Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 628 Carving Message
“These dark colors are bloodstains that haven’t been cleaned up, and this part of the paint is Emily’s doing. What about the rest?” Mo Mang’s attention returned to the main point.

The two already pointed out account for only half of all the pigments used in these sculptures. What about the other half?

“This is the only thing I’m confused about here, but the Black Cult probably came for this.” Zheng Fan said, picking up his carving tools, finding a piece of stone, and tapping it with just the right amount of force to produce a crisp “ding-ding-dang” sound.

"Has that...thing been disposed of?" Emily's voice came from the doorway.

This girl's curiosity is really strong. She had already been frightened twice before, and most people would have run away by now, but she actually came back.

“Yes, it’s already been taken care of.” Chasilu glanced at her.

Emily breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, but seemed a little disappointed. She peeked inside and saw Zheng Fan toss down his tools: "Could you hear the carving sounds coming from the studio just now?"

"Huh? I can hear a little bit in the hallway." Emily paused for a moment, but her reply was swift.

"What's wrong?" Chasilu asked.

Mo Mang glanced at the corridor, seemingly lost in thought: "The soundproofing of this studio is actually not a problem."

“Of course, no problem. The last person who lived on the first floor didn’t complain much. Kresh specially renovated it. Even so, considering that I sometimes make noise when I move around, they still gave me a generous rent reduction.” This topic reminded Chasillu of that annoying Zhang Ren, so he said it as a matter of course.

"If we rule out the possibility that Zhang Ren and Emily were deliberately causing trouble, why would he say that he heard carving sounds that were enough to disturb his rest?" Mo Mang asked.

Emily, who was mentioned, lowered her head and pretended to be an ostrich.

Chaxilu was stunned: "Is there any possibility that he wasn't deliberately picking a fight?"

"Also, I remember Zhang Ren saying that he wasn't the only one being bothered, right? If it was the landlord's family, they should have brought it up with you directly instead of talking to Zhang Ren, whom you don't get along with. So Emily, you and Zhang Ren must have discussed this privately, right?" Mo Mang felt that her thinking was much smoother after returning to the normal logical chain.

Following Zheng Fan's lead is far too easy to fall into confusion.

Having pretended to be an ostrich on the sidelines, Emily was dragged out and questioned again. She raised her head with difficulty and said, "Yes, yes... I can sometimes hear the sounds from the second floor, but they're not as obvious..."

"It's one thing to hear a noise on the first floor, but you've lived here for so many years and the second floor has always been quiet. Don't you find it strange that you can suddenly hear sounds?" Zheng asked, puzzled.

"Ah... well, soundproofing materials age too, after all, it's been like this for so long," Emily stammered.

Who would immediately think of something unusual? At most, they would just think that the soundproofing facilities are old and need to be repaired.

“When Mr. Zheng was knocking just now, even though the door was open, Emily could only hear some of it in the hallway, so the claim that the soundproofing was old and worn out is completely unfounded,” Mo Mang pointed out.

Chasilu and Emily fell silent again.

Could they really have been living with such an obvious anomaly for so long?
Chaxilu slumped onto a small stool, utterly exclaiming, "What on earth is going on?! I can't take it anymore! Can you give me an explanation or a solution?!"

He was on the verge of a breakdown, and his tense nerves were about to shut down.

"Don't rush me. If I don't explain things clearly to you, wouldn't it be unfriendly of me to go straight to the end of the gate?" Zheng Fan said with a smile, trying to comfort you.

He strolled to the window of the studio, glanced outside, and casually drew the curtains.

"Let's go out, there's nothing more to see here." Zheng Fan didn't explain where the remaining paint came from. He packed up his carving tools, picked them up, and led everyone out of the studio to the living room in the middle.

Zheng Fan walked straight to the wall on the right-hand side of the entrance, which was separated from Zhang Ren's room by only one wall. This wall was covered with a cloth that covered most of the wall, and it was stained with a lot of paint, because the painter would occasionally leave his studio to change his mood and prevent paint from getting on the wall.

Zheng Fan reached out and grabbed the white cloth: "This is it."

Whoa!

He flicked the lid, revealing what was usually hidden on the wall.

Chaxilu held his breath, staring wide-eyed as he desperately tried to take in the scene before him and etch it into his mind.

Emily was also deeply shocked, but she reacted faster and immediately covered her head, saying, "Cress will definitely yell at me when he gets back!"

Mo Mang looked at the wall in front of him in surprise, but then it immediately came to mind: the carving noise that was seriously disturbing Zhang Heng's rest, and which even Emily on the second floor could hear a little of, could not possibly be coming from the well-soundproofed studio.

The unknown sculptor carved it in the large living room on the first floor!
What is hidden on this wall is the result of the long-term work of an unknown sculptor.

It was a sculpture, a grand painting laid out on the wall in the form of a relief. But this was clearly unusual, because the wall material was obviously unsuitable for supporting such a large-scale sculpture. Clearly, either the sculptor or the sculpture itself possessed some kind of mystical power.

The main body is a towering tree with twisted and spreading branches. The treetops are connected to eyes that seem to be leaves, and the roots below the tree are even thicker, like strong and powerful tentacles.

"Aww?" Why does this tree look so familiar to Toast?
"What...is this?" Chasilu felt his breathing become difficult.

Zheng raised an eyebrow.

interesting.

It's uncertain how many people in this world have actually seen the giant tree deep within the dark world. Why would an anomaly that happened to a sculptor lead to the carving of this tree?

However, this makes it easier to understand why the Black Cult would target Chassilu.

The Black Cult is precisely the force that seems to know about the giant tree deep within the Black World. Some of its more capable members are even called "Tree Bearers of the Pure Land." It's impossible to say there's nothing fishy about it.

Mo Mang noticed a flat area in the center of the tree trunk: "Is this part still unfinished?"

“Yes, this piece isn’t finished yet!” To everyone’s surprise, Chaxilu responded excitedly, “I… I should know, I should remember, this is what I sculpted… How could this be? Why don’t I remember anything about it!?”

He gripped his hair tightly with both hands, muttering to himself.

Mo Mang paused for a moment upon hearing this, then realized: "Emily, who also lives on the second floor, has heard the carving sounds, but Chassilu himself has never heard any unusual sounds..."

“Something wants to convey a message through you,” Zheng Fan said, putting down the carving tools he had brought. “Since you carved it, then complete it.”

"Me?" Chaxilu hesitated. He had no recollection of carving these things. Now that he was suddenly asked to complete them, how was he supposed to do it?

Bang!
Just then, several windows in the living room suddenly shattered at the same time.

"Awooo!" Toast quickly lunged at the figure that broke through the window, and Mo Mang immediately pulled Chaxilu and Emily away to avoid it.

Emily was terrified: "Cressre is really going to explode!"

Before the group that burst into the living room could make a move, the toast suddenly went black after a series of random characters flashed across its surface.

Toast quickly dealt with several people, but then a black wind swept in, and he nimbly dodged and escaped the sneak attack.

A tall, thin Black man named Don appeared in the living room. His dark face was covered with gold tattoos resembling tree branches, and similar patterns could be seen on his arm, which peeked out from under his black long sleeves.

His eyes were also a bright, dark gold.

Zheng Fan looked at this person and had a sense of déjà vu—the other person's features were very similar to his and the mechs' second-stage possession.

“A message from the gods is an ‘oracle,’ which is not something you can accept… So give it up.” The black man stretched out his hand, speaking softly, unlike the stereotypical image of a black person.

However, the black aura surrounding him was far less friendly and cordial than his tone.

“Interesting. The illusions you have aren’t illusions either.” Zheng Fan stepped forward and shielded Toast behind him.

The Black man sized up Zheng Fan, a strange light flashing in his eyes: "So that's how it is. So we ended up meeting? Is this yet another twist of fate?"

"You recognize me?" Zheng asked, as if it were a matter of course.

“‘Ye’ has warned us many times not to provoke you, but if a conflict arises, there is no reason for us to back down. If you want to support a tree, you naturally cannot waver on your own path,” the black man said calmly.

Zheng Fan smiled and said to Chaxilu and Momang, "I'll be right back. Use this time to finish the carving. Toast is protecting you."

"Can Toast protect us?" Mo Mang noticed that many members of the Black Cult might have already surrounded us outside, and Toast alone wouldn't be able to hold out.

“It’s not just toast.” Zheng Fan had barely finished speaking when a loud bang came from Chaxilu’s workshop.

Through the half-open door, one could vaguely see that the sculptures in the studio had begun to dance wildly.

(End of this chapter)