Chapter 236: Great Song Ghost Sect

As dusk approached, fires had broken out all across Guizhou City. Thick smoke billowed into the sky, while shouts of killing rang out.

"The Chaoshan Association has rebelled! Kill them!"

"Brothers, follow me! Fight our way out!"

After all, it was the largest gang in the city. The standoff at the courthouse and the incident at the Wu Family's residence had not yet become public knowledge, but people with keen eyes had already noticed that something was wrong.

Since the city was a crucial gateway into Bashu and controlled an important waterway, while also needing to guard against the nearby tusi cities, a thousand-man garrison had been stationed just two li from Guizhou City.

When some members of the Chaoshan Association saw soldiers leaving and noticed the garrison beginning to mobilize, they immediately sensed danger. They quickly fled the city and entered the nearby mountains. Of course, only some of them escaped.

The Chaoshan Association was a mixed bag. It had absorbed many local hooligans, along with criminals who had nowhere else to go. These men merely swaggered around on the fringes and acted as enforcers. They knew nothing about many of the association's deeper affairs and had grown accustomed to acting arrogantly.

When they saw the Wu Family's residence sealed off and the county courthouse gates shut tight, they actually began calling friends and gathering people, intending to force their way inside and rescue Wu Dehai.

But when they heard that the Chaoshan Association had been declared a rebel organization, and that garrison soldiers had arrived and sealed the city gates, the men immediately went mad. They set fires everywhere, trying to throw the city into chaos so they could escape.

The commoners trembled in fear, while the sons of wealthy households who had fortunately left the academy earlier immediately organized their household servants and guards to fight them.

The gangs within the city that had long been suppressed by the Chaoshan Association also seized the opportunity to strike. Attacked from both inside and out, the chaos was suppressed in less than an hour.

Officials and townspeople organized efforts to put out the fires, while garrison soldiers collected the corpses, escorted prisoners away, and continued searching for the remaining members of the Chaoshan Association.

However, inside the main hall of the county courthouse, the atmosphere was as dark and oppressive as still water.

One headless corpse after another was being carried away. Soldiers washed the blood from the floor with buckets of water, while outside, the relatives of the academy members who had rushed over wailed and cried to the heavens.

Li Yan stood on one of the courthouse's roof beams, looking toward the distant river where the setting sun glowed red as blood. Trails of smoke still hung over the city. He let out a faint sigh.

He had indeed acted somewhat recklessly this time. He had never expected to set off such an enormous explosion and get so many people killed. Yet upon thinking it over carefully, he had actually broken the enemy's schemes by accident. The mastermind behind this affair had infiltrated Guizhou City far too deeply. Had Li Yan investigated quietly, there was no telling how many obstacles would have been placed in his path.

Although his actions had been reckless, they had also caught the enemy completely off guard. Now that the academy and Magistrate Wu were no longer biting at one another, the fog surrounding the matter had finally begun to clear.

Seeing that the chaos in the city had mostly subsided, Li Yan walked to the edge of the roof and leaped down, landing outside the hall.

Inside, Assistant Prefect Zhou Kai was rapidly writing a letter to report the situation, completely ignoring the bloody water being washed across the floor. Daoist Feng stood nearby, sighing again and again.

Li Yan did not bother concealing anything and directly asked him, "Daoist, I didn't have time to ask earlier. What exactly is the Great Song Ghost Sect?"

Daoist Feng sighed. "This is no secret. At the end of the Tang, the realm descended into chaos. The Dao declined while demons flourished. All manner of witchcraft, ghost arts, and evil techniques emerged one after another. Some secret mystic path methods also leaked into the common world, where they were recklessly altered until the human realm itself became like a land of ghosts.

"By the time of the Great Song, the empire had grown wealthy and the realm gradually stabilized, but beneath the surface, those evil arts never truly disappeared. At the time, shamanic customs were especially strong in Ezhou, and the common people frequently killed others as sacrifices to ghosts.

“The History of Song records that in the regions of Ezhou and Xiang, whenever a year had an intercalary month, people would secretly abduct and kill children in advance to sacrifice at illicit shrines. The practice was called 'harvesting life'...

"There was even a high-ranking imperial official who took up a post in Ezhou. One night, he suddenly ran out in a frenzy. By the time they found him, his head and liver had already been removed.

"This matter even alarmed the imperial court. The History of Song records that in the nineteenth year of Shaoxing, on the dingchou day of the second lunar month, Emperor Gaozong prohibited the use of human sacrifices to ghosts and the creation of Gu poisons in Ezhou. Offenders and the households that cooperated with them were punished together, and the guilty were executed with a thousand stabs.

"Yet even that failed to suppress it. The practice instead spread throughout the south of the Divine Continent. Quite a few officials and wealthy gentry even carried out human sacrifices to ghosts on a large scale and came to regard it as ordinary.

"There were also scum of the jianghu who captured people for them. According to records from the time, there were more than a hundred gangs engaged in 'harvesting life' for others in the Jiangnan and Zhejiang regions alone!

"These heterodox practitioners inherited the poisonous legacy of the late Tang, and formed a demonic sect known as the Ghost Sect. They fought endlessly with those of the mystic path. For several decades, the orthodox mystic path sects were even at a disadvantage.

"The Ghost Sect grew so powerful that it even infiltrated the imperial palace of the Great Song through officials who had fallen into demonic ways, and helped plunge the realm into chaos. The Great Song was later replaced by the Great Xing Dynasty, which ordered all members of the Ghost Sect killed on sight.

"During the Great Xing Dynasty's century of rule over the Divine Continent, the mystic path spent almost the entire time hunting and exterminating the Ghost Sect. Compared with them, the Maitreya Sect of that era was hardly worth mentioning.

“Eventually, the Ghost Sect was finally destroyed. Some remnants fled onto the grasslands, merged with the shamanic traditions of the Wolf Kingdom, and later invaded the Central Plains, eventually giving rise to the confrontation between north and south.

"It can be said that the Ghost Sect is the true demonic orthodoxy. Both the imperial court and we of the orthodox mystic path have always guarded against it with the utmost vigilance. I never expected them to become active again!"

Li Yan was deeply shocked as he listened. Wang Daoxuan had once mentioned the Ghost Sect in passing before, but he had not known much about it either, so Li Yan had never paid much attention. He had never imagined it had once caused such enormous turmoil.

Thinking of how Red Maiden had appeared nearby, something stirred in his heart. For some inexplicable reason, he felt that the two might be connected.

While they were speaking, Zhou Kai finished writing his secret letter and dispatched a soldier to Yunyang Prefecture with the utmost urgency.

Only then did he turn toward the two men and say solemnly, "Both of you are members of the mystic path, so you should understand that the calamity posed by the Ghost Sect is no less serious than the chaos in the southwest. I ask both of you to assist me and uncover the truth as quickly as possible!"

Daoist Feng nodded. "My arts are shallow, so we will still have to rely on Young Hero Li. However, I have already sent a message by carrier pigeon to Mount Wudang requesting reinforcements."

Assistant Prefect Zhou Kai said gravely, "There isn't enough time. If the Ghost Sect is active here, they must be plotting something. Their movements have now been exposed, so they may act at any moment. We must find and eliminate them quickly..."

Flutter, flutter!

As he spoke, the sound of beating wings came from overhead. One of the soldiers immediately raised his crossbow.

But Li Yan hurriedly stopped him. "Don't shoot!"

A moment later, Lu San's hawk descended from the sky and landed on a wooden rack, calmly preening its feathers. Li Yan removed the bamboo tube tied to its leg and quickly scanned the secret message inside. He immediately took out brush and paper and swiftly wrote several lines in reply.

Sha Lifei lowered his voice. "Did the Daoist and the others find something?"

Li Yan nodded and said solemnly, "I've told them to remain hidden for now and only gather information. Under no circumstances are they to expose themselves."

The matter at Two Stele Bay was very likely connected to the Ghost Sect. Faced with such a terrifying unknown enemy, Li Yan naturally had to exercise caution, so he had instructed Wang Daoxuan and Lu San to keep themselves concealed.

Seeing how secretive Li Yan was being, Zhou Kai's eyes flashed with suspicion. He asked directly, "You two, what is this about?"

"We have companions investigating outside." Li Yan said solemnly, "Now that the Ghost Sect has appeared, I warned them to be careful."

Zhou Kai did not hide his thoughts either. "Do not take offense. At a time like this, the worst thing we can do is become suspicious of one another. None of us knows how deeply the Ghost Sect has infiltrated us.

"Young Hero Li, I do not understand mystic path matters. Where do you think we should begin investigating?"

Li Yan thought for a moment before replying, "First, interrogate the members of the Chaoshan Association, as well as Wu Dehai. We may be able to find clues. Second, those Red Pills are definitely problematic. So far, all the victims have been people from the academy..."

Zhou Kai said with a grave expression, "I have some guesses on that. When the Ghost Sect first started their activities around Ezhou, the ghost they worshipped through human sacrifice was called the 'Lengzheng God.'"

"The Yijian Zhi records that when sacrificing humans to the Lengzheng God, officials and accomplished scholars were called 'intelligent people,' and one of them counted as three. Buddhist monks, Daoists, and other cultivators were called 'people of cultivation,' and one counted as two. Women and children, by contrast, counted as only one."

"If the record is accurate, officials and scholars were their primary targets, followed by members of the mystic path, and only then women and children."

"I see." Li Yan narrowed his eyes slightly. "According to that scholar Yuanfeng, the method for refining the Red Pills was something he suddenly discovered in the academy library. The pills made them energetic and more intelligent. They were clearly being marked as prey.”

His eyes widened. "No, there's someone from the Ghost Sect inside the academy! The scholars who survived are still in danger!"

Zhou Kai had come to the same conclusion almost immediately. He immediately ordered, "Go! Search Danyang Academy and check the roster. See who failed to appear today, and arrest everyone else! Bring all those scholars back to the county courthouse. Assign men to guard them day and night!

"Men, bring Wu Dehai along!"

Zhou Kai was also a decisive man of action. After issuing a series of orders, the entire county courthouse and the more than one thousand men of the garrison immediately sprang into motion.

Before long, prisoners were brought in one after another. Starting with Wu Dehai, they were all interrogated individually. Li Yan and Daoist Feng occasionally asked questions from the side, looking for suspicious points, while Zhou Kai's subordinates recorded every confession.

By then, night had fallen deep. The chaos in the city during the day had left the commoners trembling with fear, while inside the brightly lit county courthouse hall, the crack of whips and screams continued without end...

***

Elsewhere, deep in the dense mountain forest on the southern bank.

"So it really was the Ghost Sect." Wang Daoxuan looked at the secret letter in his hand and shook his head gravely. “I had thought that the demonic sect had long since become history. I never expected it to rise from the ashes again.

"These demonic practitioners kill people to sacrifice to ghosts, while Ezhou, western Xiang, and the tribal mountain settlements are already steeped in shamanic customs. I fear something serious is about to happen."

Lu San frowned and shook his head. "Daoist, there's something I don't understand. There are perfectly proper orthodox rites. Instead of worshipping benevolent gods like City Gods and Earth Gods, why would anyone risk death to kill people and sacrifice them to ghosts?"

Wang Daoxuan sighed. "To worship the orthodox gods of Heaven and Earth, the sun, moon, and stars, is to place one's hopes in them. But the illicit worship of evil ghosts is born from desire..."

"Shh!"

Before he could finish, Lu San suddenly tensed and motioned for him to be silent, then pointed toward the left.

Wang Daoxuan immediately understood. The two lowered themselves and hid in the grass, looking down from above.

Whoever had been secretly causing trouble had hidden the object extremely well, but after Lu San had activated his secret art, every rat, snake, and bird throughout the forest became his eyes and ears, making it easy to locate the target.

Below them, hanging among the dense branches of a large tree in the valley, was a dark object that would have been very difficult to notice without careful attention. It was a length of charred wood, only about half a man tall. Its surface was covered in blood-red talismans, and a cow skull hung from it.

It was the true body of the Wood Wraith. Any tree capable of giving birth to a Wood Wraith had survived for hundreds or even thousands of years, enduring wind, rain, thunder, and fire. Such a tree would long since have transformed into a natural spiritual treasure capable of concealing itself.

A Wood Wraith was the spirit that guarded such a treasure. The method used to control one was likewise extremely sinister. If the Wood Wraith's true body was destroyed, it would transform into a bloodthirsty spirit and seek revenge. This caster was exploiting precisely that trait.

They would first locate a spiritual tree and subdue it using a method similar to treasure trapping, then set up a formation to confuse its mind and seize its will. In the end, they would burn the spiritual tree to ashes.

Driven by resentment, the Wood Wraith could then erupt with tremendous power. Once it was controlled through a secret art, that power would be redirected to harm others.

Wang Daoxuan had not destroyed it. He had not even hurried to extract its aura to prepare for the Secret Curse of the Seven Arrows.

He was waiting for whoever was controlling it.

In the distance, people appeared along the mountain path carrying torches. There were quite a few of them, forming what looked like a fiery dragon winding through the dark forest.

Wang Daoxuan had already set up a formation. Small triangular ritual flags had been planted all around them, linked with red cords to form the faint outline of the Eight Trigrams, completely concealing the auras of both men. Combined with the fact that they were both hidden in the shadows, there was little chance of discovery.

As the line of fire drew closer, they finally made out the faces of the newcomers. The entire group was dressed in black, each with a red sash tied around their waist and a hood over their head. Their faces had all been painted with oil pigments into the hideous visages of evil ghosts. In this deserted mountain forest, they looked like a procession of wandering spirits. Some carried torches and others held sharp blades, while eight men in the middle carried a blackwood coffin on their shoulders. The entire scene was deeply eerie.

They were led by an elderly man with completely white hair in a blue Confucian robe. Even at his advanced age, he walked with his back perfectly straight and possessed an imposing bearing. When they reached the large tree, the old man immediately raised a hand.

"Stop!"

After ordering everyone to halt, the old man set up an incense altar. He burned firewood, scattered fragrant powders, and soon filled the area with thick, choking smoke.

Several black-robed men around him knelt on the ground one after another. They cut their palms open with knives and inhaled the thick smoke rising from the burning wood, swaying their heads while murmuring constantly as though chanting incantations.

Only after all this was done did the old man give the order to begin their preparations.

Several men in black climbed the tree and slowly lowered the charred length of wood. They then placed it inside the coffin before slaughtering a live chicken, mixing its blood with cinnabar to make ink, then painted all manner of strange symbols across the blackwood coffin.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Coffin nails soaked in chicken blood were hammered in, sealing the coffin shut. Once everything was finished, the group lifted the coffin and carried it away into the distance.

Watching the torchlight recede, Wang Daoxuan's expression grew solemn. "It's the Ghost Sect! They must have received word and come to remove the final clue. Have the hawk follow them from far away. We only need to find out where they go. Whatever you do, don't alert them!"

Lu San nodded and waved a hand, sending his hawk soaring into the sky and disappearing into the night.

***

Back in Guizhou City, inside the brightly lit county courthouse hall, a full night of continuous interrogations had filled the air with the harsh smell of smoke, mixed with sweat and blood.

The floor that had only just been washed clean during the day was once again streaked with blood, but no one cared. With the Ghost Sect reappearing, there was no such thing as being too ruthless.

"The Ghost Sect really is cunning!" Looking at the confessions in his hand, Zhou Kai rubbed his swollen forehead. "The Chaoshan Association originally grew out of folk rites for worshipping mountain gods. Similar associations exist in many prefectures, but here, it developed into a gang.

"When Wu Dehai arrived, he brought it under his control. But then, someone else gradually took control of it. Looking at things now, the other side must have planned this long ago. The outer members were responsible for gathering wealth, while the core members kept their movements secret.

"The ones we captured are nothing but worthless small fry."

Li Yan said solemnly, "It's not as though we gained nothing. These outer members often used usurious loans as an excuse to seize women and children from debtor households. Not a single one of those people has ever returned.

"They handed all of them over to the core members. They were most likely used as human sacrifices. They also disguised themselves as river bandits, robbing passing merchants of both wealth and people.

"We just don't know where they're carrying out the sacrifices."

Sha Lifei clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Zigui County has no enforcement spirit troops. The Zhushan Sect does still frequently control spirit troops to patrol the mountains, but there are simply too many places around here where someone could hide.

"To the north is Shennongjia, to the west is Mount Wu, and to the south are the tribal mountain settlements and Miao territory. Good grief, this place is practically a perfect hiding spot!"

Assistant Prefect Zhou Kai's expression was extremely dark. "This official will submit a memorial immediately. Zigui's defenses must be strengthened. As for the Zhushan Sect, if their Dharma lineage can no longer keep this territory under control, they might as well hand it over to the True Martial Palace!"

"Report!" Just then, a soldier hurried into the hall. Cupping his fists together, he spoke quickly, "My lord, we've found something!"