Even the firmament could not bury the Five Ghosts; dragon drums before the Bridge of Sinful Hearts

The people of Xiangbian had long forgotten the Five Ghosts' actual surnames and given names, for their nicknames were far more famous-and far more loathed.

The leader of the Five Ghosts, the eldest brother who had been born a little earlier, was called Middle Ghost. The second, third, fourth, and fifth brothers were known to the world as Spring Ghost, Summer Ghost, Autumn Ghost, and Winter Ghost.

These five ugly dwarfs had not only committed countless evils on their path of cultivation, but also held a deep-rooted disregard for life. Even toward ordinary people incapable of resisting them, their methods were brutally cruel. Bullying men and seizing women, mutilating corpses to refine puppets, gathering souls to raise ghosts-to them, these were all commonplace trifles.

Thus, the people of Xiangbian truly hated them to the bone. Drawing on the classics, they had modeled these vile nicknames after the Five Plague Gods worshipped in temples, expressing their disgust and hatred.

If ordinary people had suffered such "online abuse" from all of Xiangbian, enduring curses and angry denunciations every day, their state of mind would surely have been affected somewhat. After all, even the lofty sixth-grade Sect Master of the Immortal Wave Sect, who had reached Dao Touching, cared about his lifelong good name.

But the Five Ghosts were no ordinary people. Not only did they fear no public condemnation, they had even brazenly proclaimed to the world, "Throughout Nine Li's eighteen provinces, among its countless sects and noble houses, not one sect refrains from plundering, not one clan refrains from drinking blood. It's just that compared with theirs, our five brothers' methods look more straightforward and less concealed. When the Nation Lord beds women, it's elegantly called selecting consorts and bestowing blessings upon the realm. When we bed women, it's simply because