Rock Carving Part 2

Because she had seen Kong Xuan and Tan Xiao's experiences in the vision, and had known him before, and more importantly had no particular reverence for gods and ghosts, Tan Chunying didn't suddenly feel a great sense of distance from him. She nodded, then shook her head. "I'm okay, I guess."

Kong Xuan thought, this was much better than they had imagined. Tan Chunying's psychological resilience was still pretty good. The calming talisman might also be having some effect.

"By the way," Tan Chunying looked at Kong Xuan and asked, "Little... Great... uh, Kong Xuan, right? Can I call you that?"

Kong Xuan humbly nodded. "As you wish."

"That skill you just used to fill me in on the previous plot," Tan Chunying asked curiously, "can you use it to catch me up on TV shows? I've saved up a lot that I haven't had time to finish watching."

Kong Xuan: "..."

Ah, no, this calming talisman's effect is too good, isn't it?!

......

It wasn't that the calming talisman was too effective, but that Tan Chunying's thoughts were very simple.

Although her son seemed to be a real shaman, she wasn't. Turning her head, she still had to do her job as a mascot, active in the cultural tourism industry.

Since that was the case, there was no need for her to worry. It was better to develop something useful. Leave professional matters to the professionals.

Arriving at Laomei Temple, Tan Chunying got out of the car. She was no stranger to this place. They were in the same line of work. As for that Bureau 404, she had an impression of it before, but always felt they were similar to qigong practitioners.

Inside the Bureau 404, monsters and ghosts came and went, but Tan Chunying basically couldn't see them, unless they deliberately manifested like Kong Xuan, or appeared in their original forms. This at least spared her from being frightened.

"The shaman is here!" Fang Zhu shouted. He seemed very excited, not even glancing at Tan Chunying. "Do you know what I found? My great-grandma's ashes!"

"I know." Tan Xiao had seen him raving in the group chat. "Any new developments?"

"There will be soon! As long as we know who that is." Fang Zhu was restless like he had ADHD, unable to stay still for a moment. He continued to busy himself, holding his laptop.

Mu Fei walked out and shook hands with Tan Chunying. "Teacher Tan, how are your injuries? I'm Mu Fei, the person in charge of Nanchu Bureau 404." She smiled awkwardly. Originally, she had come for Tan Chunying, but they had never formally met face to face.

"Hello, thank you for your concern. I'm fine now," Tan Chunying looked at Mu Fei curiously. In the footage that Kong Xuan had shown her, this Director Mu had also appeared, but more often it was him and Tan Xiao confronting enemies together.

Mu Fei led Tan Chunying into the room. Many masters had already arrived, including some old acquaintances Tan Chunying had met at religious occasions.

However, with one side representing the orthodox religion and the other being folk magic, one side representing the traditional culture and the other changing tracks, they were not very interested in each other and even looked down upon one another before.

These people gathered together to study Tan Chunying's situation and the matter of the Huodou. Tan Chunying recounted the on-site events in detail and accepted the examination of the masters present, but no clues could be found.

"This Huodou must be newly emerged! There's a big problem!"

"In my opinion, the previous twelve Huodous can also be reconsidered. Now that I think about it, they weren't even black dogs. How exactly did they become Huodous?!"

"The most terrifying thing is that this Huodou was actually able to evade the Five-Colored Divine Light. Everyone, we must raise the mission level."

"With such capabilities, why did it injure Tan Chunying... Fortunately, it was unable to harm Tan Chunying's soul, but at least it got her flesh and blood. With flesh, blood and hair in hand, there are too many things that can be done."

"Fortunately, the Peacock God is here..."

The conference room was filled with a solemn atmosphere. Mu Fei suddenly asked, "Tan Xiao, was your mother really born soulless?"

Tan Xiao shook his head. He had also asked Tan Chunying, but there was really no answer.

"Let's take a break." Mu Fei took a sip of tea and asked Tan Chunying if she needed to go to the bathroom, accompanying her.

The two were gone for a while when Tan Xiao heard someone shouting outside, "Comrade Spirit Master! Comrade Spirit Master!"

The voice sounded a little familiar. He poked his head out to look. It was Kui Eleven, the terracotta soldier who had cultivated to spiritual awareness. It was actually still at the Nanchu Bureau 404.

However, Kui Eleven was currently shouting at Tan Chunying who had returned from the restroom. This stone-headed one had mistaken her identity and kept shouting.

"Kui Eleven, can't you even tell men from women?" Tan Xiao walked to the door and said. He and Tan Chunying were biological mother and son, naturally with some resemblance, but it shouldn't be to the point of being indistinguishable.

Kui Eleven rubbed its eyes. "Oh, I thought the Spirit Master's hair seemed a bit longer."

"This stone-brain, whenever wood or stone becomes spiritually awakened, it can't distinguish people clearly. It's probably because you mother and son look similar and have similar auras," Mu Fei said with amusement.

After she finished speaking, there was a sudden eerie silence at the scene.

After the silence, Mu Fei, Tan Xiao, and Kong Xuan all looked at Tan Chunying in unison.

However, Tan Chunying couldn't see Kui Eleven at all. Seeing them talk to the air for a few sentences and suddenly stare at her, she said, "What's wrong? What's wrong with me? Don't scare me."

At that moment, they all felt that something was amiss!

When Kui Eleven first met Tan Xiao, it had "chatted" with him, saying that it had worked for Tan Xiao before, which Tan Xiao had scoffed at. Now, seeing Kui Eleven mistaking Tan Chunying's identity, he couldn't help but have suspicions in his heart, thinking of a possibility that was very unbelievable even to himself.

It couldn't be...

Could it be?

"Kui Eleven, you said before that 'I' had hired you? When and where was that?" Tan Xiao looked at Kui Eleven and asked.

"Uh, I don't have a very good concept of time," many monsters were like this. Kui Eleven scratched its head. "Anyway, that year there was a flood due to heavy rainfall, and you recruited me and my brothers at Jiuyi Mountain to search for a feng shui treasure site for you."

Tan Xiao and Mu Fei looked at each other.

"I'll check right away!" Mu Fei immediately rushed to the office.

......

In the office, everyone was busy with their own tasks, occasionally answering phone calls. After all, there was still a Huodou roaming in Nanchu.

"Heavy rainfall? At Jiuyi Mountain?" Tan Chunying said in confusion, "I did go to Jiuyi Mountain, but I went to gain performance experience. In those few years, didn't they invite Sun Wukong and Nezha to attract young audiences? What did I need soldiers for? Could it be that I accidentally summoned them while performing a ritual, but I just can't see them?"

She could accept this new worldview, but she expressed doubts about what that Kui Eleven had said. At the same time, she couldn't help but question her own memory.

With even Tan Chunying herself doubting it, the other colleagues were even more skeptical. As far as they knew, Tan Chunying was a notorious swindler. If it weren't for Tan Xiao, the Spirit Master lineage would have become completely useless.

"It said that it was hired to do work," Tan Xiao's heart was pounding. He realized that his mother's condition might indeed have a lot to uncover, and this might even be related to the Huodou's purpose. If the one who recruited Kui Eleven was really his mother, wouldn't that indicate that Tan Chunying was also once a proper Spirit Master?

Tan Chunying was speechless. After a long while, she muttered to herself, "Is it really a case of mistaken identity?"

Tan Xiao was also at a loss for words. One of the manifestations of being soulless was that memory was affected. He had always thought that Tan Chunying was just a little confused, with the impact being in other aspects. What exactly had happened?

"...Right, right, you've arrived?" Mu Fei came over holding a laptop with a video call open. On the other end of the video was her colleague in Jiuyi Mountain.

Mu Fei put down the laptop and said under everyone's questioning gaze, "We found a record of Teacher Tan being subjected to public security punishment at the Jiuyi Mountain Scenic Area, with the reason being scribbling on the cliff carvings in the scenic area."

Everyone: "..."

Tan Chunying said awkwardly, "It must be someone with the same name! Have I ever done such an uncivilized thing?"

"What did she carve?" Tan Xiao couldn't help but stand up, thinking of what Mu Fei had explained before. "Could it be... a component-type case, was she carving runes?"

"My colleague has already arrived at the scene. I'm asking him to search." Mu Fei tapped on the video screen. The cliff carvings were mostly ancient inscriptions, so it was also called a Stele Forest. Dating back to ancient times, it was unknown where Tan Chunying had carved at that time.

On the other end of the video, Mu Fei's colleague entered a cave and used a flashlight to illuminate a whitewashed area. Due to the long passage of time, some cracked areas had been repaired with cement, and there were traces of whitewashing on the cement. "I asked the old administrator, it should be here."

He used the tools he brought to scrape off the traces of the whitewash. As the surface peeled off, it revealed the mottled stone carvings underneath. They were crooked large characters: Tan Chunying arrives here to tour!

Everyone was looking at Tan Chunying. Tan Chunying covered her face in embarrassment, feeling like she was being publicly executed.

Tan Xiao's throat tightened. "Senior..."

The senior on the other side of the call was also quite experienced. After carefully examining the surface, he scraped a few more times, removing this layer of markings, revealing that there were more characters underneath.

Below, four ancient and unadorned serpentine script characters were visible, which read: Tan Chunying arrives here!

The entire room was shocked. The difference of two characters at this moment exuded an aura that connected the mortal world with the heavens, and the mysterious realm with the spirits.