White Grasshopper was indifferent: "I really can't help you. You can take this thing back."
He didn't even say, "Go to another house and ask." He Lingchuan knew his attitude.
"What disease?"
Old man Wang suddenly turned to look at He Lingchuan: "The fever won't go away, and I asked for two sets of medicine in the hospital to no avail!"
His eyes were full of hope: "This is an authentic work, please buy it!"
He Lingchuan asked him: "What is written in this scroll of yours?"
"My ancestors said that this is a profound magical power!" Old Man Wang smiled bitterly, "But I can't understand it, and no one in my family practices it, so I can only sell it."
"Can I see it?"
"Do you understand?" Old Man Wang peeled back the animal skin paper a little, just a little, "Then you see."
"Bring the child here, and I'll find someone to treat it for you." He Lingchuan took a few glances and said, "If the child is cured well, give me this roll of paper."
"Ah?" Old Man Wang was startled, "Sent him here?"
"Yes, I made an appointment with my friend to meet here. He has great medical skills. He can treat children with high fevers with just a little effort."
"Oh -" Old Man Wang nodded repeatedly, smiling brightly, "Okay, I'll bring my grandson here right now!" After that, he rolled up the animal skin paper and walked out.
Neither of the two people behind stopped me.
After Old Man Wang walked out of Yunling Island, the sadness on his face disappeared. He walked for more than ten feet before turning around to see if anyone was following him.
No.
He pouted towards Yunling Island.
Then he walked along the street to the end, looking relaxed and not like there was a sick person at home.
He even bought two steamed buns and ate them while shopping. Soon he left Wanglin Street and turned into another street.
The passenger flow here is far less than that of Wanglin Street, and the store signs are not as bright, but the street is very long and extends in all directions. Old man Wang threw away the oil paper, wiped the corners of his mouth and hands, patted his face and put on an expression, and entered several stores one after another.
.
When he came out again, his expression had turned into one of satisfaction.
At this time, he went straight to the city gate at a very fast speed.
It's safe to go out.
But just as he passed a shallow alley, a hand stretched out from the alley, pulled him in, and pressed him into the shadows.
Old man Wang was startled. He turned around and saw the young man on Yunling Island smiling brightly at him.
"You?" he shouted without thinking, "Where are you trying to steal the money——!"
But as soon as he opened his mouth, He Lingchuan poked his throat gently.
The rest of Old Man Wang's words were immediately pushed back. He pressed his neck and said "Ah" for a long time, and his scream was no louder than a mouse.
He Lingchuan took out five or six pieces of animal skin paper from his arms and unfolded them. The contents of each volume were the same:
Faded handwriting, ancient immortal language font, not yet filled up on a thin piece of paper.
"What's this?"
Old Man Wang's face was earth-colored.
He Lingchuan then took out the Dafeng military order and waved it in front of him: "The suffering master has reported to the official. There are prisons in the west and south of the city. Which one do you choose?"
The token of the Gale Army was very eye-catching, and He Lingchuan was not afraid of him taking a closer look. Old Wang's eyes widened, and he secretly said, "It's over."
Why did the secret come out so quickly this time? Panlongcheng really couldn't come.
The pain in his neck had eased, and he knelt down with a plop:
"Sir, please let me go, I'll give you the original!"
"Can you have an authentic work?" He Lingchuan disdainfully said, "Forget it, go to the west of the city and pay an official nearby."
"If you let me go, I will give it to you!" Old Man Wang was anxious, "I really have it!"
"Okay, I won't arrest you." He Lingchuan stretched out his hand, "Bring it to me and take a look."
Only then did Old Man Wang take out a scroll from his boot.
It didn't smell very good. He Lingchuan pinched his nose and unfolded it to take a look, then threw the scroll back to him and said angrily: "What's the difference between it and the fake one? Are you entertaining me?"
"Don't dare, it's true!" Old Man Wang picked up the scroll and unfolded it. In fact, the old animal skin paper was in tatters and was framed in the scroll.
He took out a copper plate and pointed to an animal head pattern drawn on the upper left corner of the paper: "Take a look."
The painting style of this animal head is very sketchy, a bit like a big toad, with protruding eyes and a huge mouth, but it has fine sharp teeth, and the spots on the head are like plum blossom patterns. It has a wide mouth, and the mouth is dark.
Old Man Wang pressed the copper plate into the mouth of the animal head pattern.
A magical scene appeared:
The copper plate suddenly disappeared.
He Lingchuan raised his eyebrows and waited for a few more breaths before saying, "Then what? What changes?"
"The paper has become bigger, haven't you noticed?"
After his reminder, He Lingchuan discovered that the edge of the paper had indeed expanded a little, but only a little. He couldn't notice it without staring closely.
"What do you want to clarify?"
"This paper is alive, sir!" Old Man Wang was eager to prove it, "but only when it eats money or valuable things will it return to its original size and the words on it will appear."
"Really?" He Lingchuan took a look at him and actually took out several large ingots of silver, each of which was around 20 to 30 taels.
I can't believe that this old man in rags is actually richer than him!
"Did you just deceive me?"
Old Man Wang didn't know how to answer, and the next second he saw He Lingchuan throw two large silver coins into the beast's head.
"Oh, don't!"
It was too late, the money sank into the beast's mouth and was gone in an instant.
Old Man Wang's vision turned black, and his heart felt like a knife.
Then He Lingchuan saw that the animal skin paper had expanded slightly, just...about half an inch?
The words on the paper did indeed increase by a few.
"There's more, come again."
Old Man Wang said with a bitter face: "Sir, please don't throw it away anymore. No matter how much you throw it away, you won't be able to feed it enough!"
"Have you tried it? How much silver can you throw in at most?"
"I threw in two thousand taels of silver one after another, and the most I put in was seven hundred taels in one time, plus two East Pearls!" Old Man Wang said with sadness, "I originally had some wealth, but if it weren't for this bottomless pit,
, it won’t be reduced to what it is now!”
He Lingchuan asked about the whole story.
It turned out that Old Man Wang was a foreigner. He had been a private school teacher for many years and had a little surplus. One day after a heavy rain, he went up the mountain to dig wild vegetables. As a result, he encountered a dead body before he could dig out half the beetroot.
The deceased did not know why he died suddenly in the wilderness. Old Man Wang searched his whole body and only found a few pieces of broken silver and a piece of animal skin paper.
He buried the man in peace and went down the mountain with the animal skin paper.
Old Man Wang was educated and recognized that the words written on the paper were ancient immortal words, but it was a pity that they were old and missing and could not see the whole picture. He sold them in the city, but no one wanted them.
Later, he found an expert to identify it, and he was told that it was the skin of a gold-swallowing beast.
The gold-swallowing beast was an extremely rare beast even in ancient times. The magical power written on its leather is self-evidently precious.
This kind of leather can withstand the test of time and will still have a chance to flourish after two or three thousand years.
But the gold-swallowing beast was greedy for all valuable things during its lifetime, and its soul resided in its skin after death. It still retained its extremely greedy nature. If Old Man Wang wanted to see everything on the paper, he had to satisfy its appetite.
From then on, Old Man Wang embarked on the road of no return of feeding the gold-eating beast...
He couldn't explain why he lost his mind, but feeding this thing was really addictive. He was full of longing for the future of feeding the gold-eating beast, thinking that he would have a chance to obtain rare magical powers.
By then, the complete collection of magical powers will definitely live up to his expectations and sell for a sky-high price, so that he will not have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of his life.
Of course, the reality is very skinny, because after eating gold and silver, this thing does not remain unchanged. Instead, it expands for a quarter of an hour and then shrinks back until it returns to its original tattered state!
In other words, if you don't fill it up at once, it won't show you all its magical powers.
"What a pit." He Lingchuan couldn't help but ask him, "You know it's a bottomless pit, so why do you still fill it in?"
"If I don't continue to fill it, won't all the gold and silver I threw in be wasted?" Old Man Wang squeezed out two bitter tears, "Later I found a legend that the treasures in the world can't fill it up at all!"
"It's a pity that I found out too late, and I was already bankrupt by then!"
In order to make ends meet, Old Man Wang simply copied the contents on the animal skin paper, disguised it as a complete magical power, and sold it for money, using the same rhetoric as before on Yunling Island.
There are quite a lot of customers who enjoy this kind of meal.
It's just that after he cheated two or three times, he had to change places quickly to avoid going to jail.
After hearing this, He Lingchuan said: "You really deserve it."
Old Man Wang, this is also a kind of gambling desire. If a person blindly indulges his desire without knowing how to restrain it, he will probably not end well.
He bowed to He Lingchuan repeatedly: "Please let me go!"
"Don't worry, I won't arrest you." He Lingchuan grinned at him, stuffed several fake animal skin papers into his arms, and suddenly stretched out his hand to push him back to the middle of the street.
Did you really let him go? Old man Wang was overjoyed.
At this moment, two shouts came from not far away:
"Hey, it seems to be him!"
Old man Wang turned around in surprise and saw two patrolmen running towards him. He had something in his mind and ran away.
"Don't run!"
Old man Wang ran faster.
He was small in stature but very fast, and he was able to plunge into crowds of people. It took the two patrolmen less than half an hour to catch him:
"Someone reported it to the official and accused you of forgery and fraud!"
Along the way, they also picked up several pieces of fake animal skin paper, all of which fell from the old man's body.
The old man couldn't argue.
The real thing is gone, and no one believes what he said.
…
After watching Old Man Wang being detained, He Lingchuan walked back to Yunling Island.
The fat shopkeeper smiled and asked him: "Then the old man is a liar, right?"
He Lingchuan hummed and asked him if he wanted to stay in a quiet room for a while.
The fat shopkeeper naturally had to satisfy the landlord's small request. So after a dozen breaths, He Lingchuan entered an appraisal room with tables and chairs, and some sundries piled in the corner.
He sat down and took out the original animal skin paper, spread it on the table, lit a lamp and looked at it carefully.
Why go through so much trouble for an old liar and a piece of paper from a gold-eating beast?
Because this piece of paper does record a magical power:
The technique of clone shadowing, referred to as the technique of clone.
The magical outline on the visible part of the animal skin paper states that if you learn this spell, you can temporarily summon a clone that obeys your orders.
At first glance, this looks very similar to the Mirror Image Technique that He Lingchuan originally wanted to exchange for at Pengcheng Department. Even General Hong recommended him to exchange it this way.