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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 22 Paper King
Soul Concealment and Ghost Sealing Technique is an Evil Technique of the Evil Sect, as it goes against the principles of Yin Yang. Moreover, it involves a person sealing themselves in a coffin and suffocating to death, which is considered a form of suicide. Therefore, it must be said that this kind of technique is extremely Evil Spirits cruel. The main issue is that due to this method of death, although the person is dead, their soul remains around the Corpse. In the realm of Yin Yang, such evil entities are referred to as Paper King. Because they died by suicide, they accumulate resentment and malevolent energy, causing harm to others in order to alleviate the resentment within themselves and maintain their sanity. After all, they cannot lose their sanity while wandering outside the paper coffin for long; otherwise, they would be discovered by Yin Chai and captured.
Some may ask if this is not a Zombie. In fact, it is not; a Zombie arises from a Killing Curse or from being hidden in places like the Gathering Yin Pool, leading to Corpse Transformation without decay. A Zombie is soulless. However, those who die using the Soul Concealment and Ghost Sealing Technique still possess a soul; their Yin Hun can leave their body or attach to it. In short, they can be both human and ghost, indistinguishable from living dead.
However, these evil entities are indeed dead; they lack life and are not subject to Corpse Transformation, so their Corpse cannot remain uncorrupted like that of a Zombie. It is said that the Soul Concealment and Ghost Sealing Technique has a time limit: seven years constitutes one calamity. This means that once seven years pass, the Corpse within the paper coffin will begin to decay. Once the Corpse decays, the Yin Hun that has lost its Corpse will completely transform into a ghost. The ineffective Soul-Sealing Ghost Coffin will no longer be able to conceal it, and ultimately, it will become a wandering ghost destined to be captured by the Underworld Ghost Messenger, unable to escape Hell Punishment.
To avoid being captured by the Ghost Messenger when the Soul-Sealing Ghost Coffin loses its effectiveness, they must seek out another body. Thus, they often look for a Paper Figurine to possess. However, ordinary Paper Figurines are useless; only those with spiritual essence can suffice. Such Paper Figurines are hard to find, but if they manage to locate one and possess it, they truly become a Paper King.
The term Paper King signifies greatness or superiority among the Paper Figurines, referring to the most powerful character among them. If one becomes a true Paper King, they can walk under sunlight like a living person; outsiders would not notice any difference, nor could Yin Chai. Furthermore, since their name in life has been crossed out in the Book of Life and Death, they will no longer be captured by Yin Chai, effectively stepping outside of the five elements.
Of course, the Paper King also has weaknesses. Since they are attached to a Paper Figurine, which is made of white paper and lacks blood, their complexion is pale as paper, making them easily recognizable as abnormal. Therefore, to maintain a human-like complexion, they must continuously seek out lives to take and consume Human Blood.
In summary, the existence of such an evil entity as the Paper King is quite rare and only found in legends; where it exists, calamity follows.
Returning to my situation, upon seeing two paper coffins before me that were actually legendary examples of the Evil Technique: the Soul-Sealing Ghost Coffin, I was greatly alarmed. I thought to myself that I had truly opened my eyes this time; encountering such legendary techniques made me unsure whether I was lucky or unfortunate.
Considering the power of the Soul-Sealing Ghost Coffin, especially its terrifying potential after becoming a Paper King, I immediately decided that in order to eliminate this significant future threat, I must get rid of them today! I just hoped they had not yet found a spiritually endowed Paper Figurine, or else I would truly be at a loss.
With this thought in mind, I approached one of the paper coffins and placed my hands on its lid before pushing it open...
As the lid opened, I found that the coffin was completely empty; there was not even a ghost inside—let alone a Corpse.
Seeing that it was an empty coffin relieved Wang Qingshan, who clearly felt reassured. However, my worry only deepened because the absence of both a Yin Hun and a Corpse could only mean three things: either this person was hiding away, or they had turned into a ghost due to the failure of the Soul-Sealing Ghost Coffin, or perhaps they had already found a possessed Paper Figurine and transformed into a true Paper King!
If it's the second possibility, then that's somewhat fortunate; but if it's either the first or third possibility, then we have trouble on our hands—especially with the third scenario. If they truly found a possessed Paper Figurine and became a real Paper King, countless innocent lives would inevitably suffer.
Looking at this empty coffin made me mutter in confusion: why is it an empty coffin?
I couldn't help but wonder. Logically speaking, previously, Duan Yang had said to go upstairs and call for his parents, and this coffin was in the master bedroom on the second floor. It was highly likely that this coffin belonged to Duan Yang's parents, yet it was empty now. Had they escaped?
Thinking back to how Duan Yang had called for his parents upstairs but had not seen anyone for so long, leaving us waiting downstairs for an extended period, I felt something was off. It seemed that my suspicions were indeed correct.
Feeling anxious, I walked over to the second coffin and opened the lid, only to find it was just like the first one—empty.
Now I was truly worried, so I grabbed Wang Qingshan and headed outside to check other rooms.
The other rooms were dark and gloomy. We searched several rooms, whether they were studies or storage rooms; they were all empty, not even a ghostly shadow in sight.
Looking at the last room on the second floor, I was almost ready to give up. I thought to myself that if they weren't in that room, it would be difficult to find them again in the future! Despite these thoughts, we still walked towards that last room...
The last room was not locked either. I gently twisted the lock, and the door opened. Wang Qingshan took out his phone, preparing to use its weak light to search for the room's light switch. However, as soon as he turned on the screen in that dark room, a pale face appeared under the faint blue light of the phone!
This scared both of us greatly. Wang Qingshan screamed in fright, his hand trembled, and he dropped his phone on the ground. The faint blue light from the phone illuminated a pair of feet wearing red embroidered shoes...
We were startled once again. I could feel every hair on my body stand on end as I pulled the already terrified Wang Qingshan out into the corridor.
You can imagine how frightening it is when you can't see anything in a dark room. When you turn on your phone to illuminate the room and suddenly see a pale face, would you be scared? Moreover, this face belonged to a man, but when the phone fell to the ground, we saw a pair of small women's feet wearing embroidered shoes from ancient times. This bizarre and terrifying scene would scare even a Ghost Master out of their wits!
As we burst out of the room, I quickly made a gesture with my fingers, fully alert to any dangers inside. At that moment, I couldn't tell if what was inside was human or ghostly; I couldn't even see who it was. But after such a scare, I knew that whatever it was must be extraordinary; otherwise, why would they hide in the room without turning on the lights?
"Are you human or ghost? Come out!" I shouted into the room, both to bolster my courage and to suppress whatever presence was inside.
After my shout, there was indeed some movement inside. Although we couldn't see them, we could see that the lit phone was being picked up by a woman's hand.
How could I be so sure it was a woman's hand? Because that hand was incredibly white—only a woman's hand could be so delicate. Moreover, under the phone's light, I could see that the white hand was slender and had red nail polish on its nails.
Could such delicate little hands with red nail polish belong to a man?
After being picked up by a woman's hand, the phone moved toward the doorway. Then we finally saw who they were...
Originally, I thought there was only one person in the room, but when they walked out, we discovered that there were actually two people, a man and a woman, and we recognized them. Wasn't that Duan Yang who had just disappeared? And the other woman was Wang Qingshan's Daughter, Qianqian!
At that moment, not only was I stunned, but even Wang Qingshan was shocked. We weren't surprised by Duan Yang's appearance since he had just vanished and suddenly reappearing in this room wasn't too shocking. However, how did Wang Qingshan's Daughter, Qianqian, end up here in this room? Wasn't she supposed to be at home? When did she come here?
You have to understand that when I first saw the pair of Embroidered Shoes illuminated by the phone's light, I suspected it might belong to a woman, and that woman could very well be Duan Yang's mother. But I never imagined that this woman would actually be Qianqian.
I thought I was seeing things, but I knew I wasn't; it was indeed Qianqian in front of me because I could confirm from Wang Qingshan's expression that he was also seeing Qianqian.
At that moment, Qianqian looked pale, her eyes hollow and devoid of spirit, clearly in a worse state than during the day.
Wang Qingshan stood there in shock for a while. After being frozen in fear, he suddenly seemed to transform into another person, darting out from behind me and jumping in front of Duan Yang, trying to pull Qianqian over with astonishing speed!
However, when he raised his hand to grab Qianqian, his palm went right through her elbow as if she wasn't really there at all, or perhaps Qianqian was just an illusion.
This terrified Wang Qingshan, leaving him speechless and moving his mouth without being able to utter a word.
Seeing this made me realize that Qianqian hadn't actually come here; the Qianqian before us was merely her soul! In other words, Qianqian was still at home; only her soul had been drawn here by Duan Yang.
Understanding this, I quickly pulled Wang Qingshan over and told him that this was his daughter's soul and that he couldn't touch her.
Upon hearing this, Wang Qingshan was filled with terror and anxiety. Unable to pull his daughter over, he turned to her and questioned, "Why didn't you stay at home? Why did you come here? Who told you to come?"
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