"Hahahaha!"
As they arrived at the bustling main street of Changde Town, Zhu Yike burst into uncontrollable laughter. His laughter grew so intense that tears nearly streamed down his face. He couldn't help but recall the utterly defeated look on Xi's face before they left.
"That guy was on the verge of collapse, thanks to Lord Shou!"
Zhu Yike shook his head, still chuckling. "I'll bet anything on Lord Shou… After today, that ancient swordsman will be haunted by nightmares of you every night!"
As he continued to revel in his thoughts, Zhu Yike followed Lord Shou's instructions and transmitted the spiritual senses placed within him into the one-armed Divine Puppet. He marveled at the puppet, his smile widening.
"This is the most 'impressive' Divine Puppet I've ever seen!" he mused, though it was hard to ignore that at first glance, the puppet looked like it was cobbled together from ancient, rusty, incomplete weapons. The craftsmanship was rough, and frankly, it looked like a pile of scrap metal.
But… if Lord Shou said it was a Divine Puppet, then it was a Divine Puppet!
Zhu Yike, now full of absolute faith in Lord Shou, reflected on Xi's desperation. The mighty swordsman had tried to keep his composure, but Lord Shou's casual words utterly shattered him. Zhu Yike snickered again. "If someone played a trick like that on me, I'd just pull out my sword and commit suicide on the spot!"
"Buzz!"
As Zhu Yike inserted a spirit gem into the puppet's back, using it as an energy source, intricate patterns lit up across its broken frame. Its eyes flashed with spirit energy as Jin Ren's consciousness entered the puppet's body.
"No…"
He flexed the puppet's arm, lifted a knee, and took a few steps, quickly adapting to the new form. With spirit threads emerging from his body, Jin Ren extended his senses into the surroundings, using flowers, plants, and even trees as his eyes. In an instant, he captured the scene within miles, images flooding into his mind.
It was like reading from a jade scroll. Through the Divine Puppet, Jin Ren could simulate spiritual perception, even mimicking the passive ability known as Perception. Though the range was small—only a few miles—Jin Ren was impressed by what this battered Divine Puppet could achieve.
Zhu Yike, still grinning, didn't seem to understand Jin Ren's deeper thoughts. Unlike Zhu Yike, Jin Ren didn't feel any contempt for Xi.
"He'll be back!" Jin Ren said solemnly.
The puppet's voice, infused with Lord Shou's tone, startled Zhu Yike, Aunt Xiang, Ah Yao, and even the townsfolk who had been curiously observing them from a distance.
Suddenly, the sky darkened.
"Wuwuwu!"
A ghostly wind swept through the town, howling eerily as it approached. Dust, pebbles, and trash whirled into the sky, seemingly driven by invisible hands. The streets, though empty, suddenly felt crowded with unseen forces.
"Ghosts!!!"
Yang Tieniu, a hefty butcher with a blade in hand, glanced at the street and nearly dropped his knife. "I've killed pigs for years, but I've never been as scared as I am now!"
Without hesitation, Yang abandoned his stall, ran upstairs, and locked himself in his house. Hiding under his blanket, he curled up tightly, muttering, "They can't see me, they can't see me…"
Meanwhile, Aunt Zhang Xiuhua, who ran the breakfast stall next door, came out holding a bowl of tofu pudding. She froze as she saw the sky darken, ghostly figures filling the street. Her regular customer, Old Zhang, fainted on the spot, and with a crash, her bowl of tofu pudding fell to the ground.
"This is… the Phantom Swords Technique?" Zhu Yike muttered, his eyes widening.
Within the radius of his spiritual senses, the entire Changde Town was enveloped by dark clouds. Evil ghosts wandered the streets, visible only to those with spiritual sight. Townsfolk collapsed inside their homes or lay unconscious on the roads.
"Wuwuwu…"
The eerie sounds grew louder. Ah Yao, now huddled in a corner, looked utterly lost. She didn't dare trouble Aunt Xiang, so she hugged herself tightly, shrinking further into the shadows.
"Such a large-scale Spirits Controlling Technique?" Jin Ren's voice echoed from within the Divine Puppet, his tone incredulous.
He had witnessed powerful techniques before—Master Siren's Phantom Swords Technique, which could summon a night parade of a hundred ghosts and blur the line between life and death. But this? Xi's technique was something else entirely. The boundary between the living world and the underworld had become indistinguishable.
Jin Ren activated the Divine Puppet's Soul Mode with a single command. Its form began to change.
The Divine Puppet's once solid form gradually became translucent, fading into a dark green hue that seemed to shimmer like a ghostly apparition. At the same time, Jin Ren's mind was flooded with a vision of Changde Town—completely overrun by thousands of malevolent spirits and ghosts.
The variety of these specters was both terrifying and awe-inspiring: a soldier ghost with half a face and a sickle, cloaked in black; a spell ghost riding a bone dragon, wielding a scepter; a grotesque beast ghost, with limbs as thick as tree trunks and a mouth that stretched far beyond the size of its head. Winged spirits soared through the air, while headless ghosts blindly stuffed whatever they could find into the gaping holes in their necks. Some spirits moved with impossible speed, crashing through hordes of others, knocking evil spirits aside like ragdolls.
It was a carnival of the macabre, and all of these sinister entities flickered with an eerie translucent white flame.
Although the Divine Puppet's special Perception detected no heat from the flames, Jin Ren could feel their dreadful influence. Even just sensing them from a distance caused a surge of evil desires in his heart. It took all of his willpower to suppress them.
"Spirits Controlling... White Sin Karmic Fire…"
Aunt Xiang's voice, filled with urgency, broke the tension. Though she couldn't see the details, the white sparks in her vision told her all she needed to know.
"Xi's main cultivation technique is the Phantom Swords Technique, but he's also mastered the White Sin Karmic Fire, a type of heavenly flame," she explained. "This fire burns the soul, ignites the Seven Emotions and Six Desires, and if it burns completely, it'll even corrupt one's Dao heart."
She shot a glance at Zhu Yike, "The average Spiritual Cultivator wouldn't last more than fifteen minutes under its influence before suffering from cultivation deviation."
Zhu Yike gulped, his face pale. "Average? What about me?" he asked, his voice trembling as he turned to Aunt Xiang.
"You can't handle it," Aunt Xiang replied bluntly, her tone leaving no room for argument.
"F*ck!" Zhu Yike cursed under his breath, immediately hiding behind Lord Shou.
"Retreat!" the Divine Puppet commanded in Jin Ren's voice.
Jin Ren's spiritual senses painted a bleak picture—there was no escape. The evil spirits had blocked all paths, covering the skies, and roads, and even lurking beneath the ground. Changde Town had become a ghost town.
But amidst this sea of evil, one place remained untouched. No ghost dared to approach it, and even the karmic flames seemed to avoid it.
"Cao's Blacksmith Shop!" Jin Ren declared, pointing to the far side of the street, accurately identifying the location where the spirits couldn't go.
Aunt Xiang's face lit up with realization. Though she couldn't see it herself, she knew that nothing, not even Xi's summoned ghosts, would dare come near Kui Leihan and his blacksmith shop. His mastery over lightning, especially the God Punishment Tribulation, made him a natural counter to such evil forces.
"Fourth house across the street, half a mile," the Divine Puppet continued, detailing their path to safety.
Zhu Yike, sensing hope, immediately sprang into action. "Sky Stealing!" he shouted, flinging four stones toward the blacksmith shop. The stones corresponded to the four weapons inside the shop—Zhu Yike was attempting to "borrow" them without permission.
"Get lost!"
A booming voice erupted from within the blacksmith shop, like the clap of thunder itself.
"Puff!"
Zhu Yike barely had time to react before he was hit by an invisible force, as though struck by a divine fist. He coughed up a mouthful of blood as his body was sent flying, crashing into the ground with a heavy thud. His eyes bulged, blood streamed from his seven orifices, and his hair smoldered. He had no chance to resist.
Lying twitching on the ground, Zhu Yike's body spasmed uncontrollably, his eyes rolling back until only the whites showed. He foamed at the mouth, unconscious.
"Uh, uh, uh…" A series of pitiful groans escaped him as his body continued to convulse.
Ah Yao, watching from nearby, was paralyzed with shock. Brother Li—who moments ago had been so confident—was now lying helpless on the ground, defeated without even engaging in battle.
"Brother Li…" she muttered, instinctively reaching out to help him.
"Ah Yao, stop!" Aunt Xiang's sharp voice cut through the air, freezing her in her tracks.
"If you touch him while he's affected by the God Punishment Tribulation, the consequences will be dire," Aunt Xiang warned.
Trembling, Ah Yao pulled her hand back, unsure of what to do next. Jin Ren, still observing from within the Divine Puppet, was just as baffled.
Even he hadn't seen the attack. How had Kui Leihan struck from such a distance with such precision? Not even a trace of energy had been left behind.
"Aunt Xiang, is he really one of us?" Jin Ren muttered in disbelief.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
The evil ghosts, a tide of writhing shadows, had finally reached them.
"Hu…" Jin Ren let out a long sigh, tightening his resolve as the spirit gem in the Divine Puppet's body shattered, unleashing a surge of energy.
And with that energy came clarity—vitality that he hadn't even realized he'd been lacking.
"Goddess Scatters Flowers!"
In one swift motion, the Divine Puppet adopted a curious posture, as if holding an invisible flower basket. It made a graceful sweeping motion, and from its hands, countless threads shot out in all directions, forming a vast web.
Each thread found its mark, accurately capturing the locations of the thousands of evil spirits surrounding them and binding them in place.
The ghostly wails echoed throughout Changde Town as the spirits trapped within the Divine Puppet's web struggled to break free. Their attempts only constricted the space around them, causing the ghost tide to halt completely. In an instant, the once-chaotic streets fell eerily silent.
Aunt Xiang, though unable to see the evil ghosts directly, gazed at the intricate web that stretched across the town. Each thread wriggled and pulsed, representing the countless trapped spirits. The sheer scope of Xu Xiaoshou's Divine Secret was staggering, managing to block Xi's powerful Spirits Controlling Technique.
"Sizzle!"
The White Sin Karmic Fire began to spread along the threads of the web, attempting to burn away Xu Xiaoshou's barrier. The fire crackled ominously, its white flames crawling like fuses lit to ignite the world.
Aunt Xiang knew that while the Divine Secret was strong, it would only hold the ghost tide at bay for a limited time. The heavenly flame's power was immense, and Xi's ghostly forces would eventually overwhelm them.
But the true danger lay elsewhere. Her attention shifted to the blacksmith shop. Kui Leihan, the wielder of the God Punishment Tribulation, was their best hope of survival.
"Cao Yihan!" Aunt Xiang called out, her voice filled with frustration as she stared at the blacksmith shop. "What's the meaning of this? Don't you recognize me?"
Her plea was met with the deep rumbling of thunder, echoing ominously in the heavens. The ghosts trapped within the web trembled in response, and for a few brief moments, the world stood still.
From across the street, Kui Leihan's voice resonated, calm yet ambiguous.
"The temple is too small to accommodate the Gods and Buddhas," he said cryptically.
Jin Ren, observing through the Divine Puppet, was taken aback by Kui Leihan's response. It was far from the clear support they had hoped for. Jin Ren recalled Bazhun'an's words—it was never guaranteed that Kui Leihan would offer aid, only that there was a gift to be claimed if they dared to retrieve it.
Aunt Xiang's face reddened with anger and embarrassment. She had expected more from her past relationship with Kui Leihan.
"It's not like I haven't been to your lousy blacksmith shop before. No matter how small it is, it can't be too small for four people!" she retorted, her tone sharp.
Just as the evil spirits stirred once more, another bolt of lightning split the sky, forcing them into submission. The world waited in tense silence as Kui Leihan's voice returned, this time more annoyed.
"You said it yourself, it's a lousy blacksmith shop… just a lousy blacksmith shop," he echoed. "There's already a large hole in the ceiling. If more people come in, won't the entire roof be blown off?"
Aunt Xiang narrowed her eyes, her sharp gaze catching the oddity in Kui Leihan's words. She and Jin Ren both focused on the blacksmith shop's roof, where indeed a massive hole gaped open, too perfectly placed to be accidental.
What was Kui Leihan trying to say? Was there something they had overlooked?
Their thoughts were interrupted by an unsettling sound. The piece of bloody cloth lying beside Zhu Yike, who still lay twitching on the ground, began to stir.
Jin Ren's attention snapped to the cloth.
Bloody cloth?
Zhu Yike had brought it with him? No—this was another move by Kui Leihan, meant to catch them off guard.
"Sizzle…"
A hand emerged from the folds of the cloth, tearing it apart. The oppressive aura that followed sent chills down Jin Ren's spine.
From the compressed space within the cloth, Dao Qiongcang crawled out, his face twisted into a mocking smile. His eyes gleamed with amusement as he addressed the Divine Puppet.
"You were so hesitant, beating around the bush… It makes me look down on you, Old Cao," Dao Qiongcang said casually, spreading his hands as if to emphasize his disdain.
He then turned his gaze to the hole in the blacksmith shop's ceiling, his smile growing wider. "I made that hole. I arrived early and waited for a long time. When no one showed up, I decided to come looking for you."
His eyes locked onto Jin Ren, or rather, the Divine Puppet's eyes, and with a taunting smirk, he continued.
"Xu Xiaoshou, are you surprised?"