The Most Devout Family

At the center of the gilded altar, the silk brocade spun from fire silkworm thread, the vajra bronze furnace, the incense for calming the spirit, and a great pile of luxurious objects sat an utterly ordinary, scratched porcelain bowl filled to the brim with white rice.

Uncle Fu solemnly and carefully took out a jade bottle, dripped in five drops of sweet dew, then added some subterranean condensation dew that was extremely beneficial to Ghostly beings. Thus, what looked like an ordinary bowl of rice soaked in plain water was ready.

He solemnly changed into a clean set of new clothes, every edge pressed perfectly smooth. Then he used his own Yang energy to light the incense, stuck it into the bowl of rice, formed the Offering Seal with his hands, and began chanting the spell.

"Every ordinary object born of Heaven and Earth has already fallen into human hands. Though made rootless, it belongs neither to Heaven above nor to Earth below. Objects are the possessions of harmony; they may be put into circulation, floating to and fro, and their proper duty is to aid the poor and rescue those in urgent need."

In front of the altar stretched a long, deep abyss. It was pitch-black within, Yin energy steaming upward.

As the ritual began, the blue smoke from the burning incense transformed into trickling streams. They gathered into something resembling an illusory brook and sank into the pitch-black abyss beneath the cliff.

In only a moment, the loose stones on the precipice began to tumble down. The entire cliff seemed to tremble faintly, and great numbers of Hungry Ghosts erupted from beneath the pitch-black cliff like a geyser.

Uncle Fu's eyes narrowed slightly. But then he forcibly suppressed his urge to interrupt the Offering Spell and return to protect Gu Tianxin. He continued standing there, motionless, chanting the spell.

Countless Hungry Ghosts surged out and densely covered the ground. More and more Hungry Ghosts continued rushing from the cliff behind them.

They folded their hands together and held them before their chests. The scattered blue smoke gathered in their palms, transforming into steaming grains of white rice, which they ate.

The worry in Uncle Fu's heart slowly faded. After personally testing the contents of Cècè's letter and finding nothing amiss, he cast aside his distracting thoughts and continued his offering in peace.

He knew where these Hungry Ghosts had come from, and a trace of kindness was naturally stirred within him.

When the incense burned out, the Hungry Ghosts who had received the offering all bowed in thanks. Uncle Fu revealed a faint smile and returned their greeting with a clasped-hands salute.

By then, he no longer had any utilitarian motives. He simply felt that doing this was good—that it was a good deed.

At the instant he opened his heart, the distracting thoughts, violent energy, and demonic intent accumulated within him—things that might later become obstacles in his cultivation or transform into inner demons—turned into wisps of black smoke and flew out. Amid the ranks of Hungry Ghosts, they became ferocious demon heads the size of human heads.

Before those demon heads could bare their fangs and claws or even shout anything, they saw the Hungry Ghosts, so numerous that they filled their entire field of vision...

Within the span of just two or three breaths, the demon heads that had manifested from nothing but had no physical form were torn apart and devoured by the Hungry Ghosts.

At that moment, the Hungry Ghosts also withdrew into the pitch-black abyss and disappeared.

Uncle Fu stood there blankly, feeling his body and mind become clear and unburdened, his spirit cleansed as if washed. For a moment, he did not know what to say.

The young lady's letter, delivered by Cècè, had not explained things in detail. It had merely mentioned it in passing, as if saying, "When you do a good deed, you'll feel better."

He had only wanted to test it personally for the sake of safety. He had never expected that when he sincerely purified his heart and simply wished to do a little good, the words in that letter would change from a polite remark into their literal meaning.

His expression grew increasingly solemn. He understood all too well what such a change signified.

These Hungry Ghosts had originally been pitiful people from the lowest rungs of society. Most people who knew about Hungry Ghosts held little malice toward them and instinctively distinguished them from other Ghostly beings. Now, that distinction would probably grow even stronger.

And this was Yu Ziqing's original intention. Even when he was unconscious, his instincts remained, and those instincts followed the true desires of his heart.

He understood better than anyone that finding these Hungry Ghosts a way out did not merely mean opening up a path of Hungry Ghosts for them, giving them a chance to stop starving forever.

The vast majority of Hungry Ghosts needed offerings. But if this relied solely on human kindness, it could never last. That kind of relationship would always contain an innate imbalance.

If one wanted to stabilize a relationship over the long term, everyone had to be brought onto roughly the same level overall. Only after a subtle relationship of mutual interest, with giving and receiving on both sides, would the relationship as a whole grow more stable and enduring.

Yu Ziqing needed everyone, whenever they had the inclination, to have the ability to offer these pitiful Hungry Ghosts something simple from time to time. He could not possibly make offerings to every Hungry Ghost by himself.

After Uncle Fu personally tested it and experienced changes far beyond his expectations, he immediately turned around and went to report to Gu Tianxin.

The impact of this matter would be enormous.

"The Red Sun Calamity has ended; the White Sun shall rise!"

The slogan exploded across the city, shouted with near-hysterical fanaticism.

Yu Ziqing pushed open the inn window and looked outside. A procession dressed in white robes and carrying white banners, resembling a funeral procession in mourning clothes, was already parading ostentatiously through the streets before the sky had even darkened.

At the distant city gate, the guards huddled around a charcoal brazier with their collars turned up, listlessly keeping warm. They did not even spare this side a glance.

The city looked increasingly bleak as well. Torn scraps of paper and rubbish drifted along the streets, while the sparse, hurried pedestrians were unwilling to meddle or even take a second look. Most simply kept their distance from the cultists.

Although the town beneath their feet was still technically in the border region, it lay nearly a thousand miles from the actual border.

Whether the higher-ups of Great Zhen did not want to interfere or simply had not noticed what was happening here, the person in power over this town had definitely lost either the ability or the energy to deal with it.

No city lord would enjoy seeing their territory overrun by cultists, its streets desolate, its shops shuttered one after another, and its merchants growing fewer by the day.

Just as Yu Ziqing did not want White Sun Evil Sacrifice, that disgusting thing, to one day appear along the path of Hungry Ghosts he had opened, he did not need the Hungry Ghosts to do anything for him. But neither did he want anyone using his name to swindle commoners and then turn around and swindle the Hungry Ghosts.

This was absolutely intolerable. If he could not wipe out these heretics, there were other ways to settle the matter once and for all: dig a huge pit and wait for them to fall in, killing their Holy Mother along with them.

He had begun cultivating the path of Hungry Ghosts alongside his other cultivation precisely because he wanted to create an anti-fraud technique as soon as possible. He would use his authority to carve it directly into the path of Hungry Ghosts. In the future, anyone who used Hungry Ghosts for the customary methods of incense offerings and worship would be struck dead by the backlash, those idiots.

They were already thinking of laying plans and attempting parasitism?

I'll make the pesticide first and block every road you have. Whoever tries it will die.

Of course, this was his final contingency. It was not ready yet, but that did not stop Yu Ziqing from trying other methods to kill them now.

After closing the window, Cècè poured Yu Ziqing a cup of hot tea.

"Young Master, the man leading them today has already entered cultivation. There's a trace of bewitchment in his voice."

"Did you discover anything?"

"I didn't dare investigate the city carelessly. I still don't have sufficient control over my Domain, and I'm afraid there may be an expert within dozens of miles who could notice me. But even without expanding my Domain, I sensed that there are Hungry Ghosts in the City Lord's Mansion. There isn't a single cultivator of any real strength in the city either. That isn't normal. Even a border town that isn't an important stronghold should have at least one fifth-stage or even sixth-stage expert stationed here."

"Can you lure that Hungry Ghost out?"

"He should be trapped by someone. I'll go with Wu Shuangge tonight."

"Good."

When night fell, the White Sun cultists became even more brazen. They seemed never to sleep, draped in plain hemp robes and chanting scriptures as they passed along the streets outside. No one dared go out at such a time.

Wu Shuangge took Cècè underground and brought her to the City Lord's Mansion.

The enormous City Lord's Mansion was deathly silent at night. Only a few candles flickered. Wu Shuangge brought Cècè underground to the dungeon where the Hungry Ghost was located.

No one was guarding the place. Corpses lay everywhere in the dungeon. Only one cell held anything living: a skeletal Hungry Ghost locked inside a chamber covered in densely packed talisman seals.

"Gege, it's your turn." Cècè pointed at the cell.

Wu Shuangge grabbed at empty space with one hand, and a chamber pot appeared beside him. He lifted the lid, and wisps of sauce-black smoke billowed out, seeping into the faintly glowing talisman seals.

In an instant, the light on the talismans flickered rapidly. After a single breath, every talisman had exhausted its power and silently dropped to the ground.

The Hungry Ghost curled up in terror in the corner. Cècè stepped into the cell and slowly extended a hand, stroking the other party's head. The Hungry Ghost gradually calmed down and stared blankly at Cècè.

A moment later, Cècè sighed and waved a hand. The Hungry Ghost vanished.

They returned to the inn.

"Young Master, there really was a Hungry Ghost there. She was a young maid from the City Lord's Mansion, starved to death in the cell. The City Lord's Mansion was wiped out more than a month ago. Whoever is maintaining order in this city now is definitely an impostor. The experts here were also transferred away some time ago for some unknown reason."

"During the day, I discovered that three of the city's four grain shops were closed. The last one was still open, but it had very little grain left for sale. I asked about it too. Prices had more than doubled compared to two months ago, and they were rising every day. That was only because the shopkeeper still had some conscience. Otherwise, he would have closed as well and hoarded his grain."

Yu Ziqing furrowed his brows slightly and gazed north.

"Something major must have happened in Great Zhen. Otherwise, this place wouldn't have been ignored for so long. Mention it in your reply to Gu Tianxin."

"Tomorrow, have Wu Shuangge go out and see whether those cultists will take him to their headquarters."

In a dilapidated grass hut in the city, a woman knelt prostrate before a scripture and devoutly chanted. Her face was pale, her lips utterly bloodless. A man lay dying on the straw mat beside her, while a son and daughter sat at her side, chanting scriptures along with her.

After stubbornly chanting for four hours straight, someone lifted the grass curtain of the hut. A cultist dressed in plain hemp robes entered. After surveying the inside, he took out a palm-sized bowl from behind him. It held half a bowl of slightly thick sweet soup.

The woman cautiously stepped forward, awe in her eyes, and accepted the ceramic bowl with both hands.

As she watched the sweet soup in the bowl grow lower and lower, the woman finally mustered her courage and asked, "My lord, our family has already chanted scriptures for a total of eight hours today, and I've taught my children as well. I'm absolutely devout to the Holy Mother. Could you give us a little more? My child already fainted from hunger once today, and my husband is seriously ill..."

"I said that the entire family must serve the Holy Mother together and chant the scriptures. Then the whole family has to do it together. Although you are the most devout, I can't make an exception for you. Otherwise, I'd be breaking the rules." The cultist patiently explained, then pointed at the half-bowl of sweet soup and said softly, "This is actually already extra. We've taken very good care of you. But rules are rules. I wouldn't dare change them recklessly..."

After the cultist left, the woman carried the half-bowl of sweet soup over and handed it to her children, who were staring at it with eager eyes.

"You two go over there and eat first. Mother isn't hungry. I'm going to check on your father..."

The children had chanted scriptures all day and were already so hungry that green sparks danced before their eyes. They wanted to tell their parents to eat first, but their hands had already stopped obeying them.

They carried the half-bowl of sweet soup to the corner of the hut, squatted down, and sipped it little by little.

The woman sat beside the straw mat and looked at her gravely ill husband. She reached out and touched his face, tears glimmering in her eyes as a trace of madness crept into her expression.

"Husband, you heard him too. Our family is the most devout. Normally, we get to eat porridge thick enough to hold up chopsticks. But these past few days, this is all we've had. I can't watch the two of them starve to death. They're still young. You wouldn't want that either, would you..."

As she spoke, her hands slid across the man's cheeks and closed around his neck. Slowly, she began to tighten her grip.

Despair and sorrow appeared on her face, finally transforming into devout madness.

Before long, she stood up, her expression returning to calm.

"You two haven't eaten your fill, have you? I'll go ask the lord for more. Our whole family is the most devout. We chanted scriptures together for eight hours today. We shouldn't have to go hungry."