The words on this paper must have been written by the owner of this body in moments of distress, as a way to vent. Some passages are incoherent and jumbled, with anxiety and tension seeping through the twisted handwriting, almost leaping off the page. Ethan Sullivan forced himself to read through each sheet, and the more he read, the more he felt that something was seriously wrong.

Piecing things together with a mix of guesswork and deduction, he managed to get a rough idea of the situation. First, the owner of this body was named Henry Moore, and this place was called Mo Village.

Henry Moore’s maternal grandfather was a local landowner. The clan was thin on descendants and, fated to have no sons, after years of diligent work, he ended up with only two daughters. The names of the two daughters weren’t mentioned; in any case, the elder was born of the main wife and married a man who joined the family. The younger, though beautiful, was born of a servant, so the Mo family originally planned to marry her off casually. Unexpectedly, she had a stroke of luck: at sixteen, a prominent clan leader passed through, fell for her at first sight, and the two used Mo Village as their secret meeting place. A year later, the second daughter gave birth to a son—Henry Moore.

At first, the people of Mo Village looked down on this sort of thing, but in those days, people revered cultivators, and the prestigious cultivation clans were seen as favored by the heavens—mysterious and noble. That clan leader would occasionally offer support to his mistress’s family, and public opinion shifted dramatically. Not only did the Mo family take pride in this, but others envied them as well.

However, the good times didn’t last. The clan leader, having satisfied his curiosity, soon lost interest and visited less and less. After Henry Moore turned four, he never came again.

Over the next few years, the attitude in Mo Village changed once more. The old disdain and ridicule returned, now mixed with scornful pity. The second daughter, though unwilling to accept this, firmly believed that the clan leader would not ignore his own son. Sure enough, when Henry Moore turned fourteen, the clan leader sent many people to formally bring the boy back.

The second daughter held her head high again. Though she couldn’t go with him, her previous grievances vanished, and she boasted to everyone that her son would one day become the head of a cultivation clan, bring glory to the family, and rise to great heights. Thus, for the third time, the people of Mo Village gossiped and changed their attitudes.

Yet, before Henry Moore could achieve anything in cultivation or inherit his father’s estate, he was sent back.

And he was sent back in utter disgrace. Because Henry Moore was a “cut sleeve” and had brazenly harassed and pestered his fellow disciples, this scandal was exposed in public. Coupled with his mediocre talent and lack of progress in cultivation, there was no reason to let him stay in the clan.

To make matters worse, Henry Moore suffered some unknown trauma and, after returning, became completely deranged—sometimes lucid, sometimes not, as if he’d been scared out of his wits.

At this point, Ethan Sullivan’s eyebrows twitched twice.

Being a cut sleeve was one thing, but a madman too. No wonder his face was caked with makeup like an old clown, and no wonder no one thought it odd when such a large, bloody array was drawn on the floor earlier. Most likely, even if Henry Moore painted the entire room—from floor to walls to ceiling—with blood, no one would bat an eye. After all, everyone knew he was insane!

After Henry Moore returned home, ridicule poured in from all sides, and this time, there seemed to be no turning back. The second daughter couldn’t bear the blow; the resentment choked her, and she died from suffocation.

By then, Henry Moore’s grandfather had already passed away, and the household was managed by the elder daughter. This Madam Mo had apparently disliked her younger sister since childhood and looked down on her illegitimate nephew even more. She had only one son—the one who had just come in to ransack the place—named Edward Moore. When Henry Moore was taken away in grand fashion, Madam Mo felt that she could at least claim some connection to the cultivation world, hoping that the envoy who came to fetch Henry Moore would also take Edward Moore to cultivate. Of course, she was refused—or rather, ignored.

Nonsense. It’s not like buying cabbages—buy one, get one free!

Who knows where this family’s confidence came from, but they all harbored a strange belief: they were convinced that Edward Moore must have spiritual bones and talent, and if he had gone instead, he would surely have been favored by the cultivators and wouldn’t have been as disappointing as his cousin. When Henry Moore left, Edward Moore was still young, but having been fed such baseless ideas since childhood, he believed them wholeheartedly. Every few days, he would seize the chance to humiliate Henry Moore, accusing him of stealing his path to cultivation. Yet he was obsessed with the talismans, pills, and trinkets Henry Moore brought back from the cultivation world, treating them as his own, taking and dismantling them as he pleased. Though Henry Moore was often mentally unstable, he still knew he was being bullied. He endured and endured, but Edward Moore only became more outrageous, nearly emptying his entire room. At last, Henry Moore could bear it no longer and, stammering, complained to his aunt and uncle. So today, Edward Moore came to make a scene.

The writing on the paper was tiny and dense, making Ethan Sullivan’s eyes ache. He thought to himself, what the hell kind of life is this? No wonder Henry Moore would rather offer up his body and invite a vengeful ghost or evil god to possess him for revenge.

Once his eyes stopped hurting, his head started to ache. Normally, when casting an array, the caster must silently recite their wish in their heart. As the summoned evil spirit, Ethan Sullivan should have been able to hear his detailed request. But this forbidden technique was probably a fragment Henry Moore had secretly copied from somewhere, incomplete and missing that step. Although Ethan Sullivan could guess that he wanted revenge on the Mo family, how exactly was he supposed to do it? To what extent? Take back what was stolen? Beat up the Mo family?

Or... wipe them out?