Chapter 52
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Chapter 52: Dark Fairy Tale, The Little Girl Who Sells Matches
The City of Heaven’s Funeral was deeply ominous, a fact Mu Lin’s teacher Dongfang Ya had repeatedly warned him about. Mu Lin himself had long sensed a dreadful presence lurking within the land of Heaven’s Funeral.
Yet despite this knowledge, he continued channeling the power of Heaven’s Funeral from below, attempting to control it.
This was akin to playing with fire.
As the saying goes, "tread too often by the river, and your shoes will get wet." After repeatedly summoning this force, disaster finally struck.
……
When Mu Lin closed his eyes to meditate, his consciousness returned to the Mind Image world. Upon opening them, he found the landscape utterly transformed.
Days earlier, his Mind Image world had been a simple estate—a traditional house with a horse-drawn cart, stable horses, hanging lanterns, and shadowy figures.
Now, while the original house remained unchanged in his sea of consciousness, a Western-style castle estate loomed across from it. The foreign architecture clashed violently with the rustic compound.
Worse still, the castle exuded an oppressive, sinister aura. Faint giggles drifted from its walls, but upon closer listening, the laughter warped into the gruesome rasp of a saw tearing through flesh.
“……”
The sight chilled Mu Lin. Never again would he underestimate the land of Heaven’s Funeral.
—While channeling the power of Heaven’s Funeral to temper his proud heart lamp, he’d accidentally triggered a mechanism, summoning an overwhelming surge of that dark energy.
Luckily, his reflexes proved swift, and his connection to the land of Heaven’s Funeral remained tenuous. He severed the link before catastrophe struck.
Only a trickle of that corrupting power seeped through. As for why it manifested as a Western castle? The answer lay with Mu Lin himself.
The Mind Image world was his sea of consciousness, his domain. The invading energy instinctively fused with his mental landscape. At the time, Mu Lin had been obsessively designing a Fairy Tale Garden for Chu Lingluo. The alien power intertwined with his fantasies, birthing this grotesque castle.
“Hehehe…”
“Brother, would you like to buy matches?”
While studying the estate, Mu Lin suddenly noticed a ragged little girl standing before his house, proffering matches.
His eyes narrowed to slits. He dared not respond.
The silence stretched.
“Brother, would you like to buy matches?”
She asked again. Then a third time. A fourth.
“Brother, would you like to buy matches?”
“Do you want to buy matches?”
“Buy matches!”
As time passed, the little girl’s voice grew more hurried, her once-cute expression twisting into something fierce.
This scene had not frightened Mu Lin.
“Enough tricks!”
Snorting coldly, Mu Lin barked at the guards in his house, “Seize her! Tie her up!”
“Yes, master!”
With gruff replies, six burly men shoved the door open and lunged forward, charging at the match-selling girl.
“You opened the door!”
“You opened the door…”
“Hehehe, you opened the door!”
*Scratch!*
Facing the charging men, the girl struck a match.
*Whoosh!*
The match flared brightly, yet its flame cast an eerie ice-cold glow.
*Hiss…*
The frosty light materialized into reality within Mu Lin’s mind—snow and ice plummeted from the sky, bitter cold radiating outward from the girl.
Under this assault, frost quickly crusted over Mu Lin’s house. His very soul stiffened with creeping numbness. He sensed that prolonged exposure would freeze his thoughts, slow his reactions, perhaps even reduce him to a vegetative state.
But as the cold peaked, flames suddenly erupted from Mu Lin’s chamber.
The arrogant blaze of the proud heart lamp scattered the chill like sunlight banishing shadows.
Meanwhile, the guards pounced on the girl like starved wolves.
Panicking, she struck a second match.
*Scratch!*
This time, the flame birthed darkness.
Thick black fog billowed from the girl, yet its spread was weakened by the proud heart lamp’s radiance.
The guards closed in.
Desperate, the girl lit a third match.
*Crackle!*
This flame revealed a massive dog—bulky as an ox, fangs bared, eyes savage.
Luckily, Mu Lin’s guards were no ordinary men.
Clad in yellow headbands, each possessed ox-like strength and skin impervious to blades. As the beast lunged, two Yellow Turban Might warriors intercepted it.
The remaining four Yellow Turban Might warriors didn’t attack the large dog. Guided by Mu Lin, they instead charged at the little girl.
Mu Lin knew to capture the leader first when dealing with enemies.
“Swish!”
Before the warriors could reach her, the little girl struck her fourth match. From its flame emerged a massive black python.
This seventeen-meter-long serpent appeared far more dreadful than the initial large dog.
All four remaining Yellow Turban Might warriors barely fought evenly with the giant snake.
During this stalemate, the girl at the doorway lit her fifth match – its flame unusually dim.
Mu Lin’s soul spirit hidden in the house kept watching the feeble glow warily at first, anticipating danger.
Yet soon he realized his caution was unwarranted. The weak flame couldn’t even summon a monster.
“???”
“What’s happening?”
“Running out of power?”
Though confused by the fifth match’s failure, Mu Lin seized the chance immediately.
“Clatter!”
Chains shot from the house like serpents, swiftly binding the little girl multiple times.
“Whoosh!”
The restraints dragged her into an empty room containing a coffin. With a “Bang!”, she was locked inside as chains coiled around the casket.
Still uneasy, Mu Lin visualized a White Paper bearing the character ‘seal’. Four paper figures materialized at the coffin’s corners, pressing down firmly.
This was Paper Figure Soul Sealing.
The standard version used a single White Paper with four drawn paper figures holding down spirits by limbs. Mu Lin had learned this during breaks from practicing Paper Figure Curse, but lacking real evil spirits for training, his skill remained rudimentary.
Perhaps bound by the original tale’s five-match limit or simply exhausted, the chained girl did not struggle much.
Chains, coffin, and basic Paper Figure Soul Sealing combined to immobilize her completely.
The proud heart lamp then blazed intensely, snake-like flames slithering into the coffin to Refine and control the little girl who sells matches.
“Crack! Crack!”
Wild thrashing sounds erupted instantly.
