In the hall, filled with a faint scent of sandalwood, there was a temporarily moved bed.
On the bed, a young girl lay in a deep sleep—she was Qi Rui, the Elder’s favorite disciple, a talented demon cultivator who had entered the Core Formation Realm at just nineteen years old.
However, last night this talented demon cultivator was secretly attacked, afflicted by some sort of curse technique, nearly losing her life in her sleep.
Even though Qi Rui intervened and rescued his beloved disciple in time, Qin Haie still sustained severe injuries.
Today, Qi Rui had invited three other Elders from the Refinement Demon Sect to gather together to combine their powers and exorcise the evil from his disciple.
Yet, even the combined efforts of the four Elders could not dispel the evil spirit possessing Qin Haie.
—Or rather, they could not find any trace of the evil spirit on Qin Haie.
Among the four, Ge Hongshan was a master of curse techniques and talismans.
He had studied these arts for many years and had some understanding of various malicious practices such as curses and voodoo.
Such malicious techniques always relied on some evil entities as mediums to afflict others.
If they could find the root of the evil entity and cleanse it, they could drive away the evil spirit.
However, after a thorough examination, Ge found no trace of any evil entity’s presence on Qin Haie, nor could he trace its origin.
This beloved female disciple of Elder Qi Rui seemed to not have been cursed at all.
Yet the events of the previous night could not have been an illusion, indicating that the curse afflicting Qin Haie had been some form of more secretive and powerful evil technique.
Therefore, after discussion, they decided to let Qin Haie sleep and enter a dream state to draw out the dream’s evil spirit again.
Then, in reality, the four Elders, working together, could trap the evil spirit within Qin Haie’s dream and eliminate it.
This was the simplest and most secure method, directly destroying the source of the evil with the four Elders of the Refinement Demon Sect combined, leaving no escape for the adversary.
…At least, that was the theory.
But once the injured Qin Haie lay asleep on the temporarily moved bed, the four Elders, who formed a ritual formation around the bed, were suddenly startled.
Because inside the room, faintly sealed off by the formation, no sinister aura drifted in, nor were there any signs of an evil entity’s appearance, yet the sleeping Qin Haie began to emit sharp, terrified screams.
“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
On the bed, Qin Haie shook her head frantically, her face filled with terror.
She seemed to be witnessing something extremely horrifying but was unable to escape from it.
Seeing her disciple reacting like this, Qi Rui’s face showed a tint of heartache.
She immediately looked at Ge Hongshan and asked, “Elder Ge, should we act now?”
Ge Hongshan stood at the eastern side of the bed, his face grim.
“To appear right after she fell asleep… such an obstinate evil spirit!”
The speed of this evil entity’s actions was surprising; he had no sense of it before it entered the dream.
This was not logical.
But under everyone’s watchful eyes, Ge remained calm, “Elder Qi, do not be alarmed. Today, with the four of us here, we shall surely make the evil spirit fail miserably!”
As a master of talisman and curse techniques, Ge Hongshan naturally held this confidence.
The worlds of curse techniques are countless, but he had dabbled and understood almost all of them.
Although the evil entity in front of him was somewhat strange, he was confident in his capability to handle it.
“Fellow Elders, please light the life-extending incense in your hands! Use the qi of the fireworks to form an array and lock Qin Haie’s dream, preventing the evil entity from escaping!”
Upon Ge Hongshan’s words, the Elders standing around the bed simultaneously lit the life-extending incense in their hands.
The swirling smoke began to rise in the hall, eventually filling the space.
From the outside, the entire hall seemed to be enveloped in smoke.
The hazy smoke faintly formed a massive cage.
And in the center of this cage, upon that bed, Qin Haie, who was deep in slumber, kept crying and wailing as if she were desperately running in her nightmare.
Above her body, the fog faintly outlined a figure continuously running.
That was Qin Haie.
This fog-formed Qin Haie kept running while fearfully looking back, continuously fleeing.
Behind her, amidst the dense fog, a sinister shadow gradually took shape.
Slender, unnervingly dangling legs hung in the void, scattering like a monster’s tentacles. The colorful and bright costume of a theatrical actress painted a horrifying picture.
This monster appeared and disappeared next to Qin Haie, sometimes close, sometimes far.
From its mouth came a hissing strange sound, making listeners shudder.
The four Elders present were top Demon Cultivators, accustomed to dealing with demons and ghosts. Yet, this strange sound still gave them an uncontrollable, hair-raising sensation.
It seemed as if some ancient fear within their blood had been awakened…
A hint of surprise flashed in Ge Hongshan’s eyes.
“This evil creature…”
He seemed to have never seen it before!
At that moment, Ge Hongshan suddenly had a bad premonition.
This smoke outline revealed the content of Qin Haie’s dreams, making the evil creature’s tracks visible.
Yet, none of those present had ever seen such an evil creature before, not even Ge Hongshan, a master of Curse Techniques.
“Everyone, focus! We must lock down the dream immediately and join hands to slay this evil creature!”
Sensing the ominous situation, Ge Hongshan did not delay, immediately calling the Elders to join forces.
As soon as they used the smoke of the long-life incense to kill this evil creature’s projection, its actual body would also collapse.
This was the most straightforward and brutal method of exorcism.
No matter how bizarre the creature was, could it withstand a joint strike from four Refinement Demon Sect Elders?
As Ge Hongshan finished speaking, the four simultaneously exerted force, and the long-life incense in their hands immediately began burning rapidly.
In the rapidly burning long-life incense, streaks of dark red fog flew out.
This red fog, upon emerging, formed a dense magic net in midair.
Then the four Elders struck at once, and the magic net, formed by their magical powers, swooped down directly over the head and toward the eerie shadow drifting in the smoke.
As soon as the magic net covered the projection of the evil creature, its actual body would also vanish!
Ge Hongshan’s eyes were fixed on the shadow that appeared and disappeared in the smoke.
He personally watched as the red magic net descended from the sky and fiercely covered the shadow.
But the next second, something bizarre happened.
The magic net simply passed through the projection of the evil creature, completely unable to inflict any damage.
Instead, the shadow in the smoke easily caught up with the running Qin Haie and tore a piece of flesh from her shoulder.
“Ah! My arm! My arm!”
On the bed, Qin Haie screamed horribly. As the flesh was torn off in her dream, real blood spurted from her shoulder, truly missing a chunk of flesh.
Seeing this ghastly bloody scene and the bizarre circumstance where the magic net couldn’t trap the evil creature,
Ge Hongshan’s expression turned slightly grim as he finally remembered what this evil creature was.
“This is the long-extinct ancient evil Ghoul, the Flesh Bone Puppet!”
“Our long-life incense can’t bind it because it’s not really in Qin Haie’s dreams.”
“It’s using some unknown, bizarre method to remotely harm Qin Haie’s spirit!”