Li Family Old Madam

You've never seen the dead spirits battering a pass?

Then you're seeing it today!

Those were more or less the two things Sweet Potato Shochu would have said if asked to speak for everyone who had witnessed the scene before Fierce Tiger Pass.

The Soul Punisher Sect was nothing like the Year-Guarding, Spirit-Bearing, Ghost-Walking, or Disaster-Stealing sects. Those sects set up altars or summoned gods, and their methods often made quite a spectacle, leaving people amazed.

Nor was it like the Trickery Sect, which needed an "audience" to show off its ultimate skills.

The Soul Punisher Sect usually worked out of sight. Many of their methods were too sinister to be seen, even during the preparations. When they finally struck, it was best if their target never saw them coming.

But Sweet Potato Shochu wasn't satisfied with that.

She had always been something of a show-off. Someone who longed to perform onstage, yet had to spend every day tucked away in a corner doing private work, she had long since grown fed up.

So this time, representing the Soul Punisher Sect, she broke with tradition.

There were plenty of people watching, an elder backing her up, and so many familiar faces—both living and dead—looking her way. What was there to fear?

Make a scene!

At her command, the little dead spirits that had scattered moments earlier jolted back to their senses. They turned around, gathered into a crowd, and surged toward Fierce Tiger Pass.

Some even seemed eager to show off before the Golden Armored Warriors scattered around them, hoping to earn a little favor.

They probably didn't know that, imposing as those lords were, they only followed orders.

As the three eerie paper figures rose into the night sky again, every pair of cold, dead eyes in the Head