Fatty and Skinny were sound asleep, snoring so loudly that they could be heard anywhere in Unceasing.
I turned on the bedside lamp and shook out a tarot card from my sleeve — the "Tower" that I quietly took from Mu just now when I was picking up the cards for her.
The reason my heart clenched for a second some moments ago was that I heard the card yelling — Help!
It was this "Tower" card.
It's impossible for a card to speak, and the cry for help I heard was clearly a group of childish voices, screaming together.
I brought the card closer to the light and carefully felt every inch of the card with my fingers.
When my fingers moved to the center of the card, a chill ran from my fingertips straight to my heart, immediately turning into a burning heat, as if it wanted to burn my blood to ashes. The alternating power of cold and heat rolled and tangled in my body.
I withdrew my fingers.
Frozen Flame Soul Binding spell...
I recognize this spell.
It's a spell used by some individuals with high cultivation to seal a spiritual body in another medium's space. However, it is typically used to deal with those evil spirits that must not remain in the world. Only a few unscrupulous things, in order to achieve a certain goal, forcibly use this spell to seal innocent creatures in another world with no way out.
In reality, the Frozen Flame Soul Binding spell is a forbidden magic that very few know how to use. Even if they know how to, they seldom use it, simply due to its cruelest characteristic – only entry, no exit.
Now, who used this tarot card as a medium to cast this spell? And who is sealed in the card?
I actually already had the answer in my heart, yet I still clung to a shred of hope — I desperately wished those four children were not the ones sealed in the card.
I stared at the design drawn on the card. A tower tottering in the center of the card under the onslaught of fire caused by thunder and lightning from the sky, with people screaming as they fall from the tower. At the tower's base, there is a turbulent ocean on one side and chaotic land on the other.
I need to have a "deep conversation" with this card.
Closing my eyes, I cradled the "Tower" in my palm, silently chanting an incantation only I could hear.
In the darkness, there was a faint sound of waves crashing against the coast, the dancing flames were chaotic and fierce, countless massive rocks plummeting to the ground, the earth shaking and splitting. My consciousness was striving to gather, gradually penetrating all obstacles blocking my way.
All supernatural beings possess a Spirit Eye that can penetrate different mediums, allowing them to see scenes that ordinary people cannot. This invisible eye is deeply hidden inside their spiritual power, and the higher their cultivation, the more this eye can perceive. Some of the old demons I know are more awesome than me and they can even see through your entire three lives[1]. As for some lower-level little demons, even seeing how many banknotes are in someone's wallet is no small feat.
However, there's no such thing as a free meal – the longer the Spirit Eye is used and the deeper the medium it penetrates, the faster the spiritual power depletes. When the spiritual power shows such an abnormal steep drop, the user's primordial spirit can be greatly damaged, and the consequences are hard to estimate.
But today, I need this eye to help me see clearly what secrets are "hidden" in this card. Because it concerns four young lives. My vision darkened.
The sound of waves became increasingly clear in my ears, and my surroundings gradually brightened. A looming stone tower approached me in the mysterious space swaying from side to side, countless shocking cracks spreading across its gray exterior. Flames and thick smoke were surging out violently from the badly broken windows on the tower. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the pitch-black sky, and a thunderclap exploded from time to time at the top of the tower. A few men and women dressed in ash-colored clothes, their faces indiscernible, just screamed and cried as they jumped out of the unlit windows to escape.
What an apocalyptic scene.
But it looked familiar. Everything before me was unmistakably the illustration on the "Tower" card.
"Help! Is anyone there? Please save us!"
I heard the familiar cry for help again, in fluent Chinese.
Upon careful scrutiny, my "eyes" unhesitatingly moved towards the room at the top of the tower.
Just as expected, I saw four children huddled together and trembling in the corner of that dilapidated room. Three girls and one boy, all wearing identical high school uniforms.
"Ren Xiaochen?" I called the name of one of the girls. Fatty had meticulously listed the names of the missing children for me.
The short-haired girl lifted her head abruptly, her eyes searching the air in fear. She asked in a trembling voice, "Who...who is it?"
The other three children seemed to have heard my voice as well and shouted incoherently, "Save us! Who are you? We're about to die! Please, save us, please!"
The strong will to survive, coupled with the vivid and lively aura that was unmistakably human, assured me that I'd found the right place and the right targets. The missing children have indeed been confined in another space — a bizarre space belonging to the tarot card.
The current scene is very much like a god who doesn't reveal her true face, comforting a group of people awaiting salvation. I deliberately made every word I spoke sacred and solemn, imbued with tremendous power. I know it is the only way I can make these children, who are panicked like headless flies, calm down for the time being and hold on to the suddenly arisen hope, making them remember every word I say without harboring any doubt.
I told them that I was here to get them out of this ghastly place, but they still needed to wait a little longer.
"Don't... don't abandon us!" The fair and chubby boy, although already about fifteen or sixteen years old, resembled a five or six-year-old kid at the moment, bawling with tears and snot streaming down his face, "I don't want to be some top student anymore... I won't do divination anymore... I don't want the fairy to help me... I just want to go home...wahhh..."
Incited by Little Fatso, the other three companions beside him also start wailing heartbreakingly.
"No more eating cotton candy!"
"Same here! I'm never going to that scary Musheng again!"
"Mom... I won't talk back to you anymore! I'll study hard!"
These little rascals… I didn't know whether to laugh or cry listening to them. However, I heard something useful from their illogical shouts.
"Pull yourselves together! What's with all the endless crying! And stop talking about death! Things aren't that serious!" I sternly chided. "With me here, what is there to be afraid of!"
Hearing this, the four kids stopped their sobbing and sniffling, and shut up. Ren Xiaochen timidly asked, "So...so when can we leave?"
Actually, I don't know either.
The flames had spread towards us, and the entire tower was on the verge of collapsing. At this moment, I'm still uncertain whether the medium of this space will cause substantial harm to them. After a moment's thought, my mind forced its way into the room, and I drew a triangular halo in the center.
"Stand inside the halo, all of you. Until I come back, no matter what happens, do not step out of the halo!"
This is the only thing I can do for them right now — using my remaining spiritual power to create a Three Kings' Defensive Barrier seal to temporarily ensure their safety. As long as they are within the range of the Three Kings' Defensive Barrier seal, the raging fire cannot reach them, the collapsing stones cannot crush them, and even if the tower collapses on them, they won't be plummeted or drowned to their deaths.
I'm very glad that I haven't forgotten the incantation for this seal. I remember I learned this technique from a monkey spirit. He said that he would soon leave home to protect a monk traveling to India. We never met again. Regardless, I'm thankful to him!
However, the Three Kings' Defensive Barrier seal only lasts for twelve hours.
If I still can't find a way to bring them back within these twelve hours... I don't bother thinking about the consequences; it's pointless.
The children scrambled to jump into the colorful triangular seal, squatting pitifully inside, unmoving.
"Remember, I'll be back soon. What you need to do is try to drive out your fears as much as possible! Understand?" I had to leave; my spiritual power was depleting too quickly.
The children nodded hesitantly, wiping away tears and saying, "You must…must come back quickly!"
"I will."
The tower, the flames, the waves — everything became farther and farther away from me, ultimately shrinking into a tiny black dot.
I snapped my eyes open, greeted by the serene moonlight outside softly illuminating the dresser. This world was as tranquil as ever. Cold sweat beaded on my forehead and neck; my look at this moment could undoubtedly rival that of a zombie crawling out of a coffin.
I was unusually exhausted, and felt like I was about to fall apart, both in my heart and in my body.
To be honest, it has been many years since I've used my spiritual power on such a large scale. I've long been accustomed to living like a true human.
However, a certain premonition in my heart is growing stronger and stronger — my peaceful life is about to be completely disrupted by a tarot card! Yet, inexplicably, I am even more eager to know who lies behind this. Mu, her Musheng, the tarot cards with hidden nefarious spells, the trapped children — every element is pulling me towards a deeper direction with intense force.
Perhaps, this is the source of my uneasiness.
The "Tower" card lay silently in my hand, looking like a lifeless piece of stiff paper. Nobody knows the perilous situation concealed in it, a matter of life and death.
I have only twelve hours.
[1] 三生: previous life, present life, next life.
Translator:
The monkey-spirit is Sun Wukong aka Monkey King from "Journey to the West."
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