Facing the suddenly attacking Punishment Evil Great Monk, Ling Tian was somewhat hesitant. Although he found that the monk only attacked with the Zen staff in his hand and had no other techniques, it was like a toad jumping on his foot β it didn't bite, but it was annoying.
A head-on confrontation with the Great Monk was not a wise choice. Ling Tian was also hesitant, fearing he might injure the Punishment Evil Great Monk. From their interactions, he knew the monk's character and that he wouldn't attack without reason.
The remaining Yin soldiers had also given up attacking the Punishment Evil Great Monk and had instead begun to cooperate with him in attacking Ling Tian.
Seeing this, Ling Tian grabbed his horse spear, turned, and ran, circling the battlefield. He used the other Yin soldiers as cover, deliberately creating distance between himself and the Punishment Evil Great Monk, while his weapon flashed up and down, taking down one or two Yin soldiers at a time.
However, Ling Tian was not idle. While dodging and maneuvering, he activated his Heavenly Eye divine ability to observe the surroundings. The Punishment Evil Great Monk definitely wouldn't attack him without reason; there had to be something abnormal going on!
Ling Tian soon discovered the clue. Through his Heavenly Eye, he saw that dozens of meters away, Hu Lan was holding a strangely shaped doll in his left hand. The silver needles on the doll and the red threads attached to them stood straight up, balanced with the doll's body. These red threads pointed towards the Punishment Evil Great Monk, and Hu Lan's other hand was constantly manipulating these threads!
Ling Tian intensified his Heavenly Eye, and he discovered that these red threads extended infinitely outwards. The other end of each red thread was connected to the limbs of the Punishment Evil Great Monk, who was relentlessly pursuing him dozens of meters away!
"Holy crap, a puppet doll!"
The well-informed Ling Tian immediately recognized this technique. It was a classic of Qimen Dunjia, the puppet doll, also known as puppet art. Through a secret method, the red threads on the puppet doll were connected to the controlled target, allowing the target to be manipulated by the spell. This technique was very peculiar; often, the controlled person wouldn't even know how they were affected until they became a puppet on strings.
Even more terrifying was that once a target was controlled, breaking free from this control was impossible unless the caster voluntarily released it. Even violently destroying the puppet doll would cause severe harm to the controlled person! For example, if you severed one of the doll's arms, the controlled Punishment Evil Great Monk might lose an arm!
Ling Tian frowned. He could see that the Punishment Evil Great Monk was in a very bad state. The monk's expression was already contorted; he was trying to forcibly control his body and resist Hu Lan's commands. But it was useless. His body was still compelled to attack Ling Tian. What was worse, every move he made was with desperate force, some actions already exceeding his body's limits. His limbs were suffering from severe strains and soft tissue contusions. Yet, despite the pain, he couldn't escape his fate of being controlled like a puppet. If this continued, regardless of what happened to Ling Tian, the Punishment Evil Great Monk would likely be severely injured or even die.
It seemed that to completely free the Punishment Evil Great Monk, he had to find a way to deal with the puppet doll! With this thought, Ling Tian increased his strength, eliminated two more Yin soldiers, and after creating some distance, he suddenly pulled out several talismans from hisζ and threw them out.
These talismans were instantly activated and struck the ground, exploding with a series of dazzling lights. Hu Lan, who was manipulating the puppet doll, never expected Ling Tian to do something like this. Caught off guard, the intense white light forced him to close his eyes.
At that moment, a fierce wind blew from behind, and a horse spear suddenly thrust towards his lower back. The attacker was none other than Ling Tian! He had thrown out several dazzling talismans, using the bright light as cover to quickly enter the Spirit Realm space, then teleported behind Hu Lan to launch a surprise attack.
"Crack!"
The expected damage did not occur. The moment the horse spear hit Hu Lan's body, Hu Lan suddenly disappeared, replaced by a wooden dummy covered in intricate formations! Simultaneously, over 30 meters away, Hu Lan reappeared in a disheveled state, having nearly soiled himself. He never imagined that Ling Tian would possess something as bizarre as the Spirit Realm space, let alone use it for teleportation. Ling Tian, who had been in a tough battle moments ago, had suddenly launched this attack!
It was only because Hu Lan feared death that he had secretly cast a substitution spell on himself at the beginning of the fight. This substitution spell was also a classic technique in Qimen Dunjia. When the caster was attacked with a fatal blow, they could summon a wooden dummy to take the fatal damage. Once activated, this spell required no further attention; it was passively triggered upon receiving a fatal attack. Of course, casting such a spell came at a great cost. The wooden dummy was a one-time use item and was useless after being used, requiring another to be made. The wood used for the dummy was not ordinary timber but a type called Xumi wood, which existed in extremely small quantities in some primeval forests in southern Asia. The wooden dummy in Hu Lan's hand was a family heirloom passed down for hundreds of years. To have this precious trump card destroyed by Ling Tian!
Hu Lan's heart was bleeding. In just a short encounter with Ling Tian, two Door God New Year paintings were destroyed, a large portion of the beans used to summon Yin soldiers were ruined, and the wooden dummy used for the substitution spell was also destroyed. This was a devastating loss! He regretted his decision immensely. If he could choose again, he would have let Shi Xiaoyue and Yin Tianxiong die and would not have gotten involved in this mess.
However, at that moment, Hu Lan suddenly felt something was wrong. He felt like he was missing something. Looking up abruptly, Hu Lan saw that the Punishment Evil Great Monk dozens of meters away had suddenly stopped pursuing Ling Tian and had collapsed to the ground, his body slumping. He then looked down at his hands and was greatly shocked. The puppet doll that had been in his hand moments ago had disappeared!