Immortality: Grinding Experience Starting as a Paper Craftsman

Chapter 13 Red-Powdered Skull, Blazing Fire Burns the Demon

As night falls, the lights in Changning County are sparse.

Inside the paper-making shop, Gu Yan put down his paintbrush.

The paper-mache beauty in front of him was indeed incredibly lifelike.

In this era before cameras, the craftsmanship of paper craftsmen is the ultimate form of replication.

The paper figure had a graceful figure, a face like a peach blossom, and eyes that, when they turned, carried a captivating charm.

To make it look realistic, Gu Yan even used expensive silk to make clothes for it, covering up the originally stiff paper joints.

The brilliance lies not in the outward appearance, but in the essence.

Gu Yan embedded two specially enhanced explosive talismans in the dantian and heart of the paper figure.

It contained not only potent black powder, but also a large amount of realgar powder and cinnabar.

To an ordinary person, this is just a large firecracker, at most causing a minor cut or bruise.

For evil spirits and demons, this is a deadly poison.

"Squeak."

The door was pushed open a crack, and the scholar sneaked in furtively.

He looked even weaker than during the day, with dark circles under his eyes like charcoal, and his steps were unsteady, making one wonder if he could be blown away by a gust of wind.

When the scholar saw the paper beauty behind the counter, his murky eyes flashed with greed.

"So alike! So very alike! Hongyu... my Hongyu..."

The scholar's hands trembled as he tried to touch the paper figure's face; his mouth was practically watering.

"Don't rush."

Gu Yan reached out and stopped him, her tone calm:

"Five taels of silver, no credit. Also, this thing is afraid of fire and water, so just take it back and keep it as a treasure, don't touch it."

The scholar wouldn't listen. He hastily pulled out his money pouch from his robes and threw it on the table, fearing Gu Yan might change his mind. He then picked up the paper figure and ran out.

Gu Yan put away the silver, watched the scholar's figure disappear into the night, and sneered.

He casually flicked out a paper mouse that he had prepared beforehand.

The paper mouse squeaked twice and darted away quickly, following the shadows at the base of the wall.

……

In the west of the city, there is a dilapidated residential area.

The scholar's home was here, a small, secluded courtyard overgrown with weeds, clearly neglected for a long time.

Gu Yan sat in the shop, closed his eyes, and focused his gaze on the paper mouse perched on the windowsill of the scholar's house.

There were no lights on inside; only moonlight streamed in through the broken window, illuminating the entire room in a stark white light.

The scholar placed the paper beauty on the bed, then knelt beside it, gazing at it intently, muttering to himself:

"Hongyu, I've brought you back... Open your eyes and look at me..."

Just then, the temperature inside the room suddenly dropped.

A pink mist with a fishy smell emerged from nowhere and slowly swirled around the scholar and the paper figure.

"whee……"

A charming, seductive laugh echoed from the empty room.

Immediately afterwards, Gu Yan saw a bizarre scene.

A phantom, entirely white with three tails, slowly crawled out from the shadow behind the scholar.

It had no physical form, like a wisp of smoke, and its narrow, fox-like eyes glowed with a faint green light.

"I have drained this foolish scholar of his life force; he is now as tasteless as mud."

The fox demon phantom circled the paper figure once, a hint of surprise in its eyes.

"This cardboard box, however, is so exquisitely made, and it even exudes the fragrance of a spirit craftsman. Perfect for resurrecting a body; with this skin, I can go and seduce even more strong and muscular men..."

After saying that, the fox demon transformed into a beam of white light and suddenly pierced into the paper beauty's brow.

hum.

The paper figure's eyes, which were originally drawn on, suddenly blinked.

It came to life.

The paper figure stiffly raised its hand and stroked its face, the movement gradually becoming fluid and alluring.

It looked at the scholar kneeling on the ground, its red lips parted slightly, and it uttered the sound the scholar had longed for:

"My lord..."

The scholar was completely stunned. He rushed forward, crying, "Hongyu! You're really alive!"

Just as he was about to embrace "Hongyu".

Several streets away, Gu Yan uttered a single word:

"burst."

next second.

A blinding red light shone in the scholar's dilapidated bedroom.

boom!

A muffled explosion rang out, and although it was mostly blocked by the wall, it still made the roof tiles rattle.

The fox demon, who had just successfully possessed the body and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy it, was engulfed by the raging fire and realgar poison that erupted from the paper doll's body.

"ah!!!"

A piercing scream tore through the night sky, even more devastating than the previous ghost matchmaker's scream.

The paper figure was blown to pieces, and burning paper scraps fell like fire rain.

The white fox demon phantom was forcibly blasted out, its entire body charred black, its once snow-white fur now covered in realgar powder, billowing black smoke, writhing in agony on the ground.

The scholar was thrown against the wall by the blast wave and fainted, but he managed to save his life.

"Who?! Who dared to plot against this fairy?!"

The fox demon roared venomously. It was severely injured and its demonic soul was unstable. All it wanted to do was find a place to heal.

But it had no chance.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Two sharp sounds of air being torn apart suddenly rang out.

Those were two thin, willow-leaf-like throwing knives, gleaming with a chilling light, which accurately struck the floor in front of the fox demon, blocking its escape route.

Immediately afterwards, a figure in cyan leaped down from the broken roof, drawing a long sword with a frost-like aura.

"You audacious monster, how dare you commit murder in the city!"

It was the same blue-robed man from the Demon Suppression Division that I had seen at the City God Temple during the day.

Outside the window, the woman in red sat atop the wall, toying with her third throwing knife, watching the desperate struggle inside with a smile.

"Senior brother, you're in luck! I was just about to go to sleep when I heard someone setting off firecrackers. I didn't expect a three-tailed fox to be blown out."

The fox demon was terrified when it saw the official robes worn by the two men: "The Demon Suppression Division?!"

Ignoring its injuries, it transformed into a blur and tried to break through the encirclement.

"Trying to run away?"

The man in blue snorted coldly, and with a flourish of his long sword, several sword energies intertwined to form a net, enveloping the fox demon.

Without much suspense, the fox demon, already half-dead from Gu Yan's spiked paper doll, had no chance against the elite of the Demon Suppression Division.

Only ten rounds.

As a flash of sword light appeared, the fox demon's screams ceased, and it transformed into a headless fox corpse, lying in a pool of blood.

The woman in red jumped down from the wall, skillfully dissected the fox's corpse, and took out a demon core no bigger than a thumb, gleaming with a pinkish luster.

"Tsk, the quality is so-so. The fur has been blown apart by gunpowder. What a pity."

She kicked the corpse with a hint of regret, then looked at the scraps of paper on the ground with a puzzled expression:

"Senior brother, look at these pieces of paper. They smell of cinnabar and realgar... This fox demon seems to have been deliberately lured into a trap and injured."

The man in blue sheathed his sword, picked up a fragment of exquisite silk that hadn't completely burned, and frowned.

"Paper crafting, gunpowder, and meticulous planning."

The image of the mysterious armored monster from last night flashed through his mind.

"Is it him again?"

"Is this person friend or foe? Why does he always hide in the shadows, cleaning up these filthy things for our Demon Suppression Division?"

The woman in red shrugged.

"Who cares? As long as they don't kill or commit arson, they're good people. This adds another achievement to our record, which will earn us a lot of merit points when we get back."

After cleaning up the scene, the two carried the fox demon's corpse and disappeared into the night as quickly as they had come.

……

In the paper shop.

Gu Yan opened his eyes and severed the connection with the paper mouse.

He took out the five taels of silver from his pocket and weighed it in his hand.

perfect.

Not only did they make money, but they also eliminated the fox demon and got a closer look at the swordsmanship and hidden weapon techniques of the Demon Suppression Division.

The man in blue wielded his sword swiftly, employing a fierce and aggressive style.

The woman in red's throwing knives were more subtle and unpredictable, targeting the lower body.

With Tie Sha's current defensive capabilities, he should be able to withstand the man's sword energy without any problem, but if the woman's throwing knife pierces his joints, it might cause some trouble.

It seems I'll have to be careful about protecting my joints if we face off against each other in the future.

Gu Yan silently reviewed the situation in his mind, thoroughly analyzing these two potential adversaries.

Just then, a notification popped up on the panel, startling Gu Yan, who was then overjoyed.

[Assist in defeating the Three-Tailed Fox.]

Although he didn't personally deliver the finishing blow, his crucial contribution warrants a valid assist.

[Obtained a wisp of the fox spirit's remnant soul.]

[Paper-making skill experience +150!]

[Unlock new blueprint: Spirit Fox Paper Servant (can be crafted using demon souls, possesses charm and extremely high agility).]

Can you do this?

Gu Yan's eyes lit up.

It turns out that this panel isn't rigid. As long as you participate in the kill process, even if the kill is stolen in the end, you can still get a share of the loot.

This is practically a power-up path tailor-made for a mastermind like him.

That being the case...

Gu Yan looked out at the dark night sky and understood.

Lords of the Demon Suppression Division, we'll have to work together properly from now on.

You guys are in charge of the charge, I'll take care of sniping from behind, looting the corpses, and collecting the spoils.