Ma San's fall was heavy, and the Thunder Curse Nan Zhi dealt him at the last moment was no small matter either. It left the Taoist spitting blood, his face turned the color of death.
“Thunder magic? How... how do you know thunder magic? I get it... You're not a rogue cultivator, you're from the Demon Suppression Division!”
His injuries were exceedingly severe.
Nan Zhi hadn't held back her force in that palm strike earlier, and when they fell, she had used Ma San as a cushion, delivering a heavy blow to him.
Given Nan Zhi's physical build and strength, falling from such a height was no different than being crushed by a small mountain.
Had Ma San not been a cultivator, anyone else would have been reduced to a pile of meat mud on the spot.
Nan Zhi didn't bother answering his question. She picked through his clothes, tearing open his collar and pulling out a bundle of small jars and bottles.
Seeing that the little red hedgehog in her arms was breathing its last, its long snout trembling continuously, she summoned a ball of water and slammed it against Ma San's face to wake him up:
“Which one is the antidote?”
Sprayed with the icy river water, Ma San shuddered violently and shakily pointed to a gray porcelain bottle on the ground.
Fearing he might trick her, Nan Zhi popped open the bottle and forced half of it down his throat. Seeing no ill reaction, she then fed the remaining antidote to the little hedgehog.
“Squeak, squeak...”
The little hedgehog let out a weak, pitiful squeak toward Nan Zhi before curling into a ball, tucking itself into her arms, and slowly growing still.
—It seemed to have passed out from sheer exhaustion.
Nan Zhi handed the hedgehog over to Wanniang before turning back to interrogate Ma San:
“You mentioned earlier that you were taking these people to the Ghost Market to trade for silver. But as you said yourself, buying and selling souls or human beings is a capital offense. I'd love to know who has the audacity to trade living humans with you right under the nose of the Demon Suppression Division. Who are these buyers, and what do they intend to do with these people?”
“I'll talk! I'll talk! Spare my life, My Lady! Spare my life!”
Ma San covered his mouth and nose, suddenly coughing up a mouthful of black blood before trembling as he confessed truthfully:
“When the Gates of Hell open during the Ghost Festival, the wicked ghosts in the Underworld pay off the ghost messengers so they can sneak into the mortal realm to enjoy a few days of pleasure. These wicked ghosts love eating human flesh, but if they kidnap living people themselves, they leave behind tracks that the Demon Suppression Division will uncover. Coupled with evil cultivators needing human parts for 'human pills,' a trade in catching 'meat sheep' naturally emerged in the Ghost Market over time. I use beast-craft sorcery to capture living humans, transform them into living sheep and donkeys, and ship them to the Ghost Market, where contacts wait to receive them. This method is discreet and hard to detect. Even if someone senses something amiss, it's impossible to catch any hard evidence against me.”
As it turned out, this was far from the first time Ma San had done this.
During the Ghost Festival last year, he had used this sorcery to kidnap five young children, turned them into meat sheep, and sold them for a high price at the Ghost Market, earning a thousand taels of gold. He had then spent all of it on medicinal pills and spirit herbs for his cultivation.
Having tasted the sweetness of easy gain, Ma San became even more arrogant and brazen in his actions.
He spent a handsome sum to lay out a table of fine food and wine, bribing a ghost messenger he was acquainted with to learn that the Gates of Hell would open in Bianjing this year.
Inherently greedy and obsessed with reaching Foundation Establishment to achieve immortality, Ma San decided to pull off a massive deal, leading to everything that followed.
Nan Zhi quickly realized the reality of the situation.
—The Demon Suppression Division dealt exclusively with demonic and supernatural matters. No matter how large an ordinary kidnapping case grew, it would never reach the desks of the Demon Suppression Division.
Ordinary constables handling abduction cases mostly conducted local door-to-door investigations.
A wandering Taoist like Ma San could drive a flock of sheep openly down an official highway without raising anyone's suspicion.
After all, who would ever suspect that evil sorcery capable of transforming human beings into livestock existed in this world?
“Write down every single buyer who bought living humans from you in the past, and I might spare your life for now.”
Nan Zhi picked up the gourd on the ground and gave it a shake, hearing a soft gurgling liquid sound from inside:
“Where did you learn this evil sorcery? And as for this gourd, you kept claiming to be a destitute rogue cultivator, but this artifact doesn't look like something an ordinary rogue cultivator could possess.”
“This... Everyone wears a mask in the Ghost Market! How could I know who bought meat sheep from me?”
Ma San hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should speak.
But seeing Nan Zhi's fierce gaze and her twitching palm, looking as though she might shatter his skull the very next second—
His heart trembled, and he immediately spilled everything like beans pouring from a tipped bamboo tube:
“I'll talk! I'll talk! The one who bought meat sheep from me last year was an evil cultivator named Duan Chunming. He seemed to be refining some wicked pill that required children's hearts, livers, and bone marrow as ingredients... There was also a fox named Xiugu who bought two meat sheep to keep as servant boys. As for the rest, the rest I really don't know! And the gourd along with the beast-craft sorcery—I found them years ago in an ancient tomb! My Lady, My Lady, everything I said is true, not a single lie! If My Lady is interested in the gourd and the beast-craft sorcery, please take them all!”
While he had casually called her 'Sister Nan' earlier, now at the brink of life and death, Ma San threw all reserve to the wind, displaying unmitigated servility.
“What nonsense are you spewing? Am I the kind of person who would covet your trinkets?”
Nan Zhi stashed the gourd into her backpack, cleanly dislocated all four of his limbs, and tied up the limp, rubber-like Ma San with rope before calling the boat owner over:
“This man used evil sorcery to kidnap others, abused innocent civilians, and lied to trick an official of the court. His crimes are monstrous. I have broken his four limbs and crippled his cultivation. Have your men tie him to the bow and submerge him in the river water. When he is willing to confess honestly, pull him back up.”
Autumn river water was deadly cold!
The river was full of jagged rocks; under rapid currents, scraping against them could tear off chunks of flesh, to say nothing of the carnivorous fish and water snakes lurking in the depths.
Even a corpse would bloat after a few days in the river water, let alone a living person.
This official truly had ruthlessly formidable methods!
The boat owner was scared out of his wits, but hearing of Ma San's evil deeds and seeing his miserable plight, he felt a wave of satisfaction. He hurriedly called his deckhands to assist in dangling Ma San off the side of the boat—
Splash!
Powerless to resist, Ma San hung upside down along the side of the ship.
After a night of chaotic struggle, dawn was fast approaching.
The morning light was faint, with the eastern sky over the river showing the first pale glimmers of fish-belly white.
The rapid current constantly washed over the ship, and Ma San bobbed up and down with the boat's motion, plunging again and again into the bone-chilling river water.
“Bitch! Scoundrel! Lackey of the Demon Suppression Division! Going back on your word—even if I become a ghost after death, I won't let you off!”
Ma San hadn't expected Nan Zhi to be so ruthless, genuinely intending to leave him to die, and he began cursing furiously:
“You rotten-hearted bastard! You dark-faced murderer!”
“You lowly scoundrels... gurgle gurgle... How dare you treat me like this... gurgle gurgle... Once I get free, I'll make every last one of you pay with your lives!”
“Pull me up quickly! I am a cultivator destined for smooth ascension... gurgle gurgle... to enjoy all the wealth and glory of the mortal realm! gurgle gurgle... Whoever pulls me up, I'll reward him with a hundred taels of gold and a grand destiny!”
“Forgive me! Forgive me... gurgle gurgle... Whatever you want to know, I'll... gurgle gurgle... I don't want to die... gurgle gurgle... I don't want to die!”
“I beg you, have mercy, spare me! I was just blinded by a heart demon for a moment and strayed from the path... gurgle gurgle...”
Ma San cursed, swore, and wailed, then incessantly begged and pleaded for mercy, but to little effect.
Toward the end, his voice grew exceedingly weak—likely because he had swallowed his fill of river water.
Nan Zhi even instructed someone to gag his mouth with a rag so he wouldn't disturb the rest of the passengers on board.
The terrifyingly silent passengers on the ship: “...”
This whole journey had been thrilling and terrifying enough as it was.
Would a bit of noise really make a difference?
Still, you're surprisingly considerate, aren't you?
...
Ma San remained hung off the bow like that for two whole days. By the time he was hauled back up, his entire body was bloated like a waterlogged carcass.
He spilled every single piece of information he knew, including but not limited to his life experiences: bedwetting at age eight, stealing plums from a neighbor's tree at age nine, blinding a neighbor's puppy at age ten, and injuring someone before fleeing his hometown at age fifteen.
Once she was certain no more information could be squeezed out of Ma San, Nan Zhi cleanly dispatched him to the Western Heaven.
The Demon Suppression Division dealt exclusively with evil and demonic matters; executing first and reporting later was their right, and no one could question it.
This rule suited her tastes to perfection.
On the sixth day of the voyage, the river's surface gradually grew calm, and the scenery along both banks turned more desolate. Ahead, right where the ship's bow pointed, the shadowy outline of an exceedingly prosperous dock faintly emerged.
Rate on N.U.
