Voodoo Doll

It was clear that this new information once again made Fang Linyan close his eyes and carefully digest it for a while. He soon realized that two of these milestones, Great Minds Think Alike and Scholar, might be achievable, though he would first need to pinpoint his location. The rest could be crossed off the list.

Just then, the restroom door was suddenly pushed open, and a man wearing a checked shirt walked in. He glanced up at Fang Linyan, then hurried over to the urinals and started relieving himself. When the restroom door opened, the hubbub from the mall outside poured in as well.

A sudden realization dawned on Fang Linyan:

All right, does this mean the world has officially opened?

He headed straight for the mall exit. The mall was on the fifth floor, and banners advertising sales hung everywhere. It was bustling with people, yet everything remained orderly. Not bad at all.

As he turned into the corridor, he passed a stall selling onion rings and doughnuts. The aroma of fried food wafted through the air, and there was quite a line. Fang Linyan had already set his first priority: quickly determine his location. He headed outside.

But as Fang Linyan reached the corridor, an old man up ahead suddenly collapsed. His wallet slipped out as he fell, revealing a thick stack of brand-new U.S. dollars. The old man seemed to have passed out, and there was no one else around.

Fang Linyan hesitated. He was desperately short of money right now. Aside from his essential documents, he had only twenty dollars on him—and not even a phone. All he had to do was bend down, and a huge pile of cash would be his.

But just as Fang Linyan was about to bend over, something occurred to him. His situation was unusual: he was short on money, and someone had just happened to drop some right in front of him. Wasn't that a little too convenient?

Fang Linyan was not yet twenty, but he had grown up in an orphanage and spent several years wandering the streets. He had seen every kind of shady, underhanded business. Some of the kids he knew had even been kidnapped, had their hands and feet broken, and been forced to beg. Naturally, he thought twice.

After a moment's reflection, Fang Linyan decided to follow his usual instincts. He picked up the money—but put it back in the old man's wallet. Then he helped the man up and leaned him against the wall before leaving.

Only after leaving the mall did he realize how hot it was outside. He seemed to be in a small town. Aside from a huge parking lot and dozens of buildings, all he could see were billboards around the outskirts and a vast gray-yellow desert. A few mountain ridges rose faintly on the horizon.

After walking two or three hundred meters, Fang Linyan realized that this arrival mode seemed designed to weaken Fang, but for him, an impostor posing as Fang, it was an outright enhancement! If he were still in his previous cancer-ridden body, he might already be out of breath.

That was the importance of being healthy.

After looking around, Fang Linyan found a road sign. That was the good news: CA154W Avenue, Gamel Town. The bad news came right after. He searched himself from head to toe and realized he had only twenty dollars.

Under the circumstances, Fang Linyan rearranged his plans. First, he should familiarize himself with and practice the Voodoo Sect black magic technique, Blood Spider. Then he needed to get some money. As the saying went, even a hero could be stymied by a single coin. Without money, even the simplest things were hard.

Why practice the Voodoo Sect black magic technique, Blood Spider, first?

Because Fang Linyan was like someone who had memorized a gun maintenance manual and firing instructions but had never actually fired a shot. There was still a gap between theory and real combat ability. In this situation, the optimal choice was obviously to maximize his immediate combat strength first.

So he turned and headed back into the supermarket. This time, he was going to buy materials for casting spells. The fragments of memory in his mind made it clear: no Voodoo Sect black magic could be performed without a particular casting tool—a Voodoo Doll.

Five minutes later, Fang Linyan walked back out of the supermarket with a bag of supplies. He found a quiet spot to sit down, with a can of chilled cola beside him.

In Fang Linyan's memories, the best way to make a Voodoo Doll was cruel and complicated. You had to cut off the head of a ruthless killer who had taken countless lives, then use the Voodoo Sect's secret technique for shrinking heads to reduce it to the size of a fist, and use it as the core of the doll.

A Voodoo Doll made this way could not only greatly amplify the power of black magic, but could even grant it additional magical effects.

But Fang Linyan's resources were limited right now, so he could only buy basic materials like paper, wax, cloth, and straw. He had wrapped them into a rudimentary Voodoo Doll. It looked rather crude, but on closer inspection, it possessed a peculiar, harmonious beauty, as if it embodied some principle found in nature.

Why had this happened? It was determined by Fang Linyan's unusual life experience. He had received training in manufacturing from the age of eleven, so he was exceptionally skilled in this area.

That meant the Voodoo Doll he made with his own hands would certainly receive a corresponding bonus. And the doll's peculiar, harmonious beauty was no abstract quality, either. It could be quantified directly: it was the golden ratio used in industry.

If you divided a whole into two parts, the ratio of the larger part to the whole would equal the ratio of the smaller part to the larger part. That was the golden ratio.

The closer this ratio came to 0.61803398874989484820458683436565, the more widely it was recognized as the most excellent proportion, and the one most pleasing to the eye. Simply put, it was like water's boiling point being 100 degrees and its freezing point being 0 degrees. It was a law of this world.

Painters made use of this principle by lengthening the legs in their portraits until the ratio of leg length to total height came as close as possible to the golden ratio, creating masterpieces that delighted the eye.

But the Voodoo Doll he had just wrapped could not yet be used. It still needed to go through two procedures: soul infusion and blood quenching. The reason Voodoo Dolls made from human heads were so powerful was that they contained condensed evil spirits and a strong aura of malice.