proof.”

Unexpectedly, Nangong Ci raised his wrist, using magic to activate the Ghost Contract. A red thread appeared between the two of them. He chanted a few incantations, then pinched his wrist, and Xie Yiling felt a slight pain at the same time.

The Ghost Contract couldn’t be faked. It could neither ascend to Azurefall nor descend to the Yellow Springs, it could only exist in the real world.

Knowing that the person in front of him was the real Nangong Ci, Xie Yiling touched his nose, “Oh.”

He stood up, changing the subject, “By the way, I wanted to ask you before, how did you learn the Ghost Contract?”

Nangong Ci retrieved the Ghost Contract, rising to his feet and said, “The book you left behind.”

Xie Yiling was enlightened, then somewhat incredulous, “You not only peeked, but also secretly learned it?”

Nangong Ci indifferently said, “Learned it.”

During the time Xie Yiling was unconscious, he took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the surrounding terrain. At this moment, he led the way forward.

As Xie Yiling walked, he nudged him, raising his eyebrows, his tone playful, “I can’t believe it, Fufeng Daozhang, you’ve actually learned these unorthodox methods.”

Nangong Ci’s eyes darkened slightly, revealing nothing, “Upside-Down Spring Mountain has arrived.”

“This is it?” Xie Yiling looked up, the scene before him was exactly the same as in the painting. Getting closer, he could see that the ground was indeed covered in heads, crowded together like mushrooms sprouting from the soil. The surrounding strange rocks were jagged, as if hiding wild tigers and beasts.

“What a strong stench.” Xie Yiling frowned, looking at Nangong Ci, “We should have been buried here before.”

Nangong Ci nodded, saying, “Let’s go in and take a look.”

Once inside Upside-Down Spring Mountain, Xie Yiling understood why the previous stench was so strong. The outermost part of Upside-Down Spring Mountain was a barren heap of yellow earth. The further into the mountain they went, the more rugged the mountain path became, with scattered white bones along a long stretch of the road.

Xie Yiling accidentally stepped on one, quickly moving away, and the bones on the ground instantly shattered into powder.

“How many white bones have we seen along the way?” Xie Yiling said in a low voice, “It doesn’t look like a mountain, it looks more like a mass grave.”

“Why these white bones are here, and who did this, we’ll probably know once we get inside.” Nangong Ci said, using Azurefall to clear a path for him.

Xie Yiling walked up, past Nangong Ci, and turned back to pat him, “Hey, Nangong Ci, the yin energy here is so heavy, why don’t we find an open space and summon a wandering soul to ask?”

Nangong Ci agreed, but unexpectedly, Upside-Down Spring Mountain, despite its size, didn’t have a single good spot. The two walked for a long time, and all they saw before them were bones and more bones.

Xie Yiling’s patience ran out when he saw a wall of bones blocking the way ahead. He directly struck it with a palm, and the wall of bones collapsed with a roar, revealing a cemetery behind it. As he was about to rejoice at the sight of the tombs, his expression suddenly changed halfway, “Nangong Ci, something’s not right.”

The formation at the cemetery was exactly the same as the one Xie Yiling had encountered earlier!

As if sensing someone’s intrusion, a sinister force struck from the air, and both of them were shaken back several steps.

“What kind of formation is this?” Xie Yiling was saying, when suddenly several jade stones shaped and sized like chess pieces shot towards him. He quickly dodged, using his spiritual power to strike at the cemetery.

A gust of yin wind rose, and a woman in white clothes, as white as snow, and with hair as black as ink, appeared before them. Her hair covered the upper half of her face, revealing only her shapely, blood-red lips.

Xie Yiling initially thought it was the veiled woman from the Jianchun Pavilion, but upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn’t the same person. He and Nangong Ci exchanged glances, unaware of the woman’s origins, so they wanted to establish some kind of connection, “Um, miss, let’s talk things out—”

While he was speaking, a jade stone suddenly shot over, hitting his wrist and instantly leaving a shallow pit mark.

“Miss,” Xie Yiling grimaced, rubbing the painful spot, “We are people of the Immortal Sect, we just want to investigate some things, we don’t mean to offend you!”

Nangong Ci walked over, holding the back of his hand, carefully examining the injured area, his expression slightly darkened, using spiritual power to relieve his pain and erase the mark.

The woman didn’t listen to their explanation, “Those who trespass on my forbidden land, die!” A gust of yin wind swept over, blowing up the hair on her forehead, revealing under her thin, curved eyebrows, a pair of ghostly and heterochromatic eyes, her left eye crimson and her right eye silver white.

Ten thousand jade stones hung in the air, surrounding the two, ready to strike. The wind blew towards Xie Yiling’s side, and the jade stones followed closely, falling like dense rain.

A series of “pitter-patter” sounds rang out on the ground, while the sound of Azurefall being wielded was a crisp “clink.”

Xie Yiling quickly swung the talisman chain, only hearing the sound of it whistling through the air, but not seeing its true form. As fast as a shield wall, the jade stones couldn’t penetrate or break through.

The outcome was quickly decided. Nangong Ci poured spiritual power into Azurefall, and with a single sword strike, he actually split the cemetery directly in two.

Xie Yiling thought in his heart, ‘Forgive me, forgive me,’ but his hands didn’t stop moving. The talisman chain immediately flew over, trapping the woman. His tone was much stricter than before, “Speak, who are you, and why are you helping that Bai Zhe harm people in the painting?”

“What, what did you do to my brother?!” The woman’s reaction was extreme upon hearing the name “Bai Zhe.” A crack opened on her originally beautiful face, vaguely revealing traces of burns inside.

“So you’re siblings.” Xie Yiling said, “It’s a pity, acting as an accomplice for your brother, you deserve to die too.”

Nangong Ci said, “You are a ghost.”

The woman said, “So what? Are people of the Immortal Sect going to interfere with the affairs of the underworld?”

Xie Yiling crossed his arms and sneered, “Ghosts from the underworld harm people in the mortal realm, do you think we should interfere?”

Bai Cheng raised her head, glaring at him, “Who said I harmed anyone?”

Xie Yiling retorted, “If you didn’t harm anyone, where did these bones all over the mountain come from? If you didn’t harm anyone, why did you attack us?”

The woman was silent for a moment, saying, “The bones on this mountain have nothing to do with me. As for you, who knows what you’re plotting by coming here.”

Xie Yiling glanced at Nangong Ci, who continued, “Although the baleful aura on your body is stronger than that of ordinary wild ghosts, you are indeed not a fierce ghost. What’s your name, and why are you in the painting?”

The woman struggled, realizing she couldn’t break free from the talisman chain, and answered pragmatically, “My name is Bai Cheng. This is the cemetery my brother built for me, and the painting was created by my brother to protect me.”

Xie Yiling said, “Is your so-called protection harming others and causing them to lose their lives?”

Bai Cheng bit her lip, “You don’t understand at all! These are all paintings, they’re not real. The bones, the dead people, they were all drawn by my brother. Ghosts can’t stay in the sunlight for long, so my brother specially painted this painting for me, creating a false world.”