Flesh-Bone Green Robe Unaffected

In the hall, where a faint scent of sandalwood drifted through the air, stood a bed that had been moved in for the occasion.

The young girl sleeping on the bed was the favorite junior disciple of Elder Qi Rui, a genius demonic cultivator who had already reached the Golden Core stage at nineteen.

Yet, this genius had been secretly harmed the previous night, struck by some form of voodoo curse that had nearly claimed her life in her sleep.

Although Qi Rui had acted in time to save her beloved disciple, Qin Haie remained severely injured.

Today, Qi Rui had invited three other elders from the Demon Refining Sect to gather, intending to pool the strength of all four to exorcise the evil from her disciple.

However, even with the four elders joining forces, they could not dispel the evil presence from Qin Haie.

—Or rather, they could not find any trace of it on her.

Ge Hongshan, one of the four, was a master of the path of curses and talismans.

Having studied these arts for many years, he was well-versed in various heterodox voodoo and hexing techniques.

Such evil arts always relied on some form of wicked medium to harm their victims.

If one could locate the root of that medium and cleanse it, the evil could be expelled.

Yet, after checking her thoroughly, he could not find a single trace of any such medium on Qin Haie, let alone track it back to its source.

This disciple, so cherished by Elder Qi Rui, seemed as though she had never been cursed at all.

But what happened last night could not be false; clearly, the curse placed upon Qin Haie was a far more secretive and powerful form of dark magic.

Therefore, after consulting with one another, the group decided to let Qin Haie drift into a deep sleep, hoping to draw the evil entity out into her dreams.

Once that was done, the four elders in the waking world would join forces to trap the entity within her dreamscape and slay it.

It was the simplest and most reliable method; with four Demon Refining Sect elders working together to strike at the source of the evil, there was no way for the entity to escape.

...In theory, that was how it should have worked.

But when the battered Qin Haie lay down on the makeshift bed and fell asleep, the four elders, who had formed a defensive formation around her, were struck with sudden alarm.

For even though the room was now sealed by their formation, no aura of evil drifted forth, nor was there any sign of the entity appearing, yet the sleeping Qin Haie began to let out shrill, terrified screams.

"Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

Qin Haie shook her head frantically on the bed, her face twisted in horror.

She seemed to be witnessing something unimaginably terrifying, yet she could not break free.

Seeing her disciple's reaction, Qi Rui's face filled with heartache.

She immediately looked at Ge Hongshan and asked, "Elder Ge, shall we strike now?"

Ge Hongshan stood at the eastern position of the bed, his expression grim.

"It arrived the moment she fell asleep... what a persistent evil!"

The entity's movements were so swift that it had entered her dream without him sensing a thing.

This defied all reason.

But under the gaze of the others, Ge Hongshan remained composed. "Do not be alarmed, Elder Qi. With the four of us here today, we shall surely make that evil entity return in defeat!"

As a master of talismans and curses, Ge Hongshan naturally possessed such confidence.

There were countless curses in this world, but he had studied and understood nearly all of them.

Though the entity before them was strange, he was confident he could handle it.

"Three Elders, please ignite the Longevity Incense in your hands! Use the smoke to condense into a formation, lock down Qin Haie's dreamscape, and ensure the evil thing cannot escape!"

As Ge Hongshan finished speaking, the elders standing around the bed simultaneously lit their Longevity Incense.

Billowing smoke rose within the hall, eventually filling the entire space.

From the outside, the entire hall appeared to be shrouded in mist.

The hazy fog vaguely formed a massive cage.

In the center of this cage, on the bed, the unconscious Qin Haie continued to cry out, as if running for her life in a nightmare.

Above her body, the mist faintly outlined a figure that was constantly running.

It was Qin Haie.

This figure, formed from the gathering mist, kept looking back in terror as she fled.

And behind her, within the swirling fog, a bizarre shadow gradually took shape.

Long, slender, and ghastly feet dangled in the void, drifting like the tentacles of a monster. It wore the vibrant, gaudy costume of a huadan opera performer, painted in chilling colors.

The monster flickered in and out of existence near Qin Haie, sometimes close, sometimes far.

It emitted a strange, hissing sound from its mouth that made one's hair stand on end.

The four elders present were all top-tier demonic cultivators, well-accustomed to demons and ghosts. Yet, upon hearing that eerie sound, they still felt an uncontrollable, scalp-tingling sensation.

It was as if some ancient fear, buried deep within their bloodlines, had been awakened...

A flash of astonishment crossed Ge Hongshan's eyes.

"This evil thing..."

It seemed they had never seen it before!

At this moment, Ge Hongshan was suddenly struck by a sense of foreboding.

The smoke outlined the contents of Qin Haie's dream, revealing the tracks of that evil entity.

Yet, none of those present had ever seen such a creature; even Ge Hongshan, a grandmaster of curse arts, felt it was unfamiliar upon seeing it.

"Everyone, focus! We must lock down the dream immediately and join forces to slay this evil entity!"

Sensing that something was amiss, Ge Hongshan dared not delay and immediately called upon the other elders to act in unison.

Once they used the smoke of the Longevity Incense to slay the projection of this evil entity, its true form would also collapse.

This was the simplest and most brutal method of exorcism.

No matter how bizarre this evil entity was, could it possibly withstand a joint strike from four elders of the Demon Refining Sect?

As Ge Hongshan's voice fell, the four of them exerted their power simultaneously, and the Longevity Incense clutched in their hands began to burn rapidly.

From the rapidly burning Longevity Incense, wisps of dark red mist flew out.

The moment this red mist appeared, it transformed into a dense demonic net in mid-air.

Then, the four elders struck at the same time, and this demonic net, formed by the convergence of their demonic arts, descended directly to shroud the strange, drifting shadow within the smoke.

Once the net ensnared the projection of this evil entity, its true form would perish!

Ge Hongshan's eyes were fixed intently on the shadow flickering within the smoke.

He watched with his own eyes as the red demonic net descended from the sky and slammed down, tightly enveloping the shadow.

However, in the next second, something bizarre occurred.

The demonic net passed directly through the projection of the evil entity, failing to cause any damage at all.

Instead, the shadow within the smoke easily caught up to the fleeing Qin Haie and tore a chunk of flesh from her shoulder.

"Arghhh! My arm! My arm!"

Qin Haie screamed miserably on the bed; as the flesh was torn from her in the dream, blood spurted from Qin Haie's shoulder in reality, and a piece of flesh was truly missing from her right shoulder.

Seeing this shocking, bloody scene and the bizarre fact that the demonic net could not ensnare the evil entity, Ge Hongshan's expression turned grim as he finally recalled what this creature was.

"This is an ancient evil spirit that has long since perished! A Flesh-Bone Spirit Puppet!"

"Our Longevity Incense cannot lock onto it because it is not in Qin Haie's dream at all."

"It is using some unknown, bizarre method to remotely ravage Qin Haie's soul!"