What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

That familiar sound of paper rubbing together rang out again.

But this time, the sound didn't come from the ground, but from above my head.

I stopped abruptly, my body tensing instantly, and I held the scalpel upside down in my right hand.

"Since you're here, don't stay perched in the tree, it's tiring."

As I spoke, my gaze remained fixed on an old locust tree diagonally in front of me.

In the mist, a gaunt figure slowly drifted down from the treetop.

Yes, it's falling.

The person's movements were incredibly light, and they landed without making a sound.

He was wearing a faded gray long gown, with a hemp rope tied around his waist, and carrying a white paper lantern in his hand.

The lantern wasn't burning a candle, but rather a flickering, emerald-green flame that illuminated his face, which was wrinkled like orange peel.

He was an old man, so thin he was just skin and bones.

His eyes were sunken so badly that they exuded a sinister, deathly aura.

"Young man, you're quite young, yet you've cultivated this murderous aura quite well."

The old man spoke.

I stared at him, my tone still calm: "Old man, playing with paper on the mountain late at night is likely to attract unclean things."

Where is my friend? Hand him over, I'll take him away, and we'll leave each other alone.

The old man chuckled, revealing a set of yellowed, rotten teeth: "You're talking about that brat from Longhu Mountain, aren't you?"

He was quite tough; he cleaved through eighteen of my iron-armored paper generals in a row.

"What a pity, it's exhausted its strength and is now sitting on the mountaintop serving as nourishment for its ancestors."

Upon hearing the word "nutrients," a cold glint flashed deep in my eyes.

"So, you're the mastermind behind the strange events in Zhoujia Village?"

The old man weighed the paper lantern in his hand, his tone becoming somewhat fanatical: "I can't say I was the mastermind; I'm just a geomancer hired by the Zhou family."

Who could have known that a living dragon corpse was buried under the ancestral graves of this village?

"If I can help the Zhou family ancestor continue this dragon energy, my lineage of paper craftsmen will be able to attain immortality and ascend to heaven!"

"Ascension?"

I chuckled softly, a hint of mockery in my laughter.

"I think you've damaged your brain by making paper dolls."

Using the lives of the entire village to feed a zombie's appetite, how do you plan to settle this score with the King of Hell when you get to the underworld?

"You still want to ascend to heaven?"

"The underworld has no jurisdiction over me!"

The old man's face suddenly darkened, and the paper lantern in his hand shook violently.

"Young man, since you don't know what's good for you, then you'll be served as appetizers to our ancestors along with them!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the old man suddenly pulled out a handful of cut-out paper figures from his pocket and scattered them into the air.

"Paper spirit, heed my command! Resurrect me from this body! So be it!"

The moment those paper figures landed, they rapidly absorbed the yin soil on the ground, swelling to the size of a normal person in the blink of an eye.

They were no longer the bright red and green spirit guides in the square, but rather "paper generals" dressed in black armor and wielding paper spears.

These paper figures, shrouded in thick black energy, moved with astonishing agility, instantly surrounding me.

"Shhh—"

The spears shot out in rapid succession, stirring up gusts of cold wind.

My eyes narrowed, and the murderous aura within my body instantly surged.

Then, I stomped my foot and transformed into a leaden gray blur, rushing towards the dense rain of spears.

The scalpel in my hand transformed into a silver curtain of light.

"Clang clang clang!"

The paper spear pierced my blade, producing a sound like metal clashing against stone.

These papers are indeed several levels better than the previous ones.

I snorted coldly, and suddenly stretched out my left hand, grabbing a paper spear tightly, with murderous energy flowing wildly from my fingertips.

"Smash it!"

The paper spear instantly disintegrated under the corrosive influence of the evil energy. I took the opportunity to lunge forward and slapped the paper general in front of me in the chest.

"Bang!"

I smashed a huge hole in the paper general's chest, and the black smoke inside scattered and escaped.

But at this moment I noticed that these papers seemed to have some kind of symbiotic relationship.

As long as the lantern in the old man's hand doesn't go out, they can continuously draw energy from the surrounding area and reassemble.

"To catch the thief, first catch the king."

My gaze was fixed on the old man.

He was hiding behind a group of paper figures, muttering incantations, and the light from the lantern in his hand grew brighter and brighter.

With a thought, the black bone needle hidden in my sleeve slipped out silently.

With the combined support of malevolent energy and spiritual power, the bone needle transformed into an extremely thin black line.

Under the cover of the fog, they bypassed the layers of paper and went straight for the old man's throat.

The old man reacted very quickly; as soon as he sensed something was wrong, he suddenly raised the lantern to shield himself.

"Ding!"

The bone needle struck the lantern's frame, sending up a series of green sparks.

The old man was knocked back a few steps, a look of astonishment on his face: "Object manipulation? Just who are you, young man?"

I ignored his question, and my body rose again, slashing out with my sword in mid-air.

A heavy aura of malevolence clung to the willow-leaf blade, causing its blade light to swell by more than three feet.

With this one cut, the three paper figures in front of me will be severed in half.

Then, the remaining power of the blade's edge did not diminish, and it plowed a deep trench into the dark earth.

Seeing this, the old man finally showed a hint of seriousness in his eyes.

He suddenly bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood essence into the lantern.

"Blood sacrifice to the Paper Emperor, appear!"

After absorbing the essence blood, the emerald green ghostly flame instantly turned into a strange dark red.

Then, the soil behind the old man churned wildly, and a huge paper puppet, more than three meters tall, slowly crawled out from the ground.

The paper doll was entirely blood red, with no facial features, only densely packed runes constantly moving around on its face.

It was carrying a huge horse-slaying sword, the blade still stained with dried blood.

As soon as it appeared, the temperature around it dropped to freezing point, and even the mist in the air was frozen into tiny ice crystals.

"Young man, to die by my Paper Emperor's Blade, you've died a worthy death!"

The old man burst into maniacal laughter.

I looked at the blood-red giant, feeling the oppressive aura emanating from it, and took a deep breath.

This old man is indeed something; no wonder he dares to speak so arrogantly about ascension.

This evil creature felt much stronger than the mutated demons created by the Ghost-Faced Granny.

But, for me now, it's not enough.

"Old man, don't speak too confidently."

As I spoke, I slowly held the scalpel horizontally in front of my chest.

At this moment, the cool energy between my eyebrows began to circulate wildly, and my five senses were amplified to the extreme.

In my vision, every movement of that paper emperor slowed down, and I could even see the nodes of energy flow within its body.

I recalled the bone needle and hid it in the cuff of my left sleeve.

Since we need a quick victory, we have no choice but to get serious.

I closed my eyes slightly, feeling the mercury-like malevolent energy within my body, and began to forcefully compress it.