Chapter 301: Tianfa Sect and the Gatekeeper
The gap between the Red-clothed Evil Ghost and the Evil God only becomes apparent when both make their dramatic entrance. Faced with the one and only exit, and sensing the aura of Bai Yu, they couldn’t even muster the thought of resisting.
An intense urge to survive took over their brains faster than a cat falls into a box, and having had previous encounters with an Evil God, they understood that the only way to stay alive was to drop to their knees and humbly beg for mercy.
However, deep down they were quite frustrated—where on earth did this “Black Sun God” come from? When did Hejiang City get such a terrifying Evil God? They were completely in the dark!
Once on their knees, they felt their brains were still functioning, but somehow their eyes just couldn’t look away from the Black Sun God—not that they were even seeing her true form but rather the blinding light behind her.
From their previous encounters with Evil Gods, they could only describe this one with the word “horrifying.” Just a flash of light hitting them, and whether human or ghost, they would be smashed with a wave of cursed power.
The process was so remarkably simple it didn’t even require a single word.
In their past, curses from Evil Gods seeped in gradually, requiring bizarre rituals like offering one’s name or birthday, before the curse made itself known—usually taking a whole week or more to show any tangible effects.
In their minds, all Evil Gods operated on this cursed template.
So here they were, already on the ground, acutely aware of the cursed energy exploding inside them, still incredulous that mere black-red light could wreak such havoc.
There’s a difference among Evil Gods? Who knew it could be this vast!
The biggest mystery was that they had no clue about this formidable Evil God, especially why she just showed up out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, Bai Yu was contemplating whether she should just k*ll them and be done with it.
She wasn’t keen on developing human believers because humans were simply too complicated—good luck trying to decipher their thoughts! Using curses to slowly erode them felt like a waste of time; much like ordinary ghostly matters, things were much simpler and more direct.
Most ghosts were like single-celled organisms—either munching on other ghosts or knocking off humans. It was that sheer simplicity that made cursing them a walk in the park.
After a moment of contemplation, Bai Yu ultimately decided against killing them.
Her curse power was sufficient and steadily rising, and she had time to spare. It was a perfect opportunity to see how humans and ghosts differed in their journey to becoming believers.
The cursed energy began to seep into the four individuals, and they, far from resisting, actively cooperated with Bai Yu. But even then, the speed of their conversion was painfully slow—after a full ten minutes, they were finally brainwashed into becoming her believers.
Ten minutes may seem brief, but with that time, she could have turned all the nearby Evil Ghosts into fanatical followers!
Confirming that the four weren’t just putting on an act, Bai Yu turned and left.
She wasn’t planning to visit the next Ghost Gate just yet; instead, she wanted to observe how things would unfold.
After Bai Yu left, the Evil Ghosts got up, heads bowed, and sequentially walked into the inner room, their behavior so docile it was hard to believe they were Evil Ghosts at all. And the four in front of them snapped awake like someone out of a nightmare, suddenly wide-eyed, looking around. They completely forgot what had just happened, and had zero doubts about this new deity, the “Black Sun God.”
They didn’t think it at all strange that they had suddenly begun to worship this deity. No questions, no doubts!
—
The two Ghost Gates were just the beginning for Bai Yu and Zhao Mingyue, and the shadow of the “Black Sun God” enveloping Hejiang City was merely the starting point.
Over the next few days, Bai Yu conquered five more Ghost Gates, having developed almost 180 Evil Ghosts into her devoted followers.
From the fifth Ghost Gate onwards, the local forces known as the “Tianfa Sect” and the Gatekeeper started to sense something was amiss and began searching for clues about “the perpetrators,” aka Bai Yu and Zhao Mingyue.
The Gatekeeper’s influence stretched across the nation, with varying strengths in different regions.
In Tianchang City, aside from the Ghost Domain, the only major player was the Gatekeeper’s faction, leaving them as the uncontested champions. By contrast, in Hejiang City, the Tianfa Sect was a significant threat, larger than the local influence of the Gatekeeper.
The Tianfa Sect was formed by individuals who had dabbled in the ghostly realm—priests, monks, and various folk deities—all mashed together in a gloriously chaotic mix. They banded together mainly because no one person alone could unveil the secrets of that world.
With Ghost Gates having been around for ages—hundreds of years of existence built up the Tianfa Sect slowly, and if it weren’t for how quickly the Gatekeeper had developed, the latter might just have become the Tianfa Sect of the area.
In those few days, Bai Yu also did her homework and discovered that the Tianfa Sect was much like the Gatekeepers, only more shameless if anything. They were involved in all sorts of questionable activities that the Gatekeepers engaged in, and even some things only the Ghost Domain would typically dally with had Tianfa Sect’s fingerprints all over them.
This was all too predictable; after all, such organizations had no restraints, no authority to rein them in, and their methods of avoiding the judicial systems of the mortal world were just too easy.
What she was doing—transforming all the Evil Ghosts near Ghost Gates into her followers—wasn’t merely snagging a paycheck from the Tianfa Sect; it was like stealing their lunch money and breaking their lunchbox, practically sealing off the Ghost Gate, too!
In fact, that wasn’t far off, because as long as she had her followers, the Tianfa Sect could forget about fishing for new ghosts through that Ghost Gate!
“Bai Yu!”
In the morning, Zhao Mingyue’s voice snapped Bai Yu out of her reverie.
Blinking awake, she saw Zhao Mingyue rushing out of her room, clutching a tablet like it was a golden nugget.
“Our undercover agent in the Tianfa Sect has news! And it’s big news!”
“Spill,” Bai Yu said, raising her head, already having a hunch about its contents.
“Here’s the scoop,” Zhao Mingyue plopped down beside Bai Yu, opening up a chat record, “The undercover says the Tianfa Sect has figured out our plans and is gathering a lot of folks to ambush us!”
“They’ve been holding meetings these past few days, gathering believers from around Hejiang City. It’s starting to feel a bit like when we took out the Gatekeeper back then!”
The top brass of the Tianfa Sect had been hunting down leads, and they even knew Bai Yu’s title, the “Black Sun God.”
