Chapter 82: Someone died on the 82nd day after quitting the circle!!
After stuffing the falling Taoist soul into a sack, Duan Sui raised his eyes and saw Sang Qiqi sprinting towards the evil spirit like a gust of wind. Her small fist swung with earth-shaking force, stirring up countless dust scattered by the collapsed temple.
Between eating dust and welcoming Sang Qiqi's triumphant return cleanly, Duan Sui decisively chose the latter.
With a step back of his long legs, the figure retreated a very long distance and came directly outside the temple.
At the same time, Sang Qiqi had already arrived in front of the slow and clumsy evil spirit. With a bang, the evil spirit, who had no ability to dodge at all, was hit in the face by Sang Qiqi's fist. After a crisp sound, the evil spirit's face was like a broken mask, and the cracks in the dense spider patterns gradually became larger. The ghost energy fell like fragments. Without time to cover his face, the huge force brought by Sang Qiqi's fist made the evil spirit's body stagger backwards.
It took two steps back in panic, its body shaking violently. It tried to raise its two arms to grab Sang Qiqi, but the other party grabbed its wrists with a thick rope made of black mist and pulled it back.
The huge figure fell to the ground in an instant, and the sound it made when it fell to the ground was almost the same as the huge rock falling from the sky before. Countless dust and gravel splashed up, dyeing the surrounding air dark gray.
Witnessing this scene, Duan Sui took two steps back again, feeling that he had foresight.
In the center of the field, Sang Qiqi couldn't help but wave her hands, attempting to sweep away the dust that was rising in front of her and obscuring her vision. However, this proved to be a difficult task, as the clumsy evil spirit on the ground, after falling flat on its back, began to struggle like a long-limbed tortoise, its limbs sweeping up the ground and sending dust billowing into the air.
Sang Qiqi was speechless and choked with emotion.
She stepped over to Duan Sui's side and muttered, "Is this the character of the 'god' summoned by the Nine Nether Gods?! How stupid!"
Seeing her look of disbelief, Duan Sui chuckled softly and said, "Because it hasn't yet taken shape, but this unformed evil spirit is already an insurmountable gap for most Taoists. They may be clumsy and stupid, but as you can see, even a powerful lightning-inducing talisman has little effect on them. It will take a lot of effort to deal with them."
That's true.
"What about the fully formed evil spirit?" Sang Qiqi asked curiously, "Have you seen it?"
"I've seen it," Duan Sui said truthfully. "That evil spirit is just like this one. The people who raised it nourished it with human flesh and blood, and the resentment of the dead also became its nourishment. When it took shape, although its appearance was ordinary and stupid, it spread like a plague wherever it passed, leaving no one alive."
Sang Qiqi was stunned when she heard this: "Do you mean alive?"
Duan Sui shook his head: "There are still some weak little ghosts. But that evil spirit has absorbed much more human flesh and blood than this one, so its power is naturally extraordinary."
At this point, Sang Qiqi could already imagine the terrifying scene just by imagining it. She no longer underestimated the evil spirit and returned to its side. At the same time, the evil spirit had already broken free from the thick rope Sang Qiqi had tied around its wrists, shaking off its clumsy limbs and struggling to rise from the ground. But Sang Qiqi didn't give it a chance, and punched it in the back of the head with a sharp punch.
The force was so great that the evil spirit fell down with a bang again.
The evil spirit's skull cracked, and its face hit the ground defenselessly, shattering the ground at the same time. Countless cracks spread out with the evil spirit's face as the center.
"roar--!"
An unbearable howl of rage erupted from the evil spirit's throat. It braced itself on the ground with its limbs, twisting its head. The ghostly energy on its shattered face was deflated like a balloon, but its eyes remained clear and blood-red. At the same moment, lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the entire village in a flash. In this radiance, Sang Qiqi discerned countless ghostly energies flying out of the houses in Beiqing Village and burrowing into the evil spirit's body.
The evil spirit's body suddenly grew larger again, and the broken marks on the front face and back of the head were repaired.
Duan Sui's deep voice came from behind him: "It's its last resort."
He took back all the ghost energy left in the villagers' bodies into his own body. He was obviously angered by Sang Qiqi's two punches and wanted to fight Sang Qiqi with all his strength.
This was an unexpectedly good thing, as it saved them the trouble of going through the entire village one by one, secretly extracting and crushing the ghost energy in the villagers' bodies.
When Sang Qiqi heard that the evil spirit was about to go all out, she became much more energetic.
The moment its ghostly energy was fully condensed, the evil spirit's body and movements became much more agile than before. It bent its legs, leveraging the momentum to leap from the ground with ease, and roared as it charged towards Sang Qiqi. As its fist smashed into Sang Qiqi's face, the ghostly energy within it also clamored to invade her spirit. However, Sang Qiqi merely tilted her face, and the fist grazed a few strands of hair that fell from her temples.
Sang Qiqi: “…”
Evil spirit: “…”
The former raised her red lips and smiled with crescent eyes: "Are you imitating me?"
Evil spirit: “…”
Having failed to grasp the essence and being mocked by Sang Qiqi, the evil spirit was furious and was about to punch Sang Qiqi again, but Sang Qiqi had already grasped its arm with unexpected speed. With a slight tilt of her body, she exerted force with her shoulders and neck, and swung it to the ground with a back throw. She kicked the evil spirit in the chest, ignoring the dense ghost energy that was trying to devour her from her calves. Sang Qiqi spread her fingers, and her ghost energy gradually condensed into a sharp sword.
Silver lightning struck the sword's edge, igniting a cold glow. Sang Qiqi raised her sword, aiming it straight at the evil spirit's heart. As it was about to strike, the evil spirit, already sensing the threat, screamed and struggled frantically. But the weight bearing down on it felt like millions of pounds, the heaviness in its chest almost choking it. Its limbs trembled constantly, and the surging ghostly energy seemed to be a substance, constantly trying to pierce and devour Sang Qiqi.
But the evil spirit soon discovered that all its efforts were in vain.
Because the ghost energy on Sang Qiqi can completely protect her.
The girl raised her lips and eyebrows: "Bye."
The sharp sword in his hand suddenly pierced into the evil spirit's heart, and a sharp scream resounded through the sky. The ghost energy that was originally used to deal with Sang Qiqi began to fill the hole made by the sword, but to the ghost's surprise, the ghost energy that filled in was completely absorbed by the sword in Sang Qiqi's hand.
In just a minute or two, the ghostly aura lingering on the evil spirit disappeared completely.
Sang Qiqi held the sword horizontally in front of her, raised her eyebrows slightly, and said with a smile, "Thank you for the hospitality."
Then he neatly stuffed the evil ghost, which had been sucked dry and turned limp, into the Qiankun sack.
He threw another fire-accumulating talisman into the temple. The exploding fireball reignited the extinguished fire. The wooden-framed house began to burn with crackling flames, and all the cloth and wooden tables in the temple hall became fuel.
Flames shot up into the sky, illuminating Sang Qiqi's face.
Duan Sui walked to her side and saw that the long sword in her hand had turned into ghost energy again, and it looked even more intense. He raised his eyebrows and said, "You must have eaten a lot."
Sang Qiqi touched her stomach and said, "Half full, half full."
With a wave of her hand, she removed the barrier of ghostly energy lingering around the temple. Sang Qiqi then reached the temple gate and kicked the young Taoist priest, who had lost blood and was unconscious. Duan Sui observed this and said, "He's been saving his breath. He should be able to hold on until the Nine Netherworld Divine Society arrives."
Then he added: "It doesn't matter if you can't hold on."
His eyes swept towards the blazing temple. Duan Sui's figure quickly disappeared and reappeared, holding the body of the Taoist priest whose neck was twisted by Sang Qiqi. He used his finger to soak up some of the priest's blood and wrote the four words "Li Quan Jingbei" on the ground on one side.
Pass the blame clearly.
Sang Qiqi: “…”
Giving Duan Sui a thumbs up, Sang Qiqi turned around to look at Beiqing Village, who seemed to have noticed something was wrong.
The silver thunder had dissipated, and aside from the temple's lingering flames, Beiqing Village should have been plunged back into silence and darkness. But at that moment, lights suddenly flickered on in every household. The creaking of a door being pushed open, followed by a chorus of inquiries, echoed from afar.
Sang Qiqi and Duan Sui looked at each other, and their figures disappeared into the air.
far away.
Chen Hong's father, Chen Maohua, hurriedly pushed the door open and walked into the yard. When he saw the flames rising from the northeast of the village from a distance, his expression suddenly changed.
Isn't that the newly built temple in their village? Why did it catch fire out of nowhere?
Could it be that the ghost that was haunting the funeral home has gone back to the temple? That ghost is so powerful!
etc……
Chen Maohua suddenly frowned, turned his head to look at his son Chen Hong, who was walking out in a daze with squinting eyes, and asked uncertainly, "Did I tell you that the village was haunted?"
Chen Hong nodded, confused. "Yeah, but then I brought the Taoist priest back, and you guys insisted there were no ghosts. You weren't very polite to the Taoist priest, and told me to send him away quickly."
Chen Maohua: “…”
It's strange. He clearly felt that the village was haunted, but why did he at some point decide that the ghost rumors were nonsense?
Completely confused, Chen Maohua scratched his head and simply let the matter go. He pulled up his trousers and ran towards the temple. On the way, he met a number of villagers running out of their homes. The scattered group of people suddenly became a group. When they arrived at the temple gate and saw the dead bodies and the raging fire, their faces turned pale.
In the sudden silence, someone finally screamed, "Someone's dead!!"
The sharp voice hurt the eardrums and stimulated the brain nerves. The others suddenly reacted. Some called the police, some looked for an ambulance, and some were busy looking for water pipes while talking to the fire department.
Over half an hour later, police, hospital personnel, and firefighters arrived at the scene at top speed. The temple was now surrounded by a crowd. Sang Qiqi and Duan Sui checked the crowd and discovered that the evil spirit marks on their bodies had been removed. They were now recounting their strange memories and reactions.
"This person is still alive, send him to the hospital for emergency treatment first."
The nurse skillfully covered the wound on the young Taoist's waist and abdomen that was pierced by the peach wood sword. The others worked together to put the man on a stretcher and then into the ambulance.
Some policemen surrounded the bodies of the horse-faced Taoist priest and others and took detailed records, while the firefighters were asking how many people were in the temple in total.
"Eight, eight Taoist priests in total," the villager said impatiently. "They were all quite young, around thirty years old. I remember there was a chubby one named Li Quan."
The firefighters and police officers looked unhappy when they heard the news.
There were eight people in total, but only three were found outside the temple, two dead and one injured.
So where are the remaining five? Are they still alive?
"Are there any villagers who know of other situations or have seen other Taoist priests?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Maohua immediately stepped forward and said, "Comrade police officer, we were the first group to arrive at the temple. The fire was already burning, and there was no one else around."
"Yes, yes, yes."
"No one, not even a dog!"
"Is that so? Okay, we get it. It's still early, everyone should go back to bed. If you all crowd here, it'll be hard for the fire department to carry out rescue operations."
The villagers had no intention of staying there to watch the fun, and they walked back, whispering to each other.
Elsewhere, a rescuer, already connected to a water hose, quickly rushed toward the fire scene. As he attempted to push open the temple door, someone suddenly grabbed his shoulder. Turning back, the rescuer met the other person's deep gaze. He frowned and asked, "What are we doing? We need to go in and rescue people."
The detective, who was about forty years old, pointed to his active cell phone and said, "Just give them a heads up. The Taoist priests involved are all extremely vicious, with the blood of many people on their hands. The only one who survived has been sent to the hospital. As for this temple, there's no need to save it."
After handing the phone to the other person, he looked at the rescuer with a confused expression, patted the other person's shoulder, turned around and walked to the horse-faced Taoist priest to check the situation.
-
The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight penetrated the clouds and landed on the land of Beiqing Village, the temple that had been burning all night finally turned into ashes.
Chen Hong craned his neck to look toward the temple, the phone tucked to his ear dialing Pengqiu's number. He was incredibly thankful he'd added Pengqiu's contact information. After a few busy beeps, Pengqiu's voice rang out from the other end. Chen Hong immediately said, "Master Pengqiu, this is Chen Hong! Do you remember when you came to our village and my parents told you there weren't any ghosts? My dad told me last night that he didn't know what he was thinking at the time, but he did initially think the crematorium explosion in our village was related to ghosts!"
Pengqiu now knew what was going on, so he wasn't confused by Chen Hong's father's change of heart. He was rather surprised that Chen Hong's father had changed his tune last night...? But he had only just arrived at Sang Qiqi's shop the previous night, and it was only after the man there had removed the mark of the deity that his memory was restored.
His eyebrows knitted together calmly, and he asked, "What time was it last night?"
"It was early in the morning. The newly built temple in our village suddenly caught fire! My dad and his family heard the noise, got up, walked into the yard, and suddenly told me about the funeral home. But that's not the key point, the main thing is the temple. Guess what, I just heard my parents say that after the temple caught fire, although many people from the fire department came, strangely, the fire could not be put out! It was not until the entire temple was burned to ashes that the fire was put out. Everyone said that there was something strange about this temple!"
"Oh, and by the way, when my dad and the others discovered the temple was on fire and rushed to the scene, there were two bodies at the temple entrance. One of them was the Taoist priest my dad brought to see you that day. He had a long face and a mole on his chin. Do you remember him?"
Hearing this familiar description, Peng Qiu nodded: "I remember, he died?"
Chen Hong: "More than that, there are only eight Taoist priests in our village, seven of them died, and one is still in the hospital for emergency treatment. I don't know if he can survive."
Pengqiu's eyes flashed, and he said, "I understand." I thought the call was over, but unexpectedly, Chen Hong turned the topic back to the crematorium's crematorium and asked him, "So, is there a problem with the crematorium in our village or is there no problem?"
Pengqiu: "...It should be fine."
It was only in the evening that he mentioned the horse-faced Taoist priest to Sang Qiqi. The next night, the other party was found dead in front of the temple. He simply refused to believe that this matter had nothing to do with Sang Qiqi.
Therefore, if Sang Qiqi had already been to Beiqing Village, the matter with the funeral home would probably have been resolved.
At nine o'clock in the morning, Pengqiu took off his Taoist robes and casually walked into Sang Qiqi's funeral parlor. As soon as he stepped into the shop, he felt as if he were being stared at by a wolf. Following the feeling, he turned his head to the right and saw Mingxin sitting on the sofa, staring at him intently.
Pengqiu: “…”
He knew clearly why Mingxin disliked him, but he did not feel uncomfortable. He only nodded politely to Mingxin and bowed: "Good morning, fellow Daoist Mingxin."
Mingxin: “…”
No, why are the Taoist priests at Huanlongtai so polite? According to the rule that the two Taoist temples have no contact with each other, shouldn't it be that if you dislike me, I dislike you, so I tui you?
This is different from what I imagined.
And if he turned a cold face and didn't respond, wouldn't it seem that the Taoist priests in their Liuyun Temple were uncultured and ungenerous?
In just a few seconds, countless thoughts flashed through Mingxin's mind. In the end, for the sake of Liuyun Temple's reputation, he stood up and returned the greeting, saying stiffly, "Hello, fellow Taoist Pengqiu."
Zhang Lin looked at Pengqiu, then at Mingxin, and pushed the two cups of milk tea on the table: "You two, have some tea."
Mingxin: "Who drinks milk tea so early in the morning?"
Zhang Lin: "My sister."
Peng Qiu guessed that the sister Zhang Lin was referring to was Sang Qiqi. He walked over to the sofa opposite Mingxin and sat down, politely asking, "Is Boss Sang not back yet?"
"I'm back. I'm interrogating ghosts inside."
As soon as he finished speaking, Pengqiu heard a chorus of raging curses and screams. The sound was so sudden that it made him pause as he had just picked up his milk tea. He tilted his head to listen, but the sound had completely disappeared. Less than two minutes later, the storage room inside the funeral complex was pushed open. Sang Qiqi came out, rubbing her wrist. Seeing Pengqiu, she wasn't surprised. She greeted him and asked, "Do you think Taoist Pengqiu has heard about the incident in Beiqing Village?"
Peng Qiu nodded. "Chen Hong called me this morning, but he only said that the horse-faced Taoist priest had died suddenly and the temple had burned down. I suspected you were responsible, so I came here to confirm it and to ask about the explosions in the crematorium's crematorium and urn."
Although Pengqiu had no idea what was going on with the statues in Beiqing Village, or what conspiracy lay within them, he sensed something was amiss. For example, the villagers were being deceived, and so were the outsiders. This suggested that the Horse-Faced Taoist priest and his group were certainly unwilling to disclose the abnormalities in Beiqing Village to the outside world. Things like the crematorium explosion and the cracking urn, which sparked curiosity and suspicion, shouldn't have happened.
Sang Qiqi and Duan Sui knew more information, so they could feel the unusualness of it more clearly.
Therefore, when she had taken Li Quan and the others' souls out for interrogation, she had specifically asked what had happened. The young Taoist holding the statue was stubborn and refused to speak, but Li Quan and the horse-faced Taoist confessed everything under the threat of intimidation.
They had arrived in Beiqing Village three months earlier, having been introduced by Dai Jianhua. While the village already had a temple, the villagers weren't particularly welcoming of the Taoist priests. However, Dai Jianhua, a wealthy businessman who had left Beiqing Village, had built roads and installed lighting, and donated money to impoverished households. He was considered a philanthropist, and everyone who met him politely addressed him as "Boss Dai."
Seeing that he proposed to build a temple and was responsible for all the funds, no one refused.
After the temple was built, Li Quan and others were about to implement their original plan -
Nourish the evil spirits with the flesh and blood of the villagers of Beiqing Village.
The plan was successful. The Taoist priests would often go out in the middle of the night, randomly select a few villagers, and let the evil spirits suck the villagers' flesh and blood dry, watching them turn into mummies. Then, to avoid arousing the villagers' suspicion, they would affix a transformation talisman to the mummies. After the talisman, the mummies became indistinguishable from ordinary corpses.
During this period, they also planned to use the people for two purposes.
The flesh and blood of the villagers are given to this evil spirit, and the ghosts of the dead are also collected and offered to other evil spirits in due time.
But one night, they miscalculated.
Li Quan went to a house as usual, and the house they entered was owned by a young girl. Li Quan saw the girl's appearance and had evil intentions. He wanted to take advantage of the girl's unconsciousness to force her to have sex with him, but he didn't expect the girl to wake up midway and struggled, so he pushed her head against the bed.
The girl was silent, and Li Quan was unwilling to give up, but he had no choice but to stand up and let the evil spirit in the statue absorb the girl's flesh and blood. However, he did not expect that the girl's ghost would react very quickly after death. When Li Quan was not paying attention, he got out of the window in the blink of an eye.
When Li Quan returned to the room with the statue and found that the ghost was missing, it was too late.
Late that night and during the next day, several Taoist priests wandered around the village looking for people, and even released the evil spirits they had raised to block the exits of Beiqing Village to other places.
Li Quan did not find any trace of the girl and guessed that she must have hidden in a corner of the mine.
He was not in a hurry. Anyway, the area had been surrounded by them, and it was only a matter of time to find the people.
The turning point happened on the third day.
As the villagers were taking their loved ones' bodies to the funeral home for cremation, the crematorium suddenly exploded, injuring several people. Urns began to crack and explode one after another, and rumors of ghosts haunting the village spread. This spread through Chen Hong's parents and then to Luming Society, attracting Pengqiu and Mingxin.
"So, the so-called little ghost is actually that girl, and the explosion of the crematorium and the urn is just her means to attract the attention of the villagers and the outside world." Pengqiu asked with a frown.
Sang Qiqi nodded in agreement.
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