Chapter 52 – Dark Fairytale: The Little Match Girl

Sky Burial City was extremely ominous, something Mu Lin’s teacher Dongfang Ya had reminded him of several times. Mu Lin also vaguely sensed that the Land of Sky Burial held great terror.

Knowing this, Mu Lin was still channeling the Sky Burial Power down to the mortal realm, seeking to control and master it.

Such actions were akin to playing with fire.

And as the saying goes, “He who walks by the river will eventually get his shoes wet.” Continuously channeling the Sky Burial Power, Mu Lin ultimately allowed an accident to occur.

…

Closing his eyes, meditating, and returning his consciousness to his Mindscape, Mu Lin opened his eyes and looked around, seeing that his Mindscape had undergone a drastic transformation.

A few days ago, Mu Lin’s Mindscape had only consisted of a simple courtyard house.

At that time, the house had a carriage (an ancient horse-drawn cart), horses, lanterns, and people.

Now, the house in Mu Lin’s Sea of Consciousness remained unchanged, but opposite it, a small manor castle had appeared.

The manor was Western-style, completely out of place with Mu Lin’s traditional house.

Even more alarming was the eerie and terrifying atmosphere that permeated the entire castle manor.

Faint, playful laughter drifted from the castle opposite, but upon closer listening, one would discover that the sounds would shift from playful laughter to the horrizing noise of a saw cutting through flesh.

“…”

This scene made Mu Lin somewhat wary.

It also made him no longer dare to underestimate the Land of Sky Burial.

—While Mu Lin was channeling the Sky Burial Power to temper his Arrogance Heart Lamp, he unknowingly triggered some mechanism, attracting a powerful surge of Sky Burial Power to descend.

Fortunately, his reaction was relatively quick, and his connection to the Land of Sky Burial was not too strong.

In the end, he severed his connection to the Land of Sky Burial.

Only a small portion of that anomalous power managed to transmit through.

As for how this small portion of power transformed into a Western-style castle manor, it was also related to Mu Lin.

After all, the Mindscape was Mu Lin’s Sea of Consciousness, where he held dominance. After descending, that anomalous power instinctively merged with Mu Lin’s Mindscape.

Moreover, during that period, Mu Lin was wholeheartedly creating the Fairytale Manor for Chu Lingluo. When this anomalous power combined with Mu Lin’s imagination, it gave birth to an aberrant castle.

“Hehehe…”

“Brother, would you like to buy some matches?”

While Mu Lin was intently watching the manor, at some point, a Little Girl dressed in shabby clothes suddenly appeared in front of his house, offering to sell him matches.

This scene caused Mu Lin’s eyes to narrow immediately.

And to such an inquiry, Mu Lin naturally did not dare to respond.

This silence prompted the Little Girl to ask again.

“Brother, would you like to buy some matches?”

As soon as she finished speaking, the Little Girl immediately issued a third and fourth call.

“Brother, would you like to buy some matches?”

“You want to buy matches!”

“Buy matches!”

The further she went, the more urgent the Little Girl’s voice became, and her expression gradually shifted from cute to ferocious.

This scene did not frighten Mu Lin.

“Trying to spook me!”

With a cold snort, Mu Lin immediately spoke to the guards in the house: “Go, tie her up and bring her in!”

“Yes, Master!”

Amidst several responses, six burly men immediately pushed open the door, leaped out, and charged toward the match-selling Little Girl.

“You opened the door!”

“You opened the door…”

“Hehehe, you opened the door!”

“Screech!”

Facing the charging burly man, the little girl immediately struck a match.

“Boom!”

The match flared brightly, yet what reflected from the flame was a scene of icy coldness.

“Hoo…”

The icy coldness reflected by the flame materialized directly in Mu Lin’s mental world, with snow falling from the sky. An extreme chill spread outward from the little girl as its center.

Under that chill, Mu Lin’s cottage soon became coated in a layer of frost. His soul spirit felt a deep cold and stiffness.

He had a sense that if he remained in such cold for too long, his soul spirit would become frozen and sluggish in thought, his actions would slow down, and in more severe cases, he might even become like a vegetable.

Fortunately, as the cold bloomed, the next moment, a fiery light rose from Mu Lin’s room.

The arrogant flames, like the sun, scattered the chill without a trace.

At the same time, Mu Lin’s guards pounced toward the little girl like hungry wolves.

Seeing this, the little girl struck a second match.

“Sizzle…”

This time, what reflected from the flame was darkness.

A pitch-black mist, so dark one couldn’t see their own fingers, spread outward from the little girl as its center. However, perhaps due to the illumination of the Arrogance Heart Lamp, this darkness was not intense.

By now, the guards had already approached the girl.

This forced the little girl to strike a third match.

This time, what reflected from the flame was the figure of a large dog.

The dog was as big as an ox, with exposed fangs and a ferocious appearance—clearly not one to be trifled with.

Fortunately, Mu Lin’s guards were no ordinary people either.

Each wearing a yellow square scarf, they were all as strong as oxen and impervious to blades and spears. As soon as the ferocious dog charged, it was blocked by two Yellow Turban Warriors.

The remaining four Yellow Turban Warriors did not go to kill the large dog. Instead, under Mu Lin’s guidance, they continued to pounce toward the little girl.

Mu Lin understood the principle of capturing the leader first to defeat the enemy.

“Sizzle!”

However, before the Yellow Turban Warriors could get close, the little girl struck a fourth match. This time, what reflected from the flame of the match was a pitch-black giant serpent.

This serpent was a full seventeen meters long, far more terrifying than the first large dog.

All four of Mu Lin’s remaining Yellow Turban Warriors had to join forces to barely fight the giant serpent to a standstill.

While they were locked in stalemate, the little girl at the door struck a fifth match. This match… its light was especially small.

At first, seeing this, Mu Lin remained somewhat vigilant. His soul spirit, hidden within the house, stared intently at that tiny flame, wary of any changes it might bring.

However, after a while, Mu Lin realized that his vigilance seemed somewhat unnecessary.

That tiny flame was not some trick or scheme—it was simply that weak, so weak that it couldn’t even reflect a monster.

“???”

“What the hell?”

“Running out of power?”

Although he didn’t understand why the fifth match didn’t reflect a monster, Mu Lin wouldn’t let this opportunity slip.

“Clatter…”

Under his will, the chains in the cottage shot out like snakes, swiftly binding the little girl several times over.

“Whoosh!”

Once bound, the chains swiftly retracted toward the cottage, pulling the little girl all the way back into an empty room.

In that room, there was also a coffin. “Bang!” The little girl was shut inside the coffin, and Mu Lin then wrapped chains around it several times.

Even so, Mu Lin was still not at ease. A sheet of white paper materialized through his visualization, and soon, characters appeared on the paper, forming the word “Seal.”

Moreover, four paper figures stood at the four corners of the coffin, pressing down on it firmly to prevent any movement.

This was the Paper Figure Soul Seal.

Of course, this was the Soul Manifestation version. The normal Paper Figure Soul Seal involved a sheet of white paper with the character “Seal” written in the center, and a paper figure drawn at each of the four corners. The four paper figures worked together to press down on the shoulders and thighs of ghosts or evil spirits, sealing them within the center of the white paper.

This Spell was something Mu Lin had learned during the intervals of the Paper Figure Curse. Unfortunately, without any evil spirits to practice sealing, this Spell remained at an introductory level.

However, perhaps because the Little Match Girl adhered to the original story and could only strike matches five times, or perhaps because her energy was exhausted, she did not struggle much while bound by the chains.

The chains, the coffin, and the introductory-level Paper Figure Soul Seal truly subdued her.

The next moment, the Arrogance Heart Lamp erupted with immense light. Flames, like snakes, slithered into the coffin, refining and dominating the Little Match Girl.

This immediately sent the little girl into a frenzy of struggle.

“Crack, crack…”

(End of Chapter)