Chapter 101 — The Immortal Corpse Lineage
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
In the county office a heavy voice rang out with a cold laugh: "The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping holds the Son of Heaven hostage and commands the sects by his word; the great sects have long chafed under him! Gao Judé, magistrate of Dijiang County, plays jackal to the tiger, and is glad to serve as the Imperial Preceptor's eyes and ears — death is too good for him!
" In the inn, Shen Mu frowned. "The Dijiang magistrate, dead so soon? My first time out of the Ruins, and this is what I walk into — what rotten luck!
Granny was right. The people outside really are far more vicious than the folk of the Ruins; it's our own kind who are honest and kind. By the way, what rank was the Dijiang magistrate, and how would his ability compare with a Prefect of the lower second grade?
" The offices of Jingping are divided into nine grades and eighteen classes, all conferred according to station and cultivation.
Some sect masters or patriarchs of surpassing cultivation were enfeoffed as great officials, those of lesser cultivation were made lords, and others were given charge of the commanderies and counties of the realm. Take Ling Hanchuan of the Lanjiang Sword Sect: the foremost powerhouse of the Southern Wastes, and therefore enfeoffed as a Prefect of the lower second grade — a man of no small consequence. Xue Hu'er came to her senses and hurriedly worked her art; a demon wind spun out through the window lattice.
Shen Mu lifted the pillow from the bed and flung it into the air; the wind caught it, and Xue Hu'er straightway sprang up and landed on the pillow, asking uneasily, "Young Master, surely they wouldn't slaughter every soul in the city just to rebel? They shouldn't threaten us. " Shen Mu leaped from the window, and before his feet touched ground a demon wind blew under them; the youth hastily stepped onto the wind and raced for the edge of the city, saying swiftly, "My sword is the Chubao Sword, the court blade of a lower first-grade official. If these rebels find it, I am dead beyond question! And a gentleman does not stand beneath a toppling wall.
These men are in revolt; they will never let the townsfolk leave.
If we stay, we will only be penned inside the city.
Once Jingping's armies arrive, how many in this city will still draw breath? The Corpse Immortal Sect — I hear they cultivate their arts with corpses.
" Xue Hu'er could not help but shiver. Shen Mu's last words were truly too horrible.
The Corpse Immortal Sect cultivated with corpses — which meant that if Jingping's army marched to put down the rebellion, every commoner in the city, whatever his station, would most likely be refined by the Corpse Immortal Sect into a flying stiff.
By now Dijiang County was in utter chaos, cries of killing on every side.
The Corpse Immortal Sect had come prepared this time: first they cast the flying stiffs they had refined into the upper reaches of the Yong River, choking the county dam, and then split into small bands to slip into the city. When night fell, the sect master, shepherding his corpses, was first to cut his way into the county office and kill the magistrate.
The magistrate of Dijiang was himself a master whose divine powers were nothing ordinary, and yet, taken by surprise, he could only yield up his head. At the same time the sect's other masters hastened to the four city gates to cut down the soldiers and officers of the county town, while the sect master led the rest to slaughter the deputy magistrate, the county commandant, the registrar, and the other officials, leaving the troops without a head.
There were still masters in Dijiang, but with no one to command them they fought each for himself; and the Corpse Immortal Sect, forming arrays of yellow talisman paper, laid out a network of roads in midair that ran in every direction, so that each point could come to another's aid — in this slaughter the sect's victory was beyond doubt.
"By order of the sect master: seal the whole city! Let no one escape!