Seeking immortality in a deceitful way starts by making oneself into a puppet

Butler He Fusheng brought important news, that is, the unconscious Cheng Zhi had recovered.

He Ping himself is quite concerned about this matter.

This Cheng Zhi is very likely to be related to the Immortal Puppet Sect, so for him, there is a chance to dig out something from this person.

"Cheng Zhi also has secrets, such as the Cheng family ranch, which is unusual. Also, his sister died under strange circumstances in the ancestral hall..."

He Ping recalled the scene of seeing the female corpse in the ancestral hall - Cheng Zhi's sister, that is, the female corpse died miserably.

You can tell by looking at her face that her resentment is lingering and white hair is growing on her body. It can be seen from this that Cheng Yujiao's death method was not simple. The cause of her death was probably hanging with a straw rope. This woman had great resentment and persistence after her death.

"However, she was not killed by the evil spirits in the ancestral hall."

He Ping saw Cheng Yujiao's body and knew that she was not killed by a ghost. Many evil ghosts would leave some yin energy after killing people. Cheng Yujiao's body did not have any, which proves that she should have died at human hands.

"Chengzhi is the only one in that ancestral hall?"

If this is the case, the identity of Cheng Yujiao's murderer can be determined.

However, why did Chengzhi kill his sister? Could it be that she was possessed by the ghost in the ancestral hall, or was there some other inside story?

With his thoughts at this point, He Ping frowned slightly, showing a thoughtful expression.

…

Cheng Zhi felt very tired. He lay on the bed, his mind was groggy, and he was still mumbling something like "It's not me", "I didn't", "Spare my life!"

He was dreaming, and his dream was messy. He always felt like there was a figure beside the bed he was lying on...

At night, what comes through the window is the moonlight as pale as gauze. In the latter half of the night, Cheng Zhi tossed and turned in bed. The weird feeling was so obvious that he couldn't get rid of it.

On some old and crooked wooden tables, there was a red candle burning. The candle flickered, flickering, as if it would go out at any moment.

He didn't know how long he struggled, but he finally came to his senses.

"How long have I been asleep?"

Chengzhi rubbed his brows and felt a little more awake.

In an instant, the frozen memory began to recover, and he remembered that he seemed to have been rescued and placed in a remote mountain village. Due to poisoning, he had been lying in bed in a daze for a few days...

"After that, I developed a high fever and was unconscious."

Chengzhi wanted to get up, but felt a little weak in his limbs.

He turned his head and could see that it was a country house with a wooden roof, like an attic. Outside the paper window on the side, dark clouds cover the moon, the flame of the candle is shaking slightly, and the light in the room is not that stable.

Boom.

It seemed like there was a knock on the door. Subconsciously, Cheng Zhi glanced at the door.

Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat, as the door of this room was pushed open through a narrow gap.

In the crack of the door, there seemed to be a person standing sideways, peeking at the people in the room.

Chengzhi's pupils trembled as he sat on the bed. He noticed a blue-white eyeball stuck between the two door panels. The person hiding behind the door was staring at the only living person in the room.

His scalp was numb and his heart was beating wildly. Just outside the door, the blue and white eyes seemed to bulge from their sockets, and the bulging eyeballs were filled with scarlet bloodshot eyes.

"…who…"

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His throat seemed to be blocked, and his throat made a "ho ho" sound.

The candlelight on the table became faint and green, and the whole room was filled with a gloomy green color.

Boom... boom——

The door was pushed a few times by a force. Chengzhi's face was stiff, layers of goosebumps instantly covered his body, and large amounts of cold sweat seeped out of his vest.

(Damn...that thing wants to come in...)

His breathing became extremely rapid. That thing outside the house actually wants to break into the house!

Cheng Zhi felt extremely terrified. He had a strong feeling in his heart that if something outside the door broke into this room, he would be dead.

"We must escape!"

He turned his head and looked toward the window. The only window in the house is very narrow, and it is obviously difficult for an adult to get out.

But Cheng Zhi had no choice at this time. He took the initiative to crawl towards the window and stretched his head out of the window.

"Eh?"

Cheng Zhi stretched out his neck halfway and felt something strange. The window felt narrower than he imagined. Except for his head, he couldn't get through it at all, as if he was stuck in the window.

"W-what's going on?"

He vaguely felt something was wrong, because his neck was stuck on the window, which made him uncomfortable and even his breathing became unsmooth.

"No, no...this is not a window!!"

Cheng Zhi's eyes suddenly opened wide, and he found that his neck was tied to a straw rope, which was hanging from the beam.

"I...I'm hanging?!"

The hair all over his body suddenly stood up. With a strong step, he kicked a wooden stool to the ground. His neck was also strangled by a straw rope, and his legs were suspended in the air.

Cheng Zhi naturally didn't want to die, so he stretched out his hands to grab at the neck, trying to untie the straw rope around his neck.

It was just because of his previous injuries that he was obviously unable to do what he wanted, coupled with the ice-like coldness in the room, Cheng Zhi was surprised that he could not untie the straw rope around his neck. His limbs were so weak that he could not even lift a finger.

"Can't untie it."

The sudden despair, coupled with the uncontrollable pressure on his neck, made Chengzhi feel that he had reached the critical point. His vision went dark and his consciousness almost fell into fainting.

The air was cut open by a sharp sound, and the straw rope strangling his neck was cut.

Cheng Zhi's body fell from the air.

"...cough cough cough..."

The straw rope broke. He touched the marks on his neck and coughed several times before he woke up.

At this moment, the candle light in the room returned to normal, no longer the scary green color.

"This is...Hakiri Maru."

His consciousness barely recovered, and his eyes regained their vision. He opened his eyes wide, and then picked up the straw rope on the ground. This straw rope was cut into a small ball made of messy hair.

"Who... who rescued me?"

He turned around and saw that the front door of the house was opened, and a paper mask with a ghostly face appeared outside the door.

There was a face painted on the paper mask. It was a weird smiling face with squinting eyes, which looked particularly weird under the firelight in the dark night.

"You are Chengzhi of Chengjia Ranch."

The voice of Ghostface Mask is low and hoarse, full of chilling air.

"I didn't expect that the first thing you did when you woke up was to commit suicide. Do you think your life is long?"

"Who are you?" Cheng Zhi was shocked.

"The person who saved his life."

The Ghostface Mask was clad in a black robe, with his hands hanging in his wide sleeves. He walked slowly into the house, and the two doors of the room behind him closed on their own with a creak.

"Why did you kill yourself?"

The person wearing the paper mask is naturally He Ping. As soon as he entered the house, he found Chengzhi preparing to hang himself, and he frowned.

"Suicide... no, that's not the case."

Cheng Zhi thought of something and his face became panicked.

"——This is the house. There is a ghost here. I was confused by the ghost just now and almost got deceived into hanging myself."

"oh?"

He Ping became alert. He used his mind and power to check the room, but he found no trace of the ghost.

(This place is a farmhouse under a village purchased by my He family in Sui'an City. It is considered a private residence on weekdays. How can there be a ghost in such a good house?)

He was suspicious of Cheng Zhi's statement, but he changed the topic.

"Speaking of which, I still don't know something. When did our sect's 'Invisible String' and 'Hakiri Wan' techniques flow into Chengjia Ranch? Why did you and your sister Chengyu Jiao make the 'Hakiri Wan'? Technique?"

Cheng Zhi was still uneasy, but when he raised his head, he saw a pair of eyes hidden behind the mask shining with strange light, and a strange voice like frosted steel came out of his mouth.

"Could it be that you stole my own technique from me and you didn't tell me the truth?"

The masked weirdo asked sternly. Although his voice was not very loud, a wave of waves came through the air and entered his ears. There was a muffled "buzzing" sound in his head, like a golden bell, which shocked half of Cheng Zhi's body and made his blood tremble.

"Stealing from my master", "our sect", "telling the truth"...this series of words triggered something, and Chengzhi's chaotic thoughts suddenly became a little clearer.

(Is it possible that this person and the senior Chi Xinzi belong to the same sect... Even if not, the other person is not an ordinary magician, I am afraid he is a real expert...)

Cheng Zhi was not ignorant. He immediately realized that he had met someone with advanced cultivation and knelt down quickly.

"Senior, this is a long story, please allow me to explain it in detail!!!"

…

Chengjia Ranch is located on the border of Beizhou Prefecture, and has made a living by herding and selling horses for generations.

Cheng Zhi recounted that it was said that the ancestors of the Cheng family moved from Zhonghuanzhou and were originally engaged in the fur business.

Because of the banditry, the fur business could not continue. The ancestors of the family took the family to live on the border plains.

The ancestors who started the family had a small pasture. Because they were managed well, they gradually expanded and abandoned it. They united with some nearby herdsmen and merged several small pastures into one large pasture.

Over the decades, Chengjia has relied on his skills in raising and herding horses, and the healthy horses he has cultivated have become the targets of horse dealers from all over the country.

Cheng Zhi's grandfather was named Cheng Tianyou. He was bold and loyal by nature. He once led eighteen good men from the ranch to bravely break into Bai Shiyu and annihilate a group of two hundred bandits entrenched there.

Chengjia Racecourse became famous because of this battle. The business road from Sui'an City in Beizhou to Shiraishi Yu was originally a place where horse thieves and bandits were the most common, and people became dissatisfied when traveling. However, because of the power of Chengjia Ranch, it became very peaceful.

Blessed by the sky, he is so arrogant that he spends his days frivolous and generous, and is anxious for others.

He once went on a long journey and rescued a beggar who was being chased by a strongman. The beggar was seriously injured and died after only a few days.

Cheng Tianyou got a strange bowl from the beggar after he died.

The old beggar claimed that he was hunted down because of this bowl. In order to repay Cheng Tianyou's kindness, he gave this bowl to Cheng Tianyou.

After the old beggar died, Cheng Tianyou took the bowl away without thinking too much. The bowl was later stored in the secret vault of the home by the Cheng family.

Cheng Zhi himself had never seen that bowl, but he heard his father say that it was a strange bowl that seemed to be made of human skulls.

There are unknown talismans painted inside the bowl, as well as demonic patterns and patterns that look like ghostly painted talismans. The edge of the bowl is inlaid with gold and silver. This white lacquered bowl makes people feel very uncomfortable and exudes a creepy atmosphere.

"It was an ominous thing. Your grandfather also knew this, so he put away the bone bowl."

Chengzhi's father said so.

"But, what exactly is that bone bowl? Why is it ominous?"

Chengzhi asked curiously at that time.

"That bone bowl can steal your life."

Chengzhi's father sighed softly.

"...stealing people's life."