Infinity: Our Zhongzhou team is really amazing!

Chapter 478 Demonic Advancement! A Hundred Ghosts Walk Daily (24)

Strange.

So weird.

It's not the kind of cunning that existed during the Republic of China era.

It wasn't the despair of the late Qing Dynasty.

It's not as ridiculous as it was during the Tang Dynasty.

This dynasty.

Can only be described in one word.

abstract.

Not only are people abstract.

The methods for controlling vengeful spirits are also abstract.

When the two are combined, it becomes even more abstract.

Along the way, he had a great eye-opening experience.

There were no villages or towns along the way, only heavily guarded fortified villages, and the ghosts worshipped in these fortified villages were all kinds of strange and varied, as were the rules.

Some fortified villages operate on a day-night cycle, with people resting at sunrise and working at sunset.
In some fortified villages, everyone can only wear gray linen, and cannot wear bright colors. They cannot get hurt. Women can only hide in the basement when they have their period. Even weddings and funerals are all in gray tones.
Some of the houses inside the fortified villages had no doors or windows, and everyone slept lying in the mud pits, resembling mud pit fortresses.

In some villages, both men and women shave all their body hair and supervise each other's shaving every day.

The largest fortified village even kept two ghosts. One ghost wandered around the fields, and even if some farmers accidentally broke the rules and were killed, the rest of the farmers remained indifferent and buried the dead's flesh and blood directly in the fields.

Zhuang Boshi was quite knowledgeable, but he had never seen such a scene where gods and ghosts coexisted and ghosts were revered.

Besides the vengeful ghosts who are appointed as officials, there are also some wild ghosts whose rules are written and marked on the roadside for travelers to refer to.

These wild ghosts either have unconventional rules that prevent them from being domesticated, or they are extremely terrifying and possess a ghost realm.

Zhuang Boshi discovered that most ghosts, like wild animals, had divided up their own territories, unlike the vengeful ghosts of later generations who could roam freely.

The reason is that the boundary markers are engraved with strange symbols.

Boundary markers originating from the Celestial Masters sect can effectively bind evil spirits, preventing them from crossing boundaries at will.

This way, the evil spirit can be effectively trapped in one place, and people who understand the evil spirit's killing patterns can effectively avoid offending it.

It greatly reduces the mortality rate.

They can even build cities and fortresses around controllable vengeful spirits to defend against some wandering, terrifying vengeful spirits.

It's like treating a vengeful ghost as a city god.

Upon arriving in Jiankang City, Zhuang Boshi discovered that it was the place with the most vengeful ghosts.

Many grand mansions were directly shrouded in the ghost realm, and the imperial palace was completely covered by the ghost realm. Zhuang Boshi almost thought he had come to a ghost city.

He disguised himself as Pei An and was about to ask a few scions of prominent families about the Celestial Masters Sect.

"Ha ha!"

A maniacal laugh suddenly rang out, and a disheveled, naked man rushed out from the end of the alley.

Completely naked.

It's quite an eyesore.

He laughed wildly, tears streaming down his face, his eyes bloodshot, as he lunged at Zhuang Boshi with bared teeth and claws.

"Snapped!"

As if he had crashed into a wall, the man fell back down, as if he had been immersed in a river in the dead of winter. The maniac instantly sobered up.

"So brave!!"

Upon seeing that the person in front of him was a handsome young man in a wide-sleeved robe, his anger instantly dissipated.

He scrambled to his feet, looking disheveled: "My name is Yu Min, and I am currently on my way to the capital."

"Please excuse my poor attempt to impress you, brother."

May I ask your esteemed name, sir?

He just stood there, relaxed and sprawled out.

It's so annoying. It's so annoying.

The abstract magic of the Jin Dynasty made them forget that the aristocratic families liked to take Five-Stone Powder.

These pioneers, like the young people of North America a thousand years later, enjoyed running around naked after taking drugs.

Zhuang Boshi casually replied, "I am honored by your esteemed name. I am Pei An from Hedong."

"So you're a descendant of the Pei family of Hedong! I've heard so much about you!" Yu Min's eyes lit up, and he immediately became excited.

What a coincidence!

Zhuang Boshi looked at his pale face and realized that it wasn't just from taking drugs, but also from being affected by supernatural forces.

Although this person is not a ghost tamer, he is clearly deeply corrupted by evil spirits.

"Brother Pei, why don't you come to my residence for a chat? Look at me..." Yu Min's enthusiasm was a bit excessive, making one wonder if he had damaged his brain from taking drugs.

Zhuang Boshi turned his head away, unable to bear looking at him directly: "Then I'll have to trouble you."

He also wanted to see what level of vengeful spirits were enshrined in the homes of those wealthy and powerful families.

While we're at it, let's also learn about the Celestial Masters sect.

Yu Min became even more excited and grabbed his arm, trying to lead him home.

Suddenly a scream came from the front.

Yu Min's expression changed drastically. He quickly turned around and leaned against the wall, shouting, "Oh no! Turn around right now!"

Zhuang Boshi did not turn his head, but saw a tall, headless general on a horse leap out of the street, exuding a strong yin aura. He was a real ghost.

But it appeared so openly on the streets of Jiankang, surrounded by grand mansions and pedestrians.

The passersby were not particularly alarmed.

It's as if I've already gotten used to it.

They reminded each other to stand facing the wall.

All that could be heard was the clatter of hooves, a gust of cold wind blowing past one's ears, followed by the rustling of armor, before the horses sped off towards the distant street.

The vengeful ghost general did not attack Zhuang Boshi, suggesting that the pattern of killing is not simply a matter of looking directly at someone.

After a while, Yu Min slowly turned his head, his expression returning to normal.

He seemed to be used to what had just happened. “Brother Pei, you have quite the nerve. You just came from Hebei, haven’t you gone to the Imperial Clan Court to pick up that notice yet?” He resumed his previous carefree demeanor.

"What notice?"

"The Seventeen Taboo Laws of Jiankang cover ninety percent of Jiankang's laws. For example, just now that was a fifth-rank Daoist guerrilla general, you must not look directly at him with fear, or he will take your head."

"Fortunately, it usually only patrols the streets. As long as we turn our backs and don't look, there won't be any danger," Yu Min said.

Zhuang Boshi originally thought that the various rules in the fortified village were strange enough, but he did not expect that on the streets of Jiankang, in the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, people were actually used to ghosts and did not find them strange.

They even compiled the so-called Seventeen Rules of Jiankang to avoid violating taboos.

Strange tales about health and wellness rules?

“Brother Yu, what about the remaining ten percent of the law that hasn’t been covered?” Zhuang Boshi said.

“Some people from other places don’t know the will of Heaven and break taboos. They deserve to die.” Yu Min said indifferently.

In his next sentence, he said with the same nonchalant attitude, "So are we."

Haha, the Jin Dynasty was truly a time of despair and decadence.

"The guerrilla general is fine, but if he runs into the Grand Commandant on patrol, that would be troublesome."

As soon as the words were spoken, a chilling wind swept through the courtyard and alleyways.

The shadows of the trees stretched out like claws on the white wall.

"Grand Commandant, let's set off!"

A sharp voice rang out.

"Pedestrians, please make way!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of all the passersby changed.

If you can run, run; if you can't, quickly hide in a house facing the street.

"What you fear will come true!"

Yu Min's expression also changed.

"Hurry up, let's go inside!!" He pulled Zhuang Boshi and rushed into a house.

Inside the house, the entire family, young and old, huddled trembling in a corner.

Yu Min hurriedly blocked the door, covered the window with something, and leaned against the door with a pale face, seemingly waiting for judgment.

Too abstract!

We hadn't even walked half a mile yet.

They encountered two ghosts in succession.

Is this place a city of people or a den of ghosts?

How did hundreds of thousands of people survive?

Zhuang Boshi looked out through the door at the street.

The streets were deserted at that moment.

The Grand Commandant, dressed in blood, rode a headless horse.

More than twenty headless corpses lined up in a row walked stiffly down the street. Their shadows were reflected on the white wall to the side, overlapping with the shadows of the trees. Their stiff steps cast on the white wall made the scene look particularly eerie and sinister.

Seven rows of blood-dripping eyes grew from its slender face, and its tongue extended to its feet, positioned on the left and right sides of the procession.

The headless corpses each form a pair of rectangular, long-handled plaques.

One side of the sign reads "Silence".

One side of the sign reads "Avoid".

Two pale, headless corpses, each holding a pair of cards, waved them towards the dark corners on either side—

A cold wind suddenly arose!

The sound of ghostly wails echoed in the wind!

At the same time, the pedestrians hiding in the alleyway instantly turned pale.

He walked out, trembling.

He followed at the very back of the honor guard with a blank expression.

Even Yu Min seemed to have fallen for it; he looked bewildered and tried to open the door, but Zhuang Boshi grabbed his shoulder.

A wisp of true essence touched consciousness.

He woke up instantly.

Four adults walked out of the street and followed the group.

Before long, the Grand Commandant's patrol had disappeared.

Yu Min then cautiously walked out of the house.

"That almost scared me to death!" He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

"Brother Pei, please don't be offended. My third brother died at the hands of the Grand Commandant, so I am somewhat apprehensive."

No, do you Jin people grow out of the ground or refresh yourself or something?

With such difficult living conditions, how can one remain so optimistic?

Or perhaps I'm just unlucky.

As it turns out, Jiankang is not a place for people to be treated well.

On their short three-mile journey back to the Yu residence, Zhuang Boshi and Yu Min encountered four vengeful ghosts wandering the streets.

The vendors and passersby seemed completely unconcerned, going about their business as if they had already figured out the ghost's killing patterns and were simply coexisting with it—it was utterly absurd.

Zhuang Boshi knew that it wasn't just the common people who were being oppressed by the vengeful ghosts, but also some members of the gentry who had completely lost hope.

No wonder he's so dissolute.

No wonder he's been taking pills every day.

The common people lived in constant fear of starvation, and the living conditions of the gentry were not much better.

The people here live openly in the same city as the evil spirits, and in the countryside they even worship the evil spirits as gods, relying on agreements and rules made with them to ward off other evil spirits.

A hundred ghosts roam the land daily.

They can't distinguish between humans and ghosts.

(End of this chapter)