From Paper Craftsman to World-Suppressing Immortal

Wuliu Town, Zhang Family Old House.

Zhang Zhixuan received a message from Pei Shouzhen delivered by falcon. The message contained only two simple sentences: "Gathering at the foot of Panlong Mountain, in Mudan Town."

Zhang Zhixuan guessed that the letter must have reached Pei Shouzhen and his group by now that Pei Shouzhen and his group had set off. At present, his fifteen-day agreement with the paper wife was about to expire. Given the current situation, he had considered ignoring the evil spirit and keeping himself out of the mess.

But the things that kept happening around him made Zhang Zhixuan realize that the tree may wish to be still, but the wind will not cease.

Even if we don't go, the other party will come looking for us sooner or later. Rather than waiting to be caught off guard, we might as well form a group and destroy the evil spirit's home as soon as possible!

Cut the weeds and eliminate the roots to prevent future troubles!

Then came the intensive preparations and arrangements.

Needless to say, he brought along all the items he needed for the journey, as well as a large number of talismans and paper puppet materials, and the magic sword in his hand and other weapons.

In addition, the batch of paperwork that Liu Ling assigned to Zhang Zhixuan has been successfully completed, and she is just waiting to come and collect it.

Zhang Zhixuan made a special trip to his uncle to inform him that he was about to go on a long trip and that he would leave these matters at home to Master Zhao.

He also instructed his uncle to find some bricklayers to renovate the Zhang family's old house after Liu Ling arranged for someone to take away the paper offerings, and to help purchase some daily necessities.

With everything arranged, Zhang Zhixuan left home again a day later.

Arriving at the Linshuigu Canal Wharf again, Zhang Zhixuan was happy to see people coming and going, busy and bustling, with everything back on track. He also felt a bit sentimental.

To get to Mudan Town in Panlong Mountain, we need to take a boat across the canal to the other side.

There are many boats traveling back and forth on the canal, but not many go to the other side; only one or two boats pass by occasionally and you can take a ride.

Fortunately, Zhang Zhixuan had already inquired about everything when he came last time, and he bought a boat ticket and waited quietly at the ferry terminal.

About half an hour later, a small steamship carrying both passengers and cargo slowly docked at the pier.

Zhang Zhixuan followed several passengers onto the small steamer and found that the deck was crowded with people. There were peddlers carrying loads, women holding children, gentlemen in long gowns, and several laborers carrying bedding rolls. It was likely that the steamer had been stopping and starting along the way, so it had picked up quite a few passengers here and there.

Zhang Zhixuan found a corner to squat down, leaned against the gunwale, and placed the basket at his feet.

After about ten minutes, a deep and long whistle sounded, and the small steamship finally set sail.

Zhang Zhixuan stared listlessly at the water, watching the wind push the waves and occasionally spotting fish.

"Young man, where are you going?"

Just then, a deep, honest voice rang in Zhang Zhixuan's ears. He turned around and saw an old man in his fifties sitting next to him.

The old man, his skin tanned dark, carried a large bundle and sat next to me with a pipe in his mouth. He must have been bored and wanted to find someone to talk to to relieve his boredom.

"Go to the other side," Zhang Zhixuan replied calmly.

The old man took two puffs of his pipe, and a strong smell of tobacco wafted from his mouth, revealing a mouthful of smoky yellow teeth; he was clearly a long-time smoker.

"Go to the other side? Where is the other side?"

"Peony Town".

The old man frowned and tapped his pipe: "Peony Town? What are you going to that godforsaken place for? Nobody lives there anymore. I heard it was abandoned back in the previous dynasty."

"Oh? That's a deserted place with no one living there?" Zhang Zhixuan was also a little surprised when he heard the old man say that. He had only heard that the other side of the river was sparsely populated and that even the official road was very remote. He did not expect that such a large town had been abandoned.

"I wonder if Pei Shouzhen and the others know about this situation," Zhang Zhixuan thought with a slight worry.

At this moment, the old man was silent for a moment, then reminded Zhang Zhixuan: "Young man, that place is not peaceful. It is sparsely populated, a desolate wilderness, and I heard it is full of unclean and evil things."

"A big incident happened a few days ago..."

"I heard that a group of soldiers from Beiting went to the other side of the river, I don't know what they were doing, but guess what, a few days later all of these soldiers became driftwood in the canal, and they all died tragically, I don't know what killed them."

"A few days ago, a troop of soldiers from Beiting..."

Zhang Zhixuan suddenly remembered that he, Qingxuan, and Wuming were traveling by mule cart to Linshuigu that day when they did encounter a truck full of soldiers on the way.

Unexpectedly, this group of people went to the other side of the river and all of them died inexplicably.

Seeing Zhang Zhixuan's serious expression and silence, the old man assumed he was frightened and quickly seized the opportunity to advise him: "Young man, it's not that I'm being nosy, but I still advise you not to go. Look how fierce those Northern Court soldiers are! They all have guns! And what happened? They all died. We're just ordinary people. Why go there of all places? You only have one life."

Zhang Zhixuan smiled and said, "Thank you for the reminder, old man. I will be careful."

Seeing that Zhang Zhixuan didn't seem to care much, the old man assumed he was just a naive young man who had just left home and wanted to say a few more words of advice. Suddenly, there was a loud "bang," and the entire small steamer shook twice, causing chaos and screams to erupt on board.

Zhang Zhixuan quickly grabbed the railing and looked down into the water. In that instant, he saw a huge snake tail, as thick as a water bucket, flick out of the water and then quickly disappear back into the murky water.

"What is this? A snake?" Zhang Zhixuan exclaimed in horror. Just looking at this small section of its tail, he roughly estimated that the snake was at least eight or nine meters long. How could there be such a big creature in this canal!

"Don't panic, everyone. That was just a dragon patrolling the river."

At this moment, the captain of the small steamer came out and shouted a few times, trying to calm the terrified passengers on board.

After a while, nothing happened, and the unease on the ship gradually subsided.

The small steamship sailed for about an hour before finally slowly docking.

When the boat docked, only Zhang Zhixuan disembarked and went ashore.

After disembarking from the small steamer, Zhang Zhixuan walked alone along the road. The place was just as he had heard, sparsely populated and desolate.

It had been so long since anyone had walked on it that even the main road was overgrown with weeds, and the wild grass on both sides of the road was almost waist-high. There were annoying mosquitoes and flies everywhere.

They had walked less than two miles when the sky suddenly darkened.

Zhang Zhixuan looked up and saw a large patch of dark clouds surging in from the distance, obscuring the sun in the blink of an eye.

Several muffled claps of thunder rang out, and in an instant the wind became strong and cold, rustling the branches and weeds along the roadside.

"Drip, drip, drip..."

"Whoosh..."

A few large raindrops hit Zhang Zhixuan's face, and then a torrential downpour began.

"Whoa!" Zhang Zhixuan was caught off guard by the sudden downpour and ran away with his head in his hands.

Just then, the Paper Fairy flew out of his sleeve on its own. With a wave of its small hand, the Paper Fairy summoned the Xuanwu puppet hidden in the Hundred Industries Mustard Seed Pouch.

Zhang Zhixuan was puzzled and was stunned on the spot.

At this moment, the paper fairy casually lifted the enormous Xuanwu puppet and used it as an umbrella to shield Zhang Zhixuan's head.

"You! Fine..." Zhang Zhixuan found the scene comical and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In this desolate and impoverished place, it was raining heavily, but at least there was something above his head to keep him dry.

Even so, it was no use.

The rain grew heavier and denser, and the strong winds whipped it against my face, making it sting.

Zhang Zhixuan ran frantically in the rain, just wanting to find a place to take shelter.

In a disheveled state, Zhang Zhixuan's eyes were blurred by the rain, making it impossible for him to see clearly or know where he had gone.

After running for a while, I suddenly saw a few dilapidated houses standing not far away in the wind and rain.

At this point, Zhang Zhixuan didn't care about anything else and hurriedly ran towards the dilapidated houses.

Not long after, he finally crawled into the dilapidated house.

Outside, amidst torrential rain and thunder, Zhang Zhixuan finally found a place to take shelter from the rain.

He was about to shake off the wet clothes clinging to his body when suddenly there was a "crack" under his foot, as if he had stepped on something.

He looked down, exclaimed "Wow!", drew his magic sword, and jumped to the side.