Night, Capital City.
Beneath the cover of darkness, vile creatures lying in wait seized their chance to strike.
Soft, rustling footsteps crossed the roof tiles. Several figures in black clothes moved nimbly across the rooftops before dropping one after another into the courtyard of a compound.
A young servant was waiting in the courtyard. Seeing the group enter, he said, "Show your tokens."
The black-clad figures each held up a small jade token.
A white lotus formed the base of each token, with a smiling Maitreya Buddha seated atop it. Four characters were carved on the back: "Maitreya Descends."
These Maitreya Lotus Jade Tokens were the official tokens of the White Lotus Sect, a heretical cult designated by the Great Jing Dynasty.
Maitreya descends; the Bright King emerges.
The White Lotus Sect had been a religious organization among the common people since the previous dynasty. It stole Buddhist teachings from the scriptures to build its foundation, cobbled together a set of doctrines, and used them to mislead the populace. For a time, it had flourished in the southwest, as well as in the Xiang and Min Regions, with countless followers.
At the end of the previous dynasty, amid the turmoil, the White Lotus Sect had seized the opportunity to rebel and proclaim a king, but failed. After Great Jing was established, it took up the slogan of overthrowing Jing and restoring the previous dynasty, repeatedly involving itself in rebellions.
In its early years, the sect had used its doctrines to spread propaganda and brainwash the people, recruit followers, form cliques for private gain, and secretly plot to divide Great Jing.
It was only under the current Ganhuang that the court grew corrupt, the people fell into misery, and the times grew turbulent. Sensing an opportunity, the White Lotus Sect began testing the waters and preparing for an uprising.
Great Jing had repeatedly issued official decrees condemning the White Lotus Sect. Its followers stirred up public sentiment and disrupted social order, and the court declared it a heretical cult that threatened the nation.
The court had launched large-scale arrests of White Lotus Sect followers and suppressed their uprisings across the land. But the sect spanned a vast territory, and its many followers were well hidden. Though the court spent a great deal on the military every year, it could only suppress the sect temporarily; it was impossible to root it out completely.
Gathered in this courtyard in Capital City tonight was just such a group of subversive cultists—seasoned rebels.
"Where's the new incense master?"
The leader of the black-clad White Lotus Sect members spoke, his tone hostile and laced with resentment.
The servant waiting in the courtyard pointed toward the main room, where a lamp was lit.
"The incense master is inside. Wait here, and I'll go—"
"Wait for your mother! Fine, I'd like to see who it is, what kind of ability and nerve he has to steal my position as incense master. You want the job? Ask my blade first—"
The leader shoved the servant aside and started cursing.
He had secretly served the organization in Capital City for years, devoting himself wholeheartedly and earning plenty of merit. The position of incense master had recently become vacant, and he should have been promoted. But then, out of nowhere, a new incense master had been parachuted in to take his place. How could he not be furious?
But he hadn't even finished speaking.
Clang!
The door burst open, and a seven-foot-long, hundred-pound Ghost-Head Guillotine came hurtling out!
Crack! It cut clean through his waist!
A bloody gash cleaved across his middle. His body split into two halves and hit the ground, spilling his guts everywhere.
The man who had been shouting moments before was suddenly a corpse on the ground.
The others present sucked in a breath. Looking at the two halves of the body, severed at the waist while the blood was still warm, they fell silent, cold sweat pouring down their bodies. Not one dared make a sound.
What did a seven-foot-long, hundred-pound blade even mean?
An ordinary person would struggle just to lift it. Swinging it would be like gripping a person and using them as a weapon. What kind of ordinary person could wield a weapon like that?
And this hundred-pound guillotine had been thrown out of the room—and cut a man in half with a single blow.
There was no need to ask what kind of strength the new incense master inside possessed. That single strike said it all.
The White Lotus Sect members knew how to read the room. They immediately cupped their fists and cried, "We pay our respects to the new incense master!"
The door, already nearly shattered, was kicked open, and its occupant finally stepped outside. He was no hulking, muscular brute, but a young man.
Yet baleful intent seemed to cling to him, as if he were a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Only countless killings could have forged such an aura. No one dared look straight at him; one after another, they lowered their heads and shrank back.
"Remember this. I, Ghost Sha Butcher Zhang Tianhen, am now the incense master of the White Lotus Sect in Capital City."
Zhang Tianhen walked over to the wall and pulled out his giant guillotine. Though the weapon weighed a hundred pounds, he held it as lightly as a feather. Arrogance and disdain were written all over his face, and killing intent coursed through his eyes, as if he might casually chop someone up for fun at any moment.
Ghost Sha Butcher? It was actually Ghost Sha Butcher?!
The White Lotus Sect members nearly had heart attacks when they heard the name. Their legs began to tremble.
The name Ghost Sha Butcher was infamous in the north.
His martial arts weren't top-tier, merely decent, but he was cruel and bloodthirsty, leaving no survivors beneath his blade. Countless souls had perished under his Ghost-Head Guillotine, and everyone feared him.
A few months ago, the White Lotus Sect had attacked a county town in the north. After capturing the city, they should have collected silver and grain. But Ghost Sha Butcher had gotten carried away, seized his guillotine, and started slaughtering the city.
Three days and three nights. Three whole days and nights.
Every person in the city had been slaughtered by his hand alone!
Old or young, men or women, even children—every last one had died beneath his blade. Some of his fellow White Lotus Sect members couldn't bear to watch and spoke up. In the blink of an eye, they were lying dead on the spot.
The man was a madman, a lunatic who took pleasure in slaughtering people.
Why had the main altar sent this slaughter-crazed lunatic here? Did they want him to butcher all of Capital City?
"What have you been doing in Capital City?"
"Reporting to the incense master: under secret orders from the main altar, we planted 'Heavenly Punishment' in the brothels and pleasure quarters of Capital City to incite unrest..."
Before the White Lotus Sect member could finish, the sound of boots rushing over rang out beyond the courtyard. The gate was kicked open, and a large group of officials stormed in, shouting, "White Lotus Sect fiends! Surrender now and you'll be spared!"
"Damn it! It's the Six Fan School! How did they find us? Which one of you failed to cover your tracks?"
The White Lotus Sect members went pale. One of them finally noticed strange silver powder on his feet.
"Tracking Powder! It's the Six Fan School's tracking—"
Before the White Lotus Sect member could finish, the Ghost-Head Guillotine split him cleanly in two from head to toe.
The others turned even paler. They felt that getting arrested by the Six Fan School would be better than following this incense master.
Ghost Sha Butcher Zhang Tianhen hoisted the guillotine onto his shoulder. Blood splattered all over his body and face. He stared at the Six Fan School men before him, eyes bloodshot, and let out an excited, twisted laugh.
"This few? Not enough to kill..."
He had barely finished speaking when blood exploded among the Six Fan School men! Ghost Sha Butcher was like a meat grinder, raising a bloody storm beneath the moonlight that night!
The guillotine was wielded in broad, sweeping strokes. The blade itself was massive and heavy, and once its momentum carried it down, its force was as heavy as ten thousand jun. It could chop through any weapon; no weapon dared meet it head-on.
It was a one-sided massacre.
By the time the blood stained the night sky and the guillotine hit the ground, the last Six Fan School man had been cut in half at the waist. Among the scattered limbs, only the terrifying Ghost Sha Butcher remained standing.
An urgent report was sent to the Six Fan School overnight.
Ghost Sha Butcher had appeared in Capital City and slaughtered the Six Fan School's fugitive-catching squad. All sixty-seven elite members had been wiped out; not one survived!
Fearing he would soon rampage through Capital City, raising a bloody storm and leaving the people to suffer, they urgently requested that the Four Great Constables return to the capital and provide support!
The Three Judicial Offices fell into a panic. The Six Fan School's top fighters, the Four Great Constables, were away on assignment. The constables left behind were no match for Ghost Sha Butcher, so they could only send an urgent report to the Commander of the Nine Gates and request support from the Capital Garrison's Infantry Battalion.
Orders flew through the night without cease.
But while the Three Judicial Offices were still calling for reinforcements, Ghost Sha Butcher had already picked up his guillotine and slipped into the maze of alleyways.
In the night, every household slept soundly. Then suddenly came the crash of a door being broken down. When people opened their eyes, the guillotine was already coming down on them. Amid screams and flying blood, entire households were wiped out.
Ghost Sha Butcher slaughtered the streets all night!
Wherever he went, from elderly folk in their twilight years to infants in swaddling clothes, no one survived beneath the Butcher's blade.
Until the sky grew faintly bright at dawn.
Ghost Sha Butcher happened to reach the street by Caishikou when the door of a nearby Corpse-Stitching Shop suddenly opened. A sleepy-eyed fool came out yawning, about to brush his teeth and rinse his mouth.
Ghost Sha Butcher gave a savage grin and swung his blade. The hundred-pound guillotine, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, came crashing down, about to split the man in two.
Clang!
With a sharp ring, the hundred-pound Ghost-Head Guillotine, stained with the blood of ten thousand people, hit the ground and broke into two pieces.
A battered, black shovel had smashed the hundred-pound guillotine.
B-broken?! How could that be?!
Ghost Sha Butcher was stunned. His Ghost-Head Guillotine was made of Peerless Black Iron, forged over the course of a year in the fires of the earth. It was a rare and precious weapon, invincible in a head-on clash. It had never known defeat. Even first-rate experts with greater skill than him wouldn't dare meet the Ghost-Head Guillotine head-on.
Why?! Why?! Why could this battered shovel not only block the Ghost-Head Guillotine, but smash it to pieces with a single blow?!
Ghost Sha Butcher's eyes bulged with disbelief. But he had no chance to figure it out, because after breaking the guillotine, the battered shovel continued straight into the crown of his head.
A terrifying power unlike anything he had ever felt broke through his protective inner force and shook his brain to mush. Ghost Sha Butcher rolled his eyes, foamed at the mouth, and fell to the ground.
That single blow had smashed his brain to pieces. Even if he somehow survived, he would only become a bedridden vegetable, lying there going "ah-ba, ah-ba."
Zhang Tianhen, a butcher of his generation and a White Lotus Sect fiend, had slaughtered people and massacred cities, committing every evil imaginable. Such a wicked criminal deserved to be flayed alive while he lived and ground to dust after death.
In the end, right outside the door of the Corpse-Stitching Shop on a street by Caishikou in Capital City, a little fool had whacked him into a vegetable with a single shovel strike.
Looking down at the man lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth, Lin Shou scratched his head and put away his Burial Shovel.
What was that first thing in the morning? Was he sick?
But he hadn't held back just now. He'd hit too hard.
That wasn't going to kill him, was it?
Hey, someone—can anybody testify that he started it?
Before you continue