Sun Niuzi had won a match for the Red Lantern Society, which was a great achievement.

If he had lived, Hu Ma wouldn't have had a chance to become the manager of the Qing Shi Town branch.

For two days, things had been bloody and frightening, and Sun Niuzi's victory had caused a lot of discussion among the brothers in the society.

Some praised, "That Sun Niuzi always looked like a slippery character, only knowing how to take advantage of his brother-in-law's influence and mooching drinks, but I didn't expect him to be a real man when things got tough. If I had known, I wouldn't have thrown him into the latrine when we fought before."

Others sneered, "What a man? He had a Dinghun Pill (Soul-Stabilizing Pill) in his mouth."

"With a Dinghun Pill in his mouth, his life force is locked. Even if you cut him into eight pieces, he wouldn't feel pain."

"The reason he was able to break the opponent's spell at the beginning and boil the water was because he had the Dinghun Pill in his mouth. He breathed out fire, and his soul came out, turning the magical fire into soul fire."

"Later, entering the oil pot, he relied entirely on the effect of the Dinghun Pill. As long as he didn't speak, he wouldn't die no matter how much he was fried..."

"But once he left the stage and called out 'brother-in-law,' his soul energy dissipated, and he died."

"It's a pity that the magical power of this Dinghun Pill dissipates after one use and takes a long time to recover. Otherwise, we could have easily won all ten matches."

"..."

After the event ended, Hu Ma asked Steward Xu about the Dinghun Pill and finally understood Sun Niuzi's strange behavior on the stage. The Dinghun Pill had a curse cast on it, and Sun Niuzi had been controlled. Even if he wanted to go back on his word, he couldn't.

Thinking back, that Young Master Lu might have been planning to use puppets to win the match when he refined people into treasures.

Now that they had won this match, the two sides were tied with four wins each. The focus was on the last two matches.

Both sides had already exhausted their experts and were fighting to the bitter end.

In fact, the situation was worse than the Red Lantern Mother Society had anticipated. This kind of spell duel was a battle of foundations and the loyalty of the people on both sides.

The Red Lantern Mother Society was in Ming Prefecture.

Hu Ma felt a little regretful.

He should have come earlier to watch this duel and see some novel things and learn more tricks.

Now he could only ask, and although he could learn something, it was not as clear as seeing it for himself.

That night, after Yang Gong finished his shift, they met for drinks. Yang Gong introduced him to a group of Red Fragrance disciples, and they all drank to their heart's content before Hu Ma returned to the residence where Steward Xu was staying, cleaned up a side room, and slept there.

Everyone wanted to know what the only female manager among the Red Lantern Mother Society's seventeen managers would propose to the other side, and whether it would be broken.

Amid the speculation, some even joked, "It's easy for Manager Hua to win. See if the other side is a man and directly compete with him in giving birth... Giving birth takes a long time, so competing in sleeping with men is also an option!"

Another person chuckled, "Giving birth is a sure win, but sleeping with men is not necessarily so."

"How do you know that the other guy can't sleep with men?"

"..."

"Eww..."

A group of people felt disgusted and immediately moved away from the chuckling person.

In the evening, it was surprising again. After two rounds of gongs and drums, Manager Hua took the stage and directly had a piece of embroidered cloth about ten feet long hung on the stage, first covered with a curtain.

Then, she turned around, faced the Green Robe Gang, and said with a smile, "I'm just a woman, and I don't understand you men's fighting and killing. I heard about this grand event, so I rushed to embroider a painting for the gentlemen on both sides to see..."

"But I can't count, and after embroidering back and forth, I forgot to count."

"Which of the Green Robe gentlemen would like to come up and count for me? How many people are there in this painting?"

"..."

She spoke very politely, but no one in the Green Robe Gang dared to be careless.

An old man with a white beard took the stage, smiled, and cupped his fist to Manager Hua, saying, "Then please show us, Manager!"

Manager Hua smiled and unveiled the curtain.

Everyone under the stage could see clearly that it was indeed a piece of embroidered cloth, with landscapes and pavilions on it. Of course, it looked like an old thing, not something she had embroidered temporarily as she had said.

Of course, that wasn't important. What was important was how many people were on it.

But when the people under the stage looked at it, they were even more confused. The picture wasn't small, and the people were sitting or lying down, clearly visible. Wasn't there a total of seven?

But the amazing thing was that the old man from the Green Robe Gang who had taken the stage was staring at the embroidered cloth with wide eyes, rubbing his eyes hard, as if he couldn't see clearly. Everyone under the stage was so anxious that they wanted to remind him, but he didn't say a word.

He just leaned his head further and further forward, took a staggering step, but quickly pulled it back.

Manager Hua smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, old man. Take a closer look. If it doesn't work, you can touch it with your hands."

Since the manager had said so, it wouldn't be against the rules for him to step forward. The old man hurriedly took two steps closer, but still couldn't see clearly. In the end, he almost pressed his eyes to the cloth.

His eyes were bloodshot, but he still looked confused. Everyone under the stage could see it so clearly, but he just couldn't say the answer. Some people were already suspecting that he was pretending. "Hehe, Manager Hua has brought out the Soul-Stealing Picture. This match is stable."

Steward Xu, who was next to him, recognized it and smiled, stroking his beard, which had grown a lot longer.

"Soul-Stealing Picture, which sect does this belong to?"

Hu Ma was a little curious and had a vague understanding of the skills of these managers and offerings.

"I don't know the specifics."

Steward Xu explained in a low voice, "I only know that it was passed on to Manager Hua by her Shiniang (martial arts teacher's wife). She is just a woman and doesn't have the skills of a watchman, but she can control it..."

"There are many rumors about this treasure. It is said that one year, a demon gathered a group of bandits and broke into her Peony Manor, wanting to seize her blood food. She knew she couldn't stop them, so she unfurled this picture and trapped everyone in the manor. After waiting for three days and going back in, the manor..."

"...blood flowed like a river, and none of the corpses were complete. In each other's mouths, there was the flesh of others."

"..."

Hu Ma listened, thought about the scene, and felt a little nauseous.

It seemed that this Manager Hua was the kind of person who relied on a treasure to travel the martial world, not on her own skills or spells.

"Really... can I touch it?"

On the stage at this moment, the old man from the Green Robe Gang couldn't see clearly even with his eyes wide open.

His eyes were already bloodshot, and he couldn't see other things clearly. He asked Manager Hua with a trembling voice.

Manager Hua smiled, "Of course, you can touch it as much as you like. If you get it dirty, I'll wash it myself."

There was another commotion under the stage. People were worried that Manager Hua was being too arrogant. This was an embroidery, not a painting. The figures on it were raised from the surface. Wouldn't he touch them as soon as he touched it?

But because of the rules of the duel, no one could speak after taking the stage, so they could only watch patiently.

Sure enough, they saw the old man approaching the embroidery, trembling and reaching out to touch it.

"One, two..."

He touched and counted, feeling a little relieved. He could indeed feel them.

But as he counted more and more, his body seemed to be struggling. One arm was shaking non-stop. On the other side, Manager Hua was smiling, but as he counted more and more, she couldn't help but worry.

By the time the other party had counted to.

But no one expected that the old man had touched to.

"Soul treasure."

On Hu Ma's table, Steward Xu and others could only stare with wide eyes, full of concern, but unable to see through the secrets inside.

However, the old abacus who had tricked Hu Ma out of two blood food pills earlier suddenly opened his mouth in a low voice:

"The thing in Manager Hua's hand is a magic weapon of a ghost runner. There are evil ghosts living inside. It looks like the people of the Green Robe Gang are touching the embroidery with their hands, but in reality, the evil ghosts in the picture are devouring their lives, just like being blown on the forehead by seven evil ghosts in the middle of the night."

"Whether he can win this match depends on whether his life can last until he touches out the."

"..."

Everyone at the table glanced at him, not expecting him to be a knowledgeable person, or perhaps he had heard people mention it before, but now, at this critical moment, no one had time to ask more questions.

On both sides of the stage, the whole audience was silent, waiting for him to say the word "seven".

But at that moment, his body swayed slightly, and he fell down silently like broken wood.

He was already dead, dead silently.

The old abacus sighed softly and shook his head slowly, "In the end, one person can't fight against the seven evil ghosts in the picture. There's no way around it. It's rare for that person to last so long."

"He must be an expert secretly hired by the Green Robe Gang, just to win another match by surprise."

"But there's nothing to be done about it. No matter how high his cultivation is, he suffers a great loss in this kind of duel, relying on his life to fight a battle of attrition."

"The Green Robe Gang actually used the wrong approach. If it had been a young and strong lad who took the stage, even if his cultivation wasn't as high as his, he would have had a chance to count to the last person..."

"..."

Hu Ma and the others felt a little heavy in their hearts after hearing this.

This Green Robe Red Lantern duel was truly full of pitfalls. Who would have thought that the Green Robe Gang would have almost forcibly won another match without making a sound?

On the stage, Manager Hua smiled, raised her hand, rolled up the embroidery, and said to the old man on the ground:

"I yield to you, old man."

"..."

In her heart, she was thinking, "Now that I've revealed my hand in front of so many people, I need to find someone to embroider on it again so I can continue to use it."