Chapter 1216: 斩死

The window was closed, but the large gaps in the wood certainly wouldn't contain it. The room was dimly lit and cluttered, making it virtually impossible for an ordinary person to spot where the eyeball spider had gone.

However, Ban Jing's eyes glowed red. He grabbed a sewing needle from the table, shot a few swift jabs with it, and simultaneously cried out, "Enemy attack!" The needle tip still bore blood, from earlier when it had been used to prick Situ He's finger.

But the little creature moved with incredible agility, ducking low and slipping into a crack in the floorboards. Ban Jing immediately reached down, pulled up a floorboard, and launched another four needles in quick succession. The eyeball spider dodged three, but the last needle pinned its leg. That didn't stop it; its thin, long leg snapped instantly. Its remaining seven legs worked in unison, allowing it to dart away with surprising speed.

In a flash, it was nearing the wooden window. Ban Jing leaped up and gave chase, weaving around two stools and a wooden table to cut off the eyeball spider's escape. It suddenly veered off course and leaped downstairs. Two constables, hearing the commotion, were about to rush upstairs but were knocked over by Ban Jing. With his path blocked, that momentary delay was all the spider needed to slip into a floor crack and escape. Below this fabric shop was a cellar, truly a happy home for spiders and insects. Enraged, Ban Jing cursed, "Idiots!"

Outside the fabric shop, a masked figure suddenly approached, leaping onto the attic in two swift bounds. The one to rescue the condemned prisoner had finally arrived! The Bixia army, having grown impatient in their surrounding ambush, saw this as their cue. They unleashed a volley of arrows, then charged out to capture the enemy.

The masked figure flipped and twisted along the attic's exterior wall, evading several arrows, then leaped towards the distant stable. Their movements were light and swift, as if gravity had no hold on them. "Chase him! Don't let him get away!" shouted the Bixia army leader, and a large contingent pursued.

Of course, over twenty men remained on guard outside the attic. However, just as they watched their comrades' backs disappear beyond the alley mouth, several bottles were suddenly flung from the darkness, smashing with soft pops at their feet. Puffs of white mist rose, carrying an indescribably foul odor! Caught off guard, the Bixia soldiers' sense of smell was assaulted. They instantly grew dizzy, nauseous, and doubled over to vomit, unable to react in any other way!

These were several improved versions of the "fragrant pellets" personally refined by Lingguang. Their scent was more potent and long-lasting for humans, and they also produced a smoke screen effect.

Then, with a resounding *CRACK*, a hole was suddenly punched through the attic's wooden wall! Wood splinters exploded inward, and the condemned prisoner instinctively closed his eyes. Someone had burst in, grabbing the chair behind Situ He. Their next move was surprisingly to pull out a black hood and yank it over the prisoner's head!

"...?" Situ He was utterly bewildered. What was this all about? Was this person here to rescue him or abduct him? His vision went black, and then he heard someone whisper in his ear, "Apologies, just bear with it." Immediately after, he felt his body lighten, and all the surrounding clamor vanished. What was happening? The one who had come to his rescue was, of course, He Lingchuan.

Just then, another shadow suddenly emerged beside the broken hole. Ban Jing appeared. More precisely, it was a clone of the Xuanlu Ghost King that suddenly materialized behind He Lingchuan, plunging a short dagger straight into his heart! The strike was swift, precise, and ruthless, as if it had been long prepared. It possessed a similar mystical ability to 'substituting a plum for a peach' (a teleportation-like skill), placing a mark beforehand and then instantly returning to it when activating the power! The eyeball spider had tried to draw it away earlier, but hadn't it also deliberately stepped aside, allowing the people outside to walk into a trap?

He Lingchuan was holding the chair behind Situ He, with no time to turn and parry. However, he didn't need to parry. In that critical moment, a layer of black armor suddenly surfaced on He Lingchuan's body, and Ban Jing's strike landed directly on it. Though dull and lusterless, the armor's hardness was astonishing. Ban Jing's force was so vicious that the dagger snapped in two with a *clang*.

"Rashomon Armor!" His eyes blazed crimson, and his voice trembled with shock and fury. It had never expected to encounter the Rashomon Armor here, at this very moment!

In that brief delay, Situ He, along with his chair, vanished. He Lingchuan swiftly put away an object. The Ghost King seemed to catch a glimpse of a toy-like object flashing in his hand. ...A miniature world? A miniature world that could hide living beings?

He hadn't pierced He Lingchuan's heart, but the latter used the force of the blow to leap forward two steps, then burst through the window like a fledgling swallow taking flight, landing in the middle of the street. Wood chips flew again. This time, a small black dot from the fabric shop's wooden door sprang onto him. The eyeball spider had returned to its master!

Ban Jing pointed at his retreating figure: "Go!" The two dozen Bixia soldiers who had been left guarding below the attic, previously reeling from the 'fragrant pellets' and scrambling to escape, suddenly turned at his command and, in perfect unison, pursued the masked figure heading west. Their eyes glowed red, as if their physical discomfort had instantly vanished. The condemned prisoner was the Situ family's weakness; if he were rescued, Ju City would face great trouble.

Ban Jing himself lunged to the broken window. As he leaned out to look, he saw a flash of cold light—the Floating Life Blade, spinning swiftly towards him! The timing was incredibly precise. Ban Jing's line of sight was blocked by the window frame, and the Floating Life Blade shot out from this blind spot, as if it had been waiting there all along. Ban Jing recoiled in shock, but it was too late. The Floating Life Blade swept across his face, and blood sprayed forth. From his left temple to the right corner of his mouth, his face was precisely sliced in half diagonally.

Ban Jing instantly toppled backward, falling out the window. As he rolled in the dust, red and white matter splattered across the ground. A black shadow within his skull was also severed in two by the Floating Life Blade simultaneously. It let out a mournful, resentful cry before dissipating into nothingness. Another clone of the Xuanlu Ghost King, deceased. This one was far more stifled than the clone on Nangong Yan; it didn't even have time to unleash its mystical ability before dissipating.

The Bixia soldiers, previously controlled by it, suddenly froze, their faces utterly bewildered. The dark threads that had controlled them vanished along with the Xuanlu clone. They stood bewildered for a few breaths before remembering their duty. When they looked up, they saw two masked figures sprinting across the shop's rooftop, one heading east and one west. Both were identical, as agile as mongooses, leaving only their backs to those who followed. Cloning technique?

"Ah, what do we do?""Chase them! Chase them!"

So, these two dozen men split themselves into two groups, each pursuing one. But the eastern group pursued for over a hundred yards before their target vanished. Bad luck; it was a false clone. An ordinary person running on rooftops would either lose their footing or break tiles, but that fellow seemed to barely touch the ground, as if he could take flight with wings. The Bixia soldiers, chasing on the ground, couldn't hope to catch up after just a few steps.

These soldiers pursued west, watching He Lingchuan's figure drop down as if he had jumped into the stable's backyard. They rushed over to investigate: The yard contained horses, hay, and carriages, but no one! Where had the condemned prisoner and his abductor gone? Unwilling to give up, one guarded the entrance while the other quickly searched the stable, then checked each room individually. All the stable hands were woken up, grumbling loudly. But the fugitive was gone, having vanished mysteriously from this very spot. Where could he be?

"Escape technique?" That was the most logical explanation.

"Activate the anti-escape formation!" A roaring voice echoed across half the small city, as large contingents from the county yamen and garrison rushed towards the fabric shop. "Now!" Once the escape techniques were nullified, the masked figure would be trapped within the city, allowing them to capture him at their leisure. The government guards were desperate, as if they wanted to dig three feet into the ground.

The entire city was lit up, and residents were woken by the commotion, angered but daring not to speak. After the guards finished searching houses and left, the residents spat at their retreating backs.

Meanwhile, Fu Liushan pulled a cloth pouch from his pocket and opened it. Inside were three or four strands of hair. "Here," he said, "these are Young Master Situ's hairs. Let's see if they can guide me to him." Fu Liushan wound the hairs into a small strand and tucked them into an open melon seed shell. The shell was painted red and had strange patterns on its surface, but before anyone could examine it closely, a flicker of true fire ignited at Fu Liushan's fingertip, and he pressed it directly into the shell.

"Ignite!"

The strange melon seed shell then emitted a red glow, faintly pulsating. Next, he took out a palm-sized straw figure and pressed the dark red melon seed shell into its chest. The light disappeared, but the straw figure immediately raised its arm, pointing southwest.

"Let's go," Fu Liushan explained. "It will point to Situ He's location. This spell was originally for finding lost children. Some demons and ghosts abduct children, tricking them into remote places before devouring them."

Just as they were about to leave, rapid footsteps suddenly approached. They quickly hid in the alley, remaining still until over three hundred soldiers ran past them, then cautiously peeked out. The authorities had actually deployed so many people nearby!

At that moment, one of the Bixia soldiers in the passing contingent suddenly stopped and turned his head to look into the dark alley. His gaze was exceptionally cold, even tinged with a faint crimson glow, as if he could see through the wall to the people behind it. Fu Liushan's scalp tingled, and he thought, *This is bad.* But he was prepared; with a flick of his wrist, he produced a small lamp. The lamp's shade was dark, and the flame inside was very dim. From outside, no one could detect anything amiss through the wall. He used one hand to shield the flame, motioning for everyone to gather close around the lamp, then made a shushing gesture. The Soul-Shielding Lamp could block out ghostly prying. Everyone instinctively held their breath.

The soldier tilted his head, as if puzzled. But sensing no more signs of living presence, he turned and quickly rejoined his contingent, departing swiftly. Only then did Fu Liushan breathe a sigh of relief. "Damn it," he muttered, "this city is crawling with spirits."

"Master Fu, look," a guard whispered, pointing southwest. "There's activity there too, exactly in the direction the straw figure is pointing." Had Situ He's actual place of detention also come under attack?

Fu Liushan gasped, "Good heavens, how many factions have arrived tonight?" The Situ family's connections—were they truly that extensive? If he were kidnapped, he doubted anyone would come to save him. Well, probably not.

Shouts erupted, and large contingents from within the city rushed toward that location. Clearly, Fu Liushan's tracking spell hadn't erred; the authorities were far more concerned about this place than the prison.

Another person suddenly exclaimed, "Ah, the straw figure isn't pointing anymore!" Fu Liushan was startled and looked down: The straw figure in his palm, whose arm had been pointing straight southwest, had indeed dropped. It could no longer indicate the target. What did this mean? Everyone asked in surprise for an explanation, and Fu Liushan's expression grew grim: "The tracking spell has been blocked. These people have formidable methods."