Ghost Sha Butcher... That's it?

Night, the Capital City.

Under the cover of darkness, the lurking filth stirred, waiting for their moment.

Rustling footsteps scraped against roof tiles as several figures in black night-clothes moved with agile grace, leaping across eaves and scaling walls, before finally dropping into a stronghold courtyard.

A young servant waited in the courtyard. Seeing the group enter, he said, "Show your credentials."

The black-clad figures each produced a small jade token.

The tokens bore a white lotus base, upon which sat a smiling, open-mouthed Maitreya Buddha. On the reverse were carved four characters: "Maitreya Descends."

This Maitreya Lotus Jade Token was the credential of the "White Lotus Sect," an officially designated evil cult by the Great Jing Dynasty.

Maitreya descends, the Bright King emerges.

The White Lotus Sect was a religious organization that had existed among the people since the previous dynasty. They twisted scripture and stole Buddhist teachings as their guiding principles, weaving together a set of doctrines to delude the masses. Once prevalent in the Southwest, Xiang Region, and Min Region, they had many believers.

In the final years of the previous dynasty, when the situation was unstable, the White Lotus Sect seized the opportunity to rise in rebellion and claim kingship, but failed. After the Great Jing Dynasty was established, they took up the banner of "overthrow Jing, restore the former," repeatedly active on the front lines of rebellion.

In earlier years, they used White Lotus doctrine to brainwash and recruit followers, forming cliques for private gain, lurking in the shadows and plotting to split the Great Jing.

Until the current reign of Ganhuang, with court corruption, the people struggling to survive, and times in turmoil, the White Lotus Sect smelled an opportunity and began testing the waters, preparing to plot an uprising.

The Great Jing's grand secretaries repeatedly issued memorials stating that the White Lotus Sect stirred up public opinion, disrupted good customs, and designated them a state-wrecking evil cult.

The court launched large-scale arrests of White Lotus members and suppressed local uprisings, but because the sect's reach was vast, its members numerous and well-hidden, despite heavy military expenditures each year, they could only suppress them temporarily, never fully eradicating them.

Tonight, gathered in this Capital City stronghold courtyard, was precisely such a group of reactionary cult members, veteran rebels.

"Where's the new Incense Master?"

The leader of the arriving black-clad White Lotus members spoke, his tone harsh, carrying obvious resentment.

The young servant who had greeted them in the courtyard pointed to the main room where a light was on.

"The Incense Master is in the room. You all wait here, I'll go—"

"Wait for your mother! Fine, I want to see who it is, how capable they are, how bold they are, to dare steal my Incense Master position. You want to be Incense Master? First ask my blade—"

The leader shoved the servant aside, cursing loudly.

He had worked in the shadows for the organization in the Capital City for many years, giving his all, racking up plenty of merit. Recently, the Incense Master position had opened up, and it should have been his promotion. But instead, a new Incense Master had suddenly been parachuted in to take his spot—how could he not be furious?

But before he could finish his words—

Clang-clatter!

The door burst open, and a seven-foot-long, hundred-jin heavy Ghost-Head Guillotine blade flew out!

Crack! It sliced clean through his waist!

A massive bloody gash ran across the man's midsection, splitting him into two halves. They hit the ground, spilling a mess of entrails.

The one who had been shouting just moments ago now lay dead on the floor.

Hiss. The others present stared at the two halves of the corpse, the blood not yet cold, all silent as cicadas in winter, cold sweat pouring down their backs. Not one dared make a sound.

A seven-foot-long, hundred-jin blade—what did that mean?

An ordinary person would struggle just to lift it. Swinging it was like wielding a person as a weapon. How could any normal person use such a weapon?

Let alone the fact that this hundred-jin guillotine blade had been thrown from inside the room and had bisected a man in one stroke.

The strength of the new Incense Master inside the room needed no further explanation—this one strike was enough.

The White Lotus members knew how to read the wind. They immediately cupped their fists and said, "We pay respects to the new Incense Master!"

The already shattered door was kicked open, and the person inside finally stepped out. He was not some towering, muscular brute, but a young man.

Yet the aura around him was like a demon, like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Only someone who had killed countless people could form such an aura, making it impossible for others to meet his gaze. They all lowered their heads and stepped back.

"Remember this. I, Ghost Sha Butcher, Zhang Tianhen, am from now on the Incense Master of the Capital City White Lotus Sect."

Zhang Tianhen walked to the wall and pulled out his massive guillotine blade. The hundred-jin weapon felt light and effortless in his hand. His brows were full of arrogance and disdain, and murderous intent blazed in his eyes, as if he might casually chop someone down for fun at any moment.

Ghost Sha Butcher? It's actually Ghost Sha Butcher?!

When the White Lotus members heard this name, they nearly had heart attacks, their legs trembling weakly.

The name Ghost Sha Butcher was well-known in the north.

His martial arts weren't top-tier, merely not weak, but he was cruel and bloodthirsty. No one survived his blade. That Ghost-Head Guillotine had claimed countless souls, making everyone fear him.

A few months ago, the White Lotus Sect attacked a northern county town. After taking the city, they were supposed to collect silver and grain. But Ghost Sha Butcher, on a whim, picked up his guillotine and began slaughtering the entire city.

Three days and three nights. A full three days and three nights.

Every single person in that city was butchered by him alone!

Elderly, women, children—all fell to his blade. Even some of his fellow White Lotus members couldn't bear to watch. One of them spoke up, and in the blink of an eye, he was dead on the ground.

This man was a madman, a lunatic who took pleasure in slaughter.

Why had the headquarters sent this butchering madman here? Did they want to slaughter the entire Capital City clean?

"What have you all been doing in the Capital City?"

"Reporting to the Incense Master. Following the headquarters' secret orders, we've been planting 'Heavenly Punishment' in the Capital City's pleasure quarters to stir up internal chaos."

Tat-tat-tat. Before the White Lotus Sect members could finish speaking, the rapid sound of boots echoed from outside the courtyard. The gate was kicked open, and a flood of officials stormed in, shouting, "White Lotus heretics! Surrender now and you won't be killed!"

"Damn it! It's the Six Fan School! How did they find us? Which one of you left a trail?"

The White Lotus members' faces turned pale. One of them then noticed strange silver powder on his feet.

"Tracking Powder! It's the Six Fan School's Tracking..."

Before the White Lotus member could finish his sentence, he was split in two vertically by the Ghost-Head Guillotine.

The remaining White Lotus members grew even paler. They felt that following this incense master was worse than being captured by the Six Fan School.

Ghost Sha Butcher Zhang Tianhen hoisted the guillotine onto his shoulder, blood splattering all over his face and body. Staring at the Six Fan School men before him, his eyes reddened, and he let out an excited, deranged laugh.

"This many people... not enough to kill..."

The moment the words left his mouth, blood sprayed among the Six Fan School ranks! The Ghost Sha Butcher was like a meat grinder, stirring up a bloody storm under the moonlight that night!

The guillotine's movements were all wide and forceful. The blade itself was heavy and massive, relying on momentum to bring down a strike with the force of ten thousand jun, capable of severing any weapon—no blade dared to meet it head-on.

It was a one-sided massacre.

By the time the moon was stained with blood and the guillotine hit the ground, the last Six Fan School man was cleaved in two at the waist. Amid the scattered limbs and severed arms, only the terrifying Ghost Sha Butcher stood.

An urgent secret report was rushed into the Six Fan School that night.

The Ghost Sha Butcher had appeared in the Capital City, slaughtering the Six Fan School's pursuit squad. All sixty-seven elite members of the squad were wiped out, not a single survivor!

Fearing he would soon rampage through the Capital City, stirring up bloodshed and devastation, they urgently requested the Four Great Constables return to the Capital for support!

The Three Judicial Offices fell into panic. The top combat power of the Six Fan School, the Four Great Constables, were away on official business. The remaining constables were utterly powerless against the Ghost Sha Butcher. They could only send an urgent report to the Commander of the Nine Gates, requesting support from the Capital Garrison's Infantry Battalion.

Throughout the night, orders were relayed without pause.

But while the Three Judicial Offices were still pleading for reinforcements, the Ghost Sha Butcher had already slipped into the maze-like alleyways, guillotine in hand.

In the darkness, every household was fast asleep, only to be startled awake by the sound of their doors being smashed in. Before they could open their eyes, the guillotine was already upon them. Amid screams, blood sprayed, and entire families were wiped out.

The Ghost Sha Butcher slaughtered an entire street in one night!

Wherever he passed, whether elderly on the brink of death or infants in swaddling, none survived under the Butcher's blade.

Until the sky lightened at dawn.

The Ghost Sha Butcher happened to reach the entrance of Caishikou Street. The door of a Corpse-Stitching Shop suddenly opened, and a sleepy-eyed fool, yawning, stepped out to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth.

The Ghost Sha Butcher let out a savage laugh and swung his blade. The hundred-jin heavy guillotine came down with the force of ten thousand jun, seemingly about to split the man in two.

Clang!

A crisp sound rang out. The hundred-jin Ghost-Head Guillotine, stained with the blood of ten thousand, fell to the ground, broken in two.

A pitch-black, battered shovel had shattered the hundred-jin guillotine.

Shattered? Shattered?! How is that possible?!

The Ghost Sha Butcher was stunned. His Ghost-Head Guillotine was forged from Peerless Black Iron, tempered by earthfire for a year—a rare treasure among weapons. In head-on clashes, it had never met defeat. Even first-rate masters stronger than him dared not meet the Ghost-Head Guillotine directly.

Why! Why! Why could this broken shovel not only withstand the Ghost-Head Guillotine but shatter it in one blow?!

The Ghost Sha Butcher's eyes bulged with disbelief, but he had no chance to figure it out. Because after smashing the guillotine, the broken shovel followed through and struck his crown.

A terrifying force he had never felt before broke through his protective inner strength, pulverizing his brain. The Ghost Sha Butcher rolled his eyes back, foaming at the mouth, and collapsed to the ground.

That one shovel blow had already scrambled his brain. Even if he somehow survived, he would only become a bedridden, drooling idiot, babbling "ah-ba ah-ba."

A generation's Butcher, Zhang Tianhen, a White Lotus Sect heretic who murdered and massacred cities, committing every evil imaginable—deserving of death by slow slicing while alive and his ashes scattered after death, such a villain steeped in wickedness.

In the end, at the entrance of the Corpse-Stitching Shop on Caishikou Street in the Capital City, a little fool knocked him into a vegetable with one shovel.

Staring at the man on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

Lin Shou scratched his head and pulled back the Burial Shovel.

What's this about early in the morning? Got a problem?

But he hadn't held back his strength just now—hit too hard.

This isn't going to kill someone, is it?

Ah, hey, anyone here to vouch for me? He swung first.