“by special decree of the Bureau, conscripting them into service for the Special Operations Bureau.”

“Hm?” Aredia, sitting nearby and using a cleaver to cut yellow paper, glared fiercely in their direction. Siren shrank her neck, lowered her head, and solemnly stuffed a large stack of papers into a golden basin.

Gu Wuchen found it amusing and was about to tease Siren a few times when Kan Hua, furious, suddenly kicked open the courtyard gate and strode in: “It’s impossible, absolutely impossible! I went to the kitchen to ask the Xiao family to prepare some offerings, but they have this, they don’t have that… Hmph…”

After a few cold snorts, Kan Hua pulled a pig, a sheep, and an ox from his storage ring—all completely gutted, washed clean, and roasted. He then produced three massive golden basins and placed them before Xiao Yiqiu’s coffin, setting the three sacrificial animals neatly upon the basins. He solemnly performed three kowtows toward the coffin. Gu Wuchen was surprised; it was expected that the Xiao family would not cooperate with their actions, but where did Kan Hua procure these three sacrifices?

Kan Hua leaned close to Gu Yechen, grabbed a large handful of paper yuan (spirit money), and threw it into the golden basin, muttering in a low voice, “If they won't prepare offerings for me, I’ll do it myself. Alas, I’ve wiped out every single head of livestock the brat had—not even the dogs and chickens were spared… Tsk, tsk, I even drained the blood of several freshly hatched broods of chicks, and infused them with a trace of Corpse Qi.”

Gu Wuchen was startled: “Corpse Qi? That will cause them to reanimate!”

Kan Hua gave Gu Yechen a sidelong glance and sneered word by word, “They brought this upon themselves. Don't tell me you don’t know how they’ve been tormenting our Junior Brother.”

Gu Wuchen fell silent. The handful of spirit money he held turned into a flurry of ice crystals and scattered. He sneered, “Xiao Yusheng, the Chairman of the Federal Council, clearly intends to abdicate.”

After a moment of contemplation, Gu Yechen flicked his hand, sending an edict soaring into the sky. Not long after, gusts of cold wind suddenly swept up from the ground in the courtyard. Several Xiao family servants busy in the mourning hall suddenly slumped onto the floor. Several ninjas, led by Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an, emerged from the shadows of the mourning hall and knelt respectfully before Gu Yechen.

Forcefully banging his forehead against the ground, Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an commanded with utmost deference:

“My Lord, what are your orders.”

Gu Yechen gave Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an a cold look, pondered for a moment, then took out a Yunshi Jian (Consciousness Embedding Slip) and imprinted a secret technique into it. He casually tossed the slip before Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an and stated coldly, “This contains the Nine Yin Reversion Art. It allows for the simultaneous cultivation of the Five Elements Evasion Art, various poison techniques, and assassination skills. Upon achieving mastery, the form consolidates to be like metal and iron, immune to blades and spears; when dispersed, it becomes like a dark phantom, capable of traversing a thousand miles in an instant, leaving no trace. Its killing moves are vicious and cruel, possessing the strongest killing intent, perfectly suited to your path.”

He waved his hand dismissively: “Take this and cultivate it diligently. You will serve me well in the future. For today, I assign you one task: blockade the entire settlement. No matter what happens tonight, not a single person is allowed to leave, nor is any information permitted to leak out. You are not to kill anyone, but you must completely seal off this brat. Can you accomplish this?”

Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an ecstatically grasped the Yunshi Jian imprinted with the Nine Yin Reversion Art, and along with the other ninjas behind him who were equally overjoyed, repeatedly kowtowed their assent to Gu Wuchen, before vanishing into the shadows.

Gu Yechen smiled at Kan Hua and picked up a handful of spirit money, tossing it into the golden basin. He murmured to himself, “Tonight, there will be quite a show.”

The Nine Yin Reversion Art taught to Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an was an evil secret method for cultivating puppets, recorded in the Great Wilderness Scripture. When cultivated to its peak, the Nine Yin Reversion Art could grant the power equivalent to the apex of the Spirit Transformation stage. Although the realm could never break through to the Tribulation stage, the myriad of insidious techniques within it possessed the power to threaten cultivators in the Void stage or even stronger beings. Although any practitioner of the Nine Yin Reversion Art retained full sanity and consciousness, their souls would no longer belong to them.

By mastering a technique within the Great Wilderness Scripture called the Nine Yin Soul Control Art, all puppets cultivating the Nine Yin Reversion Art would be eternally controlled. Even if their souls escaped into reincarnation after death, they could not escape this control; in the next life, they would still be puppets whose actions were not their own.

This was a malicious method originally used by the owner of the Great Wilderness Scripture to enslave servant clans. Gu Yechen was perfectly content using it against Jizo Temple Yi Ru’an and his group. Once they practiced the Nine Yin Reversion Art, even their descendants would be controlled by the Nine Yin Soul Control Art, eternally deprived of freedom, life after life.

It was a cruel, vicious method, yet Gu Yechen felt completely at ease. He held absolutely no favorable feelings toward the three servant clans: Jizo Temple, Pharmacist Temple, and Guanyin Temple.

Gu Wuchen, Kan Hua, and Siren squatted by the golden basin, murmuring incomprehensibly to each other, occasionally erupting in bursts of lewd laughter.

The Orthodox Daoist and Young Daoist Zhang were still performing their spirit dances in the courtyard, occasionally tossing handfuls of paper yuan towards the sky. However, the faces of both men were growing increasingly red, and greasy marks had appeared around their mouths. The courtyard now contained more than a dozen chicken leg bones. As they hopped, their movements grew larger, and they infused large handfuls of spirit money with true essence, throwing them ever higher. Blown by the heavenly wind, the circular paper money fluttered down, scattering over the better part of the settlement.

In the rear courtyard of the Xiao family ancestral home, outside the ancestral hall, Xiao Liefeng stared with a grim expression at the paper money drifting down from the sky. The straight-line distance from this spot to the courtyard where Gu Yechen and the others were located was over three hundred meters, yet the spirit money had drifted here on the wind, filling Xiao Liefeng with both fury and dread.

“Unseemly, utterly unseemly,” Xiao Liefeng ground his teeth and stomped on several pieces of paper money that had landed before him.

Several elderly men, all wearing Federal military uniforms, stood at the entrance of the ancestral hall with bulging brows, occasionally turning back resentfully toward Ducat, who was kneeling deep within the spacious ancestral hall.

Xiao Yusheng stood beside Ducat, clutching a thick, wrist-sized vine from the ancient mountain.

This mountain vine was a meter and a half long, incomparably tough, and had been soaked in tung oil dozens of times, making it even more flexible and heavy. Before Ducat lay a thick stack of the Xiao family genealogy and clan rules. Ducat would flip through one page of the genealogy or rules, then kowtow to the thousands of Xiao ancestors before him. Each time, his forehead struck the ground heavily, shaking the granite-built ancestral hall faintly.

Bang! Xiao Yusheng suddenly lashed Ducat viciously across the shoulder with the vine, roaring, “What is the background of my great-great-granduncle’s maternal cousin’s maternal nephew?”

Ducat froze for a moment. He hastily replied, “He is with the Federal Academy of Sciences…” He couldn't immediately untangle the relationship—Xiao Yusheng’s great-great-granduncle’s maternal cousin’s maternal nephew—he couldn't match this person’s history to any record in the genealogy, so he stammered, unable to answer Xiao Yusheng’s question.

Bang, bang, bang! Xiao Yusheng mustered all his true energy and brought the vine down on Ducat’s body. This mountain vine, named the ‘Green Dragon Vine,’ was a rare treasure, naturally possessing the miraculous ability to break through protective gang qi (aura). In ancient times, it was a sacrificial material used to forge bludgeoning weapons. Xiao Yusheng also possessed decades of exquisite cultivation in Federal martial arts; every strike he delivered with the vine weighed over ten thousand jin, making Ducat’s body sway precariously, constantly rocking back and forth.

Ducat dispersed all his protective zhengqi, concentrating all the energy within his body in his brow and dantian. He chose to resist Xiao Yusheng’s heavy blows purely with his physical body.

When the vine struck Ducat’s body, it sounded like a heavy hammer hitting a bullhide drum, emitting dull, heavy thuds repeatedly.

In a corner near the main door of the ancestral hall, Lily sat hugging her knees against the threshold, watching Ducat being relentlessly beaten by Xiao Yusheng under fabricated pretenses.

“What was the official title of the third generation ancestor of the Xiao family?”

“Where was Lord Feng Yun’s fiefdom?”

“How many Jinshi did the Xiao family produce in the Ming Dynasty? How many Juren? How many Xiucai?”

“Why did the Xiao family establish the rule of hiding one’s talent and not striving for advancement in the Tang Dynasty?”

Each question was so tricky and bizarre. Xiao Yusheng, wearing a look of perverse satisfaction, mercilessly beat Ducat for failing to answer.

Ducat silently flipped through the genealogy and clan rules. As required by Xiao Liefeng, he kowtowed heavily every time he turned a page.

Xiao Yusheng beat Ducat with intense satisfaction from early morning until dusk. By then, even with his exquisite cultivation, Xiao Yusheng was panting heavily and drenched in sweat. He gave a harsh glare at Ducat, whose clothes were tattered but whose skin showed not even a speck of redness, grumbled, ‘This fellow’s skin is incredibly tough,” and stormed out of the ancestral hall.

Xiao Liefeng weighed the mountain vine Xiao Yusheng handed him and walked slowly to Ducat’s side.

He smiled without smiling, looking at Ducat and nodding, “Don’t blame us. You are not a legitimate member of the Xiao family; therefore, if you wish to join our lineage, a little physical suffering is unavoidable. This… can be considered easing some of the shame for your mother.”

Ducat raised his head and said calmly, “My mother has no shame.”

Xiao Liefeng’s expression darkened, and he forcefully whipped the vine across Ducat’s neck. He roared, “Silence! If you cannot recite these genealogies and rules within seven days, you will not have the right to become part of the Xiao family!”

Ducat kowtowed heavily to the ground, his expression as still as water, and turned over another page of the genealogy.

The night deepened. Around the pale yellow moon in the sky was a faint, hazy halo.

Gu Wuchen stood in the courtyard with his hands behind his back, staring blankly at the sky above. Although he appeared to be daydreaming, he was actually cultivating the various secret arts of the Great Wilderness Scripture. The spells in the Great Wilderness Scripture were ‘techniques’ (shu), not the ‘Way’ (dao). The so-called ‘technique’ was merely a method for the application of power; with sufficient power and adequate intelligence, one could easily utilize the corresponding technique.

What Gu Wuchen was practicing at this moment was the Tortoise Divination technique from the Great Wilderness Scripture, used by the ancient peoples to predict fortune and misfortune. However, the Great Wilderness Scripture required the use of a tortoise shell from a spirit tortoise of at least a thousand years as the basis for the divination. But where could Gu Yechen find a thousand-year spirit tortoise?

Fortunately, some elder in the Xiao family had kept a courtyard full of golden coin turtles. One of them, the size of a grinding stone, was at least four to five hundred years old. Kan Hua had just slaughtered all the livestock in the Xiao town, and he had also casually killed these golden coin turtles. Gu Yechen conveniently took the shell, refined it with the Yin Moon Candle Flame, and used it for divination.

Concentrating all his spirit and will onto the tortoise shell, Gu Wuchen shattered the skin of his fingertip and dripped a drop of vital blood onto the shell hidden in his sleeve.

Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of extreme panic surged in Gu Yechen’s heart. The originally intact tortoise shell suddenly exploded. The force of the shell shattering was so fierce that the fragments tore open Gu Wuchen’s palm, causing a large amount of blood to gush out. According to descriptions in the Tortoise Divination technique, this was an extremely ominous sign—a premonition of bloodshed.

“What kind of joke is this? Where is the bloodshed?”

As Gu Yechen was feeling surprised, a sudden cold wind swept up from the ground, and countless terrified screams echoed from all corners of the town. The livestock that Kan Hua had killed during the day, but which were being forcibly maintained by a wisp of Corpse Qi, began to reanimate, transforming into hideous and ferocious zombies that scrambled out.

Several sluggish zombie roosters flew onto the courtyard wall and let out shrill cries toward the sky.

The previously peaceful and harmonious old town suddenly descended into chaos. The Xiao family, too, was thrown into disarray.