502 Awakening

Under the moonlight.

The ghost in red clothes raised her head. She was Qiu Liang, the lady who had died years ago!

She was emotionless and her eyes were wide opened as though she was stubborn. She was squirming on the ground as though she had lost the use of her limbs, turning her into something which resembled a large red snake.

"I cannot do this!"

Just by gazing at her, Fang Yuan was overwhelmed with fear. "If go against her now... I will die! She is not a normal spirit!"

Thinking up to this point, Fang Yuan started to hold his breath and made his way towards the entrance of the Ghost Garden.

He didn't know how long the concoction which hid his human traits could last. His life would be in danger for every moment he spent in the Ghost Garden.

He was getting nearer and nearer the entrance...

As Fang Yuan arrived at the entrance, the red ghost suddenly raised its head and a murderous look flashed in its eyes!

...

In the study room of the Tantai Family.

A group of people gathered in the room. Tantai Juexin and Tantai Jueqing were among the group.

Tantai Guijing appeared even more frail-looking than usual as though he was on the brink of death. In reality, his actual age was only about 50. However, he had such a look because of something which backfired on him in the past.

He cleared his throat and began. "The 20-year cycle is about to rest. What opinions do you guys have with regards to this?"

Other than Tantai Juexin and a few others, the rest were all old and frail looking as they displayed shock on their faces.

It was a 20-year cycle! This was the curse of the Tantai Family! Everyone with the Tantai blood would not be able to escape. If this were to happen in a cycle of a few years, the Tantai Family would be wiped out and killed, especially the few elders who had already survived a few cycles.

"Didn't we discuss to using 'that' to deal with the curse of the 'Door'? Juexin, do you think he's fit for it?"

A bald elder slowly spoke.

"Second Granduncle..."

Tantai Juexin stood up and appeared vexed. "That thing is the most gifted person I have ever seem. He is only 5 years old now and yet he is already as capable as most other exorcists. However... I did not realise that he was displaying signs of awakening!"

"That's impossible! Unless he has perfect control over it, otherwise, he will not be able to control his 'awakening'!"

A few elders spoke with frustration.

Most of them there were top-notch exorcists and knew the power of ghosts and curses.

Even the strongest human cannot fight against a ghost! Only a curse would be able to deal with another curse!

"This is not a lie and I'm sure all of you know that."

Tantai Juexin replied coldly before returning to his seat.

Everyone remained silent for a while. They all knew the terror which would come with 'awakening'. The calm period now was the most obvious sign of all.

"Cough cough..."

Tantai Guijing continued. "In order to break the curse on us, we need to find that 'Door'. All that we have prepared up till now is not enough! Mieming still needs to mature as well. Therefore, we should stick to our original plan... Of course, if we cannot resist this curse, the only thing we can do will be to sacrifice Mieming."

Everyone remained silent.

At the end, Tantai Guijing suddenly thought of something and asked, "Do we have a lead on the cursed scissors?"

The Tantai Family was a family of exorcists and therefore it was only normal for the family to have a collection of weird objects.

That red scissors was among the collection. It was cursed with a powerful spell which would enable it to harm spirits.

"We do. That pair of scissors will curse whoever it kills, turning the person into a ghost. Only by finding another ghost will the first ghost be freed... We have used a female servant as a bait for the scissors to complete its curse on a new victim. In the next 7 days, it will not come out to harm others. Furthermore, we can use black magic to trace it."

Tantai Juexin toyed around with the dagger in his hands as he calmly explained.

"That's good. Quickly recall it back. After all, it is still useful in dealing with curses."

Tantai Guijing nodded his head. "The meeting is over!"

...

If Fang Yuan were to eavesdrop on the exchanges during the meeting, he would be utterly shocked.

The red pair of scissors cursed by black magic would curse whoever it kills! Qiu Liang did not die under the pair of scissors. Furthermore, the scissors now had a new target and therefore, there would be a safe period of 7 days!

Therefore, the red scissors which he had seen was not the simple cursed red scissors, but 'something else'!

If might just be the thing responsible for the curse over the entire Tantai Family!

After all, Fang Yuan still had Tantai blood in his body.

Although the curse would more likely seek out the elders, there could be exceptions, for instance, Tantai Jueshang!

"Run!"

But for now, Fang Yuan was still clueless.

As soon as he exchanged glances with the female ghost, he knew right away that the ghost had already detected him.

"Bang!"

Decisively, he leapt out even further than a matured adult could and like a gust of wind, he arrived into the real world.

Behind him, the female ghost had disappeared.

Fang Yuan appeared pale and in pain. As he lifted his pants up, he could see a black palm print on his ankle.

"Almost..."

Even though Fang Yuan had already arrived back in his dimension, the sense of danger had not faded away.

"To the Hall of Sacrifice!"

His eyes darted around as he quickly ran towards the dark hall, pushing the door with all his might.

"Who's that? Eh? It's you!"

A skinny old man in black clothing appeared stern as soon as he spotted Fang Yuan. "This is not a place you are suppose to be in!"

Although Fang Yuan only skimmed through the hall, he could already observe most of its interior.

Lanterns lined the walls of the hall and equipment were laid out on the sacrificial table. There were many caskets as well as a single painting scroll hidden in the corner of the hall.

On the painting scroll, the drawing was a... door!

'That is... exactly similar to the door that I saw in the memories of this realm!'

Fang Yuan wanted to take a few more glances at the things around. Suddenly, he felt a sense of confusion.

"What have you angered..."

The old man noticed a red silhouette and his expression changed. Immediately, he plucked a black ring from his finger and threw it towards the ground.

"Bang!"

A layer of black fog appeared, engulfing the old man within. The old man took a few deep breaths and immediately, his body started to rot and within seconds, he became a zombie.

Without a second thought, Fang Yuan turned around and ran for his life. After just a few steps, he could hear a pitiful shriek. It was from that old man!

"What is that?"

Fang Yuan did not slow down. As he arrived at the ancient mansion, he noticed the silhouette of a group of people.

At the same time, the feeling of confusion in him finally disappeared.

"Did that old man become my scapegoat?"

Fang Yuan clenched his fist. He had finally encountered the threats of this realm and could not wait to restore his cultivation!

"I don't want to care anymore. No matter how eerie this realm might seem, I have to begin my experimentation on dream elemental force!"

...

On the second day, Fang Yuan had received news of the death of the old man. Tantai Juexin had personally delivered this piece of news to Fang Yuan. Evidently, he was suspecting that Fang Yuan might have something to do with his death.

From Tantai Jueqing, Fang Yuan had also obtained information about the scissors which was cursed with black magic.

"What was 'that' which I encountered last night?"

Fang Yuan sat on his bed and started to recall what had happened last night with a look of confusion growing on his face. "Something is not right. To think about it, that female ghost's face was a little blurred and did not seem to be Qiu Liang's face... Could the ghost have taken advantage of my mind to cause me to hallucinate? All because I have imagined about Qiu Liang being cursed by the scissors, and that is why I have imagined her to be the ghost in red?"

"Regardless, I am sure that the appearance of these ghosts have something to do with the Demonic Heart Realm!"

"This realm is even more affected by the Demonic Heart Realm compared to Da Qian!"

Fang Yuan clenched his fist. "In order to resist against such pollution and foreign entities from the Demonic Heart Realm, I must regain my ability to harness dream elemental force! Furthermore... it feels a little different here!"

All along, Fang Yuan was already interested in the other paths of the Demonic Heart Realm.

Although Shang Hou did not have the records of such paths on him, every path would have its foundations rooted in dream elemental force! After obtaining the many dream master records, Fang Yuan had his own theory.

Of course, in a thousand of his ideas, 999 of them would be likely to be useless and could even result in him suffering an irreversible damage. The last idea might not be entirely safe as well. Therefore, dream masters had completely given up trying to explore the other paths.

After experiencing the dream dao, why would the dream masters be interested in any other paths?

Being in another realm was the best opportunity for Fang Yuan to pick off where his research had left off.

Experimenting on himself would surely be more effective than using other dream masters as experimental products!

The weirdness of this realm and the fact that it had been polluted by the Demonic Heart Realm further affirmed Fang Yuan's thinking.

"The first step is always the same, and that is to sense the dream elemental force."

Fang Yuan closed his eyes and weird shapes started to appear in his consciousness.

These shapes started to float around and gather together, forming an inverted triangle.

The triangle was quickly formed which could be due to the fact that the realm had long been polluted by the Demonic Heart Realm. With that, streaks of evolved dream element force started to descend.

"Purple?"

Fang Yuan was stunned. "Isn't the dream elemental force of the Demonic Heart Realm silver?"

In that instant, an even more drastic change happened.

His body started to absorb the dream elemental force greedily as though a desert had come across a flowing river.

"This is..."

Completely submerged in the process, Fang Yuan did not notice that his body was turning pale. Following which, the temperature of the room started to go down as well.

This was not the physical temperature, but a higher-dimensional cold sensation only felt by the soul.

"Ah!"

A shriek had jolted Fang Yuan out from his trance.

He quickly came out of the room and realised that a tray of food was scattered across the floor.

"What happened?"

Fang Yuan frowned as his eyes glistened.

On the ground, there were fine prints which resembled the shape of a human!

"This force... it is indeed representative of inauspiciousness!"