WBICDPH Chapter 78

Chapter 78 — An Eye for an Eye

“Tricks and nonsense!”

Shi Lei cursed angrily as he tried to break free from the bindings. But the more he struggled, the tighter the puppet threads wrapped around him.

“Hey, it’s your own creation,” Lin Jin said lightly as he wound the threads around his fingers, slowly shortening them and dragging Shi Lei step by step toward the altar. “Whether it’s a cheap trick or not—you should know better than anyone.”

Shi Lei’s face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.

These puppet threads had been condensed from the demonic markings in his bloodline. To prevent his puppets from breaking free through brute strength or cultivation, he had spent immense effort perfecting their toughness. He would have sworn that unless someone possessed an overwhelming bloodline or power suppression, once the puppet threads merged into a target’s body, escape was absolutely impossible.

He had never left his prey a single path of retreat—because he had never imagined that one day the one bound by the puppet threads would be himself.

“Impossible! The puppet threads come from my demonic marks—my bloodline! How could you possibly control them?!”

“I told you,” Lin Jin replied, smiling faintly, “you’re not the only one who can cheat. I have my own tricks too.”

To put it simply, Lin Jin had found a loophole.

He had discovered it by accident earlier. At the time, he had wanted to escape with Zhu Eryao, so he wrapped puppet threads around her wrist. Unexpectedly, the threads melted directly into her body the moment they touched her.

“The fifth clause of a ghost-taming contract states that the master holds absolute authority over the ghost’s will and body. And that ‘body’ naturally includes puppet threads embedded inside the ghost—since they’ve become part of it.”

What Lin Jin didn’t say was that this clause technically applied to a master-servant contract. The one he and Zhu Eryao had formed was an equal contract, which required an additional condition beforehand: the ghost must trust the master completely.

Lin Jin smiled at Shi Lei.

“Your puppet threads are very useful. But now—they’re mine.”

Zhu Eryao, who had been floating above the altar, acting out her part with her back turned, drifted lazily behind Lin Jin now that her task was complete. She looked at Shi Lei, then at Lin Jin, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she remained silent.

Lin Jin didn’t notice. He continued dragging Shi Lei toward the center of the altar.

Shi Lei was both tall and powerful. Even though Lin Jin had prepared several strength-enhancing talismans on himself beforehand, he was still struggling.

“What are you trying to do?!” Shi Lei roared, resisting with all his might, yet still watching helplessly as he was pulled closer and closer to the altar.

He could easily kill a hundred Lin Jins with his bare hands—yet he could not resist the puppet threads he himself had perfected over a lifetime.

Ignoring the slight tremble in his arms from exertion, Lin Jin narrowed his eyes.

“Earlier, I told you something that wasn’t a lie.

“You are the formation’s core. But your cultivation and strength are far beyond my ability to confront.

“So, puppeteer… I’ll use you to deal with you. Whether you live or die will depend entirely on how ruthless you were when designing traps for your prey.”

The moment Lin Jin deduced that the puppeteer himself was the formation core, he knew there was no way he could break the array directly.

The only person here capable of matching the puppeteer was Xiao Yunkong—but he had lost both his sight and his combat ability. They seemed trapped in a dead end. The only way out was to turn the formation core against itself.

Although Lin Jin had never dealt with a puppeteer before, he was certain of one thing: this man was extremely confident—almost narcissistic.

The formation he designed truly was flawless. He was so confident that he never considered any of them a real threat. He had even spent time showing them the Seven-Kill Ghost Nether Slaughter Formation—almost like a performance.

Lin Jin knew that in the original story, there was a puppeteer among the Twelve Torch Guards. Practitioners of that branch were extremely rare. Running into one here could not be a coincidence. The puppeteer’s target was likely Lin Jin and Qiuqiu. Yet after everyone fell into the Seven-Kill Ghost Nether Formation, the puppeteer hadn’t attacked immediately. Instead, he disguised himself as a villager and even provided them with clues.

Clearly, he enjoyed watching people struggle within his masterpiece—watching them become trapped in his schemes and slowly march toward death.

That was why the formation’s killing mechanism was designed so elaborately: first sever perception, then cripple the spiritual sea, and finally cut off the five senses one by one—like a careless child pulling the wings off a butterfly, tearing away its legs, and watching it die in despair.

Narcissists were usually extreme perfectionists. That was both their strength and their fatal weakness.

A creator should understand their creation’s flaws better than anyone—but perfectionists refuse to believe their work has flaws. They polish every detail to ensure absolute perfection.

Just like the Seven-Kill Ghost Nether Formation.

In the puppeteer’s eyes, the formation was perfect, so it shouldn’t have a weakness. Therefore, he made the formation core something he also believed perfect—himself.

“I’ve come up with two names for this technique,” Lin Jin said calmly. “One is An Eye for an Eye. The other is Seven-Kill Ghost Nether Reverse Formation. Which do you think sounds better?”

Hearing this, Shi Lei suddenly seemed to realize something. He jerked his head upward.

Above the altar, the swirling black ghost mist slowly began to stop—

No.

It hadn’t stopped.

The direction of its rotation had reversed.

Earlier, Lin Jin had wondered why Zhu Eryao—a red-robed ghost—was trapped here like the weakest white-clad spirit. He had also wondered why, despite the vast area of Shuangxi Village, the swirling clouds existed only above the altar.

Later, he understood.

This place was the formation’s energy source.

Zhu Eryao absorbed the villagers’ resentment and malice, merging them with her ghost energy. That power sustained the ghost-mist barrier and flowed upward from the altar into the sky.

A brilliant mechanism.

And if it could be reversed, it would be even more brilliant.

Once a formation was established, unless the core was destroyed or its momentum shattered, the underlying causal chain would remain intact even if all the formation objects were destroyed.

But what if the internal arrangement was altered to create a new causal relationship?

The Seven-Kill Ghost Nether Formation was extraordinarily intricate. Lin Jin could never have designed something so sinister himself. But now he was “standing on the shoulders of a giant.”

The giant had already done all the calculations. Lin Jin needed only small adjustments.

So he allowed the Seven-Emotion flower buds that formed the array to bloom into real flowers. The puppet threads that once controlled the buds now bound the formation core instead.

Cause and effect reversed.

The buds no longer fed resentment and malice into the energy source. Instead, the ghost mist above poured its overwhelming ghost energy and violent emotional force directly into the formation core.

Shi Lei was no fool. He understood it immediately.

But to Lin Jin’s surprise, there was no fear in his eyes—only a strange kind of fanatic excitement.

“Hahaha… Lin Jin! The lord was right—you really are interesting! I underestimated you—I underestimated you! How could I ever defeat myself? To die by my own hands—I accept it! Such a perfect formation could never have a weakness! No prey could ever escape it!”

At that moment, the swirling ghost mist in the sky condensed into a massive surge and plunged straight into Shi Lei’s body.

His face turned ashen, like a mud wall. His eyes rolled upward, his expression twisting violently as if experiencing unimaginable agony—rage, despair, grief all at once.

Yet even then, he managed to laugh.

“Ha… ha… But how can you be so certain I didn’t leave a backup plan?! Why do you think I entered the formation myself?!”

A voice from memory echoed in his ears.

Shi Lei. If Lin Jin cannot be captured alive, kill him on the spot—along with Xiao Lanqi. This person must not be allowed to live.

Han Xiao’s voice rang out from the past.

If your Flower Field fails… use this.

On the brink of mental collapse, Shi Lei’s vision filled with strange hallucinations and countless whispering voices.

Amid the chaos, Lin Jin noticed red crack-like patterns suddenly spreading across Shi Lei’s exposed skin.

At the same time, something beneath the flesh near his right ribs began glowing.

Lin Jin had no idea what it meant.

Xiao Lanqi immediately sensed something was wrong and leapt from Lin Jin’s collar.

Damn it!

Another lunatic about to detonate his demon heart?!

It seemed Lin Jin’s Jade-Bearing Sacred Body didn’t just bring bad luck—it attracted crazy people, too.

Xiao Lanqi stomped his paw, trying to raise a barrier with demonic runes, but after three attempts, nothing happened.

…This is bad.

He had never paid attention to the strange effects humans experienced here, and only now realized this puppeteer’s formation suppressed him as well—far more severely.

Humans merely had their spiritual seas sealed. But he couldn’t even summon his Azure Cloud Flame—his bloodline runes themselves were completely restrained.

Seeing the demon heart about to explode, Xiao Lanqi hesitated—

Before he could decide, a golden formation circle suddenly appeared beneath his feet.

He turned around instinctively.

Lin Jin was already forming hand seals and setting up a formation.

The Eightfold Extreme Defense Formation? Not a bad reaction speed.

Lin Jin pulled the puppy behind him and dragged Zhu Eryao into the formation. In the next instant, the puppeteer’s demon heart burst from his chest, and a terrifying shockwave slammed into the barrier.

Cracks spread across the Eightfold Formation, but compared to last time, Lin Jin was far calmer.

Ever since the ambush in Jinlin City, he had constantly improved the formation’s defensive structure. Now he calmly reinforced cracks with talismans, drawing in spiritual energy from the surroundings to strengthen the barrier.

The pressure from the exploding demon heart gradually subsided.

Though the formation was fractured in many places, it still stood firm.

To withstand the self-destruction of a high-ranking demon without injury?

Amid the chaos, Xiao Lanqi frowned slightly and finally gave Lin Jin a serious look.

And in that glance, he noticed Lin Jin staring at something in shock.

At the same time, Xiao Lanqi smelled a dangerously thick scent of blood.

He turned around sharply.

The puppeteer’s corpse lay collapsed on the altar. Where his demon heart had been at his right ribs was now a gaping bloody hole.

From that wound, dark red mist slowly poured out—and every strand of it was being absorbed into a small floating wooden cube.

What… was that?

A terrible feeling rose in Lin Jin’s chest.

The wooden box looked plain, but through the surrounding blood mist, he could faintly see intricate dark patterns engraved on its surface.

The aura it emitted was deeply unsettling. Looking at it felt like staring into an abyss—like a demon might crawl out of the box and drag someone into endless darkness.

Lin Jin had seen this object before.

More precisely, he had read about it in ancient texts.

A Heaven-grade Asura Seal.

By itself, this artifact wasn’t especially powerful. Its true purpose appeared only when it served as the core of a formation.

Which meant one thing—

It could never appear alone.

Whenever it manifested, it would always be accompanied by an unimaginably terrifying killing formation.

Madman… an absolute madman.

Why would the puppeteer leave behind such a contingency? Even ancient texts didn’t fully record this artifact—how could he possibly have created it?

Wait.

It couldn’t just be the formation core.

A formation requires materials to initiate it.

And this one used—

…corpses.

Lin Jin’s heart went cold.

At this moment, the most abundant thing in Shuangxi Village… was corpses.

Nearly a hundred bodies lay below the mountain, used as fertilizer for the Seven-Emotion flowers. And now, a high-ranking demon cultivator had just died here as well.

Whether from fear or shock, Lin Jin’s ears rang loudly, making it impossible to think clearly.

Only the terrifying words recorded in the ancient text echoed through his mind:

“Formation raised by corpses. Strong soul as a sacrifice. With the core as the center and the farthest fresh corpse as the radius. Once formed, a white rainbow pierces the sun, crimson sky and black earth, mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Asura descends. Flesh ground to dust.”

“No solution. No escape. No survival.”

“Only when every living thing inside is destroyed will the Asura fade and the formation disperse.”

The Asura Blood Prison.

Those who step within—body and soul shattered. Death without salvation.