I Am Loaded with Passive Skills
Chapter 3635: 1771: Ghost Buddha

Chapter 3635: Chapter 1771: Ghost Buddha

“Dad!”

Cao Erzhu sat up in bed, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

He glanced around, and wasn’t this just the environment of the blacksmith shop, only more spacious than what he remembered?

No!

Erzhu looked down and spread out his hands to see.

His hands were shorter, his feet were shorter, and his perspective was lower too, “Is this, shorter?”

Clang!

Through a wall, the sound of iron striking pounded his eardrums.

Cao Erzhu was jolted awake by the sound, realizing it was time for practice, and instinctively ran over to push the door open.

“Sorry, Dad, I overslept…”

His voice suddenly froze.

How did Dad grow so huge like a giant, and he could only reach his waist when standing?

He hadn’t washed or looked in the mirror, but recalling his earlier “shortening,” Cao Erzhu’s thoughts wavered:

Did I go back in time?

Is this a dream?

Before the blacksmith shop, Dad was shirtless, wearing only a great cloak—early in the morning, it was still winter, clearly, he hadn’t started hammering and needed warmth.

Usually, if he needed to swing the hammer, the great cloak would surely be taken off as it would hinder movement.

“No.”

Cao Erzhu quickly sobered up again.

His dad wasn’t drunk, which had happened maybe three or five times over the past twenty years?

Based on this height now…

The time when he was thirteen?

“I’ve gone back to thirteen?”

It seemed like a dream!

Cao Erzhu thought clearly.

His dad hadn’t spoken yet, but he could hear himself speaking words that didn’t match his thoughts, the tone still very childish:

“It’s just last night, I couldn’t sleep tossing and turning, so I flipped through a tabloid that came the day before… Oh, I didn’t light a candle; I could see with the window open, there was moonlight… um, I have light too.”

“What did you read that kept you awake?” Dad was terrifyingly sharp when sober, not even turning his head, seeing through his childhood lies with the back of his head.

“Couldn’t sleep, so I flipped through…” Young Erzhu muttered timidly.

“Hmm?”

Just a nasal sound from Dad, and the little guy couldn’t hold it, clenching fists, wanting to shout but not daring, speaking in a tone trying to stay calm:

“The Ten High Nobles.”

Dad was silent.

Cao Erzhu then heard his younger self say words that had indeed left a slight impression in his memory:

“The tabloid published another story of the Ten High Nobles, this time it talked about… Kui Leihan.”

After a pause, his tone turned excited as if something doubted for years was finally confirmed, pointing with a small finger:

“Dad, you are Kui Leihan!”

The blacksmith shop suddenly fell silent.

The sober Dad was thinking of something unknown.

Cao Erzhu vaguely recalled, the scene when he looked at Dad back then—it was shocking!

Dad was so tall, gripping a hammer in silence for quite a while, only lifting his head to glance at the chained and locked door.

With a boom, the massive iron door seemed blasted away, flying across the street, chains breaking apart.

The howling wind and snow poured into the shop, piercing to the bone.

Young Erzhu’s enthusiasm was doused instantly, trembling was both from the cold and genuine fear.

“Who sold it to you?”

At that time, Dad wielded the hammer as if ready to crush someone.

Young Erzhu didn’t dare lie, immediately blurting out: “Not bought, Grandpa Liu at the village entrance gave it to me.”

Reflecting on the dream here, Cao Erzhu recalled.

That afternoon, he was assigned by Dad to hunt at Qingyuan Mountain.

For the next ten years, there truly was no Grandpa Liu in the town, as if even the funeral didn’t leave an impression of being held?

“Hiss!”

In childhood not understanding, growing up reading the past from this dream perspective, Cao Erzhu felt he understood something.

“Erzhu, come here.”

The dream continued, presenting past scenes from a third-party perspective, which felt quite magical to Cao Erzhu.

He sensed that with just a thought, he could immediately break free from the dream and wake up.

He consciously sank into it.

Young Erzhu, thus with some fear, walked over.

Dad squatted down, which was rare, not quite gentle but calm, a big hand cradling the child’s head, speaking:

“Let me tell you something today, while I’m sober.”

“Do you know why Dad came to this shop and even sent your sister outside to be raised?”

Young Erzhu shook his head.

Dad then brought over the big hammer, placing it on the ground, horizontally between them.

It was a straight-handled round-headed hammer, and Dad measured the hammer’s handle with his hand, saying:

“This is a path.”

Young Erzhu nodded, expressing understanding.

“When you’re on this path, you can’t turn back; you either stop, or move forward, and now, you’ve come to here.”

Dad’s finger slid from the end of the hammer’s handle all the way to the hammerhead’s front.

“Blocked by the hammerhead…” Young Erzhu muttered softly.

Dad looked up, casting an astonished glance: “Right, unless your fist is harder than the hammerhead, don’t think of passing, and not passing means death.”

“That’s the reason Dad stayed in this shop for over ten years…” Young Erzhu pondered.

Dad put away the hammer.

His words were simple and clear.

Young Erzhu, and even Cao Erzhu up till now, still felt there was something unclear…

What was that hammerhead?

Who was the person that made Dad so afraid?

Dad didn’t continue on this topic, but instead asked: “Erzhu, if one day, you grow taller and stronger than I am, and have the chance to fight your old man, would you dare to fight?”

Young Erzhu instinctively shook his head: “I wouldn’t fight Dad.”

“Would you dare?”

“I can’t beat you…”

“Would you dare?”

“No…”

Dad showed a disappointed look, shaking his head, turning to leave, young Erzhu’s stubbornness surged up, stepping heavily forward and shouting: