“The Forbidden Cave of the Banshee?” Qilin repeated, puzzled. “There’s a banshee even in a place like this?”
A banshee (Jin Po) was a unique type of puppet monster in the Eastern Xia Kingdom, an artificial creature created by King Mu to guard the kingdom’s borders.
These beings had ghostly white faces and eerily beautiful features, but their hair was unnaturally long and thick, capable of wrapping around a victim’s face and body, slowly constricting them until they suffocated to death.
Moreover, a banshee’s body emitted an eerie, intoxicating fragrance known as Jin Po Bone Incense. Anyone who inhaled this scent would lose their senses, lured into a blissful trance where they would willingly embrace the banshee—only to have their heart rupture in ecstasy, dying before they even realized they were in danger.
The six Zhang clan members dared not take another step toward the Forbidden Cave of the Banshee.
But Qilin, leading the way, saw no other paths to take. The cave entrance was the only way forward.
He was about to find an excuse to turn back when he suddenly sensed a sharp gust of wind slicing through the air behind him.
Reacting on instinct, he dodged sideways just in time.
Turning around, he saw a middle-aged man with short hair standing in the passage they had just walked through. The man wielded a black-gold blade, and it was clear that he had been the one to launch the attack.
The six Zhang clan members immediately dropped to their knees, bowing deeply as they cried out in unison:
“Vice Patriarch, please stop! This is our clan leader, Zhang Qi Ling!”
The short-haired man was none other than Zhang Pei Shan, the Vice Patriarch of the Zhang clan of Ba Nai, Guang Xi.
His eyes were blazing with fury.
“You brazen impostor!” he roared. “How dare you pretend to be the Zhang clan leader and trespass in our sacred grounds? Today, you will leave this place in pieces!”
Before he even finished speaking, Zhang Pei Shan raised his black-gold blade and unleashed the Zhang clan’s deadliest sword technique—Xuanhun Extermination.
In a flash, he charged forward at full speed, slashing toward Qilin with all his might.
Qilin had no time to react.
The force of Zhang Pei Shan’s strike sent a shockwave through the air, knocking Qilin off his feet—
And straight into the pitch-black depths of the Forbidden Cave of the Banshee.
The six Zhang clan members were horrified.
They rushed toward Zhang Pei Shan, shouting in alarm:
“Vice Patriarch, that is Zhang Qi Ling! He just used Qilin blood to repel the corpse beetles—there’s no way he’s an imposter!”
“Vice Patriarch, you have to save him! If we don’t pull him out now, he’ll be surrounded by the banshees—there’ll be no hope left for him!”
“Zhang Pei Shan! You betrayed the clan leader! You just sent him to his death—I swear, I’ll fight you to the end!”
“Vice Patriarch, you’re making a mistake! The clan leader saved us—he’s the real Zhang Qi Ling!”
But Zhang Pei Shan did not waver.
Instead, he let out a slow, chilling laugh.
“That brat can’t be Zhang Qi Ling.” His voice was laced with venom. “Because our clan leader… has been dead for six months.”
The most emotional of the six Zhang clan members—the one who had cried earlier—shouted in disbelief,
“But you yourself sent us a message saying you had found the clan leader’s whereabouts! You told us we were gathering to rescue him and Boss Wan!
“Why are you suddenly saying he’s already dead?!”
Zhang Pei Shan raised his black-gold blade once more, his tone eerily calm.
“Because,” he said softly, “I’ve been lying to you all along.
“I killed Zhang Qi Ling… six months ago.”
With that, he struck.
His blade flashed like lightning.
It was over in an instant.
Like cutting through bamboo, Zhang Pei Shan effortlessly slit the throats of all six Zhang clan members.
They collapsed to the ground without a sound, their blood pooling around them.
None of them would ever get the chance to tell the rest of the Zhang family the truth—
That their clan leader hadn’t vanished.
He had been murdered.
By none other than their own Vice Patriarch, Zhang Pei Shan.
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