Mr. One-Eye

Everyone decided to annihilate the Zhang family, and immediately prepared to take their leave.

Seeing that their benefactors were about to leave, the villagers gathered around one after another, wanting to kowtow in gratitude.

Yan Nu called out to them: "Don't kneel!"

Shen Leling nodded: "That's right, absolutely don't kneel to him. Be careful that your mortal world fire pours out in a torrent, and monsters will eat you up just like that."

Hearing this, the villagers refrained from kneeling in thanks. After all, there were monsters on Flag Mountain.

Thinking of the monsters, they looked toward the direction of Flag Mountain and were startled to discover that flames were faintly soaring into the sky there.

What was going on? Had someone set fire to the mountain? Weren't the monsters putting out the fire?

Seeing this, Huang Banyun said excitedly: "You probably don't know yet! The Flag Mountain dog demon has already been eliminated by them and turned to ashes! It can never harm people again!"

The villagers widened their eyes. That spirit-transformed wild dog had wreaked havoc in the countryside for sixteen years, or even thirty years if counted from much earlier when Wulong was still a half-demon.

Now that it was finally eliminated, not only did they no longer need to buy those peachwood talismans, but it also avenged who knows how many people.

"The dog demon is finally eliminated, please heroes be sure to leave your names," said the missing-legged peasant excitedly. His leg was the one bitten off by the wolf pack.

Shen Leling smiled charmingly: "No need. This dog has a master who is a profound cultivator, and I'm afraid he's currently looking for us to exact revenge..."

"Ah?" Upon hearing this, the villagers realized that this vicious hound had eaten countless people, yet it actually had a profound cultivator take it in, and it even had the nerve to seek revenge?

They were all rural villagers and didn't understand matters between cultivators, but they understood reason... They just felt this was utterly unreasonable.

Huang Banyun exclaimed: "Right, that cultivator doesn't know yet who killed the dog demon, please everyone be sure to keep it a secret."

"Rest assured, we won't say a word." The villagers were extremely grateful to them and naturally wouldn't speak of it.

Feng Junyou drifted over and said indifferently: "Saying it or not makes no difference, this matter doesn't even need to be inquired about."

"Before the dog demon came, it must have sought its master's permission. That cultivator can completely ask the Zhang family to understand who the target of this encirclement was."

"To step back ten thousand steps, even if we annihilate the Zhang family first, there is still one knowledgeable person alive in this matter."

"Who?" Shen Leling asked.

"In this operation, counting Zhang Quan, there were a total of six top-tier martial artists. You only killed five, and there is still one responsible for going to report to the dog demon who didn't participate in the battle," Feng Junyou said.

Shen Leling was startled: "The dog demon rushed over alone, so this messenger is coming slowly and is still on the road?"

Mr. Feng spread his hands and said: "Who knows? It's also possible he's already with that cultivator."

"When they see the scene at Flag Mountain, they will naturally know who did it. We can't hide from them."

Yan Nu forcefully planted his long spear vertically into the ground: "Disregard him! I'll annihilate the Zhang family first! Whoever blocks me, I will kill!"

"Ah!" The villagers were astonished. Annihilate the Zhang family?

"Weren't you being hunted down by the Zhang family?" the villagers asked anxiously.

Yan Nu hoisted his long spear onto his shoulder and walked toward the outside of the village.

"Times have changed!"

Watching the group walk away in the exact direction of Hua County, the villagers realized that Yan Nu was going to avenge them.

They wanted to dissuade them, but then they remembered that these people possessed vast supernatural abilities, and each one was either a demon or a ghost...

Their eye sockets instantly grew slightly red as they bowed in thanks again and again.

Three hours later, outside Hua County.

Because he had to travel, Yan Nu's cultivation speed was a bit slower. Over the course of three hours, he underwent breaking and then establishing twenty-four more times.

Forty-six thousand one hundred and seventy years of internal energy made his cycle of acupoints glow brilliantly.

Of course, ordinary people couldn't see it; at the very least, one had to be at the Mystical Stage with spiritually awakened clear vision.

"Your internal energy is far too terrifying. In the eyes of cultivators, the three hundred and sixty cycle acupoints are as dazzling as the stars in the sky."

Shen Leling said with slightly trembling fingers as she applied a minor art to Yan Nu, casting a layer of isolation.

She understood breath-concealing techniques; if she hadn't been injured previously, she wouldn't have left any demonic aura behind when she fled.

The bronze contract hung at Shen Leling's waist, and Feng Junyou poked his head out from within it: "Mm, but one can still sense about seventy years of internal energy."

"How much?" Huang Banyun widened his eyes.

Shen Leling giggled: "It doesn't matter. Come, change your attire, we're entering the city."

Her fingers flicked, scattering drops of mystical water all over Yan Nu.

Instantly, that suit of vine armor began to change color and deform, transforming into a form-fitting leather armor combat outfit, crimson and white.

She then used grass rope to tie up Yan Nu's long hair, binding it high up so that he looked just like an ordinary wandering knight.

"Phew!" Having finished this, Shen Leling buried a few seeds into the ground.

Chanting softly, after about half a quarter of an hour, the seeds swelled into pod-like shapes, growing to half a person's height.

Several giant pods connected into one piece, and Shen Leling suddenly gave a sharp command. The pods split open, and various fine details peeled off one after another, revealing a carriage.

She waved her hand to create curtains on the carriage and sat inside.

She then scattered beans outside to transform into soldiers, creating ten vine armor soldiers. Eight of them were just like Yan Nu, their vine armor changing and mimetic of leather armor.

Yet two others crawled on the ground and transformed into two horses...

"Get in the carriage!"

Wooden horses pulled the carriage, eight armored soldiers provided an escort, Huang Banyun held the reins and sat in the right driver's position, and Yan Nu shouldered his spear and sat on the left.

They swaggered into the city just like that.

"Your transformation technique is lifelike and vivid, the rarest I've ever seen in my life." Feng Junyou sighed sincerely.

"Of course! Otherwise, how could I have established a foothold in the jianghu for twenty years?" Shen Leling had frequently been told her spells were weak and lacked destructive power.

Yet in reality, her transformation and mimetics techniques were definitely among the best, long since as effortless as Feng Junyou's stone command technique.

One could only say that each had their own strengths.

"Giddyup!" The carriage went straight into the city, and the guards at the city gate didn't even dare to ask questions.

Didn't they see the extremely cold-looking two rows of armored soldiers? Although the carriage was relatively plain, anyone traveling with guards was tacitly understood to be exempt from city gate taxes.

The carriage went straight into the northern part of the city. Along the way, the scene in the city was not as desolate as they had imagined; on the contrary, it was quite lively.

There were always people hanging sabers and wearing swords, in groups of three or five.

These were all wandering knights who had rushed over or passed through from various places. The world was in chaos, heroes were rising together, and anyone with a bit of ability wanted to contribute their strength.

Some of these people came out of seclusion from sects, while others rushed over from the south. Some were to serve the country and slay bandits, while others simply wanted to make something of themselves.

The arrival of these people meant they needed food and lodging, and they carried money everywhere to make purchases, which in turn allowed the common people in the city to make a living.

However, even so, there were still starving refugees by the roadside, looking frail and sickly, and they could be seen wherever one went.

Some knelt by the roadside with flags offering themselves for sale, some curled up in alleys coughing endlessly, and others had already collapsed and died by the wayside.

"Has somewhere suffered a disaster again?" Yan Nu frowned.

Shen Leling said: "The common people in the city often have no farmland and rely on small-scale businesses or doing odd jobs for others to make a living. If the times are bad and there are any three afflictions and five adversities, their families won't be able to put food on the table."

"Coupled with the war and chaos, every year there are starving refugees fleeing from other places. I've traveled far and wide, and I can see this scene wherever I go."

The carriage quickly stopped at an inn closest to the Zhang Mansion. More wandering knights gathered here, drinking wine and talking loudly, all saying they were going to give the Hu barbarians a taste of their might.

Shen Leling took out silver and had Huang Banyun rent two guest rooms.

Once inside the room, Feng Junyou finally flew out completely from the bronze contract, gazing out the window and sensing the aura of the place.

According to the original plan, they needed to first determine the locations and numbers of the strong figures and experts in the city.

However, upon looking at it this moment, something felt wrong; the entire city was wreathed in the aura of plague.

"There is a pestilence in the city." Feng Junyou saw it at a glance, and many people were already afflicted with the qi of illness.

It was just that robust martial artists were better at resisting it, so nothing appeared on the surface. But the weak starving refugees manifested it first.

Yan Nu was startled: Pestilence? Grandpa had also fallen gravely ill once and almost died.

"Then what do we do? Is there medicine to cure it?"

Continuing to observe, Feng Junyou raised an eyebrow and said: "It's not that serious either; it just spreads fiercely. It's everywhere in the city, and almost everyone in this inn has it."

"However, you possess Emperor Tai's White Jade Technique, so it doesn't matter even if you contract it."

"I'm talking about them! How are they going to endure this?" Yan Nu pointed at the starving refugees by the road.

Feng Junyou said: "Usually when one contracts a pestilence, as long as one doesn't run into a plague ghost... the human body can resolve it on its own."

"Plague ghost?" Yan Nu asked: "Aren't you a ghost yourself? You mean as long as demons and monsters like you don't kill them, they can endure it?"

"No..." Feng Junyou was caught between laughter and tears, and hurriedly explained: "I'm human... no, I'm a ghost cultivator. Plague ghosts are another kind of ghost enlightened by the Heavenly Dao; they specifically haunt places where pestilence is rampant to prey on the dying."

Yan Nu was blank. Shen Leling pointed to another section of guest rooms in the inn: "Look, there's a plague ghost right over there."

"Where?" Yan Nu looked, but couldn't even see a ghost's shadow.

" Mortals can't see them. Here, hold the bronze contract. This is a divine weapon for subduing ghosts, and it can help you see ghosts and gods."

Shen Leling gently raised her hand, and the bronze contract floated into the air, landing in Yan Nu's hand.

Immediately afterward, Yan Nu felt his vision brighten as five bizarre and ugly figures drifted into a thatched hut.

"I see it!" Yan Nu hurriedly followed them.

**The ghosts inside the blood-summoning technique were just the most basic use of the bronze contract; whether one could see them depended on whether Feng Junyou gave face.

The bronze contract itself was a magical artifact, possessing the power to subdue ghosts in the hands of cultivators, and sensing ghosts was merely one of its functions.

Dragged along by Yan Nu, Feng Junyou hurriedly drilled back into the bronze contract, leaving only a mouth exposed as he said: "This inn has gathered too many sick people, and the personnel are complex. It's precisely the kind of place plague ghosts like to frequent."

"These are five ghosts."

Yan Nu saw five monsters with hands, feet, and humanoid shapes, but their entire bodies were bald and they didn't even have eyes on their faces.

No, there was still one that grew eyes, but it only grew a single eye.

Feng Junyou explained: "This is actually one plague ghost, 'a single ghost' composed of five ghost bodies."

"The five of them are always inseparable. The one with the eyes is called 'Mr. One-Eye', and the remaining four are all unable to move at will, having to listen to Mr. One-Eye's commands in everything."

"Furthermore, they have to rely on this single eye to see things, so collectively these five are called 'Mr. One-Eye and Four Associates'."

Yan Nu was astonished and followed them into the room. This was a room with a communal brick bed where eight people were lying.

Some people sat cross-legged circulating their internal energy, some lay sleeping, and some lay on the platform breathing heavily, humming and coughing.

Four monsters lined up behind Mr. One-Eye, which reminded Yan Nu of the time he lined up to receive flatbread.

As Mr. One-Eye stared at one person, a monster approached a man sleeping peacefully and sniffed lightly.

"This is our alms-giver, do not eat," Mr. One-Eye spoke to stop it.

Thus that monster retreated, and another monster approached the man practicing qigong cross-legged.

"This is a villain, do not eat," Mr. One-Eye stopped it once more.

The third monster approached the man breathing heavily and coughing frequently.

"This is a good person, do not eat."

Having said that, Mr. One-Eye pointed at the remaining five people: "These five are neither very good nor do evil, just utterly ordinary, seemingly waiting for us to eat them."

And so the monsters went in order to feed upon the remaining five people. With each feeding by a monster, that person grew weaker and their illness worsened.

Seeing that someone's breathing was growing faint and they were on the verge of dying, Yan Nu directly lunged inside brandishing his spear.

"Take my spear!"

p.s: Sorry.