The Southern Border Witch Alliance's Luojing office!
At midnight, Bu Hanying sat in a lightless room, draped in a black cloak.
Several other folding chairs stood around him, occupied by liaisons from the Witch Alliance's Various Major Sects.
As a direct-line member of Missing Moon Manor, Bu Hanying held the second seat in the hall, below only Chi Dragon Cave, the ancestral seat of the Gu Poison Sect. He was delivering an impassioned speech:
"Our sects formed this alliance to revive the Witch Cult and return to the Central Plains.
"Our Gu Poison Sect was originally a righteous sect too. We were only banished to the Southern Border because the Corpse Witch Sect implicated us and the Three Teachings betrayed their word.
"After years of traveling and preaching, views of the Gu Poison Sect have improved, both in the martial world and at the northern and southern Imperial Courts. Northern Zhou has even begun accepting our witch doctors.
"But just three days ago!
"That fine disciple your Chi Dragon Cave raised slaughtered hundreds of civilians on the Huai River!
"If our Missing Moon Manor disciple hadn't noticed the danger early and turned the raging tide, casualties would have reached a staggering six hundred!
"This incident alone could stir public outrage and destroy years of our hard work with a single pill... the Dan in Taishu Dan!"
The Witch Cult encompassed a bewildering array of branches. Those like the Blessing and Sacrifice branch, who sang and danced to summon great spirits, belonged to the righteous path.
Corpse Witches, Ghost Witches, and the like, who played with corpses, were standard examples of the evil path.
The Gu Poison Sect lay between the two. Call them evil, and they didn't rely on killing people to cultivate; they even treated illnesses.
But call them