Chapter 132 - 125 Obsession

Chapter 132: Chapter 125 Obsession "EyelessZhou Xuan saw a "person." If he’s called a "person," it’s because he has the rough outline of a human: two hands, two feet, a head, a nose, and eyes. But Zhou Xuan had never seen such a strange person—on one face, the eyeballs were not of normal size, the nose seemed to have three segments, each with a different width; it started narrow, then suddenly became very wide, and then incredibly narrow again. The left ear was as large as a palm-leaf fan, while the right ear was only the size of a thumb. Not only the facial features, but the skin of the face was also bizarre. If the face were divided into a dozen parts, each part had its own style. What did the overall impression resemble? It was as if pieces were taken from the faces of dozens of people and then pieced together to form the "person" in front of him. When this person noticed Zhou Xuan paying attention to him, he immediately grimaced with a smile. Although it was a happy expression, it was extremely horrifying because as his face moved, dozens of holes inexplicably formed. "Seek justice." This "person" was moving his mouth as if speaking, but Zhou Xuan couldn’t hear any sound; he could only guess what was being said by the shapes of his mouth. Fortunately, what the person was saying wasn’t complicated. The movements of the lips were large and easy to guess. Seeking justice is understood, but how? At the very least, you have some grievance to express; where the injustice lies, you need to make that clear. With you just smacking your lips like a mute, it’s simply impossible to communicate deeply; even if I want to help you seek justice, I wouldn’t know where to begin. Zhou Xuan’s mind stirred, and it seemed like the "person" understood, as he knelt on both knees and began kowtowing earnestly, treating Zhou Xuan like a high official presiding over the redressal of grievances. Zhou Xuan looked down and truly saw this "person" for what he was. As he kept kowtowing, he was one person, but the moment his head touched the ground, a crowd of people walked out from his body. This group knelt before Zhou Xuan, row after row, filling the narrow corridor to the brim. "At least thirty or more." Zhou Xuan roughly estimated. The number of people in this group was large, with both genders and all ages, spanning across many generations. Their clothes were of different quality as well; some wore suits from English brands. Zhou Xuan had seen these suits in the department stores of Ping Shui Prefecture, priced at over six hundred Jing Country Currency each. Even in the economically more advanced Mingjiang Prefecture, only wealthy families would afford such attire. But among them were also people wearing patchwork cloth dresses, clumsily cut, which clearly were made from fabric purchased from a fabric store and then tailored by a not-so-skilled seamstress. This method of acquiring clothes was at least the mainstream in Ping Shui Prefecture, with the advantage of being cheap; the cost was only slightly higher than buying fabric and sewing it yourself. That is to say, This group varied widely in age and class, with conditions, encounters, and lives that should be as different as heaven and earth, so why were they collectively seeking justice from Zhou Xuan? It was only after they finished kowtowing, straightening their backs, and looking up at Zhou Xuan with devout eyes, That he realized—they all had one thing in common: they were missing eyes. Some were missing one eye, some both, leaving their eye sockets hollow. To see a hollow socket in one or two people was one thing, but the sheer number of people made Zhou Xuan feel a visceral repulsion as he glanced around at a swath of empty eye sockets. Then nausea, disgust, and other physiological reactions followed one after another. From the bottom of his heart, Zhou Xuan felt these reactions were impolite, especially in the face of such a group of disfigured people, But physiological reactions are not determined by one’s conscious will. These reactions did not represent Zhou Xuan’s mindset or emotions at the time; they were merely pure bodily reflexes. Until the group transformed back into one person—about thirty people, using the one at the forefront as a reference, entered the front person’s body in the order they appeared. Thirty people merged back into that extremely odd person, and Zhou Xuan’s physiological response finally subsided, gradually disappearing. "No wonder this person looks so odd, it turns out to be a group of about thirty people lacking eyes, combined into one. What exactly are they? Evil Ghosts, wandering souls, or something else? Zhou Xuan pondered deeply, Just at this moment, Lv Mingkun asked Zhou Xuan a peculiar question: "Junior brother, what are you looking at?" Ah, to ask such a question... it meant Lv Mingkun saw nothing, sensed nothing. Although Lv Mingkun’s perception was not as keen as Zhou Xuan’s, he was a "corpse speaker," with a special sensitivity to corpses, and should also be quite perceptive to wandering souls and Evil Ghosts. He couldn’t see, Which suggests that the "person" in front of Zhou Xuan was neither a wandering soul nor an Evil Ghost... "I also saw it through the touch of the Wash Away Injustice Talisman," Zhou Xuan thought to this point and recalled a particularly special existence—Obsession! Zhou Xuan once thought that after death, there were only two possible existences—corpse, wandering soul! A corpse that received "Living Blood" and nurtured in an "evil and death-infested ground" could become a zombie. A wandering soul, if it has an obsession, might turn into an aggressive and harmful Evil Ghost. But after discussing the Lantern Bride incident with Yuan Buyu and Zhou Lingyi last time, he learned from Yuan Buyu that—obsession can exist independently. Obsession is a strong notion that flutters between heaven and earth, as elusive as antelope horns, leaving no trace; it is different from the tangible soul and corpse, so it is extremely difficult to see, For instance, the Lantern Bride, she is an obsession, and a very strong one at that. The lanterns of the Wandering Soul Bureau cannot see her, Even Zhou Lingyi and Yuan Buyu, who have an extremely high Incense Fire Level, cannot sense her, Even when she walked in front of Zhou Xuan, with Blood Well Spirit’s superior perception abilities, he could not sense her. Only the Ancestor Tree sensed her. "So it turns out that... this group of people seeking justice, are obsessions, Touching the Wash Away Injustice Talisman, allows me to see obsessions?!" Zhou Xuan wasn’t sure which quantifier to use to describe the "person" in front of him, but he was certain that it was an obsession. Once he understood this point, many of his doubts were effortlessly resolved, For instance, why could these thirty-something people merge into one person? In essence, they are all one thought—having lost their eyes, and perhaps their lives as well, they met with untimely deaths. The person responsible for their untimely deaths is still living freely; their collected obsessions found Zhou Xuan who possessed the Wash Away Injustice Talisman, seeking help to cleanse their injustice... well... perhaps more directly, to help them take their revenge. And for example, within the hospital, there must be many more wandering "obsessions," like those who died because they could not afford the exorbitant medical fees, those who died despite the doctors’ best efforts, despite giving a hundred percent, They all should have developed obsessions after death, so why can’t Zhou Xuan see them even with the help of the Wash Away Injustice Talisman? Zhou Xuan closed his eyes in contemplation, not even bothering to respond to Lv Mingkun’s questions. "I can see the obsession made up of thirty-something people, but... not the single obsessions..." Combining all these strange occurrences in his mind and slowly piecing them together, fragments of the puzzle in Zhou Xuan’s mind began to fit together, Finally crystallizing into a key that could unlock the "box of answers," a startling thought emerged— ——Obsession is not an individual’s thought, but the collective thoughts of a group of people, brought together by some intense emotion, forming into an obsession. From a certain perspective, Obsession is not the thought of an individual, but the zeitgeist of a crowd! This answer was clearly a step further than what Yuan Buyu had suggested, but Zhou Xuan believed that this answer was also closer to the truth. "The Wash Away Injustice Talisman should help me gain a deeper understanding of obsessions." The people of Jing Country obviously do not have a deep understanding of obsessions, but obsessions contain powerful forces, The appearance of the Lantern Bride was even able to awaken the long-slumbering Ancestor Tree. Zhou Xuan was not clear on how powerful the Ancestor Tree was, but from Zhou Lingyi’s attitude towards it, it was evident that the Ancestor Tree, when awake, possessed extraordinary power. "I remember now..." Zhou Xuan recalled the night before he entered his own Secret Realm, in addition to hearing the Lantern Bride’s sincere and eerie laughter, he also heard the voices of many celebrating the wedding— There were sounds of drinking, playing drinking games, blowing the suona, and even the voice of a wedding officiant. He had always thought that within the Secret Realm, the Lantern Bride was just that weirdly laughing bride! Now it seems... all the voices he heard are a part of the Lantern Bride’s body! "The Lantern Bride might be the obsession of a dozen people, or even several dozen people, or perhaps even..." Zhou Xuan felt somewhat excited, this excitement stemmed from realizing that he had discovered the source of some mysterious power in Jing Country and also from further judging the origins of the Lantern Bride. Judging from his experience during the one incense, his promotion ceremony was greatly related to solving the mystery of the Secret Realm’s Paperman Boatman. After he saw through the Boatman as his own Dark Consciousness, and that it was Dark Consciousness that had developed intelligence, he was successful in advancing only after piercing through with the Bone Pole. The path towards the three incense became much smoother. "Quite mysterious, it seems this injustice, must be addressed..." Zhou Xuan said silently in his heart. He, as a person, really had little interest in seeking justice for others. Who in this world doesn’t harbor some grudges in their hearts? Helping others seek justice—who will seek justice for me? But now, "I am the righteous walker who seeks justice on behalf of others! There’s nothing else, just seeing who has been wronged, I can’t stand by and watch!" Zhou Xuan made the decision to "seek justice," the "person" in front of him seemed to understand his intention and, after devoutly kowtowing three times, stood up and walked forward... "Are they leading me to a place to wash away the injustice?" Zhou Xuan would definitely not think that this "person" simply dusted off and left, leaving the task of cleansing the injustice all to him alone. It was at this moment that the Wash Away Injustice Talisman in his arms vibrated intensely and emitted a "sha-sha-sha" sound of writing, identical to the white noise he had heard before. Zhou Xuan immediately took out the Wash Away Injustice Talisman. Previously, when the Wash Away Injustice Talisman was still in the form of a "diary," neither Zhou Lingyi nor Yuan Buyu could see it. If they couldn’t see it with their Incense Fire Level, then people of the Ancient Tattoo Clan presumably couldn’t see it either. Zhou Xuan naturally wasn’t worried about the ancient clan link seeing this "secret," but his movements needed to be discreet, to not give the sense to the ancient clan link that he was reading a "diary." Thinking this, he put one hand behind his back and placed the Wash Away Injustice Talisman in his palm, "sensing" as he flipped the pages, as if he were examining his own palmistry...