After Swapping Identities With My Archenemy - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Paper Figurines Carry the Sedan Chair

The sky was a dull gray, and the distant mountains seemed to blend with the mist, making it impossible to tell how far away they were.

When Jiang Huaiyi opened her eyes again, she found herself standing on a winding, narrow path.

The surrounding scenery was covered in a layer of gray; every color seemed to be painted over with a gray pigment.

The path was a bit muddy. Jiang Huaiyi sighed as she looked at the cloth shoes on her feet, which had inexplicably changed, and began walking forward.

A new task had started, but the fine silk paper had no instructions.

As soon as she entered, she realized Shen Wensi was not by her side and had no idea where she had been transported.

Her clothes had also been replaced with rough cloth garments. It looked like an ancient world, and a rather impoverished one at that.

Her body, inside the scroll, seemed to have improved; she no longer felt the chest tightness and shortness of breath she had experienced outside.

The scroll was very considerate, transporting all her fruits and magical artifacts inside and storing them in a cloth bag on her back—a truly bizarre occurrence.

After being confined to a sickbed for so long, Jiang Huaiyi felt incredibly refreshed from the physical activity.

She walked along the winding path. It seemed to have just rained, and the air was filled with the smell of earth, mixed with another, somewhat indescribable scent.

It was like the smell of burning incense from the large families she and her martial uncle used to see during Taoist rituals, back when the paper effigy business hadn’t declined yet.

But how could such a smell drift so far? Jiang Huaiyi’s steps halted, and she looked around.

All around her was a grayish mist, and visibility was extremely low. She couldn’t tell which way to go. This feeling was like a car’s sensors being covered, causing it to back up until it hit a wall, and by then it was too late.

Fortunately, Jiang Huaiyi was very careful where she stepped. Sometimes, as she walked, the path in front of her would suddenly turn into a steep slope.

She cautiously pulled back her foot, avoiding a misstep, but this also slowed her progress considerably.

As she searched for a way out, the gray sky gradually darkened.

Jiang Huaiyi was not in a hurry, as she didn’t sense any eerie, cold aura around her.

So, her timid nature didn’t get the better of her. Seeing the sky gradually darken, she took out a piece of paper from her backpack, cut out a paper figurine, and asked it for directions.

This time, she didn’t care if it was a little dog or some other monster; the most urgent task was to get her out of here.

Because she only had one destination.

The paper figurine quickly came to life in her hands. It first adorably rubbed against her finger, then, as a tiny figure with hands on its hips, it began to point the way.

There were no wrong turns along the way, and although Jiang Huaiyi still paid attention to her steps, her speed increased significantly.

The sky grew even heavier, with low-hanging dark clouds that seemed close enough to touch.

It looked like it was going to rain soon. Following the direction pointed by the paper figurine, Jiang Huaiyi finally saw a faintly visible village in the dense fog.

She hurried towards it. The sky was now almost as dark as night.

She stood before a large town. The dense fog outside seemed to be held back by the town itself.

It enveloped the town but couldn’t enter. At the entrance was a huge stone slab with four words carved on it in a flamboyant script: “Immortal’s Abode.”

Jiang Huaiyi stared at the stone monument, squinting, and felt that something was very wrong here.

How could a regular town have such a presumptuous name?

Looking at the somewhat extravagant buildings on the street, she felt a bit more at ease. After all, entering a scroll was already a very strange thing.

Now, seeing anything inside should not surprise her. Since a person had already come in, what else could possibly not happen?

A touch from the paper figurine came from her hand. She tapped the center of its forehead, thanked it, and the small paper figurine floated down, completely exhausted. She placed it into her sleeve. From a certain perspective, she was now a full-fledged “paper person” herself.

Jiang Huaiyi tidied her belongings, tightened the straps on her backpack, and cautiously walked into the town.

The moment her feet touched the bluestone path, she had a fleeting illusion of being back at Xinmin Village. The instant her feet landed, sounds rushed in like a tide.

They engulfed her in the bustling town.

Even though it was late, the town was still lively. The streets were bustling with people, and there were even cries of vendors selling their wares.

She was startled and stumbled to the side, accidentally kicking over a broken bamboo basket.

The commotion was not small, and people nearby looked over with curiosity. Their gazes were strange, as if they were looking at some peculiar object, making Jiang Huaiyi feel very uncomfortable.

She gave an awkward laugh, righted the basket, and quickly walked away.

She tried her best not to attract attention along the way. The town seemed very large, with all the roads intersecting.

She found a corner and took out the fine silk paper again to read it. There were still no prompts on it, only the sentence she saw before entering.

This made Jiang Huaiyi feel a bit discouraged. She didn’t know what the problem was. She had already entered, so why did it feel like the mission hadn’t started?

She was now standing in a small alley. The sky outside had completely darkened. A flash of lightning streaked across the sky, making the ground as bright as day, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.

Jiang Huaiyi frowned. It seemed like it was going to rain soon. She rummaged through her body and found that she hadn’t brought an umbrella. All her modern equipment, such as her phone and umbrella, had not been brought in, so she couldn’t contact Shen Wensi.

Jiang Huaiyi walked out of the alley with a worried expression. The moment she emerged, a strong hand roughly yanked her into a corner against the wall.

The sky outside had completely darkened, and the only sources of light were the candles and lanterns on the street.

Jiang Huaiyi felt that she was pulled by this great force with no power to resist. She hadn’t clearly seen the owner of the hand and was about to struggle fiercely.

But then she heard a familiar voice from behind her: “Don’t move! It’s me!”

It was Shen Wensi. Her voice was very soft. If the surroundings hadn’t been so quiet, Jiang Huaiyi probably wouldn’t have heard her at all.

She immediately quieted down. The person behind her, who had been holding her tightly, gradually relaxed her grip when she saw that Jiang Huaiyi was no longer struggling.

They were very close, their breaths almost intertwined. Jiang Huaiyi could hear the heavy breathing of the person behind her.

It was as if she had just gone through some strenuous exercise or a terrifying event, but based on her experience, she leaned toward the former.

Jiang Huaiyi wanted to say something, but the person behind her still hadn’t taken her hand away from her face. Sensing that she was about to open her mouth, the person immediately covered her mouth again nervously.

She stopped trying to speak. The two of them remained quiet, huddled behind a pile of grass in the corner.

Because she had been pulled so quickly, Jiang Huaiyi was now sitting entirely on Shen Wensi’s lap. She squirmed uncomfortably, wanting to change her position.

The arm around her instantly tightened, holding her so she couldn’t move.

Jiang Huaiyi had no choice but to completely stay still, watching the outside world to see if there was anything unusual.

Soon, she felt a gust of cold wind rush toward her, making her limbs feel as if they were plunging into an ice cave.

If the person behind her hadn’t been warm, she would have suspected she had walked into a cellar in the dead of winter.

She heard the crisp sound of wood knocking on the ground from a distance, slowly approaching.

The people on the street were still bustling, seemingly completely oblivious to the sound.

Jiang Huaiyi was held captive and couldn’t move. She could only use the corner of her eye to see where the sound was coming from.

Soon, she found out what was making those sounds. She saw a group of paper figurines dressed in funeral clothes carrying several tall, red sedan chairs, moving swiftly toward them.

The paper figurines had pale faces but very red lips, and they wore a strange, eerie smile. They seemed to feel no weight on their shoulders; they were not so much walking as floating.

On the sedan chairs were a few people holding red oil-paper umbrellas and wearing coir rain capes, their faces obscured.

The black rain capes almost completely covered the bottom of the sedan chairs.

Beneath the sedan chair was a long bamboo pole that was now making a “clack-clack-clack” sound as it quickly moved towards them. When the sound of the bamboo poles hitting the ground became denser, it sounded more like the clatter of horse hooves.

The paper figurines’ movements were perfectly synchronized, as if they had all been pre-designed. Every movement had no extra flourish, which looked very bizarre.

Jiang Huaiyi’s mind recalled the shadow puppet shows she used to watch as a child. The movements of those soulless puppets were also controlled by the hands behind them.

They came from the mist, but Jiang Huaiyi’s vision seemed unaffected by it, allowing her to see everything directly.

She even saw a man dressed similarly to her in the mist, who happened to run into this strange procession of paper figurines.

He first sniffed the air a few times, then walked step by step toward where the paper figurines were.

He seemed completely unaware of the eerie scene in front of him. The smile on the sedan-chair-bearing figurines’ faces gradually widened.

The two paper figurines at the front bent slightly, tilting the sedan chair forward at a strange 45-degree angle.

The person wearing the rain cape on the sedan chair leaned their entire head toward the man’s face.

It was then that Jiang Huaiyi noticed something else unusual: the person’s head was four or five times the size of a normal person’s head.

The man, still sniffing the air, was completely unaware that danger was near. He slowly offered his head under the head of the person on the sedan chair.

Jiang Huaiyi saw the coir cape open a pitch-black mouth and bite off the man’s head in one gulp.

The man didn’t even have time to make a sound. Blood spurted from his neck, forming a small fountain two or three meters high. He fell straight down, completely lifeless.

Jiang Huaiyi instinctively made a move, but the powerful grip from behind her held her in check, preventing any large movements.

The paper figurines in front of them passed by with a “clatter,” seemingly not noticing them at all.

Only after those things had gone far away did Shen Wensi completely release her.

Jiang Huaiyi’s face, which had just regained its color, turned pale again.

Looking at the ground soaked with blood outside, she took Shen Wensi’s outstretched hand, gasped for breath, and shakily stood up.

The fine silk paper, which had been pulled out of her sleeve during her struggle, was now held by Shen Wensi. Two more sentences had appeared on it.

“Save the living, return to the mortal world.”

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