Chapter 137 - 129 Old Painting Pavilion

Chapter 137: Chapter 129 Old Painting Pavilion"Didn’t I ask yet?" Zhou Xuan was intrigued by the eyes in the Blood Well, as they engaged him in a direct stare without being divined. Then he saw a picture—a vintage bookshop that also sold small antiques, paintings, and calligraphy. The shop had a door curtain made of white cloth, with three words written on it: Old Painting Pavilion. Zhou Xuan remembered this bookstore. Earlier that morning, when he and Lv Mingkun came from East Market Street to Shande Hospital, he had noticed this shop on East Market Street. A street full of funeral businesses, and a bookstore right in the middle of it, stood out remarkably. "Is this a refinement of the last divination’s guidance?" Zhou Xuan began to understand. Last time he went into debt with the Blood Well to inquire about a more specific tattoo opportunity. The Blood Well had guided him to East Market Street, which led him to Mingjiang Prefecture. Now, after receiving the sacrifice, the Blood Well upgraded the content of the divination again, making it even more specific. "An unexpected gain, perhaps the sacrifice exceeded the requirements... Could Chun Meng not be just Four Pillars Incense?" Zhou Xuan thought about it and found it unlikely. The Five Incense’s power was far superior to his; it was unlikely that the dreamscape could contain it. "The incense from Chun Meng might be close to Five Incense." Even among the Four Pillars Incense, there were distinctions. Some newly elevated Four Pillars Incense could be called Four Pillars, and those able to glimpse the Fifth Incense were also Four Pillars Incense. Though on the same level, there were indeed significant differences. "The Blood Well was very satisfied with the quality of the Chun Meng sacrifice, which is why the content of the divination was extra specific." From a business perspective, the Blood Well was very fair, dealing honestly with all. Once Zhou Xuan figured it out, at that moment, the eyes on the temple wall seemed to have rested enough. They opened in unison again, their gaze at Zhou Xuan now tinged with greed. Zhou Xuan had a thought. "Ask, continue with the divination. You can owe, just ask, as long as you find the sacrifice in time." This tempting thought almost made Zhou Xuan lose control, about to voice his next question and then silently say, "I owe." His question was—why the Ancient Tattoo Clan targeted him. But this question was too big. Just learning the way to accumulate incense through tattooing had cost a Four Pillars Incense sacrifice. This question directly pointed to the secrets of the Ancient Clan, and the price the Blood Well demanded would surely be high, maybe so high he couldn’t afford it. Therefore, Zhou Xuan didn’t want to owe this time; he wanted to ask the price first. "Let me make it clear first, I won’t owe this time, and I say again, I won’t owe this time. I want an answer to my doubt, which you know, so tell me the price first." As soon as Zhou Xuan’s thought moved, snow began to fall inside the ancient temple of the Blood Well. Snowflakes wrote a single character on the ground. "Six!" Six Incense?! Well, the price was clear, but it couldn’t be met for now. Not to mention how hard it was to get a Six Incense sacrifice, finding the scattered ones among the people was especially difficult. However, there was a place where Six Incense was plentiful—the God Traveling Department, but could that be a place where one could purchase sacrifices? Faced with the high price of the sacrifice, Zhou Xuan sighed in defeat and severed his connection with the Blood Well. "Six Incense?" Zhou Xuan, back to reality, pondered, "It seems even the Food Heaven behind the kidnapper doesn’t have a Six Incense." Food Heaven was a thirty-year-old Alien Ghost, and it was nearly impossible to find him. If he were easy to find, the God Traveling Department would have caught him long ago. Zhou Xuan stopped worrying about the Blood Well’s price and shifted his focus to his chest. Besides being a sacrifice Zhou Xuan chose for the Blood Well, Du Kaili was also the target of vengeance for the obsession "No Eyes." Now that she was dead, the redress for "No Eyes" was also declared over. The Wash Away Injustice Talisman in Zhou Xuan’s arms began to tremble. Zhou Xuan, oblivious to his surroundings, held the Wash Away Injustice Talisman with one hand and, through perception, turned to the last page; the handwriting had changed. Before redress, the handwriting read "No Eyes, Redress," with a long space in between. "No Eyes, on August 19, at Mingdong Shande Hospital in Mingjiang Prefecture, Redress." It was written very formally, much like a record book a secret organization would use to perform tasks. This mysterious organization seemed to target obsessions specifically, but it was definitely not the God Traveling Department, as the God Traveling Department couldn’t perceive obsessions. Just then, Zhou Xuan saw the obsession "No Eyes" emerge from Du Kaili’s bones. "No Eyes" bowed to Zhou Xuan again, expressing gratitude. With each bow, his form transformed into countless dots of luminous light that drilled into the center of Zhou Xuan’s forehead. At the moment Zhou Xuan accepted the luminous glow, many names and introductions appeared in his mind, along with the memories of numerous people. "Zhao Baoping, worker at the Mingjiang Prefecture Spool Factory; Liu Yuxi, accountant at Li Clothing Shop on Huisi Street in Mingjiang Prefecture; Li Lingzhang, owner of Old Painting Pavilion on East Market Street in Mingjiang Prefecture..." The obsession disappeared. The over thirty individuals that composed the obsession transformed into fragmented memories that surged into Zhou Xuan’s body. Zhou Xuan’s resilient mind bore it. For anyone else, just this overwhelming and chaotic information would be enough to cause a mental crash. Zhou Xuan carefully analyzed the memories of these people, unexpectedly discovering that the boss of the Old Painting Pavilion, Li Lingzhang, was already dead! "Then what about my tattoo opportunity?" Just now, the Blood Well had indicated that the opportunity for tattoos was inside the "Old Painting Pavilion." Zhou Xuan quickly searched through the boss Li Lingzhang’s memories, This Li Lingzhang lived quite simply, childless and without a wife, who had run off with someone a few years ago, leaving him lonely to manage a used bookstore. The money he earned each month was about as much as a dockworker’s, enough to get by but certainly not good. Zhou Xuan, using his perception, reviewed his entire life from birth to death, still finding nothing related to tattoos. "The tattoo opportunity isn’t on the boss; is it in his shop? His shop is an old bookstore... Could it be that a book or manuscript records the way to accumulate incense through tattooing?" Zhou Xuan was excited but also worried—the boss had been dead for several days. Were the things in the bookstore still there? Had someone taken over the shop? Thinking of this, Zhou Xuan dashed out of the hospital. "Wait for me!" Lv Mingkun shouted at Zhou Xuan’s quickly departing figure. ... Lv Mingkun felt disappointed. He had been ready for a battle with Chun Meng, but by the time Chun Meng died, he hadn’t even had the chance to act. "It was so hard to get myself fired up, and in the end, I just bottled it all up inside." Lv Mingkun had been waiting to take action, but when he heard Chun Meng’s screams, he sensed something was wrong and went to the hospital hallway, where he saw Du Kaili already reduced to white bones. "Junior Brother, are you really Two Incense? Du Kaili just died at your hands?" He wanted to ask Zhou Xuan how he had done it and perhaps express his pent-up frustration, but once again, he found Zhou Xuan in a daze. When his junior brother snapped out of it, he walked away directly... "Hey, Junior Brother, have you forgotten that we brothers are out here to work together?" Lv Mingkun said, feeling very aggrieved. ... "Elder Yuan, Du Likai is dead," Zhou Lingyi reported. "My disciple and Lao Wu, taking down a Four Pillars Incense kidnapper, isn’t that a walk in the park? Kidnappers don’t have many means of countering dreams." Yuan Buyu fiddled with the radio, not even raising his head. "Lao Wu didn’t take action. My younger brother used a dream to drive Du Kaili mad. Du Kaili was a master kidnapper—Chun Meng. According to the God Traveling Department’s information, she had been progressing rapidly, nearing the level of Five Incense in less than eight years since her spiritual initiation," Zhou Lingyi recited as if counting her treasures. Yuan Buyu, however, remained unfazed, snapped open a folded fan, and said, "Two Incense defeating an almost Five Incense master, that’s the grandeur of our storytellers, the first Day Patrol Deity under heaven, not just an empty title." Zhou Lingyi listened with a smile. If Yuan Buyu was anyone who knew himself, he was well aware of his storyteller’s skills. Even if the kidnapper’s means of counteracting dreams were very poor, she was almost at the level of Five Incense. A normal Two Incense storyteller’s dream absolutely couldn’t control her. His disciple, each scrap of incense was a layer of means, combined with the Blood Well Spirit. The quality of Dream Generation was not something an ordinary Two Incense could compare to, yet he still couldn’t control Du Kaili. There must have been something hidden... ...But so what? Ultimately, wasn’t it a just-out-of-Two Incense disciple who took down an almost-Five-Incense kidnapper master? In the martial arts world, there weren’t so many coincidences and twists of fate. Winning meant you stood tall, embraced the fame, and let his master brag a little; losing meant you laid down and carried the little coffin board away. What’s the use of all those convoluted explanations? "This time Du Kaili went mad publicly and committed mysterious suicide at Shande Hospital, exposing the kidnappers’ hidden line at the hospital. In the next two days, some big figures will be after the kidnappers," Zhou Lingyi said with a smile, her eyes squinting to crescents. Yuan Buyu shook his head. "The backer of Shande Hospital is Mr. Bai Yun. That group might stir up some trouble in Ping Shui Prefecture, but their influence in Mingjiang Prefecture is likely limited..." The backer of Shande Hospital was Mr. Bai Yun; this was something many people knew. Zhou Lingyi closed her eyes to rest and said, "Mr. Bai Yun is just a figure pushed to the forefront. The organization behind them is the one with real power. This time, the kidnappers are going to have to cut the meat hard... and it’ll hurt them for a long time..." ... "Fifth Brother, it’s urgent, let’s not take a rickshaw. Let’s take the tram," Zhou Xuan persuaded Lv Mingkun, who was busy hailing a rickshaw. Lv Mingkun was confused and said, "We don’t know this place well. Where’s the tram stop? How do we get there? Which line should we take? We wouldn’t know even if we asked around. It’d take more time than taking a rickshaw." "No need to ask, follow me." Zhou Xuan had absorbed memories from the obsession, and most of those thirty people were locals of Mingjiang Prefecture. With their memories now part of him, Zhou Xuan felt as if a map of the entire Mingjiang Prefecture suddenly lit up in his mind. He led Lv Mingkun for a few hundred meters, turned into an alley, walked another two or three hundred meters, and turned into a small lane. They walked a bit further and came out into a moderately wide road, with tram tracks laid on it. "How do you know this route?" Lv Mingkun, well-traveled, was quite knowledgeable. He had been to Mingjiang Prefecture several times, familiar with only some iconic buildings, yet Zhou Xuan, like a local, was completely unbothered by the twists and turns of the alleyways. "I told you when we got off in Mingjiang Prefecture that I have an inexplicable sense of familiarity with this city." Zhou Xuan couldn’t explain the obsession matter to Lv Mingkun, so he conveniently returned to their previous conversation topic. Whether Fifth Brother believed it or not... could it be harder to believe than a Two Incense storyteller defeating a four Pillars Incense master alone? "Let’s wait here." Zhou Xuan stood leaning against a cake shop. "There’s no bus stop sign here either?" Many tram stops had signs, but the number of stop signs was limited, and some places saw many people taking the tram. To cater to this business, the tram would stop, eventually becoming a customary stop. "Ding ding ding!" The tram, its whistle slightly theatrical, slowed and stopped by the roadside. Zhou Xuan confirmed the tram number; it was the line heading to East Market Street, and he called Lv Mingkun to get on. As the tram door closed, Lv Mingkun suddenly remembered something and whispered into Zhou Xuan’s ear, "There’s something big we forgot to do."