I'm not a psychopath!

Chapter 217 Cardboard Man

A series of doubts surged into Jiang Qing's mind. He stood in front of the huge bronze door and fell into deep thought again.

What is hidden behind this door? What is the connection between the Eternal Underworld and the Queen Ant's Nest? What is the secret of the Fate Fragment?
Countless questions were entangled in his mind like a tangled mess, making him feel a little confused. He tried but was unable to shake the bronze door, which was incredibly hard and heavy.

The distorted faces on the door seemed to be mocking his powerlessness, making his irritation even more intense.

"If the so-called Eternal Underworld is behind the bronze door, then the things related to the Eternal Underworld are... a notebook, a crazy author, and a paper man."

"In other words, the paper man is most likely related to the Eternal Underworld?" Jiang Qing recalled the details.

That day they gathered together to study the contents of the notes, and a paper man was on the windowsill on the second floor opposite, watching them.

"I chased the paper man to no avail, but after I came back, the scene that Bailiye had seen disappeared. It shouldn't be that simple to erase the memory. If it is so strong and has the ability to erase the memory silently, there is no need to run away."

"So the paper man has erased all traces of his existence, and he doesn't want us to find out?"

"But its appearance has left us with more memories. It would be better if it did nothing. What is its purpose?" Jiang Qing was puzzled.

The fireball that was shot out before began to dim due to the lack of continuous spiritual energy injection.

Only a faint firelight was left, dancing in the dark underground space. Under the dim light, a group of pale paper figures had surrounded him without him knowing when.

These paper figures appeared quietly without any sound. Their faces were as pale as paper, and their eyes were as black as ink. They stared straight at Jiang Qing.

The corners of his bright red mouth curved into an arc, as if he was smiling, but there was no warmth in that smile, only endless coldness and weirdness.

Jiang Qing's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

He could feel a chill emanating from these paper figures, and their existence made this already mysterious underground space even more terrifying.

He slowly turned around and faced these paper figures that suddenly appeared. Although he was horrified, he did not lose his composure. As a cultivator, he knew that in the face of the unknown, staying calm was the first priority for survival.

Jiang Qing gripped the sword tightly, ready to strike these paper figures with his sword if they dared to come up to him, no matter what they were.

In the light of the fire, the paper figures' faces looked paler and their smiles looked even weirder.

Jiang Qing took a deep breath and prepared to fight these strange creatures that came from nowhere.

However, at this moment, the face on the bronze door suddenly let out a sharp roar, and then the entire bronze door began to shake, as if something was trying to rush out from the door.

Jiang Qing's attention was attracted by the unusual movement of the bronze door. He looked at the door vigilantly, while his spiritual sense spread out, sensing everything around him.

The corners of the paper people's mouths seemed to be curved even wider, and they slowly approached Jiang Qing with light and strange steps.

Jiang Qing could feel that these paper figures were targeting him, and they seemed to want to stop him from exploring the secrets behind the bronze door!
He had no idea when these paper figures appeared. He had been on guard all around, but he had not found any trace of the paper figures at all...

It was as if from a certain moment, they appeared out of thin air like ghosts!
Looking at the approaching paper man, Jiang Qing's back was soaked with sweat, and a cluster of flames that were almost invisible to the naked eye quietly gathered in the palm of his left hand.

But as soon as the paper man pounces over, the flame will expand into a sea of ​​fire in a very short time, burning everything.

"Then use the extremely powerful sword energy to clear a path and break through..." Jiang Qing narrowed his eyes.

There is no spiritual energy fluctuation in these paper figures, and it is impossible to tell their realm. I feel like I can burn them all in one fire, but things are definitely not that simple.

Just when Jiang Qing was about to break through, he saw a shocking scene. The faces of all the paper dolls suddenly stopped moving. Then, the patterns on their faces began to change drastically, like the rapidly changing masks in a play. In an instant, their expressions changed from sadness to ridicule, and from anger to smiles...

An indescribable aura emanated from their bodies, like an invisible thread, intertwining with the human breath emitted by Jiang Qing.

He couldn't see these lines, so naturally he had no way to cut them. But at this moment, the flame in his palm suddenly went out, and the whole person felt like he was falling into an ice cellar. Jiang Qing's face turned pale.

But it wasn't over yet, something even weirder happened again. Jiang Qing felt that his breathing was becoming difficult, and the air around him seemed to be being sucked away by some force.

A faint black mist appeared at the edge of his vision, slowly converging towards the center and gradually forming blurry images.

These images were distorted and blurry, like ghosts from another world. They slowly revolved around Jiang Qing, emitting low and unrecognizable whispers.

Jiang Qing's heart beat faster. He could feel the deep malice contained in these images.

Suddenly, one of the images stretched out a dry hand and grabbed Jiang Qing's face.

This hand had no substance, but it was bone-chillingly cold. Jiang Qing could feel that the moment it touched his soul, a deep fear surged from the bottom of his heart.

"I can't move!" Jiang Qing shouted in his heart.

He wanted to step back, but found that his feet seemed to be fixed to the ground and he couldn't move at all.

The hand was getting closer and closer, and Jiang Qing could clearly see the protruding blood vessels on the back of the hand and the nails as sharp as knives on the fingertips.

At this critical moment, the Longyuan sword in Jiang Qing's hand shook spontaneously and let out a loud dragon roar.

“It can move now!”

Jiang Qing took the opportunity to take a deep breath and forced himself to suppress the fear in his heart. He knew that if he couldn't break the illusion of these paper figures, he might really be defeated here today.

He closed his eyes and stopped looking at the distorted images. Instead, he focused his consciousness and tried to find the source of the illusion.

His spiritual consciousness was like a sharp sword, penetrating through layers of fog. Finally, he discovered that among the many paper figures, there was one with a clearly different expression.

Its facial features are more vivid, not looking like they were painted on, and are hidden very deeply.

Jiang Qing suddenly opened his eyes, a trace of determination flashed in his eyes. He no longer hesitated, mobilized all the spiritual energy in his body, gathered it on the sword, and swung the sword. The sword light cut through the darkness like a meteor and pointed directly at the special paper man.

The sword light penetrated the paper man's body, making a crisp cracking sound.

After the paper figure was pierced by Jiang Qing's sword, an incredible expression appeared on the paper face.

The corners of its mouth, which were originally a calm straight line, now curled up in an unnatural way, forming a stiff and weird smile.

This smile looked particularly abrupt on the paper man's pale face, as if it was forcibly pulled out in pain. It went against common sense and made people shudder.

Even more disturbing was that the entire face of the paper man began to show subtle wrinkles, as if the skin was twisted in pain, but it also maintained the unique flatness and thinness of paper. This strange transformation between human skin and inanimate paper made Jiang Qing feel an indescribable sense of disharmony.

Jiang Qing saw this scene and couldn't help but be surprised, "How could the paper figures' expressions be so lifelike? As if they were covered with human skin..."

Jiang Qing was immediately shocked by his own thoughts.

Human skin? But just as he was surprised, the paper man controlled other paper men to rush over, blocking Jiang Qing's sight.

Jiang Qing had no choice but to deal with the paper man in front of him. As expected, without that strange ability, the paper man was vulnerable, and no matter how many there were, there was no way to produce a qualitative change.

But when Jiang Qing cleaned up the paper figures in front of him, the most important one disappeared.

Jiang Qing frowned, paced back and forth while observing the surrounding environment, and began to speculate to himself about the direction the other party might escape.

"Although the space here is wide, there are only two directions to escape, front and back. In front is the city wall and the huge bronze gate. Well, it should not be able to open the bronze gate."

"So the only way is to run backwards? But backwards is where the cave-in is. If you want to get out, you have to fly out of this deep pit. And there is a no-fly zone here. If it is afraid, it can't disappear so quickly."

"Unless... it is not subject to the no-fly zone restrictions? That is possible, but after flying up, Qin Xiaosui and the others will be outside, which is obviously not a good choice."

Jiang Qing's eyes swept across the huge cave hall, but after the fireball went out, most of the place was swallowed up by darkness.

"Another possibility is that it's hiding somewhere in the dark, which would explain how it suddenly appeared behind me."

Now the question becomes how to find the paper man hiding in the darkness.

Fireball cannot be released casually.

Rubbing such a big fireball would cause kidney deficiency even for a man as strong as him.

"Let me think about it..."

After a series of analysis!!

He discovered that there was a dog hole in the base of the city wall not far away...

Jiang Qing walked forward and stared at the dark hole that extended towards the bottom of the city wall.

"It looks like this dog hole should lead directly to the back of the city wall, and behind the city wall... is it the Eternal Underworld?"

Jiang Qing observed the ground.

But judging from the traces, it shouldn’t have been dug by the paper man, so who dug it?
Then Jiang Qing muttered to himself and deduced a terrible conclusion: the paper man really came from the Eternal Underworld!
Jiang Qing stood in the dim underground space, surrounded by scattered paper scraps, but the special paper man had disappeared without a trace.

His gaze turned to the huge bronze door again. The distorted faces on the door seemed to be telling something, and the expressions on those faces were strikingly similar to those on the paper figures - equally weird.

It's also an expression that doesn't look like what a human being should have.

Jiang Qing began to talk to himself, sorting out the clues in his mind: "First of all, the appearance of the paper figures was too sudden, they had no signs, as if they suddenly descended from another world.

"Secondly, the expressions of the paper figures are too vivid. That is not something that simple paper products can achieve. They almost seem to have life."

“Furthermore, there seems to be some connection between the face on the bronze door and the paper figurine, and this connection may point to a common origin—the Eternal Underworld.”

Jiang Qing continued to reason: "The Eternal Underworld, the source of many unsolved mysteries."

"If the paper figures really come from there, then what is their purpose? Why do they appear in this ant queen's nest?"

Jiang Qing recalled the crazy author mentioned in the diary and the scenes of the eternal underworld he described.

Although the description in the diary was confusing, one could vaguely sense the author's deep fear and awe of the Underworld. Jiang Qing's mind moved: "If the paper figures are related to the Eternal Underworld, then are they also controlled by some force to convey some information or perform some tasks?"

Jiang Qing looked at the dog hole again, and a bold hypothesis formed in his mind: "The appearance of the paper man, the distorted face on the bronze door, and this mysterious dog hole, all the clues seem to point to one conclusion - the paper man really came from the Eternal Underworld.

And it frequently appears before our eyes.

Previous conclusions that it wanted to erase its own existence have been disproven."

Jiang Qing stared blankly at the cave entrance.

"It wants to lure me in?"

Jiang Qing suddenly realized that he might have been involved in a situation that was more complicated and dangerous than he had imagined.

Just as he was hesitating whether to go in, a powerful suction force suddenly burst out from the cave entrance. As soon as he thought of resisting, he was sucked in.

At that moment, Jiang Qing felt a black screen in front of his eyes, the sound of wind whistling in his ears, and his body was completely out of control. The suction force was so strong beyond his imagination and he could not resist it at all.

Only a white mask was left there.

……

Fifteen minutes later.

Baili Ye and others finally arrived underground, and the first thing they felt was a sense of cramped oppression.

The end of the passage suddenly opened up, but with it came a heavy atmosphere, as if the air was filled with ancient dust.

Baili Ye stepped out of the passage, and his eyes first fell on the blue-gray brick walls.

He walked forward and reached out to touch the smooth and cold brick surface. Feeling the coolness coming from his fingertips, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes:
"These bricks... they are so tightly packed together, it doesn't look like they could have been made by hand."

Luo Shui's sight couldn't help but shrink when he came into contact with this huge underground space. Although he reached out and touched the blue bricks, they were cold.

“It was indeed stacked manually.”

"Let's take a look at other places." The group walked towards Shenchu.

Luo Shui's eyes scanned the surroundings and finally stopped on the towering bronze door.

She took a deep breath and agreed with Bailiye's words: "Indeed, the existence of these brick walls and this bronze door should not be so simple.

There must be some secret hidden here.”

"Look at those faces. They seem to be moving. This door must be something special."

Luo Hua followed closely behind. His eyes were sharp as he quickly scanned the surroundings, looking for possible abnormalities. When he noticed the distorted faces on the bronze door, his voice involuntarily lowered a few degrees.

(End of this chapter)