Chapter 115: Beauty Porcelain

Night completely swallowed the last outline of the mountains.

Innkeeper Hu came in carrying a greasy wooden tray, his footsteps sounding exceptionally clear in the silent common room.

On the tray were five bowls of hot noodle soup.

The soup was turbid and murky, with a few pieces of rotten vegetable leaves floating on top. Two slices of fatty meat were so thin they were translucent, clinging greasily to the side.

An unbearably sweet aroma mixed with the steam, aggressively drilling into their nostrils.

That wasn't the scent of food. It was more like a piece of rotting fat smothered with damp, cheap rouge powder.

"Please enjoy your meal slowly."

Innkeeper Hu put down the tray. The left sleeve of his shirt inadvertently pulled up half an inch.

Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened.

Like the flawed glaze on a poorly fired piece of cheap porcelain, it showed signs of "glaze peeling."

"Innkeeper."

Lu Yuan's voice was calm, yet it landed with weight in this room.

"How long has this inn been open?"

Innkeeper Hu's motion of setting down the tray paused for a moment. His murky eyes turned to Lu Yuan, a flash of wariness and impatience passing through them.

"Passed down from my ancestors. At least seventy or eighty years."

Lu Yuan picked up his chopsticks. He didn't touch the noodles, but instead lightly tapped them against the rim of the bowl, producing a crisp sound.

"So this cooking skill is also passed down from your ancestors?"

His tone didn't change, his face still expressionless.

"The noodles are mushy like mud. Failure!"

"The soup base reeks of fishy odor. Failure!"

"The side dishes aren't fresh. Failure!"

"Especially these two slices of fatty meat. If you want to cut them thin, then cut them properly! Look at what you've cut here!"

"Far worse than Lanzhou beef hand-pulled noodles!"

"A complete failure among failures!"

Lu Yuan's words left Shen Shulan and the others beside him dumbfounded.

So the senior uncle is also a food connoisseur?

And Innkeeper Hu looked even more confused. What on earth was this kid babbling about?

Lu Yuan's question was abrupt, even carrying a hint of picking a fight.

But that was exactly the effect Lu Yuan wanted. He wanted to see what flaws this innkeeper, who was clearly hiding secrets, would reveal when pressed.

However, Innkeeper Hu didn't seem to have any intention of getting entangled with Lu Yuan.

The thick flesh on Innkeeper Hu's face twitched. The fresh scratch marks on his cheek glowed a dark red under the oil lamp.

He forced out a stiff smile.

"This is a humble mountain wilderness inn, can't compare to the big restaurants in the city."

"Please make do with this, everyone. I'll go check if the horse fodder has been topped up."

Innkeeper Hu turned and left. The moment the door curtain fell, that sickly sweet aroma grew even more intense inside the common room.

The scent was pervasive, like invisible insects trying to crawl into the seven orifices of a person.

And at this moment, Shen Shulan had already taken action.

She immediately took out a silver box, placed it on the edge of the kang bed, and opened it gently and slowly.

The box was lined with dark green velvet, on which seven objects were neatly arranged.

"Senior Uncle, please move the oil lamp closer."

Shen Shulan's voice was clear and cold, but her eyes were exceptionally focused.

Before Lu Yuan could move, Tan Jiji immediately stepped forward to help.

Lu Yuan curled his lip, said nothing, and instead turned to start carefully observing the items in this common room.

Shen Shulan's slender hand picked up a three-inch silver needle.

The needle body was as fine as a hair, but the tip was triangular, engraved with dense cloud and thunder patterns.

Her wrist was as steady as a rock, slowly inserting the needle tip into the murky noodle soup.

The moment the needle tip submerged into the turbid soup—

Sizzle—

An extremely faint sound, like a drop of water splashing onto a red-hot branding iron.

Centered on the needle tip, the color of the soup surface changed rapidly, shifting from a murky yellow-white to a bizarre, nauseating pinkish-white!

Even more horrifying was that the steaming heat didn't dissipate.

It twisted and condensed into several faint pink wisps of smoke, swirling and sinking about an inch above the bowl's rim.

Like imprisoned resentful souls, unable to escape, forced to fall back into the soup.

"The heat vapor condenses but doesn't disperse, showing abnormal color when encountering the yang needle."

Shen Shulan slightly furrowed her brows and withdrew the silver needle.

The triangular needle tip was already coated with a layer of sticky, pinkish-white paste-like substance, slowly dripping downward.

"It's not poison."

Lu Yuan stood not far away, staring at the paste-like substance, and said solemnly,

"Poison harms the form, foul qi harms the spirit."

"This thing is meant to replace a person from the inside out."

Shen Shulan strongly agreed with Lu Yuan's words. She looked at Lu Yuan and nodded repeatedly, saying,

"Senior Uncle is right. It's altering the qi!"

Regarding Lu Yuan, Shen Shulan truly admired him endlessly. He seemed to know everything.

Of course, Shen Shulan wasn't unfamiliar with people like this.

Or rather, such people weren't uncommon at Wuqing Temple. Without mentioning others, just take Shen Shulan's father, Shen Jizhou, as an example.

Shen Shulan had grown up seeing this.

But those people, without exception, were all old men. Someone as young as Lu Yuan, yet understanding so much...

Shen Shulan had truly never seen anyone like him before!

Moreover, that night when Celestial Master He Xun was talking with Shen Jizhou, Shen Shulan was right there.

She also knew that this senior uncle of hers, Lu Yuan, was someone who had only just entered the mountain sect a year and a half ago.

When she learned this, Shen Shulan's admiration for Lu Yuan soared to new heights.

As Shen Shulan finished speaking, Tan Jiji looked curious and leaned over to ask,

"Altering the qi?"

It was unclear whether Tan Jiji genuinely didn't know or was just looking for an opportunity to get closer to Shen Shulan.

However, it was quite obvious that Shen Shulan didn't appreciate this method of getting close. Hmm...

Of course, it might also be that she didn't like Tan Jiji the person, rather than the method...

But due to the politeness ingrained in her since childhood, Shen Shulan still responded seriously,

"It means changing the original aura and complexion of a person."

Then Shen Shulan looked towards Lu Yuan, who was wandering around the room inspecting things, and said,

"Long-term consumption will cause a person's yang energy to slowly be eroded and replaced by this 'porcelain powder qi.'"

"The skin will gradually lose the luster of a living person, becoming smooth, cold, reflective... just like porcelain."

Shen Shulan felt what she said was absolutely correct, but she still instinctively wanted Lu Yuan's approval.

This feeling was rather strange.

It was like one plus one equals two, which was undeniably correct.

But Shen Shulan just wanted to see Lu Yuan nod, as if that would confirm she was truly right.

Lu Yuan, who was observing the room, gave a slight nod and said,

"Correct."

A faint hint of joy from being recognized flashed in Shen Shulan's beautiful eyes.

Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an beside her subconsciously touched their own faces.

Then, seemingly remembering Young Master Sun's deathly pale, bluish face from earlier, they quickly moved farther away from the noodle soup.

Afraid they might also turn into that state.

Shen Shulan then put down the silver needle and picked up a green jade bowl.

Using chopsticks, she carefully picked up a slice of fatty meat along with a little soup and placed it in the bowl.

Her fingertips formed a hand seal as she rapidly chanted in a low voice,

"Taiqing reveals form, foul substance shows its shadow!"

A point of clear light the size of a grain of rice shot from her fingertip into the bowl.

Whoosh—

The soup and meat in the bowl trembled violently!

An unbelievable scene unfolded.

The soup separated into layers on its own. The top layer floated with a rainbow-colored oily film—corpse oil mixed with aged rouge.

The middle layer of soup turned into a pure pinkish-white—porcelain clay mixed with unknown pollen.

And that thin slice of fatty meat shriveled and faded at a visible rate,

Ultimately turning into a translucent, congealed-fat-like texture, its surface gleaming with an oily, glazed luster!

It was no longer meat, but a... tiny piece of porcelain!

"The bottom layer..."

Shen Shulan's voice carried a slight tremor. She gently used the tip of her chopsticks to stir the grayish-white residue at the bottom of the bowl.

Mixed within the residue were some extremely tiny, crystalline particles that reflected a chilling, fragmented light under the lamp.

"It's bone powder..."

Shen Shulan took a sharp breath and looked up at Lu Yuan.

"Senior Uncle, it's not animal bone. It's human bone!"

"It's a woman's finger bone, fired in a kiln for who knows how many years, then ground into powder."

"This bowl of soup... uses human bone as seasoning, corpse oil as the soup base. It's meant to turn the person who eats it into a living 'Beauty Porcelain'!"

Lu Yuan's expression showed no ripple, as if Shen Shulan's shocking discovery was already within his expectations.

He simply turned around and beckoned towards the corner.

"Everyone, come here."

"Look at this."

His voice was soft, yet like a nail driven into the tense heartstrings of everyone present.

Tan Jiji and Xu Erxiao immediately followed, gathering behind Lu Yuan, even their breathing quieted.

Lu Yuan stood by the earthen wall at the innermost part of the common room.

The dim light of the oil lamp stretched his shadow long, like a silent ghost on the mottled wall, swaying gently with the flame.

He didn't turn back.

He just raised his hand, pressed the pad of his index finger against the wall, and slowly brushed it across.

The wall was pasted with a layer of yellowed old newspaper. The corners of the paper had long since curled up, revealing the dark plaster underneath.

Lu Yuan's fingertip finally stopped at a corner with printed text.

"Fengtian Commercial News - July, Guangxu Year 23."

Below the date, there was another line of blurred small text.

"Kiln Master Liu respectfully informs all quarters: The newly fired 'Beauty Porcelain' will be opened at Mid-Autumn Festival. Your esteemed appreciation is humbly requested."

"Guang... Guangxu?"

Xu Erxiao leaned in, his eyes wide open.

"Senior Brother, this newspaper... is from the Qing demon era?!"

His face was full of disbelief, then he scratched his head and muttered somewhat awkwardly.

"Then... then what's the big deal, Brother Lu?"

"Isn't it pretty normal for rural places to use old newspapers to paste walls?"

"Our village has plenty of those in old, broken-down houses."

However, this didn't require Lu Yuan to explain. Wang Cheng'an, standing nearby, gave Xu Erxiao a slap on the back of his head and scolded in a low voice,

"You're so stupid!!"

"Look at this newspaper! Although it's old, you can still touch it and peel it off!"

"If it really were from Guangxu Year 23 till now, it would crumble to dust at the slightest touch!!"

"This newspaper was pasted up at most a few years ago!"

Before Xu Erxiao could react to Wang Cheng'an's words, Lu Yuan spoke up again,

"Look at this!"

Lu Yuan turned and walked towards an old square table in the corner. A single pair of chopsticks sat lonely on the table.

Bamboo, very ordinary.

But at the end of each chopstick, a small section of faded red cord was tied into a simple ruyi knot.

"Chopsticks tied with red cord."

Lu Yuan picked up the chopsticks, holding one end in each hand, and suddenly pulled them apart.

The red cord tightened, making a faint "creak" sound, but it was exceptionally sturdy and didn't break.

"An old rule from kiln sites beyond the Great Wall back in the day, called 'Kiln site meal, red cord ties.'"

His voice sounded especially clear in the silent room.

"Kiln workers eating must have their chopsticks tied with red cord, to prevent the 'porcelain spirits' fired in the kilns from stealing the yang energy of the living."

Everyone listened, dumbfounded.

Lu Yuan put down the chopsticks, his gaze sweeping over them.

"But this old custom was abolished in the early Republic of China era. Kiln factories beyond the Great Wall adopted Western methods and stopped doing this."

"If these chopsticks were left over from long ago, they wouldn't be this new, and the cord wouldn't be this sturdy—it would break with one pull."

For a moment, the four of them looked at each other after hearing Lu Yuan's words.

They seemed to understand a little of what he meant.

Everything here seemed like it had been moved, intact, from some point long ago to the present.

At that moment, Lu Yuan's gaze settled on an object in the farthest corner of the kang bed.

He pointed over there.

"If everything before could be considered coincidence."

"Then adding this, it absolutely isn't."

It was a ceramic chamber pot, crudely shaped, even the spout was a bit crooked.

But on its earthen-yellow body, a few simple strokes of black pigment painted a crude lotus pattern.

That lotus was painted upside down.

The seedpod faced down, the petals faced up.

"Upside-down lotus."

Lu Yuan said coldly,

"This is a burial object used for those who died violent deaths."

"In a living person's home, let alone an inn, such a patterned utensil would never be used, unless..."

Xu Erxiao swallowed his saliva and said,

"Unless this room was originally meant for the dead to live in."

Lu Yuan neither nodded nor shook his head, but continued,

"It's not that simple."

"This isn't just a grave from the Guangxu era. We have also stepped into this grave's illusion formation."

Pausing here, Lu Yuan thought carefully for a moment before saying,

"To be precise, we have already entered the Nurturing Malevolence Site of the Beauty Porcelain."

"This is a kiln site."

"It's an outer kiln... that is currently firing living person porcelain."

Ignoring the exchanged glances of the others, Lu Yuan walked alone to the door and looked outside again.

The corridor was pitch black, but that sickly sweet aroma grew even stronger, seeping in through the cracks under the door and around the windows.

From the direction of the main room, the delicate laughter of women faintly came again.

This time the sound was clearer, mixed with the light "ding-dang" sound of porcelain gently colliding, as if someone was playing with cups.

"Listen more carefully."

Lu Yuan lowered his voice.

Everyone held their breath and focused.

That delicate laughter... didn't seem to come from the main room just a wall away.

Instead, it seemed to float over from a very, very far place, separated by water, separated by mist, faint and ethereal.

The tail end of the laughter carried a strange, hollow echo.

Like someone speaking inside a huge porcelain kiln, the sound hitting the smooth kiln walls and bouncing back again and again.

Even more bizarre was the rhythm of the laughter.

Too regular.

Like a recorded opera passage being played on repeat.

Every delicate laugh, every pause, even every breath in between, was exactly the same.

After listening for a few cycles, everyone could even predict the exact moment the next laugh would sound.

"This isn't a living person laughing."

Tan Jiji, who had been silent, suddenly spoke up.

"It's a recorded sound..."

"Or rather, it's some kind of 'sound remnant' that was recorded."

"Being played back repeatedly..."

The flame of the oil lamp flickered without any wind, jumping violently, stretching everyone's shadows on the wall like ghosts.

Dead silence.

The air inside the common room seemed soaked and solidified by that sickly sweet aroma, pressing heavily on everyone's hearts.

Just think, who were the people present?

Lu Yuan and Shen Shulan, two genuine Celestial Masters!!

And this Tan Jiji beside them... well...

Hard to say.

However, since he dared to go alone to cause trouble for the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family, he certainly couldn't be weak.

Of course, Tan Jiji also said it was because the Punishing the Netherworld family's techniques naturally countered the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family's techniques!

But from a day of interaction, Tan Jiji could be seen as a very low-key person. Saying that was mostly humility.

Tan Jiji's strength should not be underestimated. At the very least, he should be around the Celestial Master Realm.

How rare Celestial Masters were has been mentioned before.

Don't look at Lu Yuan and the people around him, as if they're all Celestial Masters, and think Celestial Masters are a dime a dozen.

In reality, in the vast lands beyond the Great Wall, there are only that many Celestial Masters.

Celestial Masters can truly be said to be the top-tier combat strength of the Daoist sects beyond the Great Wall.

And these three Celestial Masters actually stepped into someone else's illusion formation without any awareness.

This was enough to show that the danger of this place far exceeded imagination.

Lu Yuan's gaze fell on that chamber pot painted with the upside-down lotus.

He understood.

No wonder the Nurturing Malevolence Site at Luo Yan Slope could operate safely for decades without being broken.

The root of it lay in this inn where the living should not approach.

Who knows how many curious people entered this door and never came out again.

"Gulp."

Xu Erxiao and Wang Cheng'an's Adam's apples bobbed. Their faces turned somewhat pale.

But at the sight of Lu Yuan's calm back, that fear from the depths of their hearts was forcibly suppressed again.

With Brother Lu here, the sky won't fall!

Xu Erxiao steadied himself, mustering his courage to speak,

"What lousy illusion formation, it only scares amateurs!"

"Wasn't it seen through by Brother Lu with just one glance!"

Wang Cheng'an nodded repeatedly beside him, as if cheering himself on,

"Exactly! In front of Brother Lu, they're all paper tigers!"

Hearing the two half-grown boys' flattery to bolster their own courage, Lu Yuan's face showed no trace of relaxation.

He shook his head, his voice carrying an unprecedented gravity.

"No, it's very powerful."

"To make all three of us fall into it without any awareness, this formation has already reached a profound level."

"The reason it left so many 'flaws' isn't because it's weak, but because it 'can't see'."

Lu Yuan's words made everyone's expressions shift.

Can't see?

Seeing everyone's confusion, Lu Yuan slowly explained,

"This entire illusion formation is constructed based on Liu Ruyan's resentment and memories."

"That is to say, everything here is a reflection of the world before her death."

At this point, he noticed even Shen Shulan and Tan Jiji's expressions were tense to the extreme. The atmosphere in the room was so oppressive it felt ready to explode.

Lu Yuan shifted the topic, deliberately using a light-hearted tone,

"It's like a little kid having a spring dream. The moment it reaches the critical point, he wakes up, or the dream shifts to something else."

"Because the little brat hasn't experienced it, so even in dreams he can't conjure it up."

Everyone: "..."

Oh right, forgot. Except for Lu Yuan, everyone present seemed to be...

Lu Yuan ignored everyone's awkwardness, surveying this room filled with late Qing dynasty remnants.

"Liu Ruyan died in the past, so the illusion she created has newspapers from that era, has the old customs of kiln workers."

"But she hasn't seen things from our era, so she 'can't imagine' them."

"She can only clumsily imitate and replace them with objects from her memory, which is why there are flaws we can spot everywhere."

"So, it's not that the illusion is weak."

Lu Yuan's voice sank.

"It's that we... come from a future it cannot comprehend."

These words made Shen Shulan and Tan Jiji's faces completely darken.

They instantly understood the deeper meaning in Lu Yuan's words.

The strength of this illusion formation lay precisely in its "reality."

If they were truly a group of travelers from the Guangxu era, they probably wouldn't have noticed anything wrong until the moment they were turned into "living person porcelain"!

"We must break the formation immediately!"

Shen Shulan's voice was clear and cold, her fingertips already holding a seal.

"Correct."

Tan Jiji also said solemnly,

"Staying in a place like this for too long will constantly erode a living person's yang energy. By the time the formation is broken, the person would already be ruined."

Right at that moment, the commotion from the main room suddenly grew louder.

As if a silent play had reached its climax.

Everyone immediately gathered by the window, peeling open that hole again to look outside.

In the main room, the three "women" accompanying the drinking had stood up at some point and were now surrounding Young Master Sun.

One wearing a water-red blouse, with her back to the window, raised her arms high, as if stretching in an extremely seductive manner.

Under the light, a clear line appeared on her exposed nape.

That wasn't the texture of human skin.

It was the "joining line" left when two pieces of clay were joined during porcelain firing!

The line flowed with an eerie smoothness, extending from the center of her nape all the way down, disappearing deep into her collar.

"It's not parasitism."

"It's 'replacement'!"

Lu Yuan said decisively.

"Replacement"?

Everyone abruptly turned to look at him.

"Some evil entities cannot directly occupy a living person's body. So they use special materials, like jade, porcelain, or wood, to first sculpt a 'false body'."

"Then they slowly extract the living person's Three Souls and Seven Souls, strand by strand, and guide them into the false body."

Lu Yuan's voice was terrifyingly low.

"This process is very slow. The person being 'replaced' might not even notice, only feeling themselves becoming more and more 'beautiful,' their skin more and more 'smooth'."

"Until one day, their soul is completely drained, fully merging with that object, while their original true body turns into a withered skeleton."

Xu Erxiao took a sharp breath, his teeth chattering.

"Then... then that grandson..."

Lu Yuan let go of the window paper, his eyes icy.

"He is already in the process of being 'replaced,' and it's nearly complete."

"Flesh turning porcelain-like, yang energy mixed with death energy... He's not far from becoming a thing."

As soon as the words fell.

Outside the door, a rustling sound suddenly came.

The sound was very light, very fragmented.

Like countless feet wearing embroidered shoes lightly scraping the ground.

Or like... a pile of porcelain pieces gently colliding in the darkness, making faint crisp sounds.

The sound grew from far to near, finally stopping right outside the common room door.

Creak.

The flame of the oil lamp suddenly dimmed, the light weakening by thirty percent. The entire room grew dusky.

That thick door curtain, without a trace of wind, slowly lifted a crack on its own.

An eye.

An eye without a pupil, the whites showing a porcelain-like cold luster, pressed tightly against that crack in the door, peering inside.

Finally, it met Lu Yuan's gaze.