Eyeless Bodhisattva

He Ping saw it clearly: the fierce ghost's form seemed to freeze, unable to even rotate its black umbrella.

He interlaced his fingers and pulled them apart like a cat's cradle, the silk threads stretching between his palms to form a small, intricate web.

"...The One begins, yet has no beginning. The One divides into three. The ultimate has no end. Heaven is One-One, Earth is One-Two, Man is One-Three..."

He Ping chanted incessantly, his eyes locked firmly on the direction of the fierce ghost.

A mass of black shadow swirled there, shielding the ghost's form at its center, but the residual power of the array had faded, leaving it with no further means of protection.

"The opportunity is here!"

He Ping finished the incantation rapidly, biting the tip of his tongue and spraying a mouthful of fresh blood onto the silk threads between his palms.

As the blood mist erupted, a transformation occurred—

The "Formless String" shifted from faint and invisible to a vivid, blood-red hue, extending from his fingertips into the void. Hundreds of fine threads, resembling countless blood vessels, expanded outward from the sedan chair like a giant spider web, descending to shroud the area.

"Strike!"

He flicked his hands, and the silk threads morphed into a thousand shapes, transforming into countless binding cords that coiled around the ghost's misty, shadowy figure from all directions.

The ghost's body was not a physical object, but merely a mass of phantom shadow; yet, as these layers of blood-red threads wrapped around it, it was as if it had been clamped in place, unable to move a muscle.

The fierce ghost struggled, but it could not break free. As the blood-light from the threads eroded its ghostly form, it grew increasingly withered, and even the black mist protecting it began to seep with a faint, crimson hue.

"I refuse to believe that this 'Eight-Origin Bone-Locking Technique' cannot suppress you."

He Ping let out a cold, mocking laugh.

"Soul-Calling Shadow-Binding," "Eight-Origin Bone-Locking," and "Body-Shifting Demonic Curse"—these three forbidden arts were powerful sealing techniques recorded in the Formless Secret Treasury.

The scrolls of the Formless Secret Treasury stated that once one mastered these three sealing arts, they could contend with any enemy, provided they did not encounter a master at the Dao-entry level.

Of these three forbidden arts, He Ping had only mastered the Eight-Origin Bone-Locking, known as the "Spider Binding Technique." Now, having expended his own vital essence to unleash it, the strike had succeeded in one blow.

"It is all over."

His expression was indifferent. With a movement of his hands, he launched a lethal offensive. In an instant, the silk strings hummed and whirred, twisting and tightening. The fierce ghost did not even have room to struggle; its surrounding black mist exploded, and it vanished into ashes in a single moment.

"A mere ghost, how could it possibly withstand my forbidden technique? Cough, cough, cough..."

Because he had utilized a secret art like the Eight-Origin Bone-Locking, He Ping had wasted a significant amount of vital energy. However, he was also fortunate; had the one presiding over the Screaming Soul Blood Silk Array not been a fierce ghost, he would not have succeeded so smoothly.

"Ghosts are truly foolish. If it had been a living person, they would have abandoned the ancestral hall and closed the distance to launch a suicidal attack. My Spirit-Exploding Witch Puppet has great destructive power, but if it detonates too close to me, I would be caught in the blast myself."

He Ping knew his own limitations; his Spirit-Exploding Witch Puppet was not so easy to use. If he did not calculate the distance when deploying it, he would be caught in the collateral damage.

His actions had caused severe damage to this Chen Family Ancestral Hall. In an instant, he sensed a subtle change from within his sedan chair—

A strange vibration suddenly emanated from the ground, and the surrounding air stirred with the momentum of dispersing winds. The dense, baleful intent that had permeated the village began to recede like thinning mist.

"It seems I have broken the Screaming Soul Blood Silk Array, and it appears the village's ghost array is collapsing as well. However, that is none of my concern. I should retrieve the 'suppression object' here and leave this village as quickly as possible..."

At this moment, several uninjured paper puppets began to clear the battlefield. In front of the gate, now covered in brick, rubble, and dust, one of them picked up a black umbrella.

"Could this black umbrella be some kind of magical artifact...?"

He had not paid much attention during the previous exchange, but now He Ping noticed that the umbrella possessed something extraordinary. The Immortal Puppet Sect focused primarily on crafting and manipulating puppets and did not typically produce magical artifacts. However, he had heard that Daoist masters from many sects could forge various artifacts, and it was possible this umbrella was one of them.

"It should be a good item; I'll take it back for now..."

Fearing that the umbrella might contain hidden spells or other traps, He Ping wrapped it in the blood-red threads of the "Eight-Origin Bone-Locking" to temporarily suppress it, then ordered the paper puppets to venture deep into the ancestral hall to investigate.

For the sake of safety, he did not enter himself; he would wait until the paper puppets had conducted a thorough search before taking any action.

After all, He Ping was a man who cherished his life; he did not wish to fall victim to an enemy's trap due to some unforeseen accident.

Before long, the paper puppets cleared away the piles of rubble and discovered a hidden room behind the main hall, filled with black spirit tablets.

The room emitted the scent of burnt incense and joss paper. Judging by the layout of the ancestral hall, this was likely the eye of the array.

"Eh?"

He Ping's sedan chair was carried to the entrance. He blinked, discovering a female corpse dressed in red lying in the room.

She possessed a face of peerless beauty, but there was a clear ligature mark around her neck.

The woman was dead, her skin turned an iron-blue, and a layer of black mist could be vaguely seen permeating it.

"Dying with such resentment, and having the corpse placed in such a land of evil—this is a case of Baleful Intent possession!"

He noticed a layer of white fuzz on the hands hanging from the woman's sleeves.

"If this thing isn't dealt with, it might undergo a corpse transformation!"

White fuzz was also sprouting on the woman's face; her pupils were dark red, and her expression was twisted with a hint of ferocity. At this rate, she would fully transform into a corpse within a few hours...

However, He Ping did not care about the woman's transformation. Even if she turned into a corpse, what was there to fear? Not even the half-ghost, half-corpse Green-Grasping Ghost could withstand his "Milo Blade," so he truly did not care about a mere white-furred zombie.

"Right, zombies are quite rare. The Immortal Puppet Sect's crafting techniques include several types of puppets that require corpse skin as material."

Thinking this, he subconsciously took a few more looks at the female corpse.

With a "bang," the table holding the spirit tablets was overturned, and a person was hiding underneath.

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

The person was dressed in green, clutching their head with both hands, curled into a ball, and their expression had descended into madness. Seeing the state of this person, the paper puppets moved to knock them unconscious.

"It really is him."

Glancing at the man, He Ping knew he was the servant who had assassinated Xie San. He had no idea how the man had managed to hide here, nor did he know about the female corpse, though she must have arrived with him, given that she could not have been dead for very long.

"The suppression object is in this area. Search it thoroughly for me."

He scanned his surroundings, intending to locate the suppression object hidden within the eye of the formation.

Several paper puppets circled the room and discovered something peculiar about the floor tiles. They smashed them open with force, and sure enough, they uncovered a hidden compartment beneath the bluestone bricks, which indeed contained an object.

When the paper puppets retrieved the item from the ground, He Ping was taken aback.

It was a Bodhisattva statue carved from black stone. The material felt slick and smooth to the touch, though the contours of the statue were somewhat blurred and the craftsmanship was crude.

Only after picking it up to examine it closely did he realize there was something strange about this black stone carving; for some unknown reason, the Bodhisattva had no pupils.