Chen Zhou finished listening and had a general idea of the situation in his heart.
Things might not be very optimistic.
The auspicious clouds had not guided him to the provincial capital, but rather to Song Zi'an in this small town.
This meant that the true Heavenly Chef most likely no longer existed, or rather, the destiny and fortune of the Heavenly Chef had already begun to transfer onto Song Zi'an.
Five years had passed without a single word, and he had entered a place like the imperial palace of the provincial capital—a place known for devouring people without leaving even a bone.
The odds were overwhelmingly against his survival.
"Have you ever considered that your master might have already met with misfortune?" Chen Zhou asked calmly.
Song Zi'an fell silent for a moment, the figure carrying the large black cauldron appearing somewhat desolate.
"I have thought about it."
His voice was low. "But my master's kindness to me is as heavy as a mountain. If not for him, I would have long been a corpse in a mass grave."
"A teacher for a day is a father for life."
"Even if there is only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, I must go and confirm it."
"If he is alive, I must see him; if he is dead, I must see his body."
"If Master has really... really met with misfortune..." Song Zi'an clenched his fists. "Then I will risk my life to bring him home, so his soul may finally return to its roots."
Chen Zhou looked at him and nodded slightly.
He was indeed a man of great loyalty and integrity.
"Let's go." Chen Zhou quickened his pace. "Then let's see what monsters and demons are hidden within the imperial palace of the provincial capital."
The group continued their eastward journey.
As they approached the core area of the provincial capital, the sights along the road became increasingly eerie.
Perhaps news of Zhao Gao's death had already traveled back, or perhaps the Yinsi Guards had all received orders.
Along this stretch, Chen Zhou and the others encountered no more resistance.
Even the soldiers who were supposed to be patrolling the checkpoints had vanished, as if they were avoiding them from afar.
Chen Zhou passed through several cities along the way; they were all very clean, yet the streets were completely empty.
The red rain fell even harder now, the accumulation on the ground reaching past their ankles, as if the entire world were soaking in blood.
Chen Zhou advanced at full speed within his ghost domain, finally reaching the provincial capital as night fell.
Under the cover of night, the capital before them was already shrouded in a dark red, spectral light.
The city walls towered into the clouds, hung with dense clusters of large red lanterns.
Amidst the whistling wind that sounded like sobbing, the lanterns swayed.
The city gates were wide open, and there were still no guards.
Chen Zhou and his companions walked along the broad main thoroughfare.
The blue stone pavement beneath their feet was washed slippery by the red rain. On both sides of the road, every household had its doors and windows tightly shut, and above each doorway hung a black wooden plate.
On them, four large characters were written in blood: "Yinsi Death-Exemption."
As for those households without a plate, their doors were shut tight and a thick yin qi leaked from within—clearly, those families had long since perished.
"It stinks."
Wu Gou wrinkled his nose with a look of disgust.
"This provincial capital looks glamorous on the surface, so why does its interior reek of rotting corpses?"
Song Zi'an's face also turned somewhat pale.
As a cook, his sense of smell was naturally sensitive. At this moment, the faint scent of blood and decay in the air made his stomach churn.
Chen Zhou kept them protected within the ghost domain as he looked around.
In the shadows of the streets, spectral figures occasionally flashed by—some were humans, some were drifting wandering souls, and there were even some demons with beast heads and human bodies.
They moved through the night, yet they strangely coexisted in peace.
"So this is the provincial capital, the Ghost Dynasty?"
With the night parade of a hundred ghosts and the cohabitation of demons and monsters, Chen Zhou felt that a living person coming here would actually be the anomaly.
Just as they were speaking, a sudden burst of noisy shouting came from ahead.
Accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of iron chains dragging on the ground, there were also several shrill screams.
"Let me go! I'm not a rebel! I'm not a rebel!"
"I am a good citizen! I have a death-exemption plate! You can't arrest me!"
Chen Zhou stopped in his tracks, his gaze piercing through the curtain of rain.
He saw a group of enforcers dressed in black and red armor surrounding the entrance of a house not far ahead at the street corner.
These enforcers were different from the previous Yinsi Guards.
They did not have the golden light of merit protecting their bodies; instead, their entire beings radiated a dense baleful aura, and they held gleaming steel forks in their hands.
The leading enforcer was a burly man who had been dead for an unknown number of years. He held a thin, middle-aged man in his hand like he was carrying a chicken about to be slaughtered.
The man struggled desperately, but in the burly man's grip, he appeared powerless and pathetic.
"A good citizen?"
The burly man sneered. "The merit within your death-exemption plate has been completely exhausted. You think you're worthy of being called a good citizen?"
"Someone reported you for trafficking infant flesh and blood. The witnesses and evidence are all here, yet you still dare to quibble!"
"Take him away! Execute him on the spot as a warning to others!"
Following the burly man's order, several enforcers immediately stepped forward, expertly pinning the man to the ground.
One of them took a steel fork and precisely sliced open the skin on the back of the man's neck, then slid it all the way down his spine.
Very quickly, a whole human skin was flayed off. The movement was fluid and natural, incredibly fast.
Within the ghost domain, Chen Zhou watched all this expressionlessly, his eyes flickering slightly.
Within the vision of his Law-Evaluating Eye, he saw a different scene.
The person being executed was covered in a frighteningly dense black and red karma-fire. Within it, several twisted infant faces could be vaguely seen, wailing in pain.
"He was actually someone who truly deserved to die?"
Chen Zhou pondered.
This man carried the lives of at least three close relatives on his back; he was indeed a thorough villain.
Chen Zhou continued to observe.
He saw those enforcers, after flaying the human skin, take out a bundle of straw and roughly stuff it inside the skin to fill it and shape it.
In just a short moment, a person composed of human skin and straw stood up.
As for the original flayed man, only a mangled pile of flesh remained, lying on the ground at its last breath.
An enforcer used a steel fork to impale the flesh. The dense karma-fire of sin upon the meat seemed to be drawn by some kind of attraction and was absorbed by the steel fork.
As more and more sin was absorbed, the steel fork became dark and shiny.
Finally, even the man's soul was extracted and then stuffed into the strawman by the burly man.
The living person who had been struggling desperately just moments ago was now submissive and low-eyed, his hands hanging by his sides, his face even wearing a trace of a peaceful smile.
"And it's done."
The burly man patted the strawman's shoulder with satisfaction. "We have another obedient good citizen."
"Send this good citizen to the Ministry of Rites. The Prince's Night Banquet has been short on staff lately, and as expected, good citizens are the most useful."
Having finished this, the burly man put away the steel fork and took out a chain.
Chen Zhou instantly recognized it; it was the soul-hooking weapon of the Yinsi Guard, with a trace of merit still flowing upon it.
The burly man walked to the door of a neighboring house and knocked heavily.
The door opened a crack, and a ghost hand as withered as dry wood reached out, holding a dull-colored death-exemption plate.
Without a word, the burly man looped the chain over the wooden plate. Soon, the last trace of merit on the chain was injected into the death-exemption plate.
Buzz—
The death-exemption plate instantly regained its luster.
"Thank you, Officer! Thank you, Officer!"
An old ghost squeezed out from the door crack. It looked at the recharged death-exemption plate in its hand, its eyes full of gratitude.
"That wretched thing was a distant nephew I brought into the city. I originally wanted to keep him to support me in my old age, but I didn't expect him to be an ungrateful white-eyed wolf."
"Since the sin on him was so heavy, rather than letting it go to waste, it was better to use it to honor the officers and renew the life of this plate at home."
The old ghost chuckled, revealing a mouthful of black teeth. "This is great. With this merit, my family's safety is guaranteed for another half year."
The burly man glanced at him coldly. "At least you know what's good for you."
"Remember, the provincial capital does not support idle people, nor does it support those without merit."
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