The Cult Leader Arrives

A small courtyard in the capital, at dusk.

The setting sun dyed the courtyard blood-red, while withered vines covered the mottled earthen walls.

Beneath the Old Locust Tree in the corner of the courtyard, a Girl in a floral cloth dress crouched beside a pile of wood shavings, carving a wooden bird with a small knife.

She was still very young, yet extraordinarily focused.

Humming a nursery rhyme, her nimble hands flew up and down as wood shavings rustled to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, a lifelike wooden bird had been carved.

For an ordinary carpenter, it would have been enough to earn a word of praise from onlookers, but the Girl merely found it normal, without the slightest hint of pride.

That was because she was Lu Chengye the master carpenter's only granddaughter.

She had shown talent from a young age and would certainly become an extraordinary female artisan in the future.

The Girl did not notice that, in the gap between the woodpiles behind her, several wisps of black mist were slowly seeping out, twisting like living creatures.

Under the moonlight, a deathly pale paper effigy's face faintly emerged from the black mist.

A gust of night wind swept past. The nursery rhyme abruptly ceased, replaced by a faint rustling sound, like fingernails scraping against burlap.

There was no longer any sign of the Girl in the courtyard. Only the leaves remained, stirred by the night wind...

Inside the room, the oil lamp burned like a bean-sized flame as Lu Chengye bent over his table, polishing a wooden carving.

Crack!

The carving knife suddenly snapped.

The old man frowned and looked up. Outside the window, the shadows cast by the locust branches swayed like ghostly claws, while the Girl's singing had vanished.

Lu Chengye's body