From Paper Craftsman to World-Suppressing Immortal

"Zhang Zhixuan... Zhang Zhixuan..."

The woman's plaintive voice seemed to come from all directions, possessing a captivating magic that constantly eroded his reason.

Zhang Zhixuan felt unwell and wanted to move or turn over, but his body felt like it was filled with lead, and he could neither move nor speak, except for his eyes.

He saw that all around him was a vast expanse of white fog, boundless and obscuring both the sky and the earth.

"Where am I?"

"In a dream?"

The chaotic thoughts and the pain of being imprisoned intertwined, almost driving him mad. At the same time, another unsettling chill spread from his palms, climbing up his arms, across his chest, up his neck, and finally trying to burrow into his brow.

Suddenly, a burst of golden light erupted!

All the discomfort, along with the chilling sensation that was creeping into Zhang Zhixuan's brow, vanished instantly, like ice being thrown into a furnace.

Following the burst of golden light was a piercing, mournful scream from a woman: "Zhang Zhixuan! How dare you!"

The thick fog that blotted out the sky transformed into the enormous, deathly pale face of the paper bride: "I won't forgive you! I won't forgive you!"

The thick fog transformed into a giant ghostly claw, reaching out to grab Zhang Zhixuan.

"Swoosh!" A small, golden sword suddenly shot out from Zhang Zhixuan's chest. The sword was as powerful as a rainbow and pierced through the huge ghost claw with overwhelming force. But the moment it was dispersed, the ghost claw formed from the thick fog quickly reassembled into the complete and enormous body of the paper wife.

Just as the golden sword and the paper wife were locked in fierce combat, Zhang Zhixuan's consciousness in his dream was suddenly pulled by some force.

When Zhang Zhixuan opened his eyes again, he saw familiar beams and a dilapidated roof.

A few streaks of blinding light shone through the window paper. He turned his head to look outside and saw that it was already broad daylight.

"call……"

Zhang Zhixuan gasped for breath, feeling as if a heavy stone was pressing on his chest, and his clothes were soaked with cold sweat.

Looking down, he saw a golden talisman affixed to his chest. He reached out to touch it, but the moment his fingertips touched the yellow paper talisman, it shattered into pieces, then turned to ashes and fell to the ground.

"The golden talisman for warding off evil has been destroyed. What I just dreamt was real; that evil spirit, the Paper Bride, came looking for me..."

"As expected, there's no such thing as a free lunch. The paper wife's gold and silver jewelry isn't so easy to get for nothing."

Zhang Zhixuan clearly remembered everything that happened in his dream. Without the Golden Light Evil-Repelling Talisman, the consequences would have been unimaginable. An unprecedented sense of crisis surged into his heart.

Zhang Zhixuan quickly thought things through and made a decisive decision: he had to go to Tianjin today to get rid of those jewelry pieces and also hurry up and find Master Pei Shouzhen of the Celestial Master's Mansion.

Without hesitation, Zhang Zhixuan quickly gathered up the jewelry and hid it in the inner compartment of his backpack. Before leaving, his gaze fell on the two paper puppet soldiers.

"Come on, let me take you out for a look around and broaden your horizons."

"Now, come in yourself!" Zhang Zhixuan pointed to the basket on the ground and gave the two paper puppet soldiers an order. The two paper puppets moved at the same time and hid in the basket according to Zhang Zhixuan's instructions.

These two paper puppet soldiers were larger than ordinary paper puppets. Even though Zhang Zhixuan's basket was on the larger side, it was still quite difficult to fit both paper puppet soldiers inside. There was no room to stuff anything else in.

The basket on my back wasn't much heavier; these paper puppet soldiers were ultimately just made of paper. The problem was how to carry more paper puppet soldiers when we upgraded them later.

Zhang Zhixuan seemed to be deep in thought.

Leaving home, Zhang Zhixuan headed towards the outskirts of Wuliu Town with practiced ease. He needed to find a mule cart at the official post station first. In those days, carriages and horses were slow, but walking alone was even slower. Since he was in a hurry, he still needed to find a vehicle.

Not far along, Zhang Zhixuan heard the "de-de" chant of the cart driver urging the mules behind him.

He looked back and saw a mule cart half-loaded with melons and fruits coming towards him. The driver was an old man in his fifties, wearing a yellowish undershirt, with dark skin and wrinkles on his face.

"Young man, heading to town? Need a ride?" The old man pulled on the reins, and the mule snorted and came to a stop.

"Go into town."

"Come on up, it's on my way. I'll charge you two copper coins. Just be careful on the ride, don't crush my fruit."

"Okay, I'll be careful."

"Let's go then."

The old man gestured towards the empty cargo bed. Zhang Zhixuan climbed onto the cargo bed, placed his basket beside him, and the mule cart swayed forward, its wheels crunching over the uneven dirt road.

"Young man, what kind of fortune are you going to make in the city?" The old man was a talkative fellow, and he asked casually, just to make conversation.

"I wouldn't say I'm rich; I just make paper crafts and deliver them to shops in the city."

"Paper crafts?" The old man glanced back at Zhang Zhixuan and the basket beside him, then turned back.

"These days, it's not easy to make money off the dead. The living are barely surviving, who has spare money to spend on the dead?"

"Yeah, it's not easy to do business anymore." Zhang Zhixuan wasn't really in the mood for conversation and just gave a perfunctory reply, but the old man seemed to have opened a floodgate and kept talking.

"But if you're going into the city often lately, you'd better be careful. I heard that a group of bandits came from the west. They say they're defeated soldiers who have nowhere to go, so they're wandering around the suburban towns and counties near Tianjin, robbing passersby. The day before yesterday, someone was robbed near Wangjiaqiao. Not only were all their money and belongings taken, but they were also stabbed and left on the roadside. By the time someone found them, they were already rotting."

"Are there bandits and soldiers causing trouble in Tianjin too?" Zhang Zhixuan's heart tightened.

"How many soldiers and bandits were there?"

"I heard there were more than a dozen of them, all armed with knives and guns, and they were very fierce."

The old man sighed and said, "If my wife hadn't been sick in bed and needed money urgently for treatment, I wouldn't have taken this cart of fruits to the city to try my luck. It's really hard to live in this world."

Zhang Zhixuan responded indifferently, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

The mule cart continued on its way, and after about half an hour, the number of pedestrians on the road suddenly increased.

Zhang Zhixuan was a little puzzled. He knew that even if there were people on this road, they wouldn't usually be in such large groups.

Upon closer inspection, most of these people were accompanied by their families, dressed in rags, with sallow and emaciated faces and dull eyes. Some carried loads on their shoulders, some carried bundles on their backs, and some carried children as they walked along both sides of the official road.

An elderly woman with gray hair, leaning on a cane, her face sallow, moved weakly step by step, trying to keep up with the group, but in the end she could not hold on and fell to the ground with a "thud," motionless.

Behind the old woman was a little girl, about three or four years old, covered in dirt, tugging at the old woman's clothes, shouting at the top of her lungs, crying weakly.

It wasn't just this one; there were also mothers holding their babies, starving and thirsty, too weak to produce any milk. The babies cried in their arms, and the mothers, with tears streaming down their faces, bit their fingers to feed their babies with blood.

……

Zhang Zhixuan couldn't bear it, but he himself was in dire straits.

"They're all refugees fleeing famine, poor people."

The old man driving the cart noticed Zhang Zhixuan's compassion and sighed, but then whispered a reminder to him: "Young man, don't lend a hand. If you help one person, a whole bunch will come. The two of us won't be able to hold them off. This cart of fruits is for me to sell to save lives..."

"Yes, I understand." Zhang Zhixuan frowned, and could only sigh helplessly in the end.

The mule cart continued onward, and the roadside gradually became desolate. The fields were overgrown with weeds, and there was no sign of life in the distant villages, only the smoke of cooking fires.

"This place is deserted, everyone has run away, and those who are left are too old to move."

Zhang Zhixuan didn't speak, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. He felt something was wrong; the official road was too quiet. There were no human voices, no barking dogs, not even birdsong. The only sounds were the hooves of mules, the crunching of cart wheels, and the footsteps of the refugees following behind them.

"Grandpa, let's walk faster, something's not right."

Before Zhang Zhixuan could finish speaking, a boy's loud wailing suddenly rang out on the official road ahead.

The old man driving the cart and the refugee group following behind were startled by the sudden cry of the boy and stopped to look in the direction of the sound.