The Fa Sect

Outside the empty county town, the Jade Buddha Incense Burner began to chant sutras.

As the chanting continued, the silent town gradually produced an echo.

The abbot of Zhengde Temple, beside him, produced a wooden fish. He and the other two monks began to beat it and chant along. Gradually, the sound of the sutras began to mix with something else.

As the sutras continued, Li Huowang felt every piece of flesh on his body twitch, as if it were about to leave him at any moment.

The Jade Buddha Incense Burner's robe writhed, and various small Buddhas fell out of it, crossing their legs and joining the chant.

Just as the sound of the sutras reached its peak, the ground suddenly split open. A tall figure wearing a hood marked with the character for "Wu" leaped out, both hands raised high with obsidian daggers, and ambushed the chanting Jade Buddha Incense Burner.

But Hong Da, already prepared, leaped from his horse and blocked the figure.

However, when Hong Da's rusted blade struck the figure's chest, the figure’s arms, holding the weapons, detached from the body, flying left and right to ambush the Jade Buddha Incense Burner on horseback.

It wasn't a living person at all. The dwarfs disguised as hands were the real attackers.

When one of the dwarfs thought his goal was achieved, he saw a red-robed Daoist blocking his path.

With all his attention focused on the Daoist's bronze coin sword, the Daoist suddenly opened his mouth. Black tentacles covered with suckers and barbs shot out from his throat, slapping directly onto the dwarf's face.

In the next moment, the dwarf felt a sudden pain, and then nothing at all.

After dealing with that small problem, Li Huowang, trailing bloodstained tentacles from his chin, turned his head to look at the other side.

The other attacking dwarf was already caught in Peng Longteng's hand, squeezed and compressed like a doll.

When it was completely crushed into a ball of flesh, Peng Longteng lifted it above her head and squeezed hard. Scarlet blood rained down, splashing onto the severed opening where her neck used to be.

Li Huowang thought it was over, but it had only just begun. A thin, black, straight sword pierced directly through Peng Longteng's heavy armor.

Soon, civilians wearing white headbands emerged from the town, charging at Li Huowang and the others.

As the sutras chanted, things periodically fell off their bodies—eyes here, ears there.

But no matter how many organs they lost, their fervor never waned.

Among these people were many emaciated Great Qi refugees, but even more were Great Liang citizens who had only recently donned the white headbands. The Fa Sect's rate of infiltration was far faster than Li Huowang had imagined.

Though these followers were unafraid of death, the disparity in strength was still too great. They were no match for Li Huowang, nor even for Peng Longteng.

The towering Peng Longteng cut bloody paths through the crowd like an iron plow.

She seemed to revel in it, her body trembling as she swung two corpses like clubs.

"Don't kill them all! Save a few for questioning!"

The slaughter continued. By the time Liu Zongyuan's white mist began to shroud the entire town, the battle was soon over.

Thump. The last one—a bloodied, mangled dwarf hanging on the wall—finally breathed his last and fell weakly to the ground.

"This was probably just a temporary stronghold of theirs. Looks like they really don't know where Taishan Shi is," Li Huowang said, re-hanging the blood-stained torture implements on his torture kit.

The problem was back to square one. Even if they could defeat this Taishan Shi, they couldn't find him, and it was useless.

If the Fa Sect was allowed to absorb the common folk, then all the people of Great Liang would eventually become their enemies.

The Jade Buddha Incense Burner, who had been observing, pondered for a moment before speaking. "We'll go. We'll clear a path all the way to Yining City. I need to find someone who's in the know to calculate Taishan Shi's location."

"Your Excellency, who is this person? Is he really reliable? Taishan Shi is from Great Qi," Hong Da asked from the side.

"He's called Blind Chen. If he can't do it, no one can."

These words made Li Huowang pause. He knew that person. "Blind Chen, the one with the stall outside the City God Temple?"

"What, you know him?"

"I guess you could say that. I've dealt with him a few times. But as far as I know, he's not very capable. He's been fooled by the Zuowangdao before."

That compendium of talismans was exactly what he had traded from Blind Chen.

"A fortune-teller can't tell his own fortune. He might be no good at other things, but when it comes to fortune-telling, few in the Sitian Jian can match him. If he can't do it, the thing he believes in can," said the Jade Buddha Incense Burner, before mounting his horse.

"The thing he believes in?" Li Huowang looked thoughtful. "Could there be a Siming specifically in charge of fortune-telling? The past and future are constantly shifting. Can that guy even calculate that?"

Li Huowang and the others left soon after, leaving a field of corpses behind. Vultures and crows began to gather in the sky, ready to enjoy this unexpected feast.

Just as a crow opened its beak to peck at an eyeball, an unshod foot stepped down, crushing it so hard that its innards were forced out of its mouth.

"So, what did I tell you, Taishan? Now is still not the time to act. As soon as you make a stir, the Sitian Jian comes sniffing around like a dog after shit."

A man in a long robe draped with colorful cloth strips strolled leisurely through the field of corpses. A piece of pitch-black cloth hung from his left shoulder.

Beside him, the man called Taishan was an ugly dwarf with ears full of black hair. Despite his coarse appearance, he wore an unusually elegant white theatrical robe, and the white headband on his head mirrored the black cloth on his companion's shoulder.

"Indeed, you're right. But the Fa Sect's followers are still too few. If we lie low, when will our heavenly soldiers ever descend?"

"Don't worry, don't worry. I know this place better than you. Even though we both serve different sides of the same Child-God, Yuer Shen, and are both Wu Ministers, how could I, He Xinlai, harm you?"

"What you need to do now is have your people lie low, disguise themselves as calamity-stricken refugees from Great Qi, and gather the scattered followers from other places."

"Great Liang is the strongest under heaven. If our Fa Sect can take Great Liang, the rest will be much easier."

The Wu Minister named Taishan pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. You have more people than I do, so I'll listen to you. But before that, I want your people to join forces with mine to seize that man's sword."

"Which man's sword?"

"The bone sword of that kid in the red Daoist robe. It's the spine of the Heart-Pan of the Three Pure Ones. I have a great use for it."

"Fine. They seem to be looking for you anyway. You can be the bait. Set a trap and ambush them."

"Don't take it lightly. There's something off about him. And it's best not to use the Fa Sect's identity. Don't bring trouble down on us."

"Rest assured. I'll find some good hands. In fact, our Fa Sect isn't a rat that everyone in Great Liang is trying to beat. We do have some like-minded friends."