Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

At this moment, only one barrier remained between He Damin and Kawashima Yoshiko—the young Onmyoji who had summoned Aobozu earlier, whose face was now ashen. The young Onmyoji watched He Damin approach like a demon god, feeling the palpable aura of death emanating from him, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

But a flash of crazed resolve quickly crossed his eyes, perhaps for the sake of so-called "loyalty," or perhaps knowing he had no chance of survival and wanting to take someone down with him. He abruptly tore open the front of his shirt, revealing a strange array etched on his chest. The array was composed of countless tiny runes, now emitting a faint red glow. He bit his tongue hard, spitting a mouthful of crimson blood onto the array!

"Use blood as a sacrifice, fuse with the shikigami!" He roared with all his might, his voice distorted by the pain and madness. As his blood essence merged with his body, the array on his chest shone brightly, while his body visibly withered away, his skin quickly lost its luster, becoming like withered tree bark, and his hair instantly turned white.

Meanwhile, the shikigami Aobozu, which was about to dissipate, let out an even more frenzied roar and rushed back without regard for anything, transforming into a streak of blue light and suddenly merging with the young onmyoji's body! Instantly, the young onmyoji's body began to swell and twist, his skin turned bluish-black, curved horns grew on his head, and the hideous demon face of Aobozu appeared on his face. The phantom of the staff in his hand merged with the short sword in his hand, turning into a huge demon head sword that gleamed with cold light.

His aura surged several times over, emanating an even more terrifying yin energy and malevolent aura, transforming him into a monster that was half human and half ghost!

"Die!" The monster, fused with a shikigami, let out a neither-male-nor-female roar, its voice hoarse and frenzied. Wielding a massive demon-headed blade, it brought a fierce wind that tore through the air as it slashed down at He Damin! The blade's sharpness stung He Damin's cheek. He Damin's eyes remained cold; instead of retreating, he advanced.

He didn't even use a weapon. His right hand spread its five fingers, and in his palm, the phantom of the Soul-Refining Banner flashed again, followed by five chains wreathed in a ghastly green, soul-corroding yin fire. [Netherworld Chains - Soul-Corroding Yin Fire]! The five chains, like living venomous snakes, hissed as they shot out like lightning, ignoring the incoming demon-headed blade, precisely coiling around the monstrous Onmyoji. The chains pierced through his flesh, deeply embedding themselves within his body, then tightened abruptly, locking his soul!

"Ah—!" A piercing, inhuman scream echoed through the secret chamber, the ultimate agony of a soul being directly burned. The Soul-Eating Flames raged on the chains, frantically corroding the remnant soul of the Aoandon shikigami within the monster's body, as well as its own soul. The monster struggled violently, its demon-headed sword hanging limply, the azure light on its body rapidly dimming, and its bluish-black skin beginning to peel and rot. Three breaths later, the struggle ceased.

The monster's body shrank rapidly like a deflated balloon, eventually reverting to the appearance of a young Onmyoji, only now completely withered, like a dried-up corpse drained of all its life essence.

On his chest, the eerie array had turned charred black, and a large, bowl-sized, charred hole appeared in his chest, through which his internal organs, burned to ashes, were vaguely visible. His eyes were wide open, his face frozen in extreme pain and fear; he was utterly terrified.

Without even glancing at the unseeing corpse, He Damin took a step forward and was already standing in front of Kawashima Yoshiko. The distance between them was less than three meters. He could even smell the complex scent of expensive perfume mixed with a faint smell of blood emanating from Kawashima Yoshiko, and he could see her eyelashes trembling slightly with fear, as well as the fleeting panic in her eyes.

At this moment, Yoshiko Kawashima's face was bloodless, but her eyes were still fierce, only now there was an undisguised fear in them.

She stared intently at He Damin, her voice hoarse and dry with tension and fear: "Who exactly are you? Why are you my enemy?" She tried to find a clue on He Damin's face, but all she saw was a cold indifference.

He Damin did not answer. He had no interest in wasting words on a dying man. He slowly raised his right hand, extended his index finger, and gathered a faint stream of air and a faint golden light at the tip of his finger, pointing it towards Kawashima Yoshiko's brow.

This finger strike contained the penetrating power of his years of arduous training, enough to instantly shatter her skull and brain tissue; at the same time, a wisp of pure Taoist true essence lingered around the fingertip, possessing the effect of destroying evil and annihilating souls, ensuring that her soul and spirit were completely destroyed, leaving no trace of future trouble.

A flicker of despair crossed Yoshiko Kawashima's eyes. Her body instinctively tried to back away, but her legs felt as heavy as lead, unable to move an inch. The shadow of death engulfed her like a tidal wave.

However, just as she thought she was doomed, a strange, chilling smile suddenly appeared on her lips. Just as He Damin's fingertips were about to touch her brow—a sudden change occurred! A simple, unassuming ancient jade pendant, always worn close to her body, on Kawashima Yoshiko's chest, shattered without warning! "Buzz—!" A blinding white light erupted, like the sun suddenly rising in a sealed room, instantly enveloping her entire body.

The white light was pure and dazzling, carrying a mysterious and powerful spatial fluctuation that caused the surrounding air to distort and wrinkle, and the light to refract strangely at the edge of the white light.

"Substitute Puppet - Spatial Teleportation!" An aged, dignified, yet urgent voice seemed to come from nowhere, traversing vast distances and resounding directly in the secret chamber. He Damin's finger, powerful and precise, struck the white light, but it was like a mud ox entering the sea, hitting nothingness.

The sensation transmitted through her fingertips was not of flesh and blood, but rather an indescribable ethereal and distorted feeling. All her power was instantly absorbed and dissolved into nothingness by the white light. Within the white light, Yoshiko Kawashima's figure rapidly blurred, faded, and became transparent in the intense light!

"Not good!" He Damin's expression changed drastically, his heart skipped a beat, and he knew something was wrong. He instantly raised his spiritual sense to its limit, like an invisible net, trying to lock onto the violently fluctuating spatial node and interfere with or even interrupt this abrupt teleportation.

But to his horror, he discovered that the spatial power contained within the white light was extremely profound and mysterious, far beyond his comprehension. With his current Foundation Establishment stage cultivation and soul strength, it was like scratching an itch through a boot; he couldn't interfere with or interrupt the predetermined teleportation at all! It was a power originating from a higher level of laws.

"You can't kill me..." Kawashima Yoshiko's last words came through the white light, filled with the resentment of someone who had survived a catastrophe, and a hint of barely concealed triumph and madness. "I will find you... I will make you pay... I will make you wish you were dead..."

As soon as she finished speaking, the blinding white light vanished abruptly, as if it had never existed. The spot where Kawashima Yoshiko had stood was now empty. Only a few broken fragments of the jade pendant lay scattered on the ground, along with a palm-sized, charred, and completely carbonized straw doll—a finely crafted substitute puppet, now utterly destroyed by the backlash of the spatial teleportation and the aftershocks of He Damin's finger strike, reduced to a useless pile of charcoal. The secret chamber was deathly silent.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, gunpowder, and burnt flesh, along with the eerie lingering effects of various magical practices, all blending into a nauseatingly complex odor. The walls and carpets were splattered with blood, scattered bone fragments, broken weapons, and charred pieces of cloth. Only He Damin remained, along with the corpses lying haphazardly on the floor, each in a different manner of death.

He slowly withdrew his finger, which had been hovering in mid-air, a lingering numbness from the spatial distortion still present at his fingertips. He looked down at the charred substitute puppet and several fragments of the jade pendant emitting faint spatial fluctuations on the ground, his brows furrowing deeply. He scanned the area carefully again with his spiritual sense, confirming that Kawashima Yoshiko's presence had completely vanished. The distance she had teleported far exceeded the limits of his current spiritual sense, making it impossible for him to track her.

For the first time since his transmigration, this was the first time he had managed to let his target escape before his very eyes, despite meticulous planning and his personal involvement. Although he had successfully killed almost all of her guards—two formidable martial arts masters and ninja masters, two Onmyoji (one old, one young), a mysterious Southeast Asian sorcerer, two Chinese sorcerers who had defected to the Japanese puppet regime; even including the two hidden ninjas guarding the door—he had practically wiped out her core supernatural forces, clearing a huge obstacle for subsequent operations. But the main target had escaped.

He Damin stood there, silent for a full ten breaths. There was no angry roar, no frustrated pounding, and no superfluous expression. He simply stood there quietly, his eyes as deep as an ancient, icy pool, the aura emanating from him so cold that it seemed to lower the temperature of the already gloomy secret room by several degrees, and the smell of blood in the air seemed to freeze.

"A substitute puppet... spatial teleportation..." He slowly crouched down, extended two fingers, and carefully picked up the largest fragment of the jade pendant. The fragment was cool to the touch, yet smooth to the touch, clearly not an ordinary item. Upon careful examination with his spiritual sense, he could sense extremely faint but remarkably high-level fluctuations of spatial laws remaining on it, profound and complex.

"It wasn't her own power. It was a life-saving trump card bestowed upon her by a master. Only a cultivator at least at the Golden Core stage, or even higher, could refine such an exquisite spatial teleportation jade pendant."

"And...she was prepared all along." He picked up the charred straw doll; it felt light in his hand, with only the texture of ashes remaining. "That jade pendant was always worn close to her body, ready to be triggered at any time. She was always on guard against 'extraordinary assassination'."

He Damin stood up and surveyed the chaotic secret chamber. In this hunt, he had revealed part of his strength—the martial arts cultivation of a Grandmaster of Internal Energy, the Daoist true essence of a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, and the existence of the Soul Refining Banner. Although almost all the witnesses were dead, Kawashima Yoshiko escaped; she had seen it all.

More importantly, this failure was a significant blemish for He Damin, who called himself "The Thousand-Faced Yama." In his previous life, he had never had a target escape from a hunting mission he accepted. This was both a source of pride and a guiding principle.

"shame."

He uttered two words softly, his voice calm, yet containing a chilling coldness.

But this humiliation didn't make him lose control; instead, it made his mind colder and clearer. He began to review the entire operation:

The clones created chaos and successfully diverted the attention of the Japanese puppet regime in Tianjin.

The physical attack on Dongxinglou was swift and clean, crushing all defenses until it reached Yoshiko Kawashima.

The problem arose at the last moment—underestimating the level of Yoshiko Kawashima's trump card and her decisiveness. She used that obviously invaluable spatial teleportation jade pendant without hesitation, and it's even possible that the body was primarily a substitute puppet from the beginning, remotely controlled by the original consciousness?

"No, that's the real person. The fluctuations in consciousness can't be faked." He Damin denied the theory of a stand-in, "but the means of survival certainly exceeded expectations."

He stored the jade pendant fragments and the substitute puppet into his Taiji Space. These were clues that might allow him to trace back to the creator in the future, or even find Yoshiko Kawashima's new hiding place.

"You may escape this time, but you won't escape next time." He Damin's eyes sharpened like knives again. "Kawashima Yoshiko, you'd better pray that I never have to target you again."

He didn't linger and turned to leave the secret room. Outside, the chaos in Tianjin continued, but the guards near Dongxing Tower had begun to stir because of what had happened inside the secret room.

He Damin's figure moved through the corridor like a ghost, climbed out of the back window, and disappeared into the dark night.

Tonight, the hunt was not entirely successful. However, by cutting off its wings, robbing it of its courage, and exposing its trump cards, it was not a complete loss.

The record of "Thousand-Faced Yama's" failure will be washed away with an even more ruthless, meticulous, and deadly next hunt.

Under the Tianjin night sky, He Damin glanced back at the still-lit windows of Dongxinglou, then turned and disappeared into the depths of the alley. His cold voice drifted away on the wind:

"The game has only just begun."