Chapter 756: Night Raid on the Valley

"Damn... so many people!"

Sha Lifei swallowed, feeling somewhat unbelievable.

The number of people who came was quite large, at least a hundred. Everyone had their hoods low, their faces covered with black scarves, and the ghost fire of the torches in their hands jumped, casting distorted shadows on the rock walls, as if a hundred ghosts were patrolling.

The heavy smell of tung oil and sulfur mixed in the night wind, but couldn't suppress the eerie coldness seeping from the bone marrow.

"All are practitioners..."

The crowd had been mixing in the grass-roots for years and saw at a glance that those "black cloaks" had steady footsteps and scattered standing positions.

They were clearly veterans accustomed to killing, definitely not ordinary yamen runners or retainers!

"Silence!" Li Yan reminded gently, signaling everyone to hide completely.

He, Lu San, and Wang Fu all pinched the Yang formula and activated their supernatural powers.

Everyone was a cultivator, so they naturally all had supernatural powers, but each had their own strengths.

For example, Wu Ba was strong in flesh, Fatty Lin could see treasure energy, and Kuai Dayou's body supernatural power was good at fine control.

But when it came to investigative ability, Li Yan and the other two were stronger.

Lu San's hearing was amazing, Li Yan could smell dozens of miles, and Wang Fu could observe mountains and look at Qi.

The three cooperated, and all kinds of scenes on the opposite side were seen at a glance.

Soon, they all furrowed their brows.

Lu San moved his ears and said in a low voice: "Many people inside are speaking Eastern Japanese."

Wang Fu's eyes flickered with ghostly light, surprised: "Such heavy ghost energy!"

As for Li Yan, he smelled a lot of blood and sweat, right in the ox-cart prison cage behind the black-clothed people.

Not long after, the valley floor was occupied by these black-clothed people.

They first cleared the huge stone platform in the center of Laojun Valley, cleared a large area, and then used rags dipped in the cinnabar red ink in the bucket to outline a huge and evil eight-corner array on the stone platform.

This array was similar to the Bagua, but each trigram was replaced by blood-colored talismans.

They were connected head to tail, like a snake biting its tail.

"Daoist, can you see the trick?" Li Yan looked at Wang Fu beside him.

Wang Fu furrowed his brows, "I actually have some impression of this array. It's called the Tongyou Bagua, belonging to a sect on Mount Luoyuan. They are half-witch and half-Daoist, good at using talismans as trigrams to summon ghosts and drive gods. They wandered in the Qilu land back then, and I saw them from afar, but I heard that there were only three master and disciples on that mountain, and they rarely traveled far on weekdays. How did they get here?"

Once the crowd heard this, they knew what was going on.

This was a small local sect, stronger than ordinary witches and gods.

"Wait a little longer, see what the situation is..." Li Yan was thoughtful and whispered to the crowd.

After those people drew the array talismans, one piece of musical instrument after another was moved up.

Kuai Dayou's eyes lit up, "These are the ones seen in the craftsman workshop during the day!"

Before the voice fell, they saw another team of black-cloaked mysterious people open the iron cage on the ox-cart behind.

The cage was curled up with dense, young figures, all with their mouths blocked by cloth strips and tied with ropes, making desperate wailing sounds.

"Boys and girls... they are blood sacrifices!"

Wang Fu's face immediately turned gloomy.

Since human sacrifice was gradually abolished, this method had been regarded as an evil method.

Using boys and girls was something only demons would do.

Li Yan patted his shoulder, signaling him to be calm.

Originally, he just wanted to find out the situation, but since the other party wanted to blood sacrifice boys and girls, he had to take action no matter what.

Beside the altar, three people were particularly prominent.

They stood with red Dharma robes and ghost masks of Nuo drama, directing the black cloaks to drag the children out of the iron cages, holding them and forcibly pressing them to the edge of the "Tongyou Bagua Array" blood trough.

These children were frightened and struggled desperately, but their mouths were blocked, and they could only cry with full eyes and make wailing sounds.

Suddenly, the crowd parted like a tide.

Several black cloaks surrounded a person and walked to the edge of the altar.

The other party lifted the cloak, and the firelight illuminated that seemingly elegant and kind face.

"Lin Yaozong!" Fatty Lin almost bit his teeth to pieces.

The person who came was his clan uncle.

Lin Yaozong's face was also not very good at this time. He glanced at the crying children and hurriedly turned his head away.

"Hahaha..."

Two more black-clothed people lifted their hoods; they were Zhao Bingzhong, the Commandant of the Tai'an Commandant's Office, and Zhou Xian, the Prefectural Yamen Judge.

Zhao Bingzhong sneered: "What's the matter, Manager Lin? Don't pretend to be a good person anymore. You should know that your son can live, all thanks to the lives of these dolls!"

Lin Yaozong's face was ugly, and he didn't speak.

On the other side, the Prefectural Yamen Judge Zhou Xian patted him on the shoulder and comforted: "Manager Lin, close your eyes and treat them as livestock. Anyway, in this world, it's nothing more than you eating me, and me eating you."

"Hmph!"

Listening to this, Lu San's eyes were also full of killing intent.

And the Tai'an Commandant's Office Commandant Zhao Bingzhong below turned to the red-clothed chief priest and said respectfully: "Divine Envoy, the blood sacrifices are ready, and the auspicious time is approaching. Master Zhao asked me to pass a message: the 'raft' in the East Sea is ready, just waiting for the change of the Prefect's divine position, and the dragon energy will return to the sea!"

The tall red-clothed Nuo-masked person nodded, holding a jade tablet, and began to mutter words.

Boom!

The flames in the altar fire basin rose suddenly by several meters.

The surrounding air began to become viscous and twisted, and a sickening sweet and fishy smell permeated.

Those black-clothed people also became excited, circling the altar and worshipping.

"Prepare to act..."

Li Yan gave a low shout and took out a flintlock pistol from his bosom.

Wu Ba was even more excited and began to load the Tiger-Crouching Cannon.

This fierce weapon had undergone another round of modification at the Qiankun Academy, and the recoil was even smaller.

Since the Battle of Beimang Mountain, it hadn't tasted meat yet.

Hum...

Just at this moment, the hook-warrant at Li Yan's waist suddenly vibrated with heat.

"Wait!"

He hurriedly stopped the crowd and looked toward the back of the altar.

In the shadows of the canyon, a blue cloth sedan chair without any markings appeared at some point.

The curtain hung low, but it vaguely made him feel his scalp tingle.

"An Earth Immortal has come!"

He reminded the crowd and immediately gripped the hook-warrant, sinking his mind into it.

The surroundings suddenly fell into dead silence, and all he saw was thick fog.

This process, Li Yan was already familiar with, and rushed forward rapidly.

It was the familiar stone well with black water; sure enough, it was still catching Yin criminals.

Without any hesitation, Li Yan immediately placed his hand on the well rim and obtained the Yin criminal information.

Yin criminal: Hu Yuanniang, nicknamed "Five Yin Mountain Crone."

Born into a family of corpse-drivers in Xiangxi, she fled into the deep mountains after her family was slaughtered by enemies. To take revenge, she practiced evil arts, refining "Hundred Ghost Miasma" with living souls. After destroying her enemies, she obtained secret arts such as the "Tongyou Bagua Array," and had the magic artifact Blood Plague Umbrella: refined with the heart blood of boys and girls, it can spread corpse poison...

Yo~

Li Yan was a bit surprised to see this.

This time, the Yin Division provided information much more detailed than before. Could it be that this person had something unusual?

There was no time to think, and he was about to turn and leave.

But just at this moment, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the sky, and his heart suddenly felt a sense of dread.

Two huge figures appeared in the sky again.

One wore a red robe, the most familiar Cui Pan.

The other was covered in golden armor, very familiar; it was the Five Dao Zhao Tongling.

Li Yan's heart moved. He pretended to look at the information and pricked up his ears.

Soon, a blurred and deep voice came from the sky:

"Cui Pan, just this much information?"

"It's already a lot."

"Hmph! Pedantic. Now someone is playing tricks, and Living Yin Messengers are being hunted in large numbers. There aren't many left. Clearly, there is a big event. Are you just going to watch?"

"Zhao Tongling, this is not so. The 'Heavenly Law' has orders. If we violate them, how are we different from them?"

"You have to give some help. What if this one also dies?"

"'Heavenly Law'..."

"Don't mention the 'Heavenly Law'; didn't it break just a while ago?" ===== CHAPTER 757 =====