Volume 1 Chapter 87 Painted Skin
Second Grandma took out another needle and inserted it into Second Brother’s coccyx.
"This is a Youjing."
The ghost spirit is the second of the three souls, belonging to the earth, also called the earth soul. I concentrated on memorizing, and saw that the second mother-in-law put another needle into the second brother's belly button. This time the second mother-in-law didn't say anything, and I couldn't help asking: "Is this a Shuangling?" The so-called Shuangling is the third soul, Shuangling belongs to the five elements, and is also called the life soul.
Second Granny nodded and said, "That's right. Next is the Corpse Dog." She took a needle and pierced Second Senior Brother's forehead. Corpse Dog is the head of the Seven Souls, located at the top of the head.
The next needle was inserted into the center of the eyebrows, and he said, "This is the second soul, Fu Shi, which is located at the center of the eyebrows. You must remember that although Tai Guang and Fu Shi are both located at the center of the eyebrows, one is deep and the other is shallow, so don't make a mistake."
Fushi Po controls the soul of life, manages the seven souls, and is the master of consciousness. I nodded, my eyes never blinking, remembering everything in my mind.
Second Granny took another long needle and pierced it into the throat. The third soul, Yin Que Soul, was located in the Adam's apple. There was a triangular gap there, and Yin Que Soul was hiding there. This needle pierced and fixed Yin Que Soul.
Then, the second grandmother kept inserting needles, and continued to insert needles into the heart to swallow the thief soul, the fifth non-poison soul, the sixth to remove the filth soul, and the seventh to smell the lung soul. She said: "This first step is called locking the soul. Lock the three souls and seven spirits. Do you remember it clearly?"
Just now, my second mother-in-law deliberately slowed down the speed of needle insertion so that I could see it clearly. I repeated it in my mind, memorized it by heart, and nodded to say I had noted it.
The second grandmother said, "Hand me the scissors."
I took the scissors and saw her hands were rotten and I hesitated. The second mother-in-law took the scissors from me and cut the second brother's lips with the tip of the scissors. The cut left a pale white cut, but no blood flowed out. The second brother did not move at all, and did not even move his eyes.
"Watch carefully." The second grandmother coughed a few times and began to cut from the second brother's lips. Although the movements were not fast, each movement was extremely smooth and clear. I was watching from the side and my scalp was numb and my hair stood on end.
In a short while, the whole pig skin of the second brother was peeled off. The strange thing was that even though the pig skin was peeled off, not a drop of blood flowed from the body, revealing a layer of white flesh, which made people shudder.
I glanced at Second Brother's big eyes, which had lost all their luster. I reached out my hand to check, and found that the poor Second Brother was already dead.
The second grandmother said: "This step is to lock all its energy, spirit and soul into this skin. The pig is dead, but this skin is alive."
I just felt cold sweat all over my back. Although I grew up touching corpses, I had never seen such a weird thing.
"Give me two needles, one long and one short." The second grandmother held out her hand. I quickly took two more needles.
"Look carefully." The second grandmother held a three-edged needle in each hand, one long and one short, and kept stabbing the pig skin. She didn't stab fast, but each needle was very clear, and the needle passed through without stopping.
As soon as I saw her needlework, I felt very familiar with it. I had practiced this needlework technique day and night with my uncle before, and I was so familiar with it. My second grandmother said that my needlework technique was called the picking needle technique, and Heimao said that the picking needle technique was my second grandmother's unique skill. Did I really learn the picking needle technique? Then how did my uncle know it?
"Concentrate on your memory and don't let your mind wander." Second Grandma said as she gave the needle.
My heart skipped a beat, and I quickly collected my thoughts. I had already mastered the technique of inserting the needle, and I only needed to concentrate on memorizing the location of the needle.
I kept a mental note until the second grandmother took out the needles, and then I breathed a sigh of relief. The second grandmother inserted 360 needles in total, and the needles were all over the pig skin. Then I saw an extremely strange scene. I saw that the pig skin that was originally shriveled and lying on the ground seemed to be inflated. At a glance, it felt like the pig skin was about to stand up on its own.
I was sweating coldly and was about to ask Second Grandma what she was doing when I heard the cow nose suddenly scream loudly: "Painted...Painted skin! It's painted skin! Who are you! How can you paint skin?" The voice was full of fear and it was creepy.
The second grandmother coughed a few times and said, "I am just a cobbler."
The bull nose made a gurgling sound in its throat and said sternly, "Impossible! How could you be an ordinary leatherworker? Who are you and why do you know such a magic trick?"
I was totally confused and didn't understand what they were talking about, but it was obvious that Niu Bizi, who had been very arrogant before, looked like he had seen something extremely terrifying. His eyes were wide open and even his face turned ashen.
Second Grandma had just been skinning and giving acupuncture, and it was obvious that she was extremely exhausted. Her already pale face had become even paler. She asked me to put her gloves back on for her and helped her to sit down on a chair.
After resting for a while, he said, "Strip the Taoist's clothes and wrap him with this skin." After saying this, he closed his eyes, his face full of fatigue.
She used such a pair of hands to force herself to do these things. It was simply an inhuman torture. I'm afraid no normal person can endure it. Although I was very confused about what she was going to do with this strange skin, I didn't ask anything. I picked up the skin from the ground and walked towards the cow's nose.
As soon as the bull nose saw the skin in my hand, his face turned pale, and he kept twisting on the ground, screaming loudly: "How dare you use such a magic! You...you are unforgivable! Don't come over! We can discuss it...we can discuss it!"
I held the strange pig skin in my hand and felt a chilling air spreading from my fingertips, as if I were touching a poisonous snake, slippery, clammy and cold.
I was very surprised by the performance of this guy. He was very arrogant before, and I never saw him so scared even when I dragged him out of the corpse room.
"You bunch of demons and monsters, you dare to use this kind of evil method, you will die without a burial place in the future!" The man surnamed Chen kept shrinking back.
The second grandmother said, "First, use the needle to fix his soul."
I said yes, took a few quick steps, and regardless of what the bull nose was yelling, I took out a needle and followed the second mother-in-law's method to pierce the bull nose's forehead. The bull nose opened his mouth wide and froze immediately. I made sure that he could no longer move, then I untied the rope on him and stripped him cleanly.
Then he wrapped the pig skin in his hand around him. Strangely enough, once the skin was on him, it immediately stuck tightly to him, almost like a living thing.
I was so scared that I let go and stepped back a few steps, and saw that the skin wrapped around the naked body of the ox nose was shrinking tighter and tighter. The ox nose struggled painfully, and finally could not make a single sound.
The skin continued to shrink, curling the nose inside. Gradually, the figure of the man with the nose could no longer be seen. The whole person was wrapped in the skin, and then he lay on his hands and knees on all fours.
I looked pale and my hair stood on end. The man in front of me was no longer a human being, but a fat pig.
I only heard the second grandmother cough a few times and said weakly: "Help me over."
I hurried over to help her. She asked for a few more needles, and sealed the three souls and seven spirits of the ox nose one by one. But this time the technique was different from before. The silver needles were completely immersed in the body, and no trace could be seen from the outside.
After ten injections of the three souls and seven spirits, the cow nose was completely transformed into a pig, shaking its round belly and standing up tremblingly. Fear appeared in its eyes, and it opened its mouth to scream, but only a series of grunting sounds came out. It turned around and ran out, on all fours, rushed to the door, staggered, fell, then got up and continued to run.
My palms were full of cold sweat and I felt terrified. Although I have seen many strange things, this incident really made my hands and feet numb. I almost suspected that what I saw was just a nightmare.
I turned around and took a peek at the second grandmother. I saw her narrow eyes slightly narrowed and she coughed from time to time. When I heard that ox-nosed man say "painted skin", I couldn't help but think of something I had heard before.
