Chapter 756: Gardening
The old man’s dance ended in the dark, and lost souls returned to the mirror. The elder lowered his hands. He seemed to dance with his life. Every dance detailed his life. The hollows stared blankly at the mirror. The special presence of the elder slowly disappeared. His back bent further, his white hair fell, and he had more wrinkles.
“Sir, can I try using the stage?” Han Fei didn’t know how to dance, but he had a photographic memory and absolute control of his body. He had memorized the elder’s every move.
“Of course, you can. Even if you don’t join us in the end, you can come to dance any time.” The elder slowly snapped back to reality. He turned and spoke in the direction where Han Fei’s voice came from.
“Okay.” Han Fei didn’t stand on ceremony. He wanted to complete the mission as soon as possible. Then, he’d explore this place further when his Life Points recovered. Han Fei put away Rest in Peace and stood in the middle of the stage. He was an actor, so he was familiar with all kinds of stages. He had once performed in an audience-less venue.
His arms were like ripples on a lake as they slowly expanded. Han Fei perfectly combined the suppleness and strength of the human body. He focused on the elder’s every move. At first, Han Fei was only doing this for the mission, but as he continued to dance, the actions appeared to be calling him. It was like a wave sweeping him along. ‘This is the dance of the cryptic world.’ The Ghost Tattoo was triggered. He stopped trying to copy the elder but started to express the innate power in the dance moves. As Han Fei expected, the elder’s dance wasn’t a normal dance but some kind of ritual. When Han Fei was halfway through, grey shadows appeared on the mirrors around him. The blurry faces showed up. The temperature in the room dropped. Han Fei was too focused on the dance to notice these.
As the dance continued, Han Fei started to hear whispers, and the scene before him changed. The normal mirrors started to reflect gory scenes. There were deaths, despair, and massacres. Every horror was around an altar. The altar was very special. It was made from human body parts. The base was a collection of human arms, and the door was a split-open human chest. When Han Fei tried to look through their door, his eyes felt pricked by needles. His actions slowed but to complete the mission, Han Fei resisted the pain and continued. The whispers faded away, and the mirrors returned to normal. In the end, only Han Fei and the elder remained in the mirrors. The altar was gone. Han Fei finished the last move and then sat on the stage. His back was soaked, and his face was covered in a cold sweat. He felt like he had just brushed with death.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve finished the dance and obtained Beginner Dance Skill. You’ve learned Grade E Unique Dance—Sinner.
“Dance Skill: You can level up this skill by focusing on the art of dance. If you use skill points to upgrade this, the ceiling is Advanced Dance.
“Sinner: You’re a shackled sinner dancing on a stage with no audience. The dance is a ritual for the souls you’ve once killed.
“Warning! This dance has a chance to attract lost souls or temporarily increase stamina, intelligence, and San Value. You can only use it once every 24 hours.”
When the notification came, Han Fei felt that everything was worth it.
“That was not bad. You have the talent.” The elder looked at Han Fei, and he nodded with satisfaction.
“You can’t see, so how can you tell?”
“Your dance has touched many souls, and I can hear them. A good dance is not just pretty and difficult sets.” The elder extended his finger. “The communication with the world through one’s soul and body… that is my understanding of dance.”
“Sir, can I learn dancing from you?” Han Fei was curious about the elder’s identity, but he wouldn’t be dumb enough to ask for it directly. He wanted to befriend him first.
“You want to learn from me?” The old man hesitated. “My dance can attract misfortune. Are you sure about this?”
“I am.” Han Fei replied confidently.
“Then I can’t teach you.” The elder appeared to be in a better mood after he met Han Fei. “You can try the other hobbies. I can sense that your real interest is not dancing.”
They left the dance studio. Han Fei returned to the calligraphy room. He entered the room filled with Death.
“This is where a few of our members like to stay, but they haven’t returned for a long time already. I wonder where they are.” The elder stood outside the door, holding the black umbrella.
Han Fei looked around the room. He needed to find the most unique death. Since he had no time limit, Han Fei sat down and slowly studied every word. At first, Han Fei didn’t feel anything, but eventually, his heart started to feel anxious. After staring at the same word for an extended period of time, the word would feel unfamiliar. After staying in the room for half an hour, Han Fei felt like he couldn’t recognize Death anymore. In his eyes, the Deaths were changing shapes.
“Calligraphy is an art that reflects life. The author’s emotions are soaked into the writing. Every death here is like a bloody knife. There’s a life behind every writing.” Han Fei didn’t know calligraphy, but he had interacted with many ghosts before. When the characters shifted, he took out Rest in Peace. The blade glowed, and Han Fei started to examine the characters closer. Then, he used Rest in Peace to write over the characters. The blade could sense murder. Most of the Death carried hatred and death. Han Fei spent almost an hour in the room. When Han Fei planned to cut off the last Death on the back of the door, the light on Rest in Peace faded away. “Rest in Peace doesn’t want to destroy that character.”
This Death was hidden in the most inconspicuous corner, but it was very different from the other Deaths. It didn’t carry any negative emotions. When Han Fei noticed that, the other Deaths turned into dead human faces. They looked coldly at Han Fei. They wanted to tear down Han Fei’s face.
Han Fei couldn’t hesitate. He wanted to gouge out the special Death character, but the word slowly morphed into a child’s soul.
“His name is Puppy. He’s a child a member picked up. He’s very cowardly and quite naïve. Don’t hurt him.” The elder remembered something and shouted into the room. Han Fei stopped moving. The dead people stared at him. As long as he didn’t harm Puppy, the dead wouldn’t harm him too.
“Notification for Player 0000. You’ve found the most unique Death. You’ve obtained Beginner Calligraphy Skill and a new Death script.
“Calligraphy: A basic hobby. It doesn’t match you.
“Death Script: Using a special script to write divine blessing might lead to an unexpected result.”
Han Fei noticed that the hobbies in the cryptic world could change many things. If used well, they could be as effective as hidden professions.
“It looks like I have to cultivate many hobbies.”
Han Fei had completed two of three mission requirements. He walked to the elder and the black umbrella. They moved to the garden. Compared to the previous two rooms, this place was more direct. Every flower was a person.
‘The mission requires me to pick a flower while ensuring that it doesn’t wilt.’
It felt weird entering the garden. The soul was planted with dead bodies. The cracked skulls were planted neatly.
“Which of you would like to leave with me?” Han Fei used Cursed Words to converse with the ‘plants’. The soul flowers trembled. They slowly awakened and turned to look at Han Fei. Han Fei had no idea how a flower made from humans could bloom, and he didn’t want to know either. If possible, he wanted to bring all the ‘flowers’ away from this place. The black rain fell on the ground. The black rain seeped into the souls. They tried to escape from the cracked skulls, but the black rain was like a thread that tied them to their carcasses. The only option to seek release was to ‘bloom’. Then their souls would break, and they’d find release.
Han Fei grabbed the shovel and planned to dig out the bodies, but the souls showed intense fear.
Hearing the voice, the elder also advised, “If you break the flower roots, then they can’t bloom anymore.”
“I’m just trying to apply the more modern gardening method, the soilless cultivation.” Han Fei dug up the ground. He saw the blood vessels criss-crossing underneath. The blood vessels connected the dead bodies. If one body were disturbed, the nearby bodies would be affected too.
“Don’t mess up the garden. If the gardener finds out, she’ll be very mad!” The elder held the iron gate and urged Han Fei to leave.
“Is the gardener a member here too?”
“Yes. Based on her voice, she should be a very small and kind old lady. But we never hear from anyone who made her angry again.” The elder warned.
“In that case…” Han Fei looked at the garden. Those people were probably buried here already. His rationality told him to be careful, but he was one step away from completing the mission. Han Fei replaced the shovel and used his hands to part the blood vessels. He tried to save one of the bodies. It was better than nothing. However, before he could do anything, the elder suddenly became silent, and Han Fei felt a chill coming from his back.
He turned to look around. A giant shadow had appeared at the entrance of the back alley. A monster about three meters tall with a large body showed up. She dragged a dead body with her left hand. Her fingers clutched the body’s skull like a toy. Her right hand was engorged with the curse of the dead.
“What are you doing?” A disproportionate voice came out from the gardener’s lips. She sounded like a neighborly grandma.
Han Fei held the blood vessels and froze. The blind elder held the umbrella and quietly moved to the side. He looked lost.
