The casualties in the inner layer world gradually accumulated, and it was clear that the Merit Monks were becoming increasingly insane.
More and more civilians were committing suicide, and quite a few corpses even floated in the rivers, their souls having already vanished from their Mud Pellet Palaces.
The unique rules of Jingzhou were, in some unseen way, encouraging extremity.
The slaughter continued for more than half a year, until winter, when it suddenly came to a halt.
In the western district of Sanxiang City, the sound of gongs and drums rang out without end. Shops were decorated with lanterns and streamers, and children dressed in new clothes could be seen everywhere.
The air was filled with the fragrance of rice, and grains could be detected mixed within it. The aroma even attracted rats from the deep mountains.
It looked like the Spring Festival, but in reality, it was the Laba Festival, which came once every ten years.
The Laba Festival was an extremely special holiday in Buddhism. It was said that Shakyamuni became a True Buddha on that very day.
The Cishi people of the Restraint Officers' Hall had the custom of holding large-scale Laba Festivals every year, but they did not worship the countless Buddhas in the heavens.
Generally speaking, forces belonging to the Daoist sect would not celebrate the Laba Festival.
In fact, in many regions, it was difficult to find even a single temple.
Because of this, Ren Qing suspected that the person behind the scenes might be a Buddhist cultivator, or at least a Buddhist disciple possessing the Bodhisattva Fruit Position.
The Laba Festival in the inner layer world was also connected to the matter of ascending to Western Paradise.
It marked the end of one round of slaughter, as well as the beginning of another.
Every ten years, on the Laba Festival, monks who had accumulated perfect merit would receive Shakyamuni's baptism and ultimately ascend to Western Paradise.
Thus, as the Laba Festival approached, the various cities and towns would become somewhat more peaceful.
The monks qualified to ascend had already accumulated enough merit. The remaining monks could only wait another ten years, and they had plenty of time to acquire merit.
Two months before the Laba Festival, there was actually another saying in the inner layer world.
It was called the "Day Before the Buddha's Birth."
Before the Buddha was born, demons roamed freely in the mortal world.
For the sake of ascending to Western Paradise, the monks would carry out massive slaughter over the course of two months. Tens of thousands of civilians would become sacrifices, but there were always some who escaped disaster.
Thus, even amid the bustle of the Laba Festival, some civilians could still be seen who seemed completely out of place.
They were usually dressed in rags, walking through shadowy, damp alleys. They could be prostitutes, beggars, barbers, coachmen...
They all held lowly occupations that could not be brought into the open.
Although they wore smiles on the surface, they harbored hatred from the depths of their hearts. It was obvious that their hatred was directed at the Merit Monks who held power.
The Merit Monks possessed no magical techniques, and although they controlled millions of civilians, there were certainly many people who accidentally learned the truth.
These civilians did not speak out and instead chose to continue living as they had before.
They merely reduced their social interactions on purpose. In the eyes of others, they were complete madmen, nameless rats hiding in corners.
Because they knew that only by doing this could they avoid attracting the attention of the Merit Monks.
Xiao Gong lowered his head as he passed through the crowd. His robe had long since lost its original color and gave off the distinctive stench of donkey and horse manure.
He raised his head and looked toward a platform not far away.
Dozens of monks were praising Wushan, seemingly lauding him as a saint of ten lifetimes, drawing cheers from the hundreds of civilians gathered to watch.
Wushan was enjoying this moment as well. The relic hanging around his neck had already reached perfection, representing at least several hundred people who had died by his hand.
Xiao Gong sneered and quietly entered an alley nearby. A chill struck his face, making it seem as though he had entered a world cut off from the rest of society.
He hurried toward the end of the alley, seeing several beggars curled up along the way.
After the beggars cast an obscure glance at Xiao Gong, they withdrew the arms that had been reaching toward their waists. Clearly, they were all lookouts.
As Xiao Gong walked, he removed his headscarf, revealing a face covered in scars.
Who would have thought that only a few years ago, he had been a famous opera star throughout Xiangxiang, renowned even on opera stages across the north and south.
When Xiao Gong felt the stinging pain caused by the draft passing over his scars, bone-deep hatred emerged from his eyes.
His unbearable memories were filled with betrayal and abandonment by everyone around him.
He had endured endless torment. Blades had been dragged across his face, and boiling water had been poured down his throat. He could vaguely hear several people conversing beside him.
"You say, kill him?"
"No. That would damage my merit."
When Xiao Gong had fallen from a famous opera star to a beggar, it had been under Wushan's "kindness" that he became a coachman for a brothel.
He had originally known nothing of the truth and had held monks in great reverence, but now...
"Master Xiao, you're a little late, aren't you?"
The speaker was Blackwater Daoist. Although he was visibly aged, his vitality and spirit had undergone a complete transformation, making him resemble a thin, hungry tiger.
Surrounding Blackwater Daoist were more than a dozen simply dressed men and women.
In their daily lives in Sanxiang City, they performed the most menial and lowly jobs, but now they had gathered together.
Xiao Gong shook his head slightly and said in a hoarse, dry voice, "Sorry, I went to see the various Buddha Attainment Ceremonies throughout the city."
"Was there anything unusual?"
"According to the scale of previous years, the number of people attaining Buddhahood during this Laba Festival has doubled."
A middle-aged woman narrowed her eyes and said through clenched teeth, "They're trying to discard us once we've served our purpose. Damn them, damn them..."
"The wicked become Buddhas, while we can only descend into hell. They really ought to see what hell is like!"
"Why don't we go to the Buddha Attainment Ceremony..."
"Silence."
Blackwater Daoist interrupted everyone's discussion, his sharp gaze sweeping across them.
"Do you think you alone can shake Buddhism?"
"Don't joke around. With Buddhism's reputation as it is now, once they decide you're an evil anomaly, they won't even give you a chance to turn things around."
Xiao Gong and the others' eyes flickered. Most of them had already resigned themselves to their fate. It was Blackwater Daoist who had sought them out and told them about Buddhism's secrets.
However, they did not completely trust Blackwater Daoist, and many of them had their reservations, mainly because the other party also worshipped certain existences.
The Upper Realm had only Western Paradise. Since they were not Buddhas, then they could only be evil ghosts from hell.
"The Heavenly Court can overthrow Buddhism."
"But I need to let more people know the names of the immortals and gods of the Heavenly Court."
The scene suddenly fell silent, but soon, a middle-aged man agreed.
His entire family had died at the hands of the Merit Monks. Later, the children of his younger male cousin's family had also mysteriously drowned, and in the end, none of his relatives had survived.
Xiao Gong likewise did not hesitate for long, and the others stopped having reservations.
To them, did it matter whether they were evil ghosts from hell? If they could not completely eradicate the Merit Monks, where was there any Pure Land?
"The Heavenly Court is divided into eight ministries, with a total of three hundred and sixty-five immortals and gods."
"The upper four ministries govern thunder, fire, pestilence, and the Dipper. The lower four ministries govern the stars and constellations, the Three Mountains and Five Sacred Peaks, the summoning of clouds and rain, and the gods who punish good and evil."
Blackwater Daoist's expression became extremely serious as he said in an unquestionable tone, "For the next ten years, each of you will be responsible for spreading the name of one immortal or god. You will have to travel to various cities and towns. Can you do it?"
They had long since lost everything. The only reason they still clung to their lives was because they were unwilling to accept their fate. How could they care about traveling long distances and enduring hardships?
"But... can we really do it?"
The speaker was a boy under twenty years old. Blackwater Daoist's gaze softened as he rubbed the boy's head and said, "Ma Shan, do you remember the immortal you saw beneath the banyan tree several years ago?"
"I remember."
Ma Shan let out a breath. The dozen or so companions who had worshipped together with him back then had already died one after another in Sanxiang City. Only he remained.
"The immortal bestowed an Immortal Gu upon me, called the Silence Gu."
"Once you refine the Silence Gu and place a slip of paper bearing the words beneath your tongue, even if you tell hundreds of people, none of them will be able to speak those words before the Silence Gu dies."
Blackwater Daoist took out a beetle the size of a fingernail. There was a pattern resembling the character "Silence" on its back, making it appear extraordinarily mysterious.
[Silence Gu]
[After refinement, it can prevent a person from revealing words. It requires one liter of saliva every day for nourishment.]
It can be nourished by remaining silent for ten years, allowing the Silence Gu to advance into a Law Command Gu.
Blackwater Daoist relaxed his palm, and the Silence Gu burrowed into Ma Shan's tongue. The latter immediately felt as though he had gained control over some kind of divine ability.
In exchange, his mouth and tongue became extremely dry, and he swallowed repeatedly, yet not a drop of saliva appeared.
"It's fine. As an ability bestowed by an immortal, the Silence Gu needs to consume saliva every day to survive. Just drink more water."
Ma Shan tried using the Silence Gu, immediately displaying an ability beyond their understanding.
Everyone's expressions became excited. To think that in their lifetimes, they could actually see hope of destroying Buddhism. What did it matter if they had to spend ten years traveling and laboring?
Blackwater Daoist distributed Silence Gu one by one, and even gave them a bamboo tube containing dormant Gu worms in case of emergencies.
"Ma Shan, you are going to Linshan City. The immortal god whose name you will spread is..."
"Plague-Spreading Envoy Immortal."
Ma Shan could not help nodding. His heart was deeply shaken, as if he could see more than three hundred immortals and gods standing upon the clouds.
"Xiao Gong, you are going to Great Yellow Mountain. The immortal god whose name you will spread is..."
"Doumu Star Lord."
The names of one immortal god after another were told to the group. Even when they wanted to know the backgrounds and origins of these immortal gods, Blackwater Daoist answered every question fluently.
This caused Xiao Gong and the others to gradually believe in the reality of the Heavenly Palace.
As Blackwater Daoist spoke, he had already begun using the Law Command Gu. "You must disguise the Heavenly Court as something left behind from ancient times. Don't make it too deliberate."
After explaining everything clearly, they left the alley one after another.
Everything was seen by Ren Qing.
With the bacterial soul at the Yang God realm and the Gu worm body that had already advanced to the Ghost Envoy realm, Ren Qing could theoretically sweep through the inner layer world.
But he chose to spread the Heavenly Court instead.
Because Ren Qing had to bring the various forces into the inner layer world as well, and he also had to take this opportunity to lay out the Heavenly Court, so he chose this seemingly troublesome method.
However, he was not without gains.
In fact, as long as they had not committed suicide, the souls of those who died wrongful deaths could still remain for seven days, so their corpses and souls were collected into the Yellow Springs of the Underworld.
Ren Qing had originally thought that the probability of a mortal corpse and soul forming a zombie would be frighteningly low.
But unexpectedly, after the corpses had suffered calamities while alive, their souls became filled with resentment and actively absorbed the deathly aura within the Yellow Springs.
One zombie after another crawled out of the Yellow Springs, and the number of the Corpse Vein had completely surpassed the Demon Vein.
As long as there was no warfare, the scale of the Underworld would continue to grow. No wonder the mythology of his previous life divided the Underworld into the Ten Halls of Yama, because power could not be allowed to become concentrated in one place.
Corpse Ghost understood this as well and was gradually transferring authority to others.
Otherwise, how would he have time to cultivate? Besides, zombies would certainly continue to advance to the Yang God realm. When that happened, the Underworld would have to undergo a change of dynasty as well.
"The hells are empty, and evil ghosts roam the mortal world."
Ren Qing narrowed his eyes. Next, he had to make the various forces believe that the surface world was nothing more than a deception arranged by the person behind the scenes.