I, Qin Shi Huang, Send Money

A moment later, the woman followed the cultist distributing food back to the thatched hut.

The cultist entered and glanced at the man lying on the straw mat. His eyes were wide open, but he had already stopped breathing. Filthy handprints were still clearly visible around his neck.

"My lord, my entire family has served the Holy Mother and recited the scriptures for a whole day. According to the rules, we should get two bowls of porridge, the kind that can hold chopsticks upright without them falling over."

The woman's gaze was somewhat calm, but concealed beneath that calmness was madness.

The cultist's expression turned solemn, and he immediately nodded.

"That's right. I misjudged it just now. Your household is the most devout among us. In a few days, a priest will come here in person. When the time comes, I'll report this to the priest. Then not only will you be able to eat your fill, you might even be given a house."

After the cultist left with the man's corpse, the two newly allotted bowls of thick porridge were divided among the family of three. It was the only time in the past ten days that they had felt even slightly full.

After eating their fill, the woman immediately knelt before the crude shrine again and began muttering scripture. The madness and devotion in her eyes were intertwined.

She looked at her children and scolded them.

"What are you still standing there for? Come quickly and give thanks for the porridge bestowed by the Holy Mother."

Wu Shuangge walked along the main street. There were few pedestrians, and desolation filled his sight. The occasional passerby hurried along as if afraid of something.

After walking for a while, he recalled Yu Ziqing's instructions and found a street corner to sit in. His expression seemed somewhat vacant, but he was actually recalling the characters he had learned that day. He had suffered heavy memory loss while alive, and there were words he no longer knew how to say when speaking. He had to relearn them.

Wu Shuangge had only been sitting in the street corner reviewing his lessons for a short while when the White Sun cultists who dared to walk the streets even in daylight once again paraded past, shouting slogans.

The cultists, dressed in plain hemp robes, soon noticed Wu Shuangge.

Wu Shuangge, who was muttering to himself, also drew their attention at once.

One cultist left the procession and came to stand before Wu Shuangge. He first shouted a slogan, but when he saw that Wu Shuangge showed no reaction and merely muttered something incomprehensible, he immediately sneered.

"So he's an idiot."

"Hey, idiot, do you know how to read?"

"Huh?" Wu Shuangge was startled, then nodded. "I... I know how to read."

"He actually knows how to read? Then come with us. We'll feed you."

Thinking of his mission, Wu Shuangge obediently followed the cultists. They brought him to a camp inside the city where thatched huts stood everywhere.

As soon as he entered, he could hear faint murmuring. The air reeked, and it was also permeated by an inexplicable aura of madness.

Wu Shuangge was assigned to a thatched hut. Inside was a crude shrine, on which lay a scripture.

"Since you know how to read, recite it from the scripture. You have to keep reciting all day, and then we'll give you food. Understand?"

"Oh, I know how to read." Wu Shuangge nodded.

The cultist shook his head. Seeing that Wu Shuangge seemed absent-minded, he turned and left.

"He really is an idiot. In this day and age, even idiots know how to read..."

Two shichen later, the creaking of the food cart sounded outside the door, and there was movement outside as well.

"Everyone, come out. It's time to eat."

Wu Shuangge stepped out of the thatched hut and glanced around. A woman came out of the hut next door, followed by two children, a boy and a girl.

The cultist pushed the cart to the woman's side and loudly praised them.

"Sister-in-law Li, along with her daughter Dumb Girl and son White Dog, are all among the most devout here. According to the rules, they have earned the right to meet the priest."

As he spoke, the cultist immediately took out two large bowls, filled them with two bowls of thick white porridge, and added two slices of glistening fat pork.

"Their household has also earned the right to eat meat. They get it every day. This is the Holy Mother's reward to them!"

At these words, the surrounding ragged people all showed envy. They had not tasted meat in a very long time, let alone the thick slices of pork with the most grease.

Sister-in-law Li held her bowl of food, raised her head slightly, and loudly offered praise, as if she had gained a rare sense of achievement. She was immensely proud.

On his first day, Wu Shuangge was also given a small bowl of porridge. He held the bowl, squatted by the doorway, and sipped the porridge in tiny mouthfuls. As long as it was food, he could not bear to waste any of it, and he ate with great seriousness.

The cultist saw this as well and nodded in satisfaction.

With an example before him, he believed that one, or even several, people here would certainly be chosen by the priest. That would all be his achievement. He would surely be granted a cultivation method afterward and receive the priest's blessing.

After the meal, the commoners in the thatched-hut district, who did nothing every day but recite scripture, were granted precious time to rest. Or rather, resting at this time did not count as a lack of devotion.

Wu Shuangge ate with great relish. He was one of the very few Hungry Ghosts who could eat whatever he wanted. Naturally, if someone sent him food, that was best of all.

The way he ate quickly caught the attention of the boy beside him. Even the porridge tasted much better than usual as the boy ate, perhaps because there was meat in it today.

"My name is White Dog. What's your name?"

"My sister calls me Gege."

"You haven't eaten in a long time, have you?"

"Mm." Wu Shuangge thought about it, then nodded earnestly. It was true that he had not eaten for half a day. Although the porridge these people gave him was fragrant, it was not as fragrant as the Young Master's food, nor did it fill his belly as well.

"My mother says our family is the most devout. We have to recite scripture for seven or eight shichen every day, so my family gets the most food. We can eat our fill every day."

White Dog ate noisily. He only took tiny bites from that slice of fat pork, unable to bring himself to finish it. By the time he had eaten all the porridge, a small bite of the pork still remained.

He looked at Wu Shuangge, who was holding his small bowl and eating with such relish and seriousness, and a strange warmth suddenly rose in his heart.

"Have you never eaten meat?"

"Mm." Wu Shuangge nodded again. Ever since he had followed the Young Master, he truly had not eaten meat, nor did he need to.

White Dog looked at the small bite of fat pork remaining in his own bowl. He was reluctant to part with it, but after thinking it over, he secretly and swiftly transferred it to Wu Shuangge.

"Eat it quickly. Don't tell anyone else. You have to recite scripture properly from now on too, and then you'll have meat as well."

Seeing the meat he had given away, White Dog immediately regretted it. But once it was gone, he regretted acting so impulsively and was too embarrassed to ask for it back.

"I just saw how deliciously you ate and felt that watching you eat made me feel fuller than usual too. It also made me happy. Don't get the wrong idea—I won't give you any next time. You'll have to depend on yourself."

"Thank you." Wu Shuangge showed not the slightest disgust. He thanked him with utmost sincerity, grateful for the other boy's charity.

He knew that this boy named White Dog was a good person. If the boy knew the Charity Seal and Charity Mantra, he could already help him eat the wicked things in his heart.

When evening came and everyone rested, Wu Shuangge sank into the ground and disappeared from the camp.

When he returned to the inn and saw Yu Ziqing, Wu Shuangge immediately took out the chamber pot.

"Young Master, it's already past the time for relieving yourself."

Yu Ziqing was already used to it. He simply got to work. After his routine trip to the toilet, Cècè asked Wu Shuangge about his experiences that day.

A moment later.

"There will be a priest coming here..."

Yu Ziqing wondered whether he should first find a way to butcher a priest and vent his anger. His true purpose in coming out this time was to resolve the possible parasitism of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice. Personally going down to the lowest levels to investigate was essential. While he was at it, he would kill as many White Sun Evil Sacrifices as he could.

He did not need those Hungry Ghosts to do anything for him. For the time being, the White Sun Evil Sacrifice did not need them either. According to Yu Ziqing's deduction, what they needed was a group of believers so devout that even if they starved to death, they would not waver in the slightest.

If those who starved to death became Hungry Ghosts and remained unwavering in their devotion, they would truly give the White Sun Evil Sacrifice an opportunity to parasitize them.

Yu Ziqing's path of the Hungry Ghosts was like the path of a Dao Practitioner. Anyone who came after could walk it. In theory alone, anyone might reach the summit. Only by creating such a path could the Dao Creator possess the myth of advancing one rank every day.

It was on a completely different level from the path of the White Sun Evil Sacrifice, which required sacrificial incense, scripture recitation, and service in order to perfect themselves.

According to Old Yang, the White Sun Evil Sacrifice could never be completely killed or eradicated. Yet throughout the generations of White Sun Evil Sacrifice, the one with the highest cultivation had only reached the ninth rank. He had only just advanced when he was surrounded and slaughtered, dying a tragic death with both body and spirit destroyed.

That had also been the heaviest loss the White Sun Evil Sacrifice had ever suffered. For several hundred years afterward, they had not shown themselves again.

When the White Sun Evil Sacrifice appeared several decades ago, that generation's White Sun Holy Mother had only just reached the seventh rank when she was brutally killed by an academy head from Langya Academy.

That's right, it was an academy head who had not yet entered Dao—a Dao Practitioner academy head whom Old Yang claimed was more or less his friend.

This generation's White Sun Holy Mother had died even more miserably. She had died at the hands of a great expert who knew the heavens above and the earth below. Not even a trace of spiritual thought or a speck of bone ash had remained. She had died utterly cleanly.

As for the current generation's White Sun Holy Mother, she had not publicly shown herself so far. Clearly, the previous generation's lesson had been deeply etched into her.

Now that he recalled many things Old Yang had once said about the White Sun Evil Sacrifice, and combined them with what he had encountered, a bold idea began to take shape.

The reason he trusted Old Yang's words so much was that he had once suspected Old Yang of having invented his "friend" out of thin air.

Knowing so many details, the previous generation's White Sun Holy Mother had probably been killed by him.

The next day, Yu Ziqing, still maintaining his withered and emaciated appearance, imitated Wu Shuangge and squatted in a street corner.

Very smoothly, Yu Ziqing also entered the thatched-hut camp. The cultists refused no one—or rather, they had already begun snatching people off the streets. Whoever they caught was one more person.

"This hut only has one idiot. You can live here too. Remember, you must recite scripture every day to receive the Holy Mother's blessing. Those who aren't devout enough won't receive any blessing."

When Wu Shuangge saw Yu Ziqing, he showed no reaction. He had sensed Yu Ziqing long before he entered.

Yu Ziqing entered the hut and flipped through the scripture on the crude shrine. Its contents differed from the one in his possession. All the useful bits of knowledge had been removed, leaving only rambling scriptures meant to brainwash people. The passages concerning the Hungry Ghosts had increased again, and this time, even more details had been added.

After the White Sun Holy Mother created the path of the Hungry Ghosts, she could have advanced one rank every day and transformed into a rainbow of light after twelve days.

But out of concern for the suffering believers throughout the world, the Holy Mother gave up of her own accord on the eleventh day and suffered a terrible backlash. She was now sleeping within the Holy Mountain.

Countless Hungry Ghosts grateful to the Holy Mother had transformed into locust trees to guard the Holy Mountain. Now, they needed believers to devoutly recite scripture and serve her so that the Holy Mother could return as soon as possible.

After reading the scripture and marveling at how quickly these scoundrels had kept up, Yu Ziqing was left with a head full of question marks.

Why did these words sound so much like...

"I, Qin Shi Huang, send money."