The instant He Ping saw those blood-red eyes open in the mirror, cold sweat prickled along his spine. A chill crept in from his limbs and bones.
The shadow on the white wall behind him came alive. Its bloodshot eyes fixed on He Ping, and wave after wave of evil, icy energy swept through the secret chamber.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
Wicked! This is truly wicked!
The "Soul-Calling Shadow-Binding" technique really was sinister. Beads of cold sweat appeared on He Ping's forehead as he felt an inexplicable pressure weigh on his mind.
The phantom with blood-red eyes stared at his back from the wall. A dark, savage light gleamed in those blood-red pupils, brimming with hostility.
Hoo...
He Ping let out a long breath and steadied himself.
"Once awakened, a 'Shadow Deity' bears immense malice toward its host. The first Shadow Deity, the Right Emperor, is still manageable. But with each one I summon after that, the danger increases sharply..."
Once awakened, a Shadow Deity could be freely commanded by the owner of its shadow, appearing and disappearing in an instant. With techniques like curse-killing added to the mix, its power would rise to another level.
What's more, since it was a mass of shadow, it was difficult for enemies to detect and defend against. If he cultivated this forbidden art to a higher level, he could bind a shadow by calling its name and use curse-laden effigies to kill from afar. With a mere gesture, he could take a life unseen.
But there was a drawback: the shadow would look for a chance to kill its original host and seize his body. There was another flaw, too. Once someone began practicing "Soul-Calling Shadow-Binding," awakening even one of the Shadow Deities would cause the remaining eight to revive in turn.
This process could not be reversed, and it would never end. Unless the practitioner subdued all nine Shadow Deities or died to their backlash, there was no other way out...
At that moment, with the shadow staring at his back, He Ping felt as if thorns were pricking him. He hurriedly reached out to it with his soul.
Suddenly, the shadow with crimson eyes reacted as well. An invisible thread seemed to connect it to the shadow on the wall.
"So it worked."
He Ping's spirits lifted. "Soul-Calling Shadow-Binding" had taken effect.
One of the nine Shadow Deities, the Right Emperor, had revived.
"Let's try it."
He didn't dare let his guard down. He slowly raised one hand toward the oil lamp's eerie red glow and silently shaped it into a particular form.
It was the shape of a beast.
He formed a dog with his hand, the way children did when playing shadow games.
A dog-shaped shadow appeared on the wall. It suddenly began to twist. He Ping's hand hadn't moved, yet the dog on the wall started moving on its own, sniffing the air like a beast.
Then the mass of shadow split in two, then three, then a fourth... The shadows multiplied rapidly. Each one sniffed the air, its mouth opening and closing without pause.
The Right Emperor's shadow, summoned by the spell, disappeared. Now, the shadows cast on the wall seemed to have been given life as well.
The sight was bizarre. The shadow hounds gathered together and touched noses, frolicking as if at play.
He Ping's gaze turned deep and intent. He pointed at the birdcage hanging in midair.
"Go!"
With a whoosh, as if an invisible gust had blown through, the black cloth over the birdcage slid off, revealing a lively, multicolored parrot inside.
Suddenly, the shadow hounds lowered their heads. They moved silently across the wall toward the birdcage's shadow.
The birdcage hung above He Ping's head, and the oil lamp cast its reflection on the wall. Even the parrot inside and the cage's bamboo bars were clearly visible.
The shadow hounds sniffed at the cage and began circling it. The multicolored parrot hanging in midair seemed to sense danger, too, and began leaping frantically around inside.
The cage rattled violently, distorting its shadow on the wall. The hounds cautiously edged closer. Though they were nothing but shadows, they were as wary as real beasts when stalking prey.
Gradually, the hounds closed the distance to the multicolored parrot in its cage.
Crack!
The shadow hounds opened their strangely shaped mouths and lunged at the shadows of the parrot and cage on the wall.
The hand-shaped hounds bit down on the cage's shadow. With a sharp snap, a bamboo bar broke. The birdcage hanging in midair cracked, and its bars shattered. The parrot let out a terrified shriek.
Its flesh seemed to be torn apart by bites from every direction. Feathers scattered everywhere.
On the wall, the shadow hounds were tearing at the parrot's shadow like savage beasts.
In the blink of an eye, the parrot was bitten to death. It lay silent in the cage, its belly ripped open, its flesh a bloody mess.
"That's enough."
He Ping sensed that the hounds had swallowed their fill of the living creature's blood and qi. He formed a hand seal, and the hounds stopped attacking. One after another, they returned to their original places as though summoned. Their warped, twisted forms gradually melted away, becoming shadows once more.
Using the mirror before him, he saw that among his nine shadows, the one that had awakened was wavering faintly, giving off an unsettling feeling.
"All right. As long as I feed the shadow living flesh and blood, it'll settle down..."
He wiped the cold sweat from his head, and the tension in his face gradually eased. Through his soul, he could sense that something had appeared inside his shadow. As long as he connected to it with his consciousness and activated it, he could unleash it at any time.
"This forbidden art is risky to cultivate. The more I refine it, the more dangerous it becomes. In the later stages, it'll be like walking on thin ice. But its power is nothing to scoff at. Even mastering just one Shadow Deity, the Right Emperor, gives me a formidable weapon. And with every one of the nine Shadow Deities that awakens, more changes become possible."
Click, click, click...
As he pondered, a sudden sound rang beside his ear: the creaking joints of a wooden puppet twisting.
He Ping reacted quickly and looked up. His eyes fixed on something—a strange face with no eyes, ears, or nose, only a mouth, hanging down from above like a human-shaped spider.
No, it wasn't a spider. It was a humanoid puppet, spider-like in form.
It had no face, and its four arms and four legs were folded backward, secured by a thread attached to its abdomen. It slid upside down from the ceiling.
This was the Wood Demon Puppet. Unlike the fully refined Paper Doll Spirit Puppet, it was an unfinished puppet He Ping had made himself.
Some time ago, the paper dolls suffered heavy losses while dealing with the Screaming Soul Blood Silk Array in the Ghost Stockade. I still haven't repaired them. I'll have to bring out these Wood Demon Puppets to handle what comes next...
He Ping sighed inwardly.
The Wood Demon Puppets were still unfinished, so they couldn't unleash their full strength.
Even so, as half-finished puppets, they were far from powerless.
Just then, the four-armed, four-legged Wood Demon Puppet, spiderlike and humanoid, drew close to Su Ping's ear. With a soft click, its jaw moved and its mouth parted slightly, as if whispering something to him...
"What? He Fusheng sent word an hour ago... What did you say? Something like that happened?"
A cold smile appeared on He Ping's face.
"This prefect really thinks he can throw his weight around. He doesn't have a shred of evidence, yet he dares to move against the He Family!"