Wandering Gods of Day and Night
Chapter 156 - 145: Totem Hall

Chapter 156: Chapter 145: Totem Hall

Three yellow-skinned creatures knelt, kowtowed, and saluted Zhou Xuan.

Zhou Xuan sat back on the chair and said to them, "I want to meet the person in charge on your side. I’ll wait here for him."

The largest of the yellow-skinned creatures straightened its upper body and, after calling three times, led the other two into the pond. Then, in a few quick strides, they ran to the small hill behind the pond and disappeared into the mountain forest.

Zhou Xuan waited from noon until 1:30. He grew tired of waiting, leaned against the chair back, pulled his hat down to cover his face, and dozed off. He hadn’t slept long when a "clack, clack" sound of crisp footsteps reached his ears.

He pulled his hat up a bit, looked toward the source of the sound, and saw a young woman in a cheongsam walking over with a graceful, voluptuous air.

The woman’s face was round, her eyes extremely bright, and her shoulder-length wavy hair was arranged with her hands resting at her waist. The purse hanging from her wrist flickered with sequins as she moved in and out of the shadows under the eaves, looking every bit the modern girl from Mingjiang Prefecture.

"Are you from the Huang Family?"

"The word ’girl’ sounds rustic, just call me Sister Huang."

"Our little city folk in Ping Shui Prefecture can’t manage such cosmopolitan titles."

"Then just call me something cozy."

The woman walked to Zhou Xuan’s side, sat sideways on a stone railing, and her figure’s curves became even more pronounced.

"My name is Huang Xi, I’m from the Huang Family’s ’Qing’ generation. I don’t like the sound of having ’Qing’ in my name, so I left it out. You could call me Xi..."

"Miss Xi."

"..." Huang Xi.

"You’re really not charming, your name is Zhou Xuan, right? You’re quite handsome." Huang Xi extended her elegant fingers to lift Zhou Xuan’s chin, but he lightly swatted them away.

"Miss Xi, I’m in a bit of a bind, and I’d like to ask for your help."

"Do you need money or people? If it’s money, the Huang Family is also a bit tight, we can provide some support, but not much. If it’s people, shall we discuss it inside?"

Huang Xi raised her eyebrows playfully, with a direct insinuation.

Zhou Xuan had no intention of following the same path as the yellow-skinned creatures, so he clarified his thoughts, "I want to ask the Huang Family to investigate someone."

"Who? Someone as handsome as you?"

Zhou Xuan: "..."

He had heard Yuan Buyu say that the creatures of the Fox Clan loved to romance, and it seemed these wild immortals of the Huang Family were no different.

"Cha Siming!"

"Who? Xuan, do you know Si Ming is the Master of Divine Stealing!"

"Your Huang Family’s little yellow-skinned creatures are everywhere in the city. When climbing walls and stealing chickens, do they care who is the Hall Master? When it comes to gathering information, no one is more informed than your Huang Family."

Zhou Xuan wrapped his arms around his knees and added, "I just want you to help me find out Si Ming’s exact background, and if you can also determine his incense fire level, that would be ideal."

"Difficult!" Huang Xi pouted, lightly shaking her head.

"You can name a price," Zhou Xuan said with a smile.

"Really?" Huang Xi’s eyes lit up when she heard Zhou Xuan was willing to pay.

"If you are willing to pay, then we can have a good discussion," Huang Xi said with a smile. "Honestly speaking, Grandma Lianhua from the Ping Shui Prefecture, we respect her, but just a finger ring from her and the Huang Family of Mingjiang Prefecture would blindly follow orders, making our lives seem too cheap."

"I understand your perspective, but business is business," Zhou Xuan said. "Doing business is about catering to people’s preferences. I imagine the Huang Family in Mingjiang is rich and isn’t short of money. Since you’re not short of money, I’m afraid giving money as a price just might get me a cold shoulder. So, Miss Xi, tell me what the Huang Family lacks?"

"Xuan, your words are sharp and sensible; I really like someone like you. Let me be straightforward," Huang Xi said,

"The Huang Family of Mingjiang’s highest authority is Huang Changdeng, my grandfather, but he doesn’t like to handle affairs, so the real power is held by my father and his four brothers. The Huang Family loves to be officials, and they also love Buddhism,

My father loves Buddhism, as do my eldest and second uncles. My fourth and fifth uncles have a penchant for officialdom. If you can smooth things over with all five of them, not only can we look into Si Ming’s background, but if you asked us to investigate the City God, we would dare."

Huang Xi revealed her hand with confidence, indicating that the Huang Family’s approach in Mingjiang differed vastly from the Buddhist-seeking ways of the Huang Family in Ping Shui Prefecture.

"Alright, how quickly can you find out about Si Ming’s background and incense fire level?"

"Within a day," Huang Xi replied.

"Then you go ahead and investigate Si Ming, and at this time tomorrow, I’ll wait for you here. I’ll have something to trade for your information, something that will definitely satisfy the Huang Family."

Zhou Xuan got up, adjusted his hat, and walked into the Old Painting Pavilion.

"You want us to investigate first? We’ve never conducted business like this!"

"You never met me before; if you had, you would have done business this way long ago."

Bang! Zhou Xuan shut the door of the Old Painting Pavilion.

"Xuan, you truly are domineering."

Huang Xi laughed coquettishly, and a swirl of yellow wind billowed in place. Once the wind settled and the dust fell, her figure was already within the mountain forest behind the pond.

...

Zhou Xuan, after understanding the preferences of the Huang Family in Mingjiang, had devised a way to deal with them.

If they loved Buddhism,

he would give them a "Buddha’s head" tattoo. Buddha nature in Jing Country was a rare commodity. Though the Buddha nature of the Buddha’s head was not strong, it was already a coveted treasure among many Buddhist followers.

As for the fourth and fifth members of the Huang Family who liked being officials?

"Is there a tattoo that could help someone become an official?"

Zhou Xuan wasn’t certain. In any case, managing three out of the five brothers was already quite good. If the other two could be dealt with, that would naturally be best, but even if not, it wouldn’t be a major issue.

Thinking about it, Zhou Xuan planned to go to the Mother Palace World at the Stone Plate to have a look. Now that he had burned an inch of incense, he ought to have learned more tattoo patterns.

He approached the top of the Stone Plate Pit, where Yun Ziliang had placed an iron cover. When he pulled it open, he found the pit empty, nothing but dirt, without a trace of the original content.

"Where’s my Stone Plate?"

Zhou Xuan was a little bewildered but not overly panicked.

First of all, he was certain the Stone Plate had not been stolen; he had tried to pry it before and couldn’t move it at all, as if it had rooted deep in the ground.

Besides, even if it could be pried loose and someone stole it, what could they do with it?

Learn tattoos? The Blood Tree would bind them up as fertilizer.

"I accessed the Mother Palace through the Wash Away Injustice Talisman."

Zhou Xuan, thinking of this, quickly pulled out the Wash Away Injustice Talisman—something had changed!

The name of the Wash Away Injustice Talisman had changed.

Originally, there was a blank space between "Wash Away Injustice" and "Talisman." Now, in that blank space, two words had appeared—Return to Palace.

Washing Away Injustice and Returning to the Palace Talisman!

Zhou Xuan flipped open the Wash Away Injustice Talisman, and after turning a few pages, he saw the "Mother Palace World" illustration on one page.

"Why is there an illustration now?"

Zhou Xuan recalled the last time he had entered the Mother Palace through the Stone Plate—it was for nurturing Bone Teeth!

"After nurturing Bone Teeth, I obtained the magic artifact of the Tattoo Hall and then learned the tattoo map in the Mother Palace. Only then could I be considered a proper Tattoo Master."

Zhou Xuan thought that perhaps the Mother Palace had completely accepted him, which was why the Wash Away Injustice Talisman now contained the Mother Palace’s illustration.

However, the name "Mother Palace" was a name Zhou Xuan had given himself, and it wasn’t the real name. Apart from the illustration, there was a textual description below in the Wash Away Injustice Talisman.

"Totem Hall, the main hall of the Tattoo Tree Clan. Disciples wishing to return to this hall for visualization must have washed away injustice once."

Totem Hall was the real name of the Mother Palace World.

Zhou Xuan realized why the full name of the Wash Away Injustice Talisman was "Washing Away Injustice and Returning to the Palace Talisman."

As it turned out, washing away injustice was a task, while returning to the palace was the reward after completing the task.

The ’palace’ in Return to the Palace referred to the main halls of certain tangkou.

"Tattoo Tree Clan? Shouldn’t it be called the Ancient Clan?"

Zhou Xuan had never heard the term "Tree Clan" before. Could it be a misheard and miscommunicated name, changing over time?

This name wasn’t Zhou Xuan’s current priority concern; without the Stone Plate, how to re-enter the Totem Hall was the pressing issue.

He examined the Wash Away Injustice Talisman closely, scrutinizing the illustration of the "Totem Hall." His first thought was whether it might function like the Blood Well, meditating on the Blood Well’s image to open the entrance to the Secret Realm.

With this in mind,

Zhou Xuan closed his eyes to meditate, checking his surroundings every five minutes to see if anything had changed. After three consecutive attempts, there was no change.

"The method is wrong."

Zhou Xuan flipped through the Wash Away Injustice Talisman again, turning to the last page, which recorded the achievements of washing away injustice—No Eye, on August 19th, at Mingdong Shande Hospital in Mingjiang Prefecture, washed away injustice.

Only after washing away injustice meritoriously could one return to the palace!

Zhou Xuan understood the connection, unscrewed his pen, and drew a long horizontal line across the recognized achievement of "No Eye" washing away injustice.

Suddenly, the statements of achievements for washing away injustice disappeared quickly from the Wash Away Injustice Talisman, while Zhou Xuan’s surrounding environment began to change, with the pulsating purple sky and the thriving blood tree...

"I’m in, finally in."

Zhou Xuan breathed a sigh of relief. He had entered the Totem Hall again—the main hall of the Tattoo Clan.

"It turns out that the Wash Away Injustice Talisman and the Stone Plate, when combined, were complete. This Stone Plate can lead to the main hall of tattoos. Does it mean there are many similar Stone Plates in this world that can all merge with the Wash Away Injustice Talisman?

In the complete Washing Away Injustice and Returning to the Palace Talisman, there are pathways to many lost tangkou main halls!"

Zhou Xuan had always suspected that this talisman was not an item of the God Traveling Department. Now it seemed more likely that it originated from a more mysterious organization.

"Since it is an organization, I can’t be the only person with the Wash Away Injustice Talisman in hand... Who might they be?"

...

Zhou Xuan put away the Wash Away Injustice Talisman and walked toward the blood tree. The blood tree now appeared robust, its branches and leaves waving.

He settled on the mat where he first learned tattoos. The Lantern Bride emerged from the Secret Realm and merged with the blood tree.

Because he sat quite low, Zhou Xuan naturally gazed at the purple sky.

The sky, like the walls of the Mother Palace, expanded and contracted rhythmically,

When it expanded, the purple sky became semi-transparent, laced with crisscrossed blood-colored threads resembling veins on palace walls.

But now, Zhou Xuan felt that these vein-like threads were not veins but resembled a tattoo map.

He just couldn’t see it clearly.

"These threads have the aesthetic lines of a pattern, but what exactly do they depict? It’s a bit hard to comprehend..."

"Pa!"

Just as Zhou Xuan was immersed in thought, he was struck on the back by a branch from the blood tree. The branches swayed as leaves rustled angrily, like an old scholar in a private school, seeing a student lose focus and giving a ruler slap, followed by some angry scolding.

"I’m paying attention, stop hitting."

Zhou Xuan felt a bit of pain and a bit amused. He pulled his gaze from the sky and focused on the branches of the blood tree.

At this moment, the blood tree had grown full of baby-like forms again,

and three free branches drooped to the ground like tendrils.

From beneath the fleshy ground, three cracks opened, and three ghostly figures, each carrying an identity, crawled out from the cracks.