"The Banzan Dharma King was the king established by Nancuo. This person is extremely despicable and shameless. When I was alive and marched south, how could Nancuo be a match for my Eight Banner soldiers? Knowing he was no match, Banzan Dharma King abandoned the capital and fled south. I pursued him for a thousand miles, but was unwittingly struck by the co-life curse from a witch under the Dharma King's command."
"Anyone afflicted by the curse shares life and death with the caster. When one curse withers, the other perishes. If the cursed experiences the pain of a blade, the other party will also feel it. When I discovered I was cursed, the poison had already seeped deep into my heart."
The Eight Banner Marshal's eyes blazed with ghostly fire. Even though the events occurred hundreds of years ago, he still could not let go.
"Realizing the curse was irremovable, I implored the national master to reciprocate with a similar method. At that time, I happened to hold the sacrificial inscription of Banzan, the Nancuo king. The bloody inscriptions were written when Banzan was crowned, offered as a sacrifice to heaven.
I ordered a messenger to bring Banzan's bloody inscription and my vital blood essence to the Imperial Capital quickly for the national master to cast the spell."
Xu Qing asked with curiosity, "What curse did the national master cast?"
"I don't know. Shortly after the messenger returned to the capital, I died in Nancuo. However, my subordinates might know." The Eight Banner Marshal turned to the chief officer who was still gulping down wine and washing bones, and asked, "Ah Shi! What curse did the national master cast back then?"
"It was the Conjoined Life Contract. After the Marshal's death, Banzan Dharma King and the witch Po Nan also descended into the Yin River."
"..."
This strategy... Xu Qing was dumbstruck!
He had always believed the Yin-eating Dharma King was one person, but unexpectedly, it was two people, both sharing life and death with the Eight Banner Marshal.
These truly are fated adversaries, and it's no wonder the Eight Banner Marshal's obsession is so profound.
"Marshal, do you and the Yin-eating Dharma King still share life and death?"
The Eight Banner Marshal shook his head, "I and the thieves are already dead, and the curse has dissolved along with it. Now, we are all specters wandering this Ancient Yin River Dao."
Unexpectedly, this Ghost Marshal is quite self-aware!
Xu Qing pondered, Nancuo still survives to this day, but who knows if Banzan Dharma King and Po Nan continue to exist depending on Nancuo's national fate...
He had an intuition that when Dayong is destroyed and the Eight Banner Marshal is completely gone, the Yin-eating Dharma King might not necessarily disappear.
Even if Nancuo is annihilated one day, it might not be certain.
After all, Po Nan was a Great Witch in life, and a Great Witch would certainly not, after death, have only a dead-end as a retreat like the Eight Banner Marshal.
However, for now, it's still unknown who will have the last laugh. With the occasional updates Xu Qing gives the Eight Banner Marshal about Dayong, the Ghost Marshal's resentment will only increase. It remains to be seen if the Yin-eating Dharma King can withstand this pressure.
Xu Qing, enjoying the spectacle without fear of trouble, thinks if the Yin-eating Dharma King dies, he can collect the corpse. If Dayong falls, the Eight Banner Marshal's corpse might also be his.
Tsk, it seems he's guaranteed a win-win situation.
Apart from relaying outside news, Xu Qing also roughly figured out the power distribution within a thousand-mile radius around the Ghost King Mausoleum from the Eight Banner Marshal.
The Ancient Yin River Dao is formed along the rivers leading to the Underworld. These rivers are interconnected with some rivers in the mortal world but are not within the same dimension.
According to the Eight Banner Marshal, there are twelve guardians watching over the Underworld gates, collectively known as the Twelve Gatekeepers. These individuals are the traditional conservatives, forbidding anyone from attempting to open the Heaven-Reaching Road.
The others are mostly radicals, such as the Land Deity intent on eliminating the two Silent Child Spirits pursued tirelessly by Disastersnake, commanding the Destruction King Loft, which belongs to Hu Baosong. They are the 'rebels' trying to break through the Heaven-Reaching Road.
The Ghost King of the Ghost King Mausoleum is actually the subordinate of the Twelve Gatekeepers' 'Ghost Law.'
Calling them subordinates is actually more like gatekeepers.
Further inside, there is the Yin Corpse Sect.
Xu Qing realized that those who do not intend to break through the Heaven-Reaching Road are merely malevolent spirits and ghosts. These Underworld entities eagerly wish for the human realm to become a hell. As for the Heaven-Reaching Road...
The malevolent spirits fear celestial punishment above all. They are inherently doomed in trials and tribulations, and even if they narrowly escape the thunder disaster, the subsequent Celestial Fire and Roaring Winds will certainly block them outside the Heaven-Reaching Road.
Given this, they might as well join the conservatives, ensuring souls of distress in the mortal world cannot enter the Underworld so that the mortal world eventually becomes their paradise.
Xu Qing asked the Eight Banner Marshal about the prowess of the Ghost Law governing the ghosts, to which the Marshal replied, "Unfathomable!"
"The Ghoul, Plague Demon, and Zombie are all under Ghost Law's subordinates. It can be said that every ghost within the Ancient Yin River Dao is under Ghost Law's control. Even the Ten Halls Yama of the Underworld is not beyond comparison."
"Is he a ghost immortal?"
The Eight Banner Marshal looked at Xu Qing, the ghostly fire in his eyes flickering uncertainly, "It is not a single ghost, but a supreme entity born of countless ghosts such as wild ghosts, mountain ghosts, water ghosts, wrathful ghosts, malevolent ghosts, hanging ghosts, headless ghosts, famine ghosts."
"Hanging ghosts use ropes to cause wrongful deaths; famine ghosts ravenous eat anything, rupturing bellies to kill; headless ghosts call people back, taking their lives; water ghosts drown being's lungs...these tricks of the ghost realm are merely child's play in the hands of Ghost Law, handling them as if by reflex."
The Eight Banner Marshal said with unease, "I once watched Ghost Law from afar during its travels. Its stature is over a hundred meters tall, and when I looked up from horseback, it only glanced at me nonchalantly. I felt as though all my ghost techniques and Divine Techniques had been learned by it."
"It was born to be the emperor of the ghost race!"
Xu Qing grinned upon hearing this.
A zombie is also a ghostly being, yet according to the Eight Banner Marshal, Ghost Law is limited to ghost techniques. No matter how vast its skill set, and its absolute control over ghost techniques, it cannot restrain other types of spells.
Xu Qing is well-versed. Besides the ghost techniques inherent to zombies, he has mastered the transformations of Fur Corpse, Black Corpse, and Fire Corpse. Additionally, the magic obtained from the Sutra of Salvation is not constrained to matters of ghost techniques.
The Divine Travel Celestial Scripture taught by Master Yuan is similarly excluded.
At present, Xu Qing and Ghost Law differ perhaps only in the accumulation of experience and Divine Techniques.
Ghost Law has lived innumerable years, replicating countless ghost abilities, whereas Xu Qing has only transcended around a myriad corpses, a gap needing to be closed.
Xu Qing, ever mindful of potential danger, vowed a grand aim for himself; since mortally deceased souls could not conventionally return to the Nine Netherworld, he would become a smuggler, transcending every corpse he encountered.
With the Heaven-Reaching Road severed and the Underworld sealed off, Xu Qing's activity has already violated the celestial laws. If word spreads, not only would heaven not forgive him, but the Underworld would also blacklist him.
Only the deceased and their families might be grateful to Xu Qing.
Yet Xu Qing is unafraid; he has already smuggled so many souls. Regardless of either the New Celestial Laws or the Underworld's regulations, he deserves to die on the execution platform a thousand times!
Xu Qing has resigned himself to his fate, already a zombie, neither human nor ghost; he merely desires a place to stand. What sin has he committed?
For himself, and for those stranded in the mortal realm, left without guidance, spreading and vanished souls, can he turn a blind eye? Xu Qing is neither the compassionate Yaksha nor the soul-reaping demon, but he simply cannot do it!
Previously, he could claim he ate enough for himself alone, but now, seeing so many fleeting moments, so many joyous and sorrowful partings, Xu Qing walks among the living and, upon looking back, realizes countless are standing behind him.
Can he halt his steps and cease moving forward?
The Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha abandoned his duties, the gates of the Underworld fully closed, yet these individuals, even in death, must have a destination.
Born to die, the truth of heaven and earth.
The Celestial Master's Mansion has strong backing, high and exalted, untroubled by their path, but ordinary citizens cannot afford the Mansion's transcendence fees. Xu Qing offered them an affordable way home. If he fears divine wrath and abandons his path halfway, not only would those behind him despise him, but he would also despise himself.
"A mere gatekeeper of Ghost Law, what is there to fear?"
Xu Qing was not fazed by the Eight Banner Marshal's influence. Just because the Marshal feared doesn't mean Xu Qing must fear too.
He's not entirely alone; behind him are countless corpses that were once living people!
Ghosts were once people; using people against ghosts gives him an advantage!
Xu Qing returned to the Funeral Shop and increased the discount rate even more. Whether it makes money or not is irrelevant; he simply wanted to help as many people transcend as possible.
On that day, for unknown reasons, Xu Qing's colleagues in the Jin Sect's funeral industry couldn't stop their right eye twitching.