Mysterious Resurgence: Starting with the Strange Bus

Chapter 63 Dyes for Making Oil Paintings

The world depicted in the oil painting is filled with numerous paths that intersect, forming forks in the road. Each path meanders and leads to a series of eerie places.

Those were oil paintings.

At the end of each path lies a scene from an oil painting, some of which are portraits of people, just like the ghosts following behind Li Hui.

Although they are here, the portrait of them still exists.

To outsiders, the 'person' in the portrait may have disappeared, but the background objects in the painting remain clear.

Besides.

Some oil paintings depict real vengeful ghosts, while others depict strange and eerie places, suggesting that they contain more than just a single vengeful ghost or a wandering spirit.

Just like the path where Li Hui and his group are currently located.

At the end of the road was a sparse grove of trees, the trees of which did not appear to be real, but were strange and twisted, as if they had been painted. The environment was also dim, but not so dim that one could not see clearly.

In the middle of that sparse grove of trees, the soil bulged slightly, like a collapsed grave. Most strangely, Li Hui could clearly see a stiff, dead-looking hand protruding from the soil.

As they approached, the scenery in the woods became clearer.

The five fingers of the stiff hand protruding from the soil were slightly bent, reaching towards the sky. The scene was like a person who was buried alive and was unwilling to die, trying to struggle to crawl out of the ground, giving people a sinister and terrifying feeling.

"Be careful of the movements of that hand; it's the source of all the ghostly activity in this forest. It's extremely terrifying, and most importantly, its killing patterns are easily triggered."

Seeing that Li Hui's attention was focused on the stiff hand protruding from the soil, Yang Xiao, who was standing beside him, spoke up to remind him.

"Once its killing pattern is triggered, the vengeful ghost will drag people into the mud and bury them alive. Look at these twisted trees around us; they are the transformed souls of people like us."

"Because we don't die in the world of the painting, they have been fighting against the supernatural, which eventually resulted in these twisted trees that can neither break free nor die."

"There are only two possible outcomes for them: either they will be forgotten by outsiders and their spirits will simply vanish, or they will be freed from this vengeful ghost once it is dealt with."

At this point, Yang Xiao paused slightly, then changed the subject and began to describe the murder patterns of the vengeful ghost.

"You can't face that palm directly. If anyone faces the palm directly, they will be attacked by a vengeful ghost. Moreover, the direction that palm is facing can change at any time."

Upon hearing this, everyone present except Li Hui and Yang Xiao showed a slight change in expression.

Although they had lived in the world within the painting for a long time, it was impossible for them to have explored all the strange places, just like this forest, which most of them did not know about.

Moreover, according to Yang Xiao, the vengeful ghosts under this forest will also attack them, and the pattern of their killings is surprisingly simple.

The thought that the twisted trees around them were the transformed forms of their kind sent a chill through all the departed souls. They became wary and began to watch the movements of that hand.

But that's about it.

Although the group of dead souls felt some apprehension towards the vengeful spirits in the forest, they were not yet filled with fear.

If they were alone, they might worry that they wouldn't be able to withstand the attack, but now that more than thirty people have gathered together, what kind of vengeful ghost can't they deal with?
Li Hui thought the same way.

He didn't intend to deliberately deal with the vengeful spirits in this forest, but if the vengeful spirit buried in the soil set its sights on them, he would not hesitate to eliminate it.

He led the group through the woods at a steady pace, neither speeding up nor slowing down, maintaining a uniform speed throughout.

To Li Hui's surprise, the vengeful spirits in the woods did not attack them.

Even after all thirty-odd of them had passed through the grove, the exposed, stiff hand remained motionless, its palm facing upwards.

But this is good, since no one is being targeted by the vengeful ghost, which saves us some trouble.

Li Hui thought to himself.

After passing through the woods, he was greeted by another path. Ahead of this path, a fork appeared, with one path leading to the left and the other to the right.

The scenery along the road on the left is quite strange.

On the ground of that path were rows of large vats, each filled with dyes of different colors—black, red, green, yellow, and other colors—which looked quite eerie.

The scenery on the right-hand road, however, was much more normal. It was a small garden, and the flowers in the garden were in full bloom, but it looked somewhat unreal, as if it had been painted.

In the middle of the garden stood a figure. Although the figure was somewhat indistinct, it could be determined that it was a woman.

"This should be it. Those dyes are very useful as raw materials for making oil paintings; in some ways, they're even more useful than these undead behind us..."

Li Hui first glanced at the scene in the small garden on the right, and then focused his attention on the fork in the road on the left.

Those dyes were the purpose of his trip.

As one of the raw materials for making oil paintings, those dyes were a perfect match for Li Hui's ability to create ghost paintings.

without any exaggeration.

Having control over those dyes is equivalent to having control over a vast number of dead souls. And that's not all; you should know that Yang Xiao and the others around him were painted using those dyes.

Li Hui, who had read the original novel, knew this clearly.

Whenever a messenger successfully delivered all the mail from the Ghost Post Office, he would be brought here by Luo Wensong, where his image would be left in the dyes and eventually transformed into portraits through other means...

Tatata!
As Li Hui and the others continued forward, they soon reached the end of the fork in the road.

As observed before, this was a fairly spacious open space with several water tanks on the ground, but instead of water, they contained various dyes.

However, the colors of these dyes are quite strange.

The dye in the red vat was very viscous, like fresh blood, while the black vat emitted a strong stench of corpses, as if something was soaking in it. The green vat smelled like something was moldy, with a strong musty odor.

In addition, the dyes in the other water tanks were all strange and unusual, colors that could not be mixed in reality, giving off an eerie feeling.

The thick, blood-like red color was particularly striking; it was an exceptionally alluring color that no living person could replicate. Only some supernatural force could create such a vivid, glistening scarlet.

"Be careful."

Li Hui addressed the group of spirits behind him, saying, "Do not approach these water vats, and especially do not reflect your image in them. The supernatural power contained in these vats is something you cannot resist. Once you are contaminated, you will dissolve."

"real or fake?"

Upon hearing this, some people did not believe it.

A man with a sinister expression stepped out from the crowd, then strode forward and reached out his hand toward the vat containing red dye.

See this.

Li Hui didn't stop them, and just stood quietly to the side watching.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the young man's palm touched the crimson dye in the water vat, which was as alluring as blood.

However, in the next moment, an unbelievable scene unfolded.

The man's palm was melting rapidly. In the blink of an eye, his entire palm had completely dissolved, with no possibility of recovery.

Not only that.

This dissolution is ongoing.

After the man's hand disappeared, his arm also began to dissolve, and the dissolution continued to spread upwards. At this rate, the man's entire body might soon completely vanish.

puff!
However, the man's actions were also decisive.

A ruthless look appeared on his face, and he forcefully tore his left hand off his shoulder, then staggered backward as he retreated quickly.

As for the arm he tore off, it was thrown into the dye vat, but it didn't even cause a ripple before it was completely dissolved.

"Are you kidding me?"

"It's actually true! Those dyes pose a deadly threat to us; they're practically the nemesis of us dead souls!"

Upon witnessing this scene, everyone else instinctively took a few steps back, distancing themselves from the dye vats filled with various pigments.

Even Yang Xiao frowned at this moment, a hint of apprehension flashing in his eyes, as he looked at the dye vats on the ground and fell into deep thought.

Compared to the reactions of the other souls, Li Hui appeared unusually calm, showing no sign of panic. He calmly surveyed the dye vats on the ground, seemingly contemplating how to pack them all up and take them away.

"The best way is to put them into paintings that I make myself and then take them away directly."

Li Hui thought to himself.

But before that, he had one more question he wanted to confirm.

While thinking.

Li Hui stepped forward and stood in front of the dye vat containing red dye.

At the same time, the surrounding environment changed, and dense dust appeared, constantly falling from the sky, just like a gray rain of paper dust.

"This is... a ghost realm?"

Someone in the crowd asked in confusion, "What is he trying to do? Is he planning to use the Ghost Domain to take these dye vats away?"

But no one responded to him.

Everyone was watching Li Hui, curious about what he was planning to do, since this was the destination Li Hui had mentioned at the beginning.

Back when they were still at the post office, Li Hui directly stated that he wanted to go to a strange place containing various dyes, but no ghost knew where it was, including Yang Xiao.

Later, Li Hui mentioned some other features, such as the strange forest they had passed through earlier, saying that the path containing dye was behind the forest. Yang Xiao happened to know about that forest, so the group began to take action.

The others were alright; they didn't even know about that strange forest, and even those who did know hadn't crossed it.

But Yang Xiao was different.

He not only knew the grove of trees, but had also crossed it before, and knew what lay beyond. So he had been puzzled all along the way.

Yang Xiao knew very well that although there were forks in the strange forest leading to other strange places, there was no path containing dye.

To his surprise, the location Li Hui had mentioned came into view as soon as they passed through the woods, making Yang Xiao wonder if there was something wrong with his memory.

He remembered that this path originally only had the right-hand fork, which led to the garden where evil spirits roamed, while the path they were on originally did not exist.

"It must have been a change that happened later."

While pondering, Yang Xiao ruled out the possibility that his own memory was faulty, and felt that the environment of the world in the painting must have changed.

After all, the supernatural power of the ghost dream he wields has extremely strong protection for consciousness, making it unlikely that his memories could be silently altered.

"But how did he know?"

"Despite being a newcomer to the paranormal world, he knows a surprising amount of things, not only about the outside world, but also about the world within the Ghost Post Office painting..."

Yang Xiao stared at Li Hui's retreating figure, his gaze flickering uncertainly. At that moment, he even began to doubt whether Li Hui was from this era or a remnant of the previous one.

However, Yang Xiao quickly overturned this idea in his mind.

He had also explored the events of the Republican era, but no top expert could match Li Hui. As for the others, Yang Xiao did not believe they had the ability to make arrangements to revive the nation in this era.

"Could it be that he has precognitive abilities?"

After ruling out the possibility that Li Hui is a remnant of supernatural phenomena from the previous era, the only plausible explanation is his precognitive abilities.

"A remarkable young man. It seems I made the right choice to cooperate with him. He truly has the potential to be among the best in the paranormal field."

Yang Xiao thought to himself.

At the same time, Li Hui, standing in front of the red dye vat, also began his own actions.

He was surrounded by ashes, and the other end of the ghost realm stretched into the distance. He was ready for an emergency and then leaned out, trying to reflect his image in the red dye.

The thick, scarlet dye made it impossible to tell whether it was blood or dye. The moment Li Hui's body approached, his reflection was immediately seen in the dye vat.

Li Hui wanted to use the supernatural power of dye to experiment with something, and the result of this experiment was very important to him.

next moment.

Ripples spread across the red dye vat, and then a figure slowly stood up from it, the thick, blood-like dye making a 'splashing' sound.

The man was covered in blood and looked exactly like Li Hui, except that he was completely red, which made him look very strange.

After the figure stood up from the dye vat, the surrounding scenery changed again. In the gray ghost realm that originally belonged to Li Hui, a patch of red appeared.

Pieces of scarlet, resembling paper ash, appeared and fell continuously from the sky, though far fewer in number than the hazy paper ash, and they appeared even more illusory and unreal.

(End of this chapter)