"So it really is you, Xiao Hao. How did you change so much?"
"How did you grow so tall and so strong?"
Li Xiaohua stared at Qin Hao before her in shock and asked.
"Hehe, maybe I've just been developing quickly lately."
Qin Hao felt a little embarrassed under his aunt's fixed gaze. He scratched his head as he spoke.
Seeing his wife look at Qin Hao as though he were some rare treasure, Li Kang could only helplessly interrupt her questions.
"Alright, alright. Why is a woman like you asking so much?"
"By the way, Xiao Hao, what did you come to see me for?"
Li Kang looked at Qin Hao and asked.
Qin Hao came back to himself and said,
"I came to borrow a horse from you, Uncle Kang. I want to go into the county town to buy some things."
"What? You want to go to the county town?"
Before Li Kang could say anything, Li Xiaohua beside him became agitated.
"Xiao Hao, you can't go to the county town. It's haunted there!"
"Haunted?"
Hearing the words "haunted," Qin Hao froze for a moment.
Could it be a fish that slipped through the net from the Ghost Nest a few days ago?
"Yes, haunted. Although I didn't see it myself, I heard others mention it before."
"And I found traces of something like a ghost up in the nearby mountains too."
Li Kang also told him about what he had encountered.
"What? Husband, you really found something in the mountains?"
Li Xiaohua was startled when she heard that her husband had found traces of ghosts in the mountains.
"Traces, not an actual ghost!"
Li Kang repeated from the side.
"Oh no, oh no. Has it already spread to our area?"
"Auntie, they're just ghosts. There's no need to be so scared."
Seeing Li Xiaohua so frightened, Qin Hao spoke in a relaxed tone.
Qin Hao himself was not afraid. He had killed hundreds of ghosts, and even the little-known ghost race had died miserably at his hands. He felt nothing at all.
"What do you mean, 'just ghosts'?"
"Have you been getting too full of yourself lately, brat?"
As she spoke, Li Xiaohua jumped up and smacked Qin Hao on the back. She had originally meant to hit the back of his head, but she could only reach his back.
Qin Hao felt nothing when Li Xiaohua struck his back. Instead, Li Xiaohua hurt herself with the force of her own blow.
"Ow! Xiao Hao, why has your body become so hard? It's like a block of iron."
Li Xiaohua felt as though she had just struck an iron block, and her hand ached badly.
"Hahaha."
Seeing his wife suffer a setback, Li Kang laughed with great delight.
"You heartless man, what are you laughing at?"
Hearing her husband laugh at her, Li Xiaohua narrowed her eyes at Li Kang.
She rolled up her sleeves, preparing to go over and teach him a lesson.
"Uh... nothing."
Watching the husband and wife fool around, Qin Hao could only stand quietly to the side and watch.
"Alright, alright, stop messing around."
"Xiao Hao is still here."
After a while, Li Kang finally stopped his wife, bringing the farce to an end.
When Qin Hao heard Uncle Kang call him out, he really wanted to say, Don't cue me, hey.
"By the way, Xiao Hao, you said you wanted to go into town?"
"What are you going there for? The county town isn't peaceful right now."
Compared to the county town, their village was still relatively safe.
"Yeah, Xiao Hao. The county town isn't safe right now, so don't go. Let's stay in the village for now."
Seeing the Li Kang couple's concern for him, Qin Hao was somewhat moved. Ever since his parents had been gone, the couple had always helped support him.
"It's fine, Uncle, Auntie."
"They're just petty ghosts. It's not like I haven't killed any before."
Qin Hao looked at the Li Kang couple and spoke in the slightly arrogant tone of a child.
Seeing Qin Hao's youthful face, tinged with a hint of pride, Li Kang was half-convinced and half-doubtful.
To be honest, he felt that Qin Hao might truly have that kind of strength. After all, he had personally seen Qin Hao beat a First-tier Demonic Beast to death with his bare hands.
Ordinary ghosts probably would not be Qin Hao's match either.
"Xiao Hao, are you sure you've killed ghosts before?"
Hearing Qin Hao say that he had killed ghosts, Li Kang still asked uncertainly.
"Why would I lie to you?"
"Just a few days ago, I ran into one ten li from our village."
"I smashed it straight into a pulp with a hammer!"
As he spoke, he took out a hammer from his Storage Bag and waved it around for the Li Kang couple to see.
When the Li Kang couple saw Qin Hao take out the Black Fiend Hammers, they felt a horrifying wave of killing intent rush at them head-on.
The Black Fiend Hammers had originally possessed a special killing intent that restrained ghosts. Now, after Qin Hao had hammered a ghost race member and over a hundred ghosts to death with them—
Nourished by those ghosts, that killing intent had become even denser. Even Li Xiaohua, who had never cultivated before, could see the killing intent that seemed almost tangible.
Watching Qin Hao so easily wield that enormous hammer wreathed in dark-red, smoke-like mist, Li Xiaohua was completely convinced.
Only when he saw the convinced looks in their eyes did Qin Hao stop.
"So? Believe me now?"
"Mm! Mm!"
"We believe you."
"Xiao Hao, how did you become so powerful? A few days ago, your uncle told me that you killed a demonic beast with your bare hands, but your auntie didn't quite believe it."
"Now that I've seen you like this, I finally believe it."
"Hehe, it's nothing."
"By the way, Uncle Li Kang, you said the county town is haunted. What exactly happened?"
Qin Hao was still interested in hauntings, since they meant attribute points.
"Your auntie said that someone saw ghostly figures in the Zhang family's old residence, along with the sounds of ghosts wailing."
"And people in the county town have constantly been disappearing or suddenly dying. It should be the work of ghosts."
Hearing this, Qin Hao was not completely certain that ghosts were responsible, but it was eight or nine times out of ten. It could also be some great demon that had cultivated into a demon.
Spirits and monsters could use similar methods to make people suddenly die as well.
The more demons, spirits, and monsters there were, the more he had to go. In other people's eyes, they might be calamities, but in his eyes, they were all gleaming attribute points.
"Uncle Li Kang, lend me a horse. I want to go to the county town and see whether there really are ghosts."
"If there are, I can take the opportunity to get rid of them."
Qin Hao said excitedly.
Seeing Qin Hao so excited, Li Kang was speechless. He had mentioned ghosts to make Qin Hao retreat in the face of difficulty, yet Qin Hao had instead become excited as though they were something precious.
"Xiao Hao, are you sure you want to go?"
Li Kang asked solemnly once more. He did not want Qin Hao doing anything dangerous.
"Mm! I'm going. It's fine, they're just things that can't stand the light of day. Don't worry."
"Just look at my strength now. With these muscles of mine, I could scare them to death just by standing there."
Li Kang looked at the young man before him. That body of muscles was indeed exaggerated; he felt as if a sturdy, powerful bull were standing right in front of him.
It really was a little intimidating.
"Alright, then. Come with me."
"Husband, this..."
Li Xiaohua still wanted to say something, but Li Kang interrupted her.
"It's fine. Xiao Hao is very strong."
"Xiao Hao, wait a moment. I'll lead a horse over for you right away."
With that, he headed toward the backyard stables.
Before you continue