Merit-based card draws, quickly become a Heavenly Emperor

Fang Zheng hasn't been idle for the past month or so. Relying on his job of patrolling and catching ghosts, he has traveled all over Yongqing County and gained a good understanding of the local customs and conditions.

He naturally paid attention to a sensational case like the He family massacre and knew the approximate location of the He family.

When they arrived at an alley in the west of the city, they asked around and a passerby pointed Fang Zheng in a direction.

"That house over there is the ancestral home of the He family."

However, the house has become a haunted house; some people have seen ghosts inside and were nearly scared to death.

After that, no one dared to approach anymore.

Fang Zheng and Guan Tieyi exchanged a glance, both seeing the seriousness in each other's eyes.

Upon arriving at the He residence, they found it to be long abandoned.

The dilapidated gate was sealed off by the government.

The two men became wary and scaled the wall to enter. The courtyard was overgrown with weeds and in a state of disrepair.

Guan Tieyi touched the hilt of his sword and lowered his voice: "Brother, this place is eerie."

Fang Zheng nodded slightly, his left palm slightly warm, as if Liu Qingyu was giving him a warning.

They passed through the front hall and entered the main hall.

Just as Fang Zheng stepped onto the stairs, a soft sound came from behind him.

creak.

The door is closed.

Guan Tieyi reacted extremely quickly, kicking at the small door beside him, but his foot passed right through the door, as if he had kicked thin air.

He pulled his foot back, but the door remained there, unmoved.

"Illusion array, be careful!" Fang Zheng frowned.

As soon as he finished speaking, the blue bricks under his feet suddenly cracked.

Fang Zheng saw that his feet were stepping on the gap between two bricks, but the gap widened to both sides, and his feet were dangling in the air.

Guan Tieyi was in the same boat; he staggered and almost fell.

"Stand firm!" Fang Zheng shouted in a low voice.

Guan Tieyi was, after all, an eighth-rank martial artist with an extremely stable lower body. With a forceful push of his feet, he shattered the illusory crack beneath his feet and regained his footing.

But this is only the beginning.

The surrounding walls began to ripple like water, spreading out in concentric circles, and the plaques hanging on the walls became blurred and distorted.

When the ripples stopped, Fang Zheng found himself standing in a completely unfamiliar place.

Guan Tieyi behind him slowly became transparent. Fang Zheng reached out to grab him, but grasped nothing.

They've been separated; it seems the enemy intends to divide and conquer them.

Fang Zheng took a deep breath and looked around.

He stood in a corridor. The corridor was short, with a door at each end.

He walked forward, pushed open the door in front of him, and behind the door was another identical corridor.

Fang Zheng didn't move again. The Yuan energy in his ancestral aperture between his eyebrows surged out, and the ability to see clearly was activated.

When I opened my eyes again, the corridor was the same, but there was a faint layer of texture on the walls.

He looked at the many secrets he had drawn and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

"The Mirror Heart Array is interesting."

This is a killing formation that uses mirrors as a guide and hearts as a medium.

Each time a survivor pushes open a door, they gain another layer of choice. The more choices there are, the more forks in the road there are, until they are exhausted and trapped to death.

However, the formation was set up in a somewhat hasty manner and was not very sophisticated. Fang Zheng flipped his left hand, and the Judge's Pen condensed in his hand.

"Qingyu, help me!"

Liu Qingyu transformed into red smoke and attached herself to the brush. Together, the two of them wrote the character "破" (break) in one stroke.

The ink-like light exploded, spreading along the patterns on the wall, and the corridor quickly collapsed.

But it stopped halfway through the collapse.

A strange and unpredictable voice rang out: "A mere ninth-rank official can control cursed ghosts and break my Mirror Heart Formation. He does indeed have some skill."

But can you save yourself, and can you save your colleagues?

Fang Zheng's expression changed slightly: "Brother Guan!"

Without further hesitation, he took the protective copper ring that Lü Zhengfeng had given him from his waist.

The inside of this copper ring is engraved with the words "Supervision". This is a rubbing of Lü Zhengfeng's official seal, which can influence official fortune and break evil spells.

Fang Zheng held the copper ring in his palm and poured all the Yuan energy from his ancestral aperture between his eyebrows into it.

The copper ring emitted a soft ringing sound, and a layer of pale blue light appeared on its surface.

Fang Zheng raised the bronze ring and smashed it down into the void in front of him.

Click!

The copper ring fell, and a crisp cracking sound echoed in the void. Light shone from all directions, making Fang Zheng squint.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself still standing in the ruins of the main hall of the He family mansion.

Guan Tieyi knelt on the ground, covered in sweat, his knife stuck in the ground to support his body; he was clearly seriously injured.

On the beams of the main hall, a dark figure was about to escape.

The figure was thin and clad in a black cloak, obscuring its face.

Seeing that Fang Zheng had escaped, he paused for a moment, then transformed into a wisp of black smoke and passed through the wall.

Fang Zheng rushed forward, and the judge's pen wrote the character "lock," which turned into a streak of ink light and chased after the dark figure.

The dark figure flicked its finger, deflecting the ink light, and then drifted away.

Guan Tieyi struggled to give chase, but was stopped by Fang Zheng.

"Stop chasing, you can't catch up."

Guan Tieyi, panting heavily, angrily sheathed his knife: "Brother Fang, who is that?"

"Seventh-grade Daoist cultivator, Night Wanderer Realm."

This kind of person is difficult to deal with. If we really faced him, the three of us might not be able to defeat him.

Guan Tieyi frowned: "Why did he attack us?"

Fang Zheng's lips curled up, and he said, "It's obvious at a glance."

This evil cultivator left in such a hurry that he must have left some clues.

Fang Zheng and Guan Tieyi thoroughly searched the entire He family mansion and indeed made some discoveries.

A half-burnt incense stick, a mirror shattered on the ground, and seven crushed bone beads.

The incense stick had a peculiar smell, with a rotten sweetness that made people dizzy.

Liu Qingyu floated over from Fang Zheng's palm and sniffed.

"My benefactor, this is the same kind of evil herb found in Caojiajing and the Tiger Demon Cave."

Fang Zheng nodded slightly; the mirror was clearly the one the evil cultivator had used to set up the formation.

As for these seven bone beads, there was clearly something inside them, but it has been removed, so it is difficult to deduce what was inside.

However, when Fang Zheng saw the location of these bone beads, he already had some understanding in his mind.

Guan Tieyi leaned closer to examine the beads: "Brother, what are these?"

"These are beads made from human bones."

The entire He Tingtao family of seven was wiped out, and there happened to be seven bone beads here.

As I suspected, these bone beads were made from the remains of the seven members of the He family.

Guan Tieyi looked horrified. "Truly depraved!"

There are still such wicked people in Yongqing County! We must report this to Lord Lü as soon as possible!

Fang Zheng carefully sorted and put away the items, then stood up.

"It's obvious that we stumbled upon that evil cultivator using human bone beads to refine evil objects at the He residence."

He didn't want to be exposed, so he wanted to kill him to silence him.

Later, realizing they couldn't take us down in a short time and fearing they'd attract experts, they ran away.

It seems the waters behind the Ho family massacre are deeper than I imagined.

"Let's go and inform Lord Lü. Perhaps we can deduce clues about the mastermind behind this from these magical artifacts."

As dusk settled, the two climbed over the wall and returned to the supervisory office to report their findings to Lü Zhengfeng.

Upon seeing the seven human bone beads, Lü Zhengfeng's expression changed drastically.

After instructing Fang Zheng to be careful, he hurriedly left to try and analyze these magical artifacts.