Chapter 338: Little Tian Fu’s Painting
"Those two aren’t children, and they aren’t fools. If Lan Ying and I figured it out, there’s no way they haven’t."
Thinking back on why they’d grown suspicious of the Divine Hall Spirit, Lan Yin was sure Mo Yan and Feng Xuan could figure it out too.
Yu An’s interest was piqued. "How did you two figure it out? Han Li only realized it after he recovered his strength and memories."
"There were just too many suspicious things about it," Lan Yin said with a shrug. "It’s supposedly the soul of the temple, yet the temple can’t function without Lan Ying and me."
"Also, the Divine Hall Spirit is supposed to enter the Heaven and Earth Illusion Realm to ’sweep and clean’ at regular intervals. That’s a job only the Divine Hall Spirit can do, yet it actually had *us* do it."
The Divine Hall Spirit’s excuse was that it had bestowed its authority upon Lan Yin and Lan Ying, but Lan Yin had asked some of the elderly Merfolk in the temple, and they had never heard of anything like that being possible.
After all, you couldn’t just enter the Heaven and Earth Illusion Realm whenever you wanted. Outsiders had to wait for a specific time to get in.
Only the Divine Hall Spirit had unrestricted access.
In their past life, they hadn’t stayed in the temple for very long before they chased after Yu An to the Beastman World, so they never noticed anything strange about the Divine Hall Spirit.
"Then I’m not worried," Yu An said, finally able to relax. "Those two aren’t stupid."
The main reason for staying in Earth Geography City had been to wait for Fuzai. Now that she was back, Yu An thought for a moment and decided to head to Tianhuan City.
Ao Wu had told her that Master Tian seemed quite displeased with Tian Fu. That day, he had been both openly and subtly trying to slander him.
’The enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ Yu An thought. ’Maybe I can team up with Master Tian.’
’First things first, I need to take care of Tian Fu, that old monster who’s lived for who-knows-how-many years.’
Besides, Meng Fanxin and He’er were still slumbering in her storage space. Back in the Illusion Realm on the Divine Mountain, she had only been able to bring the two of them out.
’And there was that drawing of the young Tian Fu... Ugh, where did I put that thing?’
There was so much stuff in her space. Fortunately, she just had to ask the Cloud Beast, who quickly retrieved the drawing for her.
The drawing depicted an apple tree and lush green grass. In the tree, you could see the back of a small figure.
Just that alone would have made it look full of childish innocence, but the sun in the upper-right corner—the one with a human face—was utterly terrifying.
It wasn’t a simple stick-figure drawing like ’^_^’, but a hyper-realistic human face. Someone with a weak constitution would probably drop dead if they looked at it for too long.
Han Li leaned in. "An’an, what are you looking at—AAGH! That’s terrifying!"
He too was frightened by the sun. His yelp of "AAGH!" made Han Fengyun, who was in the middle of cooking, flinch and jerk his hand.
"Han Li! Why are you so jumpy all of a sudden!"
He scolded Han Li, casually wrapped the finger he’d just cut, and went back to cooking.
Previously, he would have sought comfort from Mo Yan, but now her attention was completely consumed by her ’brother and sister-in-law,’ and she had no time for them.
With Zaizai ignoring him, Ao Wu also came over. "It’s just a human face, isn’t it? Is it really that scary?"
"Ahem," Han Li said, a bit embarrassed. "Actually... it’s not *that* scary."
Yu An explained the drawing’s origin to them, as well as the few words the young Tian Fu had mumbled.
’She’d been going crazy at the time. He just kept saying she had to grant his wish, but he never said what the wish was. Just spit it out already!’
"An’an, here’s what I think."
Ao Wu stroked his chin. "Anything that isn’t stated clearly gets zero points. Just pretend he didn’t say anything and save yourself the headache."
Yu An: "..."
’And here she thought Ao Wu might say something useful. Was he grading an exam or something?’
"Shoo, shoo," Yu An said, waving him away dismissively. "Go find a cool corner to stand in and stop bothering me."
Ao Wu bit on his little handkerchief and fell silent.
"Oh, right," Yu An suddenly recalled. "He also mentioned divination. He said he divined my presence there."
"I’ve heard about that," said Lan Yin. "The Tian Family has a special bloodline passed down from their ancestors. The one who inherits it can divine all matters under heaven. However, the bloodline is extremely difficult to inherit. It’s considered a miracle if even one person in a generation awakens it."
Han Li was curious. "Doesn’t the Tian Family raise Gu? When did they get involved with fortune-telling?"
Lan Yin shot him a look. "I just said it’s rarely inherited. If they didn’t learn some new skills, the Tian Family would have died out long ago."
’So it seems Tian Fu inherited this bloodline. The question is whether the one who inherited it was Tian Fu himself, or the owner of the body he’s currently in.’
Just before they left the Illusion Realm, Tian Fu had said he was using this body to resurrect his soul. So the one who framed Meng Fanxin for having an affair must have been him, not her biological son.
’In that case, was the young Tian Fu drawing in that little courtyard the soul of this body?’
’Does that mean the body’s true owner isn’t dead yet, just suppressed somewhere within it?’
Yu An thought of Lan Yin and Lan Ying. Their situation was quite similar.
Lan Yin nodded in agreement. "An’an, Lan Ying and I used to be two souls in one body. When I was in control of the body, Lan Ying’s soul would be in the temple, and vice versa."
"The body’s real owner could still be inside it, or he could be somewhere else. Both are possible."
He paused before continuing, "But the temple could protect Lan Ying’s soul from dissipating. If Little Tian’s soul isn’t bound to some object, it will slowly fade away."
And there are requirements for the object it’s bound to. It must be nourished with Heart Blood.
"Heart Blood..."
Yu An muttered to herself, "Let me think... where did Little Tian stab himself again?"
’I think it was right over his heart.’
Yu An studied the drawing again. She wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, but the small figure in the tree seemed to have moved.
When she rubbed her eyes and looked again, the figure was unchanged. She had the others look, but none of them saw it move either.
Yu An didn’t think her eyes were playing tricks on her. She felt that perhaps Little Tian’s soul really was inside the drawing.
’The apple tree must represent the father, Tian Pingyue. The green grass, the mother, Meng Fanxin. And the child in the tree would naturally be Little Tian.’
’As for that evil, human-faced sun...’ Yu An figured that must be the current Tian Fu.
But since none of them had any experience with this sort of thing, they were at a loss for what to do.
Yu An put the drawing away for now, deciding to deal with it after they got to Tianhuan City.
Previously, when Meng Fanxin had mentioned Tian Pingyue, her eyes had filled with fondness. Yu An wondered what kind of person he was.
"Female Mother! Female Mother!" Fuzai came barreling over like a little cannonball. "I heard you say we’re going to Tianhuan City! Is it true?"
"It’s true," Yu An said, picking her up. "Fu Fu, do you like it there a lot?"
Fuzai nodded, then shook her head. "I don’t like any place. I only like being with Female Mother."
"But there’s a grandpa in Tianhuan City who helped me. We promised that I would go visit him when I had time."
She chattered away, telling Yu An all about how the man had helped her. As she listened, Yu An suddenly heard a familiar title.
"Fu Fu, who was this grandpa who helped you?"
Fuzai thought for a moment. "I don’t know the grandpa’s name, only that his surname is Tian. A lot of people called him Second Master."
The only person in the Tian Family who would be called ’Second Master’ was Master Tian’s younger brother, Tian Pingyue.