Beginning with the Ubume Bird -
Chapter 629 - Chapter 629 Chapter 15 The Skill of Painting Eyes
Chapter 629: Chapter 15: The Skill of Painting Eyes Chapter 629: Chapter 15: The Skill of Painting Eyes “What are the comrades’ names?”
Jin Boqing scrutinized Li Yan and Ren Ni, who were seated opposite him on the sofa.
“My surname is Li, and his is Ren. The old master calls us Little Li and Little Ren, so you can too,” Li Yan said with a beaming face, his eyes looking at Jin Boqing with pure warmth.
Ren Ni seemed ill at ease and said nothing.
“Haha, you two comrades are truly young and talented. You must be indispensable by Mr. Zhao’s side…”
“Elder, we still have work to do. If there’s anything we can help with, just be direct. As long as it’s within our power, we will not refuse,” Li Yan interrupted.
Jin Boqing fell silent for a moment.
“Haha, good,” he finally said.
Clearing his throat, Jin Boqing spoke slowly, “I’m going to die. I’d like to invite you two comrades to preside over my funeral.”
“…”
Li Yan and Ren Ni exchanged a glance.
Unperturbed, Jin Boqing gently rolled up his sleeve to reveal that his thin arm was wrapped in thick bandages.
“What happened here?” Li Yan asked, puzzled.
Without a word, Jin Boqing began to unwind the bandages. Underneath were fourteen or fifteen horrific wounds, as if chunks of flesh had been torn off by wild beasts. Some were old injuries that had healed, leaving ugly gaps and scars, while others were fresh, with the scabs not even fully formed, looking extremely hideous.
“There are more on my body. In total, probably about two hundred over three years,” he said.
“How did this happen?”
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ren Ni asked.
Jin Boqing slowly pulled out a thin album from inside his clothing and spread it open. Tucked inside the album were two paper-cut mask designs, precisely the ones Ren Ni had pierced — Knife-and-Horse Dan and Armed Flower Face.
“In the Jin family, there are eight Mingzha Masks in total. Comrade Li should have seen these two. Another three are in the hands of my son, but today I’ve only brought the three that I worship,” Jin Boqing explained.
After showing them, he turned another page, and a strong smell of blood suddenly assaulted their senses!
This was a black-background mask with white patterns, its lips outlined in a character-shaped red mark. While the “Knife-and-Horse Dan” and “Armed Flower Face” had blank spaces where the eyes should be, the mask Jin Boqing brought had an added pair of fierce, greedy eyes that seemed so lifelike they might even rotate and gaze directly at a person.
Li Yan reached out to touch it. Jin Boqing seemed about to stop him but then swallowed his words.
The instant Li Yan’s index finger touched the flower mask, the black-based mask suddenly lunged forward, its entire head appearing to stretch out from the album, ferociously biting at Li Yan’s wrist.
“Click click!”
Li Yan couldn’t help but let out a muffled grunt. With a flick of his wrist, his entire right hand instantly turned into the deep black of Disaster Water. Drops fell on the mask’s teeth and tongue, eroding them into billowing smoke. The mask let out a pained whimper but still stretched its neck out of the album.
“Vile beast!”
Jin Boqing let out a loud roar, and with a tremble of the black background and flower-painted face’s eyelids, reluctantly spat out Li Yan’s right hand, retreating back into the album.
Large amounts of hissing white smoke rose up from Li Yan’s hand. Extremely obvious red bite marks were on his wrist, still smeared with some transparent mucus.
Everything just now seemed like an illusion.
Li Yan carefully examined his wrist, then turned to Jin Boqing with a smile and said, “Pretty fierce, huh.”
Jin Boqing showed a hint of pleasure, but quickly suppressed his emotions.
Ren Yi, who had been standing alone at a distance, suddenly came over and handed Li Yan a white handkerchief.
“Thank you.”
Li Yan took the handkerchief and wiped his hand, Ren Yi gave a light bow, then walked away.
“I suppose the injuries on old Mister Jin’s body were caused by this malign entity.”
Jin Boqing’s expression became complex as he nodded.
While the Mingzha Masks from Jin Boqing’s album all seemed similar, the one with painted eyes that he had just interacted with was far more ferocious and powerful than those two “Martial Flower Faces” and “Sword Horse Dame”, that bite from earlier could shatter even ordinary steel into tofu dregs. In terms of biting force, it was second only to the Pig Dragon King.
After wiping his hand clean, Li Yan then said, “With all due respect, you’re a man of status in Hong Kong, with a houseful of children and grandchildren. You should be enjoying the pleasures of family. Why mess with such harmful and self-destructive things?”
Jin Boqing stared at Li Yan’s young face for a long while before sighing, “All my life I’ve reminded myself that there’s always someone better, never to be arrogant or complacent. Yet in my youth, when things went smoothly, humility was but a pretense. Today, after meeting Communist Li, I see that all these years in Hong Kong I’ve been like a frog at the bottom of a well, ignorant of the sky above. I’m ashamed, truly ashamed.”
“You flatter me too much, Grandfather Jin. You haven’t answered my question, though.”
“Please, comrades, continue to look.”
As he spoke, Jin Boqing turned the page of the album, revealing an ugly face painted with a patch of tofu-white across the bridge of the nose. It possessed a pair of licentious and unrestrained triangular eyes, which made one’s skin crawl. The third was a female role face with crimson eye sockets, eyes like a serene autumn pond.
Without exception, all three masks emitted a strong scent of blood.
However, Li Yan naturally had no need to test them each out.
“Speaking of which, Comrade Li, what do you think of the abilities of my grandson and granddaughter? Are they up to your standards?”
Li Yan blinked, considering how to respond, but the astute Jin Boqing had already gleaned the answer from his expression.
“If you feel awkward, Comrade Li, then there’s no need to say anything,” Jin Boqing paused before adding, “Perhaps in your eyes, they are of little use. But to tell you the truth, aside from their dispositions and experience, Jin Lu and Jin Zhong have become the finest of the Jin household. In my prime, I might not have been a match for them either. Despite their youth, they are now the key pillars of the Jin household. Especially Jin Lu. In the Jin family, with a history of over two hundred years, only those of exceptional talent were able to add a stroke or two to the eight Mingzha Masks, enhancing their spirituality to bless their descendants, otherwise even if soaked in ink, the masks would never change color. At the age of twenty, Jin Lu added a touch to the ‘Sword Horse Dame’ mask, shining glory on our family’s name.”
“Miss Jin Lu is indeed quite remarkable,”
Li Yan responded dryly.
Ren Ni, however, curiously asked, “But what was that just now?” pointing at the face on the album.
“That’s exactly where I overestimated myself…” Jin Boqing sighed, “In my youth, I revived the Jin clan and got carried away with pride. But there was one regret; I could not surpass the wisdom of the ancestors. I couldn’t add a single stroke to the eight Mingzha Masks, always feeling that my ambition contradicted my forefathers. I couldn’t bear it, foolishly sought a different path, and absurdly tried to paint eyes for the Mingzha, only to create these three disasters.”
Speaking of this, Jin Boqing’s face couldn’t hide his regret: “The Jin family’s art of Mingzha has been to nurture paper effigies with flesh, blood, and spirit energy for our use, but normally only on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month by offering a little fresh blood. Even though it cost a bit of blood and lifespan, it was still acceptable. But ever since I painted eyes on these three Mingzhas, on every first and fifteenth, a piece of flesh and blood is required as an offering. If you don’t offer it, the Mingzha will bite it off from its host. It’s become a curse of the Jin family. It’s been three years now.”
Li Yan remained silent, thinking from another angle that Jin Boqing was a genius unprecedented in the Jin family. The painted-eye Mingzhas were indeed fierce, but compared to ordinary Mingzhas, they were worlds apart in power. It was just that Jin Boqing, being made of mere flesh and blood, couldn’t sustain such fearsome beings.
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