Free Web NovelChapter 792: Chapter 594: Ghost Armor
"Step."
"Step."
"Step."
Yang Xiao and his companions had a stroke of luck this time; it took them only about ten minutes to leave the range of the fog and they didn’t encounter the deadly Corpse Forest again. Fang Zhou occasionally looked back with concern. Sensing this, Yang Xiao reassured him, "Don’t be foolish. He won’t be in any trouble; you forgot, it was he who saved you."
"Yang, you make sense," Fang Zhou responded, nodding repeatedly.
"Hey, why don’t I hold onto the turtle shell for you? But I must tell you, it might not be anything good." Having escaped the dangerous situation and with the old beggar out of sight, Chang Chuchu unhesitantly offered.
"If you’re not afraid of death, take it," Jiang Qingluan said as she walked by, scoffing at Chang Chuchu’s side.
"Whether it’s a blessing or a calamity has yet to be seen," Yang Xiao added, also trying to spook Chang Chuchu.
Fang Zhou, cooperatively, took out the cloth bundle that wrapped the black turtle shell, pretending to pass it to Chang Chuchu. But after a moment’s hesitation, she didn’t dare to accept it. On the one hand, she was worried that the turtle shell might indeed have its tales; on the other, she didn’t want to put too much strain on their relationship.
She had assumed that Yang Xiao and Jiang Qingluan would collaborate with her to take the turtle shell for inspection, but unexpectedly neither had any such intention.
"I’m just concerned that Fang Zhou is young and could be deceived. I mean, an old beggar with unknown origins appears out of nowhere in the wilderness and knows so much? I can’t believe in such a coincidence," Chang Chuchu followed the group and shared her thoughts.
Before long, they returned to Fushou Manor and saw the archway outside. The sun was already slanting westward. They rushed back to the cloth factory at their fastest speed, changed into their old clothes, and then hurried back to Earl Mansion.
At their residence, they saw only Xiang Fengchen and a few others; Nalan Shuo was nowhere to be found. Zhang Songde explained that Nalan Shuo had been taken away by someone from Earl Mansion not long ago, saying that there was an Exorcism Ceremony arranged for tonight.
After sitting down, Yang Xiao and the others shared the day’s events. Upon hearing that an old beggar had given them a piece of turtle shell, Xiang Fengchen immediately showed interest. When Fang Zhou opened the cloth bundle to reveal the turtle shell inside, within just a few breaths, Xiang Fengchen’s expression shifted from confusion to shock, and then transformed into fear. He suddenly stood up as if he had seen a ghost.
"Do you recognize this thing?" Chang Chuchu pressed for an answer.
"Where... where did it come from?" Xiang Fengchen fixated his gaze on Fang Zhou, who was dragging the turtle shell, scaring Fang Zhou into a startle.
"The... the old beggar gave it," Fang Zhou replied.
"I know, how could a beggar possess such a thing?" Xiang Fengchen’s fear hadn’t subsided as he extended both hands as if to carefully examine the turtle shell. But the moment his fingers were about to touch it, he suddenly came to his senses, grabbed the cloth from Fang Zhou’s hand, and cautiously, very cautiously, lifted the turtle shell with the cloth as if he was handling a treasure of inestimable value.
"The beggar said it was given to him by the ’Little Immortal,’ he is part of the rebel party spreading demon poetry in the city. Most of them have already been captured and executed by the Earl Mansion," Yang Xiao explained, "I heard they died horribly, skinned alive, and many beggars who had contact with the rebel party also suffered. This old beggar was lucky to escape with his life from a pile of corpses."
"He’s lying," Yang Xiao’s words had just finished when he was rudely interrupted by Xiang Fengchen, whose eyes had been glued to the turtle shell since he first saw it. "This item would never be entrusted to someone else; this is Ghost Armor, also known as Netherworld Armor or Divine Turtle Shell. I have only heard of it but never seen it. My master searched for it for thirty years and never got to lay his eyes on it before he died."
"Is it that precious?" Zhang Songde stared skeptically at the turtle shell.
"To the uninitiated, this object is useless and may even bring disaster, but to those in the know, it is a treasured artifact of Feng Shui, one of only three in the world," Xiang Fengchen spoke with conviction, cradling the turtle shell excitedly like a 70-year-old child.
"Mr. Xiang, since you have never seen it before, how can you tell if it’s real?" Lou Huixiang posed a tricky question from the sidelines.
"Bring some water," Xiang Fengchen gestured grandly.
A moment later, a copper basin filled with water was brought over. Xiang Fengchen carefully placed the turtle shell atop the water’s surface. As he released his hand, something bizarre occurred – the turtle shell, which had a jade-like texture, miraculously floated on the water.
Yang Xiao had weighed it with his hand before; it was quite heavy. Logically, it should have sunk in the water, yet it floated.
Xiang Fengchen then used a cloth to gingerly push the turtle shell around, flipping it in the water. The next second, the shell sank straight down, hitting the bottom of the basin with a dull thud.
What was even stranger was that after it sunk, peculiar patterns emerged on the turtle shell. After only a few glances, Yang Xiao felt dizzy and his vision blurred, as if he was being pushed underwater, until Mr. Xiang lifted the shell out, and the sensation of suffocation quickly subsided.
At the same time, Xiang Fengchen showed everyone the turtle shell, which was remarkably dry, not a drop of water on it. After this demonstration, everyone was thoroughly convinced by Xiang Fengchen’s words. Indeed, it’s better to leave professional matters to the experts. The name of the Evil Mage, Xiang Fengchen, was well-deserved.
Having listened to the account of Yang Xiao and the others, Xiang Fengchen was almost certain that the beggar was a Great Mage, and an extremely skilled one at that. It was he who had broken the Sha Qi Corpse Forest outside the dilapidated temple and rescued the Fang Zhou.
"Could he be the only Demon who escaped?" Zhang Songde posited a very reasonable hypothesis.
Yet, Yang Xiao and the others dismissed it, as the old beggar looked nothing like the person described in the wanted posters. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
Without a clue, they could only start from the turtle shell. Mr. Xiang explained that the ancient Fangshi used turtle shells divided into Three Grades and ten categories, including Divine Turtle, Spiritual Turtle, She Turtle, Treasure Turtle, Wen Turtle, Mountain Turtle, Swamp Turtle, Water Turtle, and Fire Turtle, with Divine Turtle being the rarest. It is said that the ancestor of the Fangshi, Peng Zu, caught it in a dream in the South Sea Ruins. Ordinary turtles grow bigger with age, but this Divine Turtle shrinks instead. Shedding its shell every hundred years, it gets smaller each time, and to reach this size, it must be at least eight hundred years old.
"This item is a treasured artifact of the Fangshu, back when there was no distinction between fortune teller, Magician, and Fangshi – all were part of the Fangshu. Traditionally, the mantle was passed down directly from one Grand Master to the next. Before dying, the current Grand Master would choose his successor. This rule was followed for hundreds of years until trouble arose with one Grand Master. It wasn’t that his disciples were unaccomplished or that there was no one to follow; it was that both his direct disciples were too exceptional. One was named Yao Ji, and the other Ruan Bo. Both were said to have the power to pierce the heavens and the earth. Yao Ji could, by simply examining a person’s face, predict the fortunes and misfortunes of that person and his lineage for a hundred years. Ruan Bo could, using the elements of mountain, stone, and weather, lay out meticulous arrangements to defy fate."
"The Grand Master really couldn’t choose between them, so he had them compete. Both took their positions, each setting up their own spiritual formation. As both were profoundly skilled, ordinary challenges wouldn’t suffice, so they turned to the fate of nations for their contest."
"At the time, the Crown Prince was frail and often ill; everyone knew his life wouldn’t be long. Meanwhile, the Emperor had a favored concubine who had been pregnant for ten months and was known through secret methods to be carrying a male child – the future Emperor. Instead of wagering on the life or death of the unborn child, they bet on whether he would be born headfirst or feet first."
"Yao Ji bet on the head, and Ruan Bo bet on the feet."
