Chapter 204

The Lao Gui's words deeply moved Dongfang Qi, and he bowed solemnly to the Lao Gui: "Magistrate Zhang has a great sense of justice, Dongfang Qi admires you!"

The Lao Gui was surprised: "Your surname is Dongfang? I remember that is the royal surname of Qi Guo. Could it be that you are a member of the Qi royal family?"

"That's right." Dongfang Qi had never had any prejudice between humans and demons in his heart, and furthermore, he truly admired this Lao Gui, so he did not hide anything at this moment.

The Lao Gui bowed to Dongfang Qi in a proper manner—although he was a demon, his behavior and demeanor were entirely that of a great Confucian scholar.

"So you shouldn't have really wanted to make things difficult for the commoners here just now, right?"

Just now, the Lao Gui suddenly appeared because he saw Lin Qingyue attacking the wandering souls in the small town, so he came out to stop her.

Lin Qingyue said: "Since you are a demon, even as a ghost after death, you are stronger than ordinary ghosts. With your ability, you could completely refine the ghosts here into your nourishment and re-cultivate a demon body. But for so many years, you haven't done so. It shows that you are not a treacherous and evil person, so I used a small trick just now to force you to appear."

Dongfang Qi seemed to have thought of something and hurriedly said to Lin Qingyue: "When we entered Wu'an, did you notice those strangely shaped archways?"

Lin Qingyue nodded: "I noticed, that is a very vicious array. Six archways standing together are like an open coffin mouth, devouring the Yang Qi of travelers."

Dongfang Qi said: "So you are saying, could the person who set up this array be the one who set the trap in Nightmare Town to trap these souls?"

Lin Qingyue said: "I need to take a closer look to be sure."

After she finished speaking, she tapped her toes and swept into the high sky, overlooking the surrounding terrain.

A moment later, the crimson umbrella surface suddenly bloomed like a lotus, and she spun and drifted down, like a red cloud supported by flowing clouds.

"How is it?" Dongfang Qi asked.

Lin Qingyue said: "Just as you expected, the two complement each other, forming a massive Feng Shui array. I originally thought this array was used by some powerful people to change their own fortune, but combined with the array in Nightmare Town, what they want to change is not just personal fortune, but the national fortune of the entire country."

"They used Wu'an as an incision to secretly steal the national fortune of Feng Guo to Guifang Guo. And Nightmare Town, located exactly between the two countries, is the eye of the entire array—using all the living people in the town as sacrifices to activate the array eye, so that they can continuously steal the fortune of Feng Guo."

"What? You mean the people of Ping'an Town died overnight and were actually used as sacrifices?" The Lao Gui was shocked and angry, "I spent more than ten years revitalizing the economy of Ping'an Town and the entire Lan Xian, allowing the commoners to live a good life... How could they, how dare they!"

Lin Qingyue smiled faintly: "Why wouldn't they dare? A city or a town is everything in your eyes, but in the eyes of some people, it is just a sacrifice that can be sacrificed at any time."

Just like those cultivators back then, who slaughtered the people of a country for their own selfish desires without even blinking.

Dongfang Qi asked Lin Qingyue: "I remember you told me about arrays before. Generally speaking, the power near the array eye is the strongest. After the townspeople here were sacrificed, they became ghosts and could not leave. Until they suffered endless torment, they were absorbed by the array eye and their souls scattered. However, for so many years, it seems not a single ghost in this town has decreased?"

Lin Qingyue nodded: "According to the strength of this array, the ghosts in the town would have their souls scattered within three years. The array eye would also become stronger because it absorbed enough Yin Qi. However, there are no absolutes in the world."

She turned her eyes to the Lao Gui: "If I'm not mistaken, you should be that exception."

"I... am an exception? What do you mean?" The Lao Gui was very puzzled.

Lin Qingyue explained: "The number of people sacrificed is fixed, neither more nor less. You should have been thinking about the commoners here after you died, so your soul came here. And since you were the parent official of this place during your lifetime, your soul naturally protected the wandering souls here after death."

"Therefore, your arrival, and the protective power emanating from your body, invisibly formed a barrier, which is why the thousands of innocent souls in the town were not devoured by the array eye."

The Lao Gui thought carefully and said: "Oh, I remember now. After the flood, what I was worried about was an epidemic. Ping'an Town was the most severely affected area, and the north side was adjacent to a large river. I always felt uneasy and wanted to come and see. That must be it, so my soul drifted here after I died, which can be considered a twist of fate."

Lin Qingyue, who saw through all this, felt it was incomparably ironic.

A demon lived like a human, with supreme benevolence and righteousness. Even if he was betrayed by everyone, even if he was wrongly killed, he actually didn't have much resentment, and his heroic spirit still protected the commoners of this place after death.

Yet there are some people in the world who harbor evil intentions and are unbenevolent and unrighteous.

The Lao Gui knelt down solemnly and requested of Lin Qingyue and Dongfang Qi: "For the past ten-plus years, I have been muddled, but now that I have met the two of you, I have been enlightened and know everything. You two must be people with great abilities. I implore you to help transcend the millions of wronged souls here, so as not to let passersby be attacked by Yin Qi again."

Dongfang Qi said to Lin Qingyue: "This matter needs to be handled with caution. The Guiyuan Sect has developed into the largest sect in Guifang Guo, and the matter here is very likely their handiwork. If you rashly move their array, I'm afraid you will alert the enemy."

"Alert the enemy?" Lin Qingyue sneered, "So what?"

Dongfang Qi said: "I mean, it's better to wait until we have figured out the situation of the Guiyuan Sect. We will pass through here when we return to the city, and we can solve it then."

His consideration was indeed thorough. In any case, the Lao Gui could still protect the ghosts here, and there would be no problems in the short term.

But what he didn't know was that the Guiyuan Sect was very likely the remnants of the Immortal Cultivation World from three thousand years ago.

Lin Qingyue in her prime back then certainly wouldn't be afraid, but now her cultivation had only just recovered to thirty percent. And the other side's depth was unknown, what if...

Lin Qingyue was someone who had already died once, so she didn't care about life or death at all, and had long been prepared to perish together and finish it all.

Therefore, she could not guarantee that she would come back.

At this moment, she still had that arrogant look of not taking anyone seriously: "So what if I alert the enemy? Could I be afraid of them? If they come, I'll just kill them all, which saves me from looking for them one by one."

Dongfang Qi knew her temper, so he simply stopped persuading her and just asked the Lao Gui clearly about the name and background of the Xian Yin back then.

The person who set up this vicious array had an inseparable connection with the Xian Yin back then. Instead of alerting the enemy, it was better to find the poisonous snake first and kill it, once and for all.