Chapter 144: Projection

Not a single splash rose, nor was any sound emitted. As the black ruler continuously vibrated, countless phantom images were produced, and the entire thing—resembling a massive black hammer—quickly plunged into the pool water, instantly evaporating every stream of water in its path.

Even though Hu San did not use his full strength, and even though his cultivation remained at the third stage of the Dharma Gathering Realm, a casual strike possessed such a terrifying might, showcasing the formidable power of a mid-grade Dharma artifact!

Before it could even be processed, the black ruler crashed directly into the bottom of the pool. At that very instant, Hu San felt his Soul-Transporting Art abruptly stall, as if a towering mountain had suddenly materialized on top of the black ruler. Immediately afterward, a streak of black light erupted from the point of contact between the ruler and the pool, rapidly expanding to soon form an ink-black aperture.

This aperture continued to expand, growing to the size of a grown person within the span of just a few breaths.

After briefly sensing the aura emanating from the aperture, Hu San could not help but raise an eyebrow. The aura within this aperture was indistinguishable from the one in the courtyard; logically speaking, both were extremely faint, yet they seemed to conceal something of extraordinary grandeur within.

At that moment, a suction force began to emanate from the aperture, tugging at the black ruler and attempting to pull it inward. However, bizarre though the aperture was, the yin qi within it was simply too weak. Even without Hu San actively resisting, the constantly revolving yin qi aperture was completely unable to drag the black ruler down.

As time passed, the aperture seemed to expand to its limit, then slowly began to shrink, on the verge of vanishing once again. With a flash of thought, Hu San cast a Water Cloud Art upon himself, raised his Cyan Wood Qi barrier, and—abandoning any resistance to the aperture's suction—plunged headfirst in the direction of the black ruler.

Though all this sounds protracted, the actual time elapsed was extremely short, lasting perhaps only a few breaths. Not long after Hu San vanished into the aperture, it completely disappeared, and the pool water returned to tranquility. If not for Hu San's complete absence, it would have been hard to believe anything had just occurred here.

"This is...?"

Hu San felt as though he had entered a protracted tunnel, plunging into a daze without any sense of how much time had passed. Suddenly, a flash of red light appeared before his eyes, and when he looked again, he had arrived at an inexplicable location.

This place entirely resembled a mountain cave, not particularly large—measuring some twenty to thirty meters across in length and width. The surrounding walls shimmered with a watery radiance, existing somewhere between the illusory and the real.

The spot where Hu San stood was at the very end of one side of the cave. He reached out toward the adjacent wall, but whenever his hand passed through it, he would inexplicably find himself transferred right back out.

This force was not overwhelmingly powerful, yet it contained a dread-inspiring profoundness of natural laws. After trying a few times, Hu San had no choice but to halt these futile probings.

"So they are all here. Then, what is that?"

Glancing gently across the enclosed cave, Hu San instantly spotted the seven or eight people huddled on the other side. Among them were both middle-aged women dressed in brocade and maidservants in coarse cloth, as well as a few elderly servants. However, at this moment, every single one of them wore vacant expressions and sat slumped on the ground.

Only a young woman right in the center, dressed in emerald-green attire and styled like a young noble lady, stared fixedly at the cave wall not far away. Her eyes revealed a deep, intense yearning, yet she was too fearful to draw near.

The cave was suffused with a dense crimson glow, the specific source of which was the cave wall directly behind the young woman. Hu San noticed that there were a few steps leading up to the cave wall on that side, culminating in a throne at the far end.

An exceptionally massive figure—roughly five or six times the size of Hu San—was seated upon the throne. It wore a ferocious ghost mask; its head bore menacing double horns, and two tusks protruded from the corners of its mouth, presenting a terrifying appearance.

As time flowed on, this giant figure continuously faded. After a short while, only the ferocious mask remained in front of the throne, and the giant figure vanished entirely without a trace.

After yet another moment, the giant figure gradually reappeared. Having already harbored suspicions about the nature of this place, Hu San felt his speculations confirmed even further upon witnessing this scene.

"This must be a projection. Throughout the entire cave, the only thing that truly exists is likely this ferocious mask; everything else uses the mask as a medium, projecting from some unknown location."

Hu San instantly drew his conclusion.

"Treasure, my treasure! Kill him, kill him!"

A ferociously terrifying, elongated shriek suddenly echoed through the cavern. The young lady clad in emerald-green flashed eerie red lights in her eyes, abruptly shifting her gaze to Hu San at the other end. Immediately, she raised both arms, revealing inches-long, razor-sharp, ink-black fingernails at her fingertips.

The crowd that had previously been slumped on the ground scrambled to their feet, their faces likewise beginning to exude a dense red glow. Though their expressions remained dull and blank, their movements were swift as the wind.

In the span of just a few breaths, they crossed the dozen-meter distance, hurtling toward Hu San with a series of fierce gusts.

"Interesting. Could these be wandering spirits attracted by the yin qi of this place? Such great fortune indeed, but how could they have escaped from here and possessed this young lady?"

"Could it be...?"

With a thought in Hu San's mind, the Myriad Ghost Banner flew out from his storage stone.

As the small banner fluttered gently, clusters of indistinct human figures rapidly lunged forth from it, quickly filling the space before Hu San.

The approaching crowd had no time to react at all before they were swarmed by these ghosts—some grabbing their feet, others pulling at their waists. Soon, they were all knocked over and left sprawling across the ground in disarray.

As for the mastermind behind it all, although she used her terror-infused yin qi claws to shatter a few ghosts, there were simply far too many of them. Unable to fight off so many hands, she managed to hold out for just a bit longer before following in the others' footsteps and collapsing into the pit.

Though her mouth continued to murmur ceaselessly, her entire body was completely paralyzed and unable to move.

Ignoring the mortals entangled by the ghosts in front of him, Hu San walked a few paces over to the struggling Miss Liu, inspected her closely for a moment, and then channeled Cyan Wood Qi into his arm. Forming it into a blade-like shape, he struck fiercely against her chest.

With a crisp tearing sound, Miss Liu's previously heaved chest completely caved inward. A thick, dark green mist rapidly seeped out from beneath her garments, quickly forming a humanoid shape beside her.

The ghost possessing Miss Liu had been forcefully driven out by that single strike.

The ghost wavered for a moment, seemingly momentarily bewildered by what had just transpired, before baring its teeth in a sinister grin. Its body expanded to form a cloud of green mist, pouncing toward Hu San like a swarm of bees.

"If I didn't still have some use for you, I would have reduced you to ashes long ago. Still not behaving?"

With a cold snort, the Myriad Ghost Banner before Hu San flickered slightly, releasing a gust of yin wind. Instantly, three ferocious giant ghosts clad in armor materialized and snatched the green mist directly into their grasp.

Amidst piercing shrieks, the green mist reverted into a human form, except that her body had now shrunk by nearly half, the other half having been sheared away entirely in the grasp of the three giant ghosts.

This was precisely another function of the Myriad Ghost Banner discovered by Hu San, known as "Ghost Harvesting"—a method used to absorb stray souls to strengthen the Myriad Ghost Banner, though it was also exceptionally well-suited for interrogating souls.

These three giant ghosts were transformed from yin spirits within the Myriad Ghost Banner, and their innate aura of yin malevolence naturally suppressed ordinary soul-based apparitions. Once grabbed by them, even a millennium-old ghost would suffer dearly, let alone this green-clothed female ghost whose intelligence was clearly incomplete.

Suspended in mid-air by the three giant ghosts like a ragdoll, feeling her spiritual body continuously dissipating, the violent impulses within the green-clothed female ghost finally receded, and she began to process thoughts with her remaining fragmented consciousness.

Before she could even beg for mercy, Hu San struck out with a palm, directly grabbing the female ghost's spiritual body in his grasp. Immediately afterward, he forcefully operated the Soul-Transporting Art, continuously churning his terrifying spiritual power within the female ghost's spiritual form.

A short moment later, the luster on the female ghost grew fainter and fainter, before transforming into a streak of green light that dissipated into the air, truly scattering her soul completely.

Closing his eyes to recuperate for a moment, Hu San frowned slightly with a somewhat pale complexion, sighed softly, and muttered, "The Soul-Transporting Art is indeed not a technique dedicated to searching souls. Although it can be used, the backlash on the caster is far too severe. Against a mere mortal like this, it's fine, but if it were a cultivator—even the weakest at the first stage of the Dharma Gathering Realm—the backlash alone would either kill me or turn me into an idiot. It seems I should do this sort of thing as sparingly as possible in the future."

"Still, this trip wasn't completely in vain; I've finally figured out the truth behind all this."

Glancing at the eldest Miss Liu lying nearby, Hu San could not help but shake his head. Through this somewhat crude soul-search, he had roughly grasped the truth of the matter.

The green-clothed female ghost was originally a good friend of eldest Miss Liu. During a visit to stay overnight at the Liu household, she happened to be spotted by Young Master Liu. One party was driven by lust while the other resisted desperately, ultimately resulting in the tragic conclusion of rape and murder.

Due to the unique yin qi influence of the pool area, the woman's lingering soul was preserved and entered the mysterious projection space, slowly cultivating and condensing its form by relying on the abundant yin qi of that place.

Had it ended there, it would have been of no great consequence and posed no threat to outsiders.

However, on that particular day, during the crisis, Young Master Liu had no time to dispose of the body and hastily hid the corpse in a secret chamber he had previously discovered.

Following renovations by the Liu family, that original secret chamber was now located directly beneath Miss Liu's bed.

As the days passed, Young Master Liu gradually cast the incident to the back of his mind. One day, returning heavily intoxicated, he caught sight of his own younger sister strolling through the garden. Her appearance and figure were of the highest caliber, and her physique had developed exceptionally plumpness. Driven by the alcohol, improper desires instantly took root within him.

Yet just as he was about to succeed, feeling Miss Liu's despair and struggle, the ghost—which had gradually condensed through the influence of yin qi in the pool—began utilizing the remains in the secret chamber to emit yin qi and invade Miss Liu's body.

At first, it merely exerted brief control over Miss Liu to thwart Young Master Liu's violent act, scratching a few bloody trails across his face. Gradually, as time passed and the ghost's encroachment deepened, by today, the ghost had completely seized control of Miss Liu's body, waiting only for tomorrow to arrive so it could return to the mortal world in true flesh.