The Root Ghost's target was Ji Li's heart.
To obtain that heart, it had laid extensive groundwork, approaching its goal from two directions.
Its first method was the conventional Wood Generates Fire Barrier, using Huang Banxian as its starting point to obtain heart fire.
Its second method was to influence the Evil Spirit, causing Ji Li to develop a mental split and forcing him to surrender his heart willingly.
These two methods proceeded simultaneously.
First, it influenced the Evil Spirit to throw Ji Li into a panic, forcing him to find Zhang Huairen as quickly as possible.
And Zhang Huairen was one of the contingencies the Root Ghost had planted.
Next, after they met up with Zhang Huairen, the Wood Generates Fire Barrier began to take effect. Ji Li was not so easy to kill; he deployed two talisman barriers to hold it off.
At this point, Zhang Huairen's significance to Ji Li lay in identifying the killer's true target and breaking Wood Generates Fire.
The former did not matter to the Root Ghost, but the latter directly affected its plan to take his heart.
And so its contingency came into play. Zhang Huairen, a man with a metal-aligned destiny, drew in the Killing Water, extinguishing Ji Li's last means of resistance.
By this point, Ji Li had nowhere left to turn. Instead, it was Zhang Huairen, who could break the Wood Generates Fire Barrier, who could resist the Root Ghost.
Thus, at this moment, the Root Ghost fully activated its second, simultaneous method—manipulating the Evil Spirit to drive Ji Li mad.
Compared with an external threat, an assault from within was the hardest to withstand. Ji Li inevitably began to develop a mental split.
Neither method had actually failed. Both had been resounding successes, because Ji Li was merely