The Wax Goose Curse

"Don't look up!"

Zhu Yuanzhang spat out a charred chunk of entrails.

A wave of relief washed over him.

He pressed down on Fu Qi's head as well.

He warned him,

"No matter which one you look at, you'll die!"

"!"

At that, Fu Qi immediately hunched his head like a quail.

He asked,

"With such a great calamity blocking our way, Master, what do you think we should do next?"

"Wait!"

Zhu Yuanzhang led Fu Qi along with their heads lowered to the door of a room off to one side of the road.

Then he kicked the door with all his might!

Bang!

The door flew open!

Inside, the Embroiderer was sewing a half-mask made from a young girl's face onto her own. At the sound, she turned around.

Sensing the scent of the living, she was about to let out a horrifying, ghostly laugh.

But she was met head-on by an iron fist as broad as a wok and reeking of the sea.

"Bam!!!"

The brains of the Embroiderer, still wearing human skin, burst apart.

Then blazing true fire swept over the bloodied chunks and strips of skin still writhing on the floor, burning them all to ash.

"Shut the doors and windows! Don't look at anything! Don't listen!"

"Wait for those two monsters to settle things between themselves!"

Fu Qi glanced at the door, which Zhu Yuanzhang had shattered with a single kick.

His lips twitched.

He wanted to ask how he was supposed to shut the door.

But when he saw Zhu Yuanzhang before him, with white hair, half his body covered in hideous black scales, and skin the bluish gray of a corpse, Fu Qi wisely swallowed his question.

After barricading the doorway with the dressing table and a few planks, Fu Qi blew out the candle.

The room plunged into deep darkness.

For a moment, the atmosphere turned awkward.

Each man had his own agenda, and neither trusted the other.

Circumstances had simply forced them into a temporary alliance.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the first to break the silence.

"How did you recognize that she was Consort Ding?"

"It's quite simple... Master, have you heard of the Wax Goose Curse?"

In the darkness, Fu Qi couldn't see Zhu Yuanzhang.

Feeling a little more at ease, he answered,

"What is that?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

The art of cursing through ritual sacrifice originated in the folk beliefs of Jingchu.

Animals such as pigs and boars were often used as offerings.

The rituals invoked deities from a pantheon that included the Imperial Blessing Deity, Taiyi, and Houtu.

It was said that practitioners could communicate with ghosts and gods and curse their enemies.

At that moment, in a corner Fu Qi couldn't see,

half of Zhu Yuanzhang's body had completely transformed into the form of a Deep One.

The Deep One's vision in the dark made the room as clear as day to him.

"Before, Minghe had less than twenty years left to live."

"But now... barring any accidents, he might live for two hundred years."

"His organs have grown back, but they're nothing like they were before."

Feeling the surging vitality within him, Zhu Yuanzhang thought,

"When Consort Ding was buried, a sorcerer submitted a memorial to the Emperor, accusing the Crown Prince of using the funeral to perform a cursing ritual."

"So the Emperor ordered Bao Miaozhi, a palace official, to open the coffin and examine the body. Sure enough, they found wax geese and other objects used in curses inside."

"The Emperor was furious and ordered a full investigation. Although Chancellor Xu Mianzhi pleaded for him, the Emperor ultimately did not strip Xiao Tong of his position as Crown Prince."

"But in the end, Noble Consort Ding was buried hastily, with the rites accorded to a commoner."

"And the Crown Prince Zhaoming fell ill from grief over the affair and soon died, consumed by sorrow."

"I was there when Bao Miaozhi opened the coffin and examined the body. Of course I recognized..."

"Consort Ding's... face..."

Fu Qi spoke slowly. It seemed the horrifying scene of the coffin being opened had returned to him, and his voice grew strained.

The whole "Wax Goose Curse" affair sounded like a perfectly ordinary case of witchcraft within palace walls.

Yet Zhu Yuanzhang knew better.

Xiao Tong's death had not been an accident.

It was one of the prices Xiao Yan had paid to win the support of Tongtai Temple.

After all, in this life, Zhu Yuanzhang himself had just swallowed a precious pill refined from Xiao Tong's blood essence.

And judging by Consort Ding's behavior just now,

she knew perfectly well that Xiao Yan was the real mastermind behind everything.

So as for the curse...

It was hard to say whether the accusation had been fabricated out of thin air, with Xiao Yan seizing the opportunity to frame Crown Prince Zhaoming,

or whether Xiao Tong and the forces behind him had long been wary of Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan,

and had truly planned to use Chu Region witchcraft to curse him to death,

only for their plot to leak and Xiao Yan to strike back.

In any case, one conclusion was clear—

none of them were simple!

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed inwardly.

He closed his eyes and began reciting the Sangqiwo Jataka Sutra.

Using the Tiger-Skin Kasaya as cover, he entered a state of breath suppression.

As for Fu Qi, Zhu Yuanzhang had no idea what method the old man had used.

He lay rigid on the floor, eyes wide open, his breathing stopped.

His blood had gone cold, and his heart had stopped beating.

If Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't watched him lie down of his own accord, sprinkle incense ash over his head, and then become like this,

he might have thought the old bastard was really dead.

"At least he wasn't lying about this."

"Those noble families who migrated south during the Yongjia Southern Migration..."

"They managed to escape the pursuit of the Five Barbarians and subdue the lands south of the Yangtze, including Jingchu and Bashu, along with the remnants of the 'witch cults' and 'Way of the Five Pecks of Rice,' as well as smaller groups like the 'Kitchen God Sect,' 'Ghost Abode,' 'Mountain Lord,' 'Five Poisons,' 'Spirit Shrine,' and 'Water Caller,' not to mention the local strongmen..."

"Considering the metaphysical bent of the aristocracy that had stretched across the entire Northern and Southern Dynasties since the Wei and Jin..."

"These great families who migrated south probably did have quite a few tricks up their sleeves."

Transformed into a striped tiger, Zhu Yuanzhang stared unblinkingly at Fu Qi lying on the floor. His expression was dark as he thought,

Outside, as two colossal beings clashed within Hualin Garden,

the entire imperial garden had become a realm of the dead.

Thousands upon thousands of ghosts pushed open doors and poured out, running rampant.

They refined the living and devoured one another.

It was a scene straight out of hell.

Ghostly shadows filled Hualin Garden, crawling with wandering corpses and evil spirits.

Some had human heads and beast bodies.

Some were wreathed in yin energy.

Some looked like an Embroiderer dancing the Dan, yet had sharp fangs and wore human skin.

Some sang nursery rhymes and performed skits, but were so grotesque and uncanny that they made one's skin crawl.

Yet before true terror,

these little demons of the underworld were no more than fodder in a battle of magic.

A mournful song rang out.

"Consort Ding" hung in the air, a thousand jade hands clustered at her sides and stacked into a mountain of white jade, their arms stretching down in layers.

In an instant, they seized hundreds of ghosts and devoured them as easily as drinking sweet dew.

"My lord, if you died for me, for whom should I live on?"

"If you still cherish me, then open my coffin!"

It was both a plea and a curse!

"My lord, if you died for me, for whom should I live on?"

I'm dead now! Why can you still live on alone?

The mournful, lilting song poured out the singer's reluctance to leave her lover, who was still alive, as she faced death.

"If you still cherish me, then open my coffin!"

Even in death, she wanted the coffin opened so that her lover could be buried with her.

"!!!"

The shadow hovering over the mountain of the Hualin Garden Office shuddered violently.

The pitch-black pupil of its giant eye, already two-thirds assembled, trembled uncontrollably.

It had no choice but to draw some of its power from Hualin Garden.

That would stabilize the giant eye and speed up its construction.

"The darkness in Hualin Garden is fading."

The tiger raised its head, watching the eerie, cold light of a lantern hanging from a tree branch shine through the window.

The giant eye steadied itself, avoiding the fate of being dragged away by those hundreds upon hundreds of pale jade hands.

However—

It wasn't over yet!

"Cutting my arm, I drank the blood; I offered cattle and sheep to Heaven."

"Though my life turns to dust, I will never stop loving you."

Before the giant eye could complete its reconstruction,

the mournful song rang out once more throughout Hualin Garden.