Chapter 124: Grandpa's Hidden Notes
" Lady Shiji, a stone from between the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, subjected to countless years of worship. Why did the Ming soldiers transport this stone from the ancestral land of Shenzhou back then?"
Chen Shi gazed at the dark clouds in the distance, lightning flickering within the cloud layers.
"The character 'ji' refers to a stone standing by the water's edge. Lady Shiji should be a stone statue of a woman positioned by the water. What is her origin? Why is only her head left? Why did the True King place her head on the treasure ship?"
"Is this stone connected to the return to the ancestral land of Shenzhou? Why did Grandpa set up a talisman array around the stone? Why didn't he take the stone away?"
The wooden cart jolted somewhat, his body swaying side to side. The girl cradling the pipa beside him dozed off amid the shaking, her head tilting unconsciously onto his shoulder.
Chen Shi caught the faint fragrance wafting from the girl—unclear if it was her natural scent or the aroma of rouge and powder.
That morning, he had seen the girl applying some rouge and powder to her face. After applying it, her complexion appeared fair with a rosy glow inside, though she had been pretty before as well.
"Achoo!"
Her temple hair tickled his nostrils, prompting a sneeze from him. The girl on his shoulder hadn't woken yet but quietly cracked open one eye, sneaking a glance at him before pretending to sleep again.
Of course, it was fake sleep at first. But as they swayed along, she gradually fell truly asleep. Midway, she woke up complaining of a stiff neck, tilting her head for quite a while before recovering.
After returning to Huangpo Village, Chen Shi stopped going on long trips.
He resumed his previous routine: cultivating daily, paying respects to Godmother, listening to lessons. But this time back, he had one more task—going to the east wing to rummage through books.
The Chen family's east wing was a storage room for odds and ends, rarely visited year-round, dark and chilly.
Around the Lunar New Year, Grandpa would paste a few soul-startling talismans and insect-repelling talismans here to drive away rats and bugs, then ignore the room afterward.
Chen Shi had crawled into this room before, searching for "treasures" he had collected as a child.
He discovered that he had few toys as a kid—mostly counting rods, inkstones, worn-out brush tips, and notebooks.
There were also some old clothes that his younger self had worn.
"I must have been a terribly boring child."
Chen Shi thought to himself.
Among the other sundries, some belonged to his father Chen Tang, others were things Grandpa had tossed in the east wing—雑七雜八, a great many in number.
Chen Shi burrowed into the east wing and rummaged for a while, pulling out a rolled-up old painting.
Unfurling the scroll revealed a family of four: Grandpa seated in a chair with a little boy on his knee, a man and a woman standing behind.
The man was very handsome, the woman exceedingly beautiful.
"Is that Chen Tang and my mother? Chen Tang doesn't deserve her."
Chen Shi studied it for a long time before carefully rolling up the scroll and putting it away.
Pipa sounds drifted in from outside the window. Chen Shi looked up through the lattice, seeing Ding Ding sitting under the eaves of the main hall, holding her pipa—likely practicing her fingering.
The pipa notes flowed slowly, like a young girl's summer reverie, carrying the sweetness of a secret crush, with anxiety and anticipation.
Chen Shi didn't quite understand it, continuing his search.
"But her playing carries emotion now—much improved from before, with her own style emerging."
He mused inwardly.
For a young girl, though, was this good or bad?
Chen Shi dragged a chest out from the pile of old things. It looked like an ordinary wooden chest, but its sides were perfectly sealed—no visible way to open it, no lock either.
The chest had some age to it, made of jujube wood, unpainted yet polished to a patina, gleaming with an oily luster like red jade.
All six faces of the chest bore different talisman patterns, intricate in design and structured unlike any talismans Chen Shi had seen before.
Yet despite the complexity, they held no power.
They seemed like mere decorative motifs, not true talismans.
"These talismans on the chest look like fabricated ones—no power at all."
Chen Shi observed for a moment, gradually discerning a clue. He moved the chest to the courtyard, fetched paper and brush, ground ink, and copied the talismans from all six sides.
Ding Ding set down her pipa and came over to look, her hair cascading coolly along Chen Shi's neck.
But she knew little about talismans, utterly baffled.
Chen Shi finally saw the trick and murmured thoughtfully, "It should be viewed using the projection method based on the talisman structure."
He propped up one corner of the chest and arranged the six sheets of paper in sequence by face, treating them as a whole.
"No, not this corner."
He switched to another corner of the chest, rearranged the six sheets, a smile gradually forming on his face. "This time it's right."
Ding Ding remained baffled, thinking she might as well go sit with Blackie Pot at the gate.
Chen Shi examined the talisman patterns on the six sheets. Linked together, the seemingly fabricated designs took on meaning.
He quickly mastered the incredibly complex talisman and explained to the girl, "This talisman actually conceals patterns of the Twelve Earthly Branches. In other words, opening the chest requires matching the corresponding hour... Blackie Pot, tell the time!"
A few barks came from the gate.
"The third quarter of the Si hour."
Chen Shi understood and said so.
Ding Ding's eyes widened, wondering how he knew.
Chen Shi located the talisman pattern corresponding to the Si hour, found the node for the third quarter, and immediately circulated his qi and blood, rapidly tapping the node with his fingertip.
The third-quarter node lit up. His finger then landed on the fourth-quarter node.
His hands moved like lightning, sequentially tapping the nodes for the Si hour. The talismans on the chest's surface gradually glowed until—click—the chest sprang open, revealing a thick stack of books.
Chen Shi was both surprised and delighted. He took out the books one by one to examine them. Li Xiaozheng had asked for his help precisely because Grandpa had left a grand talisman array on the stone ship.
Without breaking the array, even he might have perished on the stone ship.
These books were mostly insights on the Divine Embryo. After studying them for a while, Chen Shi realized they were notes Grandpa had left from his time in the Divine Embryo Realm.
Young Master Xiao had said Grandpa obtained the weakest Divine Embryo—an illusory one—and lingered in the Divine Embryo Realm for many years without breaking through.
These notes must be the methods Grandpa had researched back then.
He flipped through them hastily. At that moment, the chest clicked shut on its own, returning to its original state.
Ding Ding inspected the chest curiously. "Young Master, I just saw how troublesome it was for you to open it. What if the sequence is wrong? What happens?"
Chen Shi shook his head while reading. "I don't know."
"I'll give it a try!"
Ding Ding said excitedly.
She extended her finger, circulated true qi, and tapped the chest randomly. Suddenly, the chest expanded enormously. The lid flew open like a gaping maw lined with sharp teeth. A fleshy red tongue shot out from the darkness inside, wrapping around her waist.
Crunch!
The chest snapped shut, swallowing the girl whole. Only a pair of her shoes remained on the ground.
Blackie Pot noticed the commotion and poked his head into the courtyard, looking puzzled.
Chen Shi hurriedly said, "Blackie Pot, tell the time!"
Blackie Pot barked the time at once. Chen Shi swiftly unlocked the chest. With a click, it opened again, spitting Ding Ding out. She was drenched and sticky all over, as if she had been soaked in the stomach of some evil spirit.
"This chest might be an evil itself."
Chen Shi pondered, then said to the bedraggled girl, "When I copied that talisman just now, its structure seemed special. Thinking back, it's somewhat similar to Southern school talismans."
Ding Ding slunk off dejectedly to bathe. Blackie Pot entered the courtyard, axe in mouth, to chop firewood and heat water for her.
Chen Shi continued browsing. After skimming a few books, he spotted a line on the final page of one: "Little Ten revived, but without a Divine Embryo—cultivation a hundred times harder for him. He cannot follow my path. How should he cultivate?"
Reading this, Chen Shi's heart filled with emotion.
The ink was relatively fresh—likely added later, after Chen Shi's revival, when Grandpa searched for cultivation methods suitable for him.
He had once resented Grandpa inwardly for not teaching him cultivation.
But seeing this line, he understood how tormented Grandpa had been.
He picked up another book.
This one featured bizarre diagrams. Examining closely, Chen Shi saw illustrations of the Water-Fire Tempering Art and human anatomical charts!
Later pages recorded inhuman experiments: applying Water-Fire Tempering to corpses to keep them vital.
The book read like a criminal's log, detailing Chen Yindu's grave-robbing escapades to procure corpses for testing.
Chen Shi kept turning pages, witnessing failure after failure and various summaries.
On the final page, a frustrated old man had scrawled: "One hundred and twelfth failure! Failure, failure, still failure! Can the dead truly not be revived?"
Chen Shi could sense Grandpa's desperation at the time.
He picked up another book—more Water-Fire Tempering experiment notes.
A quick skim revealed over a hundred failures recorded.
Another book—more failed experiments.
Chen Shi reached the seventh book and finally saw two bold characters at the end.
"Success!"
Staring at these seven books, his eyes reddened. Grandpa had never spoken of the efforts he made to save him.
Only now did he grasp the hardship involved.
Steadying his emotions, Chen Shi picked up another book. His spirits lifted—this one was on talismans!
He flipped through eagerly. The handwriting was Grandpa's, discussing how compilations like the Talisman Compendium revered and borrowed from gods.
If one could transcend that, one could create life—wondrous beings, even deities!
"This is the book! This is the Talisman Creation Treasure Mirror! We have it at home too!"
Chen Shi was thrilled and skimmed ahead. The book detailed Grandpa's diagrams of various wondrous creatures' internal structures and schematics, annotated with talisman explanations.
Further on, it listed creation talismans from ninth-grade to first-grade, along with required materials!
Composed, Chen Shi tucked the book into his bosom for later study. Glancing at the rest, he picked up another.
Opening it, he found not cultivation or talismans, but what seemed like recipes.
Chen Shi looked for a moment before confirming it was indeed a cookbook!
About to close it, he spotted a line: "Little Ten likes this. Maybe too much salt—note for next time."
Chen Shi froze, then continued. Another familiar line: "Still can't taste it myself. Little Ten didn't like it. Probably too greasy. Use less oil next time."
His vision blurred. He kept reading. These were Grandpa's recipes from back then—when Chen Shi was no longer human, just a living corpse unable to taste. Grandpa gauged if the food was good from Chen Shi's expressions.
Ding Ding emerged from her bath, wearing Chen Shi's clothes.
Chen Shi was still growing, about her height, so she looked quite dashing in them.
Drying her damp hair with her head tilted, she approached and saw tears falling from Chen Shi's eyes. "Young Master, why are you crying?"
Chen Shi wiped his tears, lost in a daze. "Grandpa never said how much he loved me. I even suspected he wanted to eat me and feared him for so long. Sister Ding Ding, I miss my Grandpa."
Unsure how to comfort the boy, Ding Ding quickly smiled. "Don't be sad. Want me to kiss your cheek? Or your lips, if you prefer."
Chen Shi didn't kiss her but stowed the book away, deeming it more precious than any peerless manual.
"Grandpa, are you doing well in the underworld?"
He thought silently. "Are vicious ghosts bullying you? Why haven't you sent a dream to me? If someone's picking on you, I'll burn some top living experts for you. If you don't like Old Lady Wuzhu, I can burn other old ladies."
Crack!
In the underworld, Chen Yindu's face darkened as he snapped a Yama's neck and tossed the corpse aside, glaring ferociously at the other savage ghost gods.
That Yama was an underworld deity, slain outright by him. The body took ages to hit the ground with a thud.
He blocked the entrance to this passage connecting to the living world—months now.
In these months, not a single ghost god had entered Chen Shi's body!
Thus, Chen Shi hadn't had a single episode lately!
"Seems the underworld ghost gods have noticed this place!"
Wounded all over but growing stronger, he caught a rare moment to breathe and thought, "I wonder if Granny Sha and the others have dealt with the evil inside Little Ten?"