The old woman's expression finally changed. "You, with the surname Li, don't try to scare me. Blood Curses aren't something just anyone can play with. I don't believe you know how to use one."

The old woman was actually wrong!

Strictly speaking, I had ten masters in total. And I learned more than just the Yin Yang Meridian Secrets.

The Nine Devils weren't just nine notorious bandits, but nine evil sorcerers who disguised themselves as bandits. Besides secret techniques, they dabbled in everything. Even if they hadn't been bandits or sorcerers, they would have been top experts in certain fields.

I had emptied the Nine Devils' treasure chests, learning all their signature skills without missing a single one. Although I hadn't reached the same level as the Nine Devils, I could still be counted among the experts.

If I didn't know how to use a Blood Curse, how would a Blood God Puppet have ended up in my backpack?

I pinched the puppet and sneered, "You'll see soon enough whether I can or not."

"This Spirit Piercing Needle is five inches long. I used one inch on Er Zhu Zi, three inches on myself, and I'll leave the last inch for your eldest grandson."

"After injuring myself by three points, even if your old man left some protective item for his descendants, it won't be able to stop this inch of life-chasing curse."

"Open!" I roared, suddenly exerting force with my right hand, pushing the steel needle three inches into the puppet. The remaining part of the needle, not submerged in the puppet, was glowing with a dazzling bloody light.

It felt as if sharp weapons had pierced my shoulders, and blood spurted out from both sides, staining half of my body a scarlet color.

"Stop!" The old woman finally panicked. "Don't do it, don't do it! We can talk this over, we can talk this over!"

"Bullshit!" I said coldly. "I injured myself by three points. You think you can just tell me to stop?"

Without waiting for the old woman to speak, I pushed the remaining section of the steel needle completely into the puppet. As the needle entered its body, the old woman's eyes rolled back, and her hands trembled several times under the chains, seemingly trying to cover her chest, but she couldn't lift her arms.

I took a deep breath, trying to suppress the sharp pain coming from my shoulder. "Old woman, do you know what pain feels like now? If you recover, open your eyes and watch how I administer the Heart-Piercing Needle!"

I pulled out another long needle and held it against the puppet's heart.

The old woman gasped for breath, wheezing as she said, "You... you don't need to scare me! If you put that Heart-Piercing Needle in, you'll die too."

I smiled slightly. "You're wrong about that. I'm inserting the needle at the puppet's heart, so the Blood Curse will pierce the hearts of all three people."

"You'd better pray that your eldest grandson's heart is as misplaced as mine. Otherwise, the ones who will die from the steel needle piercing their hearts will all be members of your Wang family."

The fact that I said my heart was misplaced was pure nonsense. I hadn't had an X-ray. How would I know where my heart was located?

I was betting on whether the old woman could keep her cool.

The first time I met this old woman, I knew she wasn't a daughter from an ordinary family. Most people weren't qualified to play mind games with her.

Didn't those few sorcerers from Fish Basket Village immediately fall into a disadvantageous position, almost being forced to send their daughters to marry that idiot?

However, this old woman had a fatal weakness: she was too deeply rooted in feudal ideology. She valued the continuation of her lineage above all else.

I could keep my cool in the face of life and death; she was bound to lose.

Without any hesitation this time, I pushed the needle tip into the puppet's body, and Er Zhu Zi screamed miserably and fell silent.

I hadn't gone for the kill with that strike, only pushing the needle in half an inch. Er Zhu Zi couldn't withstand the sharp pain of the steel needle piercing his heart and the terror of impending death, and had fainted from fright.

If the old woman still didn't talk, I would have no choice but to push the needle all the way in.

As I pretended to exert force with the fingers holding the steel needle, the old woman finally couldn't hold on any longer. "Stop, stop… Mr. Li, please stop! I beg you, leave the Wang family some descendants!"

I said in a deep voice, "If you want to leave descendants, tell me, where is the person you're hiding?"

The old woman hesitated again, and I said sternly, "You can refuse to tell me. After I curse the person to death, I'll summon his soul. I can still find what I want that way. It will just take a little more effort. But, at that point, your Wang family won't have any descendants left."

"If you're willing to cooperate, I can guarantee that the Wang family will have at least one descendant. The choice is yours."

The old woman said in a tearful voice, "Sir, can you really provide the Wang family with descendants?"

Just as I was about to speak, the old woman pleaded, "We don't want any titles or ranks, any gold or silver treasures. The Wang family doesn't want anything, we just want to leave a root, is that too much to ask?"

Zhao Zhuang and the others, especially that sorcerer with the surname Chen, looked at me expectantly.

They also knew that if they didn't give this old woman hope now, she wouldn't say anything. But giving her hope would be like pushing a young woman into a fire pit, and none of them wanted to use their relatives as sacrifices.