From Paper Craftsman to World-Suppressing Immortal

Zhang Zhixuan hid inside the house, peering out through the cracks in the window.

In the pitch-black night, the locust flower lanterns hanging at the door of every household on the village street emitted a faint green glow, making the scene eerie and unsettling.

On the street, the sounds of gongs and footsteps gradually drew closer.

"Clang... clang... clang..."

As the gong sounded, a man in a gray cloth robe came into Zhang Zhixuan's view. The man's pale face was no better than that of a paper doll, and his eye sockets were sunken, like two dark holes. He carried a gong in his hand, and after taking a few steps, he would raise his hand and strike it a few times, his movements stiff as a marionette.

Behind the gong-beater, four identical sedan chair bearers carried a large, black sedan chair. These bearers looked exactly like the man who was banging the gong and clearing the way; they all had pale faces, deep-set eyes, and clumsy, stiff movements.

The sedan chair carried by the four porters was also very strange. Four white lanterns hung from the eaves of the sedan chair, with the character "囍" written on the paper of the lanterns. The candlelight inside the lanterns emitted a faint green light, making the entire sedan chair look cold and eerie.

As the sedan chair passed by the window, a stench mixed with the strong scent of locust blossoms seeped in through the window cracks, making Zhang Zhixuan's stomach churn.

A gust of cold wind blew, lifting a corner of the sedan chair curtain. Zhang Zhixuan could clearly see a figure dressed in a bright red wedding gown sitting inside.

"Strange, everything about them is strange, what on earth are these things...?"

Zhang Zhixuan frowned, keeping a close eye on the situation outside through the window crack until the four sedan chair bearers carried the heavy sedan chair and disappeared into the darkness in the distance. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief and turn around.

The boy beside him relaxed his tense nerves, let out a long sigh, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"What's going on with your village?" Zhang Zhixuan asked.

He was filled with questions and waiting for answers, but the boy ignored him and instead asked Zhang Zhixuan, "How did you get in?"

Zhang Zhixuan was taken aback for a moment, then said truthfully, "Of course I walked in from the village entrance on two legs."

"Walked in? What time did they come in?"

"Around dusk."

The boy rolled his eyes, speechless, and said, "No wonder, you're just unlucky. Of all times, you had to come at dusk, the time when Yin and Yang are at their dividing line."

"So what? What's going on with your village?"

"Let me tell you, our village has always been protected by the magic of the Goddess Huai Mu. Ordinary people can't see it at all. But occasionally, when the Goddess's magic weakens, the village will appear at dusk on such days."

"At times like these, unlucky people like you will occasionally wander into the village. If the person who comes happens to be a strong young man full of yang energy, he will be chosen by the Goddess Huai and taken to marry her."

"If I hadn't called you in to hide, they would have tied you up and stuffed you into the sedan chair when the procession got close, sacrificing you alive to the Goddess Huai Mu as her groom!"

As the boy spoke, he walked to the table and lit an oil lamp. Only then did Zhang Zhixuan get a clear look at the boy. He was thin and wiry, with dry, yellow hair and lifeless eyes, much like the other villagers. However, unlike the other villagers who seemed like soulless zombies, this boy could speak, communicate, and think; he was a slightly more normal person.

Zhang Zhixuan sized up the boy for a moment, then asked, "You seem a little different from the other villagers."

The boy slumped onto the stool and sighed, "I guess it's because I've never had my soul extracted before. The magic of the Locust Mother Goddess is getting weaker and weaker. If a groom isn't offered regularly, she'll extract the souls of the villagers to replenish her magic."

"You mean to say that those villagers are already dead?"

"They're not dead, they're all alive."

"That's really strange. How could someone survive when their soul was taken away by a monster? Every villager I saw completely ignored my existence, unlike you, who could communicate normally."

The boy shook his head, his eyes dim: "It's just that the Goddess Huai Mu took a part of my soul, which is why I became so dull and lifeless, like a walking corpse. The Goddess Huai Mu doesn't kill us; she just uses our living souls to replenish her magic power. As for me, I rely entirely on this amulet left to me by my parents, which can cover my life force, so I've never had my soul taken away." As he spoke, the boy pulled a red rope from around his neck, with an amulet tied to one end.

"This is the only memento my parents left me."

"And what about your parents?"

Upon hearing Zhang Zhixuan's question, the boy paused, lowered his eyes, and said in a low voice, "I don't know, he disappeared several years ago."

Seeing the evasive look in his eyes, Zhang Zhixuan roughly understood what was going on and didn't press the matter further.

He got up and went to the window again, looking out through the crack. The street was deathly silent, without a single person or sound. Only the green light of the locust tree lanterns glowed faintly, like flickering will-o'-the-wisps.

After watching for a while, Zhang Zhixuan turned around, looked at the boy, and asked, "Do you want to leave this village with me? I have a way to break this sorcery and take you out."

The boy seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world. He twitched his lips and revealed a desperate smile: "Leave the village? Impossible. You'd better give up on that idea as soon as possible. No one who enters Luohuai Village can get out. A few days ago, some soldiers came in. They all had guns and knives, and there was even a skilled martial artist. What happened? In the end, some died, some were crippled, and even that skilled martial artist was beaten half to death by the Mother of the Locust Tree and dragged away."

Zhang Zhixuan was not intimidated by the young man's words. He summoned the Paper Fairy and ordered, "Send out a scout."

The paper fairy casually pinched a paper swallow the size of a palm in a short time.

Paper swallows darted out of the window cracks and soared high into the sky.

The boy was stunned when he saw Zhang Zhixuan summon a paper fairy the size of a palm. Before he could speak, he saw the paper fairy casually make a paper swallow and fly away. His eyes lit up and his original despair turned into hope.

Zhang Zhixuan sensed something and indeed saw a huge locust tree at the other end of the village in the distance. The locust tree was at least as thick as seven or eight adults could hug, and its dense, gnarled roots surrounded the entire village.

Strangely, the crown of this locust tree had little green, appearing dry and withered, lacking vitality, as if it were about to die.

Zhang Zhixuan was urging the paper swallow to get a closer look when suddenly, "bang!" the paper swallow seemed to have crashed into some invisible wall.

Zhang Zhixuan saw a blinding flash of light before his eyes, and the next second he was forced to interrupt his synesthesia.

"Is this it? Were we attacked by something?"

Zhang Zhixuan was completely bewildered when the paper fairy's cold voice rang out: "It was destroyed by the magic array."

Hearing the paper fairy's words, the boy's glimmer of hope was extinguished again. He slumped back onto the stool, his voice trembling with tears, "I told you, no one can get out. We can't escape."

"Don't be discouraged, this is just the beginning. I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve," Zhang Zhixuan comforted him.

But as soon as he finished speaking, the sound of a gong suddenly rang out again in the previously silent village!

"Clang... clang... clang..."

It turned out that the sedan chair procession had returned.