At this moment, Wang Ping fell into a dilemma.
This Lin family mansion clearly had problems. It was connected to the secret of Longxing County, and to the reason why the Imperial Academy, the White Lotus Cult, and the Imperial Retainers Hall had all gathered here.
“To go, or not?”
Although his divine intent told him there was “no danger,” it only made Wang Ping more vigilant. Not detecting a crisis only meant the crisis was exceptionally severe!
After pondering for a moment, Wang Ping took a step back.
As the old saying goes, a son holding a thousand pieces of gold does not sit under dangerous eaves. Since it was dangerous, he wouldn’t go. Knowing there are tigers in the mountains, I simply won’t go to those mountains.
“This Lin family mansion clearly has major issues. It’s better to leave it to Shen Monkey and Xu Dog. Those two Imperial Retainers members should have more experience dealing with this. But I can’t just report back to them like this, or I’ll seem cowardly and timid, not even daring to investigate. That would lower my impression score for no reason.”
Wang Ping quickly made his decision.
He didn’t rush into the Lin family mansion. Instead, he first found a paper shop in the city and bought a stack of seven-colored paper. He then picked up a bluestone from the side of the road.
He chipped away the excess parts of the bluestone, leaving a piece exactly forty-nine inches long, seven inches wide, and forty-nine fen thick.
He stacked the seven-colored paper in the order of white, yellow, red, blue, purple, green, and black, then cut out forty-nine paper figures, each seven inches tall, and pressed them beneath the bluestone.
Immediately after, he calmed his mind and held his breath.
His Niwan Palace opened, and roaring Spiritual Consciousness surged out, transforming into a brilliant glow invisible to mortal eyes. Following Wang Ping’s hand seals, it gently fell upon the paper figures.
“Profound mystery quickly manifest, shelter the perfected one.”
【Spirit Snatching】!
As the incantation finished, Wang Ping blew a breath, driving the paper figures with billowing spiritual sense. The originally ordinary paper instantly radiated dazzling, multi-colored light.
A moment later, the light faded. Wang Ping looked around—the paper figures were gone. In their place stood another version of himself, features perfectly proportioned and steady, looking remarkably lifelike. At the same time, he felt that his perspective, originally generated by observing the outside world with his spiritual sense, had transferred to the other body.
Wang Ping clicked his tongue in wonder at this.
The paper figure double was an application of 【Spirit Snatching】. It involved extracting one of one’s own seven Po-spirits and attaching it to a paper figure using Spiritual Consciousness.
It’s considered the most rudimentary double technique.
Unfortunately, I haven’t survived the Human Tribulation yet and have no spiritual power. I also used mundane materials, so the crafted paper figure double basically has no combat capability.
At the first stage of Tribulation Transcendence, one needed to condense four cultivation traits: Spiritual Consciousness, Flawless True Body, Circulatory Breathing, and Manifesting Art Through Qi. Among them, the fourth trait, Manifesting Art Through Qi, was considered a qualitative leap. Because only by condensing this trait could one forge spiritual power and shed their mortal body.
Only reaching this point was considered truly stepping through the door.
Even immortal cultivation spiritual arts like 【Qi Ward】 and 【Spirit Snatching】 had to be driven by spiritual power to be considered perfectly executed; otherwise, they always lacked a bit of profundity.
“But for my current needs, it’s enough.”
Wang Ping looked relaxed.
After all, he didn’t need the paper figure to have much combat power. He just needed it to take a walk inside the Lin family mansion and see what exactly was inside on his behalf.
At this thought, Wang Ping formed a hand seal and pointed.
“Swift!”
As his voice fell, the originally stiff-faced paper figure Wang Ping suddenly moved. His facial features relaxed, blood color surged beneath his skin, and his eyes gained a hint of lifelike spirit.
Immediately after, he strode toward the Lin family mansion.
Push the door, step inside.
Boom!
The next second, Wang Ping saw the paper figure double instantly vanish without a trace the moment it pushed open the mansion’s main gates, like writing erased by a rubber eraser.
…
A gloomy, eerie wind blew.
Through the paper figure, Wang Ping looked up. It had been broad daylight just before entering the mansion, but upon stepping inside, the sky above was obscured by heavy, sun-blocking dark clouds.
However, as he circulated his spiritual sense, the cloud-like illusion was instantly pierced and lifted, revealing the broad daylight once more. This allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief. At the very least, it proved his advantage as a cultivator was still intact. This run was still a curbstomp; he hadn’t mistakenly stumbled into a high-tier match.
“Let me see…”
Wang Ping looked around, examining the mansion before him. The layout was neat and orderly, neither too big nor too small. What greeted his eyes was a quaint and unsophisticated courtyard.
There was also a tea pavilion within the courtyard.
Directly opposite the tea pavilion was a corridor with four large doors, corresponding to four rooms. A lantern hung in front of each room’s door.
The lanterns were entirely wrapped in white paper.
The firelight inside the lanterns was a ghastly green. Shining through the paper, they illuminated four twisted, crooked characters: 【Jia】, 【Yi】, 【Bing】, and 【Ding】.
“…What the hell.”
Wang Ping frowned deeply. His Spiritual Consciousness allowed him to see and sense many things that mortal eyes could not detect, just like the scene before him.
A mortal would only feel that the courtyard was a bit cold, an empty draft. However, he could see the resentful malevolent qi accumulating in the courtyard. This was the optimal environment for the birth of a demon. If Great Shun’s spiritual qi wasn’t so exceedingly thin, a mansion like this probably could have nurtured a demon already.
“People… have died here.”
Wang Ping’s expression grew more serious. Not only had people died, but to accumulate enough resentful malevolent qi to nurture a demon, they must have experienced immense agony before death.
“Xu Bingzheng… what was he trying to do?”
Or rather, what was the Imperial Academy behind Xu Bingzheng trying to do? How many other mansion courtyards in the county town shared the same fate as the Lin family’s?
This so-called strange art seemed rather evil.
Wang Ping walked into the tea pavilion.
The entire mansion was drifting with resentful malevolent qi, but the tea pavilion had the least—only a thin layer. It was also filled with various objects.
To be precise, case files.
Thick case files were orderly divided into four stacks, pointing respectively toward the four rooms along the corridor. It seemed they were prepared precisely for whoever entered the mansion.
Wang Ping opened the first case file.
The opening page bore the character 【Ding】, clearly corresponding to the 【Ding】 room in the mansion. Soon, Wang Ping read a detailed summary of a life.
“The person living in the Ding room is named Zhu Wu.”
“This person is an orphan. At age five, he was a pickpocket on the streets. By twelve, he mastered all forms of swindling and cheating. At fifteen, he became an apprentice at a martial arts school in the city.”
“Later, because he bullied his junior martial brothers, he was expelled from the school. From then on, he idled about, living a destitute life, never knowing where his next meal would come from. That is, until a neighbor made a small fortune in business. Upon learning this, he broke into their home late at night with a blade, personally slaughtering the neighbor’s family of three.”
“He didn’t even spare the neighbor’s newborn daughter.”
“Afterward, he fled the city, changed his name, and hid in a rural village, until he was captured by the county office constables. According to the Great Shun Laws, he should be sentenced to death by a thousand cuts.”
This was an 【Unpardonable Sinner】.
Wang Ping finished reading the case file, then shifted his gaze to another one nearby. It bore the character 【Bing】, and was similarly a life summary.
“The person living in the Bing room is named Hua Yingmei.”
“This person is a human trafficker. Over three years, she abducted and sold no fewer than ten children from good families, sending them either to rural areas or to county towns in other commanderies.”
“On the surface, she was a widely known great philanthropist, taking in orphans at the Earth God Temple in the west of the city, feeding them, and teaching them skills. Many called it the Beggars’ Gang. Behind the scenes, however, she instructed the orphans of the Beggars’ Gang to lure children from good families, looking for opportunities to abduct and sell them.”
“However, as the saying goes, even a hundred careful plans will have one oversight.”
“As her business grew, her secret became harder to hide. In the end, she was exposed, investigated, and captured by the county office. According to the Great Shun Laws, she should be sentenced to death by being torn apart by chariots.”
This was a 【Heinous Criminal】.
Reading up to this point, Wang Ping glanced at the Ding and Bing rooms. Just as he expected, the accumulation of resentful malevolent qi was the most severe in those two rooms.
He continued examining the third case file.
“The person living in the Yi room is named Pang Yue.”
“This person is an opportunistic traveling merchant. While passing through Longxing County, he encountered bandits, lost his goods, and the deal he had negotiated fell through.”
“Ashamed to return home, he was forced to stay in Longxing County. To stage a comeback, he began weaving a web of deceit. Using the method of borrowing money to pay interest, constantly rolling over the debt, he pulled people into his scheme. Ultimately, he absconded with the money. His scheme involved hundreds of households, big and small, within the city. Many of them committed suicide after being scammed out of their entire family fortunes.”
“The county office took this matter extremely seriously.”
“They immediately reported to the Commandery Prefecture. Constables from various counties joined forces, eventually tracking him across commanderies and bringing him to justice. The money he scammed is still being tracked down.”
“According to the Great Shun Laws, he should be sentenced to caning.”
This was an 【Inescapable Culprit】.
Three rooms, all sinners. However, their guilt and the severity of their punishments according to the Great Shun Laws ranged from heavy to light: from death by a thousand cuts, to being torn apart by chariots, and finally to caning.
Then the question arose.
Wang Ping’s gaze landed on the fourth case file marked 【Jia】. This time, what greeted his eyes was an entirely different life summary.
“The person living in the Jia room is named Li An.”
“This person normally works as a helper at a blacksmith shop in the city. He has no bad records in his life. He has both a son and a daughter, his parents are alive and well, and his relationship with his wife is harmonious.”
“He also frequently helps poor elderly people.”
“Because he is always ready to help others, his neighbors evaluate him very highly. During festivals, they always bring gifts to his door. He is universally recognized as a kind and good man.”
This was an 【Innocent Victim】.
Four rooms, four types of people, four case files—laid out just like that in the tea pavilion… And on the final page of the case files, there was an intriguing sentence:
【Let me see how long you can last.】
“What is the meaning of this?”
Wang Ping frowned deeply, forming a vague guess. The four types of people in these four rooms were perhaps the source of the resentful malevolent qi currently permeating the entire mansion.
Did Lin Sheng kill them all?
Why?
Filled with doubt, Wang Ping continued searching the tea pavilion. Finally, beneath one of the case files, he actually found a yellowed booklet.
“Is this… a diary?”
Wang Ping flipped open the booklet. The handwriting inside was upright, forceful, and vigorous. At a glance, one could tell it was written by a well-educated son from a good family.
“My name is Lin Sheng.”
“If someone is reading this diary… I am probably already dead. Dead by the hands of County Magistrate Xu Bingzheng. I only hope the truth will not be buried with me.”
“It all started on the day I was suspended pending investigation. On the very night I returned home, County Magistrate Xu Bingzheng… that dog official sought me out. He brought those four people, along with their corresponding case files. Then, he had the Extraordinary accompanying him cast some sort of strange art on me.”
Accompanying Extraordinary?
Seeing this, Wang Ping’s brows immediately jumped. As far as he knew, the only person in all of Longxing County worthy of being called an “Extraordinary” was Wandering Spirit Perfected One.
But that wasn’t right.
Previously, Xu Bingzheng and Chen Haoyan used me as bait to slip into Wandering Spirit Perfected One’s Daoist temple and steal that Heaven’s Will Soul-Returning Pill.
Since that was the case, the two sides should be completely incompatible, like fire and water.
Why would Xu Bingzheng be operating alongside Wandering Spirit Perfected One?
Just what kind of shady business was going on behind the scenes?
Thinking of this, Wang Ping continued reading the diary.
“It was a very bizarre strange art. Not only did it keep me constantly in an intense state of hunger, but it also drastically increased my appetite.”
“Before leaving, he left me some food.”
“But I quickly finished it all.”
Reading up to here, Wang Ping had already formulated a guess: “Interesting. This is deliberately nurturing a demon. The logic is the same as the immortal sects forging Lishi.”
Simply put, it was elevating a person’s resentment before death so that they could be used as material afterward, fully maximizing their value as a human sacrifice.
“Deliberately keeping Lin Sheng in a state of extreme hunger, then sitting back and waiting for him to eat all the surplus food. By doing so, he would be forced to snatch food from others. Four rooms, four types of people, from an unpardonable sinner to an innocent victim—this was designed to shatter his bottom line step by step, gradually reducing him to a villain.”
With this, the resentful malevolent qi could also be explained.
“That makes sense. Having the food needed to survive taken away for no reason, ultimately dying in hunger and despair—it’s perfectly normal for resentful malevolent qi to be born from that.”
That was why Xu Bingzheng left that sentence on the case files:
【Let me see how long you can last.】
“There is no doubt that Lin Sheng is a young constable with justice in his heart and unwavering persistence. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been suspended by Chen Haoyan for talking back to him.”
And what Xu Bingzheng wanted to do was shatter that persistence.
“This courtyard allows entry but no exit. Even if Lin Sheng willingly degenerated, he would still starve to death in the end. As the instigator, he would be swallowed by the resentment and malevolence.”
“At that point, his life as a human would end.”
“And his new life as a human sacrifice for a demon would begin.”
—At this thought, Wang Ping couldn’t help but shake his head: “The idea was good, but again, Great Shun’s spiritual qi is simply too thin.”
Lacking spiritual qi, this level of resentment and malevolence wasn’t enough to nurture a demon.
This plan was doomed to fail.
“To nurture a demon under conditions of insufficient spiritual qi, the resentful malevolent qi would need to be multiplied by at least three to five times,” Wang Ping estimated roughly in his mind.
He then continued reading the diary.
As expected, the subsequent records should align closely with his guess. To survive, Lin Sheng continuously snatched food from the others, even resorting to murder…
【There was none.】
Wang Ping’s thoughts came to a screeching halt.
Because on the next page of the diary, there was only a chaotic, distorted, almost frantic passage of writing: 【There was none! There was no food! There was absolutely nothing!】
“There was none?” Wang Ping blanked.
Impossible, how could there be no food? Without food, snatching and killing would be out of the question, and it would be impossible to nurture such resentful malevolent qi…
“…Ah.”
The next second, realization dawned on Wang Ping.
No food? This was a beautiful misunderstanding that could only be produced by someone who had never lacked food and never experienced true “hunger.”
Wang Ping looked at the four rooms before him, the four case files in his hand, and the four vibrant, flesh-and-blood living humans described within those files.
Wasn’t the food right in front of his eyes?
(End of Chapter)