It turned out that the moment the wizard’s ghost entered the car, Shui Miao had allowed the fox spirit, Qi Mei, to enter the vehicle and possess He, the Minister, killing Li Jiazheng. Consequently, He, the Minister, was arrested for committing murder. Shui Miao deliberately approached the car to “rescue” it, but secretly used dark spiritual power to help the fox spirit, Qi Mei, quickly block all seven orifices of He, enabling her to successfully possess him in the shortest time possible.
This was exactly Shui Miao’s double-dealing strategy.
Because of this incident, Shui Miao felt he owed a huge debt of gratitude to the fox spirit, Qi Mei, and felt guilty inside.
The fox spirit, Qi Mei, simply said it was nothing. Li Jiazheng wasn’t an upright person anyway, and then she returned to the place of the immortal Liu.
After taking revenge, Shui Miao felt relieved.
However, Shui Miao had paid a heavy price. To kill the wizard’s ghost, his spiritual power in the dantian had been reduced to the size of a fingernail.
Shui Miao had to admit that the wizard was extremely powerful. Without his spiritual energy, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to destroy him today.
All his spiritual power had been consumed battling the wizard and the evil spirits he summoned. Shui Miao felt it was hardly worth it.
But there was no other choice. When faced with such a situation, inaction would have meant more people dying.
As for the many corpses that had run out of the funeral home, they automatically collapsed once their negative energy was depleted.
There were surveillance cameras at the hotel entrance. Since Shui Miao hadn’t done anything too extreme, he and Xiao Tudou left after giving a brief statement.
The events of tonight were quite significant. Jiang Zhihao and others were secretly delighted but dared not relax their vigilance. Several of them joined forces to expose Minister He’s various acts of corruption, taking the opportunity to kick a man when he was down, aiming to finish him off completely. Shui Miao had no interest in getting involved in such matters and returned to Jing Shui Village overnight, heading straight to the graveyard to meet his senior brother, Zhang Yuan, hoping to find out if he had any way of dealing with the thousand-year-old female ghost.
Although protected by the jade pendant, Shui Miao didn’t know much about it, so he wanted to consult Zhang Yuan to ensure absolute safety.
However, Shui Miao saw neither the five little ghost Daoists nor the Lingyin Monastery, nor could he find Zhang Yuan.
At 2 a.m., Shui Miao returned somewhat disappointedly to the platform of the dry well cave in Jing Shui Village.
As soon as Shui Miao sat cross-legged on the platform, Jin Chanzi appeared.
He had been following Shui Miao from afar all along, but since his only ability was “wealth-attracting,” he had never revealed himself.
“Master, you must be careful. I secretly discovered that Li Jiazheng’s soul has been summoned by the ghostly officers sent by the local underworld city god. Li Jiazheng often visited temples, and had some connection with the underworld city god. I fear they might team up against you. Also, your senior brother Zhang Yuan and the others seem to be deliberately avoiding you.” Jin Chanzi, loyal to Shui Miao as his master, was unafraid of Zhang Yuan and his group.
“Avoiding me on purpose!”
Shui Miao was startled, feeling a sudden sense of desolation, as if his usefulness had vanished and people had already turned cold.
“Yes! I’ve been here for so many years, and I’ve heard many stories about them from my mother. They aren’t good spirits at all. They call you brother when your power is strong, but once you’re in serious trouble, they hide. You should be cautious about them in the future, Master.” Jin Chanzi was very honest, always speaking his mind.
“Alright, I understand!”
Shui Miao nodded, then sent Jin Chanzi to rest while he stayed behind to meditate. He would project his soul to the Immortal Realm once again to see if he could seek help to deal with the thousand-year-old female ghost.
After Jin Chanzi left, Shui Miao organized his thoughts.
The thousand-year-old female ghost was Bai Niangniang, and she was now the biggest problem standing in his way.
He should find the young Daoist boy, Li Muzi. Perhaps he had a solution.
※※※
Focusing his mind, Shui Miao had just entered a meditative state when suddenly two strangely looking creatures appeared within his consciousness. Both had human bodies but bore the heads of an ox and a horse respectively. Moving at incredible speeds, one slapped a talisman onto Shui Miao’s forehead while the other silently wrapped an iron chain around his neck, pulling him down a gloomy path…
Could these be the legendary Ox-Head and Horse-Face?
Shui Miao was shocked but unable to speak—the talisman was incredibly powerful, preventing him from exerting his strength. Thus, he was dragged to a desolate place filled with many paths, all covered in a gray haze. At the intersection of these paths stood a large mansion, completely black, its location unknown, but it appeared ominously terrifying.
As they approached, Shui Miao saw two rows of creatures standing at the entrance of the mansion—again, creatures with animal heads and human bodies.
These monsters showed no expression, standing like statues.
Shui Miao was taken inside. Since his head could not move, he couldn’t fully observe the surroundings, but he noticed it resembled the ancient grand courtyards often seen in TV dramas, including a courtroom used for interrogating criminals. However, he was led behind the courtroom to a large courtyard. The horse-faced creature removed the chain while the ox-headed one peeled the talisman off Shui Miao’s forehead, then both retreated to the entrance of the courtyard, standing motionless like statues.
“What does this mean?”
Shui Miao was quite puzzled, glancing around. He noticed the courtyard was surrounded by high walls, with no way out other than the entrance.
There was a round stone table with four stone benches inside the courtyard.
On the table was a set of celadon teaware, with some strange flowers and plants scattered around the bluish stone floor.
Suddenly, two people emerged from a room within the courtyard.
One wore a black official robe embroidered with landscapes, had a full beard, and fierce eyes, appearing very menacing. The other wore modern clothing—it was Li Jiazheng, who had just been strangled to death! Seeing Shui Miao, Li Jiazheng immediately frowned and circled around him once.
Shui Miao, looking at the one in the black official robe, guessed he might be the local underworld city god.
Finally, Li Jiazheng spoke coldly, “Chen Shuimiao, you must be secretly rejoicing for avenging your father, right?”
“Hmph! So what if I am?”
Shui Miao disdainfully glanced at Li Jiazheng. His soul body was clearly pale, evidently newly deceased and still weak.
“Still so arrogant! You think you’re invincible just because you have some cultivation?” Li Jiazheng tilted his head, looking at Shui Miao with a calm expression, obviously having reached some secret agreement with the underworld city god.
“Hehe, you must be angry, right?”
Shui Miao suddenly smiled. For some unknown reason, he felt no fear toward this underworld city god.
“Angry? Do you think my situation is worse than yours?” Li Jiazheng sneered.
Shui Miao took a deep breath and noticed the air here was only slightly cold, otherwise quite similar to the air in the dry well cave. From this, he deduced that this place wasn’t the underworld, but rather some location in the human world. He paused, then coldly laughed, “In the human world, you were a top wealthy businessman, but in my eyes, you were just a heartless merchant. After your death, your wealth will be swallowed by corrupt officials, and people like Jiang Zhihao, Sun Hao, Jiang Tao, and Qian Wanke. Your descendants probably won’t have an easy life either. I feel sorry for you. Now, you’re just a small ghost, pretending to be important through some shady deals. So honestly, I don’t see how you’re better off than me.”
“Haha!”
Suddenly, the ghostly official in the black robe laughed, “Not bad! You’re right. I indeed have some connection with the good man Li. He often comes to worship at my temple, so I treat him well. After all, ghosts can be sentimental too! However, I didn’t send the ghostly officers to capture you because I received his bribes, but because you’ve killed innocents recklessly, damaging your own lifespan. Now your time is up, so I ordered the ghostly officers to bring you here.”
“What? My lifespan is already over!?”
Shui Miao was greatly shocked and found it hard to believe.
He was only twenty years old—how could his lifespan already be over? That was simply unbelievable!
His intuition told him something was definitely wrong. There was absolutely no way he could have such a short lifespan. It was impossible.
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