70: Merit protects the body
Achan Pu looked at the puppet, a cruel light flashing in his eyes. Remote cursing, especially against those with high cultivation or protected by Luck, had a low success rate and was prone to backlash. But with a personal item tainted with the target's aura as a medium, the success rate would increase significantly.
"I intended to use the yin plaque to drain your Origin Qi first before performing the death curse. Since you're in such a hurry to die..." Achan Pu grinned hideously, placing the puppet upright in the center of the altar. He lit three thick, bone-white candles emitting black smoke and took out a pitch-black porcelain bottle from his robes.
Uncorking the bottle, a strong scent of blood and decay filled the air. Inside was the "Black Curse Blood" he had specially refined using his own essence blood mixed with various poisonous insect fluids, grave soil, and the fingertip blood of those who died violently.
He bit his left middle finger and dripped blood into the porcelain bottle, mixing it with the Black Curse Blood, and began chanting a malicious and lengthy incantation in ancient Pali.
As the incantation grew more rapid, the temperature in the room seemed to drop. The candlelight eerily turned a ghostly green, reflecting his twisted and hideous face.
Using a pitch-black bone pen dipped in the Black Curse Blood mixed with his own essence blood, he began to draw dense, demonic runes on the puppet. With every stroke, the color drained from his face, and the veins on his temples bulged, clearly indicating a massive expenditure.
"...With blood as the guide, with the soul as a sacrifice, may resentment and malevolence entangle the body, and illness and calamity follow... Seize his essence, disrupt his Divine Soul... Command!"
With a final roar, Achan Pu slammed the remaining half bottle of Black Curse Blood onto the puppet!
Almost at the same time.
Inside the quiet room of Qingfeng Temple.
Li Muchen, who was using his True Essence to investigate the yin plaque and trace its origin, suddenly felt a sharp warning in his heart!
A cold, filthy, and malicious invisible force seemed to cross the vast distance and suddenly descend. Like countless fine black threads with barbs, it ignored physical barriers and wound directly around his Divine Soul and Physical Body!
A curse!
And it was a vicious Bloodline Curse with a clear medium!
Li Muchen felt a chill between his eyebrows, as if a drop of freezing, foul blood was about to drip into his spiritual terrace. The blood and Qi throughout his body stagnated slightly, and the True Essence flowing in his Dantian also seemed to be slightly hindered by an invisible, viscous substance.
But that was all.
The moment the curse power invaded his body, the Golden Light of Merit that had been quietly dormant within his limbs, bones, and internal organs suddenly awakened as if facing the gravest provocation!
Without any world-shaking commotion, a layer of warm, soft, yet incredibly resilient golden light naturally radiated from his pores and acupoints. The light wasn't dazzling, but it carried a grand, righteous aura that repelled all evil.
The entangling black curse threads, upon touching this seemingly thin layer of golden light, were like snow meeting the blazing sun. With a faint "sizzling" sound, they rapidly melted and evaporated, failing to truly invade Li Muchen's body or Divine Soul even by a fraction.
Not only that, but the golden light seemed sentient, tracing back along the invisible path from which the curse had come!
Hundreds of miles away, in a hotel room.
Achan Pu, who was about to observe the effects of the curse, suddenly had the hideous grin freeze on his face!
"Pfft—!"
As if struck by a heavy blow, he was sent flying backward, slamming hard against the wall before falling to the floor. A mouthful of metallic blood sprayed out uncontrollably, splattering across the altar and the floor.
On the altar before him, the puppet that had just received the curse blood and was covered in runes was now silently enveloped and burned by a layer of pale golden flames. The flames had no heat, yet the puppet turned into charred ash at a visible rate, and all the demonic curse runes on it vanished as well.
Even more terrifyingly, Achan Pu felt the magical connection he had established with the puppet and the curse turn into a red-hot iron chain. It transmitted back an indescribable, searing, and righteous power that crashed violently into his mind and magical meridians!
"Ah—!" He clutched his head and let out a low howl of pain. It felt as if ten thousand great bells were tolling simultaneously in his mind, threatening to shatter his Divine Soul. The magic power he had painstakingly cultivated through various sinister methods rapidly collapsed and dissolved under the impact of this righteous force, like boiling water poured on snow!
Backlash! And it was an extremely violent backlash that directly shook his Foundation!
"Golden light... Golden Light of Merit... How can it be... so strong..." Achan Pu slumped on the floor, his face pale as paper, his aura extremely withered, and his eyes filled with unbelievable terror and shock.
He finally understood. The young Taoist in that temple was not at all the ordinary practitioner with a slight knowledge of techniques he had imagined. Not only did the opponent have protective methods, but he also possessed incredibly deep and pure Golden Light of Merit! That was a protective power that could only be condensed by performing great deeds of kindness, accumulating immense Karma, and possessing a pure and flawless Dao Heart. It held a natural, crushing restraint against sinister arts like sorcery and curses!
This time, he had truly kicked a steel plate! No, he had kicked a red-hot Vajra pillar!
He struggled to get up, not even having time to pack the precious Demonic Weapon Materials on the altar. He scrambled out the door, wanting only to flee this place immediately and get as far away from that terrifying Taoist as possible.
Meanwhile, in Qingfeng Temple.
The golden light around Li Muchen slowly faded, and the room returned to normal. He looked down at the yin plaque in his hand, which had completely lost its evil aura and turned into a piece of ordinary rotten wood. He casually tossed it into a nearby incense burner, letting it turn to ash.
He walked to the window, pushed open the wooden shutters, and looked toward the night sky in the direction of Lianhua County to the south, his gaze deep.
"Nanyang Sorcery... It's been a long time since I've seen it," he murmured to himself.
Although the wisp of Divine Thought and golden light that had traced back just now failed to lock onto a specific location due to the distance, it had roughly sensed the direction of the practitioner and the aura within the curse, which was filled with the characteristics of Nanyang evil arts.
"It seems Master Huiming's concerns were not misplaced. The 'outside help' his Disciple Release Void has colluded with has already exceeded the ordinary scope."
This time, the opponent's move was both a probe and a genuine killing blow. Had he not possessed the Golden Light of Merit and a stable Foundation, an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator caught off guard might have truly fallen for it. Even if they didn't die, they would have suffered a severe blow to their Origin Qi, and their path of Dao would have been obstructed.
"Since you were the ones to first use 'magic'..." Li Muchen's eyes turned slightly cold.
Then, from now on, it would no longer be a war of words or a storm of public opinion.
He turned and sat back down on the futon in the center of the quiet room, but he didn't take action immediately.
The opponent had failed their strike and suffered a heavy backlash; they likely wouldn't dare to act rashly again in the short term. However, this matter could not simply be left at that.
That Nanyang Sorcerer must be found, and the mastermind behind him must be dragged out.
And as for Release Void... the "forgiveness" Master Huiming had requested that day would likely be difficult to grant.
The mountain wind rushed in through the open window, carrying the chill of late autumn night dew, fluttering the curling sandalwood incense in the quiet room.
Li Muchen closed his eyes, and his Spiritual Sense spread out once again, enveloping the entire Yuntai Mountain. Not even the slightest trace of abnormal, sinister aura would be able to escape his perception again.
The night was deep, and the stars were sparse.
A secret war spanning regions and lineages had quietly begun in this silent autumn night.