Da Zaojun

Upon entering the city, Song Wuji focused on pacifying the original inhabitants of Hongzhou and also dispatched personnel to take over the granaries and armories.

Next came the checking of registers: first the population register, then the land register.

These are all very important pieces of evidence, and in addition, inquiries were made with prominent families and clans in the city.

These wealthy families, though once considered wealthy, are no longer so, but even a fallen camel is bigger than a horse. Only the rich can afford to support education, take the imperial examinations, and learn martial arts.

At the beginning of the chaotic world, these people still possessed some power and even wanted to fight their way out. However, however many of them managed to break through, many were devoured by demons, so they eventually became obedient.

The most well-known clans today are the Luo, Xiong, Wan, and Xu families, the four major clans.

Among them, the six departments of the government, as well as some other officials of various ranks, were all their people.

In addition, it is suspected that each of them also possesses a small secret realm, which they have not handed over to the authorities, and the secret realm tokens are still in their own hands.

However, once the net is fully formed, this secret realm token will become the key to access, and Song Wuji will allow them to keep the secret realm token.

They originally intended to give him a warning, but after discussing it, the four major families felt that Song Wuji had potential, at least better than the prefect, so they offered him up voluntarily.

The secret realm controlled by the Luo family is called [Black Fish Village]. This secret realm is a village that openly fishes but secretly acts as a bandit. It appears to be a humane secret realm, but inside it is worshipped the [Black Fish God]. This Black Fish God is a spirit of a large black fish in Poyang Lake. If it is not worshipped, it will capsize boats and devour people.

After entering this secret realm, the Luo family went to great lengths, stuffing a large amount of quicklime into the anus of the sacrificial pig, which scalded the black fish to death.

Thus, they obtained the Secret Realm Token and gained control of the Secret Realm.

The black fish spirit was a "Lake Patrol Officer," and the waters below the Black Fish Village and Black Fish Temple were his water palace.

In addition, Black Fish Village has a martial art called "Boat Fist" and a set of weapons called "Wave-Fighting Fork Technique" that are paired with a harpoon.

Boat boxing is a style of boxing used for fighting on small boats. It is suitable for fighting in small places, on uneven lakes, and can also be used for fighting underwater.

The spear-throwing technique is even more vicious. It can not only spear fish, but also people. One spear will pierce through three holes, and no one can survive.

In addition, the Luo family obtained the [Lake Patrol Junior Officer] token, which allows them to enter and exit the Black Fish Spirit's water palace. They also mastered a transformation technique called [Black Fish Transformation].

Song Wuji was not interested in their other gains, only taking the secret realm token and giving them additional guidance: "Boat Fist and Fork Technique are both suitable for naval soldiers. You should follow the general. If the outstanding talents of your clan can make a name for themselves in the army, I will not treat you unfairly. If you have servants or slaves, you can bring them all to join the army."

The secret realm controlled by the Xiong family is a [Land Temple], a Land Temple occupied by a water ghost.

The Xiong family relied on folk methods of exorcising ghosts, such as using willow branches, to forcefully transform the water ghost into a green-haired monkey, and subsequently obtained the secret realm token.

The token allows free access to the Land God Temple's spiritual realm, which contains about ten acres of spiritual fields, a large pond, and a Land God seal.

In addition, he has mastered the magic inheritance [Ghost Refining Technique], which allows him to refine five elemental ghosts. Water ghosts are just one type; there are also hanged ghosts, burned ghosts, beheaded ghosts, and buried-alive ghosts.

Once you have mastered the Five Ghosts, you can cultivate the [Five Ghosts Transporting Technique].

However, the Xiong family was a family of scholars and poets, so they did not use "humans" to create ghosts. Instead, they captured demons from outside, tortured them to death using five different methods, and then refined them into five ghosts.

Therefore, it may appear evil, but it is not contrary to humanity.

But evil magic is evil magic after all. After accepting the token, Song Wuji gave them some guidance, telling them to go to the Iron Pillar Palace or the White Bone Dao Palace to learn the orthodox methods. However, within the [Ghost Refining Technique] inheritance, there is a magical artifact called the [Ten Thousand Soul Banner], which actually resonated deeply with Song Wuji.

This thing, when refined into the spirits of ten thousand ghosts, becomes the Ten Thousand Souls Banner. But if it were to refine the essence of ten thousand demons, wouldn't it become something like the Demon Gathering Banner, a magical artifact of the goddess Nuwa in the Investiture of the Gods?
It even gave Song Wuji an idea: could he refine all the magical artifacts and treasures that could subdue demons?

For example, the well-known Demon-Suppressing Tower, Demon-Refining Pot, Demon-Revealing Mirror, Demon-Slaying Sword, and Demon-Slaying Blade.

According to Li Guang, Chen Xiu's rituals were biased towards [the Lord of Meishan], who is the mountain god of Meishan, the True Lord of Qingyuan Miaodao Manifestation, and Erlang Shen.

This great deity, though renowned and given the title of "Great God of Justice" in the later "Lotus Lantern" story, was essentially an "Earthly Deity" rather than a "Heavenly God."

Of course, he also has a residence in heaven, but he doesn't reside there permanently; his permanent residence is at [Guanjiang Estuary].

Its authority is on earth, firstly as the Lord of Sichuan, the water god of Shu and the protector of the people of Sichuan, and secondly as the God of Meishan. The Six Saints of Meishan are all his subordinates, and there are 1,200 grass-headed gods who are in charge of hunting.

The third is the [Thunder God], who is in charge of the She Lei (社雷) in the Five Thunder Orthodox Laws. He is the head of the Thunder Department in the human world, also known as the [Earthly Thunder Department]. He is in charge of all matters related to suppressing demons. If any household has demons causing trouble, they can file a complaint with the Earthly Thunder Department. Erlang Shen will then dispatch his subordinates to resolve the issue.

Chen Xiu's supernatural abilities include "stealing a sheep by chance" and "striking the mountain to scare the tiger." He can also raise "mountain dogs", "sea eagles", and "mountain tigers". He is also a skilled archer and is known as the demon hunter.

This part is precisely the ritual of Erlang Zhenjun [Master of Meishan], or the god of hunting.

Now that Song Wuji has appointed Chen Xiu as the Demon-Hunting General, and wants to build a Demon-Hunting Army, he should train him specifically to kill demons and exterminate them.

It would be best if these equipment could be standardized.

However, although Song Wuji could forge weapons, he was only skilled in metal weapons and forging divine weapons; for everything else, he relied on his ability to refine things with a stove.

We should ask Master Xu Jia, or perhaps Master Xu in the Iron Pillar Palace. Master Xu can forge demon-slaying swords and evil-slaying swords, but he specifically uses the demon-slaying sword to slay dragon demons and jiao demons, thus creating the jiao-slaying sword. He should know something about these related matters.

The secret realm controlled by the Wan family is called [Caoduo]. The docks outside Hongzhou City are full of cargo ships and are also the territory of the Canal Gang. Inside the secret realm is a branch of the Canal Gang in Hongzhou Prefecture.

The leader of the gang was involved in the illegal salt trade, and the main activities were learning martial arts and joining the gang. However, this leader of the canal gang had been possessed by a vengeful ghost, who was using the name of sacrificing to the lake god to absorb people's life essence and spirit for cultivation.

The so-called Lake God was just a figurehead of the Canal Gang. He was actually an old ghost from the river who had been there for centuries. He was appointed by the Lake God as a "junior officer at the ferry crossing" and was in charge of the docks and ferry crossings, and he was in awe of the Dragon King's incense offerings.

The Wan family originally made their fortune by manufacturing fireworks and firecrackers. They used a large quantity of fireworks and firecrackers to kill the leader of the gang and thus gained control of this secret realm.

He mastered the martial arts of the Canal Gang and a small water mansion.

Talented individuals skilled in water transport were also needed by Song Wuji, so after accepting the token, Song Wuji assigned them to participate in shipbuilding at the shipyard under Luo Chuan's supervision.

The secret realm controlled by the Xu family is a [Tree Mystic Realm], which is a giant camphor tree that has received incense offerings for hundreds of years. It is the guardian deity of a town, but after the town was destroyed, it was occupied by demons.

After the Xu family entered the secret realm, they received a gift from the camphor tree god and ultimately killed the demon.

The demon was a toad spirit, in charge of plagues and poisons, while the camphor tree god was in charge of medicinal herbs, representing the processing of medicinal materials in the medical field.

The Xu family had a long and distinguished lineage, with a renowned master among their ancestors, which led them to become the largest pharmaceutical merchant in Hongzhou Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)