Chapter 10

Chapter 10

It was getting darker and darker outside, and the light in the room had grown so poor I could barely make anything out. I stood amid that black, oppressive heap of dolls while eerie music echoed through the room.

“If you eat Big Sister, then you can’t eat me.”

“If you eat Big Sister, then you can’t eat me.”

Just as I looked out the window, the doll in my hand suddenly blinked.

I caught it from the corner of my eye and immediately lowered my head to stare at it. It went still again.

I took a deep breath, raised my arm, and prepared to hurl it out the window.

“Get the hell out of here, you creepy little freak.”

I flung my arm, but the doll didn’t go flying. When I looked closely, I realized it had wrapped its arms around mine.

“Ha! Got you!”

The doll spoke, then began crawling up my arm toward me.

Almost in that exact instant, the ground beneath my feet gave way, and every doll around me started moving.

They crawled out from under my feet one after another, and my entire body dropped. A weightless sensation hit me as I watched that window grow farther and farther away, gradually shrinking into a tiny speck of light.

Terror gripped my heart.

There was actually such a deep space beneath this house. I had fallen straight into a pit.

At a time like this, I couldn’t afford to hold anything back. I immediately threw a Lihuo Talisman upward.

“This disciple respectfully invites the attending deity to witness! All things revere the Fire God; let the demons and ghosts nearby turn to ash!”

Boom!

A burst of fire erupted. All the nearby dolls caught flame, and my body stopped falling. I slammed hard onto solid ground, grimacing in pain.

When I looked carefully, the window was still not far away. The child puppet was sitting on the sill, swinging its legs and tilting its head as it watched me.

To my surprise, the Lihuo Talisman was already about to burn out.

The flickering firelight warped everything around me. Those dolls surged in from all directions, their hands stretching toward me like branches, trying to grab me and drag me into the endless darkness.

I brandished my peach-wood sword and struggled with all my might, but every single doll was astonishingly strong. My limbs were seized, and even my peach-wood sword fell to the ground.

The little brat sat on the window laughing, its wooden mouth opening like a black hole.

“Ha! Got you!”

I was getting pissed off. These dolls weren’t afraid of the peach-wood sword, and even the Lihuo Talisman barely worked on them. What the hell were these things?

When people got angry, they tended to lose their reason. When another doll reached for me, I turned my head and bit down hard on its arm.

The moment my teeth sank in, my whole body went numb.

There was a strange smell on the doll-a faint reek of blood, the odor of aged tung oil, and ink?

As those scents mixed together, a flash of realization suddenly lit up in my mind.

Puppetry Art. This was Puppetry Art!

Puppets were originally also called Yan Art. Legend had it that during the reign of King Mu of Zhou, the master craftsman Yan Shi created artificial performers, the precursors to later wooden puppets, which were used in funeral music and celebratory performances.

The Daoist paper men and straw men were, in truth, only crude forms of Puppetry Art. More advanced Puppetry Art was also known as the Human-Skin Puppet.

A sheet of human skin would be sewn onto a doll, then controlled through secret arts. The caster could command the doll to move, and because it carried no evil aura at all, it was not easily discovered.

These dolls had been coated with aged tung oil, making them water-resistant and fire-resistant. That was why the Lihuo Talisman was so much weaker against them.

Using every ounce of strength I had, I shook off the doll clinging to my left hand. Then, with one hand, I grabbed the puppet on my right, spread my fingers, and raked them across its chest and back. Sure enough, I felt a smooth sheet of human skin.

I formed a Thunder Seal with my hand and slammed it hard against that patch of human skin.

Crack!

A flash of lightning burst out. The entire sheet of human skin blackened, curled, and shrank. The doll went limp like a puppet with its strings cut, instantly falling still.