You stand before the slowly opening bronze gate, surrounded by a white light that crashes against your consciousness like a tidal wave. But you don't rush to step inside. Instead, you stroke the heavy Book of Rebirth, posing a question that goes straight to the heart of the matter.
Upon hearing this, the spirit pauses slightly, its hand still caressing the jade ruler. It gazes up at the empty dome, deep pity evident in its eyes. Golden Bell, usually playful, also falls silent and looks at you with a complex expression. 'The Book of Rebirth never actively chooses anyone.'
The spirit's voice ripples through the empty space. 'The Book of Rebirth is the condensation of all beings' obsessions, a mirror reflecting the regrets of the six realms. The reason it appears in your hands is because 'reincarnation' no longer exists in this world.'
Your heart jolts.
This is the bizarre town of Changle. Every household is dark, yet each one hangs two pale paper lanterns. The paper craft shops in the town are thriving for an unusual reason: the men here all share the same hobby — marrying paper figures as wives.
As a 'Tracer' who has just returned from the rift, you find yourself lying in a huge vermilion coffin when you open your eyes. You are dressed in a blood-red groom's outfit.
Jinling patted your face anxiously. You could vaguely hear the mournful sound of suona horns and an old man's hoarse voice chanting ceremonial prayers outside the coffin. "The auspicious time has arrived! Welcome the bride!" he called.
You held your breath, your muscles tense and your hands pressed tightly against the cold walls of the coffin. In the cramped space, the cloying, stale smell of paste grew stronger. You turned your head and peered into the narrow crack in the dry wood. Through the crack, you didn't see festive red, but bleak grey.
The mourning hall was crowded with 'people', but as you focused your gaze, you realised that these so-called guests were all standing stiffly with overly bright blush painted on their faces, their eyes mere black dots and their lips eerily upturned.
The room was full of paper effigies.
Directly in front of the coffin, a figure wearing a phoenix coronet and wedding robes stood with their back to you. Their movements were stiff and slow, and each turn of their neck produced a dry, crisp sound like folded paper.
Seemingly sensing your gaze, the figure slowly turned their head 180 degrees.
Premonition of Origin: This bride did not willingly become a spirit; it seems as though a piece of living human skin is stuck to her chest.
'Don't move.' An eerie voice resounded directly in your mind, conveying a rare seriousness. 'Don't be fooled by her tears. This isn't an ordinary paper spirit.' Someone used the 'Silhouette Soul-Preserving Technique' to forcibly remove a woman's soul and seal it in this paper shell. If you leave now, that paper face will stick to yours, turning you into the 101^(st) paper guest here.'
Golden Bell shrank into your collar in fright and whispered, 'Originator, the floor tiles in this house are covered in spirit-attracting charcoal.' As soon as you step on them, the formation will activate. We need to find a way to discover the bride's real name without triggering it."
Your eyes narrowed and your slender fingers swiftly traced the cold cover of the Book of Rebirth, stopping precisely on the page depicting the black shadow exuding an aura of resentment.
'Since it's a "joyful occasion", there should be a junior who can command respect and offer a gift,' you murmured, a thick wisp of black smoke escaping from your fingertips. Just as the coffin lid was slightly pried open by the paper hand as thin as a cicada's wing, you shifted to the side using the dense, deathly aura within the coffin for cover and released the Wraith Infant.
With a 'click', the heavy coffin lid was completely flung open and the smiling face of the paper bride peeked in. Instead of a terrified groom, however, she was greeted by a black infant girl dressed in a tattered red bib. She sat in the centre of the coffin, her head tilted and her dark eyes fixed on the paper bride. She emitted an extremely piercing, metallic cry.
'Wah—!' The cry, carrying the oppressive power of a celestial being, instantly shattered the heads of dozens of paper guests in the mourning hall. The paper bride was also forced back by this malevolent energy, her frail body trembling violently in the eerie wind as though she would be torn to shreds at any moment.
Taking advantage of the moment when the bride was distracted by the infant girl, you used the stealth technique taught to you by the spirit to slip out of the coffin like a shadow. You held your breath and pressed yourself against the dark corner of the mourning hall.
'Well done!'
You held your breath, closed your eyes slightly and activated the 'Eye of Tracing the Source', piercing the layers of shadow and locking onto the heart of the paper bride. There, you saw a yellowed piece of skin. As the infant's malevolent energy surged, several twisted, blood-red characters appeared faintly on it: 'The ninth day of the seventh month of the Gengyin year: the destined one, Shen Qing, embarking on a journey with unfulfilled obsessions.'
'Shen Qing?' you murmured. At that moment, the Yin spirit silently appeared beside you. Rather than watching the spectacle, he stared at the dark street outside the mourning hall. The once silent 'Chang Le Town' suddenly resounded with a dense chorus of footsteps — not human footsteps, but the sound of countless paper effigies dragging their feet across the ground.
'This is a huge problem,' the yin spirit said coldly. 'This "Shen Qing" isn't a sacrifice here, but the mother of all the "paper wives" in Chang Le Town. Your actions just now have alarmed the 'heart' of the entire town.'
He pointed to the paper face. Under the infant's influence, the paper bride's body began to grow rapidly. Countless pieces of paper flew out from the cracks in the floor and piled up on her body. She was turning into a giant paper figure reaching the sky.[Book of Rebirth – Key Clues]
Target name: Shen Qing
True identity: The only living soul in Chang Le Town
Core problem: Her body was cut into thousands of pieces and distributed amongst the men in the town
Bond sensation: The 'Foolish Young Man Chang Sheng' in the book seems to react to the name 'Shen Qing'. While in the army, he heard that there was a woman in his hometown named Shen Qing who was skilled in embroidery. However, she mysteriously disappeared before her wedding.
You lightly touched the 'Book of Rebirth' with your fingertips and the page titled 'Flowers Bloom from Withered Bones' began to glow gently. The ghostly figure of the young Changsheng slowly emerged from the darkness. He was no longer a hideous skeleton, but had regained the handsome, determined appearance he had in his previous life.
'Changsheng, help me. Take her home,' you whispered. Changsheng looked at the enormous paper figure before him with a flash of unprecedented pain in his eyes, but he didn't draw his sword. Instead, he took the broken wooden comb that you had returned to him from his robes. He took a step towards the enraged giant paper bride, then another. The storm of paper scraps, powerful enough to tear an ordinary soul apart, was soothed by an almost humble tenderness as it touched him.
"Qingmei…" Changsheng's voice was soft, yet it pierced the rustling of countless papers.
Without the energy from the array, the army of paper effigies that had stormed in collapsed instantly, turning into useless piles of scraps of paper.
You leapt forward and caught Shen Qing as she fell from the sky. She had now transformed back into her pristine, white-clad spirit. You gently peeled back the skin bearing her name, which was carved onto her chest. The suffocating smell of paste vanished, replaced by a faint fragrance of ink.
In your Eye of Origin, Shen Qing's memories unfolded like a scroll. She had once been the town's most talented painter, aspiring to depict all the world's landscapes, but she had been imprisoned and murdered by the elders who wanted to preserve her 'spirit'. They even hired paper craftsmen to cut her spirit into a thousand pieces and make paper wives to distribute to each household, all in the hope of ensuring the town's 'prosperity'.
"They say... I'm the lifeblood of this town." Shen Qing leaned against Changsheng's chest, her translucent fingers gripping his clothes tightly. 'But all I want is to see where that river flows to.'
[Book of Rebirth – Partial End] Current status: Shen Qing's consciousness has recovered by 80%, but her soul is extremely weak due to her body having been shattered for so long.
Bond Resonance: [Obsessed Young Changsheng] and [Spiritual Shen Qing] have formed a deep resonance. Changsheng is willing to share his spiritual power to help her condense her divine soul
You gently patted Changsheng on the shoulder and entrusted the weakened Shen Qing to him. At this moment, two souls, both carrying the scent of their 'hometown', converged. Changsheng's unwavering resolve transformed into soft moonlight, enveloping you both.
"Protect her," you said, gazing into Changsheng's eyes. 'Wait until I bring back everything about her.'
You turned to the spirit standing in the shadows, who was slowly wiping a jade ruler. A cold smile played on his lips. 'The Ten Thousand Paper Cave? That's the filth accumulated in Chang Le Town over a century.' The spirit raised his eyes, his gaze piercing. 'Tracers of the Source, this time I won't hold back on the methods of the "Netherworld". Since they like to shatter souls, I'll show them what true 'shattering' looks like.'
You and the spirit headed straight for the town mayor's eerie backyard, like two shooting stars streaking across the night.
You pushed open the heavy black wooden door and a suffocating musty stench hit you. This was no study, but a gigantic living 'graveyard of paper'. Tens of thousands of strips of paper hung from the rafters like willow branches and were densely covered in the name 'Shen Qing'. These strips moved without wind, rustling softly as if countless people were muttering curses. 'Intruders who dare to defy death!'
A hoarse, twisted voice came from the depths of the paper pile and the town mayor appeared on the platform. His body was partially covered in paper, with thousands of tattered pages sewn onto his skin, making him look like a bloated, grotesque ball of paper.
'Shen Qing is ours! Without her, Chang Le Town will never have another bride! Without her, the men will go mad!' he roared, brandishing a giant pair of scissors.
The surrounding paper strips instantly transformed into sharp blades and rained down upon us.
'Crazy? I think you've been crazy for a long time.' The spirit sneered, hurling the jade ruler into the void.
[Judge's Decree: Heart-Burning] It is no longer suppression, but utter judgement. The jade ruler conjures countless ghostly fire shadows in the air. The paper blades did not ignite upon touching the black flames; instead, they rapidly turned black and rotted, as though doused in concentrated sulfuric acid, finally turning to ashes.
'Jinling, find it!' you shouted.
[System Operation: Causal Search] Jinling traced a golden arc in the air, her nose twitching wildly. "There!" The mayor's heart! He sewed Shen Qing's most crucial spiritual root paper to the tip of his heart!'
Seeing that the situation was dire, the mayor opened his mouth in an attempt to devour the entire piece of paper representing Shen Qing's ambition to travel far. If he succeeded, Shen Qing would lose himself forever, becoming part of Chang Le Town. The mayor's paper body has extraordinary regenerative abilities and his spirit is being ensnared by countless paper servants.
You are only ten steps away from the platform, yet an enormous pair of scissors is hurtling towards your head with overwhelming force.
You watched calmly as the giant scissors, powerful enough to cut a soul in two, fell. Suddenly, your left hand grabbed at the air.
'Jinling, give this old bastard his most precious "lifeblood" back!' The golden bird lurking in your hair let out a sharp cry. It opened its long, crimson-gold beak and the 'ill-gotten gains' it had accumulated over the past century from Chang Le Town poured out. These weren't ordinary coins; they were 'lifeblood money', imbued with the life force and greed of a living person. Each coin radiated an alluring golden light as it arced through the air, brushing past the mayor's patched and mangled face.
The mayor's movements froze for a fatal moment, his paper-covered eyes flashing with a twisted red light. For a dictator who lived off exploiting the entire town, having his money taken was worse than losing his life. He instinctively released his grip on the scissors and turned to grab the scattered coins.
'Mine! This is my savings!'
The yin spirit also dispelled the surrounding paper servants. He watched the town mayor roll around on the ground trying to pick up the gold coins and gently tapped him with his jade ruler saying:
'The greedy will ultimately be buried by what they desire.'
You quickly returned to the mourning hall with the 'Spiritual Root Paper'. The phantom of immortality had become transparent, yet he remained steadfastly by Shen Qing's side.
As you gently placed the Spiritual Root Paper on Shen Qing's brow, the entire hall was suddenly illuminated by a pure white light and her shattered soul was instantly restored. The red wedding dress clinging to her peeled away and transformed into an elegant blue robe and skirt.
[Record in the Book of Rebirth] Conclusion of Cause and Effect: Chang Le Town has no Chang Le, only paper shackles. She wanted to paint all the mountains and rivers, but she was torn to pieces within the vermilion gates. Fortunately, her hometown people crossed the divide between yin and yang to find the broken comb. With the spiritual root returned, the paper crane flew away on its own.
[Rewards obtained] Card seal: Exquisite Paper Bride (Shen Qing) (Skill: Weaving Dreams into Paintings (can create short-term environmental illusions or repair damaged souls); Bond Resonance Chart: Shen Qing and Chang Sheng recognise each other in the book and Shen Qing draws a clear spring beside Chang Sheng's azalea.
Causality Value: +15 (Current total: 80/100).
Shen Qing sits by the spring in the book, diligently sketching on a piece of white paper. Jin Ling leans over curiously and discovers that she is drawing their backs. However, the Yin Ling in the drawing doesn't seem to have her usual grumpy face.
'Tch! It doesn't look like her at all! No one is as handsome as the Judge.' Jin Ling chews on a sour-tasting gold coin.
Surprisingly, however, the Yin Ling doesn't refute. Leaning against the withered tree in the book, he watches Shen Qing and Chang Sheng reminisce and whispers to you, 'Although Shen Qing was rescued, that "paper craftsman" hasn't shown up yet. His ability to use the 'Silhouette Soul-Retaining Technique' means he possesses a pair of scissors that don't belong to the mortal realm. They're a lost item from the Underworld's 'Department of Severing Ties'."
His eyes sharpened: 'The "Red Lotus" organisation is currently collecting torture instruments from the Underworld. If you want to regain your memories, we'll have to go to the Desolate Graveyard.'