Jinping’s curfew had already begun. Heaven’s Design Pavilion was the only place where all the lights were still burning.

Currently, there was a total of twenty-three carriages bearing family crests at the gates of the head office. The sons of noble families, young upstarts from court, distant relatives of the imperial family… The idle rich and the pillars of state were all gathered together, anxiously crowding the courtyard.

Pang Jian stood in the shadows, watching the courtyard full of young talents.

Given these people’s social standing, thirty to forty percent were probably on Xuanyin’s list of top candidates. Looking at this scene, anyone who didn’t know better would have thought that this year’s Grand Selection had come early.

Now, the noble were as confused as the lowly, talking over each other, making courtyard of Heaven’s Design Pavilion as noisy as a frog pond after the rain. There didn’t seem to be anything noble about them. No one knew for sure how Dong Zhang and Wang Baochang had died, but they had all touched similar marriage proposal cards, and no one knew whether he would be the next to die.

“Commander,” a blue-rober said, trotting over, “Imperial Prince Ning and his eldest son have also arrived!”

“Have Lao-Zhao receive them, don’t come to me,” Pang Jian said. “I’m not familiar with that noble crowd, and I don’t have a good memory for faces. Wouldn’t it be awkward if I got someone’s name wrong?”

A while later, another blue-rober came to report: “Commander, Lord Chai of the Imperial Academy, Lord Liang of the Court of Judicial Review, Imperial Princess Xincheng’s husband, the Minister of Rites’ son, the Duke of Ying’s son…”

Pang Jian: “…”

Was this a grocery list?

The blue-clotheser said quietly, “Too many are involved. We don’t have enough people at the head office.”

“No kidding.” Pang Jian turned around. Like flipping the page of a book, all the derision and cynicism were wiped clean from his face. It wore a stern gravity. He said, “Not only do we not have enough people, I see we don’t even have enough seats. We’ll have to borrow some chairs from the Phoenix’s Perch Pavilion.”

The blue-rober said, “Maybe we should… temporarily transfer everyone from the Azure Dragon Towers to the head office.”

Pang Jian looked into the blue-rober’s eyes and said, “The Azure Dragon Towers guard the Dragon Vein. Do you mean to say that these groceries… these grand people are more important than the Dragon Vein?”

The blue-rober was stumped.

Zhao Yu, who had just finished making arrangements for Imperial Prince Ning, also came over. He quickly said, “Of course no one is as important as the Dragon Vein, but, commander, the Dragon Vein isn’t going anywhere, and this is urgent—during the attack in Dangui Lane last night, didn’t you yourself bring out everyone standing guard at the Horn Tower, commander?”

Pang Jian slowly said, “Last night was an emergency. With paper money controlled by a curse floating around, if it wasn’t taken care of at once, the outcome would have been hard to predict. Today, all the potential victims are already here, aren’t they? And the city is under curfew. No matter what happens, we’ll be able to control of the situation. Don’t worry.”

Zhao Yu blurted out, “Of course we can control the situation, but we may not be able to save these people.”

Clearly there were members of the Zhao family among the “talents” in the courtyard.

After he had said this, Zhao Yu immediately noticed his urgency. He quickly relaxed his voice. “Commander, so many of the people here are excellent candidates for the Grand Selection. The evil cultivators behind this must want to spoil our sect’s Grand Selection, injure the sect’s saplings.”

Pang Jian glanced at the “saplings” putting down roots and thought, Who would bother?

An overwhelming majority of Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s walkers in the mortal world came from noble families and had entered the sect during the Grand Selection. But not Pang Jian.

The threshold for entering the Grand Selection was too high. He hadn’t managed such a successful reincarnation—he was one of the few cultivators of “unorthodox” origin in Heaven’s Design Pavilion.

Strictly speaking, in fact, Xuanyin was the only orthodox immortal sect in Great Wan. All cultivators outside of Xuanyin counted as “evil cultivators,” unless, soon after opening their spiritual eye, they had the good fortune to be recommended to become a “disciple of record” by a person of consequence within the sect and be raised to an honorable position.

Assistant Commander Pang was precisely one of these disciples of record with a common background.

He didn’t care one bit whether these sons of the wealthy and aristocratic lived or died, so he wasn’t worried. As he saw it, these good-for-nothings had nothing to recommend them apart from reincarnating well; it simply wasn’t worth it to go to so much trouble to “murder” them. On behalf of the killer, he even regretted those corpses, perfectly preserved for decades. With Dong Zhang and Wang Baochang, it seemed more like the killer was hiding in the shadows, testing the response speed and methods of the Azure Dragon Towers. The early revelation of the funny business with the Flower Viewing Invitations was also too deliberate.

What scheme was this person using these good-for-nothings for?

“I know you’re concerned,” Pang Jian said, perfunctorily placating Zhao Yu as he considered, “but last night, I was the one standing guard at the Horn Tower, and Dangui Lane is under the Horn Tower’s eaves. We could come and go quickly. It made sense to move everyone from the tower. I can’t make the decision to remove everyone from all the city’s Azure Dragon Towers. I would need instructions from the sect or the General Commander—shidi, why don’t you go ask?”

Zhao Yu: “…”

The General Commander’s position was purely honorary. He had been in seclusion for eight years. And as for asking for instructions from the sect… If he went on a round trip to the Xuanyin Mountains, he might not even be back by the time these people returned on the seventh day after their deaths.

Pang Wenchang wasn’t making any sense!

Pang Jian continued: “Also, I don’t believe that this killer can perform an underworld marriage for so many people at once. If he really did have the skills, he would already…”

But before he could finish, without any warning, total silence fell over the noisy courtyard.

Inexplicably, everyone had shut their mouths.

Several breaths went by, and no one spoke to break the silence. The atmosphere suddenly changed.

Each of the walkers in the mortal world watching the courtyard put a hand to his weapon. The antsy old and young masters, as if fixed in place by a spell, were all frozen in the courtyard like bizarre waxworks.

Pang Jian’s expression instantly grew grave. He had just finished saying that the killer couldn’t perform an underworld marriage for so many people, and it had come back to hit him in the face.

But there were scores of people in this courtyard. What would it even mean to control this many corpses at once with an underworld marriage?

Could the killer be an almighty ascended spirit cultivator?

The immortal sects ranked cultivators in several grades. The fundamental stage was “open-eyed,” referring to the spiritual senses that allowed a person to perceive spiritual energy. All of Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s walkers in the mortal world belonged to this grade. Only after your spiritual eye had opened could you be formally considered as having set foot on the immortal path. The vast majority of the disciples who entered the sect through the Grand Selection stopped at this stage.

After opening your spiritual eye, you were only a “half-immortal.” Only once you had established your Way of the Heart and constructed your immortal spirit would you count as a true immortal. This phase was called established foundation. An immortal who had established a foundation became immortal, with the power to ride the clouds and mists. The protective magical devices carried by the wealthy and aristocratic were generally gifts from established foundation immortals.

An established foundation was the highest grade of cultivator that a mortal might have the rare fortune or misfortune to meet.

Above established foundations came those who had truly attained the highest heavens.

Ascended spirit immortals had entirely cast off their physical bodies, and any need for the sustenance of ordinary foods. To take Xuanyin as an example, once you had an ascended spirit, you could found a lineage, become a peak master.

For certain reasons, hardly any evil cultivators made it beyond the open-eyed stage. When one was occasionally lucky enough to succeed in establishing a foundation, they often went berserks and died early in the established foundation phase.

There was no such thing as an ascended spirit evil cultivator!

All the blue-robers stared apprehensively at the frozen people, waiting for these “brides” turned corpses to attack.

But… after one ke, when the legs of the blue-rober nearest to the “corpse brides” were about to go numb from standing still, the “walking corpses” had yet to show any sign of movement.

It was as if they had stopped midway into “becoming corpses” and then been judged inadequate by the groom’s side and turned away. There was no aftermath.

With an abrupt realization, Pang Jian looked up at the eaves.

Yes, he’d thought there was something missing. The evil-expelling bells under the eaves hadn’t rung!

“Make way.” Pang Jian passed through a wall and strode into the courtyard. He poked one of the “walking corpses” with his sword.

The “walking corpse” fell over. His chest undulated evenly… He was still breathing!

Pang Jian half knelt and pushed aside the unconscious man’s hair. He looked at the top of his head and said, “Paper!”

A walker in the mortal world immediately handed him a blank piece of talisman paper. Before he could get out cinnabar, Pang Jian had bitten through his fingertip. He quickly drew a talisman. It was an immediate success.

The talisman trembled and caught fire, producing thin white smoke, which entered the “walking corpse”’s nostrils.

The “walking corpse” spasmed. His limbs twitched. His belly rumbled like thunder!

After a moment, he turned face down and threw up a big puddle of green water with an overwhelming stench… In the filth was an insect the size of a fingernail that flew away as soon as it saw the light.

Pang Jian pointed at the insect and nailed it to the ground with a gust from his finger.

“Is this…” Zhao Yu stepped forward and said in disbelief, “Is this a sleep paralysis imp? Aren’t sleep paralysis imps extinct?!”

Pang Jian held his nose, frowned, and said nothing.

An inexperienced blue-rober asked, “Zhao-shixiong, what is a sleep paralysis imp?”

“It’s a type of insect from the south that hasn’t been seen in many years,” Zhao Yu said. “If a person or animal mistakenly eats its eggs, they’ll mature in the host’s body in a couple of days. The insects release a particular kind of venom that causes paralysis. The host’s entire body will go rigid, and their breathing will become strained. They will appear like a walking corpse. This generally occurs in the middle of the night, so these people are usually asleep. The symptoms are very similar to sleep paralysis, so these insects are called sleep paralysis imps.”

The blue-rober was astonished. “Do you mean that all these people have this evil creature inside them? Why haven’t our evil-expelling bells rung?”

“Because this insect isn’t an evil creature. The venom disperses quickly and doesn’t harm the body. At worst the host will think they’ve had a nightmare. If they’re sound sleepers, they won’t even wake up. The sleep paralysis imp stays in the body for around ten days, then crawls out of the nose, leaving no trace. Centuries ago, the people of the south even treasured these insects and caught them to manufacture anesthetic. That’s how they drove the sleep paralysis imp to extinction. Strange…”

“It isn’t strange.” Pang Jian’s lower jaw, as sharp as if it had been carved by a knife, tensed as he interrupted Zhao Yu. “The imps are harmless, as long as you don’t encounter soul-driving spice.”

 

“Wow, what a big piece of human-shaped soul-driving spice.” This was what Xi Ping heard as he was lifted by the scruff of the neck.

Xi Ping had slipped up and let the little monster get away. The little monster had been about to cry out and attract the skinless big monster. Then there was a sudden hum in Xi Ping’s ears; it was as though a transparent “shell” had covered the area for a length around him.

Next, a clump of earth flew over and knocked the little monster precisely on the temple. The little thing fell noiselessly to the ground and lay still, perhaps dead.

All of this happened in an instant. Xi Ping didn’t even have a chance to blink before he was picked up.

One-handed.

The last time Xi Ping had been picked up one-handed, he had been the nominal age of six… His dad had managed to put on this show of “might,” then thrown out his back. Since then, he hadn’t tried picking him up again.

As soon as he realized what was happening, his fur bristled, and he leapt forward, struggling free of the hand holding him. His forehead bumped firmly against the invisible shell, and he groaned.

Xi Ping was afraid of alerting those strange people. Ignoring the pain in his head, he quickly looked in the direction of the man holding the lantern and the old driver, but he found that the two of them seemed to have gone deaf and blind. They hadn’t heard anything of the noise he had made.

The man holding the lantern was still walking into the depths of the fog, and the old driver had his hands raised in a salute to send him off, bowing respectfully, the top of his head not far from the ground.

“Hey, kid, take it easy a little,” the man who had lifted him one-handed said in distress. “This mustard seed cost me two white spirits—don’t worry, people outside the mustard seed can’t hear us.”

Xi Ping had the habits of a rich lordling. Faced with a valuable object, he blurted out, “Where did you buy it? Can you sell me one?”

The newcomer said in surprise, “A white spirit costs equals a hundred liang of gold, or about nine hundred liang of sterling silver. That’s nine hundred strings of copper coins! One mu of good farmland near the capital only costs one or two strings. It’s enough for a whole family to eat on for two or three years. The official salary of a high general of cavalry is less than five hundred liang of silver per year. If he doesn’t eat or drink for two years, he might save up for one white spirit. What family’s wastrel are you, young man? Does your dad know you talk so big?”

Xi Ping’s head was ringing from his bump. Listening to this accounting of thrift made his head hurt even worse—crucially, this guy’s accounting was wrong!

“Buddy,” said Xi Ping, “one liang of gold is twelve liang of silver. How do you get a hundred liang of gold being nine hundred sterling silver? Anyway, a mu of land near the capital can’t even be rented for less than twenty liang of gold. You want to buy good farmland for a string of coppers or two… Are you buying it in your dreams?”

When the man heard this, he winced. He looked up at the sky and reckoned on his fingers, then murmured, “Oh… One gold is twelve silver, and a string of copper coins has gone up from a thousand to a thousand five-hundred… Is the land rent in Jinping so high now?”

Xi Ping: “…”

No, wait, how come he had to consult celestial phenomena to find out a common sense thing like that?

By the faint light leaking out from inside the carriage, Xi Ping saw the newcomer clearly.

He wasn’t a burly fellow. He had a figure similar to Xi Ping’s own. He was a somewhat slovenly young man dressed in a shabby green robe, carrying a small wine pot.

He had phoenix eyes and thin lips. His nose was slightly hooked. His face had a stern and upright cast, but his manner and expression were very kind and gentle, as if he had never been angry in his life. When he blinked, faint laugh lines appeared at the corners of his eyes.

“It’s a hard life out there.” The green-robed man sighed and said to Xi Ping, “We’ll leave that aside—when did you accidentally eat soul-driving spice?”

Xi Ping held his head and groaned out a single dubious syllable: “Huh?”

 

“Soul-driving spice is a rare type of fruit with a very mild scent. Only the sleep paralysis imps of the south can smell it.” At the head office of Heaven’s Design Pavilion, Pang Jian narrowed his eyes slightly. “Imps that breathe in soul-driving spice will burrow into their host’s blood vessels, and the harmless venom will become toxic. The toxicity will soon spread throughout the body, and the host will change from a fake corpse to a real corpse. Then the blood vessels will begin to burst open starting from the top of the head, turning the scalp red. The whole body will be rigid at the time of death. This death presents just like being forced into an underworld marriage. In the south, they also had an unknown secret art. They could use the juice of the same piece of soul-driving spice to draw a soul-driving spell on a mirror and control the imps inside the dead person’s body, make the dead person perform the same movements as the person standing in front of the mirror—forget about the horoscope, it was all a cover. There never was any underworld marriage!”

Just as he’d thought—how could anyone bear to use carefully preserved corpses to kill good-for-nothings like this!

“But… why would they want to make us think it was an underworld marriage?” a blue-rober, ignoring the question of how their commander would know about an “unknown secret art,” said in confusion. “Was it just to get all these people to crowd in here and take a nap to give us a scare?”

“Ring the Azure Dragon Tower bells, activate the execution arrays. If I’m wrong, change the spiritual stones to my account.” Pang Jian turned quickly. This time, he could “make the decision.” “It’s because someone else should have been here tonight. Go to the Yongning Marquis Manor!”

It was no accident that the Viscount of Yongning had bumped into two walking corpses. If he was right, then the Viscount definitely had a piece of soul-driving spice in him.

And if that soul-driving spice had been at Heaven’s Design Pavilion’s head office tonight, after nightfall, the moment the sleep paralysis imps matured, instead of a courtyard full of unconscious living idiots, there would have been fresh corpses here under some person's control!

Even the thought of this scene made his scalp go numb. With all the forces of evil dancing around, Heaven’s Design Pavilion would have overreacted.

The majority of the walkers in the mortal world were in fact out and about pursuing evil cultivators. Apart from a few people at the head office, the only people guarding the capital were scattered among the seven Azure Dragon Towers. There weren’t enough people at the head office; they would have had no choice but to bring in reinforcements from the Azure Dragon Towers, like last night.

This was a feint; it was likely that the killer’s targets were the Azure Dragon Towers that guarded the Dragon Vein!

But something had gone wrong. The person who ought to have been here had pulled some trick that even the haunts hadn’t expected.

“Wait.” Zhao Yu had also caught up. He quickly reckoned on his fingers. “The Viscount of Yongning doesn’t seem to be in the city.”

“How do you know?”

“When he left at midday, he took one the head office’s sacred karma beasts…”

“Lead the way!” said Pang Jian.

As he spoke, the earth of Jinping began to tremble faintly. Dense dark energy rose in the south, surging towards the sky.