txolops Chapter 105 Paper Crafts: Transforming the False into the Real
Chapter 105 Paper Crafts: Transforming the False into the Real
Lock onto the little monkey at the foot of Flower Fruit Mountain, lock onto every update of "Immortality: Grinding Experience Starting from Paper Craftsman".
As the night deepened, the clouds swallowed the moonlight.
The entire Demon Suppression Division headquarters was completely silent.
The old locust tree in the backyard stopped its rustling, as if afraid of disturbing the owners inside the house, and even the crows that roosted there wisely kept quiet.
The study was brightly lit, as bright as day.
On the table, piles of colorful spirit papers were stacked like small mountains, the cinnabar ground until thick as blood, emitting waves of magical energy.
Gu Yan sat cross-legged in front of the desk, his eyes bloodshot, holding his breath and concentrating.
The scissors in his hand transformed into streaks of silver afterimages, and with each opening and closing, scraps of paper fell like snowflakes.
Upon closer inspection, the fallen paper scraps did not land on the ground, but instead floated in mid-air, defying common sense, moving with his breathing rhythm.
"Not enough, not enough."
Gu Yan casually tossed the paper figure he had cut out behind him.
It was a yellow talisman made from pulp from a century-old purple bamboo.
The moment the paper figure slipped from his hand, Gu Yan's soul trembled slightly, and his master-level spirit-enhancing ability was activated.
"Buzz".
The palm-sized paper figure grew taller in the wind, and when it landed, it had transformed into a palm-sized black-armored warrior wearing heavy armor and holding a long halberd.
The samurai had a stern face and lifelike skin texture; if you looked closely, you could even see the blue veins throbbing under his neck.
It landed silently, knelt on one knee, gave Gu Yan a solemn military salute, then silently got up and walked to the corner of the wall.
There, a densely packed group of black-armored warriors stood.
There were at least three hundred identical black-armored warriors.
They made no sound of breathing, but had eyes as sinister as those of wolves. They would communicate with each other with their eyes, adjust their positions, and subtly form an impenetrable military formation.
These are some of the results Gu Yan has achieved in the past few days.
But the anxiety in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest.
Gu Yan stopped what he was doing, summoned the panel, and glanced at the string of cold numbers.
[Skill: Paper Making Technique (Master Level)]
[Progress: 45150000 / 50000000]
"There is still a shortfall of four million."
Gu Yan rubbed his throbbing temples and glanced at the pitch-black night outside the window.
There are less than three days left before the Blood River Sect launches its so-called demonic calamity.
Three days later, Changning County will become the epicenter of this storm.
The Flowing Cloud Sect is watching closely, the Blood River Sect is putting on a show, and countless greedy eyes are lurking in the shadows.
Despite the assistance of Song Hong and Xiao Chen, and the pretense of being a powerful figure in the demonic path, Gu Yan still couldn't fall asleep peacefully.
Having a trump card is like the reins to pull a horse back from the brink of disaster; you can never get tired of having too many.
"Master-level paper-crafting skills can imbue with spirit and transform between the real and the illusory, but they are ultimately limited by the quality of the materials and spiritual energy. Moreover, the experience points provided by mass-producing these soldiers are too few."
These three hundred black-armored warriors provided a total of only one or two million experience points.
Trying to fill this multi-million dollar hole in three days by sheer numbers is nothing short of wishful thinking.
"Since we can't increase the quantity, let's focus on quality."
Gu Yan took a deep breath and his gaze fell on a sandalwood box on the corner of the table.
Although he had already refined the Dragon Ball into his Qi Sea, a wisp of pure Zhulong aura still remained in the box.
"If only I could use paper crafting to recreate the divine essence of that ancient deity..."
Once the idea came to mind, it grew wildly like weeds.
The more difficult the creation, the more terrifying the experience points it grants.
Without further hesitation, Gu Yan swept aside the mountain of ordinary spirit papers with a wave of his sleeve.
He reluctantly pulled out a roll of animal hide that shimmered with golden light from deep within his storage bag.
This is the result of his processing of the black dragon's reverse scale, named Yantian Paper, which is best able to withstand violent spiritual power, allowing him to display his skills.
"call……"
Gu Yan closed his eyes, chanting the "Pure Heart and Universal Benevolence Mantra" in his mind, forcibly suppressing his anxiety and fatigue.
When he opened his eyes again, his pupils had turned into an eerie two colors, one black and one gold.
The left eye is the demon, the right eye is the god.
This time, he gave up using scissors.
When one reaches the level of a grandmaster, one has form in one's mind, and all things can be used as a weapon.
Gu Yan extended his index finger, and a sharp aura of divine and demonic energy condensed at the tip of his finger, slowly flowing across the Yantian paper.
"Sizzle!"
His fingertips traced the animal hide, making a rubbing sound, as if he were tearing through space rather than paper.
The shape of the Zhulong is not that of an ordinary snake or python.
It governs the four seasons; when its eyes are open, it is day; when its eyes are closed, it is night.
Gu Yan recalled the scene of confronting the remnant soul of the Candle Dragon in his sea of consciousness that day.
That sense of oppression, that indifference that regards all living beings as ants, that ancient and vicissitudes of time, keep replaying in my mind.
He wanted to carve all of this into this piece of paper.
In just a moment, large beads of sweat appeared on Gu Yan's forehead, and his face turned pale as his immense mental energy was rapidly depleted.
The spiritual energy within his body surged forth like a burst dam, pouring into his fingertips.
The temperature in the study suddenly rose and then suddenly dropped; the alternation between hot and cold caused even my vision to become distorted.
The three hundred black-armored paper figures in the corner seemed to be under some kind of pressure from a higher level, kneeling down in unison, their bodies trembling.
"Give me... Ning!"
Gu Yan gave a low shout and swiftly drew the final stroke with his finger.
That's a dragon's eye.
Instead of using ink, he drew upon a wisp of primordial fire from the dragon pearl within his dantian and placed it in the paper dragon's eye socket.
"boom!"
The table shattered into powder.
A paper dragon, about three feet long, entirely crimson, with fine, shimmering scales, rose into the air from a shower of wood chips.
The paper dragon circled once in the cramped study, emitting a faint but extremely pure dragon roar.
"hold head high--"
With that dragon's roar, a golden light, visible only to Gu Yan, burst forth from the paper dragon and entered his brow.
[Successfully created a fake Candle Dragon Paper Spirit (juvenile form)]
[Paper-making skill proficiency +2000000]
"Two million!"
A look of wild joy flashed in Gu Yan's eyes, and he staggered, almost falling over.
This production nearly drained Gu Yan's mental energy, leaving him extremely weak.
After circling a few times, the paper dragon slowly landed on Gu Yan's shoulder and affectionately rubbed against his cheek. The warmth of its scales felt just like that of a living creature.
"Is this the limit of the Grandmaster level? To endow with intelligence and to transform between the real and the illusory."
Gu Yan patted the paper dragon's head. Although he had succeeded, he understood that the thing was not perfect and had a flaw that was difficult to remedy no matter what.
The paper dragon has form and spirit, but no roots.
Once Gu Yan stops transmitting spiritual energy, or the wisp of dragon pearl's essence is exhausted, it will turn back into a piece of waste paper.
"One million is still needed."
Gu Yan took out a handful of Qi-restoring pills and stuffed them into his mouth like candy, his eyes becoming even more crazed.
That night, the backyard of the Demon Suppression Bureau was haunted.
In her sleep, Song Hong always felt that something was spying on her. She woke up several times, only to find that there was nothing outside the window except the shadow of the old locust tree swaying wildly.
In Xiao Chen's perception, Gu Yan's room was like a black hole that was constantly expanding and contracting, emanating all sorts of extremely strange auras.
There is the ferocity of monsters, the wails of vengeful ghosts, and even the majesty of gods.
He wisely refrained from disturbing them, instead setting up a simple magic array to prevent the aura from dissipating and causing unnecessary panic.
After all, everyone has their own path, and Gu Yan's path is destined to be wider and more dangerous than theirs.
……
When the first rooster crowed on the horizon.
The study was in complete disarray.
The ground was covered with all sorts of paper crafts.
There was a myna bird that could speak human language, a paper boy who could grind ink himself, and a half-person-tall statue of the Earth God who was chasing after the paper dragon with a cane.
Gu Yan slumped to the ground, surrounded by scraps of paper that nearly buried him.
The numbers on the panel were stuck in an awkward position.
[Progress: 49,999,999 / 50,000,000]
"Just a little bit short."
Gu Yan looked at the last bit of experience points, gave a bitter laugh, and frowned deeply.
He has tried every trick in the book.
He tried to build a Gundam model from his past life memories, from high-level monsters to folk deities, but the structure was too complicated and it collapsed halfway through.
Now, even though he made dozens of regular paper offerings, the experience points were still stuck there, unmoved.
"bottleneck."
Gu Yan understood that this was no longer a matter of quantity; it was the final hurdle before a qualitative change.
To get past it, simply imitating inanimate objects or mythical beasts won't do.
"Hmm... the end of paper-crafting..."
Gu Yan closed his eyes, and countless images of practicing paper-making day and night flashed through his mind.
From initially making simple paper boys and girls in paper-making shops to earn a living, to later creating paper warriors capable of killing enemies to save their own lives.
The so-called paper-making is a performance for the dead, a way to express one's wishes to the living.
Ultimately, it still cannot escape the category of falsehood.
But if you do it to the extreme, can this fake become real?
"No, it's not becoming real."
Gu Yan suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the rising sun outside the window.
Sunlight shone on his face, casting his shadow on the wall.
"All things in the world are inherently a mixture of reality and illusion."
"The thing I want to stab isn't a fake that looks real."
Having realized this, Gu Yan stood up and opened the window.
The cold morning wind blew in, scattering scraps of paper all over the room.
He didn't use any precious spiritual paper anymore, but instead picked up the most ordinary and cheapest piece of white paper.
He bought this on the streets of Changning County; ten coins could buy a large stack of straw paper.
Gu Yan did not use any external tools; he simply used his own hands to begin folding.
He's folding a person.
A young man who looked ordinary, without fancy armor or complicated runes, wearing a long robe and holding a scroll in his hand.
That was Gu Yan when he first transmigrated to this world.
At that time, he had no system or cultivation. He was always on edge, but he would still send a little paper trinket to those poor people who had emptied their savings to buy coffins in the dead of night.
That was a kindness belonging to ordinary people.
Gu Yan's fingers were gentle, each crease carrying the weight of a glorious past.
"Even if I peel off this skin, I'm still that little apprentice in the paper-making shop, watching the joys and sorrows of human life."
The final fold falls.
A paper figure, no bigger than the palm of his hand, with indistinct features and an air of scholarly refinement, lay quietly in his palm.
Gu Yan looked at it, and the paper figure looked at Gu Yan, as if looking in a mirror, each containing the other.
He smiled, a smile that was pure and clean, without a trace of scheming.
"Go."
Gu Yan gently blew a breath.
This breath contained neither spiritual power nor divine consciousness; it was merely a breath of warm air carrying body temperature.
The paper figure moved.
It slowly crawled out of Gu Yan's palm, patted the wrinkles on its body, and then raised its head. It had no facial features, but Gu Yan could tell that it was smiling.
It bowed deeply to Gu Yan, then turned around, jumped out of the window, and merged into the rising sunlight, turning into countless specks of light and disappearing.
Deep within Gu Yan's consciousness, he heard a crisp sound of an eggshell breaking.
【Ding! 】
[Congratulations, host, for creating the "Paper Spirit of the True Self" and gaining insight into the difference between truth and falsehood.]
[Papercrafting Skill Level Upgrade: Pinnacle (0/100000000)]
A sudden boom filled Gu Yan's mind, and countless insights about lines, structure, and soul surged forth like a tide.
The world has changed.
It is no longer a colorful physical object, but a paper model made up of countless lines and nodes.
The table was made of folded paper, the walls were made of paper, and even the wind outside the window looked like flowing strips of paper.
In a daze, he felt as if he could dismantle the world, and even reconstruct it using the paper in his hand.
The text on the panel flickered again, gleaming with golden light.
[Gain core feature: Creation with a thought]
[Description: What the heart desires, the paper will follow. No hands required, no tools needed; in a single thought, everything can become paper, and paper can become everything.]
[Gain Core Feature: The Descent of the Paper World]
[Description: An independent realm unfolds, within which the boundary between reality and paper is blurred.]
Gu Yan slowly stretched out his hand and gently clenched it in the air.
"Splash!"
There was no paper in the air, yet in his palm, a delicate red lotus bloomed out of thin air.
This red lotus has a fragrance, dew, and delicate patterns.
It is not an illusion; it is a real existence that Gu Yan forcibly reconstructed using dust in the air and the ability to create things with a single thought.
"Is this the pinnacle of achievement?"
Gu Yan crushed the red lotus, watching the petals turn into specks of light and dissipate.
A powerful sense of confidence, as if in control of everything, arises spontaneously.
Despite being limited by his own Foundation Establishment level, the effect of creating things with a single thought was greatly reduced, and he could not fully utilize the pinnacle of paper-making skills.
But now, even without relying on the power of gods and demons, his superb paper-making skills alone are enough for him to protect himself and even kill a Golden Core cultivator.
"The demonic calamity will occur in three days."
Gu Yan looked westward, revealing a set of big white teeth, his smile somewhat sinister and terrifying, as if he could already see the Liuyun Sect being toyed with by him.
There was a gentle knock on the door.
"Sir, breakfast is ready."
Song Hong's voice came from outside the door: "Also, those rogue cultivator scouts brought back the first batch of news."
Gu Yan suppressed his aura, the strange light in his eyes faded, and he returned to being the gentle and refined commander.
"They're here."
He pushed open the door, and sunlight streamed in.