Chapter 34 Zhao Yuezhu's Past Life

Zhao Yuezhu, behind me, retreated a few steps. "Human... human skin..."

Indeed, nailed to the broken earth cliff was a human skin tattooed with a white tiger pattern.

The two saber energies I had just unleashed had torn open the white tiger tattoo. As I stepped forward, the human skin fluttered down from the broken edge of the cliff.

I flipped the human skin over with my blade. "The owner of this skin couldn't be more than thirty years old. Most likely, it’s one of Sun Qing's classmates. Zhao girl, contact your dad and ask him if any of Sun Qing's classmates had tattoos."

I was talking to Zhao Yuezhu, but she stood motionless.

I waved my hand in front of her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I feel like I've been here before... I'm not talking about the time I came with my tutor..." Zhao Yuezhu rubbed her head. "I mean, I feel like I've been here a long time ago. Or maybe not… I just feel like I'm very familiar with this place."

I looked at Zhao Yuezhu for a long time, then looked up at the cliff. "Qin Xin, protect me. I need to verify something."

I told Zhao Yuezhu to stay where she was. I went to buy some things nearby and hurried back. I took out a basin, filled it with clear water, and placed incense and candles around the basin. "Zhao girl, come here. I have a theory that I need you to verify."

"In a moment, clear your mind, don't think about anything, and don't look into the basin. Just remember one thing: I'm by your side, and I won't let anything happen to you. Give me your hand."

Zhao Yuezhu said nothing and put her hand in mine.

I gently pierced Zhao Yuezhu's index finger with the tip of my knife and dripped the blood into the basin. As I watched the blood color slowly spread in the water, my brow furrowed even tighter.

Qin Xin saw that my expression was wrong and asked in a low voice, "Li Po, what's wrong?"

I said in a deep voice, "I wanted to use a secret technique to see Zhao Yuezhu's past life, but I can't touch her memory."

I explained, "In mythology, people drink Meng Po soup (Soup of Oblivion) before reincarnation to forget everything from their previous life and start anew in the next cycle."

"However, Meng Po soup sometimes can't erase all of a person's memories. It's like writing words on paper – no matter how much you erase, there will still be traces left. Some fragments of memory will always remain."

"According to the practitioners of术道 (shu dao, the Way of Arts): sometimes, a person suddenly has a particularly familiar feeling in a place they've never been before. That's the memory of their previous life."

"Those memories that haven't been erased must be extremely profound to remain in a person's soul and be triggered by something special at some point, causing the person to have a sense of déjà vu."

"Zhao girl said she had been to White Tiger Gully after seeing the White Tiger Cliff."

"White Tiger Gully is also the place where the corpses were hidden in the first skinning case."

"The first skinning case happened one hundred and twenty years ago. Sixty years is one cycle of reincarnation, and one hundred and twenty years is exactly two cycles."

"Why did Sun Qing suddenly approach Zhao Yuezhu?"

"These clues, strung together, are enough for me to suspect that Zhao Yuezhu may have had some entanglement with Sun Qing or the *Human Skin Scripture* in her previous life."

"I want to use a secret technique to reproduce Zhao girl's past life memories to see what exactly happened here one hundred and twenty years ago. But..."

I paused. "To glimpse a past life through blood, the blood color must fill the entire surface of the water. Look, so much of Zhao girl's blood has already dripped in, but the water near the edge of the basin is still clear."

The middle of the basin was already completely red with blood, but when the blood color reached the edge of the basin, it was as if something was blocking it. The water around the edge of the basin was crystal clear.

Clearly, some kind of force was preventing me from casting the spell!

Zhao Yuezhu said in a low voice, "Could it be that there's not enough blood?"

"No!" I shook my head. "I'm dripping blood using a secret technique. Sometimes, just a drop of blood from the fingertip can turn an entire basin of clear water red. But look, how much blood has dripped from you? There should be more than twenty drops already."

There was something else I didn't say. The reason I couldn't use the secret technique was either because someone nearby was interfering, or because Zhao Yuezhu's past life involved tremendous karma that didn't allow anyone to casually peer into it.

Forcing a peek might not be impossible, but that would be equivalent to stirring up Zhao Yuezhu's past life karma.

That wouldn't be a good thing for her!

Zhao Yuezhu spoke while I was silent. "Li Po, do you think it's a kind of sorrow for a person to not even know what secrets they have hidden within themselves?"

Without waiting for me to speak, Zhao Yuezhu continued, "Do you know why I dislike術士 (shu shi, occultists/exorcists)? Because, not long after I was born, a 術士 (shu shi, occultist/exorcist) said that I was a jinx."

"Besides my dad, no one believed his words. If my dad hadn't protected me, I probably wouldn't have lived to this day."

"When I grew up, I even started to believe that I was a jinx myself. Because, the people who were close to me either had terrible luck or died unexpectedly."

"Over the years, I've had almost no friends. No, it's not that they don't dare to approach me, but that I don't dare to get close to others."

"Li Po, I don't want to be like this!"