Wizard's Journey

Chapter 1922 Immortal Realm (Part Six)

She wore a pink dress with emerald green trim at the collar and cuffs. Her slender figure stood gracefully, her small body seemingly about to collapse at any moment. Her large, watery eyes were full of charm as she looked at Green's hand reaching towards the sarcophagus with extreme fear, which filled one with pity.

This kind of charm is quite similar to the way Green used when he first met Xiao Lian.

After staring at the painted skin with his tricolored eyes for a while, Green ignored the skin's reaction and directly stretched out his azure-blue spiritual energy hand to caress its face and body.

Her skin was so smooth and delicate, warm and elegant, graceful and slender, you could even feel her trembling with excessive tension from your touch.

With a thoughtful look in his eyes, Green slowly withdrew his hand.

"Painting on skin, using some unknown and mysterious power as a trigger, creates a completely new life—truly a beautiful yet cruel artistic creation, a ghost or spirit?"

Little Eight, perched on Green's shoulder, glanced around the painted mask with one eye, wondering, "This is the first time I've seen a living creature here, how come it's so weak?"

Silvana, Nieyun, and Xiaolian also gathered around, examining the painted skin as if it were a precious specimen.

Surrounded by onlookers, the masked man slowly lowered his head, looking bewildered, letting the crowd do as they pleased.

"So this is the blessed land you carved out, the one guarding this place? Heh heh heh, so weak, yet you've accomplished such a feat. It must be quite something. It seems you must have been born after the Great Calamity of the Immortal Realm. To be so devoted to protecting this Immortal Venerable who yearns for resurrection, I'd like to see just what methods you use!"

As he spoke, Green stretched out his palm, ignoring the frightened ghost in front of him. Under the azure light spot on his right hand, the ghost felt as if the world had been covered up.

The next moment, his body went limp, and he completely lost consciousness.

In everyone's eyes, the unconscious Painted Skin was shrinking into a painting at a visible speed. The difference was that the material of this painting was the skin of a young girl!

As high-ranking wizards who explore the mysteries of truth, Grimm and his companions were not surprised by the strange arts of this foreign civilization. Grimm took the scroll with one hand and gently flattened it with the other. On the scroll, which depicted a human skin, was the image of a beautiful girl sleeping soundly. She was clearly a girl with a pure heart, a firm will, and the willingness to give everything for certain ideals and beliefs.

"Hey, what are you doing? Who cares what she's doing, the one in the coffin is our target."

Xiao Ba glanced sideways at Green.

"This kind of immortal technique, while not quite bringing the dead back to life, is still a miraculous art of shaping a life form according to one's own ideal will. It must involve some higher-dimensional mysteries. Leaving this painted skin on the outside, it seems that the heaven-defying object this immortal venerable used to avert calamity is not just these Yin Coffin Fungi. The true object of calamity averting calamity should be her! Heh heh, he must have foreseen my arrival and was trying to use this to avert calamity, right?"

As Green spoke, his index finger, shimmering with azure light, pointed little by little at the painted skin's eyebrow under everyone's gaze.

"Then let me see what this Immortal Venerable left behind that makes me retreat!"

Subsequently, under the memory perception power of Green's azure spiritual body, fragmented memory pieces appeared one by one.

……

With each stroke of the brush, each hook and line, the girl's charm gradually emerges.

The aroma of wine filled the air, but the tears that flowed were those of longing. The immortal's emotional tribulations penetrated to the bone, leaving him unable to let go. Even after reaching the level of a powerful immortal, a broken promise from his childhood had pierced his heart.

"Xiaonan, wait until I make money, then I'll come back and marry you!"

The boy from the mountains left behind these words and resolutely departed, leaving behind the girl who had rushed towards him on the mountain path, tears streaming down her face as she stubbornly watched the boy slowly disappear down the path. She silently vowed, "I will definitely wait for you to come back, and I will marry no one but you in this life."

However, this parting became forever.

The world outside the mountains is truly wonderful. The simple boy who came out of the mountains quickly learned all kinds of social skills in order to make a living. He also suffered a lot and endured a lot of hardship. His survival skills became stronger and stronger. From being hungry and thirsty at the beginning to being shrewd and charming, he won the favor of everyone. The boy worked hard for three years.

"Save some money and marry Xiaonan properly."

Driven by this ideal, the boy worked even harder and gradually grew from a diligent boy into a handsome man. Many girls were attracted to him. The boy never forgot his vow and worked hard to accumulate more money.

Three more years passed, and he had become a well-known figure in the city.

Just as the boy was becoming increasingly satisfied with his growing savings and preparing to return to his hometown to visit relatives and win Xiaonan's heart, an opportunity from a distant and bustling capital city suddenly presented itself to him.

You can earn ten times more per day than here, and in just one year you can earn the equivalent of ten years' worth of income here!

To go or not to go?

"I should marry Xiaonan in a grand ceremony and let her live with me in the city, so she'll never have to live in those mountains again. Life there is just too hard. Xiaonan, just wait for me for another year!"

With that thought in mind, he embarked on his journey to the bustling capital.

Perhaps it was due to the favor of heaven, or perhaps it was due to his own excellence, but the various opportunities that followed became greater, more incredible, and more bizarre. Naturally, the boy embarked on the path of cultivation and seeking immortality. For cultivators, worldly prosperity is nothing but fleeting clouds. A hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the experiment in his heart has gradually faded away.

On this day, the boy, who had once been a disciple of a sect, happened to pass by his former mountain village. His mortal heart was moved, and he unknowingly fell into the mortal world, returning to his hometown from a hundred years ago. This was called "entering the mortal world to refine the heart" by cultivators.

After taking a few glances at the somewhat changed mountain village, he arrived at the front of Xiaonan's dilapidated ancestral home and went up to ask the trembling old man for directions.

"Oh? She? It's said that she waited for someone, never married, and died long ago."

……

Green awoke from his memories of the painted skin, his eyes filled with even deeper contemplation.

"Does this mask represent inner demons? Perhaps we should observe it from a different perspective!"

Muttering to himself, Green's azure-blue hand brushed across the painted skin, easily peeling away the ink from the image of the girl. When Green's tricolored eyes looked again, he saw a white-robed immortal who was dazed and in agony, showing signs of madness and entering the demonic path. He was using the skin of a live girl as paper, drinking and painting all day long, unable to extricate himself.

What was once an insignificant past in the mortal world has now become a terrible inner demon.

The immortal realized this, but it was too late to turn back. He was being devoured by another personality. The immortal fought against the heavens and went against the heavens. He fought against his enemies and seized the initiative, but in the end he could not defeat himself and was finally devoured by his inner demons.

"oh!?"

Green said strangely, "So, what's inside the stone coffin is actually a demon, attempting to resurrect the immortal after his death and seize a sliver of heavenly secrets? If the stone coffin is opened, the demon's soul will be scattered, and the painted skin will disappear, leaving you with nothing. But if the stone coffin isn't opened, you will obtain this painted skin? And the demon will use this painted skin as nourishment to overcome the immortal's tribulations and be reborn? What a cunning thing, using human weaknesses to protect itself. It seems that the Lord of Original Sin in the Earth Vein World is probably just like this."

"Huh!? So, should we open it or not?"

Little Eight asked Green.

Just as Green was hesitating, suddenly, as he flipped through the cartoon, he was immediately drawn to a marked image on it.

"Ancestral Master's Talisman? What's this?"

On the back of the painted skin, a hidden place called the Ancestral Master Talisman was clearly marked.

(End of this chapter)