Zhao Fusheng nodded. After putting away the lamp oil, her face immediately darkened:
"You're a mass murderer. You harmed my life before. I'll remember these debts for now. I'll go check out Beggar's Alley. If it's as you say, you've done good today by giving me the lamp and telling me the history. Our past grievances are temporarily set aside." She had been smiling earlier, but after taking the items, she immediately turned hostile:
"But if you dare to lie to me, I will take your life."
"Wanan County is now under my jurisdiction. You dare to kill so many people and strip their skin to make lanterns? You have no regard for the law and are utterly wicked—" As she spoke, she stood up, and at the same time, reached out and tugged at the human skin paper, pulling the oil lamp that was suppressing it along with it.
Zhao Fusheng bumped the oil lamp with her elbow, and the lamp she had pulled closer immediately toppled over.
Lamp oil flowed out, staining everything.
The messy human skin paper laid beneath the lamp was completely soaked in the lamp oil. The foul smell from inside the oil lamp spread, and the fire on the black wick, which hadn't yet extinguished, suddenly ignited with a 'boom'.
All of this happened in a flash.
Paperman Zhang didn't even have time to react. The flames instantly soared skyward.
That lamp oil, it was unknown what it was refined from. Wherever it touched, it burned quickly. Many pieces of human skin paper were engulfed in the flames. From the paper, a large amount of black smoke suddenly surged, forming tormented, resentful faces. Screams and moans echoed continuously.
"You—"
Paperman Zhang was shocked and enraged, not expecting Zhao Fusheng to suddenly turn ruthless. He was furious, but he seemed to be restrained by the flames.
He reached out to grab Zhao Fusheng's arm, but before he could touch her, he suddenly remembered the malevolent spirit she manipulated, and his outstretched hand hastily recoiled.
Rumble—
The flames grew larger and larger, and thick smoke billowed upwards.
As soon as Zhao Fusheng saw that the human skin paper was flammable, she immediately pushed the piled-up human skin paper beside her towards the flames. At the same time, she casually grabbed several sheets of human skin paper and stuffed them into her embrace.
Thud.
The large pile of human skin paper collapsed, extinguishing the flames.
But the lamp oil was peculiar. Zhao Fusheng always felt that once this fire ignited, it wouldn't easily die down.
Sure enough, a large amount of thick smoke surged from the gaps in the human skin paper. Upon seeing this, she immediately stood up and rushed towards the door, saying as she ran:
"No need to see me off. I'll come back for you after I'm done!"
"You ungrateful Zhao Fusheng—" Paperman Zhang saw the human skin paper he had painstakingly collected for years being pushed into the fire. He knew the potency of this oil better than Zhao Fusheng. Seeing this, he immediately tried to reach out and retrieve it—
But the moment he pulled apart the pile of paper, the suppressed flames beneath, as if finally finding an opportunity to burst forth, shot skyward with a 'boom' of sound.
"Ah!"
In his scream, the flames enveloped his snow-white, jade-like palm. The hand, upon meeting the fire, immediately caught fire as if paper, burning rapidly and turning to ash in an instant.
Zhao Fusheng, before leaving, glanced back and saw the scene of Paperman Zhang's hands on fire. The flames stopped abruptly when they reached the cuffs of his sleeves.
His hands were severed, his fingers and palms turning into paper ash that flew away. His wrist stumps were blackened, resembling hollow paper tubes pasted together.
Paperman Zhang was actually a paper man!
Although Zhao Fusheng had transmigrated into this ghost-ridden Han Dynasty and had accepted the existence of malevolent spirits, she was still extremely shocked to witness a living person actually being made of paper.
"Ah ah ah!!!"
Sharp, eerie screams continuously echoed.
These voices were old and young, male and female.
Paperman Zhang raised his wide sleeves, the cuffs touching, concealing his severed wrists within his sleeves.
His sleeves, like door panels, were raised high by him, blocking his face. The flames quickly soared skyward, engulfing all the human skin paper in the room.
From the gaps in his sleeves, a pair of red-glowing eyes were revealed, staring at Zhao Fusheng with venom:
"Zhao Fusheng, you dare to set my Zhang family on fire—"
"I will—"
Before he could finish speaking, a 'boom' of flames shot up, engulfing him.
And at the moment the flames surged, Zhao Fusheng sensed an extremely sinister and cold aura enveloping Paperman Zhang.
"Ah—help, help."
Zhang Chuanshi's screams also followed.
Earlier, when Zhao Fusheng was talking with Paperman Zhang, he had always used the excuse of making tea and had not shown himself. He was probably still hiding in Paperman Zhang's room. Now, with the fire, he finally couldn't sit still and was also trapped in the room.
These two shared the same surname, were related, and were both birds of a feather, harboring ill intentions towards her and the Demon Suppressing Division.
Zhao Fusheng had no intention of saving him. She was still wondering if Paperman Zhang would die.
Although this person was unusual, seeming to possess evil sorcery—and ever since she saw that Paperman Zhang's body was made of paper, she wondered if this was his true form.
But with this fire today, she had completely offended him. The two sides had formed a grudge, and the future would undoubtedly be a fight to the death.
She only hoped that even if Paperman Zhang had some evil sorcery, paper was still ultimately susceptible to fire. So, it would be best if Paperman Zhang could die in this great fire.
Just as Zhao Fusheng thought this, an anomaly occurred.
An extremely sinister and cold evil aura suddenly arose from beneath her feet. Out of her keen intuition for malevolent spirits, she sensed a ghostly aura soaring skyward.
Zhao Fusheng instinctively looked down.
She saw that in the burning room, an unknown shadow was spreading and extending outwards.
Amidst the flames, Paperman Zhang's body, which had already been engulfed by the blaze, reappeared.
But at this moment, Paperman Zhang's body was mutated. His black robe rapidly inflated like a balloon.
Under Zhao Fusheng's horrified gaze, Paperman Zhang's body, wrapped in the black robe, grew taller and larger at a frantic pace.
The room quickly became unable to contain him. The walls and wooden pillars of the dwelling were cracked by Paperman Zhang's frantically growing body. He then 'swallowed' all the flames in the room into his abdomen.
His body swelled more and more, his skin stretching inch by inch, the deep wrinkles on his cheeks smoothing out little by little. He expanded like a balloon, instantly reaching a height of about two zhang (approx. 6.6 meters).
The raging flames still had not extinguished, illuminating his abdomen, making his body translucent. Lights twinkled inside, making Paperman Zhang look like a terrifying '诡灯' (guǐdēng - eerie/ghostly lantern) from afar.
Paperman Zhang's body shattered the dwelling and appeared before Zhao Fusheng.
On the enormous 'eerie lantern,' Paperman Zhang's head twisted. His face was grotesquely distorted, like a steamed bun that had risen a hundredfold. His facial features were magnified, and a pair of venomous eyes stared down at Zhao Fusheng:
"You dare to burn down my Zhang family—"
As his body expanded, his voice also changed from its original sound, becoming somewhat muffled, as if mixed with an echo.
"Destroy my human skin—"
"..."
Zhao Fusheng had never witnessed such an eerie scene in her entire life. Not even the ghost films from her previous life could portray such a bizarre plot.
Her heart was filled with horror and fear, overwhelming her reason. Under Paperman Zhang's 'gaze,' she quickly pulled down a lantern hanging from the eaves on one side, then shamelessly turned and fled, escaping from this terrifying house.
Zhao Fusheng ran frantically forward, not daring to look back.
She could feel Paperman Zhang's head standing tall on the 'human-shaped lantern,' his pair of bloodshot eyes constantly watching her, a sneering sound accompanying her like a shadow.
That gaze was like a poisoned needle, constantly piercing her back.
Amidst the howling wind, Paperman Zhang's legs softly twisted and 'stood,' and at the same time, a soft, slender arm emerged from his sleeve.
The arm swayed in the wind, like a 3D doll's arm filled with wind, reaching out towards her.
Zhao Fusheng, at the moment she heard the wind, turned her head in fear and saw this terrifying scene.
A strong stench of decay assailed her, and shadows covered her body. Zhao Fusheng's heart instantly stopped.
A pale, swollen hand swept towards her. The pale, bloated fingers and palm descended like a towering mountain.
At this moment, Zhao Fusheng was like Sun Wukong, who, according to legend, was suppressed by the Buddha, thinking she was surely doomed—
Under the power of the burning flames, Paperman Zhang's balloon-like expanding body floated high like a kite.
"Ah!!!" Paperman Zhang shrieked.
Cold, sinister fingertips brushed past her. Amidst Paperman Zhang's unwilling roars of anger, his body flew into the sky like a sky lantern.
Zhao Fusheng narrowly escaped death. She watched with her own eyes as Paperman Zhang's 'lit' body flew into the sky, gradually gaining distance from her.
"Hoo—hoo hoo!"
Zhao Fusheng looked at the eerie scene in mid-air, panting desperately:
"Too terrifying! Too terrifying!"
Her heart pounded non-stop, as if it would burst from her chest.
She had transmigrated into the Han Dynasty, accepted the fact that ghosts existed in this world. From Fan Bisi, she knew the horror of ghosts, witnessed ghost spells, and even personally saw the scene where the Zhao family parents almost revived as malevolent spirits.
And at that time, she used the power of a malevolent spirit to subdue the nearly revived Zhao couple. She thought she had somewhat prepared herself mentally for the future.
But when she first clashed with Paperman Zhang and witnessed the terrifying scene of him instantly transforming into a giant lantern, engulfing the flames into his abdomen, it still caused a tremendous shock to her spirit.
This era was an extremely dangerous era!
It was only now that she truly understood Fan Bisi's warning, and also understood what he meant when he said, 'If you can live for half a year or a year, that's already fortunate.'
Her face was pale with fear, mixed with unwillingness.
Did I revive just to live in fear and wait for death in despair?
Zhao Fusheng's face was unpredictable. Her hand trembled as she reached for her waist, where she kept a scroll detailing a ghost case from forty years ago, a box of lamp oil she got from Paperman Zhang, a roll of human skin paper, and a half-finished lantern she held in her hand.
After a long while, her rapid heartbeat gradually calmed down. Fear receded, and reason returned.
"No." She shook her head. "I'm not destined to die. I still have capital."
She still had time.
Although she was entangled with a malevolent spirit, the malevolent spirit was now one of her sources of power.
At the same time, she also possessed the Investiture of the Gods. In the future, she could activate her divine position, still able to enthrone the malevolent spirit and place it in a divine position.
She had human skin paper, and she had lamp oil, so she could create ghost lanterns to ward off ghosts.
By completing this ghost case, she could gain merit—
Zhao Fusheng's expression gradually stabilized. Her gaze shifted from initial panic to calmness:
"I won't die, I won't die—"
She looked at the sky. In a short while, Paperman Zhang had flown dozens of meters above the ground. His massive body shrunk significantly in her eyes, and the psychological impact he had on her gradually lessened.
Zhao Fusheng wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, knowing that Paperman Zhang couldn't do anything to her for now.
Her heart settled. She couldn't help but glance back.
In fact, after escaping from Paperman Zhang's house earlier, she had run in a panic, not knowing where she had ended up, nor in which direction Paperman Zhang's house was.
But she still looked back. What met her eyes was a cluster of low, dilapidated houses.
The Zhang family caused such a huge commotion. Paperman Zhang transformed into an 'eerie lantern' and flew into the sky. She could sense that this was definitely not a small matter in Wanan County. Many residents in the dilapidated houses were still secretly looking up at the sky.
—But no one screamed or wailed, as if ordinary people were already accustomed to such strange things, silently enduring them.
This county, abandoned by the imperial court, was now as quiet as a ghost domain.
Zhao Fusheng soberly realized that this was an unfamiliar era. Human lives were as cheap as dirt. She was alone here, with no backup, no friends, and no family.
When danger struck, no one could save her, no one could help her. She could only rely on herself!
She looked up again at the flying Paperman Zhang, her gaze gradually firming.
No matter what, she had no retreat. She would resolve the matter of Beggar's Alley before the Fan brothers returned!
Fan Bisi had mentioned that Beggar's Alley was in the south of the city. In Zhao Fusheng's original memory, she knew nothing about the road conditions in Wanan County.
Fortunately, according to Fan Bisi, the Confucius Temple in the south of the city was supposedly very famous. After she came out of the secluded alley, emerged onto the street, and walked for a long time, she finally saw scattered figures on the street.
The vast Wanan County now seemed to have more than half of its houses empty.
She stopped someone to ask for directions. At first, the person was unwilling to say much. Seeing her alone, they even showed hostility.
It wasn't until Zhao Fusheng revealed the name of the Demon Suppressing Division that the person she had stopped showed fear and pointed out the direction of the south of the city.
Zhao Fusheng worried that this person might be lying and pointing her in the wrong direction, so she made him lead the way.
The person she grabbed was about thirty years old, skinny as a skeleton. Hearing that she was forcing him to go to the south of the city, he shook his head repeatedly:
"No, no."
His face was filled with terror, and he was almost on his knees:
"Beggar's Alley in the south of the city is haunted. Many people went in and couldn't come out. They're all trapped there."
"If there were no ghosts, I wouldn't go." Zhao Fusheng replied, gripping his hand tighter:
"You lead the way. Once we reach the entrance of Beggar's Alley, I'll let you go home."
Although she said this, her heart was filled with anxiety.
The situation in Beggar's Alley seemed quite serious.
Although common people in this world were already aware of ghosts, if the imperial court intended to conceal it, most people would still believe that the world was peaceful. Many even thought they were exceptionally lucky, and that those who died from ghost disasters were always a minority.
But the situation in Wanan County had actually deteriorated to such an extent that the ghost haunting in Beggar's Alley was known to the county's residents. This showed that during the period when the Demon Suppressing Division was in trouble, the county's situation had been out of control.
🚨 Note : Consider to Support this Story on Patreon.com/Flokixy to access +200 advance Chapters and To Support The Daily Update