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墨書 Inktalez
Although it was already night, the thunderstorm raged on, illuminating the entire courtyard with flashes of lightning and booming thunder. A bolt of lightning struck down, momentarily turning the night into day.
The door to my room had been broken last night and I hadn't gotten around to fixing it yet. Cold wind mixed with rainwater poured in. June's weather could change in an instant, but a thunderstorm like this was quite unusual.
I pulled out my phone to check the time; it was already eleven-thirty at night, and I was about to get up and head back to bed.
Suddenly, a series of sounds resembling flapping wings reached my ears. Following the noise, I saw four or five shadowy figures that looked almost human darting through the heavy rain. They flashed by in an instant. I widened my eyes and scanned the area but found no trace of them. I reassured myself, "It must be my imagination!"
Another round of flapping sounds came. The four or five shadowy figures swooped over my head. Although they moved incredibly fast, I managed to see them clearly, sending chills down my spine. They were Paper Men! Those things were palm-sized, resembling something a child might cut out, with arms and legs and a red dot on their foreheads. They flew in from the storm without a drop of rain on them.
The Paper Men didn't come toward me; instead, they landed softly at the base of a coffin as if they were stuck there. With a rustling sound, they lifted the coffin and began to move it toward the door.
The coffin was made of Sinking Wood and weighed several thousand pounds. Sinking Wood was deep green in color, with wood grain that resembled satin. There were no flies or mosquitoes within a hundred steps. Sinking Wood had an eerie quality; if you put cooked meat inside it, three years later it would still smell delicious.
Legend has it that during the thirtieth year of Kangxi's reign, when Taishan collapsed, a coffin emerged from the sand. The coffin was narrow at the front and wide at the back, resembling a large awl and standing over six feet tall. After examination by the abbot of Guoqing Temple, it was determined that this was a Sinking Wood coffin, and if opened, it would surely bring about strange occurrences.
People didn't believe it and forcibly opened the coffin. Inside lay a person entirely covered in dark green skin with wood grain growing on them. Suddenly, the person opened their eyes and asked blankly, "What is this green thing?" The crowd, emboldened by their numbers, replied boldly: "It is!" The person looked astonished and said, "I wasn't this tall when I was alive!" According to ancient texts: "After ten thousand years, one can lean on a staff." This implied that after ten thousand years since Pangu's time, one could reach it with a cane; thus they concluded that this person was one of the Primordial Survivors. As they helped him up, a sudden White Hair Gale swept through, and after the wind passed, he turned into stone!
The Paper Men lifted the Sinking Wood coffin onto their shoulders and steadied it there. All four or five of them exerted their strength together while shouting "Hang Yu! Hang Yu!" The coffin began to move slowly like a snail. I was startled and thought to myself, "This is not scientific!"
The coffin had already moved over a foot when I jumped on top of it and pressed down hard; however, it was useless. Gathering my courage, I cursed under my breath, "Damn it! What’s so scary about these Paper Men?" I jumped off the coffin and kicked one of the Paper Men. That kick brought me trouble.
With a loud bang, four Paper Men dropped the coffin and came flying toward me like bats swooping in. The edges of their paper bodies were sharp as blades, slicing through my clothes and leaving several cuts on me. "Damn! I've actually been injured!" I quickly grabbed Qingyunzi's Iron Sword and swung wildly in the air.
Clang! I cleaved one Paper Man in half; blood sprayed out from it! With several more clangs, I chopped down the remaining Paper Men as well. They lay there like dead dogs, motionless.
"Such cleverness! Even I have to admire myself!" I sheathed the Iron Sword and kept a close watch on those Paper Men for any signs of movement. Sure enough, before long, one of them crawled up from the ground and found its other half that had been severed; astonishingly, it reattached itself!
I hurriedly took out the Master Copper Seal and pressed it down on the Paper Man. I heard a cry of "Ouch!" as the Paper Man struggled like a living person trapped under a heavy stone, flailing its arms and legs. The Mausoleum Secrets once recorded, "Blood from the tip of the tongue is the essence of the human body, capable of subduing Evil Spirits!" I bit my tongue, and a rusty taste filled my mouth. With a puff, I sprayed a mouthful towards each of the four Paper Men. They ignited as if set on fire, crackling and burning with a strange, charred odor.
"Ah!" A scream came from outside the courtyard, and a shadow dressed in a raincoat flashed by, disappearing into the night in an instant. Someone like me, who couldn't even enter through the door, dared not chase after it! By the time the four Paper Men were completely reduced to ashes, I stomped on them hard with my foot, twisting my heel in satisfaction.
Controlling Paper Men is considered a relatively low-level form of witchcraft. Different colors of Paper Men are selected based on their intended use: red, yellow, white, and black. The Red Paper Man belongs to Yang and is generally used to repel evil with Willow Wood Can Exorcise Evil. The Yellow Paper Man is more aligned with Evil Spirits; by pricking the center of its forehead with blood from the fingertip, it can cause harm to others. The White Paper Man is used for summoning souls. The Black Paper Man is used for cursing; by writing someone's birth date on its back and cursing them daily for twenty-one days, that person will bleed from all seven orifices and die.
According to Xiangxi's Namo Lao, they still master the technique of "Paper Man Holding Water." Namo Lao cuts thin paper into human shapes and nails them to wooden boards. After offering incense and burning paper, they perform hand gestures to make the Paper Man hold a large basin filled with water. Many Taoists and spirit mediums are skilled in this technique, but none are as widely practiced as among the Yi people's Bimo or the Miao people's Gao Lao.
As I caught my breath, I suddenly heard loud bangs! The coffin lid flew up and hit the wall, leaving deep dents in it and causing dust to fall from the beams above.
Strange sounds emanated from within the coffin—a painful noise that seemed to come from hell itself. I dared not breathe too loudly, my eyes wide open as I peered into the coffin. The female corpse suddenly opened her eyes and wore a strange smile at the corners of her mouth. For a long time, she twisted her body in apparent agony; it was a horrifying sight that left me dumbfounded. Suddenly, she let out a loud scream, releasing a wave of fragrance that confirmed it was the scent of Forget-Me-Not flowers. Then there was an eerie silence that filled me with dread.
"Hiss… Hiss…"
A rapid and peculiar breathing sound came from inside the coffin!
I looked inside again; the female corpse's abdomen had completely sunken in. At the tail end of the coffin lay something resembling a Furball snuggled against her feet—it was making that sound.
A snow-white Furball with a round face had its ears folded down and large eyes staring blankly at me while its long pink tongue lolled out. Its head resembled that of a Scottish Fold cat while its body looked like that of a Highland White Terrier—fluffy like a snowball but only palm-sized. Instinctively, I reached out to hug it when it suddenly opened its mouth wide, startling me into jumping back.
A thunderstorm struck directly into the room, hitting the coffin. The impact caused the female corpse to stagger as she flipped over and covered the Furball with her body. In an instant, the thunder ceased while Sinking Wood continued to hum ominously.
The coffin did not emit black smoke but instead glowed with an ethereal light as I bravely approached it again. The female corpse seemed to have been struck by lightning but was not charred. She wore a smile at her lips while her entire body became translucent as if made of ice, radiating an eerie blue glow that spread out like arcs of light.
Crack! Crack! Several sounds like glass shattering echoed as her body became covered in countless cracks from within outward. Those cracks gradually widened until with a loud bang, she shattered into countless fragments that transformed into blue butterflies. They danced gracefully in flight—one butterfly, two butterflies—countless butterflies soared upward in formation before vanishing into the night sky without a trace within no time at all. All that remained in the coffin was one Furball gazing up at nothingness.
Furball stared at the butterfly flying away, making soft grunting sounds, tears welling up around its eyes, looking extremely pitiful. I instinctively reached out to hold it again, and this time it no longer resisted. It licked my wrist with its pink tongue and rested its head in my palm, allowing me to pick it up.
Furball was completely snow-white, without a single stray hair. It curled up like a ball in my arms, looking forlorn. I knew it was a Bai Ze, but it was still too young, resembling both a cat and a dog.
Whenever something extraordinary is born, it must face condemnation. Long ago, when Cangjie created characters, there were rains of grain and the cries of ghosts. This Bai Ze was an ancient divine beast, perhaps the last of its kind in the world. Its birth disrupted the order of the earth and violated the rules of yin and yang, so it naturally had to face punishment. That bolt of lightning was the heavens' condemnation of the Bai Ze; if not for the female corpse bearing its burden, it would have likely been reduced to ashes long ago.
The female corpse, though not Furball's biological mother, was indeed a great mother.
I understood all of this as I gazed into the sky in silence for a long time. I knew this nameless mother would eventually shatter souls. Don't worry; I will take good care of Furball.
I carried Furball back into the house, just as Qingyunzi had entrusted me with this Scottish Fold cat. The old man and Zhou Daming didn’t say much either. Soon, soft snoring began to rise and fall.
That night, I had a dream!
I wandered aimlessly through a flower path, surrounded by an endless sea of wild blue flowers. Among the blooms, a beautiful woman walked gracefully toward me; we felt like long-lost friends reunited.
"Bai Ze!"
"Bai Ze!"
"Bai Ze!"
The woman stood right before me; I could see her, yet she seemed unable to see me.
She was very close within my line of sight, her face turned toward me. But I could never make out her features clearly, as if they were blurred by a mosaic effect.
At that moment, she was only five meters away from me, yet it felt so distant.
I felt like I was chasing a kite, always just ahead of me. I waved desperately at her, but she kept her head down, picking flowers. She gathered a bouquet of Forget-Me-Nots, their deep blue petals releasing a faint fragrance.
I could see her face clearly now, and tears filled my eyes.
She noticed me too, offering a slight smile.
"Please take care of Bai Ze... I'm leaving for a faraway place!"
With tears in my eyes, I nodded vigorously.
She smiled again, the blush on her cheeks bursting into a radiant glow...
Later, I woke up to find my pillow damp with tears. The old man and Zhou Daming seemed to know everything, yet they said nothing.
"Let's go back!"
The old man smiled, and I nodded in response. A sense of foreboding surged within me. After we buried Qingyunzi, we took Furball and hurried back to Rongcheng.
Sure enough, as soon as we arrived in Rongcheng, trouble followed right behind us!
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