The Otherworldly Adventures of a Super Naive Girl

491: Dolls with Human Skin

The lab was simple and could be taken in at a glance. Aside from a few instruments, and a thick black book in the center, there were several dolls in varying stages of completion atop a large table.

The people had a hunch when they saw the dolls, but they weren’t completely certain.

The notebook was heavy with dust and laid in the center of the table. Who knew how many years it had been there?

Someone picked up the book and flipped through it. There wasn’t much recorded on the first page, but it did say the owner of the notebook came to the mansion on the invitation of a specific nobleman, followed by a description of the mansion and the host and hostess.

The mansion was owned by a nobleman from a thousand years ago. He and his wife were affectionate and together spoiled their daughter greatly.

Their daughter liked dolls very much, and had dolls of all kinds, but she would only play with them for a day or two before losing interest and burning them. It was a common pattern: play with a doll a few days then burn and repeat.

The nobleman wanted to give his daughter a special gift on her fifth birthday, so he invited the most famous doll maker at the time.

The notebook was owned by that very craftsman. He had been invited with a lot of money to the mansion to create a doll that would satisfy the young lady before her fifth birthday.

He wouldn’t leave alive until he fulfilled the request. He was just an ordinary person who crafted for a living: there was no way for him to resist a noble, so he stayed in the mansion and tried to craft a doll that would meet the young lady’s requirements.

Unfortunately, the dolls he made were not real enough and therefore unacceptable. He kept trying out of desperation, trying and trying to create a doll that would please her so he could leave the beautiful cage and return to his home.

Despite working as hard as he could, nothing he did was satisfactory. He was imprisoned in the lab and forced to keep making more dolls.

He was mad to get out, to be free.

At this time, the servant sent to deliver his meals was a young girl of six or seven. She was very cute with eyes full of curiosity and just a smidge of shyness.

At that moment an idea came to him. He remembered a secret necromancer technique he accidentally obtained.

The little girl disappeared and a brand-new doll appeared. No one knew what the doll was made of, but the entire body felt like a real person. The young lady really liked it.

The disappearance of the little servant girl didn’t attract any attention in the mansion. Not even a ripple of concern appeared.

The young lady of the house made an appearance with the doll on her fifth birthday. The one-of-a-kind doll, that felt like a real person, aroused everyone’s interest.

A lot of people wanted to buy a similar doll for their wives or daughters, and they were willing to pay a great deal for one.

After years of excess, the nobleman’s finances were not as good as they had once been. He saw the doll as a business opportunity, something the family could get involved in.

The nobleman refused to let the master doll crafter go, and instead demanded the craftsman make more dolls for him to sell.

The master craftsman was forced to confess the primary material for the doll was human skin tissue. He had used the skin of the missing servant girl and a book of forbidden arts to create the doll. That was why it felt so realistic.

It was impossible to mass produce because the skin he got from the servant girl was only enough to make two dolls.

The craftsman thought he would be denounced and labeled a demon after revealing the truth, that his method was heinous.

The nobleman was unexpectedly silent. The initial surprise that showed on his face quickly faded and was replaced with a neutral expression.

Instead of being denounced, the craftsman was reassured he would get assistance with supplies, that he only needed to focus on making more of the same realistic dolls.

The craftsman couldn’t resist the nobleman. He knew full well his family would be in danger if he were to escape. He couldn’t imagine putting them in that kind of situation, so he stayed and endured, helping the nobleman make the wicked human-skinned dolls.

The dolls sold out and were well loved by all the noble ladies. Business was good, but because the primary material for making the dolls was so unique, it was impossible to produce them on a large scale, limited as they were to thirty dolls a month. The dolls were snapped up at each release.

The business helped the nobleman regain his wealth and establish connections with other families.

Perhaps because the necromancer book was high-level, but not a single person on the continent could discern the difference in the dolls. This meant the family could maintain the business forever. They were quite happy.

They began pressuring the craftsman to make more dolls. It was impossible though because it had to be made from human skin and tissue.

The pressure from the nobleman upset the craftsman greatly and his desire to escape grew and grew. He regretted having made the first doll.

If he hadn’t done such a wrong thing in the first place, he wouldn’t be in the current situation where he was forced to do all these hurtful things.

He couldn’t bear the pressure from the nobleman. He didn’t want to do such hurtful things to the children and just wanted it all to stop!

He and the nobleman were the only two people who knew the dolls were made from human skin. Those whose flesh were taken didn’t just die, their souls were sealed inside the dolls. And because two dolls could be made from each child, their souls were effectively split in half, with one part of the soul in each doll.

492: Destroying the Dolls

The incomplete souls were full of maliciousness and murderous intent. If released, the place would become hell on earth.

But by this point, the craftsman wasn’t afraid of death. In fact, death was a welcome release. Waking up to their countless corpses every day, he was going to go crazy if he didn’t die first, so he decided to avenge the innocent victims and take everything in the mansion to hell.

Before releasing the dolls, he did one final task: turn the nobleman’s daughter into an exquisite doll. Unlike all the other dolls where he split the skin between two dolls, he used all her skin on one doll. This meant her soul was wholly sealed inside the one doll container.

He kept her soul trapped inside the doll while he released all the other souls.

Sure enough, immediately upon releasing the souls, everyone in the mansion was killed. The craftsman sat in his laboratory waiting for them to come to him.

The last entry was messy and it was obvious his mind wasn’t calm. All it said was that they had come.

Though the notebook was thick, it was mostly filled with experiment notes. The story itself had been interspersed throughout the book, so the story revelation came out only after reading the entire book.

“The dolls upstairs are made from human skin and tissue?!”

“There’s a soul inside every one of them?!”

“I knew those dolls felt like real people. Didn’t I say that?! They were problematic on sight!”

Ming Xi looked around but saw no adult corpses.

Could the undead have swallowed everyone in the mansion? Even their bones? If not, how could they explain the absence of bones?

Ming Xi couldn’t figure it out and he still had a lot of questions.

They searched the entire lab, making sure not to miss a thing. Then they took the notebook, sealed the lab and left.

They hadn’t found any evil spirits, but now they knew the dolls were suspicious. The dolls were made from human skin and tissue. . . 

Yaoyue had said there was nothing strange about the dolls, but after reading the notebook it was clear the dolls were definitely suspicious.

After some discussion, everyone agreed the dolls should be destroyed.

Feng Wu followed everyone upstairs to where the dolls were and she watched as the fire magicians tried to burn the dolls.

But the dolls were still there after the flames burned out. Was it an illusion? It felt like the smiles on the dolls grew more hideous.

After reading the notebook, they had thought the dolls looked gloomy, but looking at them now, they changed their minds. These dolls looked. . .  not right, and everyone was afraid to get closer.

Zi Cheng stood up after all the various methods they used to destroy the dolls failed. She wanted to use Purple Yang, the fifth of the Heavenly Sun flames, to burn the dolls.

Few people knew Zi Cheng had the fifth flame. Though they were hot for the heavenly fire, now wasn’t the time to be greedy. In a life-or-death situation, life would always be more attractive than treasure.

“Miss Zi Cheng, it is up to you if we can leave or not. And if we can escape, rest assured, we will not forget your kindness.”

People expressed their gratitude as Zi Cheng brought out her flame.

Zi Cheng had a humble expression on her face she told everyone it was unnecessary. She scored some points with her modesty. It was a nice, unexpected gain.

Even Caesar, who was already very fond of her, looked at her tenderly.

His favorability for her had increased a little as well and was very close to being 100%.

But why did his little brother have 0% for her? What was wrong with him?

Zo stood silently as he watched people compliment Zi Cheng.

He wondered what their expression would be if they knew Zi Cheng would be responsible for destroying the world later.

Since coming to the castle, Zo had kept a low profile, not speaking much. It was like he was invisible as he stood next to Caesar, but despite this many people had paid attention to him.

No one knew Zo was actively observing the mansion and thinking of ways to break through the barrier.

Zo had been a well-known master of formations over a hundred years ago. Because he couldn’t cultivate, he had devoted his time to learning all kinds of things, such as formations and alchemy.

He was, in his own right, a master of sorts. This was why, despite being an ordinary person, his family was willing to use precious life-extending items and spiritual fruit on him.

He was useful to the family alive. That was they way the world was. Whether or not he could live well depended on his strength. With some strength, even an ordinary person like him could live well, even better than some magicians and swordmasters even.

In addition to trying to find a way to break the barrier, Zo was also in contact with Ai Lin, trying to get more information about the storyline.

Unfortunately, even Ai Lin didn’t know much about the mansion. The basement lab didn’t exist in the original text, so naturally she wouldn’t know what was wrong with the dolls.

It was impossible for Zo to have a good impression of Zi Cheng. It was impossible for anyone have a good impression of a world destroyer.

Zi Cheng couldn’t understand why Zo didn’t like her and she had asked Caesar, but Caesar had only said Zo was indifferent to people. It wasn’t that he disliked her.

She couldn’t ask Caesar again and she couldn’t come up with a reason on her own. She never imagined a life-and-death situation where she revealed a personal secret was still not enough to earn favorability points with Zo. How could such a difficult to move person exist?