Chapter 168 Sculpting a Human Figure "But where did Fuxi lay out a divination?"...

"So, Officer Lu is now under the influence of the Gu poison," the mirror polisher exclaimed incredulously after hearing Master Fang's astonishing analysis. "The Gu master wants to transform him into the body of Fuxi?!"

Master Fang stared at the remains in front of him, whose arms and legs were identical to Lu Bing's: "They're pretty much the same."

The mirror grinder: "This is absolutely outrageous."

Zhou Yaren felt extremely dizzy, and the words the Gu Master had said earlier kept ringing in her ears.

"Lu Bing has been struck by a Gu poison!"

"And he's dying; only I can save him. You want to kill me? Think it over!"

"Since I'm going to die anyway, I don't mind taking him down with me."

Therefore, he didn't kill them easily in Shanzhou, which resulted in the deaths of several young men from the Taihang Mountains. Zhou Yaren was filled with remorse, and as a result...

So that's how it is.

The Gu Master is creating the body of Fuxi; she wants to transform Lu Bing into the body of Fuxi!

Zhou Yaren felt as if he had been struck by lightning, experiencing a dizzying sensation as if he had stepped into thin air and lost his footing, causing him to fall forward. Fortunately, Bai Yuan caught him in time.

Zhou Yaren found it hard to accept, but how could Lu Bing bear it? How much pain and despair must he be in? Zhou Yaren could hardly bear to even think about it.

"Ya Ren." Bai Yuan touched his cold palm, which was covered in cold sweat, and his body was trembling slightly.

"I...I'm fine," he answered subconsciously, forcing himself to calm down and trying to get through the dizziness as soon as possible, but he felt a chill all over his body, so cold that Zhou Yaren couldn't stop shivering. "Innocent, I have to go save Lu Bing."

"I'll go with you."

“Okay.” Zhou Yaren was so worried and anxious that she could hardly breathe. “You come with me. Let’s go now.”

At the same time, a "click" sound rang out in the darkness.

In such an environment, everyone remained highly vigilant, and no one dared to be careless. Therefore, even the slightest sound would draw the attention of everyone in the secret room, and Master Fang and the mirror polisher were especially on edge.

Click—

Another sound.

It was a crisp sound, like the sound of a stiff joint twisting. Master Fang thought of that broken long neck.

Click... Click...

The first or second click would have been fine, but the continuous clicking sounds sent chills down the mirror grinder's spine, as if something was slowly coming to life in the darkness.

"Old Fang."

Sizzle—

It was a long, drawn-out scraping sound, like fingernails scratching the ground, which made Master Fang feel very uncomfortable.

Zhou Yaren finally "saw" the dark place that they couldn't see with their naked eyes, and a few withered black shadows moved slowly: "There's something there."

Bai Yuan asked, "Can you see it?"

"Yes, it's a mirage."

Master Fang immediately pulled out several talismans from his robes: "Where are they?"

Bai Yuan and Zhou Yaren walked towards a certain place.

"Give me a few quickly." The mirror polisher reached out and took three or five yellow talismans, holding them in front of him. He followed the two men forward, then asked Master Fang with some unease, "Can these talismans ward off mirages?"

Master Fang said, "If it can ward off evil spirits, it should also be able to ward off mirages."

In the time it takes to say two sentences, the firelight illuminated the three remains on the ground, the very same three bodies whose skin had been torn open just moments before.

The body that had been lying in the shallow pit had changed position. Master Fang clearly remembered that the corpse he had examined should have had its head tilted to the side, but now its neck was straight.

The dry, claw-like finger bones curled up, and the long, sharp nails scraped against the ground, making a teeth-grinding sound.

Click... crunch...

The mummies twisted their decaying bones as if turning rusty door hinges, stiffly and slowly rising from the pit, the dust covering them falling in a flurry.

"It's rising..." The mirror grinder's eyes widened. "It's risen from the dead."

Bai Yuan and Zhou Yaren struck almost simultaneously, their swirling fan-shaped blades, imbued with a sharp, frost-like wind, slicing through the necks of the corpses leaping from the pit. The heads fell to the ground, rolling with a thud to the mirror polisher's feet, where the polisher kicked them away.

With a snap, the talisman struck a corpse ghost that was lunging at Master Fang from behind. Master Fang turned around abruptly, met the withered ghost's face, and then unceremoniously slapped a yellow talisman on its forehead.

The talisman hissed and emitted damp white smoke, and then another overlapping phantom appeared on the ghost's face, like a blood mist, revealing an extremely ferocious expression.

The severed corpse spewed out a foul-smelling mist of blood from its neck. As Zhou Yaren used her fan to deflect the blood, the crimson mist condensed into a shape, as if a new, indistinct head had sprung up, howling in pain and silently as it lunged at Zhou Yaren.

Zhou Yaren quickly flipped her fan, and the resulting wind blades shattered the withered bone into eight pieces.

Bai Yuan's icy hands gripped the corpses, the mirage-like spirit seeming to hold onto the resentment of those who died with their eyes wide open, emitting a hoarse, bellowing sound deep within their throats. So much so that when Bai Yuan tried to extract this "resentment" from the corpses, the bodies, like terminally ill, withered old men, clung to their last breaths, unwilling to exhale, before the entire corpse began to convulse.

Bai Yuan frowned, but held back, skinning the two mirages from the dried corpse.

Although the mirages were indistinct, it was still clear that they were staring with their eyes wide open and their mouths agape. Then, a wind blade wrapped in a talisman slashed down and decisively scattered two of the mirages.

Bai Yuan rubbed his frosty fingertips together, then turned around at the startled noises from the other two.

Sharp, deadly claws grazed past Master Fang's ear, leaving sharp, knife-like scratches on the rock wall behind him. Master Fang turned around, his face paling in horror. He swept and stabbed the mummified corpse with his longsword, creating several holes in it.

However, the hole leaked air, and the leaking blood mist sprayed onto the back of Master Fang's hand. The mirage gas was corrosive, and the skin on the back of his hand instantly ulcerated.

Master Fang cried out in pain and almost dropped his sword.

The withered arm, with its immense strength, slammed into Master Fang's abdomen, sending him flying. However, he was pulled down by Bai Yuan's ankle mid-air!

Master Fang's face contorted in pain as he clutched his lower abdomen and collapsed to the ground, dazed and confused. He watched as Bai Yuan darted past, grabbed the dried corpse, and gave it a shake, the gesture as casual as shaking off a dusty robe. The corpse then trembled violently and slumped to the ground. Bai Yuan grasped a wisp of bloody mist, which was the mirage spirit that had been peeled from the fisherman's body.

A short gust of wind, carrying a wind talisman, swept past his side, shattering the mirage that was struggling and writhing in Bai Yuan's hands.

Master Fang, holding up his bloodied hand, asked, "Is it resolved?"

Bai Yuan said, "A few mirage ghosts are nothing. They're easy to deal with."

"And here's more! Someone help me!" the mirror polisher cried out, grabbing a stone and smashing it wildly against the corpse's head, crushing and shattering the skull. Blood mist billowed out, and the mirror polisher almost inhaled it. Fortunately, an open fan blocked it in time; otherwise, if he had inhaled the mirage, it would have corroded his lungs from his mouth and nose.

They easily dealt with the few mirages that had escaped from the villagers, and stepped out of the secret chamber. The group wandered around, their faint firelight sweeping across the walls of the passageway.

The stone wall was not smooth, with some scratches and blackish-brown bloodstains, but no other writing was found.

Master Fang and the mirror polisher led the way, chatting amongst themselves, and finally, relying on their hazy memories, they found the secret room where they had previously discovered the stone carving.

Master Fang couldn't wait to go inside, holding a torch to find the stone slab engraved with Qin Xiaozuan's inscription: "This is it," he said, holding the torch to the stone slab and letting the light shine on it at an angle, confirming, "That's right, I only looked at half of it just now."

Bai Yuan leaned closer: "Taihao Fuxi, of the Feng clan, succeeded Suiren as king. His mother was Huaxu, who gave birth to Fuxi in Chengji after stepping on the footprint of a giant in Leize."

Master Fang said, "The preceding text has been describing the birth of Fuxi, which is that Huaxu became pregnant after stepping on a giant footprint in Leize and gave birth to Fuxi."

The mirror polisher stared and read on: "Fuxi had a snake's body and scales, and possessed saintly virtues. He looked up to observe the celestial phenomena, looked down to observe the patterns of the earth, observed the markings of birds and beasts, and the suitability of the land. He drew inspiration from his own body and from all things, and thus began to draw the Eight Trigrams..."

"I'm sure everyone knows these things. The main thing is the content that follows. Even I have never seen such a record before. Look here, Fuxi arranged the trigrams to correspond to the phenomena of heaven and earth. Only he can understand the celestial phenomena and the terrain." Master Fang pointed to the lines of inscriptions on the stone slab and explained, "The sage is gone and cannot be understood. Therefore, we need to reconstruct the body of Fuxi."

The mirror grinder couldn't quite understand, and really didn't understand: "What do you mean? Is the reshaping of Fuxi's body to interpret celestial phenomena and terrain?"

Zhou Yaren pondered deeply and said, "I think the key is in Fuxi's arrangement of the trigrams."

Bai Yuan pondered the key point he pointed out: "People talk about Fuxi drawing the trigrams, but here we are using Fuxi arranging the trigrams."

The mirror grinder interjected, "Aren't drawing divination blocks and arranging divination blocks the same thing?"

Master Fang suddenly realized: "It can't be. Just like when we set up formations, Fuxi not only drew the trigrams, but also arranged them!"

“That’s right,” Zhou Yaren said. “The one who can interpret celestial phenomena and terrain is none other than the one who can interpret them, namely the hexagrams laid out by Fuxi. They must be interpreted by Fuxi himself.”

Master Fang said, "So that's why we need to reshape Fuxi's body?!"

If that's the case, the mirror grinder had another question: "But where did Fuxi arrange the divination?"

Zhou Yaren had a vague answer in her heart.

"Let me see if it's written here," Master Fang continued, "Sages are all fatherless, born of divine inspiration. To emulate them, one must be conceived through divine inspiration."

"What do you mean?" The mirror grinder was completely baffled. "Whether it's a human or an animal, otherwise, where would they get pregnant? The higher-ups said that Fuxi was born from his mother stepping on a giant footprint. If we want to imitate that, we have to step on a giant footprint in Leize too? Are there even giant footprints in Leize?"

Master Fang: "If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense."

The mirror grinder: "I have so many questions precisely because I don't understand them."

"Legend has it that the Gu master makes Gu incantations by making a woman pregnant," Bai Yuan said. "You will see that the human soul nourishes the snake fetus, forming a fetal breath, and the warmth is used to nourish the true essence. After more than 120 days, the fetus is formed and lays eggs, hatching baby snakes, which then nourish the human fetus, absorbing yin essence to solidify the fetal breath. Thus, one belly carries a hundred children, each containing a spiritual soul, and the human and snake form begins."

If it is called Gu magic, then it is easy to understand by considering the experience that happened to the Yang family in Pinglu. Zhou Yaren said: "Human soul nourishing snake fetus means that first the human soul goes into the snake fetus, and after the snake lays eggs and hatches baby snakes, the baby snakes go into the human fetus, which is considered to make Gu snake induction." Just like those pregnant corpses buried in the river tomb, a complete placenta contains countless snake eggs, which corresponds to the saying "one belly contains a hundred children, each child contains a spirit, and the human and snake form begins."

Looking further down, Master Fang's pupils trembled: "He severed the tendons and veins of the human embryo, then inserted the snake, and once they were connected, he replaced it and returned it to its original state. It was a human head and a snake body, the very Fuxi."

As Master Fang finished reciting, he became increasingly terrified, and his voice gradually weakened.

"Human blank." The mirror grinder had heard of clay blanks and earthen blanks, but this was the first time in his life he had seen a person referred to as a human blank.

Clearly, this statement perfectly describes Lu Butou's current situation. Master Fang's mouth went dry: "First, sever a person's tendons and veins, then guide the Gu snake into the body. Once the living snakes are connected, they can reshape new tendons and veins, allowing a crippled person to stand up again, and thus, become Fuxi with a human head and a snake's body."