What Lay Within the Painting

Splash!

Chu Tianshu pulled Su Ha ashore and found that thin lines of blood were flowing from the man's eyes and ears, and he had stopped breathing.

He originally intended to capture one of the remaining survivors.

However, in the confrontation with the Mind Power, he couldn't hold back; the opponent must have overexerted themselves with Mind Power, causing a ruptured blood vessel in their brain.

Chu Tianshu threw the corpse on the ground and frowned as he looked at Su Ha's mouth.

This person just bit their tongue, but now there's not much bleeding in their mouth. Their cheeks are swollen, and a greenish tinge is deepening in their mouth.

A dozen tender green willow twigs, like living snakes, slithered out of his mouth and automatically formed the shape of a small doll.

It was a truly disgusting scene.

Its fresh, vibrant color is captivating, as if brimming with life.

The doll's rough appearance is strangely adorable; the tender buds on its face form short, thick eyebrows and eyes, giving it a chubby, innocent, and adorable look.

It's the kind of thing that, even if you just throw it on the roadside, it will attract a large crowd who will eagerly gather around and play with it.

Laugh!

A silver needle was driven into the head of the willow twig puppet.

Chu Tianshu's expression remained unchanged, and his left hand moved rapidly, as if a piano master were playing at the most intense moment.

More than twenty silver needles were successively inserted into the willow twig puppet.

There is a silver needle at the head and the extremities of the limbs, and the silver needles in the torso are closely connected, arranged in a grid pattern of four vertical and five horizontal lines.

Chu Tianshu pointed downwards with his right hand.

"Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Qian, Xing!"

The willow twig doll burst apart with a bang.

Evil Spirit that possess people are usually closely connected to them.

Even the Gold-Swallowing Beast Face that once belonged to Old Eunuch Old Eunuch Chen would become silent after his death.

Like this willow twig doll, it has no morals and can't wait to seduce a new owner as soon as its former owner dies.

Chu Tianshu had seen it in books, but this was the first time he had encountered it in real life.

[The Willow Spirit's Former Body: There was a Willow Spirit Child, over the years, broke free of his shackles, separated from his body, became a spirit, and infiltrated the Spirit Realm, unable to return.]

A new Evil Spirit is born from the old body, still subject to the remote restraint of the Spirit Realm child, and is taken in as a messenger.

A special characteristic is that those possessed by this wood spirit share the identity of the messenger, making it 30% easier to cast Gong Tau.

By venerating Spirit Realm children as their masters, through communication, sacrifices, and blessings, one can use their former self to filter out impurities from the Spirit Realm, thus preserving the possessed person's sanity for longer.

The sound of vehicles driving by could be heard not far away.

Fang Jun stopped abruptly, opened the car door, and asked.

What's going on?

The loud crash of Chu Tianshu slamming the car into the pond, along with Li Kang's furious roar, attracted the attention of many people nearby.

Some people have already come out to peek around.

Fang Jun glanced around, went back into the van, pulled out a fist-sized warning light, placed it on the roof, and pressed the switch.

The red and blue lights inside the warning light illuminated, and it began to rotate.

"These three people are of unknown origin, but before we've even met them, they've already started using deadly methods, first Glass Jiangtou, then Stone Jiangtou —each one more vicious than the last."

Chu Tianshu looked at A Luo, who was dead further away, with disgust.

"And that one, it even has Mother-and-Child Nails on its hand. Judging from the aura, it was made by the sorcerer at my feet."

Fang Jun frowned, squatted down to search Suha, and pulled a cell phone from Su Ha's inner chest pocket.

Chu Tianshu said, "It must have been ruined by Mind Power."

Fang Jun said, "Don't underestimate our branch's technicians; they might be able to fix it."

Chu Tianshu nodded. "Alright, there's another corpse in the pond, who might have had a cell phone on him."

Fang Jun pondered, "Strange, other professions in the city all like to play with feng shui, and the only ones who deal with sorcerers are those in the entertainment industry. What would a sorcerer be doing here?"

"Could they be after me? Come to think of it, I have dealt with quite a few people in the entertainment industry when I was handling cases before..."

Chu Tianshu's ears twitched, and he turned his head to look.

Yin Fengxin stood in Fang Jun's yard, looking utterly dumbfounded.

Chu Tianshu walked over. "Didn't I tell you to stay in the basement? When did you come out?"

"I heard a really loud noise..."

Yin Fengxin's expression was subtle, as if he were in a dream. He glanced at the warning lights, the sunken car, the dead bodies, and swallowed hard.

"So, I really did accidentally ingest some kind of drug and become one of those bio-engineered experimental subjects?"

"Is it because of the free drinks at a certain store? I've heard before that some stores get their free drinks from dubious sources."

"You're not a social investigation team, you're a special operations team. You've gotten your case linked to me, haven't you?"

The more Yin Fengxin thought about it, the more convinced he became. He clenched his fists, as if he felt a sense of mission.

"Aren't there already many cases of cyborgs in the dark corners of the city?"

"I understand. I must be a rare living person for someone to come and silence me."

"Brother Chu, don't worry, I will definitely cooperate with your research and develop the antidote serum as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, Chu Tianshu stopped in his tracks, pursed his lips, and gave a half-smile.

"Brother Yin, you actually prefer science fiction dramas to workplace dramas, right?"

Chu Tianshu couldn't help but chuckle twice, then thought for a moment and said, "Alright, your situation isn't so dangerous anymore, so I'll tell you the truth."

He brought Yin Fengxin back to the living room and explained the situation in a few words.

Fang Jun is indeed a member of a special department, but Yin Fengxin was not reformed; rather, he was possessed by Evil Spirit.

As Yin Fengxin listened, he couldn't help but touch his own kidneys, his face full of surprise and doubt.

"Spells?"

Yin Fengxin paused for a moment, then suddenly remembered something else and said, "If that's the case, does that mean the urban legends about every casino having a feng shui arrangement that makes people want to stay and steal their money really exist?"

"Yes, there are, but those feng shui methods have a wide reach and involve competition among gamblers. Gamblers also need to have those ideas in their minds first, and spend a long time in them for the effects to be significant."

Chu Tianshu explained for a few moments, then opened the drawer next to him and took out the painting.

"In fact, even this painting is related to magic. It was most likely left by the famous Ming Dynasty Li Shizhen, and it contains medical manuals and poison prescriptions."

"Unfortunately, despite pouring my Mind Power into it every day, it's still..."

As Chu Tianshu spoke, he naturally released his Mind Power.

A dozen seconds later, he suddenly sensed that the speed at which the painting absorbed Mind Power was clearly decreasing.

Chu Tianshu let out a soft exclamation, his gaze falling on the painting, becoming focused.

Two minutes later, the ancient painting suddenly trembled.

Chu Tianshu released his grip.

A layer of transparent flames rose from the surface of the ancient painting, hovering in mid-air before rapidly retracting, like a rigid short stick.

In the firelight, the fibers of the drawing paper and scroll could be vaguely seen decomposing and recombining.

The firelight reflected in Chu Tianshu's eyes, and as if sensing something, he reached out and caught it.

The flames in the air were extinguished, and the distorted ancient painting landed in his hands.

"This?"

Chu Tianshu looked surprised.

What he held in his hand was no longer a painting, but a cream-colored longsword.

There wasn't a trace of paint on the sword, just a pure white color and some textures resembling the cross-section of tree roots.

Renowned for his expertise in pharmacology, the legendary physician Li Shizhen traveled across treacherous mountains and rivers to verify the efficacy of herbal medicines.

What he painstakingly left in the ancient painting was actually...

A sword?!