Free Web NovelChapter 348: Chapter 301: Sculpture
"What do we need to do?" As Yang Xiao was pondering, Tong Han spoke up first, moved by Mo Daidai’s conditions.
"I need you to enter a Nightmare World for me, complete a task within, and retrieve the Resentful Eye," Mo Daidai said in a hushed voice.
"Be more specific, what kind of nightmare task? And how can we..."
Yang Xiao also started to speak, but before he could finish, Mo Daidai interrupted him, "I can’t tell you the details of the task for now because if the two of you refuse to accept the task, I really can’t convince myself to let you leave. Then, we’ll no longer be able to be friends."
Mo Daidai’s words were harsh, but sincere. Recalling Mo Daidai’s performance in the previous task, Yang Xiao believed that Mo Daidai at least could be trusted in business matters, "It’s very dangerous, right? That’s why you won’t go yourself?"
"I don’t know," Mo Daidai said, "But there is one thing I need to tell you. You two have been using the powers of the Resentful Eye frequently recently, and you will likely receive a nightmare script soon. Even if you don’t agree to this task, you’ll soon enter the Nightmare World. If you agree now, it’s just a matter of entering a little earlier and in exchange, you’ll get a promise. In my opinion, it’s a fair deal."
"I agree to it," Tong Han nodded.
Mo Daidai then turned to look at Yang Xiao, waiting for his decision. After a moment of silence, Yang Xiao asked one last question, "You have so many capable people under you, why choose us specifically?"
"Because we’re friends," Mo Daidai said seriously.
"Okay, I agree to it," Yang Xiao needed Mo Daidai’s promise, and the word "friends" was also one of the reasons that moved him.
"Let me repeat, I am a businessman who values integrity. I hope that the two of you are the same. If anyone wants to back out now, it’s still not too late," Mo Daidai emphasized.
Seeing no objections from Yang Xiao and Tong Han, Mo Daidai nodded, "Then let’s get started."
As his voice fell, the bodyguard in black entered a small room in the private room, and brought out two silver suitcases, one in each hand. After placing the suitcases before Mo Daidai, he stepped back, taking up a position by the door, staring at them coldly like a guardian deity.
At the same time, Yang Xiao and Tong Han shuddered, immediately turning their heads to look at the bodyguard in black. Most of his face was obscured by sunglasses, his hands behind his back, seemingly doing nothing. But the two sensed a dangerous aura.
The bodyguard had activated the power of the Resentful Eye, enveloping the entire room in a powerful aura. But with the naked eye, Yang Xiao and Tong Han couldn’t tell what he was doing. The level of intimidation wasn’t something Granny Hong or the Staff Killing Elder could manage, and Yang Xiao was sure that even if the two of them joined forces, they stood no chance against this man.
"Don’t be nervous, as long as each of us does our job properly, there won’t be any problems," Mo Daidai said, putting on silver gloves and smiling as he opened the suitcase brought by the bodyguard, taking out a... um... gray-green stone sculpture.
The sculpture was a fragment, just the body part with precision craftsmanship, dressed in monk’s robes, probably depicting a monk. The broken part was at the neck, completely severed.
Soon after, Mo Daidai opened the other suitcase brought by the bodyguard. This time he took out a spherical object wrapped in silver fabric. After unwrapping the silver fabric layer by layer, inside was a head with a bizarre smile on its face.
It was clear that the skull was made of the same material as the stone-carved body with which it matched, yet what sent shivers down the spines of Yang Xiao and Tong Han was the disproportionate size of the skull to the body; this... this didn’t seem like a human skull at all, its shape was all wrong, resembling more a demon’s.
Furthermore, the face on the skull was also out of proportion to its size, even slightly askew. It gave the impression that the face didn’t belong to the skull’s owner but was ripped from somewhere else, then pasted onto it.
Both Yang Xiao and Tong Han had an ominous premonition and exchanged glances, reading the strangeness in each other’s eyes.
Mo Daidai carefully picked up the skull and placed it on the stone-carved body. Indeed, it fit perfectly, but the eerie head dressed in a solemn monk’s robe looked utterly out of place. Yang Xiao suddenly realized the hairs on his back were standing on end.
Mo Daidai continued with his ritual, tearing off the seal inscribed with ’Personally initiated by the Second Honored One’, and opened the third suitcase—the very one stolen by Yang Xiao and his party. This time, instead of a stone carving, it contained an oddly-shaped wooden box, vivid blood-red in color. The box was exquisitely carved, adorned with swirling clouds, distant mountains, forests, and villages in the background, while numerous villagers seemed to be toiling and living, creating a serene scene.
But the longer one looked, the more unsettling it became, filled with unexplainable images. The villagers, bent over and leaning on canes, supposedly elders, all had the delighted faces of laughing babies, making faces and appearing joyous; yet the infants held in the arms of bare-chested women were bearded, wrinkled, and even white-haired, like old men at the end of their days.
A moment later, Yang Xiao furrowed his brow; he saw what it was—a delicately carved shrine. Inside was a base made of the same material as the stone carving, grayish-green in color, meant to house the strange sculpture.
But what in the world was this thing? It didn’t seem human, nor demon. To call it a Buddha statue was out of the question; perhaps it was an immortal from an unconventional path. But did such an entity merit a place in a shrine, to be worshipped with incense by people?
By now, Yang Xiao understood; this object used to be whole, only now divided into three parts. It seemed Mo Daidai had spared no expense in collecting these pieces.
While Yang Xiao thought Mo Daidai would personally place the assembled sculpture in the shrine, Mo Daidai set the statue before them and gravely instructed, "Place the Ghost Envoy into the shrine. Don’t wear gloves, use your bare hands. After placing it, kneel and kowtow earnestly, with true reverence in your heart."
"What... what do you call this thing?" Even Tong Han, with all his experience, was unnerved. The thing looked incredibly sinister. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
"Hurry up, do as I say, or we will all be in big trouble," Mo Daidai’s expression was unusually tense; it was apparent he wasn’t joking.
In an instant, the bodyguard behind them exerted an even greater oppressive force, and Yang Xiao distinctly felt that the man was ready to kill.
At this point, there was only one way forward. Yang Xiao and Tong Han reached out their hands to lift the stone carving. The moment their fingers touched the sculpted rock, a chill struck them both almost simultaneously, sending a shiver through their bodies. They dared not delay and immediately placed the sculpture in the shrine. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
As soon as the carving touched the base of the shrine, Mo Daidai quickly stepped back. At the same time, Yang Xiao and Tong Han felt their knees go weak and "thump", they fell to the ground, their heads uncontrollably bowing rapidly toward the shrine and the weird, uncanny figure inside it, referred to by Mo Daidai as the Ghost Envoy. Their foreheads hit the floor with ’thumping’ sounds.
Even as they knelt, they felt as if they were being looked down upon, as if... as if the thing inside the shrine came alive and was gazing down at them with drooping eyes.
But the bizarre control didn’t last long - after a few seconds, the pair, nearly driven insane by fear, finally caught a moment’s breath, quickly stood up, and retreated. When they looked toward the shrine again, they saw the statue that initially had a crying face now seemed to be smiling, its mouth and eyes twisted malignantly.
