Chapter 206

Lin Qingyue retrieved the carriage she had previously parked at the town entrance and asked Dongfang Qi: "Did you come by horse?"

Dongfang Qi hurriedly sat outside the carriage and picked up the whip with great familiarity: "My horse can just follow behind; I will drive the carriage for you. We can even switch horses to pull the carriage in between to let the horses rest."

Lin Qingyue frowned and said: "Did you not see the talisman I placed on the horse? It will walk on its own."

Dongfang Qi had of course seen the talisman, and hurriedly said: "It is better if I drive the carriage. The journey ahead will surely pass through many market towns, and a carriage without a driver will arouse suspicion."

He was mainly afraid that if he were of no use, he would be kicked off the carriage to ride a horse.

Lin Qingyue glanced at him indifferently, feeling secretly annoyed in her heart: I must have been kicked in the head by a donkey to actually want to invite him into the carriage. Hmph, since he doesn't want to sit in the carriage with me, he can drive if he likes!

Immediately, she closed her red umbrella, took Lao Gui's soul into the umbrella as well, and then flashed into the carriage.

Dongfang Qi breathed a sigh of relief: Fortunately, this Prince is clever; I grabbed a spot for myself before Yueyue could drive me away.

And so, the dignified Crown Prince became a happy little carriage driver once again.

All the ghosts in Ping'an Town were transcended, the demon ghosts left with Lin Qingyue and the others, and the array eye of the town was also broken.

Zhou Quan, Shun Niang, and the old Taoist who entered with them woke up from their sleep one after another.

They had arrived at the town three days ago, and after sleeping for so long, they suddenly woke up with no discomfort other than hunger and physical weakness.

They only vaguely remembered being trapped in the town and unable to leave no matter what.

But now, when they looked around, they clearly noticed that the evil, sinister energy in the town had disappeared.

The sunlight was just right, spilling into every corner of the town, and it also made the three of them feel warm all over.

"What is going on? This town seems to have changed suddenly; there is no evil energy at all? It is as if..."

Zhou Quan couldn't think of how to describe it.

Shun Niang took over: "It is as if this is just an ordinary, abandoned small town."

She suddenly hugged her husband and cried: "That is great, we are all fine! I thought we were dead for sure this time!"

The old Taoist shook his horsetail whisk, full of doubt: "But what is going on? Could it be that someone took action and took away the evil things here?"

At this moment, a crisp and pleasant tinkling sound drifted into their ears from far to near, like broken jade gently knocking in the wind.

The three looked up and saw a carriage coming along the morning sun that looked like crushed gold.

The driver was dressed in white as snow, his sleeves fluttering with the morning breeze, revealing a bit of immortal elegance, but his bamboo hat was pressed low, covering his eyebrows and eyes.

"Excuse me, may I ask if you are new to the town? Have you seen anything unusual?"

No one answered from inside the carriage.

The carriage drove past them, crushing the gentle morning light, and gradually drifted away, finally turning into a faint shadow and disappearing without a trace.

The three were stunned for a while, and the old Taoist was the first to react: "We can feel that the evil spirits have dispersed; we will definitely be able to walk out of the town now!"

And so, the three of them took weak steps and hurried forward.

When they reached the intersection blocked by sleepers and gravel, and saw the notice board warning passersby not to enter at will, they finally confirmed that they had safely come out!

Having escaped a disaster, all three breathed a sigh of relief.

Shun Niang urged: "Quick, quick, follow this road all the way forward, and we can return to Wu'an County where we came from! I want to have a big meal; I am really so hungry, hungry enough to eat a cow!"

Her husband Zhou Quan laughed: "Wife, we are going to get rich! The Feng Kingdom imperial court is offering a reward of a thousand taels of gold to eradicate the evil spirits in the Nightmare Town!"

Shun Niang said: "But we didn't do anything, and we almost got trapped inside. If I am not mistaken, the one who eradicated the evil spirits should be the owner of the carriage that just passed us."

Zhou Quan said: "A driver is dressed so luxuriously, the person sitting in the carriage must not be short of money either. Looking at the direction they left, they should have gone to Guifang Kingdom and didn't care about the reward money at all. Since that is the case, it would be a waste not to take that money; it might as well benefit the three of us!"

The old Taoist also nodded in agreement: "That makes sense! Besides, we did put in some effort, so we can accept the reward with a clear conscience."

The three discussed it and headed toward Wu'an.

After arriving in Wu'an County and eating some food to rest, they went to the County Yamen to seek an audience with the Magistrate.

After waiting for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the Magistrate came out.

Hearing that three experts had solved the evil spirits of the Nightmare Town, he was greatly surprised: "Is this true? That town has plagued us for ten years! Many capable people and strangers wanted to eradicate the disaster, but were instead trapped inside and never came out. How did you experts do it?"

How they did it, they of course did not know either.

Zhou Quan and his wife looked at each other, unable to answer for a moment.

The old Taoist stroked his gray beard and said calmly: "That town was actually just a gathering of a large number of ghosts who could not reincarnate; due to the large number, the Yin energy formed was very heavy. Once someone stepped foot in it, they would be affected and fall into a dream, and then die silently in the dream."

"The situation was dangerous at the time, and the three of us were almost trapped. Fortunately, we have extensive experience in slaying demons and eliminating evil, and the three of us worked together to use our unique skills, finally dispersing all the ghosts! Now, the Nightmare Town is peaceful, and the situation of being unable to leave and being trapped inside will never happen again."

Zhou Quan also hurriedly said: "That's right, that's exactly it! From now on, the Nightmare Town will still be an important transportation hub. Travelers heading to Guifang Kingdom will no longer need to take a detour."

The Magistrate nodded repeatedly after listening: "If this is true, it is naturally for the best! However, this matter, this official still needs to send people to verify it. If the verification is true, I will present the reward to the three of you!"

Zhou Quan waved his hand: "Go ahead and verify, everything we said is true!"

The Magistrate claimed he had to arrange for people to verify and left temporarily, telling people to send up fruits and snacks for the three to enjoy.

The three drank tea and ate pastries, beaming with joy and extremely happy.

This Yamen hall, which usually looked unattainable, now they could actually be guests of honor, with infinite glory.

And the reward money would soon be in their hands...

Zhou Quan suddenly thought of something and said to the old Taoist: "For the sake of fairness, let's split the government reward into three parts, one for each."

The old Taoist refused after hearing this: "You two are a family, so the reward should be split into two, and I should get half."

Shun Niang said: "You are splitting it wrong; we are two people who put in two parts of the effort, so naturally we should take two parts! I..."

As she spoke, Shun Niang suddenly felt a hot current gushing out of her nasal cavity.

Reaching out to touch it, she touched a handful of blood.

She looked up in panic, only to find that her husband and the old Taoist were both bleeding from their seven orifices, looking terrifying.

"The tea... there is poison in the tea!"

The three who had finally escaped the Nightmare Town died in the Yamen in the end.

The Magistrate returned and said with a cold face: "Three outcasts, actually daring to destroy the array that our Guiyuan Sect has deployed for many years, you are simply courting death! The imperial court did offer a high reward, but unfortunately, you don't have the life to take it!"