To Lu Ping's delight, the puppet before him had far more blood and qi than an ordinary person. It might be enough to dispel his curse in one go.
Seeing the satisfied look on his face, Li San and Hu Jiu said, "We'll deduct three hundred Contribution Points. This puppet is yours to deal with."
Lu Ping readily paid the Contribution Points. After sending Li San and Hu Jiu away, he prepared to use Fang Huai to dispel the curse.
Just then, Fang Huai's voice reached his ears:
"Senior Brother, I'm a disciple of our sect. I was mistakenly captured and brought here. If you help me escape, I can completely remove your Blood Loss Curse."
Lu Ping's heart jolted. "How do you know I'm afflicted with this curse?"
Fang Huai put on a mysterious air, looking as though he were saying, Trust me. I'm right.
Seeing Fang Huai so confident, Lu Ping believed him without thinking.
He had been about to call Li San and Hu Jiu over to explain the situation, but greed made him abandon the idea.
A disciple of our sect?
He was draining a disciple of their sect!
All their sect's disciples practiced the Body Forging Technique, so their blood and qi were vigorous. After using one to dispel the curse, there might even be some left over to siphon off.
"Trying to trick me?" Lu Ping said fiercely. He had to act fast and drain Fang Huai dry.
His five fingers pierced Fang Huai's skull. As he recited the incantation, pure blood and qi flowed into Lu Ping's body, washing over the cursed spot.
Fang Huai stared straight into Lu Ping's eyes as his lips gradually turned pale.
As the [Blood Loss Curse] label on Lu Ping turned from white to gray, Fang Huai transferred the label onto himself.
"Is that enough?" Fang Huai sneered.
"Not enough!" Fang Huai's sneer made Lu Ping's skin crawl. He realized the curse had vanished, but he didn't stop.
He had already made an enemy of this puppet. Better to pull it up by the roots. Even if the sect investigated, he could claim he was just an uninformed buyer.
Fang Huai said nothing more. He only looked at Lu Ping as though he were already dead.
At last, Fang Huai looked at the [Blood Loss Curse] and [Blood and Qi Depleted] labels on himself and said:
"Lu Ping, I gave you a chance. You chose your own dead end."
Lu Ping felt even more unnerved. How did this puppet know his name?
Suddenly, the world spun. His legs could no longer support him, and he collapsed to the ground.
What terrified him even more was that the curse had returned to his wound.
"Help... help..."
Despair filled Lu Ping's eyes. His blood and qi continued to drain away as he gradually sank into darkness.
Though he tried desperately to call for help, the puppets' wails drowned out his voice.
Even as he died, he couldn't understand why the Blood Loss Curse had flared up again.
After Lu Ping died, Fang Huai gave a bitter laugh and passed out.
An hour later, when Lu Ping still hadn't come out, Li San and Hu Jiu entered the hall to look for him.
Seeing Lu Ping lying on the ground, Li San kicked him. "Junior Brother, if you want to rest, go back to your own quarters."
When Lu Ping didn't respond, Li San stepped forward to check his breathing, only to find he was well and truly dead.
Hu Jiu sighed. "What a shame. He was so close to dispelling the curse. He really had rotten luck."
"Sure did."
Li San searched Lu Ping and found his Storage Bag. He split the valuables in two and tossed Hu Jiu his share. "Let's report this to the sect."
A few days later, Li San and Hu Jiu brought another outer sect disciple before Fang Huai.
Pointing at him, they introduced him. "Senior Brother Ma, you've come at just the right time. We saved this choice specimen for you."
The man looked impatient. "Enough talk. I'm in a hurry. Deduct the Contribution Points already!"
Fang Huai glanced at the man—
Ma Qiquan, third level of Qi Refining, [Vengeful Soul Devouring Body (red)].
[Vengeful Soul Devouring Body: Qi Deviation, with a massive amount of resentment absorbed into the body]
The man's eyes were bloodshot, his eye sockets sunken, his skin ghastly pale, and the veins beneath it twitched uncontrollably.
After the Contribution Points were deducted and the two attendants sent away, Ma Qiquan lunged at Fang Huai without a moment's delay, his five fingers hooking into Fang Huai's skull like an eagle's talons.
At the same time, a huge amount of resentment flooded into Fang Huai.
Lu Ping had siphoned from Fang Huai's physical body, so Fang Huai had been able to kill him by trading injury for life. But Ma Qiquan was attacking his spiritual consciousness. He couldn't use the same trick he had used against Lu Ping.
What was he supposed to do?
Fang Huai clenched his teeth and racked his brains for a way out, but couldn't think of any way to deal with his predicament.
Just as he was about to despair, the Little Corpse Meteor Insect sensed a threat and burrowed along Fang Huai's meridians toward the top of his head.
Ma Qiquan had his eyes closed, reveling in the sensation, when a sudden sting came from his palm.
He immediately pulled his hand back and stared at the bloody hole, growing concerned.
Could it be some kind of venomous insect?
The Corpse Sha Sect was full of poisonous insects. One careless mistake could leave you poisoned at best, dead at worst.
Even disciples in the middle or upper stages of Qi Refining had been killed by poisonous insects. What chance did a cultivator like him, in the early stage of Qi Refining, stand?
He focused inward. A black beetle was racing along his meridians, seemingly toward his heart.
This was bad!
Ma Qiquan was a ruthless man. Without hesitation, he drew a dagger and cut off his arm.
But he was still too slow. The Corpse Meteor Insect had already left his arm and passed through his shoulder into his chest.
He thrust the dagger between his ribs to block it, but the Little Corpse Meteor Insect was remarkably nimble. When it found the dagger in its way, it turned around, circled past it, and burrowed straight into his heart.
"Help... help me!"
His heart throbbed with agony. Ma Qiquan cried out in pain, then collapsed to the ground moments later.
After killing Ma Qiquan, the Little Corpse Meteor Insect emerged from his chest and scurried toward Fang Huai. It burrowed a hole into the sole of Fang Huai's foot and returned to his body.
This time, Li and Hu heard Ma Qiquan's cries for help and hurried over.
But when they arrived, all they saw was Ma Qiquan's corpse, already growing cold.
"We're finished. We'll be punished for this!"
After they dealt with Ma Qiquan's body, their legs went weak. Supporting each other, they made their way back to their quarters.
Having failed in their duties twice in a row, they had no choice but to pay a visit to the Law Enforcement Hall.
The Law Enforcement Hall suspected the two of them of plotting to kill a fellow sect disciple, citing the fact that they had split Lu Ping's Storage Bag between them.
Only after enduring numerous punishments and handing over most of their family fortunes did the Law Enforcement Hall reluctantly let them go.
The two sat in their room, changed out of their bloodstained robes, and fell silent.
Li San was the first to break the silence. "Junior Brother Hu, that puppet is a little cursed. It's already brought about the deaths of two fellow disciples, Lu Ping and Ma Qiquan!"
Hu Jiu spat. "It was just a coincidence. We'll sell it to some other senior brother in a couple of days."
"I'm worried..."
"What's there to worry about? If it keeps acting cursed, we'll ship it off to Alchemy Peak and have it refined!
"Those bastards at the Law Enforcement Hall bully us like this because our cultivation is too low!"
With that, Hu Jiu pulled a black box from a hidden spot. Inside were several crimson leaves.
Li San asked, puzzled, "What are these?"
Hu Jiu didn't answer. He simply put the leaves in an incense burner and lit them. Then he said, "These are treasures that can help our cultivation advance by leaps and bounds."
Red mist curled around them as they sat cross-legged, their eyes growing unfocused.
Anyone passing their room would have seen their expressions shift from excitement to fury, then to high spirits.
In a dreamlike haze, the two achieved Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment and formed first-grade Golden Cores.
They became the sect's patriarchs, riding black soul clouds and basking in the worship of countless cultivators.
A quarter of an hour later, the smoke dispersed. The two were still unsatisfied, but they had already forgotten the day's unpleasant events.
"Junior Brother Hu, get some more Blood Jade Leaf."
"Senior Brother Li, after what happened today, we're grasshoppers on the same rope. So I'll be honest with you: I've joined the Ascension Society."
Before you continue