He focused his mind, keeping his spiritual platform clear. The Nine Palaces Bright Moon Ascension Method slowly began to circulate, and at once, a bright full moon like a silver orb appeared in the void of his sea of consciousness. Beneath its light, he could sense that a layer of gloom had appeared on the empty shell of his original body's soul.
"This must be the effect that evil art has on the soul. This power seems to use the heart and soul as soil, taking root and feeding off them. If I'd really fallen victim to it, even if I escaped this time, it would bring endless trouble in the future."
He knew this all too well and immediately activated the Nine Palaces Bright Moon Ascension Method again. The moon hung in the void.
The spotless moonlight shifted and swept across the sinister gloom. At once, a sizzling sound rang out, and the mass of shadowy darkness coiled there retreated like a startled insect.
He continued to shine the moon, formed from his pure consciousness, upon it. Under the ceaseless wash of moonlight, the gloom melted like snow in boiling water, and in an instant, most of it had dispersed. Only a final wisp of sinister yin energy remained, shrinking into a corner.
"Using the Nine Palaces Bright Moon Ascension Method, I can counter this evil art. But this technique is formidable—and it doesn't seem to be one of our Immortal Puppet Sect's arts."
After learning of this technique, He Ping immediately grew interested in it. He realized that this evil art had two distinct properties. First, it could be used to control others. Cheng Zhi's behavior just now had clearly been abnormal; it seemed he hadn't deliberately chosen to turn against He Ping, but had instead been controlled.
Second, this evil art could be transmitted through sight alone, striking in an instant and leaving no chance to guard against it. For secretly attacking someone, there could hardly be a more sinister technique.
"For now, I'll pretend to be under its control and see what else Chixinzi has planned. If I get the chance, I'll take him down..."
He reached into his sleeve and squeezed the Nine-Death Substitute Witch Puppet hidden there. His confidence soared.
The Nine-Death Substitute Witch Puppet was complicated and painstaking to refine, but once completed, it could take calamity and misfortune in its master's place nine times.
With this item in hand, he was confident he could stay or leave with a mere thought.
With that in mind, He Ping pretended to be under the control of that strange evil art. He stood rooted to the spot, his body as stiff as stone.
Suddenly, someone let out a low whistle in the woods. A figure swept silently past behind him, like a bat.
He Ping took a closer look. In the moonlight shining through the treetops, he clearly saw a figure dressed in green robes. The other landed soundlessly behind Cheng Zhi.
"Chi... Chixinzi... Senior..."
After his injuries, Cheng Zhi's gaze had nearly gone blank.
"Don't move."
Chixinzi, dressed in green robes, circled behind him and pressed a finger against his crown. At once, Cheng Zhi's eyes closed, and he remained utterly motionless, as if meditating.
"This fellow is hiding a secret. If you'd killed him just like that, Junior Brother, all the preparations I've made over the years would have gone to waste."
The Green-Robed Person, Chixinzi, spoke. His voice was harsh and grating, like bones scraping together, and hearing it made people deeply uncomfortable.
"Ha, I nearly forgot you're under the influence of the Seed Demon Technique, Junior Brother. You can't even get half a sentence out. In that case..."
He spread his green sleeves, and dozens of blood-red threads flew out, landing on He Ping.
"One beginning without beginning. One divides into three. The ultimate has no end or root. Heaven is one, earth is two..."
Chixinzi chanted the incantation at great speed. The blood-red color of the threads on He Ping's body began to glow, and the powerful force of the curse gathered in them, traveling toward He Ping on the other side.
This was the Immortal Puppet Sect's secret Eight Element Bone Locking Method. Using his own vital blood as a medium, this incantation could seal away every method at an enemy's disposal. Even a master of Daoist arts struck by it would have his five senses plunged into darkness, sinking into eternal oblivion.
Chixinzi hadn't studied the Eight Element Bone Locking Method particularly deeply, but sealing someone's five senses and six perceptions was no difficult matter. The Immortal Puppet Sect had far too many powerful arts. Once someone fell into its clutches, they could be worked over until there was no chance of recovery.
"Heh heh... This fellow was the last disciple that old monster Wu Yousheng took in. I'd wondered what sort of formidable character his fifth successor in the Immortal Puppet Sect would be. Who knew he'd amount to so little..."
Chixinzi had been somewhat worried that the fifth successor of the Immortal Puppet Sect might have inherited Wu Yousheng's true teachings. Who could have guessed that a little trick would let him capture He Ping so easily? Once the Eight Element Bone Locking Method sealed his consciousness, five senses, and every orifice, Chixinzi could kill or dismember him as he pleased.
Just as he was congratulating himself, a hidden force suddenly surged through several of the blood-red threads extending from his fingers, flowing back like an underground current—
"What?!"
Chixinzi was greatly alarmed. His fingers froze in midair, and his lips trembled. The world before his eyes abruptly darkened, the surrounding scenery growing blurry. A faint, bee-like buzzing rang in his ears, and a powerful wave of drowsiness swept over him.
"Damn it!"
The Green-Robed Person's mouth went dry. For some unknown reason, his feet seemed nailed to the ground, unable to move at all. Only then did he realize how dire his situation was.
Just moments ago, the curse force of the Eight Element Bone Locking Method had been drawn back by some obscure power and driven straight back at him.
In an instant, his ears and eyes—the senses of hearing, sight, smell, and touch—had been taken from him. If his other senses were sealed moments later, he would be no better than a walking corpse, entirely at someone else's mercy.
At first, Chixinzi had thought his curse had been reversed by the wind and he was suffering a backlash. Only now did he finally understand: he had fallen victim to the Eight Element Bone Locking Method himself. The blood-curse threads released from his ten fingers had become conduits for transmitting the seal.
"It's... you—"
He struggled to raise his head. Through his increasingly blurred vision, he could make out He Ping on the other side. The man wearing the grimacing mask let out a cold laugh.
"How is it, Senior Brother Chixinzi? The Eight Element Bone Locking Method doesn't feel very good, does it?"
It was you!
Chixinzi said nothing, but was utterly shocked. He couldn't help asking himself, Why hadn't the Seed Demon Technique affected this fellow? How had he turned the Eight Element Bone Locking Method back on me? All manner of questions surfaced in his mind, but the struggle before him left no room for hesitation—
The Green-Robed Person held his breath and focused. He bit the tip of his tongue, the sharp pain making him shudder, then opened his mouth and spat out vital blood.
Whoosh!
The blood ignited the threads around him. Their crimson glow grew brighter, and He Ping, at the other end, let out a soft "Huh?"
Suddenly, the threads in the air snapped taut. He Ping's eyes lit up. Realizing Chixinzi still had strength to spare, he was about to focus and counterattack.
But events took an unexpected turn. Chixinzi roared and yanked back with all ten fingers. A sharp twang rang through the air as every one of the dozens of threads snapped. Chixinzi's vision abruptly went black, and he spat out another mouthful of blood. Injured in both body and mind, he flew backward and crashed into a tree.
"That bastard's ruthless!"
He Ping took a hit as well. His throat suddenly filled with a metallic sweetness, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. Chixinzi had been halfway through the technique when he withdrew the curse force of the Eight Element Bone Locking Method. The power immediately turned back on him, and the backlash was bound to damage his lungs and entrails. But with that decisive move, he had also severed the threads linking them.
"Go!"
Chixinzi shouted as he struck the tree. Two clusters of golden light burst from his sleeves.
It turned out that both his arms had been deliberately severed at the elbows and fitted with Severed Ghost Hands.
The Severed Ghost Hands could separate and detach. Now they flew through the air under the control of Formless Strings. Golden light flickered at their fingertips as their auras locked onto He Ping from afar.
He Ping felt the pressure too. His neck and back prickled, and the hairs on his body stood on end. Black energy had spread from his right index fingernail to the first knuckle.
This was a sign of having cultivated the Shadow Calling Technique. As soon as someone practiced this evil art, the God of Nine Shadows would awaken and begin to erode their flesh and blood. During this process, the spaces between the fingers were the first to be affected.
Beneath the moonlight, He Ping's hand suddenly swept through an arc, his movements exceptionally fierce. The shadow beneath his feet abruptly stretched out.
At the critical moment, the shadow traced a strange curve and struck one of the incoming Severed Ghost Hands. The impact knocked it off course, sending it crashing into the other ghost hand flying in from the left.
With a bang, the two collided, ringing like metal striking metal. Their tremendous momentum sent them flying into the bushes on the other side, where they vanished from sight.
He was about to use the shadow art again to kill his enemy when the soft earth beneath his feet exploded like a powder keg. With a thunderous boom, dozens of golden shadows burst from the ground—all of them Severed Ghost Hands. Their palms, harder than iron, came stabbing at him in a dense swarm.
In that split second, He Ping's figure shot strangely upward, as if he himself were a string puppet being pulled and controlled by a giant hand.
Leaping into the air, his movements grew ever more light and graceful. His black robes fluttered around him as he deftly slid through the air, dodging the pursuing Severed Ghost Hands while shooting out several blood-red threads.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The threads flew out. They were the very same ones that had carried the Eight Element Bone Locking Method moments earlier. As soon as they touched the Severed Ghost Hands, they turned around and took control of them, making them crash into the other ghost hands nearby.
Amid a series of metallic clangs, the ghost hands were knocked flying one after another. Only then did He Ping land on the ground. Before he could steady himself, a figure came rushing up behind him.
"Chixinzi, you're asking for death!"
He swung his hand back, striking with the Milo Blade. The Green-Robed Person abruptly changed form and barely managed to slip away. The Milo Blade swept past him, cleaving the green figure into countless fragments.
"Hahahaha!"
Amid a burst of strange laughter, Chixinzi split into two. It turned out he had used an art from the Garment Armor Evasion technique, using his green robe to deceive He Ping for a single moment. But the old monster had still taken a slash across the brow. Blood covered his face, yet he grinned and laughed.
He Ping sensed something and reached back to touch between his shoulder blades. Only then did he discover that something seemed to have been stuck to his back.
"A talisman?"
He turned his head and glimpsed what looked like a yellow talisman, though from this angle, he couldn't make it out clearly.
"Is Chixinzi really from my Immortal Puppet Sect? First he uses all kinds of evasion techniques, then he mixes in talismans. What sect does this fellow even belong to...?"
He Ping was about to tear it off, but a sudden pain shot through his back. He let out a scream. The vermilion sigils painted on the talisman flared to life, radiating thick black smoke. Countless snake-like demon maggots burst from it, gnawing at his flesh from within and without.
Seeing this, Chixinzi sneered to himself. The brat's talisman had been refined from the Seed Demon Technique of the Sanyuan Devil Palace. It was called the Demon Maggot Curse Evil Skeleton Eating Talisman. After being struck by it, He Ping wouldn't get off lightly!
Black, snake-like demon maggots coiled all over He Ping. These grotesque grubs secreted acid. Once they bit their target, the flesh turned into bubbling blisters, and they kept corroding it all the way to the bone.
The demon maggots had eaten holes through He Ping's face. Their corrosive venom twisted his features, turning them into black liquid that streamed constantly down his face.
Just then, Chixinzi suddenly realized something. His gaze shifted to "He Ping's" body, where he saw a carved wooden wrist fall away from it.
"A wooden hand?"
An ominous premonition welled up inside him.
He rushed forward and swept out his wide sleeves. The demon maggots scattered into countless tongues of black flame. With a thud, the Wood Demon Puppet, corroded until it looked like rotten wood, crashed to the ground.
A wave that looked almost like emotional turmoil stirred in Chixinzi's eyes.
"Could it be... that this brat has refined the Nine-Death Substitute Witch Puppet?"
The words slipped from the mouth of Chixinzi, the Green-Robed Person.
Boom!
A distant tree shattered like dry kindling beneath an immense force. Its tough wood fibers burst apart with a dry crack. Then came a series of further crashes, while the rustling of leaves echoed through the woods and the falling tree struck the ground with a heavy thud.
"They're here!"
A powerful sense of danger welled up in Chixinzi. He abruptly turned around and saw several paper puppets carrying lanterns and bearing a white sedan. They charged in a straight line, smashing through the trees in the dense forest as they raced forward at full speed.
At the same time, a voice rang out from inside the sedan.
"Senior Brother Chixinzi, your Daoist art of the Severed Ghost Hand has won my admiration. This unworthy Junior Brother has practiced the Paper Puppet Spirit Art and would like to learn from you."
Inside the Paper Sedan, the corners of He Ping's mouth curled up. He had only one habit in life: if someone schemed against him, humiliated him, or bullied him... he would find a chance to pay them back.
—A debt always had to be settled!