I am the Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysterious-Chapter 372 - 336: Disintegration

After that Ghost Witch and two Gu Masters escaped from Tangyuan County, they immediately transmitted news of the Five Spirits Saintess being captured by the Ghost Opera Troupe’s Puppet Master back to the various divisions in Yunzhou.

Soon, within Qinzhou, those Ghost Witches and Gu Masters assisting the Qianshou Army also heard about the situation, unanimously stating that until the Ghost Opera Troupe returns the Five Spirits Saintess, the Ghost Witches and Gu Masters of Yunzhou will no longer assist the Qianshou Army.

The Ghost Opera Troupe consists of Seven Lines and Seven Divisions, with less than ten core members who can truly reach the Ghost Level, while the rest of the miscellaneous peripheral personnel added together barely reach a hundred.

For a long time, they have been hiding in various places, seizing opportunities when the Evil Suppression Bureau is caught off guard, acting secretly to harvest fear from the common people.

This time, they were able to advance as if breaking through obstacles, gathering 200,000 Qianshou Army within half a year, causing the Qinzhou defense forces to retreat step by step, capturing half of the territory of Qinzhou—all thanks to the assistance of these Ghost Witches who can drive away ghosts and Gu Masters from Yunzhou.

Basically, as long as each unit of the Qianshou Army has one Ghost Witch and one Gu Master, it will have the effect of achieving twice the result with half the effort.

After all, over at the Evil Suppression Bureau, the number of personnel specifically capable of dealing with Ghost Witches and Gu Masters is also very scarce. If it weren’t for the Taoist Disciples coming down from the mountains to assist, Qinzhou might have been completely conquered in one fell swoop.

Now, all the Ghost Witches and Gu Masters of Yunzhou have gone on strike. The victory in Dongyang County, where 10,000 Qianshou Army were annihilated and the Ghost Opera Troupe’s ugly dwarf was killed, reclaiming Tangyuan County, greatly boosted the morale of the Qinzhou defense forces.

All sides pursued victories aggressively, causing the Qianshou Army to retreat step by step.

The three armies from Jingzhou, Jinzhou, and Jiangzhou have yet to come to aid, and Qinzhou has already begun to gradually recover lost territories, with joyful news coming one after another.

At the border between Qinzhou and Yunzhou, inside Tianliang City.

Now, Tianliang City has been occupied by people from Yunzhou and the Ghost Opera Troupe, serving as the rear base camp for the Qianshou Army.

Previously, all external communications and personnel dispatches of the Ghost Opera Troupe were handled by Wan Hongtu, responsible for managing the troupe’s armor and boxes. Other key figures are all hidden in the marketplace, only appearing upon orders from the Class Leader.

With Wan Xiangtou dead now, this responsibility has been taken over by ’Manager Luo,’ who is in charge of the transportation department within the troupe.

Manager Luo’s appearance and demeanor are utterly ordinary, akin to the accountants in the shops on the street—mustaches on the lips, a kindly smile that makes people forget him upon glimpse.

At this moment, facing the young envoy sent by Yunzhou, Manager Luo smiled and promised, "I have already reported this to our Class Leader, and sent out people to find the Puppet Master’s whereabouts. But truly unable to find and unable to contact him, I now suspect he was caught in a trap by the Evil Suppression Bureau and was captured."

The young Gu Master Cheng Ge, who had fought against Sang Que before, stood before Manager Luo, accompanied by the Dragon and Snake Child Xingzhu, sneering with a fake smile, "Manager Luo, you think my Yunzhou is all filled with dim-witted barbarians who can be dismissed with any reason?"

Manager Luo laughed, "No no, you and I are allies now, we would never betray an ally, we have been constantly sending people to Shengjing to help rescue that Old Gu Master."

Mentioning that Old Gu Master made Cheng Ge’s heart tighten—that was his acknowledged master, though his master never admitted him as a disciple, all his skills were learned from his master.

The defense of Shengjing is strict, he, as a Yunzhou Gu Master, has no means to infiltrate Shengjing, or else he would personally go for the rescue.

Cheng Ge took a breath and returned to the point, "Regardless, please first hand over the ’Five Spirits Saintess,’ then we will discuss the collaboration."

At this time, Cheng Ge hadn’t expected the one named Sang Mulan he fought with last time turned out to be so weak, losing to the Puppet Master of the Ghost Opera Troupe despite having the Saintess’ assistance. He had thought that Sang Mulan would eventually come to senses and bring the Saintess to Yunzhou voluntarily.

But this shows that the core members of the Ghost Opera Troupe all have special abilities, truly not to be underestimated.

Manager Luo looked helpless, "Yin Child... Your Five Spirits Saintess is indeed not in our Ghost Opera Troupe’s hands now. Maybe all of this is the Evil Suppression Bureau’s plot aimed to make us disband and be defeated one by one. You must not fall for them."

Cheng Ge snorted coldly, "Our Yunzhou divisions have no interest in the disputes of the Central Plains states. I came today only to notify you, to return the Saintess early. Before that, your disputes with Da Xuan, forgive us for not accompanying! Xingzhu, let’s go."

After speaking, Cheng Ge left with Xingzhu.

Manager Luo sat in the hall, sighing deeply, "Chu Mo Wei, oh Chu Mo Wei, you’ve gotten us into trouble. You better be temporarily hiding for lack of choice!"

...

At that time, Chu Mo Wei, who had become a living dead, was inside Sang Que’s Taoyuan Painting, manipulating the Red Ghost as per Sang Que’s instructions.

Standing opposite the Red Ghost, Chu Mo Wei slightly moved his ten fingers at his sides, white hair gently swaying with the wind, his previously expressionless face gradually frowning over time, a layer of thin sweat appearing.

The Red Ghost trembled slightly standing there, its arm appearing to be lifted by some force only to be pressed down again strongly.

Sang Que commanded Chu Mo Wei to fully control the Red Ghost, while making it resist with all its might, forming this deadlock.

The two were of similar rank and strength; Chu Mo Wei could not successfully control the Red Ghost. When Sang Que finally made the Red Ghost completely give up resisting, Chu Mo Wei’s frown eased, the Red Ghost’s arms being slowly raised and performing swinging motions under his control.

Sang Que then made the Red Ghost start to struggle again, causing its movements to become haltingly clumsy once more.

This illustrates that between those of the same rank, Puppet Masters cannot fully control the other unless first making them lose consciousness.

Chu Mo Wei has the ability to control bodies, the living, and his crafted Blood Puppets; in addition, he can briefly control Evil Spirits and Ghosts of the fourth layer.

Recently, Sang Que had Xia Chan capture a few Hungry Evils begging in the city, and tried using the Heart-digging Ghost confined in Taoyuan Village, not yet fully devoured by the painting.

Unlike the long-term contractual relationship between Yin Walkers and Evil Ghosts, Chu Mo Wei’s control is temporary, and during the control the Evil Ghost’s power constantly erodes Chu Mo Wei.

Chu Mo Wei is extremely cautious, so he rarely directly controls Evil Spirits and Evil Ghosts, choosing instead to create Blood Puppets. These Blood Puppets generally only have the strength of three-layered evil spirits.

But the advantage of Blood Puppets is that unless completely burned to ashes, they can be temporarily assembled even if damaged, and he can use them to substitute his death when encountering danger.

"Take off your shirt."

On the edge of the fields, Sang Que ordered Chu Mo Wei, who immediately pulled off his shirt without hesitation.

Chu Mo Wei’s body was no longer normal flesh; his bones were made of a kind of black wood, wrapped by muscles, veins, and arteries, with some areas lacking skin.

On his back were patterns resembling double crescent moons like those on silkworms, with the black wood of his skeleton resembling a living creature, spitting out white threads.

Compared to Chu Mo Wei’s face, his body looked terrifying and eerie.

"Put on the clothes; over there in the pavilion there is pen and paper, write down all the information you can on the Ghost Opera Troupe, including everything related to the Puppetry Technique."

Chu Mo Wei, eyes dull, like a machine, donned his shirt, turned, and walked to the small pavilion by the field, sitting kneeling on the mat, picking up the pen, and began writing.