Qu Zan sat on the felt cushion in his meditation chamber, leafing through the sinister Ghost-Skin Secret Manual, which contained densely packed writing.
This was not a systematically organized tome divided into chapters and volumes, but a work written in dialogue.
"The handwriting is all different. It seems this has passed through different hands."
The latter half of the secret manual was still blank, without any writing.
"Is this secret manual still being written?" The thought flashed through Qu Zan's mind.
The entire manual consisted of different people conversing with an entity called Great Black Yama.
They asked him for knowledge, and Great Black Yama provided answers.
Before every answer, they had to sacrifice fresh flesh, blood, and souls to him.
The amount of flesh, blood, and souls sacrificed varied according to the difficulty of the question.
The more complex and difficult the question, the more human lives had to be sacrificed.
The later sections consisted entirely of records of conversations between Nianmu and Great Black Yama.
Nianmu asked Great Black Yama about various vile curses, offering more than three human lives each time. "This secret manual really is sinister. Every answer requires a sacrifice of human lives."
Qu Zan turned to the latest passage. It was written in red, and judging by its color, it seemed to have been written in blood.
"Homage to Lord Great Black Yama. Your loyal servant Nianmu reports to you. Revered tome, I wish to hear your secret decree. Enlighten this lowly one: how can I make [skin-corpse arhat] unleash its greatest power?"
Nianmu was the old woman's name.
What followed was a passage in black. The handwriting was pitch-black, thick, and uncanny, as though it had been written not by a human, but by a ghost.
"Offer me three persons' worth of fresh