Four days later, at midnight.
The yamen's main gate stood wide open, with no constables guarding it. Dim candlelight flickered within, and the occasional figure slipped inside.
They were all ordinary citizens. Their minds remained clear, but their perceptions had been influenced by the Tiger Ghost, so they saw nothing wrong with the yamen.
"Thirteen people in total."
Yang He stood in an alley, silently counting the people inside the yamen.
Before long, citizens stumbled out of the yamen in a daze. Having failed to gain the yamen's recognition, they could not harbor a tiger slave ghost.
After several days of observation, Yang He had roughly figured out the yamen's pattern.
As long as one entered the yamen at Zi Shi and held out until the rooster crowed three times the next day, one could successfully harbor a tiger slave ghost and become a constable of Peibai City.
Those who failed to gain the yamen's approval would have the relevant memories erased.
They would not die, but damage to their vital Yang energy was unavoidable.
"The number of constables recruited by the yamen has been dwindling. Some constables' tiger slave ghosts have even vanished for no apparent reason."
Once a tiger slave ghost died, its host returned to his former life as though nothing had happened.
"Still, judging from appearances alone, Head Constable Sun really is keeping watch over Peibai City. He hasn't done anything to harm ordinary mortals..."
As Yang He pondered, he saw the black cat nimbly leap over the yamen wall.
"Blackie, how was it?"
The black cat had grown increasingly intelligent. Relying on the cat ghost's traits, it could move through the yamen as if no one else were there.
Meow—
Hearing the cat's brief cry, Yang He frowned slightly. Blackie meant that it had not found any ghosts inside the yamen.
"Let's go. It won't be long before the next Lore World."
Ghost Lotus: 1/3 (81%)
Yang He looked back toward the market entrance. The place was still brightly lit, and the massive body of the century-old Treasure Fish lay out in the open.
Its half-exposed flesh was the color of white jade, its bones gleamed like gold, and its organs vaguely resembled all manner of gemstones.
In five days at most, the century-old Treasure Fish would be completely dismembered.
No one knew what calamity would arise then.
Yang He forcefully suppressed his stray thoughts and walked out of the alley. The black cat silently slipped into the shadow beneath his feet.
The yamen was only a dozen meters away. In moments, he had crossed its threshold.
The instant Yang He stepped into the yamen, a bone-piercing chill surged through him. Then his heart began pounding like a drum.
"Mm."
He let out a muffled groan. The strange reaction all came from the Pupil Ghost's fear.
Yin energy churned chaotically through his meridians, causing the three Yang Fires to fluctuate.
Yang He kept his expression calm. Fortunately, the Qi Refining Method taught by Grandmaster Taiyi was exceptionally profound, allowing him to gradually suppress the Pupil Ghost's aura.
Under Spiritual Vision,
there were no ghosts haunting the yamen, but spots of varying sizes covered the buildings' surfaces.
"Tiger stripes?"
Not only that—even the grass and trees were covered in tiger stripes.
Yang He frowned and subconsciously spread open his palm.
Tiger stripes had appeared on his palm, moving beneath his flesh. He could faintly sense that the tiger slave ghosts were connected to the stripes.
"Hiss, wasn't Head Constable Sun supposed to be severely injured?"
Yang He hurriedly stepped beyond the yamen's bounds, and the tiger stripes naturally vanished.
"I seem to have made a mistake."
"Since he has already raised ghosts into a scourge, how can I judge him with conventional thinking? Cultivators in this world might become more terrifying the closer they are to death."
No wonder the two cultivators had not come after Head Constable Sun. They could only fight evenly when he was at his peak; if he was dying, he might be able to take on both of them alone.
"Before the tiger stripes cover the entire body, tiger slave ghosts probably won't be born."
Yang He entered the yamen again, keeping an eye on the tiger stripes from the corner of his eye.
Amid the pitch-black darkness, he could not see a single ghostly figure. Instead, that only gave him an indescribable sense of terror.
From time to time, he saw citizens standing blankly in place.
As tiger stripes spread across their bodies, their Yang Fires became unstable. Before long, their eyes turned vacant and they left the yamen the way they had come.
"The Pupil Ghost leans toward support. It tempers the body with Yin energy and gives rise to Yin Meridians, so I'm more suited to the birth of tiger slave ghosts."
Yang He only felt a slight stabbing pain in his head, which was nothing serious.
Suddenly.
as he passed through a corridor, he stopped in his tracks, cold sweat pouring down his back.
The training yard where they usually drilled was filled with bizarre figures.
Yang He gripped the Copper-Coin Sword at his waist, then realized that the figures were wooden dummies. Blade marks could be seen everywhere on them.
However, their joints were lifelike enough that it was hard to distinguish them by their outlines alone.
"I can't see demons and monsters in the yamen, yet I'm actually a little uncomfortable. Heh heh, I really want to slap myself. I'm getting startled over every little thing."
Yang He glanced at the tiger stripes that had spread to his forearm and continued onward, passing the storeroom and kitchen.
He did not know the yamen's layout, but the place where official business was conducted should usually be at its center, so it should not be hard to find.
Before long,
several closely clustered rooms appeared before him.
Yang He's expression brightened, and he hurriedly pushed open their doors one by one.
Yet they contained only case files from Peibai City over the years. The thick layer of dust on the floor showed that no one had cleaned them for ages.
The tiger stripes had reached his shoulder, and a faint patch had appeared on his neck as well.
"If I really can't find it, I'll just come again tomorrow night."
Creak.
He opened the last room at the end of the corridor, and a familiar stench filled the air.
Disappointment appeared on Yang He's face, but what met his eyes was a morgue. In ancient times, coroners usually examined corpses in morgues.
"Eh?"
He had intended to leave, but then noticed a corpse hanging in the corner of the morgue.
The corpse of a Treasure Fish.
The corpse was shriveled and withered, and the Hungry Ghost attached to it had vanished without a trace. Yet humanlike limbs could be seen dangling from its abdomen to the floor.
Yang He's guess had been right. There was something wrong with the origin of the Treasure Fish. It was even possible that...
"Human livestock?"
An unsettling thought surfaced in his mind. Could the Treasure Fish once have all been Living Persons? Was that also the purpose of the two Evil Ghosts in Peibai City?
While he was distracted, his left eye began to itch, and tiger stripes emerged over it.
"Hm?"
Yang He could feel that after his eye was stained by tiger stripes, he heard the whimpering of a young tiger beside his ear. When he turned around, he discovered that dozens of wooden dummies had appeared in the corridor outside at some unknown time.
The wooden dummies stood in all sorts of poses, their hollow eyes fixed on Yang He.
"What the hell?!!"
The wooden dummies possessed no Yin energy. Under Spiritual Vision, they were merely ordinary tools.
Yang He's scalp tingled. In the blink of an eye, the wooden dummies had seemingly teleported another half meter closer, while the young tiger's whimpers grew ever more intense.
"These dummies are..."
Yang He tried shifting his gaze away. When he looked back, the wooden dummies were already within ten meters of him, and fine tiger fur had sprouted all over their bodies.
"Tiger slave ghosts!!"
"No wonder. How could tiger slave ghosts possibly be born from Living Persons out of thin air?"
"Head Constable Sun kept the tiger slave ghosts in the training yard, disguising them as wooden dummies. Once someone came into contact with one, it would use the tiger stripes to enter their body."
"This is truly bizarre."
"Blackie."
The black cat leaped onto Yang He's shoulder and stared unblinkingly at the wooden dummies.
Yang He had ways to deal with them, and the tiger stripes were still scattered across his body. But as time passed, the yamen would surely become increasingly strange.
He headed back the way he had come, but after only a few steps, he noticed candlelight flickering to life.
The storeroom that had originally been piled with clutter had somehow turned into a study. Candles burned constantly inside, and a row of bookshelves stood against the wall.
The cultivation method was very likely inside.
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