Chapter 24 Pear Blossom Lantern Festival
Chapter 24 Pear Blossom Lantern Festival (VI)
Liu Sheng turned into a tree.
The sky was bright, and she could see the rippling green water in the small pond below, with a few koi carps swimming freely, lotus leaves standing above, and snow-white fallen petals floating on the water.
There is a small pavilion next to it with a plaque that reads "Zuibai Pavilion" hung on it. The surrounding forests, rocks, and clear pools complement each other, and the corridors and paths are intertwined.
Her body was still slender, but as thick as a bowl.
Everything was different from what Zuibaiyuan was later like. I don’t know how many years ago it was.
"Mom, I want to try again!"
Suddenly, a man's angry roar was heard in the carved hall in the distance. The sound was so loud that even Liu Sheng, a tree on the rockery, could hear it. The voice was full of unwillingness and resentment.
"Son...are you trying to drive me to death...your father is gone, and you know my health condition, so I really can't afford to support you to study...you've taken the exam three times...there's more to the world than just the imperial examination..."
Liu Sheng heard an old and weak female voice speaking intermittently.
For a tree, she has pretty good hearing.
"No, I don't care!"
I saw a man in a green robe, about thirty years old, running out of the flower hall with his face covered. He ran to Liu Sheng's side and then knelt on the ground as if he had lost his temper.
He pounded the ground angrily: "Why! Why! I have tried so hard! Why can't I pass the exam!"
After a few hammerings, the delicate hands, which had only been studying and had never done heavy work, were pierced by the gravel on the ground and were bleeding.
The man looked at his bleeding hands and said, "I have studied hard for thirty years, but I have nothing to show for my knowledge. I can do nothing!"
Then he fell to the ground and burst into tears.
I don’t know if it’s because of sadness or pain in my hand.
As a tree, the concept of time is very vague to Liu Sheng.
She seemed to have seen a lot of things happening in Zuibai Garden, but she seemed to not remember them very well. They just flashed past her eyes quickly like phantoms.
I don’t know how long it had passed, but it was the time for the willow flowers to bloom again, and the ground was covered with white flowers.
Zuibai Garden is also filled with white.
The man was also dressed in white and sat in the pavilion, crying silently.
He looked older than the last time I saw him, and his aura seemed much more depressed.
It seemed as if he was the only one left in the world.
"Mom, you don't let me sell Zuibai Garden, but I'm the only one left in this garden. It's empty and cleaning it is tiring..."
As he spoke, he suddenly burst into tears.
Liu Sheng shook his branches, and pear blossoms fell like rain.
It seemed like a few years had passed and Zuibai Garden became increasingly dilapidated.
The man was sitting in the pavilion, concentrating on making lanterns.
The frame of the lantern is made of twigs taken from Liu Sheng, which are polished and bent, pasted with cut rice paper, and then carefully painted with flower and bird patterns, and finally inscribed with words.
The next lantern is painted with a picture of a lady.
He painted each lantern with great care and detail, and wrote the inscriptions with all his might, as if he wanted to show all his talent to the world through these small lanterns.
There were more wrinkles on the man's face than last time, his clothes were covered with shabby patches, his fingers were not as delicate as before, his skin was dark and rough, and there were many small wounds on his hands from tying the skeleton.
Finally, he wrote many notes, muttering something on each one.
"Riddle: A family of five with a tree planted next to it. Guess it!"
"Hahaha, you can't guess it, right? It's 'Wu'!"
He looked very excited as he talked to himself.
Finally, he went out with satisfaction, carrying the lantern with the puzzle note attached to it.
Late at night, he came back covered in blood and footprints, holding the last lantern whose frame was collapsed, and lying hunched on the ground under Liu Sheng.
He kept muttering to himself: "Is my lantern ugly? Not at all, not at all... These villains are blind..."
His tears flowed down the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.
Liu Sheng could do nothing.
The man lay on the ground for a day and a night. When he woke up again, he was much weaker, but there seemed to be something more in his eyes.
Later, Liu Sheng watched as the man's lantern became more and more bizarre.
At first, people painted some horrible and bloody pictures of human tragedies on lanterns.
Later, they used crimson paper to make them, but not in the shape of festive red lanterns, but in the shape of red dolls, coffins, hands... or in twisted shapes, such as a turtle holding a hand in its mouth, a puppet without eyes, a rabbit with a human head on its back...
The man was becoming more and more insane. His hair was disheveled, greasy and tangled, completely covering his wrinkled and dirty face. His clothes were no longer patched and were in tatters.
He always talked to himself and laughed strangely while making lanterns.
The entire garden was filled with lanterns of all kinds, leaving almost no place to stand.
Later, it was a cold late spring season.
Liu Sheng's pear blossoms fell on the snow, covering the lifeless man with a thick layer of snow. All around him were those ugly and terrifying lanterns...
……
[Name: Pear Tree Ghost]
[Analysis completion: 100%]
[Effect description: The main body can conjure up a scene with set rules and pull the target into it. Once the target does something that violates the rules, it can devour the target and continue to transform it into energy. It will use flowers as eyes and seeds to reproduce, and can continuously strengthen the scene effect. The duration and range of the effect depends on the amount of energy. The current rule setting: You must guess the lantern riddle. ]
[Influence level: B]
[Analysis and evaluation: Everything started from a poor scholar named Zhang Hengyuan... He was really poor...]
[Points earned: 3 (currently 7)]
[Analysis Reward: Zhang Hengyuan's Personalized Lantern]
[High-dimensional analysis times: -1 (0 times remaining)]
That man must be the very poor Zhang Hengyuan.
This time, perhaps because Liu Sheng turned into a pear tree, she did not take any action.
But she didn't need to take any action to complete the high-dimensional analysis.
Maybe the pear tree's mind is really simple.
It just looked at Zhang Hengyuan and felt sad for him, that's all.
But under the influence of the evil spirit, it slowly grew into a B-level monster and eventually killed many people.
According to this effect, there is plenty of strange energy here. Her strange energy detector has been madly warning that its energy is exhausted. Doesn't that mean the strangeness can continue forever?
Plus, with so many living creatures in its body, once all of them are devoured, this monster can expand to an unimaginable extent.
So first we have to break its energy source.
This also coincides with Liu Sheng's goal of saving people.
Moreover, according to the analysis and description, its main body actually has no other means. The part about the illusion scene has been passed by Liu Sheng with "wisdom". At this point, physical attacks should be the only option left.
After making sure there are no other traps, Liu Sheng can start thinking about how to take action.
In addition, Liu Sheng had an extra lantern in his hand, which was the so-called analysis reward.
But he actually looks normal.
An ordinary four-cornered lantern, with a towering pear tree painted with just a few strokes on the top, and pavilions and terraces outlined with a few strokes on the bottom.
The inscription reads: Two words of fame and fortune trap me, a pond of white pear blossoms.
Whether it is painting or calligraphy, according to Liu Sheng, it should be at the master level.
Originally, Liu Sheng thought that based on what he had seen and heard along the way, "Personal Customization by Zhang Hengyuan" should be the one with the lack of aesthetics.
Liu Sheng analyzed the lantern again.
[Name: Zhang Hengyuan's custom-made lantern]
[Analysis completion: 100%]
[Effect description: Activated by strange energy, the light can make flowering plants heartbroken. ]
[Influence level: D]
[Analysis and evaluation: When it is bright, flowers shed tears (emphasize that reference is not plagiarism)]
It really deserves to be called “Zhang Hengyuan’s personal customization”!
It’s like sending a pillow just in time when I’m sleepy!
But this was the first time that Liu Sheng saw an item powered by strange energy.
This should be called a "weird weapon", right?
Liu Sheng was just thinking about how to use the strange energy when the little tentacle reluctantly put down all the lanterns on its tentacles, took this lantern and held it high.
The lantern instantly lit up with a cold light, illuminating the surroundings.
So this is still possible?
"Mom" is so awesome!
Liu Sheng no longer hesitated and tiptoed forward.
Everything is still calm at this time, and the pear blossoms are still fluttering.
(End of this chapter)