The words How did you know I’d already found something? circled once at Zhong Yi’s lips before he swallowed them back down. There was no need to ask. He already knew Wei Fu would answer with some perfunctory nonsense like, “Naturally, because I trust the capabilities of the Commander of the Egret Guard.”
When a clever person put too little effort into pretending to be foolish, it only made him seem frivolous instead. Wei Fu was precisely the sort of person who delighted in making such “frivolity” part of his personality.
His matter-of-fact confidence rubbed off on Mu Heng, and the two of them looked at Zhong Yi together, waiting for him to continue. Zhong Yi had no fondness for keeping people in suspense, so he picked up where he had left off. “The day after the incident, the Song family’s country estate outside the city also caught fire. Fortunately, the blaze was extinguished in time, and there were no casualties. However, when the constables questioned the servants there, they gave vague answers, avoided their gazes, and behaved very suspiciously. The head constable sensed something was wrong and ordered his men to search the premises by force. In the Buddhist hall, they discovered a concealed door leading to an underground chamber.”
“This subject inspected the scene personally. Calling it a secret chamber would not be quite accurate; a dungeon would be more appropriate. There were no other furnishings inside, only several iron cages embedded into the walls. When the head constable went down to investigate, three young women were still imprisoned there. The eldest was seventeen, while the youngest had not yet reached hairpin age. Two were from Yongning City, and the other was from Nankou City. All three said that both their parents were still alive and that they had been drugged and forcibly abducted while away from home. They did not know Song Man or his adviser. When they recalled where they had gone before being abducted, the only thing the three had in common was that each had visited the local Dongfu Silk & Satin Shop.”
Elio’s Notes: Hairpin age (及笄) traditionally refers to a girl reaching adulthood, conventionally at fifteen, when her hair would be pinned up in a coming-of-age ceremony.
The room fell silent for a moment. Zhong Yi gave the two of them time to steady themselves, then, seeing that neither spoke, continued. “Because the case is complicated and involves other cities, Xianglian City alone could hardly reach far enough to handle it. The local authorities therefore reported the case to the Egret Guard and requested that it take over the investigation.”
As the emperor’s personal guard force directly under his command, the Egret Guard moved far faster than the local authorities, whether in obtaining case files or mobilizing manpower. And since this case had even brought Commander Zhong Yi himself to the scene, its efficiency was naturally greater still.
Mu Heng asked, “What have you uncovered?”
Zhong Yi answered succinctly. “According to the testimony of Song Man’s household servants and people connected to Dongfu Silk & Satin Shop, Song Man’s outward identity was that of a silk merchant. In reality, he used commerce as a cover to purchase young women from various regions, using Xianglian City as a base before secretly transferring them to Dongyu, Yanyuan, Qiyun, and other countries. Under the guise of transporting textiles, he was engaged in human trafficking.”
“There is also an unverified report. Several years ago, a merchant named Song Ying established a trading firm in Weizhou City, Dongyu, dealing in miscellaneous goods from north and south. For reasons unknown, he suddenly disappeared without a trace overnight. Half a year after his disappearance, Song Man purchased property and settled in Xianglian City. Dongfu Silk & Satin Shop expanded extraordinarily quickly—in less than three years, it had opened six branches across Xianglian, Yongning, Chaolu, and Nankou.”
Mu Heng did not ask where Zhong Yi had obtained the information and merely concluded decisively, “Even if ‘Song Ying’ and ‘Song Man’ are the same person, and even if he already possessed considerable capital, it would still have been impossible to build such a large enterprise in so short a time. There must be a greater power behind him.”
Wei Fu pondered for a long moment before suddenly asking, “A Buddhist hall at the country estate… Did Song Man believe in Buddhism? Was there also a Buddhist hall at his main residence?”
Commander Zhong Yi had weathered countless storms and was famous for his composure. Rumor among the people held that he would not even blink if someone suddenly dropped dead before him. Yet for some reason, he now hesitated and cast Mu Heng a glance.
Mu Heng paused. “What is it?”
“What Song Man believed in… probably wasn’t Buddhism.”
Zhong Yi rose with a brief apology and carefully drew from the leather pouch at his side something meticulously wrapped in oil paper. When he unfolded it, two thin, soft, grayish-white pieces were revealed, one large and one small, each bearing intricate colored patterns. “We found these in the Buddhist hall at the Song family’s country estate.”
An inexplicable chill seemed to sweep through the room. With a sharp crack, Zhong Yi and Mu Heng both turned toward Wei Fu, who had abruptly risen to his feet.
When seated, Wei Fu was not particularly imposing. It was obvious that he was tall and slender, but his large peach-blossom eyes—far too luminous and amorous for a man—and the naturally upturned corners of his smiling lips were highly deceptive. At first glance, one’s attention was usually drawn to his handsome, gentle appearance, making him seem like nothing more than an elegant, warm, refined young nobleman.
But once he stood, it was an entirely different matter. His height seemed to shoot straight up from the ground, leaving him half a head taller even than the already tall Mu Heng and Zhong Yi. Xianfang Hall was spacious and brightly lit, yet Mu Heng still felt as though half the light around him had suddenly been swallowed. Wei Fu’s looming figure matched his expression perfectly—dark clouds pressing down upon a city.
“My grip was too strong. My apologies.”
He set down the folding fan, now snapped cleanly into two pieces. Bewildered by his intense reaction, Mu Heng reached out to take the object for a closer look. “What is this?”
“Such a filthy thing is best viewed from a distance, Your Majesty.” Zhong Yi deftly avoided his fingertips, used a handkerchief as a barrier, and thoughtfully placed the object on a nearby tea table slightly farther away. “These are pieces of tattooed human skin. Barring any mistake, they should have been flayed from the bodies of the deceased…”
The emperor snatched his hand back as if struck by lightning.
“The reason the constables in Xianglian City were able to quickly discover the concealed chamber in the Buddhist hall was precisely because, while searching the country estate, they unexpectedly found these in the hands of the Buddha statue. It was almost as though someone had deliberately placed them there to point the way.” Zhong Yi continued, “The only people who could have done such a thing were those who killed Song Man and the other man.”
“Why are you still calling them killers? How disrespectful. I think they ought to be called righteous heroes instead.”
Wei Fu stood a step away, blocking a considerable amount of light. His disgust and loathing for the tattooed human skin were unmistakable, yet his eyes burned with startling brightness, as though he had unexpectedly caught hold of some fleeting phantom. His expression seemed caught somewhere between delight and hatred, strange to the extreme. “The proper name for these tattoos is ‘Mandala.’ No wonder he built a Buddhist hall… Song Man was a member of the Ten Aspects Sect.”
This time, Mu Heng was genuinely startled. “Shuchen!”
Wei Fu continued, “Every follower of the Ten Aspects Sect bears a circular insignia tattooed onto the body using special pigments. ‘Mandala’ was originally a Buddhist concept, referring to a ritual altar where deities and sacred implements are enshrined. The Ten Aspects Sect simply stole the name and appropriated it for themselves, calling their circular tattoos ‘Mandalas’ to present themselves as people engaged in cultivation.”
“Within the Ten Aspects Sect, the Mandala serves as a marker of status. Ordinary believers of low rank bear only a small Mandala on the arm or sole of the foot, and the design is simple—an eighteen-petaled camellia. Higher-ranking followers who have passed the ‘trial’ bear much more intricate and elaborate Mandalas, and their placement is different as well: on the chest and upper back, corresponding to the heart meridian.”
He gestured through the air toward the tattoo on the left. “This one is the Dharma Protector Mandala. It bears images of blades, golden bells, golden wheels, and vajras, symbolizing those who perform martial duties. This one is called the Secret-Mantra Mandala. It bears the eight-character mantra in Mo script: ‘ageless, deathless, undecaying, imperishable,’ symbolizing those who move through the secular world. Above these is another rank called the Dharma-Form Mandala, depicting Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Only elders and the sect leader are qualified to bear such tattoos.”
“I would guess that this Secret-Mantra Mandala belonged to Song Man, since he was responsible for accumulating wealth for the Ten Aspects Sect, while the Dharma Protector Mandala was most likely stripped from that adviser surnamed Lin. If so, then the nature of their ‘business’ is clear. It was the Ten Aspects Sect’s most despicable practice—True Spirit Guidance.”
No one interrupted him, allowing his deductions to pour out like an unbroken torrent. Wei Fu finished in one breath, then raised his eyes toward Mu Heng. “Your Majesty…”
Mu Heng lifted a hand to stop him, signaling that there was no need to say more. In a firm, decisive voice, he ordered, “Continue the investigation. Do not let a single person who has had dealings with Song Man or Dongfu Silk & Satin Shop escape scrutiny. Mobilize the full strength of the Egret Guard. No matter what it takes, this festering tumor must be uprooted completely. Whoever dares involve themselves with the Ten Aspects Sect will receive no mercy.”
Zhong Yi straightened and rose. “This subject obeys Your Majesty’s command.”
Song Man’s crime of human trafficking was monstrous; wherever he was judged, he deserved death. But if the power behind him was the Ten Aspects Sect, then dying like this was actually letting him off cheaply—why hadn’t Zhong Yi ground him into powder and scattered him to the wind?
The Ten Aspects Sect claimed to have originated in the Kingdom of Timo, the Land of Ten Thousand Buddhas on the Southern Continent, as an offshoot of Buddhism. It had been founded a century earlier by Patriarch Luo Jian and later flourished under its second sect leader, Helan Zhenjia. But this account carried a strong whiff of gilding their own reputation, because Luo Jian had been no eminent monk versed in Buddhist scripture and doctrine. He was a monk expelled from his sect after violating the precepts through sexual misconduct.
Unable to make a living in his homeland, he traveled north into the Central Continent in search of a way to survive. Around Xiangzhou in Yanyuan, he gathered numerous followers through exorcism, healing, and arts involving ghosts and spirits, eventually becoming known as the Patriarch of Formlessness.
His signature skill was a technique called Soul Seizure, which was said to allow him to seize the living soul directly from a person’s body, leaving behind a living corpse that had lost all sense of self yet could still eat, drink, and move like an ordinary person.
Buddhism speaks of the Nine Aspects, referring to the nine stages through which a corpse passes from death until it becomes bare bones. Luo Jian, however, claimed that what he had mastered transcended the Nine Aspects: a tenth aspect called the Non-Death Aspect, in which the soul had already been extinguished while the physical body remained alive in the world.
He used this to “prove” that the intangible and invisible “soul” truly existed within the human body, then guided his followers in cultivation. Gradually, a complete system of doctrine and ritual took shape, and he established the Ten Aspects Sect. His disciple Helan Zhenjia, meanwhile, entered official service. When Emperor Tianbao of Yanyuan launched a sweeping suppression of Buddhism, Helan Zhenjia seized the opportunity to rise. He accompanied Emperor Tianbao on his northern campaign against the Kingdom of Yilin, rendered great military service, and was appointed Imperial Preceptor with authority over all religious sects beneath Heaven. From that point onward, the Ten Aspects Sect flourished.
To promote the Ten Aspects Sect, Helan Zhenjia catered to Yanyuan’s princes, nobles, and aristocracy in order to win their favor. Drawing inspiration from heterodox cults throughout history, he created the most infamous practice of the Ten Aspects Sect: True Spirit Guidance.
The central doctrine of the Ten Aspects Sect held that every person possessed a “spirit,” and that all cultivation existed to make one’s own spirit brighter and wiser. Beyond prayer and scripture recitation, cultivation could also be performed by “receiving” spirit from an offering—in plain terms, through dual cultivation between men and women.
Those suitable to become offerings, the so-called True Spirits, had to be in the bloom of youth, exceptionally beautiful, and pure in both body and mind. Those born blind or deaf and mute were regarded as the highest-grade Innate Spirits. Men and women who met these criteria would be selected and sent to the Pure Land Lotus Platforms of powerful figures who devoutly followed the Ten Aspects Sect.
Those “True Spirits,” those living, breathing human beings, were treated like oranges being peeled. They were divided up and consumed, their “spirits” hollowed out until nothing remained but empty shells. Even then, their bodies would be broken apart, the bones and human skin fashioned into various ritual implements. And the people who had eaten the “orange” would enshrine those remains in spirit shrines, hang them upon walls, or carry them in their hands.
Eating people is wrong, but the Ten Aspects Sect called it lofty cultivation. Families that offered up “True Spirits” would receive rewards. “Honor” always sounded better than “trade,” and once such a grand justification existed, people began frantically searching for True Spirits like starving men roaming mountains and fields for fruit. Once they had stripped their own grove bare, they went to pick from someone else’s.
In Yanyuan, they at least kept their mouths full of doctrine, spinning extravagant tales of illusory transcendent realms. Elsewhere, they could not even be bothered to maintain that rotting paper-thin facade and revealed their true hideous faces—bewitching, deceiving, trafficking, abducting… grinding their teeth and sucking blood, cracking bones and draining marrow.
During Emperor Tianbao’s reign, the power of the Ten Aspects Sect expanded rapidly, infiltrating neighboring countries at an almost unimaginable pace. By the time the surrounding states realized that it had grown into a formidable force, Yanyuan, gripped by nationwide fanaticism, had already raised the commander’s banner for an eastward campaign.
Longsha bordered Yanyuan to the east and faced the Qionghai Sea, controlling Yanyuan’s access to maritime routes. For many years, it had been a bone lodged in Yanyuan’s throat. After annexing the Kingdom of Yilin, Emperor Tianbao inevitably turned his covetous gaze toward Longsha, which had maintained strict vigilance against the Ten Aspects Sect.
In the eighteenth year of Tianbao, claiming that Longsha had expelled and killed followers of the Ten Aspects Sect, Yanyuan assembled an army of two hundred thousand and launched a campaign against Longsha.
Its iron cavalry drove relentlessly forward, sweeping aside everything in its path. Wherever they passed, they were like locusts descending upon the land, even taking pleasure in massacre and the slaughter of entire cities. Longsha seemed on the verge of becoming Yanyuan’s possession. But on the day the great army reached the walls of Bihan City, the royal capital, everyone looked up—
—and saw the severed head of Helan Zhenjia hanging from the city walls, swaying in the wind.
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