The True Thirty-Six Stockades

He understood now.

The last time they had attacked, it was because he hadn't paid.

Yin Money was paper money for the dead.

The Three Baleful Corpses were the innkeepers of the Joyful Spirit Inn. Of the three corpses, one collected payment for food and drink, one consumed incense offerings, and the last collected spirit money.

Lin Feng had no money. He'd tried to dine and dash, and the three innkeepers had slaughtered him.

Food, drink, and lodging, all without paying.

The guide hadn't brought any spirit money with him.

Lin Feng hadn't either.

An awkward silence settled over them.

Watching Lin Feng's movements and expression, the guide's initially cheerful face froze.

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. Looking caught between laughter and tears, he ventured cautiously, "Master, there's no need. It's just one Yin Money note. There's no need to lose your temper over this..."

The guide was Qing Miao, from the county town at the foot of the mountain. His family's inherited knowledge concerned medicinal herbs.

Driven by the need to make a living, he had taught himself these shady tricks in that same county town.

Who knew what price he had paid for them? It was far more dangerous than the five afflictions and three deprivations.

As far as he was concerned, this Daoist master was an authentic heir to the Daoist tradition, with impeccable credentials.

A member of a reputable orthodox school.

Even if you haven't brought spirit money, surely you could ask an acquaintance in the underworld to send some over.

There's no need to murder anyone and rob them!

To him, this Daoist master was simply too proud of his orthodox pedigree to back down.

There's really no need!

Lin Feng hadn't thought that far. He simply had no money.

Just as he drew his sword, intending to skip out on the bill, he suddenly stopped.

He looked thoughtful.

"Tell me, could you hold off the Mother-Child Gu for a little while?"

Lin Feng remembered Li Pusa, and his hand released the sword hilt.

As a corpse driver, Li Pusa ought to have underworld notes on him.

Li Pusa should arrive shortly. Lin Feng could ask him to cover the payment.

Seeing the Daoist master change his mind, the guide beamed, his heart finally settling back into place.

If Lin Feng had asked him to hold off the Mother-Child Lady the moment they entered, he would never have agreed.

It was too dangerous!

But now, seeing that the Daoist master had abandoned the idea of a magical duel and settled for merely holding the Lady off, he felt differently.

It didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

Ox-blood wine, a little finger, and a strange "toast"—with these, the guide covered himself in white maggots and flies.

Lin Feng's eyebrows twitched wildly. Hundred-Household Officer Zhu looked utterly unconcerned.

Hooking some of the “blood” on his body with his little finger, the guide drew tadpole-like inscriptions on the Mother-Child Gu. They bore some resemblance to the inscriptions on the walls inside the Banyan Tree house.

Lin Feng stood off to one side with his arms folded and asked Hundred-Household Officer Zhu whether he knew what Yangtongzi was.

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu shook his head.

Once the guide finished drawing the inscriptions, he recited two incantations and returned, his face deathly pale. He shrank back, not daring to stand beside Lin Feng.

He reeked.

His pale face had a bluish cast.

There were heavy dark circles under his eyes.

It looked as though he, too, had paid a considerable price.

Lin Feng took out some dry rations and offered him something to eat, asking in passing what the situation was at Bull-Head Stockade.

Did he know what Yangtongzi was?

And was there someone called Uncle in the Ghost Yamen?

After those questions, the guide had no appetite left.

This Daoist master surely wasn't asking without reason.

He must have had a reason for bringing them up. But every one of those questions was frightening.

Still, under Lin Feng's gaze, the guide gritted his teeth.

The questions were frightening enough, but this man himself was even more frightening.

He looked very much like the sort of vicious man who would slash the guide's throat for refusing to answer.

He began explaining to Lin Feng.

The Thirty-Six Stockades lay deep in the Western Hunan Mountains, in a place called Jiao Gorge.

As the name suggested, it was a mountain gorge through which flood dragons traveled.

The mountains were high, the waters deep, the forests dense, and the people few.

Within lived the remaining inhabitants of the Thirty-Six Stockades.

Clear Spring Stockade stood at the very front of the Thirty-Six Stockades, closest to the world beyond the mountains.

According to rumor, the true heart of the Thirty-Six Stockades wasn't Bull-Head Stockade, their next destination.

Bull-Head Stockade? They would barely have begun.

Bull-Head Stockade wasn't even at the entrance to the real Jiao Gorge.

Jiao Gorge was known as a Forbidden Ground where "miasma wreathed the mountains, and trails drifted like smoke; flood dragons lay in deep ravines, and dragons hid in the nine heavens; the living were forbidden entry, and bones vanished without a trace."

Within the true Jiao Gorge stood the most mysterious of the Thirty-Six Stockades: Ascension Stockade.

Its name was outrageously presumptuous.

It had that name because deep within Jiao Gorge stood a sacred mountain called [Ascension Mountain].

As he spoke, the guide took out a map and pointed to [Ascension Stockade].

Unlike the other places, however, [Ascension Stockade] had only a vaguely marked name and no roads. The map seemed to show no mountain trail leading there.

There were many excavated mine shafts within.

They produced ingredients for alchemy.

Ascension Mountain yielded mercury, cinnabar, realgar, and other substances. It had been extremely famous as early as the Song dynasty!

Some Song emperor or other had sent men to cooperate with the local people, venturing deep into the mountains to work the mines and haul out vast quantities of alchemical ingredients. All of Ascension Mountain had been riddled with holes.

Human lives, worth no more than ants, had perished among these mountains of Western Hunan.

Such was the tyranny of the Song emperors.

Peasant uprisings were frequent in the south, but unfortunately, they were always suppressed.

After the Song dynasty fell, the Yuan Dynasty Imperial Preceptor, Phags-pa, personally led men deep into Ascension Mountain to oversee continued mining. Many Yellow Sect masters were stationed there as well.

It was probably for the mercury.

Mercury was an extremely precious substance to them, too.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have dug Song emperors out of their tombs and hung them upside down from trees to drain out the mercury.

The Yuan dynasty had also sent many warriors, hoping to conquer the local people.

Unfortunately, while Mongol cavalry were invincible on the plains, they were just as helpless as anyone else in the Western Hunan Mountains.

They suffered bitter setbacks.

Many warriors died in the mountains, and even the Yellow Sect masters were driven out.

In the end, the matter was simply dropped.

The legends of the Thirty-Six Stockades grew increasingly elusive.

Truth and falsehood became impossible to distinguish.

The guide didn't know why they were going to Bull-Head Stockade or what was happening there. When Lin Feng asked Hundred-Household Officer Zhu, he didn't know either.

"Orders from above."

That was what Hundred-Household Officer Zhu said.

It seemed Bull-Head Stockade was very important.

Lin Feng felt frustrated. There was too little information.

Still, he kept feeling that this affair wasn't as simple as he had imagined.

He felt as though a huge tangle of yarn lay before him, and he had caught hold of only the tiniest thread of a clue. He was feeling his way forward, with no idea what enormous thing might be waiting ahead.

Unable to learn anything about Bull-Head Stockade, he asked about Yangtongzi.

The guide didn't know about Yangtongzi either.

He switched to asking about Uncle of the Ghost Yamen. This time, the guide knew.

The Ghost Yamen was an underworld office in the mountains that seized souls and spirits. Unlike the Ten Kings of Hell of the Central Plains, the mountains had their own rules. The Ghost Yamen was where the mountain spirits dwelled. They often harmed people and carried off the souls of the elderly and children at night. They were evil gods.

People in the mountains often frightened others by saying, "The Ghost Yamen will take your soul away," much as they might say, "Keep crying and I'll throw you to the wolves." Ghost Uncle of the Ghost Yamen was an even more formidable figure.

She was at the heart of the stories about the Ghost Yamen.

A cruel, merciless, greedy, and vicious ruler of spirits.

Anyone Ghost Uncle set her sights on...

Had no chance of surviving.