txolops Chapter 451 Drawing formations with the left hand is incredibly cool
Chapter 451 Drawing formations with the left hand is incredibly cool
Mo Chengyue pressed the hilt of the Rain Flower Sword against the threshold, his left fingertips stained with his own blood, and quickly drew several simplified formations behind the talisman ash. The formations were not complete; they only formed a shallow golden arc along the inside of the threshold.
"Don't call it chaos, call it correcting the deviation of folk customs."
Shopkeeper Hu saw his left hand sweep across the ground, the blood being absorbed by the talisman ash, while the golden arc of light was dimmed by the black water.
"What are you drawing?"
"A simplified version of the Lesser Sumeru Vajra Formation."
"Can it be blocked?"
"Blocking the threshold doesn't block fate."
Speak like a human.
"Enough for them to finish banging the pot."
The seventh eye looked at Mo Chengyue's left hand, and a cold, damp voice came from his throat.
"You used ordinary fire to stop the boats, the sound of iron to break the ritual, and the formation to suppress the water. Were you waiting for this pot on the shore all along?"
Mo Chengyue sheathed the last drop of blood ash from his sword. The sound of the pot spurred him on, and a pale golden arc of light shone along the threshold, pushing back the black water that was surging inward.
"I'm waiting for someone to deny it."
The firelight on the shore finally pierced through the red mist and reached the outside of the abandoned shipyard. The third ordinary fire was not lit by the water, but burned in a pot of dry soil with soot. The flames were tilted by the wind and water, but they did not go out.
Old Zhou shouted from the shore: "The ashes from the pot are used to press down water as a ritual, the dry soil is used to leave names, today the Hu family relatives will not see their loved ones off on the boat!"
Old Zheng chimed in with a curse: "Get the broken boat back into the water, don't come here and try to get some soot from my pot!"
The shouts of a group of mortals mingled with the clatter of iron pots, rough and chaotic, carrying the smells of kitchen smoke and street cursing from taverns. They couldn't suppress the evil spirit itself, but they did cut off the path through which relatives escorted the bride in the old wedding boat ceremony.
The dark shadow of the unlit ship's hull stopped outside the threshold. The wet, black water ripples that were about to classify the abandoned shipyard as ship planks began to recede outwards, and the lines on the wooden planks, stained black by the moisture, shrank back into the cracks one by one.
Manager Hu felt a tightness in his throat.
"They really withdrew."
Mo Chengyue kept a close eye on the formation.
"Don't be happy, it returned the gift, not the boat."
The seventh eye had half its face pressed against the edge of the broken boat, half of its eye being pulled away by a silver hairpin. The red line under its eye was loosened and tightened by the sound of the pot, and the old silver smell emanated from the old wound at the corner of its eye, forcing that eye to no longer completely obey its commands.
"sister."
Manager Hu immediately lowered his head.
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
"Sister, turn around and look at me, it hurts."
Shopkeeper Hu's forehead was damp with sweat and moisture, and her old wrist wound was still bleeding. She hid her hand in her sleeve to prevent the blood from touching the hairpin.
"Ah Sui, the light is on the shore."
The Seventh Eye has changed to the soft tone of the girl from the past.
"Sister shopkeeper, weren't you always the one who was most afraid of me being in pain?"
The silver hairpin in Manager Hu's hand almost slipped, the white paper lantern bumped against the edge of the small box, and the old silver light in the soul-sealing talisman was dimmed.
Mo Chengyue pressed down with the tip of his sword, blocking the thin thread that the Seventh Eye was trying to wrap around the small box.
"She's using the old name."
Manager Hu's lips were pressed together until they turned white.
"I heard you."
Don't answer.
"I won't answer."
The Seventh Eye was still crying out, "Shopkeeper, don't you want me anymore?"
Shopkeeper Hu flicked the silver hairpin deep into the base of the red thread, and the old silver scent seeped in along the thread. The silver light in half of his eyes was lifted up by the sound of the pot and the fire on the shore.
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
The seventh eye's damp, cold tone breaks through the soft melody.
"Is that all you can say?"
Shopkeeper Hu didn't look at her; his eyes were fixed on the old silver gleam on the edge of the small box.
"Enough."
The clatter of pots on the shore grew louder, and Old Zhou's voice became hoarse from shouting.
"Burn red paper money, curse the water, and forbid mourning; mourning is considered a farewell ritual!"
Old Zheng immediately cursed, "Listen up, you filthy bastards in the water! The Hu family's daughter isn't on the boat, and neither are the inn's lights! Anyone who dares to lay a hand on us, I'll smear their face with soot!"
Then someone else shouted, "We're not getting on the boat!"
"Ruan Kishi!"
"Go back!"
The red paper money was lit by a mortar, and the embers mixed with soot drifted towards the riverbank. They did not land in the abandoned shipyard, but instead burned the black water on the bottom of the unlit boats, producing a dry, crackling sound.
Mo Chengyue used the sound of the pot to cover up the fluctuations of blood energy, and with his left hand he added two more strokes to the base of the formation. The golden arc of light expanded outward, just blocking the path of the unlit ship's bottom as it was about to get close again.
Shopkeeper Hu saw that his left hand was bleeding and his voice became hoarse.
"Stop drawing."
"Almost there."
"Your right hand is useless, and you want your left hand to go on strike too?"
"Overtime pay is expensive on the left hand, I'll put it on your tab later."
"You dare?"
"Live first."
Shopkeeper Hu swallowed back his curses, and with a flick of his silver hairpin at the base of the red thread, a wet cracking sound came from between the skin of Half Eye and Seventh Eye.
The seventh eye shrieked, "Boat owner!"
The unlit boat did not respond, nor did Yu Lin Hong speak immediately. Only the dark shadows on the bottom of the boat retreated slightly amidst the sounds of the cooking pot and the fire on the shore, revealing the dry color of the wooden planks inside the threshold.
Mo Chengyue spotted the opening and thrust the Rain Flower Sword forward. The tip of the sword didn't touch the eye; it simply placed the talisman ash next to the red thread.
"Manager Hu, when you're picking out the thread, don't cut the eye."
"I know."
"If she calls you by the old name again, don't reply."
"I know."
"Don't use a box to catch it after the eye comes out."
Manager Hu stopped what he was doing.
Why?
The seventh eye also stopped shouting, and the old silver energy in half of its eye drifted towards the small box.
Mo Chengyue looked at the crack below the eye, which was stretched open by the old silver energy, and his voice deepened.
"If you go straight into the box before your eyes are properly cleaned, Ah Sui will be dragged back along the old path."
Shopkeeper Hu asked, "Then where should it go?"
"Let it recognize the shore fire first."
"How do you recognize it?"
"Don't move the lamp, don't part with the hairpin, let it find itself."
Shopkeeper Hu didn't ask any more questions. He picked the silver hairpin outwards along the base of the red thread. The sounds of pots, cursing, and burning red paper money collided outside the abandoned shipyard, and the soft melody of the Seventh Eye was suppressed and scattered.
"sister."
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
"Shopkeeper, sister."
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
"Turn around."
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
The voice of the Seventh Eye finally shattered, and the damp, cold original sound rushed out from under the wrecked ship.
"She's been in my eyes for twenty years, what right do you have to let her go back to shore!"
Shopkeeper Hu did not look up. The tip of the hairpin pressed against the last thread of the red thread. The old wound on his wrist was rubbed raw by the sleeve cloth, but he never let the blood touch the silver hairpin.
"Because she's called Ah Sui."
Mo Chengyue pressed the Rain Flower Sword down, and the simplified Little Sumeru Vajra Formation stood out brightly against the threshold. The sound of fire and metal pushed in from the shore, and the black water in the abandoned shipyard was forced back to the side of the broken ship.
"No need to send off relatives."
Shopkeeper Hu continued, "By the light, on the shore."
Old Zhou on the shore seemed to have heard him and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Relatives, keep them here! Use ashes from the pot as a token of respect! The third fire is on the shore!"
Old Zheng smashed the whole pot down.
"Keep them here!"
The crowd erupted in shouts of panic: "Save them!"
The seventh half of her face was stretched open by the old silver aura, and Ah Sui's half eye finally came out of her eye socket. The base of the red line was broken by the silver hairpin, and the wet black film was shaken away by the sound of the pot. A thin silver light shone through the old wound at the corner of her eye.
Manager Hu almost reached out to take it, but Mo Chengyue immediately stopped him.
"Don't touch it!"
Shopkeeper Hu forcefully pulled his hand back above the small box, the white paper lamp still protecting the soul-sealing talisman.
"Ah Sui, let's go back to shore."
Half an eye hovered in front of the seventh eye face, neither falling back into the black water nor flying towards the Soul-Sealing Box.
The seventh eye, now only a hollow, wet, dark hole on her face, suddenly laughed.
"Sis, look, it doesn't recognize you."
Manager Hu didn't look at her, only at that half-eye.
"Ah Sui, the light is on the shore."
The silver light in his half-eyes shifted gently, first veering towards the white paper lamp, then being drawn back by the fire and the sound of pots outside the door, as the red fluid remaining on the old wound at the corner of his eye peeled away layer by layer.
Mo Chengyue looked at that eye. His left hand, which had been pressing down on the formation, did not loosen. However, the blood-stained plaque in his palm suddenly became hot. The ink character on his right palm was illuminated by the half-eye, and the strokes of the name that had been covered by the unlit ship below the red pattern lit up again.
Manager Hu sensed something was wrong and immediately asked, "Why isn't it going into the box?"
Mo Chengyue's face darkened as he looked at the half-eye suspended in mid-air.
"It's looking at a more familiar road."
Shopkeeper Hu followed his gaze and saw that the light from the white paper lantern was held in her arms and did not shine on her feet, but it did illuminate the red lines on Mo Chengyue's right palm that had been burned by the blood-stained incense.
The half-eye that had just left the seventh eye did not return to the small box.
It turned its head to look at Mo Chengyue's blood-written letter.