Chapter 42

Su Yuanshan sat quietly in the divine residence, absorbing the incense Qi. Every time a wisp of smoke drifted into his nose, he could feel the divine power in his body growing quietly, and the devout heart of the incense burner made the incense power he worshipped even more powerful.

The bright moon hung high, and the silver light sprinkled all over the earth, as clear as glaze. At this moment, the Imperial Envoy sent by the Emperor, the temple keeper, the County Assistant, and other noble people in gorgeous clothes, as well as the devout men and women, had left, leaving only the silence of the temple and the bleak wind. The breeze blew slowly, and the tree shadows swayed, like a water-ink painting. However, in this tranquility, it seemed to be mixed with a hint of faint mist.

Su Yuanshan suddenly opened his eyes and looked out the window. "What kind of demonic monster dares to spy on the divine residence?" He flicked his fingers, and the sound of his fingers broke through the air. Seeing this, the black shadow outside the window was terrified and hurriedly spoke to beg for mercy: "Prefecture Lord, please calm your anger, it is this humble god, your subordinate night patrol underworld official Xia Buqian!" Su Yuanshan was secretly surprised when he saw this. It turned out to be his subordinate. He frowned slightly and asked: "Xia Buqian, what is the matter with you coming to see me?" Xia Buqian replied respectfully: "Prefecture Lord, just now a group of ignorant demonic monsters broke into the temple. This humble god was afraid they would disturb your divine carriage, so I went up to catch them, but failed. Now they have been driven away by me, so I specially came to report to the Prefecture Lord."

Su Yuanshan felt a bit strange upon hearing this, thinking to himself, are the little demons and monsters so bold now that they dare to directly collide with the temple? Could it be that something is instigating it in secret?

Thinking of this, he said.

"You have worked hard, but demonic evils are elusive, so it is not surprising that you couldn't catch them. But you must be vigilant and cautious, don't let the demonic monsters take advantage of the loopholes, otherwise, it will be a joke if it spreads out."

"Subordinate understands, the safety of the Prefecture Lord and the temple is a big matter, subordinate will never dare to take it lightly."

After speaking, Xia Buqian left respectfully.

The night grew deeper, and the incense in the temple continued to swirl. Su Yuanshan sat quietly in the divine residence, absorbing the incense Qi, feeling the growth of divine power in his body. He knew that as long as the devout heart of the believers did not change, the incense Qi would become more and more prosperous, enough to be transformed into a large amount of divine power.

Suddenly, Su Yuanshan in the quiet divine residence seemed to feel a trace of uneasiness. He closed his eyes and pondered for a moment, then decided to go to the temple to check it out. He transformed into a wisp of green smoke, drifted out of the temple, and vaguely heard the sound of fighting in the distance. After arriving, he found that Xia Buqian was fighting with several mountain spirits with green faces and fangs.

Seeing the City God arrive in person, those mountain spirits seemed shocked and panicked.

And Xia Buqian was greatly encouraged when he saw this, taking the opportunity to use divine arts to beat those little demons back step by step.

Su Yuanshan transferred a trace of spiritual Qi from the spirit bead and flicked his fingers. Only heard three "dong dong dong" sounds. Under the impact of spiritual pressure,

The three mountain spirits felt their blood stagnate, "thump" "thump"

Fell to the ground, were tied up by Xia Buqian with a demon-binding rope, and were escorted to Su Yuanshan one by one.

Su Yuanshan glanced at these three hideous mountain spirits and asked faintly.

"Do you little demons recognize me?"

These mountain spirits seemed a bit terrified and shrinking when they saw Su Yuanshan. One of them said in a sharp voice.

"Recognize, recognize, Old Wu showed us your portrait, you are the City God of this place!"

"Old Wu?" Su Yuanshan seemed to have grasped a useful clue.

"What kind of sacred being is he? I hope you tell me honestly, don't play any tricks."

Seeming to realize he had made a slip of the tongue, the mountain spirit stammered and seemed unwilling to speak.

Xia Buqian scolded sharply upon seeing this.

"The Prefecture Lord is asking questions, why don't you answer? Do you want to die?"

The mountain spirits seemed startled and confessed one after another.

"Old Wu is a large black centipede that has attained enlightenment. He likes people to call him Old Wu."

"That's right, he forced us to do it, otherwise even if we had ten guts, we wouldn't dare to collide with the temple!"

Su Yuanshan couldn't help but frown slightly.

It's that centipede demon again. It seems he is determined to go against me.

Thinking of this, Su Yuanshan couldn't help but ask.

"Where is he now? What other conspiracies does he have? Tell me honestly."

Only saw a mountain spirit say in terror.

"Old Wu, oh no, we really don't know what conspiracies the big centipede has. We are just acting on orders and being coerced by him. It is really a last resort, please investigate, Great Immortal."

Xia Buqian snorted coldly.

"Actually dare to play tricks in front of the Prefecture Lord? Still not honest? It seems you won't know until you suffer some bitterness.

Seeing Xia Buqian about to take action, the mountain spirits were afraid and hurriedly said.

"Two Great Immortals, the small ones really don't know what conspiracies that centipede demon has, but... but..."

Su Yuanshan asked faintly.

"But what?"

Only heard a mountain spirit say hesitantly.

"The small one heard that Old Black Wu is now in Liu Sang Village. I don't know what he is planning. I heard that many old demons with cultivation have gone there recently."

Su Yuanshan pondered.

"Liu Sang Village?"

Xia Buqian said.

"Prefecture Lord, what they said might be true. Liu Sang Village has indeed been abnormal recently. I heard that several ghost servants from our Inspection Division have already rushed there to investigate the situation." "Liu Sang Village?" Su Yuanshan pondered, "How far is this village from here?"

"About thirty miles." Xia Buqian replied.

"Good, then let's go to Liu Sang Village first." Su Yuanshan made a decision. He wanted to see what the centipede demon was doing.

Xia Buqian called other ghost servants to take these mountain spirits away.

And he took the little white fox and Xia Buqian to Liu Sang Village.

When they arrived at Liu Sang Village, they saw several paper figures used for funerals placed at the entrance of the village. Those paper figures were in the image of yamen runners, pasted lifelike, and when blown by the wind, they made a "woo-woo" sound and swayed.

Seeing those paper figures in the image of yamen runners, Xia Buqian's face changed, and his originally pale face became even paler.

"Not good, it's our people!"

Su Yuanshan was startled.

"Our people, you mean... the few sent by the Inspection Division?"

Xia Buqian hurriedly went over to check, his expression seeming somewhat sad and angry, with a feeling of "the rabbit dies and the fox grieves."

"No saving them, they have already turned into 'Zhen' (a type of ghost)!

Who on earth was so vicious to kill them?"

"People die and become puppets, puppets die and become 'Zhen'." Su Yuanshan recited this sentence in his heart, quite moved.

He knew deeply that these underworld officials and ghost servants were most afraid of this word "Zhen." Once they disappeared between heaven and earth, they could never be recovered. At this moment, his heart was heavy. After all, these underworld officials were also his subordinates, and they died so miserably.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the hazy and pale sky, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes. He said faintly to Xia Buqian: "Let's go, let's go into the village to see what happened."

The little white fox also followed Su Yuanshan obediently.