Twilight Boundary-Chapter 501 - 493: The Magic of the Evil Spirit

The Human Pillar.

According to Calculation, this method originated from the Haishou Path and was often used during the construction of bridges or temples. When the feng shui was unfavorable and ghostly gods were disturbed, they would use living humans as pillars, forcibly performing Evil Creation. This was used to ward off ghosts and was one of the most sinister methods in the world.

Although Hu Ma was now using it to save himself, he was, after all, employing such a method, so the one casting it—Sweet Potato—would definitely face a backlash. Simply put, this Skill deceived gods and toyed with ghosts. It was as if Sweet Potato had killed Hu Ma once, driving him into the Human Pillar, so all the backlash landed on her, leaving Hu Ma unharmed. Moreover, since it was better for Reincarnators not to meet if possible, Hu Ma had only informed Sweet Potato of the time and place, allowing her to come and perform the Skill directly.

On reflection, this was rather demanding. After all, trust between Reincarnators was not absolute. What if this were a trap? What if some harmful method was hidden within? What then?

But as it happened, only someone as willful and daring as Sweet Potato would agree. Not only did she agree, but she also arrived as promised without even asking for the reasons. Seeing the coffin, she immediately began to cast this dharma method upon it.

Even among Reincarnators, this was an outrageously bold individual.

Hu Ma was secretly thinking, But by sealing myself in the coffin and allowing someone like Sweet Potato to ’kill’ me, am I not also quite bold?

Just as he was thinking this, Sweet Potato finished chanting. She raised the three incense sticks in her hand high, suddenly took a step back, knelt on one knee, then the other, and kowtowed heavily.

THUD!

Her head struck the iron nail that was only shallowly driven into the ground before the coffin.

One kowtow, then another.

With each kowtow, the iron nail drove an inch deeper into the ground. After three kowtows, the nail was buried three inches deep, mostly underground. Most critically, inside the coffin, Hu Ma felt his body shake as the coffin sank. Inch by inch, yin wind rose from beneath his feet. It felt as if his head were being struck by a heavy hammer, roaring thunderously, making him dizzy, as if he were slowly being buried underground.

SCREECHING!

Though prepared, Hu Ma could endure it. However, the thing in his arm was suddenly startled. Anxious and fearful, it struggled desperately, seemingly wanting to escape.

HEH.

But Hu Ma was prepared for it as well. With a slight movement of his Divine Soul, he had already pinned the thing down firmly, even deliberately moving that part of his Divine Soul—and the entity within it—under the force of the heavy blows, driving it into the earth.

"How dare you... How dare you..."

The thing had always deliberately avoided communicating with Hu Ma. It had only vaguely revealed its head and been heard speaking once, when the Second Young Master Meng had summoned the ancestor to descend. But now, it seemed to realize something and began screaming frantically. With disaster looming, this struggle was more intense than any before, almost as if it had alarmed some unseen force in the shadows.

WHOOSH!

At this moment, outside the valley, a violent wind suddenly whipped up, and dark clouds began to gather in the sky.

Sweet Potato was holding the incense, preparing to kowtow again. She was taken aback when she saw the incense burning fiercely in her hand and felt the fierce yin wind beside her. Her expression betrayed a bit of panic. What kind of Human Pillar is Old White having me set up? It’s so fierce!

Out of respect for Old White, she intended to brace herself and continue with the Skill. Yet, the moment she raised the incense again, a sobbing sound echoed around her. She turned sharply and saw two paper men beside her. Their originally smiling faces, perhaps due to creases from the change, now seemed twisted into sorrowful ones, and the faint crying sound came from them.

Sweet Potato gasped. Before she could speak, FWOOSH! The paper men spontaneously combusted.

She jumped in fright, exclaiming, "I thought Old White gave me a simple task, but unexpectedly... it’s a test!"

Thinking quickly, she threw the incense aside and watched the two paper men burn fast. She then acted swiftly, forming a ground contact seal with her hands, biting her silver teeth, and fiercely pointing at the nail.

"Set!"

This move, empowered by her cultivation, was quicker than simply casting the Skill. Instantly, it drove the remaining half-exposed nail completely into the ground. Simultaneously, Hu Ma’s coffin thundered as the earth beneath it cracked. The coffin dropped solidly, sinking into the ground. Rolling yellow earth, accompanied by yin qi, submerged and wrapped around the entire coffin.

After she completed this, the two paper men beside Sweet Potato were burnt to mere shoes. This caused her to let out a strange cry, jump up, and turn to run out of the valley. Despite one leg still recovering, she ran swiftly. She dashed out of the valley just as the last flicker of light vanished. Inside the valley, a strange, swirling yin wind carrying still-glowing embers chased after her.

Yet, once outside, she saw two paper men placed at the valley’s edge, one to the left and one to the right. As the ashes chased her, these two paper men also ignited. The current strong wind made them burn even faster than the ones inside. The rolling ashes pursued her into the forest, but Sweet Potato ran forward without looking back. Along the path, every thirty feet or so, she had placed two more paper men. There were also some jars covered in dirt, seemingly full of bones, freshly dug from some grave.

Thus, after continuously fleeing for several miles, with things burning along the way and losing her shoes in the process, she finally noticed the yin wind behind her subsiding.

"Backlash against me?" Sweet Potato spat, glancing back fiercely. "There isn’t a single Magic I’m good at that doesn’t have backlash. I’ve been dodging karmic debts since I started learning Magic. You think you can catch me?"

After venting, she sat down on a grave mound, pounding her leg and muttering towards the Blood Food Mine, "But what exactly did Old White have me do? Even if one were to drive a disciple of the Ten Surnames into the ground, it probably wouldn’t be more intense than this, right?"

Luckily, it was Sweet Potato I found...

Inside the coffin, Hu Ma was startled, truly sensing some unknown, profound force being disturbed. It was fortunate he was merely in a state of feigned death, and fortunate that he had taken precautions by setting up a Magic Altar in this valley. Although he hadn’t intentionally used the altar’s power, it had prevented some changes, ensuring Sweet Potato wasn’t killed on the spot. If it had been someone else, even with prior assurances of safety, they would surely have halted the Skill and fled upon seeing such a grand and terrifying spectacle. ...Someone like a certain Left Protector, or a certain Young Master of the Grass Heart Hall.

WHOOSH!

Seeing the ritual completed, Hu Ma, deep underground, suddenly felt alive. Yang qi surged as he burst from the soil, smashing the coffin lid and springing directly onto the ground.

However, the Human Pillar had been planted. This method aimed to imprison a human’s Divine Soul beneath the earth, suppressing it there. Even though Hu Ma had forced his way up, part of his Divine Soul remained below—his own, along with the foreign entity within it. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Once emerged, Hu Ma immediately stomped his foot and cast a spell, dispersing this unseen force. Sweet Potato, who was currently fleeing outside, probably didn’t realize she had underestimated the backlash. Without Hu Ma’s timely dispelling, she might have already been adversely affected.

Having done this, Hu Ma turned, his eyes sharp, focusing on the stone weights in the valley that were usually forgotten by people. He exhibited his now seemingly broken and weak Dharma Form. He lifted these stone weights with both hands and, with all his might, smashed them down onto the spot where the nail had entered the earth. Then, he sat cross-legged in front of the stone weights and slowly began chanting.

The process had only just started. Sweet Potato’s Skill had helped pull the entity from within him and drive it underground, imprisoning it there. However, Hu Ma’s real aim was to subdue and Refine it at this moment, to form his fourth column of cultivation!

As he sat cross-legged, he could feel chaotic roars from below, screaming madly. Part of the sound seemed to be transmitted to his ears from the outside world, while another part seemed to resonate directly within him. The overlapping sounds made him dizzy. Vaguely, it was as if he could see a figure pressed beneath the stone weights, desperately stretching its hands out to claw, its voice hoarse with curses and shouts, "Damn it, damn it, how dare you?"

"I am the Fourth Branch Master of the Tongyin Meng family! How dare you harm me with such an evil skill?"

Hu Ma coldly observed him, reaching out one hand to press down on the stone weights, continuously chanting the Dispel Curse.

"The Hu Family! The Hu Family was clearly tasked with eliminating Evil Ghosts from hell and reincarnated evil spirits! That’s why the Zhensui Mansion was entrusted to your family. But... but you’re actually a Reincarnator too..."

"You evil spirits intrude upon our mortal world and throw our universe into chaos! The Ancestor will know! The Ancestor will tear you all to pieces!"

"Is that so?" Listening to its raving, Hu Ma silently chanted until the time was right. Then he opened his eyes, his face mocking as he looked at the entity. "Then who would have thought that a descendant of the Zhen Sui Hu Family would himself be a Reincarnator?"

"Don’t worry, I know you’ve been silent because you actually want me to kill you. Firstly, if I kill you, my own Divine Soul will be damaged. Secondly, after I kill you, your Tongyin Meng family has other ways to get the news, don’t they?"

As he speculated, his smile grew sinister. He said quietly, "Therefore, I won’t kill you. I want you to live on—but live on as my scapegoat!"

An invisible fear drove the entity beneath the stone weights to shriek hysterically, "How dare a descendant of the Zhen Sui Hu Family use such an evil skill?"

Hu Ma looked at him, grinning. "Didn’t you just call me an evil spirit? Since I am an evil spirit, what’s the big deal about using a few evil skills?"