Chapter 1 The Great Han Arsenal

This great arsenal was the foundation of the Sili Xiaowei (Colonel Director of Retainers), passed down for over a thousand years.

Bamboo slips floated before Wei Yuan, densely covered with the names of various magical artifacts and classics.

But quickly, names began to disappear from the bamboo slips.

These were the magical artifacts that had already been lost.

Then, one by one, the names dimmed.

These were items that he could not access with his cultivation or his merits.

The remaining items were simple.

A few talisman techniques.

Some sword techniques collected by the Wohu Xiaowei (Crouching Tiger Colonel) to enrich the arsenal.

And records of different types of demonic creatures.

Wei Yuan could only choose from these.

After a moment of contemplation, he did not choose the talisman techniques he had long hoped to learn. Instead, he opened the records of monsters and found the Huapi (Painted Skin) section. This contained records of most of the Huapi demons that the Sili Xiaowei had captured and killed, including two connected to the Mountain Lord.

Of these, only one was connected to the Huapi slave that Wei Yuan had killed.

Searching the records didn't require merit, but if he wanted to access the yuelu liuying (moon dew afterimage) of this Huapi demon in the Great Han Arsenal to gain a more comprehensive understanding of it, it would cost one merit point.

Simple records couldn't give Wei Yuan the weaknesses and characteristics of the Huapi.

And without understanding its characteristics, trying to find this one Huapi demon among the seven million people of Quanshi would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Wei Yuan chose to open the yuelu liuying.

One merit point disappeared.

Huaifeng yinsong sheng, dang yuelu liuying (The wind carries the sound, the moon dew records the image).

This was an ancient secret technique used by xiuyue ren (moon repairers) to preserve a message.

As the merit point dissipated, Wei Yuan found that his surroundings had changed. Even with his eyes open, he was no longer in the museum. Instead, he was in an unfamiliar place, with a narrow path in front of him and black mist on either side.

Wei Yuan was also no longer in his original form.

He wore black fitted clothing, and a ring-pommel Han sword was strapped to his back.

He frowned and walked forward along the path.

Gradually, he reached a small road, an ancient street. The people passing by were all dressed in ancient clothes, looking incredibly real, yet also faded, giving Wei Yuan a strange feeling.

This was a shadow of history, a record of a demon.

Wei Yuan understood. He found a small stall and sat down. The owner was busy making tangbing (soup cake) and selling chatang (tea soup). The people passing by seemed unable to see Wei Yuan. Directly in front of him was a dilapidated house.

White paper money was scattered all over the ground.

A man in his thirties was wailing.

His wife had died today.

"Tch, a fat, ugly wife with only one eye. Good riddance."

"You can't say that. Her mother was a shaman."

"So what if she was a shaman? Her daughter still died, didn't she?"

The pedestrians on the left gossiped, then walked into the mist and disappeared.

Wei Yuan had figured out the situation.

According to the explanation on the Wohu waist token, this was probably the memory of a Sili Xiaowei from history, or a phantom realm created later through术法神通(shufa shentong – spells and divine powers) to record a demon-hunting event he had experienced, to pass it on to future generations.

Not all demons received this treatment.

In the list just now, not all demons could have their yuelu liuying opened.

He raised an eyebrow, unstrapped his sword, placed it on the table, and quietly watched the changes around him.

A drizzle began to fall from the sky.

The stone bricks of the walls were mottled, and a cup of tea appeared on the table.

……………………

This is a story.

The story begins with the death of a man's wife in a small town, but the earlier reason was that the wife, because of certain things, passed through a neighboring town, exhausted and hungry. Coincidentally, the young daughter of the Tian family was out. The Tian family's daughter saw her miserable appearance and sent someone to bring her something to eat.

The Tian family's daughter was only sixteen years old at the time. She was beautiful and kind-hearted.

Her skin was fair and delicate.

The Li family's wife saw her once and couldn't forget her. She envied the other woman and hated herself.

Day and night, she thought about it. Before long, she became ill and bedridden. When she was lying in bed, she remembered the little doll her mother had given her before she died, saying that there was a great god inside. After burning the doll to free it, the god could do one thing for her.

She immediately burned the doll and wished that she could have the appearance of the Tian family's daughter.

Who knew that what was sealed inside the doll wasn't a god, but a ferocious demon with a blue face and fangs? As soon as it was unsealed, its baleful aura frightened everyone.

The Li family's wife was so scared that she died on the spot.

The custom here was to bury the body after the touqi (seventh day after death), when the soul returns home.

It was during this soul return that the Li family's wife came back to life.

But she no longer recognized herself. When the lazy Li family's man tried to touch her, she screamed and said that she was still an unmarried maiden and told him to get out. This attracted the surrounding neighbors, who confirmed that she was still alive and said that she was the young daughter of the Tian family from the neighboring town.

She also said the names of her parents and described the scenery of the neighboring town, all without any discrepancy.

So the townspeople quickly sent someone to ask. A few days ago, the Tian family's daughter had gone out for a spring outing and fainted.

She had only woken up on this very day.

So everyone gathered together to ask the official to make a judgment. The poor Tian family's daughter was overjoyed to see her parents, hoping that they would recognize her. Who knew that the other 'Tian family's daughter' who had woken up also recognized these parents and family members? The Tian family's daughter knelt before her parents and cried miserably, but her parents only found this black, fat, one-eyed woman disgusting and retreated, pulling their clothes from the woman's hands and repeatedly saying unlucky and disgusting.

The official followed the trend and ruled that the Li family couple should return and continue to live together.

The Tian family's daughter cried every day and was still forced by the lazy man.

But her personality from a young age was at odds with the lazy man, and she couldn't stand many of his actions. She often missed her family and was often beaten and scolded by the lazy man. After giving birth to two daughters, the conflict between the two grew larger and larger. Finally, one day, the lazy man got drunk and hit her too hard, killing the Tian family's daughter.

Frightened, he woke up and threw her body into the back mountain that night, saying only that the woman had run away.

Because this woman had died once and was ugly, everyone avoided her, and the matter was actually glossed over. The lazy man thought that his wife would be eaten by wild wolves in the mountains, but who knew that the Tian family's daughter would wake up?

It was raining, and the cool rain woke her up.

She saw her own reflection in the stream next to her: ugly, fat, with a face full of horizontal wrinkles, and rough, black skin on her hands.

She couldn't help but feel sad and weep softly.

But at this moment, she suddenly heard laughter.

She looked up and saw a couple like celestial beings, surrounded by servants carrying fruits and wine. The man was handsome and dashing, and the woman was beautiful, with fair and delicate skin, making her feel ashamed. She lowered her head and suddenly remembered.

That was her body!

That was her face!

That was her skin!

The Tian family's daughter cried hysterically, standing up and wanting to pounce on them, wanting to tear off that face and cover her own face, but suddenly she staggered and fell to the ground. Looking back, where was the ugly, fat body?

It turned out that she had been weathered by the sun and eaten by wild animals.

She was only a pile of bones.

She lay on the ground, feeling desolate and hopeless.

But she saw a pair of white shoes, an umbrella, and the white-clothed person under the umbrella.

Wei Yuan also saw it.

He stood up abruptly, wearing the black uniform of the Sili Xiaowei, his right hand gripping the broad sword.

The man opposite him held an umbrella, dressed in white.

Between the two was the desolate, despairing skeleton.

The man held the umbrella to shield the bones from the rain, bending down and looking at the unwillingness and resentment sketched on the ground by the bones' fingers. He said, "It was originally an act of kindness, but unfortunately it caused trouble. Alas, are people in this world all superficial fools who only look at appearances?"

The bones rattled, sounding like weeping.

The man smiled slightly and said, "I live in the mountains, my surname is Wang. You can call me Mr. Wang."

"Do you want revenge?"

Do you want revenge?

Without a doubt.

Wei Yuan sighed and closed his eyes.

………………

It had been a clear day, but suddenly a mountain wind rose. A couple who had come out for a spring outing returned home. The husband worked in the government office and had some business to attend to, so he left the wife alone at home. She looked at her own eyebrows in the mirror and gently touched her skin, feeling happy at its smoothness.

What beautiful skin.

She heard a soft rattling sound behind the screen.

Curious, she looked over.

With just one glance, the blood in her body froze.

Behind the screen stood a ghastly skeleton, lunging at her, holding a broken pair of scissors in its hand. The scissors stabbed into the wife's stomach, cutting and cutting, the clothes were cut open, and the skin was cut open along with them. The wife had already died with the first cut, making no sound, only the sound of cutting fabric could be heard.

Snip, snip.

Outside, a maid heard the sound and knocked on the door, "Madam? Is there something in the room?"

The bones collided, making a woman's laughter:

"No, I'm just cutting clothes."

"Cutting clothes?"

"Yes, a piece of clothing that I really like."

The bones gave off a ghostly sound, and the sound of scissors was clear and crisp. The woman's humming voice echoed in the room.

"Cut open the skin and walk the thread, pull out the intestines and make a red rope, eat your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys…"

"Tear out your bones and disembowel you, take your skin and make my dress."

Finally, the bones wrapped the skin around itself, and it was once again a beautiful and delicate Miss Tian, ​​an elegant and dignified Madam Liu. She smiled and sat in front of the bronze mirror, reaching out to touch her delicate skin.

"Put on my old clothes, sit on my west chamber bed."

"Carefully draw my eyebrows in the mirror, carefully apply the yellow flower…"

The blood in the room had disappeared without a trace. When her parents returned, Miss Tian burst into tears at the sight of her parents, startling them into supporting her back and speaking softly, and holding her arm and comforting her in a loud voice.

The picture suddenly froze and dimmed.

At the tea stall, another person had come and sat next to Wei Yuan, his voice hoarse:

"From then on, those she killed were only those who had harmed her. What the Li family did harmed both others and themselves, and was self-inflicted. I traced her here and Miss Tian kowtowed and begged for mercy, weeping and saying that she had never harmed innocent or loyal people, but had instead been harmed by villains. All of this is true. Future generations, I ask you."

The Sili Xiaowei who created this illusion also left the question here.

'He' turned to look at Wei Yuan, his eyes bright.

"If it were you, would you kill her or not?!"