"What the hell is that?" Pu Dage, Xiao Sanda, and Xiao Heshang all walked over simultaneously, surrounding Gao Liang. Pu Dage didn't bother with pleasantries and directly took the needle-like object from Gao Liang's hand. Under the sunlight, it reflected a pale, ghostly gleam. Xiao Sanda stood right beside him. Now that I was closer, I finally saw what it actually was.
What Pu Dage held was a jade cylinder, about the same thickness as a ceremonial matchstick, with some carvings etched on it. He took one look and recognized it.
"A Soul-Confining Hairpin," he muttered, then shook his head. "No, that can't be right. Tao Heru is alive—how could this thing be inside his body?"
Gao Liang sighed and said, "Who said Tao Heru is dead? And who told you that pile of ashes was Tao Heru?"
Pu Dage paused, stunned for a second—his reaction was a bit slow. But Xiao Sanda understood immediately.
"Fatty," he said, "that thing on the ground wasn't Tao Heru… It was a dead man. He could talk, he could move, and when we got here, the cigarette he was smoking had a numbing smell—it was like Corpse Soul Grass. And his bones were black. Damn it—it was a puppet. A Ghost Path Sect puppet!"
Gao Liang nodded. He took the Soul-Confining Hairpin back from Pu Dage and held it up toward the sunlight before lifting it to his nose and sniffing.
"There's corpse aura, but no corpse poison. This puppet wasn't a finished product—just a temporary stand-in, meant to fool us. The Soul-Confining Hairpin couldn't have been in the puppet's body for more than five hours…" He paused, scanning the faces around him before slowly continuing, "How would Tao Heru know… that we'd be here exactly five hours later?"
No one spoke after Gao Liang said that. After a moment of silence, Xiao Heshang finally broke it, speaking hesitantly:
"Maybe Tao Heru has a lookout in that village we stopped at?"
"Lookout?" Gao Liang repeated the word softly, as if something clicked in his mind. He suddenly smiled at Xiao Heshang. "Heshang, that might not be far off. Maybe Tao Heru does have someone watching us in the village."
"We can talk about lookouts later—let's deal with the real question: where the hell is Tao Heru?" Pu Dage stared hard at Gao Liang.
Before Gao Liang could respond, Xiao Sanda spoke up.
"If this were a finished puppet, then under certain conditions, once a soul fragment is embedded in the body, it wouldn't need to be controlled. But this one's unfinished, so it can't fuse with a soul—it needs someone nearby to control it. And the controller wouldn't be far."
As he spoke, Xiao Sanda looked toward a small hill in the distance. Everyone else instinctively followed his gaze—everyone except Gao Liang, who gave Xiao Sanda a long, thoughtful look.
Pu Dage glanced over as well. Whatever he saw, he didn't say—just turned to Gao Liang and said, "Fatty, leave two people here to keep watch. The rest, come with me." He led the others back to the vehicle and drove off toward the spot Xiao Sanda had been eyeing.
Now only Xiao Sanda, Gao Liang, and Xiao Heshang were left in the burial ground. None of them said anything at first. Xiao Heshang pulled out a filterless cigarette, lit it without offering anyone else, and took a few puffs while staring at the other two.
Once he got his fix, he finally said to Xiao Sanda, "Sanda, Fatty—did both of you just forget, or are you hiding something? You need line of sight to control a puppet like that."
Gao Liang chuckled and looked at Xiao Sanda. "Sanda, you didn't mention that?"
Xiao Sanda snorted. "I thought you did."
Xiao Heshang glanced at the two of them and sighed.
"Next time you two cook something up, can you let me in on it first? All this buildup about how scary Tao Heru is—and turns out he's just nearby, hiding like a scared rat. So that urn of ashes wasn't even real, was it?"
Gao Liang laughed. "Monk, looks like Tao Heru isn't as fearsome as we thought. At least for now, he's clearly wary of us."
Xiao Heshang blinked. He still didn't quite get it.
Xiao Sanda added, "He must've found out in advance that we were coming, so he rushed to create a puppet that looked exactly like him, trying to fool us. If we fell for it, great. If not, then he'd stage a dramatic 'spontaneous combustion' and make us think he died."
He then turned and shouted toward the empty graveyard,
"Am I right, Tao Heru? Quit hiding underground—come on out and breathe some air!"
Xiao Sanda's sudden yell startled Xiao Heshang. He looked nervously around the cemetery but didn't see anything unusual.
"Sanda, what the hell are you—" he started to say, but before he could finish, a hand suddenly reached out from one of the new graves. Then, a man climbed up from the dirt.
The three of them instantly snapped into formation, standing in a triangle. Xiao Sanda took the front, with Gao Liang and Xiao Heshang flanking him on the left and right. Their eyes were locked on the man who'd just crawled out.
He looked exactly like the puppet they'd seen earlier.
The man wasn't in a rush—he brushed the dirt off his clothes and gave them a smile.
"Did you three… come to pay your respects?"
"That's right," Xiao Sanda said coldly. "Been a while since we last came. Forgot which grave it was. You wouldn't happen to have seen it? The tombstone says 'Tao Heru.'"
"Heh!" the little old man laughed instead of getting angry.
"That name does sound familiar. Let me think… Ah, yes!" He pointed to a grave not far away. "Right there! Tao Heru! Someone's here to visit you!"
As soon as he said that, the soil in front of the grave began to loosen. A cracking sound echoed, and in less than a minute, another identical Tao Heru climbed up from beneath the dirt.
"Oh wait, wrong one!" the first Tao Heru smacked his forehead.
"Silly me. Got the wrong grave. My apologies—this one! No, that one! Or maybe this one!"
He started pointing to grave after grave.
And with every direction he pointed, someone began crawling out of the ground—each one looking exactly like Tao Heru.
Within moments, two or three dozen of them had emerged from the surrounding graves.
Xiao Sanda and the other two looked a little pale. Xiao Heshang had already pried open the urn just a crack and was about to reach his hand inside when Gao Liang stopped him. The chubby man pressed down the lid and shook his head at Xiao Heshang, muttering under his breath, "Wait a bit longer—it's not time yet."
The first "Tao Heru" who emerged smiled warmly at Xiao Sanda and said, "Take a look and see if the one you're looking for is here. If not, I'll help you find him. I can't conjure up an army, but I can probably dig up a few hundred or even a thousand Tao Herus for you."
Xiao Sanda said nothing, only tightened his grip on the Heaven-Measuring Ruler in his hand.
The first "Tao Heru" kept grinning and bared his teeth in a smirk. "That ruler in your hand—I recognize it. Belongs to Min Tianzong, the chairman of the Religious Affairs Commission, doesn't it? See that chip on the edge? That's my doing. Min Tianzong's still alive, I hear. Went to Taiwan, didn't he? Tsk. Not many of the old folks from my time left now."
Tao Heru sounded somewhat wistful. He sighed, then added, "Out of respect for that ruler, I won't give you three a hard time today. Just go back and say you didn't find me, and that'll be the end of it."
"End of it?" Xiao Sanda sneered. "You must be joking. I said we're here to visit Tao Heru's grave. No matter what happens today, someone named Tao Heru is getting buried in this graveyard."
"So many Tao Herus here. Which one do you want to bury?" said the one standing closest to the trio, still grinning.
"Bury me, I'm small. Won't take up much space—saves you the trouble of filling in the dirt," offered another Tao Heru from the back.
A third chimed in, "Bury me. We're all the same height and build anyway, doesn't matter who you pick. Just get it over with."
"Me first! I'll fill in the dirt myself…" Before he could finish, dozens of Tao Herus all started yelling at once. "Bury me! Me first!" They shouted as they closed in on the trio, forcing them to retreat step by step.
But these three weren't exactly greenhorns. As the Tao Herus closed in, Xiao Heshang swept his arm, scattering another cloud of red powder from his sleeve. The closest four or five Tao Herus were hit full in the face. They immediately let out shrill howls and collapsed to the ground. Wherever the red powder touched their skin, blisters broke out—tiny ones at first, quickly merging into large boils that burst within seconds. Just like the first old Tao Heru, these four or five writhed for a few moments before turning into piles of ash.
I didn't recognize the red powder Xiao Heshang used. I'd never seen it in the Bureau, and he'd never mentioned it to me. If I ever make it back, I'll definitely ask him for some as a self-defense charm.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much of the powder to begin with. Xiao Heshang had stashed a bit in each sleeve, but now it was all used up. He flicked his sleeves again—nothing came out.
The Tao Herus hesitated briefly but surged forward again when they saw Xiao Heshang's sleeves were empty.
Just then, a shot rang out—bang! One Tao Heru was shot in the forehead and collapsed backward. It was Gao Liang who fired, holding a customized Type 54 pistol. I could see clearly—his gun was etched with talismanic symbols, much like the latest Bureau-issued weapons. This must've been an early prototype of the Bureau's enchanted firearms.
He fired six more rounds, and seven Tao Herus fell in an instant, black blood oozing from their foreheads. None of them got back up.
Gao Liang reloaded and fired another burst. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the Tao Herus were down.
"Not bad. I underestimated you," came a voice from the rear. One Tao Heru to the left clapped his hands. "Looks like these few Tao Herus aren't enough to toy with you. These puppets are hard to make... Fine, I'll deal with you myself."
Bang! Before he finished speaking, Gao Liang shot him straight in the head. He dropped on the spot. But Gao Liang frowned. "I thought that was the real one. Damn it. Not a single one's real. What the hell is Tao Heru up to?"
"Told you, these puppets aren't easy to make." Only four or five Tao Herus were left standing, one of whom chuckled.
Gao Liang wasn't in the mood for more talking. He raised his gun and fired again. The shot took the Tao Heru in the head, and down he went. He emptied the rest of his clip, and the remaining Tao Herus all collapsed.
"You two stay here. I'll go check it out." Xiao Sanda walked toward the fallen bodies, examining each one. After a full round, he turned back. "They're all puppets. The real Tao Heru's not among them."
Xiao Heshang and Gao Liang didn't follow. Xiao Heshang was still cradling the urn, not daring to move carelessly. Gao Liang, out of bullets, holstered his weapon. He hesitated for a moment, then stayed put.
Xiao Sanda moved further and further away, inspecting one grave after another. From his perspective, I could see clearly—he was only interested in graves with strange yin energy. His method was quite unique: he didn't look for the source of the energy, only observed the flow of yin energy around the grave.
He walked nearly a hundred meters, clearly searching for something. But the farther he went, the more uncertain he became, already considering turning back—until he saw a particularly run-down grave in the corner.
It was quite old. The inscription on the tombstone was worn away by years of wind and rain, making it impossible to tell who lay buried there. At first glance, Xiao Sanda didn't notice anything unusual. But I, residing in his body, spotted the anomaly right away.
The yin energy of this grave was flowing inward—opposite to all the others. Usually, yin energy seeps out slowly from within, but this one was absorbing it, drawing it in from outside. The suction wasn't strong and went unnoticed in broad daylight when yang energy was dominant. So it wouldn't have been strange if Xiao Sanda had missed it.
He had already walked past the grave, but for some reason, turned back for another look. This time he examined it closely—and noticed something off.
"Is it here?" Xiao Sanda muttered, using his Heaven-Measuring Ruler to brush aside some of the soil around the grave.
"Sanda! Did you find something?" Gao Liang shouted from afar, starting to make his way over. Xiao Sanda waved a hand at him and Xiao Heshang. "It's nothing. No need to come over."
Just as he said that, a man suddenly sprang up from the grave.
Xiao Sanda had been mid-conversation with Gao Liang. By the time he realized what was happening, the man was already right in front of him.
Reacting instantly, Xiao Sanda raised the Heaven-Measuring Ruler and smashed it down on the man's head. The blow could've shattered a stone slab—but instead, the ruler was knocked back, flying a dozen meters away. The man didn't even flinch.
Another Tao Heru!
He sneered. "Didn't I tell you? That chip in your ruler? I did that. It doesn't work on me."
Xiao Sanda didn't even have time to draw his gun. Tao Heru grabbed him by the throat and pulled him close. I heard him whisper coldly, "You've got guts—but you didn't come just to kill me, did you? Hmph!"
He chuckled again, lowering his voice even further. "Heavenly Principle Diagram?"