Chapter 890: Chapter 890: Three Treasures Eunuch Goes to the Western Seas Chapter 890: Chapter 890: Three Treasures Eunuch Goes to the Western Seas At this ti, after Huang Xiaolong’s ghost puppet devoured all the ferocious ghosts within this haunted house, including the Ghost King, it had completed its evolution!
This creature stood about ten ters tall, piercing a large hole through the roof of the ancient mansion with its pitch-black iron-like body that shimred with a cold tallic luster. It had a pair of huge, bat-like wings on its back, and its eyes glowed with a fierce red light. Its presence was soul-shaking, resembling a demon god!
The ghost puppet had utterly evolved into a machine of slaughter, capable of instantly tearing even the Ghost King into shreds.
Qingqing and Xiaohong, the two monsters, both felt a sense of trepidation when they faced the ghost puppet.
Cao Dabiao was completely baffled, staring blankly at Huang Xiaolong, incapable of uttering a word, yet he thought to himself, “The young lady’s boyfriend, what identity does he hold? I see him… He seems… rather profound indeed~~Better not provoke, better not provoke… Who would have thought that in this world, there indeed are such capable and extraordinary individuals…”
“Heh heh, my ghost puppet is indeed several tis more powerful than what Taoist Xia planned to refine,” Huang Xiaolong chuckled smugly. “I wonder if the guy who set up the Ghost Formation in the Bermuda Devil’s Triangle can withstand my ghost puppet~~ Hahaha…” Huang Xiaolong gave a proud laugh. “Alright, let’s take a stroll and see if we can find any grievous wrongs that need righting.”
As he spoke, Huang Xiaolong stored the ghost puppet into the soul-confining vessel.
Then, Huang Xiaolong led Shirley Bai and the others, wandering through the hall, carefully inspecting the ancient mansion.
All the ferocious ghosts had vanished, and Huang Xiaolong burned a few exorcism talismans, which dissipated the ghostly aura that had lingered around the mansion for a long ti.
From a spiritual perspective, the mansion no longer carried that bone-chilling sensation.
“Hmm~~ There’s a painting here too,” Qingqing and Xiaohong exclaid with curiosity, as they walked ahead and suddenly stopped.
On the wall of a corridor hung a colorfully painted scroll.
This painting still only had its upper half; the lower half had long since decayed.
When Huang Xiaolong approached it, he saw that the painting still depicted that middle-aged man dressed in Huaxia official garnts, standing shoulder to shoulder with the woman who exuded exotic charm.
However, from this painting, it was apparent that the exotic beauty was about two heads taller than the middle-aged man!
“No way?” Shirley Bai said in astonishnt. “How can the woman be so much taller than the man?”
Cao Dabiao offered a sheepish smile. “Miss, this painting is incomplete; both of their lower halves are lost. Perhaps, when the artist was painting, the man was sitting while this beautiful woman was standing, which is why she appears so much taller than the man.”
Huang Xiaolong shook his head with a smile. “The first painting we discovered showed the man and the woman to be of similar stature, though the lower half was missing from that as well. But, I can deduce from their postures in that painting that the woman was sitting while the man was standing, which is why they seed of comparable height. In this painting, however, both are standing, which makes it quite obvious that the woman is much taller than the man. That is their true height.”
Studying the painting on the wall, Huang Xiaolong analyzed. “Judging from the man’s body proportions, he seems to be around 170 centiters. If the woman is about two heads taller than the man, then her height is close to 2 ters… this is…”
Huang Xiaolong found it unbelievable.
In ancient tis, the average human height was generally not as tall as in modern tis. Even if this woman was not of Huaxia ethnicity but closer to European or Arican descent, it would have been hard for her to reach a height of 2 ters back then, wouldn’t it?
Not to ntion that era, even in modern tis, despite the evolution of human genes, won standing 2 ters tall in Western countries are extrely rare.
Just at this mont, a flash of inspiration crossed Huang Xiaolong’s mind. “Could the woman in the painting be the owner of the obsession wrapped around the black dagger?”
Huang Xiaolong had an intuition—it was so!
Then… the way she claid ti and ti again that she had suffered a tragedy, could it be that the man in the painting had persecuted her?
They seed like a married couple, so could it be—fratricide?
“Master, there’s no need to dwell on this; I think these portraits have been artistically processed, even fictional,” said Shirley. “Maybe the painter was intentionally beautifying this woman.”
They hadn’t taken many steps when another scroll appeared on the wall.
This scroll was very well-preserved, without any damage.
Furthermore, it was a large painting, several ters tall and wide, showcasing the artist’s supre skill, depicting a grand and majestic scene!
The background was the vast and turbulent sea!
Upon the sea lay docked dozens of wooden sailing ships! It was a fleet! A large fleet!
The largest among those wooden sailing ships was the flagship of the entire fleet, the main battleship!
It was a tower ship, with four decks, nine masts, and twelve sails, looking majestic and formidable!
“Ah~~!” Cao Dabiao scread, “This… this is what we… we saw… those ghost ships…”
Yes, Huang Xiaolong and Shirley had also realized that these ships in the painting were familiar. The prows had formidable tiger sculptures, the foreparts of both sides had solemn flying dragon sculptures or images, the stern had phoenix images, and above the stern planks were paintings of a roc spreading its wings to fly…
Weren’t these the ghost ships that had suddenly appeared in the Bermuda Devil’s Triangle, amidst the ghostly fog, during their voyage?
Onshore, there was also a painting of that middle-aged man, with a longsword hanging at his waist, his hand on the hilt, bearing a heroic and indomitable deanor, exuding an unspoken heroic air. This painting was very lifelike; one could see a trendously ambitious gaze in the man’s eyes, a defiant posture!
Dozens of wooden sailing ships all had their flags fully unfurled, and on so flags, there was a traditional character “Zheng.”
“Zheng?” Huang Xiaolong’s eyes suddenly lit up.
Cao Dabiao scread. “I know! I know! The man in the official attire in the painting is none other than Zheng He! The Treasure Eunuch Zheng He!”
“The Ming Dynasty? For a nation to beco prosperous, it cannot neglect the ocean. Wealth cos from the sea, and so does danger? Yes, it indeed is Zheng He,” Huang Xiaolong nodded. “So, this painting… it depicts… The Treasure Eunuch’s voyage to the western seas!”
“Does that an… this island estate, where we are right now, could be… could be… could it be Zheng He’s estate?” Shirley was utterly astonished. “But this place is highly likely to be located in the Bermuda waters…”
“Oh, so it’s the story of the Treasure Eunuch’s voyage to the western seas,” Qingqing nodded and shook her head knowingly. “Back then, my lady also told the story of the Treasure Eunuch’s voyage to the western seas, hmm, it’s quite interesting.”
Qingqing, this demon, also began to show off her knowledge, indicating that although she was a demon, she was still very familiar with human history.
“Keep searching, see if there are any other paintings. These ancient scrolls seem to tell a story,” Huang Xiaolong sensed intuitively—’This story could be real! And moreover, it’s a part of history that people don’t know about! Even I, the Yin Emperor, might not be privy to it!’
Everyone’s interest was piqued, and as they walked, they searched the mansion for ancient paintings.
As he walked, Huang Xiaolong reflected—’Right, when I was in the underworld, I never saw the eunuch Zheng He’s soul… But at the ti, I didn’t care, after all, he wasn’t a significant figure…’
After a while, they found a few more paintings, but unfortunately, these paintings were extrely damaged, leaving only tiny remnants of the corners, making it completely impossible to identify the content.
Shirley and Qingqing couldn’t help but beat their chests and stamp their feet, exclaiming their regret.
Fortunately, when they inspected a study, they found a complete, large scroll hanging on the wall.
This painting had a blue background.
But not just any blue, it was a deep blue, like the depths of the sea.
Bubbles, corals, shoals of fish and shrimp were swimming around.
“Ah, I know, this painting depicts the underwater world,” Shirley said with certainty.
After a pause, however, Shirley shook her head. “That can’t be right, could the ancient painters have dived to the bottom of the sea to paint?”
Above this underwater painting, there was a building. The architecture was very strange; it wasn’t a mansion, nor a tower, but rather a triangular construction.
This triangle was made of giant stones, and on the surface of these stones, dense and mysterious symbols were drawn, along with squiggled text resembling tadpoles.
Huang Xiaolong, despite his vast knowledge, did not recognize these symbols or the text.
In front of this building, a man and a woman were painted.
The man was the middle-aged man who had appeared in the earlier paintings, “Zheng He.” The woman was naturally the peerless beauty brimming with exotic charm.
The two were wearing Huaxia wedding clothes.
Zheng He was dressed in a bright red robe embroidered with a kylins, the attire of a top scholar, and the gorgeous woman wore a phoenix coronet and robes of state.
This painting was undamaged and offered a full view.
In the painting, both people stood straight, the woman indeed two heads taller than Zheng He.
But!
“This painting! This painting is fake! Fake!” Suddenly, Shirley shrieked aloud. Her trembling finger pointed at the exotic woman’s legs in the painting.
But more accurately, she didn’t have legs.
Of course, not in the sense that she was disabled, rather, where she should have had legs, there was instead a tail!
Yes, a fish tail! A fish tail covered with scales!
This fish tail was much longer than a normal person’s legs.
So much so that the woman’s height was a full two heads taller than Zheng He’s!
“Impossible… this can’t be real, under the sea… r… r… rmaid… it just can’t be real! Impossible! She’s so beautiful…” Cao Dabiao was completely distraught… his throat dried up, his voice hoarse and murkily soft.
“Oh, how interesting… really interesting…” Huang Xiaolong was only slightly astounded for a few seconds, then quickly regained composure.
rmaid?
Bunch of nonsense!
Huang Xiaolong had seen all sorts of monsters and demons! Jiāngshī, porcupines, snakes, foxes, echo insects… a re rmaid was nothing to fuss over!
Qingqing and Xiaohong were even more composed. One a python and the other a fox, they ca from a world of demons; to them, a woman with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish tail was not at all unusual.
“Oh, can you not take this so lightly as if it’s nothing? It’s just a fish demon, that’s all!” Xiaohong said with feigned maturity. “I guess it hasn’t fully transford, that’s why it still has part of a fish tail. If it cultivates enough, even the fish tail can transform into human legs. This fish demon might be pretty, but it is clearly quite weak.”
You know nothing.” Huang Xiaolong glared at Xiaohong, “‘Beyond the Southern Sea, there are rmaids, who live underwater like fish but do not cease weaving. Tears from their eyes can produce pearls,’ have you never heard of this? rmaids live in the sea, half-human, half-fish creatures, alluring and mostly female. They are good at singing with captivating voices that enchant sailors, leading their ships to wreck and doom—a deadly temptation. And it’s said that their oil has a very low burning point, a single drop can burn for days without extinguishing. There were Everlasting lights made from rmaid oil in Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb.”
In Huang Xiaolong’s view, rmaids weren’t simply fish demons; of course, they were considered a type of demon nonetheless.
“Is this what’s known as a ‘rmaid’ in Western mythology?” Shirley made the sign of the cross on her chest, her voice trembling. “God, the legends of rmaids are real! So, they are true…”
“Well, this painting is part of a series. In these pictures, the eunuch and a rmaid are getting married. Unfortunately, several pictures are missing, so we cannot know how Zheng He t the rmaid and fell in love…” Huang Xiaolong spoke gravely.
“Master, do you believe that the content of this painting is real?” Shirley was still incredulous.
“Yes, I believe it’s real. Intuition,” Huang Xiaolong nodded solemnly. “Exciting, I really want to know how it ends.”
“Young master, this really is a romantic love story! Just like in our serpent demon tribe, the love story of Lady Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian, so tragic and so wonderful…” Qingqing said dreamily.
Shirley and Cao Dabiao looked at Qingqing with faces full of horror.
Huang Xiaolong smiled mysteriously. “I think the story of Zheng He and the rmaid won’t be so romantic love story, but a tragedy. If you don’t believe , you can bet with .”
After a mont, Huang Xiaolong pointed to Zheng He in the scroll. “Take a closer look; it’s supposed to be a happy day of marriage, but Zheng He’s eyes bear a sinister chill… I must say, the painter’s skill is subli, capturing this flicker of expression in Zheng He. However, it’s also possible that on his wedding day, Zheng He’s expression was always so creepily disturbed…”
…
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