Brothel Heresy... "Found You."

"Dragon-Imprisoning Monastery! Fan Wu!!" a voice filled with venom and hatred echoed in the dim underground secret chamber.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

The speaker suddenly coughed violently a few times, expelling blood that was unlike normal blood.

If one didn't look closely, they might mistake the blood's color for black, as it was so dark.

It was accompanied by a strange, fishy stench.

The smell alone was enough to make one feel extremely uncomfortable.

This was a very emaciated old man. Little of his once-white hair remained on his head.

His face, like aged tree bark, was covered in one sore after another.

Pus oozed from these sores.

One could vaguely discern that every sore on his face was moving.

It was as if there were living things inside the sores.

"Damn it! I have no enmity with the Dragon-Imprisoning Monastery. Why has that junior from Prison Dragon County interfered with my grand plans twice?" The old man staggered to his feet. As he moved, the sores on his skin vibrated with greater frequency.

More pus flowed out.

He exuded a foul odor, as if he had just been fished out of a cesspool.

Suddenly!

The skin on his withered face twitched. From several sores on his face, several plump, white grubs burrowed out!

The grubs fell to the ground as they emerged, squashing into a pulp.

But he paid them no mind.

It was as if he were long accustomed to it.

The old man took faltering steps, walking unsteadily to the side.

He took out a peculiar stick of incense. With two fingers, he gently twisted the tip, and the incense lit up!

But as the incense burned, it didn't emit smoke.

Instead, it released Yin energy!!

The old man eagerly brought his nose close, greedily inhaling the dense Yin energy.

His pale, weak complexion gradually regained color, and the vibrating sores on his body began to calm down.

When the incense was halfway burned, he seemed to recall something, and his greedy state instantly cleared.

The old man's expression turned panicked. He hurriedly cupped the remaining half of the incense in his hands.

He bowed and knelt before a deity statue enshrined on an altar in the secret chamber, nodding and bowing rapidly like a sycophantic dog.

One might wonder if he would strain his back.

As the old man prostrated himself with manic devotion, he chanted in a strange tone, filled with fear and sincerity: "Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth..."

"Disciple Xuan Shizi did not intend to lose the offering, nor did he wish to fail to bring it back. It was just that I encountered some unforeseen circumstances along the way."

"I implore the Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth to grant this disciple another chance. I promise to retrieve the offering by that day."

"Disciple guarantees... Disciple guarantees... Please bear witness, Great Venerable!"

"Great Mercy, Salvation from Suffering."

With that, Xuan Shizi respectfully placed the incense in the censer and once again prostrated himself repeatedly before the statue with manic devotion.

He muttered continuously.

However.

What he was worshipping was less a statue and more an extremely abstract sculpture.

It bore no resemblance to a human or a deity.

The sculpture wasn't very large, only about three feet tall.

By the standards of the Great Zhou...

Three feet was less than a meter.

The entire sculpture was a dark bronze color, looking like a pile of grotesque, stacked flesh tumors.

Upon these flesh tumors... was a head, and upon the head, an extremely bizarre human face.

A swastika symbol was carved into the center of the sculpture's forehead.

It faintly carried a strange Buddhist aura.

Yet, the sculpture's base was a Yin-Yang Bagua disk, with tiny mystic script carved along the edges. Translating this mystic script would reveal a Daoist scripture.

It was an ultimate fusion of disparate elements!

At this moment, Xuan Shizi nervously watched the stick of incense burn.

Perhaps it was due to being overly tense, but layers of cold sweat had already broken out on his forehead.

Until that stick of incense slowly burned out.

Xuan Shizi immediately checked his body and, finding himself unharmed, felt as if a great burden had been lifted.

He let out a deep sigh.

"Thank you, Great Venerable, for giving this disciple another chance! Thank you, Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth!! This disciple will definitely bring back the offerings and will also take the head of that brat called Fan Wu!"

"This disciple intends to refine that wretch's soul into an offering! That fellow is a Taoist priest from Dragon-Imprisoning Monastery. If his soul is refined... it will surely be worth ten times its value!!"

After tidying up some things in the secret room, Xuan Shizi pulled a mechanism within it.

The heavy stone door of the secret room opened, revealing a dimly lit staircase before him.

He walked up step by step.

It wasn't until he smelled the familiar scent of various mixed perfumes that Xuan Shizi finally relaxed completely.

Only then did he realize his back was already drenched in cold sweat.

"It's all that Fan Wu!" A trace of ruthlessness and malice flashed in Xuan Shizi's eyes. "That person destroyed two of my ghosts, and also destroyed the paper effigy I spent countless efforts refining! He even took the offering I was going to present to the Great Venerable to the County Yamen!"

"He infuriates me!!!"

"This child must die!!!"

"Hoo..."

"Hoo..."

He took a few deep breaths to control his emotions, his sparse eyebrows gradually furrowing deeper. "Both of my ghosts and the paper effigy were destroyed by him. It will take some time to cultivate a few new ghosts."

"But fortunately, places like brothels make it relatively easy to find suitable candidates to cultivate into vengeful spirits. After all, this place is already a gathering spot for Yin energy."

"In places like brothels, a woman with extremely heavy resentment dies every so often."

"It seems I'll have to go find some ghosts again..."

He muttered to himself as he walked out, but the further he went, the more he felt something was wrong.

Although the ghost haunting the County Yamen had caused quite a stir in Prison Dragon County.

To some patrons.

What did ghosts matter compared to beauties?!

And to the people in the brothels. What did ghosts matter compared to earning money?

For their various desires, it was impossible for brothels to close.

Not even for a single day.

But...

"It's too quiet!!"

Xuan Shizi was startled to realize that the brothels in Prison Dragon County were unusually quiet today.

It was normal that he couldn't hear anything from outside in the secret room, but now that he was out and still heard nothing, that was abnormal!

Normally, even in the dead of night, brothels were filled with the sounds of women's soft murmurs and flirtatious chatter.

Interspersed with the loud nonsense of drunken patrons and the lewd whispers of those seeking pleasure.

But now...

All those sounds were absent!

It was terrifyingly silent!

Xuan Shizi immediately formed a hand seal and chanted rapidly, "Merciful Great Venerable of Salvation from Suffering Above and Below Heaven and Earth, this disciple borrows your supreme and boundless magical power..."

However, before the incantation was finished.

A voice, like a death knell, entered Xuan Shizi's ears.

"Found you."