Chapter 296
Chapter 296
The West Room had been open for several months, but I had hardly spent any time there. Even the daily Incense offerings had been faithfully tended by Li Qingying.
Today, standing before the shrine once more and looking directly at the cross-legged Copper-Coin Figure in the seat of the Presiding Deity, I was suddenly reminded that he wasn’t incorporeal after all.
His entire body was wrapped in a monk’s robe. We could only see the parts that protruded from beneath it.
The first and most visually striking thing about him was his head, blanketed in pieces of Golden Copper Coin.
Those pieces of Golden Copper Coin continued beneath his robe. We couldn’t see his full form or any of his facial features, making it impossible to tell whether he had a body of flesh and blood.
His hands and feet, however, were exposed.
The arms extending from his robe were covered in a layer of white Scale plating streaked with blood, while intricate runes had been painted in gold on the soles of his bare feet.
I remembered that when we first saw him, a sheet of Talisman Paper had been stuck to his face.
At the time, I had instinctively assumed that the Talisman Paper was the Seal restraining him.
Now it seemed I had been wrong.
The true Seal binding the Copper-Coin Figure was most likely the gold-painted runes on the soles of his feet.
And now, not only had every Golden Copper Coin faded, but the gold-painted runes on his soles had also grown considerably dimmer.
Even more frighteningly, I spotted fresh blood at the bottom of the shrine.
It had seeped from the gaps in the Scale plating covering the Copper-Coin Figure’s arm.
The Copper-Coin Figure was bleeding!
The fact that he could bleed was proof enough that he wasn’t incorporeal.
But why had he suddenly started bleeding?
Li Qingying came over and noticed the fresh drops of blood as well. She stared at them in shock. “He wasn’t bleeding when I made the Incense offering this morning. What’s going on?”
I stared at the Scale-covered arm of the Copper-Coin Figure and couldn’t help thinking of the white Scale plating on Liu Junyan’s tail when he revealed his true form.
They looked so incredibly similar.
Almost without thinking, I stepped forward and reached out to touch the Copper-Coin Figure’s arm.
Before my hand could make contact, the Black Cat meowed and pounced. It gently caught my hand in its mouth and moved it away.
After letting go, it continued yowling furiously at me.
I couldn’t understand a word, but I could tell it was cursing me out — and rather viciously at that.
It was scolding me and warning me not to touch the Copper-Coin Figure.
The little fellow was quite perceptive. If it didn’t want me touching him, then I wouldn’t.
Yet after stopping me, the Black Cat sprang onto the Copper-Coin Figure’s head, lay down, and closed its eyes to rest.
Li Qingying and I left the West Room with equally grim expressions. Neither of us could shake the feeling that something was about to happen.
Li Qingying looked deeply uneasy. “Xiao Jiu, should we tell Seventh Master about this?”
My mind flashed back to the moment Liu Junyan had opened his eyes inside the Buddha Head — to that fleeting gleam of golden Buddhist light — and then to his sudden strange behavior on our way back.
Even then, I had realized that something about Liu Junyan had changed.
Now it seemed I hadn’t been imagining things or worrying over nothing. Something really had begun to change without our knowledge.
After thinking for a moment, I said, “Ah Yan may have noticed the changes in the Copper-Coin Figure before we did. He probably went to Mount Song this time to confirm it. Fifth Master Hui drove him there, so why don’t we call Fifth Master Hui and ask him to keep an eye on Ah Yan without letting him know?”
Li Qingying immediately nodded. “Xiao Jiu, go wash up first, then come over for breakfast. I’ll send Old Fifth Hui a message right now.”
I returned to my room, grabbed a clean set of clothes, and went to wash up.
The past few days had been utterly exhausting. One incident after another had kept me wound unbearably tight, and after being drenched by downpour after downpour, even my skin had shriveled from the water.
As warm water poured from the showerhead and washed over me, I felt every pore in my body relax at once.
There really was no place like home!
Only at the Pawnshop, in my own little room, could I truly relax.
And the moment I relaxed, sleepiness crept in.
As the hair dryer blew warm air through my hair, I began yawning again and again.
By the time my hair was dry, I could barely keep my eyes open. I leaned against the headboard and drifted off right there.
I hadn’t been asleep for long when I felt something drip onto the center of my brow.
I struggled to open my eyes, but for a moment, I couldn’t tell whether I was awake or still dreaming.
The instant my eyes cracked open, I saw a familiar Golden Copper Coin head.
He had actually climbed down from the shrine. He stood beside my bed, his body slightly bent as he held out one hand.
His entire body was wrapped in a monk’s robes, leaving only a small section of his arm exposed.
That arm was covered in bloodstained white Scale, and blood slowly seeped from the gaps in the Scale.
Drop… by drop… it fell onto the center of my brow.
“Ah Wu…”
The Copper-Coin Figure spoke, calling softly, “Ah Wu…”
He called my name over and over, lowering his head inch by inch as he drew closer and closer.
Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I could feel his tender, yearning gaze fixed unblinkingly on my lips.
Ah Wu…
No, I wasn’t Ah Wu! I was Xiao Jiu!
I abruptly swung my hand at the Copper-Coin Figure’s head. My mind snapped awake, and I bolted upright.
Panting heavily, I looked around. I was still on my bed, the bedside lamp was on, and there was no one else in the room.
So it had only been a dream.
I let out a long breath of relief.
Just then, someone knocked on my door. Li Qingying called from outside, telling me it was time to eat.
I answered her and opened the door.
When Li Qingying saw me, she opened her mouth as if to say something. But the moment her gaze landed on my face, she froze.
I asked, “Sister Qingying, what’s wrong?”
Li Qingying reached out and touched the center of my brow. A vivid smear of fresh blood appeared on her fingertip. She asked anxiously, “Xiao Jiu, why is your brow bleeding?”
My brow… was bleeding?
I turned around and went back into my room, then used a tissue to wipe the center of my brow while looking in the dressing-table mirror.
There really was a small smear of blood there. It was still fresh and came off with a single wipe.
That wasn’t my blood!
My entire body went rigid.
Li Qingying was baffled too. “If the blood didn’t come from your brow, Xiao Jiu, then where did it come from?”
I jolted and began frantically searching every inch of my room. I checked everywhere, not even overlooking the space beneath the bed or behind the door.
But there was nothing.
No Copper-Coin Figure. No footprints or any other trace.
It was as though he had never appeared and everything had merely been a dream.
And yet, he really had appeared. The blood on my brow was proof.
It was utterly inconceivable!
The Copper-Coin Figure had barged into my life like a ghost, and he never stopped calling me Ah Wu.
Ah Wu was the Fire Witch Goddess.
And I was the reincarnation of the Fire Witch Goddess, only I had lost my Godhood.
The Fire Witch Goddess’s Godhood had been left behind in the Nirvana Fire.
I had already confirmed all of this back on Cangwu Mountain.
That was why the Copper-Coin Figure had latched on to me.
“Ah Wu, let us achieve Ascension together.” That was the Copper-Coin Figure’s obsession — his lovesick fixation, his mad delusion!
He would never let me go so easily…