Free Web NovelChapter 103: Chapter 21: Divine Bottles Under the Tree
As the ghost train driven by Dead Man’s Head drew near, Gao Tian could finally see clearly from aboard the vehicle. The "black dots" on the bark, which was as vast as the Great Wall, were actually corpses, each encased in a transparent, amber-like gel. They all had their eyes closed, perfectly still, as if they were merely sleeping.
Even without an explanation from Dead Man’s Head, Gao Tian had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
Most supernaturals had extremely limited lifespans. Terrified of becoming malevolent ghosts with broken minds once their time ran out, they slept inside these amber-like cocoons whenever they could, entering a state of hibernation. That way, they wouldn’t use up their lifespan.
A small doorway was set into the bark of the Divine Tree. The ghost train driven by Dead Man’s Head stopped before it, and he motioned for Gao Tian to disembark.
"Brother, this is as far as I go.
"Xu Yuan is waiting for you at the center of the Divine Tree. Once you’re inside, grab the bottles first. He wants to have a private chat with you afterward.
"Good luck picking out the bottles you want."
After dropping Gao Tian off, Dead Man’s Head steered the ghost train back toward the boundless sky. It became a black streak before vanishing over the edge of the Inner World’s blood-red horizon.
Beyond the doorway in the Divine Tree was a slate-gray corridor, leading deeper into the heart of the giant tree.
Standing ten thousand meters in the air, Gao Tian watched the clouds drift past the bark wall before heading inside.
The scenery remained stubbornly the same. Gao Tian lost track of how long he’d been walking; he hadn’t seen so much as a ghost’s shadow. Just as he began to wonder if he was doomed to spend eternity in this slate-gray hallway, the first room came into view up ahead.
The room was approximately one hundred square meters. Its walls, ceiling, and floor were the same slate-gray, with the sole exception of a five-meter-tall ornamental tree placed in the center. What hung from its branches weren’t leaves, but an assortment of empty bottles.
There were red, green, blue, and transparent ones... A breeze rustled through, causing the bottles to gently knock against each other, creating a pleasant chiming sound. It was surprisingly melodic.
’So these... are the little bottles borne of the Divine Tree?’
Gao Tian walked up to the ornamental tree. He reached out a hand—the bottles were hanging just within his grasp.
Gao Tian was not greedy; he only took two small bottles.
’Xu Yuan is no fool. In a room this important, who knows how many pairs of eyes are watching me from the shadows. If I were to stupidly take any more, I’d likely be swarmed in the next instant.’
He picked a pale yellow bottle, then, after a moment’s thought, walked around to the back of the ornamental tree and chose a lavender one.
Each of the small bottles was originally empty. But once plucked from the tree, shadows of various shapes began to materialize within them, each shadow corresponding to a different Supernatural Artifact.
With a sharp CRACK, the Supernatural Artifact inside the pale yellow bottle finished materializing. Having reached its full form, it shattered the bottle and appeared in Gao Tian’s hand.
Gao Tian could hardly believe his eyes.
Inside the bottle was yet another bottle.
This new bottle was smaller than the pale yellow one that had housed it, and it was completely transparent.
Gao Tian pressed his hand, sheathed in the Human Skin Gloves, against it.
[Luck Jar]:
Excess ghostly luck hovering over your head can be collected into this jar and stored.
It can then be released the next time it is needed.
...
The description was short, but it was exactly what Gao Tian needed.
During his intense battle with the Ghost Cave, his opponent had gone on a crazed rampage, killing over 1,000 people in Jin Hai Mansion. This had completely sated his black tie, granting Gao Tian the ghostly luck of 1,000 dead souls—enough to last for dozens of hours.
However, the actual battle had ended in under half an hour. The black cloud of ghostly luck, laced with a web of blood vessels, still swirled above Gao Tian’s head. If he didn’t get into another major fight soon, it would all go to waste.
Gao Tian had been thinking, ’I can’t let all this ghostly luck go to waste. Since I’m in the Inner World anyway, maybe I should go check in at another station later. See if I can burn off the rest of this luck and trade it for something.’
Now, it seemed, that wouldn’t be necessary at all.
He immediately opened the mouth of the jar and held it up beneath the ghostly luck. He watched as the web of blood vessels in the black cloud above him liquified, turning into a foul, bloody black ooze that dripped steadily into the jar.
That was the effect from the first bottle. After dealing with it, Gao Tian inspected the second one.
The Supernatural Artifact inside it had also finished forming. With a slight squeeze, the bottle’s shell crumbled away, revealing the object within.
It was a blood-red diamond in the shape of an irregular rhombus, about the size of an eyeglass lens. Just from its appearance, it was impossible to tell what it was for.
Gao Tian pressed his hand, still covered by the Human Skin Gloves, against it to read its information.
[Peace Stone of The Hanged Man 57]
Upon encountering The Hanged Man 57, take out this stone and place it in the center of the cross. You will immediately gain control of its Ghost Realm.
...
’The Hanged Man 57?’
Gao Tian searched his memory for a few seconds, and then it came to him.
It was that black, inverted cross from the Supernatural Bus—the one that had been embedded in the old woman’s forehead and had later assimilated Ling Feifei.
The cross’s effect was absurdly powerful; it could drag people into a Ghost Realm and confiscate all the Ghost Cards from a person’s soul. That was equivalent to greatly increasing its own number of revivals.
’Was it named The Hanged Man 57 because there was a bloodshot eye in its Ghost Realm that endlessly repeated the number "57"?’
’The last station it appeared at was that old city district plastered with signs saying "Forbidden to the Living." Looks like I need to get there as soon as I can and find 57.’
’After all, I have four new Ghost Cards on my soul now, and I’m not feeling particularly safe. Every revival still carries a risk of permanent death.’
At the far end of the slate-gray room stood another door, this one blood-red. It opened onto a crimson corridor that looked like a path to Hell itself.
Gao Tian tossed his two newly acquired Supernatural Artifacts into his mirror and continued onward.
Behind him, the very instant he left, the entire flourishing ornamental tree shriveled into a withered heap. The countless unpicked bottles still on its branches instantly crumbled into piles of fine dust.
At the end of the corridor, in another crimson room, a tall, middle-aged man in a gray suit was already quietly awaiting Gao Tian’s arrival.
"Good afternoon, Memory Ghost."
"I trust the two little bottles you picked from the Divine Tree are to your liking."
The man’s voice was calm and steady, identical to the one Gao Tian had heard over the phone. Half his face was perpetually cloaked in shadow, but his exposed jaw was a festering ruin, with white maggots crawling into the putrid flesh and red tendrils oozing out.
Gao Tian had seen Xu Yuan’s corpse at Sapphire Mall. He knew the person sitting here was not Xu Yuan’s true self.
’Xu Yuan must have used some means to possess this corpse. But that’s not important.’
He ignored Xu Yuan’s question and countered with his own.
"What, exactly, is this future you envision for humanity?
"You claim your ultimate goal is to end the Era of the Supernatural. What exactly do you plan to do to eliminate these undying, indestructible ghosts?
"And what about this Ghost Country you mentioned? Is that supposed to be the utopia you’ll use to bring this Era of the Supernatural to an end?"
The questions came one after another.
Now, it was up to Xu Yuan to answer.
Of course, deep down, Gao Tian had another question he was even more eager to ask.
’What was the deal with that future-predicting jar he’d stolen from Xu Yuan’s old home, and the skeleton inside it that called itself Master Yunshan?’
Of course, that was a question Gao Tian would only ever consider in his mind. He would never dare to ask it aloud.
’Asking it would prove he was the one who stole the jar from Xu Yuan’s old home that day. It would also expose the fact that he was a living human.’
