"Is it resolved?" Hugh Thompson asked in confusion.
I turned around, walked up to the Soul-Binding Altar, and reached out my hand, wanting to touch it.
"Don't touch it, Ethan Zhang." Howard Lee immediately warned.
I looked over, puzzled.
"I've heard before that this thing is used by the Ghost Syndicate for refining ghosts. It's filled with heavy yin energy. If you touch it with your flesh, your hand might instantly turn to bone."
"Then what should I do? Is there..."
"You damned brat, Ethan Zhang!" A shrill, furious roar came—it was Helen Chen. She wasn't dead yet.
I turned my head and saw Helen Chen's severed head on the ground suddenly fly up. A green light flashed, and her head and body rejoined.
I stared in astonishment at the scene. At that moment, Helen Chen's body began to change, aging bit by bit. In just a short while, she became a woman of seventy or eighty, her white hair gone, her teeth fallen out, and her wrinkled face twisted with rage.
"Hmph, you actually made me lose a ghost. Ethan Zhang, do you have any idea how hard it is to refine one?"
Then I saw Helen Chen take a small bone from her pocket and toss it to the ground. The bone gradually turned black, then crumbled into dust.
Suddenly, my hair grew longer, flowing like water. The black strands surged across the ground, rushing madly toward Helen Chen.
"Earth Element, Star Technique, Sever the Flow, Fragment, Blade Split... Sever..."
A yellow-green light flashed, and the hair stretching toward Helen Chen was suddenly blocked by something invisible.
Then I saw Helen Chen take out a small golden jar.
"Hmph, Ethan Zhang, prepare to die."
Suddenly, Helen Chen began to chant under her breath. I sensed a strange, dangerous aura—the thing inside the golden jar.
I immediately retracted my hair. Each strand curled up, thickening into ropes, then shot into the cave ceiling. As my hair contracted, I was hoisted into the air.
This was something Howard Lee had told me. He pointed upward, and I understood instantly.
Then, using my hair, I pulled myself up above Helen Chen’s head, raised the Blade of Malice, and stabbed down at her.