Jingzhao Prefecture Office, before and after Wang Yue's divine manifestation in Kyoto
Constable Zhang knelt on the ground, trembling with fear as he reported to Prefect Gao Sheng, "My lord, when I received the message and went there, I found corpses everywhere. The patrol battalion, the Xuanjing Division—even Head Constable Ma and the others—all lay dead."
Gao Sheng had been leisurely sipping tea. At those words, he choked on a mouthful and coughed violently for quite a while before his complexion finally returned to normal.
Still unable to believe it, he looked at Constable Zhang and asked again, "You're saying they're all dead?"
Fear filled Constable Zhang's eyes. He hurriedly replied, "Yes, my lord. They're all dead. Every one of them had their throat slit with a single stroke. And the most terrifying part is that, after examining them, the accompanying coroner found they had all died at almost exactly the same time."
Imagining the scene Constable Zhang had described made Gao Sheng's scalp prickle. He could no longer stay seated. He hurried to his feet and paced back and forth across the room.
He was terrified of dying, and now he spoke in agitation. "What are we supposed to do? Is King Yama Hall going to come after us? It's all Xia Chun's fault. Why did he have to provoke King Yama Hall? Couldn't we have just solved the case as usual?"
Just as he finished speaking, the office suddenly seemed to grow dim. Before long, it was so dark he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.
He fell hard onto his backside and cried out in alarm, "What's happening? Why did it suddenly get dark? Have the people from King Yama Hall come for us?"
Constable Zhang was startled too. He hurriedly took out a