Chapter 304: I Call Your Name—Dare You Not Answer?

The masked ninja, originally two heads shorter than an ordinary man, suddenly swelled to over four meters tall, his face green, fangs bared, skin tinged a purplish-red, two thick bony horns piercing through his scalp—a classic ogre appearance.

But Feng Xue's Dragon Tooth Soldiers were modeled after Mary's mechanical puppets and Bi Gelei's intelligent little bats, their sentience and combat power surpassing ordinary Daoist soldiers, and in raw strength alone, they could stand against fully armed heavy cavalry.

Though individually they were no match for the ogre-transformed assassin, when surrounding him, they still fought back and forth with equal footing.

As Feng Xue commanded his Dragon Tooth Soldiers in battle, atop a distant apartment building, several cultivators dressed in varied attire gathered to drink tea and sip wine.

Though giving juniors a chance to gain experience is an unspoken rule in the Cultivator Realm, when external forces are involved, it's no longer just about training—now that arrangements regarding the Japanese conspiracy have been set in motion, several idle elders simply watched from the sidelines.

Even though they were nearly a li away, Feng Xue's battle was crystal clear to all the cultivators—but precisely because they saw it so clearly, none of them spoke a word.

"Oh? Already fighting? How's that kid doing? Can you tell his origins yet?"

A voice tinged with childishness spoke with the weight of age; Bai Yi suddenly appeared from nowhere, snatched a teacup from the table, and poured herself a drink—only to notice no one responded, then realized something was off, immediately casting a distance-viewing spell toward Feng Xue's alley.

"Hey! Summoning soldiers from beans! That technique's rare these days!" Bai Yi raised her eyebrows, muttering thoughtfully—this "beans-to-soldiers" method had existed since the end of the Han Dynasty, an ancient Daoist spell, but later, because certain Daoist sects had joined the struggle for the throne, it was feared and suppressed by successive dynasties; even if passed down, no one dared use it openly, and it gradually faded into obscurity.

Yet even after she spoke, no one replied; Bai Yi found it deeply strange, and finally couldn't hold back:

"Why is everyone suddenly mute?"

"How to put it… never mind, look again at those Daoist soldiers—use the Qi-seeing technique."

Finally, an older man she knew spoke up; Bai Yi frowned at this:

"What could possibly be strange… strange… wait! Where's that dragon qi coming from? It feels odd, but it's definitely dragon qi! Doesn't he worship the Moon God?"

"You didn't see his thunder art—it's insane! And that spirit ghost! I've never seen a spirit ghost so pure in my life!" said the relatively younger man, shaking his head; Bai Yi replied:

"Isn't that spirit ghost the one sold by the antique dealer?"

"Who?" As soon as the words left his mouth, all eyes turned to the corner, fixed on the silent owner of Moyu Xuan; the owner immediately said:

"Don't look at me—I don't know him. A month ago, Jiu Gu introduced him to buy one spirit ghost; who knew he could feed it to this state in under a month? Sure, he said it had a big appetite, but even the hungriest can't… "

"What? A month? I've nurtured my spirit ghost for nearly seventy years, and now a guy who's had his for a month beats mine to a pulp! Are you telling me the one you sold me was defective?!"

Bai Yi's temper flared instantly; the Moyu Xuan owner winced:

"Don't speak recklessly! I've always run a fair business—why don't you look at yourself for the cause?"

"Quiet—the kid's got a new trick!" Just as Bai Yi was about to summon her adopted daughter to observe someone else's child, the older cultivator suddenly spoke.

Compared to bickering elders, young talent was clearly more worth watching; as attention shifted again, the green-faced ogre finally crushed every Dragon Tooth Soldier into bean paste.

Though Feng Xue could summon ten more squads of such Dragon Tooth Soldiers with a wave of his hand, he had no intention of torturing himself with this "steamed rice cake" tactic.

Watching the wounds inflicted by the Dragon Tooth Soldiers slowly heal on the ogre's body, Feng Xue calmly sidestepped its charge, then casually tossed out a substitute paper doll; through their mental link, Seeing Mo Ying immediately seized a brush and drew a spirit-invoking talisman and spell upon it, while Feng Xue pulled out a Bai Yu gourd, reached out, caught the paper doll now inscribed with the talisman, rolled it into a scroll, and shoved it into the gourd—

"You demon! I call your name—dare you not answer?!"

"What the hell?" Though far away, all present were seasoned veterans and had ways to discern exactly what Feng Xue had shouted—but precisely because they understood, they found the whole thing utterly absurd.

"Purple Gold Red Gourd? Yangzhi Jade Purifying Vase?" The Journey to the West had once been studied as a Daoist scripture; all present had read it to some degree, and as they pondered what method this kid might use to achieve such a treasure's soul-capturing effect—

The ogre suddenly collapsed like a deflated balloon, his body ragged and boneless—but no one cared about the Japanese man's fate, because they had clearly seen: the jade gourd had truly sucked the ghost inside!

"The ghost didn't answer… oh, the kid shouted 'dare you not answer'…" Bai Yi clicked her tongue, growing more and more bewildered—why? Why did just not answering get the thing captured?

"If I'm not mistaken, that was… spirit-invoking?" After a brief hesitation, the Moyu Xuan owner finally muttered, uncertain.

"Yes, it was spirit-invoking—but can spirit-invoking be forced like this? And onto a paper doll?"

The Daoist in his robe glanced down at the spirit-invoking talisman in his hand, suddenly questioning reality; the old Daoist priest, seeing this, mused:

"You can't summon a true deity this way—but for hungry, solitary ghosts craving physical form, if they drop their resistance, they'll cling to you themselves. The paper doll is likely a substitute technique, transferring the spirit or god summoned onto the doll; the gourd is merely symbolic, serving ritual requirements and providing subsequent sealing effects."

"I roughly understand the principle—but who could possibly develop such a technique?! Even if you knew the full ritual, who'd dare?!" The youngest Daoist scratched his head, unable to fathom what mental state one must be in to invent a technique so absurd that a single misstep could surrender one's body.

"Hmm… actually… maybe it's possible!" The old Daoist suddenly brightened, clapped his hands:

"If you first summon a powerful enough phantom spirit to possess you, it can protect your spiritual core—even if you summon a second one, you won't lose your body. The burden remains heavy, but at least development becomes possible…"

"Top-tier phantom spirit, powerful thunder art, strange dragon qi, and beans-to-soldiers… I think I've figured out this kid's lineage!"

(End of Chapter)