Chapter 55: Haunted Mansion

At this moment, Wang Ping found himself facing a dilemma.

The Lin Family Mansion was clearly trouble, yet it was tied to the secrets of Longxing County and the reason the National Academy, the White Lotus Sect, and the Imperial Tribute Hall had all converged here.

'To go, or not to go?'

Even though his Divine Intent told him there was "no danger," that only made him more vigilant. Finding no signs of a threat only meant the threat was exceptionally severe!

After a moment of thought, Wang Ping took a step back.

As the old saying went, a child worth a thousand gold does not sit under a leaking roof. Since it was dangerous, he wouldn't go. As for the proverb about knowing there are tigers on the mountain, he simply wouldn't go to that mountain.

'The Lin Family Mansion obviously has major issues. I should just leave it to Shenhou and Xugou. Those two from the Imperial Tribute Hall should be more experienced with this. Still, I can't just report back empty-handed, or I'll look like a coward too terrified to even investigate, lowering their impression of me for nothing.'

Soon, Wang Ping made his decision.

He didn't rush into the Lin Family Mansion. Instead, he first found a paper shop in the city, bought a stack of seven-colored stationery, and picked up a bluestone from the side of the road.

He chipped away the excess bluestone, leaving a block exactly forty-nine cun long, seven cun wide, and forty-nine fen thick.

He stacked the seven-colored paper—white, yellow, red, blue, purple, green, and black—cut the stack into forty-nine paper figures, each seven cun tall, and pressed them beneath the bluestone.

Immediately after, he focused his mind and held his breath.

His Niwan Palace burst open, and a rushing tide of Telepathic Spiritual Perception surged forth. It transformed into a radiant glow invisible to Mortal eyes, landing gently on the paper figures in tandem with Wang Ping's hand seals.

"Profound mysteries rapidly manifest, protect the perfected one."

Soul Seizing!

The moment the incantation finished, Wang Ping blew out a breath. Billowing spiritual sense drove the paper figures, and the originally ordinary paper suddenly glowed with a dazzling, rosy radiance.

A moment later, the glow dissipated. Wang Ping looked around. The paper figures were gone, and in their place stood another version of himself—features well-proportioned and steady, perfectly lifelike. At the same time, he felt his perspective, which had been relying on his spiritual sense to observe the outside world, transfer onto the duplicate.

Wang Ping clicked his tongue in wonder at the sight.

The paper figure substitute was an application of Soul Seizing. It involved extracting one of his own seven souls and attaching it to the paper figure using his Telepathic Spiritual Perception.

'It's the most superficial form of a substitute technique.'

'Unfortunately, I haven't passed the Human Tribulation yet. I don't have magical power, and I used mundane materials, so this crafted paper substitute has basically no combat strength.'

The Tribulation Transcending First Layer required the condensation of four cultivation traits: Telepathic Spiritual Perception, Flawless True Body, Cosmic Orbit Respiration, and Borrowing Qi to Manifest Magic. Among them, the fourth trait—Borrowing Qi to Manifest Magic—was a qualitative leap. Only by condensing this trait could one forge magical power and shed their mortal flesh.

Only upon cultivating to this point could one truly be considered to have crossed the threshold.

Immortal cultivation spells like Qi Restriction and Soul Seizing also had to be driven by magical power to reach true perfection; otherwise, they would always lack a certain profundity.

"But for the current me, it's enough."

Wang Ping looked relaxed.

After all, he didn't need the paper figure to have much combat power. He just needed it to take a walk through the Lin Family Mansion and see exactly what was inside on his behalf.

Thinking of this, Wang Ping formed a hand seal and pointed.

"Go!"

As his voice fell, the originally stiff-faced paper Wang Ping instantly sprang into motion. Its features relaxed, color rushed into its face, and a spark of intelligence appeared in its eyes.

Following that, it strode toward the Lin Family Mansion.

It pushed open the doors and stepped inside.

"Boom!"

In the next second, Wang Ping watched as the paper substitute vanished without a trace the moment it pushed open the mansion doors, wiped away like pencil marks by an eraser.

...

A dark, eerie wind blew.

Through the paper figure, Wang Ping looked up. It had been broad daylight right before entering the mansion, but once inside, heavy, sun-blocking dark clouds hung overhead.

However, as he circulated his spiritual sense, that cloud-like illusion was immediately pierced and peeled away, revealing the broad daylight once more. This let him breathe a sigh of relief. At the very least, it proved his advantage as a cultivator was still intact. This was still an easy sweep; he hadn't mistakenly blundered into a high-tier trap.

'Let me see...'

Wang Ping looked around, inspecting the mansion before him. The entire layout was orderly, neither too large nor too small. What met his eyes was a quaint, old-fashioned courtyard.

Inside the courtyard sat a tea pavilion.

Directly opposite the tea pavilion was a corridor. Four doors lined the corridor, corresponding to four rooms, and a lantern hung in front of each one.

The lanterns were all wrapped in white paper.

The flames inside burned a sickly green, piercing through the paper to illuminate four large, twisted, and slanted characters: "Jia", "Yi", "Bing", and "Ding".

'What the hell...'

Wang Ping furrowed his brow tightly. His Telepathic Spiritual Perception allowed him to see and sense many things that Mortal eyes could scarcely detect, just like the scene before him.

A Mortal would only feel that this courtyard was a bit cold, catching a baseless draft, but he could see the resentful, malefic aura accumulating in the courtyard. This was the optimal environment for the birth of a demonic entity. If not for the fact that the Great Shun's spiritual energy was too thin, a mansion like this might have already bred a true demon.

'People have died here...'

Wang Ping's expression grew increasingly grave. Not only had people died, but to accumulate enough resentful, malefic aura to breed a demon, they must have experienced tremendous agony before their deaths.

'Xu Bingzheng... what exactly is he trying to do?'

Or rather, what exactly was the National Academy behind Xu Bingzheng trying to do? How many other courtyards in the county town had suffered the same fate as the Lin Family?

This so-called extraordinary art looked rather wicked.

Wang Ping walked into the tea pavilion.

The entire mansion was swimming in resentful, malefic aura, but the tea pavilion had the least of it—only a thin layer. It was also filled with various objects.

To be precise, they were case files.

The thick files were neatly divided into four stacks, each facing one of the four rooms in the corridor. It seemed they were prepared specifically for whoever entered the mansion.

Wang Ping opened the first file.

The first page was marked "Ding," clearly corresponding to Cell Ding of the mansion. Soon, Wang Ping was reading an incredibly detailed biographical overview.

"The person living in Cell Ding is named Zhu Wu."

"This person was born an orphan. He became a street pickpocket at five, mastered swindling and scamming by twelve, and entered a martial arts dojo in the city as an apprentice at fifteen."

"Later, because he bullied his fellow junior disciples, he was expelled from the dojo. From then on, he idled about, living a destitute life, never knowing where his next meal would come from. This lasted until a neighbor's family made a small fortune doing business. Upon learning of this, he broke into their home late at night with a knife and slaughtered the family of three."

"He didn't even spare the neighbor's newborn daughter."

"Afterward, he fled the city, changed his name, and hid in a rural village until he was captured by the catchers of the County Yamen. According to the Great Shun Legal Code, he should be sentenced to death by a thousand cuts."

This was someone Unforgivably Guilty.

Wang Ping finished reading the file, then shifted his gaze to the next one, which was marked "Bing." It was a similar biographical overview.

"The person living in Cell Bing is named Hua Yingmei."

"This person was a human trafficker. Over three years, she abducted and sold more than a dozen children from good families, sending them either into the countryside or to county towns in other prefectures."

"On the surface, she was a widely known philanthropist. She took in orphans at the Earth God Shrine in the west city, feeding them and teaching them skills. Many people called this the Beggar Gang. Behind the scenes, however, she ordered the orphans of the Beggar Gang to lure children from good families, waiting for a chance to abduct and sell them."

"However, as they say, even the tightest scheme has its flaws."

"As her business grew larger, her secrets became harder to hide. In the end, she was exposed, investigated, and arrested by the County Yamen. According to the Great Shun Legal Code, she should be sentenced to death by dismemberment."

This was someone Heinously Wicked.

Seeing this, Wang Ping glanced at Cell Ding and Cell Bing. As he expected, the accumulation of resentful, malefic aura was heaviest in these two rooms.

He continued to check the third file.

"The person living in Cell Yi is named Pang Yue."

"This person was an opportunistic traveling merchant. While passing through Longxing County, he encountered bandits and had his goods robbed, ruining a negotiated business deal."

"Too ashamed to return to his hometown, he remained stranded in Longxing County. In order to make a comeback, he began weaving a web of deception. By borrowing money to pay off the interest on other debts, he continuously compounded the interest, reeling people into his scheme, before finally absconding with the money. Hundreds of households in the city, large and small, were caught up in it. There was no shortage of victims who committed suicide after having their entire family wealth swindled away."

"The County Yamen took this matter extremely seriously."

"They immediately reported it to the prefectural government. Catchers from various county towns joined forces, eventually crossing county lines to capture him and bring him to justice. The funds he swindled are still being tracked down."

"According to the Great Shun Legal Code, he should be sentenced to a severe caning."

This was someone Unavoidably Culpable.

Three rooms, all sinners. Yet under the Great Shun Legal Code, their guilt and punishments went from heavy to light: from death by a thousand cuts, to dismemberment, and finally to a severe caning.

Then came the question.

Wang Ping's gaze fell on the fourth file marked "Jia." This time, what greeted his eyes was a completely different biographical overview.

"The person living in Cell Jia is named Li An."

"This person ordinarily worked as an assistant in a blacksmith shop in the city. He had no bad deeds to his name, possessed both a son and a daughter, had living parents, and enjoyed a harmonious relationship with his wife."

"Normally, he also frequently provided financial relief to poor elderly folk."

"Because he was always ready to help others, the neighbors on his street spoke very highly of him. During festivals, they would even deliver gifts to his door. He was universally recognized as an innocent and kind person."

This was someone Pure and Innocent.

Four rooms, four types of people, four case files, just sitting there in the tea pavilion... And on the last page of the file, there was an intriguing sentence:

"Let me see how long you can last."

'What does this mean?'

Wang Ping furrowed his brow, forming a vague guess. The four people in these four rooms were likely the source of the resentful, malefic aura now permeating the entire mansion.

Could it be that Lin Sheng killed them all?

Why?

Bearing these doubts, Wang Ping continued searching through the tea pavilion. Finally, beneath one of the files, he pulled out a yellowed book.

'This is... a diary?'

Wang Ping opened the book. The handwriting inside was upright and vigorous, clearly written by a son of a good family who had grown up well-educated and reasonable.

"My name is Lin Sheng."

"If someone is reading this diary... I must already be dead, having died by the hands of Magistrate Xu Bingzheng. I only hope the truth will not be buried here."

"It all started on the day I was suspended pending review. The very night I returned home, Magistrate Xu Bingzheng... that dog official found me. He brought those four people over, along with their corresponding files, and had the extraordinary person accompanying him cast some sort of extraordinary art on me."

An accompanying extraordinary person?

Seeing this, Wang Ping's brows instantly shot up. As far as he knew, the only individual in all of Longxing County who could be called an 'extraordinary person' was the Perfected Wandering Spirit.

But that wasn't right.

'Earlier, Xu Bingzheng and Chen Haoyan used me as bait just so they could sneak into the Perfected Wandering Spirit's dojo and steal that Heaven's Will Soul-Returning Pill.'

If that were the case, the two sides should be completely incompatible, like fire and water.

Why would Xu Bingzheng be acting together with the Perfected Wandering Spirit?

What exactly was going on behind the scenes?

With this thought in mind, Wang Ping continued reading the diary.

"It was a very strange extraordinary art. Not only did it keep me in a constant state of intense hunger, but it also drastically increased my appetite."

"Before leaving, he also left me some food."

"But very quickly, I ate all the food."

Reading up to this point, Wang Ping already had his suspicions. 'Interesting. This is deliberately cultivating a demon. It's the same logic the Immortal Gate uses to refine strongmen.'

In short, it was about escalating a person's resentment before they died, so that they could be used as materials after death, fully extracting their value as human livestock.

'Deliberately putting Lin Sheng in a state of extreme starvation, then sitting back and waiting for him to eat all the surplus grain. That way, he'd be forced to fight others for food. Four rooms, four types of people, ranging from the unforgivably guilty to the pure and innocent. This was meant to shatter his bottom line step by step, making him gradually degenerate into a villain.'

That would explain the resentful, malefic aura.

'Makes sense. Having the food you need to survive snatched away for nothing, and ultimately dying in hunger and despair—it couldn't be more normal for that to spawn a resentful, malefic aura.'

That was why Xu Bingzheng had left such a sentence in the file:

"Let me see how long you can last."

'There's no doubt Lin Sheng is a young catcher with justice in his heart and firm convictions. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been suspended for clashing with Chen Haoyan.'

And what Xu Bingzheng wanted to do was shatter his convictions.

'This courtyard allows entry but not exit. Even if Lin Sheng willingly degenerates, he'll still starve to death in the end. As the perpetrator of it all, he will be swallowed by the malefic resentment.'

'By then, his life will come to an end.'

'And his existence as a human livestock for a demonic entity will begin anew.'

Thinking of this, Wang Ping couldn't help but shake his head. "A nice idea, but as I said before, the Great Shun's spiritual energy is just too thin."

Without enough spiritual energy, this level of malefic resentment still wasn't enough to birth a demon.

This plan was doomed to fail.

'To breed a demon with insufficient spiritual energy, the resentful, malefic aura needs to be multiplied by at least three to five times,' Wang Ping roughly estimated in his heart.

Following that, he continued reading the diary.

Just as expected, the subsequent records should be roughly identical to his guess. In order to survive, Lin Sheng continuously seized food from the others, and even resorted to murder...

"Nothing."

Wang Ping's thoughts came to a screeching halt.

Because on the next page of the diary, there was only a chaotic string of twisted, frantic handwriting: "Nothing! There is no food, there is absolutely nothing!"

'Nothing?' Wang Ping was stunned.

Impossible. How could there be no food? If there was no food, then fighting and killing would be out of the question, and it would be impossible to breed such an intense resentful, malefic aura...

"...Ah."

The next second, Wang Ping was suddenly enlightened.

No food? This was a beautiful misunderstanding that could only be made by someone who had never lacked food, someone who had never experienced what true 'hunger' was.

Wang Ping looked at the four rooms before him, the four files in his hands, and the four vibrant, flesh-and-blood living people described within them.

Wasn't the food right in front of him?