Southwestern Turmoil Erupts
Rumble, rumble!
The North City Gate slowly swung open, and a large contingent of soldiers charged out. Before long, they returned carrying corpse after corpse.
By then, daylight had broken. Quite a few commoners along the streets craned their necks, uneasy and suspicious, whispering among themselves.
The people of E Prefecture loved watching a spectacle.
But with one incident after another occurring these past few days, everyone was already terrified. Who still had the mind to watch the fun? They were afraid disaster would land on their own heads.
"Who are those people?"
"I heard they're the Evil Creatures of the ChaoShan Society."
"That pack of beasts from the ChaoShan Society should've died long ago. But where did they get the nerve to plot rebellion?"
"I heard something, but don't go spreading it around."
"I heard they killed people to sacrifice to ghosts, cutting off their heads and livers. Haven't you seen all those scholar households in the city holding funerals?"
"You're making that up, right?"
"Why would I lie to you? My great-aunt's husband is a leatherworker. I heard he's made quite a few fake heads these past few days alone."
"Why did you stop talking?"
"I think I heard my grandfather mention something like this..."
With so many people packed into the city, news like this could not be hidden.
The custom of killing people to sacrifice to ghosts had first arisen in E and Xiang Prefectures. It was not completely eradicated until the Daxing era, so naturally, some legends and stories had survived.
Those ancient, dark events began circulating among the commoners once more, provoking even greater panic.
When killing people to sacrifice to ghosts and selecting victims, a scholar or official's liver counted as three; a monk or Daoist's counted as two; a