Eager to clear Daoism's name, Gongsun Jing took Daojue's advice.
He did not kill the ghost king. Instead, he brought her back to the Daoist temple, hoping to move her with his sincerity, and chanted scriptures every day to deliver her soul.
Day after day, Gongsun Jing never gave up on reforming the ghost king.
In the end, the ghost king really was moved by Gongsun Jing's sincerity.
But before Gongsun Jing could spread the news, the local Buddhist temple heard about it and beat him to it. They twisted the facts, fabricating a rumor that the Daoist Gongsun Jing was having an illicit affair with the ghost king, and that the human and ghost were even engaging in sexual acts inside the Daoist temple.
They did not even give Gongsun Jing a chance to explain, reporting the matter directly to Emperor Wenxuan.
Emperor Wenxuan already disliked Daoists. When he heard about this, he flew into a rage and immediately ordered the extermination of all the evil Daoists in that temple. He also ordered the people from the Buddhist temple to subdue the ghost king so she would not harm the common people.
Gongsun Jing had never imagined that, despite his wholehearted desire to clear Daoism's name and all the effort he had put into reforming the ghost king, he would fail to vindicate Daoism and instead bring utter destruction upon the Daoist temple where he had grown up.
That day, the hundred-plus fellow disciples still at the Daoist temple, including the priest who had adopted him, all met tragic deaths under Emperor Wenxuan's decree.
More than a hundred fellow disciples died, just like that.
Yet those people spared Gongsun Jing, forcing him to kill the ghost king with his own hands.
Gongsun Jing was utterly despondent, but having already