Paintings of Terror

Chapter 221: Master Shaman

When Wei Dong saw the so-called Master Shaman for the first time, he almost let out a scream. His body felt weak, but Ke Xun promptly held him up: “Hold it in, that’s a mask.”

Master Shaman wore a slightly old dark long cotton robe and a pale mask, which had a pair of crescent moon eyes and a laughing mouth that cracked to the ear, all of which were as black as the bottom of a pot. There were some radiating black lines around the eyes, looking like the eyes were emitting black light. These lines were all over the mask, as if the mask would be cut open by these sharp lines at any time.

“Master Shaman’s eyes are filled with wisdom.” Although the people’s attitudes were not exactly humble, their expressions were filled with great admiration for Master Shaman.

Wei Dong finally restrained his accelerated heartbeat, but he still couldn’t look straight at Master Shaman calmly—especially those eyes with countless black rays, which were quite torch-like.

Worrying about things increased their chances of happening. Master Shaman slowed his steps when walking past Ke Xun and his companions. His masked face approached them, as if “looking” at them. Those curved black eyes and black mouth seemed to be able to suck people into their endless dark abyss.

Finally, Master Shaman nodded slightly, and continued to walk slowly towards where the dead body was.

Wei Dong was frightened, and he tried his best to calm himself down while Lu Heng leaned completely on Wei Dong.

Wei Dong wiped off his cold sweat: Luckily, Radish didn’t come with them, otherwise he would have been scared to death.

Lu Heng’s whole body was covered in cold sweat, and he couldn’t even wipe them all off. Now he wanted to ask the veterans, did such scary NPCs often appear in previous paintings? And how on earth did they live through so many paintings without being frightened to madness?

Ke Xun was also afraid, not because of Master Shaman’s weird mask, but… this world seems to have fixed rules that cannot be broken. They had names in this world. This must not be groundless, but more like preparing for the role-playing that was about to come.

Master Shaman’s status seemed to be high. So what about the status of their group of people in this world? What kind of tasks would be assigned? What kind of punishment would be imposed if the rules were violated?

At this time, everyone on the second floor was silent, and even the entire city of buildings was silent. People reverently left the right to speak to Master Shaman.

Everyone lowered their heads slightly. Ke Xun and the others had no choice but to do as the Romans did, and followed everyone with their heads slightly lowered, but their ears were pricked up to listen to the slightest movement.

Master Shaman lifted the white cloth covering the deceased. Perhaps the cloth was too old, even the rustling sounds became dull, as if not wanting to attract the attention of uninvolved people.

“Master Shaman,” an unfamiliar voice rang out. It seemed to be an official who was guarding the corpse, “The murderer must have been vicious and despicable. They not only stabbed the deceased several times, but also disfigured her face. The deceased was good at playing the Guqin, and the murderer cruelly cut off all her fingers.”

Master Shaman remained silent for a long time, and the official also fell silent.

The rustling sound of the old cloth sounded again. It seemed that the cloth had been put back on the deceased.

The official added: “Master Shaman, we all suspect that Xiao Hu did it. Because the marriage arrangement didn’t work out, he harbored murderous intent…”

“No, I didn’t. Master Shaman, please help me!” Xiao Hu’s explanation echoed in the buildings, like a passionate speech in a stage play.

Another unfamiliar voice said hastily: “Do not bother Master Shaman. Master is looking into the eyes of the dead.”

Ke Xun couldn’t help but raise his head slightly. Because he was tall, and the other people happened to lower their heads, he was able to see what was happening on Master Shaman’s side. The dead body was entirely covered by a white cloth. Master Shaman’s tall body bent down like shrimp. His masked face seemed to be staring at the corpse through the cloth.

Master Shaman stared for a long time.

“The murderer is a woman.” Master Shaman finally spoke. Perhaps because of the thick mask, the voice sounded very strange as if their mouth had been covered by someone.

Everyone was silent for a while, and suddenly someone said: “Then it must have been Xiao Hu’s lover! She must be jealous of Xiayu! She did it!”

Gradually, voices of agreement came one after another, like the wind blowing into a forest of poplar trees, causing crackling sounds—”This woman is so vicious! She is jealous of Xiayu’s beauty! Jealous of Xiayu’s Guqin skills!”—”Hmph, now she has destroyed her own life too! The Chu family will not let it go! Our Lantern Inn will not let her go!”—”The people in the Fluorite Inn are all black-hearted! They can’t see the light there! “—”Get her out, we Lantern Inn are not to be bullied!”…

A strange sound appeared, and everyone shut up.

The sound was similar to fingers lightly flicking eggshells. The sound rang clearly in everyone’s ears. It was not loud, but rather like a strange type of whisper.

Ke Xun’s eyes were fixated on Master Shaman. He couldn’t believe that the sound just now came from Master Shaman gently tapping their chin, the chin of the mask, with their fingers.

“That woman will have retribution.” Master Shaman said.

Perhaps “tapping the chin” brought along some magical force, everyone stopped talking. After respectfully watching Master Shaman leave, no one said anything more. At most just one more line— “The light will bless and protect Xiayu and let her rest in peace.”

Soon, the “death of Xiayu” became old news. People scattered and went about their business.

Xiayu’s body was still covered with a white cloth and guarded by several people.

Ke Xun and the others had no reason to stay here anymore, so they went upstairs along the stairs they came from.

Lu Heng walked at the back, holding on to the handrail of the stairs, and barely managed to climb up. Wei Dong gave him a hand: “It’s not night yet. Nothing will happen during the day. Don’t worry.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Heng became even more weak: “At night, will someone really die? Is it bound to happen?”

Wei Dong remained silent and just dragged him upstairs.

Fang Fei walked in the front without saying a word.

Ke Xun: “You are not the prying type of person. Going downstairs to see the dead body wasn’t your goal.”

Fang Fei turned to look at Ke Xun.

Ke Xun: “You might have discovered something, and you were eager to go downstairs to verify it.”

Fang Fei’s black eyes swept over Ke Xun and looked down at the bracelet on her wrist.

Ke Xun: “Is it related to that Master Shaman?”

Fang Fei nodded and took off the earthenware bracelet on her waist: “I wanted to talk about it when we get back. Now that you have thought of it already, then let’s take a look at this.”

Ke Xun took this wide bracelet with a rough style. It would be a compliment to say it was simple. To put it bluntly, it was crude, as if made by amateurs for fun. It was not even round enough. “It’s so ugly.”

Fang Fei: “…”

“WTF Ke Er, you already have a boyfriend. Why are you holding a girl’s bracelet?” Wei Dong’s tone was like as if he was scolding Jia Baoyu.

Ke Xun acted as if he didn’t hear it. He was holding the bracelet in a serious manner, his fingers resting on the inner ring of the bracelet: “Are there words here? It seems to be a single character with simple strokes.”

Wei Dong: “What, are you Shao Ling now?”

Fang Fei looked around to make sure there was no one and nodded: “It says ‘Shaman’.”

Maybe it was because the word ‘Shaman’ was special in this world, everyone else was quite surprised. Wei Dong recalled the terrifying scene when Master Shaman approached him just now: “No wonder he watched us for a long time, and finally nodded at us. It seems that… he met a colleague? Was that meant to be a greeting?”

Lu Heng stammered behind and said, “So he was nodding back then? I thought he was laughing… His head was shaking from laughing…”

“……”

Fang Fei: “Let’s go back first. What did Mu Yiran say? Where are we going to meet up?”

“It’s at the place where we came in. The room next to the corridor should be the residence this world has arranged for us. Let’s go back to the room first. Brother Qin and Haowen Er went to check on the other floors, and they should be back.” Ke Xun looked at a gauze lantern next to him. A flame as big as a fist flickered. It was both beautiful and terrifying.

Fang Fei smiled faintly and couldn’t believe that Ke Xun and Mu Yiran had discussed so many things after a few exchanges of glance and some whispers.

“Which floor did we come down from just now?” Lu Heng looked at the huge rectangular courtyard and the almost identical rooms on the upper and lower sides, “What if we can’t find it?!”

Wei Dong’s tone was comforting: “We’re on the ninth floor, next to the stairs, and there are crows drawn on the lantern at the door.”

“Touch some wood.” Ke Xun’s voice came from above the stairs.

Wei Dong subconsciously touched the stairs’ wooden pillars: “That’s a crow for sure. I’m an artist, can’t I tell the difference between a crow and other birds? Although it’s not filled with black, the figure, head and mouth definitely belong to crows! —Lu Heng, are you alright?”

“I’m bird-phobic…” Lu Heng wanted to cry but had no tears.

“……Sorry.”

“It’s ok. It’s not that serious. I’m mainly scared of the beaks…” Lu Heng tried his best to distract himself from thinking about such uncomfortable things. “By the way, there is one more thing that I would like to ask everyone to keep secret.”

Both Ke Xun and Fang Fei slowed down, looking towards Lu Heng whose face was pale.

Lu Heng: “The things happened just now, about Xiayu’s disfigurement and severed fingers, I don’t want Shengnan to know. She looks strong, but she is actually very fragile. Please, everyone.”

Everyone didn’t say anything and tacitly agreed.

Wei Dong and Lu Heng walked behind and couldn’t help but ask, “Do you like her?”

Lu Heng smiled bitterly: “You could tell?”

“It’s quite obvious.”

“Unfortunately, she turned me down. She has been hurt before and doesn’t believe in feelings.” Lu Heng’s voice was soft but firm. “I learned photography because of her. I didn’t know anything about it before and was not interested in it.”

Wei Dong looked at the camera hanging in front of Lu Heng’s chest. When walking in the crowd just now, the people seemed to be no strangers to this object. That was to say, in this world of indistinguishable times, the camera was something that already existed.

Lu Heng’s hesitant voice came up again: “I… just secretly took a picture of Xiayu.”

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