Acai's Sky

Chapter 884 The Little Nun Going Down the Mountain 26

The figures changed, and the illusion instantly turned into a study, with only the master and the disciple in it.

As soon as the tip of Taoist Master Fusheng's whisk touched the "Purple Star Astrology" on the desk, he saw Ah Cai jumping towards the door like a little leopard whose tail was stepped on.

He looked at the small Taoist robe fluttering in the candlelight, and his brows furrowed even deeper - this girl grew up in Xu Ming Temple since she was a child. She didn't learn anything else, but she was better than his father at being lazy.

"Qingxuan!"

The tassel of the whisk suddenly straightened, like an iron ruler, three inches in front of Ah Cai's eyes. "Do you think the 'Beidou Enchanting Illusion' set up by previous temple masters is a joke? When my master took me in, he was thrown into the Forgetful River in the illusion and soaked for three days and three nights."

He tapped the bronze compass on the stone table with his fingertips, and the patterns of the twenty-eight constellations suddenly glowed. "How could you be so good? You just touched the 'Tong Family Secret Records' and you're already trying to slip away. Do you think this is a storytelling stall on West Street?"

Ah Cai stuck out her tongue, twisting the tassel of the jade pendant at her waist with her fingers. "Master, look, I'm in a hurry to get to Cha Bo's house! Besides, even Xiao Jia in the illusion was so nervous that he stuttered. How could I have thought it was fake?"

She suddenly caught sight of the unusually bright Tianshu star on the compass. With a quick glance, she pointed out the window and shouted, "Look! There's a shooting star!"

Taoist Fusheng had been prepared for this move. With a flick of his whisk, the teacup on the table suddenly flew up and landed steadily in front of Ah Cai's nose. "Don't try that. Do you know why you can't feel the pulse correctly in this illusion?"

His fingertips traced the "Twin Lotus" pattern on the compass, and his voice suddenly dropped. "Because you hope from the bottom of your heart that the skeleton is real, that you really do have a sister. I have lived for a hundred years, and I understand the word 'hope' in people's hearts best. It is the most confusing."

Ah Cai's face suddenly turned red, and her toes rubbed unconsciously against the cracks in the blue bricks.

She had indeed stared at the wrist birthmark in a daze in the dream world, and even secretly wondered, what if she really had a twin sister...

But now, after hearing the Taoist priest point it out, I felt as embarrassed as if someone had opened the candy box under my pillow.

"That's all."

Taoist Fusheng suddenly smiled, and with a flick of his whisk, the stars on the compass turned into tiny fireflies. "You, girl, after all, take the word 'love' too seriously. The Bo Mansion, the baby exchange, and the twin lotus in the illusion are all born out of the obsession in your heart—"

He suddenly stared at the red lotus birthmark on Ah Cai's shoulder, his eyes burning. "This birthmark isn't a Tong family birthmark at all. It's the scar you got when you fell from a tree when you were seven. Have you forgotten? To make you remember this, Sister Fuxia specially applied some medicine to preserve it!"

Ah Cai suddenly touched her shoulder. In reality, there was no red lotus birthmark on her shoulder. Everything in the illusion was a web woven by the master of the temple using fragments of her memory.

She suddenly remembered how Xiao Yi always touched his cuffs when he was nervous in the illusion, and the wound on A Da's wristband that was always bleeding. It turned out that she had been working with paper puppets on a daily basis, and the master of the temple used them to make the silk threads of the illusion.

With a loud "bang", the illusion was shattered. Ah Cai felt dizzy and when she opened her eyes again, she found herself sitting on the wooden bed in Sihai Inn.

The oil lamp on the desk flickered. 00541 was using its tail to roll peanuts into Xiaoyi's mouth. Seeing her awaken, its mechanical eyes lit up. "Host, the illusion lasted thirty-six hours, consuming eighteen medium-grade spirit stones. The temple master deducted three months' salary from your salary during the settlement."

"What?!"

Ah Cai jumped up, nearly hitting her head against the beam. "That old Taoist priest actually deducted my spiritual stones?! I was exhausted digging holes and burning houses in the illusion, and he just raised the price--"

Before he could finish his words, he saw Xiaojia studying his cuffs in front of a bronze mirror, his fingertips repeatedly rubbing the non-existent ink stains. He couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Master, the secret letters in the illusion were all written by the master of the temple using the 'Soul-Capture Pen'. Otherwise, do you really think you can steal the Snow Wave Paper from the Minister of Personnel's residence?"

Ah Er scratched the tip of his ear, his face still stained with moss from the "illusion." "But I clearly think the basement smells worse than the real thing!"

Tong Jiayuan poured a cup of hot tea, smiled and shook his head through the tea mist: "The abbot used the 'Rotten Bone Fragrance', which can even deceive people's sense of smell - but you didn't even notice that the puppets can't bleed. You really have been bewitched by the illusion."

As everyone talked one after another, Ah Cai was shocked to realize that there were flaws everywhere in the illusion: Xiao Yi, as a puppet, would never be really nervous, but he crushed three peanuts in the illusion; there should be a sound of gears turning every time Ah Da's knife was unsheathed, but in the illusion it made a sound of wind like a real knife; the most obvious thing was that she knew that the puppets of Xu Ming Temple had no sense of pain, but she panicked about Ah Da's "bloodstain" in the illusion.

"So we're acting out a big drama in this illusion, and the whole thing is a script made up by the temple master using our daily lives?"

The golden raccoon dog slumped in the chair, its tail lashing weakly. "I was wondering why I suddenly became afraid of zongzi. I guess the master dug up my memory of the host telling me ghost stories when I was a child."

Ah Cai held her chin and stared at the oil lamp. She suddenly remembered the figure of the old marquis kneeling in front of the ancestral hall in the illusion, and the white hair at Du Yanran's temples. Those details that she regarded as the truth were actually illusions she had created about the "original owner's life experience."

Taoist Fusheng was right. She was so eager to know the original owner's origins that she believed in every clue in the illusion.

"Miss," Aunt Rong came in with a refreshing soup. Seeing her dazed look, she couldn't help but laugh. "The abbot is worried that you've just entered the mortal world and are blinded by human feelings. Think about it, if you really encountered an evil cultivator who can control people's hearts, how could you be so flawed as in this illusion?"

Ah Cai took the soup bowl and suddenly saw the shadow of a whisk on the window paper - Taoist Fusheng was standing under the locust tree outside the window, and the compass was glowing in the moonlight.

She suddenly understood that this illusion test was a net woven by the master of the temple using the original owner's "obsession" to see if she could keep her original heart between reality and illusion.

"Oh, right," Tong Jiayuan flipped through the fake secret record he'd "brought back" from the illusion, and suddenly pointed to a blank page. "The abbot left a note in the illusion: 'The real Pingkang Marquis's Mansion is in Huai'an Lane, west of the city. Tomorrow at 9:00 PM, we'll know for sure.'"

00541 suddenly jumped onto the windowsill and looked at the lights of the thousands of houses in Kyoto City: "Host, do you think that seeing the real Bo Mansion tomorrow will be more thrilling than the illusion?"

Ah Cai blew away the steam from the soup bowl and suddenly laughed: "Who cares! Anyway, I've remembered this time: puppets don't feel pain, intelligent robots don't bleed, and most importantly—"

She made a face at the window shadow, "If you dare to deduct my spirit stones again, I will steal the abbot's 'Big Dipper Sword' and sell it for scrap metal!"

The crackling sound of the oil lamp wicks cast a swaying shadow across the room. As Ah Cai watched her companions packing up the puppet parts and listened to Golden Raccoon mutter, "The peanuts in the illusion are more delicious than the real ones," she suddenly felt a warmth in her chest. Even if it was just an illusion, the time they'd spent together digging pits, breaking formations, and bickering was a real bond.

Outside the window, the shadow of Taoist Fusheng's whisk swayed gently, as if sighing silently.

He knew that this girl would eventually understand that what was most confusing was never the illusion, but the inability to let go in people's hearts.

And the real test has just begun - the Bo Mansion in Huaian Lane, west of the city, is waiting for this girl with a puppet and obsession to uncover the real undercurrent.

Ah Cai poured out the cold refreshing soup and suddenly noticed a medium-grade spirit stone on the desk. Next to it was a note written in the master's flying white script: "I withheld your spirit stone because I'm afraid you'll squander it in the mortal world. I'll borrow this stone temporarily. Tomorrow, when you go to the Bo's Mansion, don't squander money again."

She touched the seal of the master on the spirit stone and couldn't help laughing out loud - although the old Taoist priest was strict in words, he still loved her.

Before blowing out the oil lamp, she whispered to the locust tree outside the window, "Don't worry, this time I will be able to distinguish the real from the fake and keep my heart."

As the night deepened, the wooden door of the Sihai Inn creaked. A dark figure was tiptoeing towards the courtyard where the abbot was temporarily staying. Ah Cai decided to go and "reclaim" the confiscated spirit stones tonight, and also to see how many secrets the abbot's compass still held...