Old Sheep Knocks His Head

"Is this the place?"

Hu Ma stood still, looking around vigilantly and worriedly. He gazed at the large pagoda tree, half of which was scorched black. A large number of bells lay scattered on the ground, and the branches and leaves drooped listlessly.

"Did the Old Woman just fight it?"

"..."

"This is Old Woman Huai from Old Yin Mountain."

As Second Master approached the old pagoda tree, he also slowed his steps and said softly to Hu Ma, "In the villages within ten miles, for any infants who died prematurely, in the past, they would be thrown into the pigsty, ground up, baked, and then used as fertilizer."

"But since Old Woman Huai became manifest, they've all started sending them here to be buried. And families who couldn't have children would come to pay their respects and then conceive."

"..."

"What the hell is that?"

Hu Ma thought of the Old Woman in the mirror fighting this old pagoda tree, and the black balls on the branches that looked like infants. He felt a chill of strangeness and horror, and trembling, he looked up, "Why would it fight the Old Woman?"

"That's the strange part..."

Second Master's voice was filled with an air of the bizarre, "Old Woman Huai is a renowned benevolent deity in our villages within ten miles, specializing in helping stillborn children reincarnate."

"In our village, when families couldn't have children, the Old Woman would advise them to come here to Old Woman Huai to pray. As long as their hearts were sincere, after offering sacrifices and kowtowing three times, if the bells rang, it meant a child was willing to join the couple..."

"The more bells that rang, the more were willing to follow."

"They are both kind-hearted, so how could they fight?"

"..."

"Helping infants reincarnate?"

Hu Ma listened, and a strange thought suddenly crossed his mind, but in his anxiety, he didn't have time to dwell on it.

"Heh heh, they weren't fighting each other."

Just then, a laugh was heard. Turning, he saw that the old shopkeeper and the sedan bearers had also arrived, stopping at a distance.

The old shopkeeper clasped his hands behind his back and scanned the messy area with a cold smile. "This old pagoda spirit's sentience has dispersed, and evil energy is overflowing. Something powerful must have possessed it, turning it into a puppet, and that's why it fought with your Old Woman."

"And then?"

Upon hearing his words, Hu Ma thought of the pale-faced mountain spirit that had been driven to find him in the village.

It seemed that the thing sent by the Meng Family was very skilled at this.

He suddenly worried about the Old Woman's condition, and as he looked at her anxiously, he saw the old shopkeeper looking left and touching right, as if he had discovered something. He sighed softly and said, "Your Old Woman has a good heart. She knew this old pagoda tree was innocent, and the little spirits attached to the tree were also innocent."

"So she summoned the Yin Thunder, but only struck half of the old pagoda tree, leaving it with a chance to live."

"..."

Hu Ma and Second Master beside him trembled inwardly, vaguely understanding that this was indeed the Old Woman's way of doing things.

"But..."

Before they could relax, they heard the old shopkeeper continue, "Heh heh, when Ghost Walkers fight, being soft-hearted is the biggest taboo."

"She spared the old pagoda's life, so she must have suffered a great loss herself."

"..."

"Ah?"

Hu Ma was greatly alarmed and immediately asked, "Then... where is the Old Woman now?"

The old shopkeeper frowned, his gaze sweeping around as if he were quickly calculating in his mind.

Just then, Xiao Hong Tang, who had followed Hu Ma, suddenly looked up.

She twitched her nose and immediately cried out with surprise, "Old Woman!"

Before her voice fell, a red blur flashed, and she quickly ran in a direction towards the nearby woods.

The others didn't know what was happening, but Hu Ma caught a glimpse and quickly followed Xiao Hong Tang. Second Master also nervously took the Mountain Splitting saber from his back and followed quickly.

The old shopkeeper glanced at them and knew they had received news from the Ghost Envoy. He no longer bothered to deduce. Some of the curious sedan bearers wanted to follow and see, but he stopped them:

"Don't get involved in this. There's still something unresolved in there!"

"..."

"..."

Hu Ma quickly followed Xiao Hong Tang, passing through a path overgrown with weeds. He vaguely saw a cliff ahead. Beyond the sparse bushes, he could vaguely see a cave below the cliff. Faint smoke was drifting out from the cave.

"The Old Woman is there?"

He felt a surge of joy and quickened his pace. Suddenly, he saw Xiao Hong Tang ahead being pounced on by something dark and blurry. A red shadow and a black shadow twisted together, making sounds like beasts tearing and gnawing.

Upon closer inspection, it was a small figure about the same size as Xiao Hong Tang, completely black, exuding a cold and distorted aura.

Hu Ma was startled and rushed forward to help, but suddenly heard a strange laugh.

He stopped in his tracks, turned his head, and felt a slight numbness spread through his body.

Four or five monsters like this were crouched on the left, on the trees and on the ground. They tilted their heads slightly, staring at him with pale eyes.

But it wasn't them that laughed, but a mountain goat that turned out from behind a tree. Its pair of horizontal pupils made people instinctively afraid. The laughter he had just heard was actually its bleating, but it was as chilling as a cold laugh.

Upright Sheep!

This was one of the monsters he had seen before. It was the most normal-looking, yet it was the one that made him feel the creepiest.

"It's controlling the spirits on the pagoda tree."

As he was startled, Second Master's voice sounded from behind him: "These children weren't Evil Spirits to begin with, but they were turned into Evil Spirits by someone."

"There's no hope of reincarnation anymore..."

"..."

Second Master tiptoed and walked over to Hu Ma, handing him the Mountain Splitting saber in his hand. He whispered, "You can't handle this Ghostly Puppet, little Hu Ma. Leave it to your Second Master. You go quickly and check on Old Woman now..."

Hearing Second Master's voice, Hu Ma felt a surge of security.

He vaguely felt that Second Master could definitely restrain this ghostly mountain goat, so he nodded, took the Mountain Splitting saber, and suddenly charged forward.

The ferocious and twisted Infant Spirits, upon seeing Hu Ma move, leaped up from the ground and pounced at him.

Hu Ma felt a sound of baby crying in his ears, which made him inexplicably irritable and dizzy, wanting to vomit.

But as he moved, the furnace fire in his belly ignited, and his movements became agile. He only focused on charging forward. Behind him, Second Master stepped forward, let out a low growl, and repelled these Infant Spirits.

His sixty years of Boy's Skill seemed to imbue even this roar with a masculine energy that dispelled evil.

However, it only repelled the Infant Spirits. Their small bodies were surprisingly ferocious and terrifying, and they charged forward again.

Second Master knew that these Infant Spirits, who had been adopted by Old Woman Huai with the hope of giving them another chance at reincarnation, had now been cut off from their path and corrupted by evil energy. They were now unrecognizable and ferocious. He didn't dare to be careless and used the Block and Strike technique, holding it in front of him.

The Infant Spirits couldn't stop in time and their sharp fangs bit into Second Master's arm, like a string of mice.

Second Master's arm bled, and a flicker of pain flashed across his rock-carved face. But in comparison, the Infant Spirits were in even more pain.

They wouldn't let go, but after touching Second Master's blood, white smoke suddenly rose from their bodies, as if they were in agony from being doused in sulfuric acid. Then Second Master waved his arm, and along with the blood, he flung them away.

Several of them had already dissipated in mid-air.

But at the same time, a ghostly laugh rang out. The mountain goat watched coldly, its front knees slightly bent.

It actually lowered its head and crouched down, as if about to kowtow.

"Old goat kowtowing..."

Second Master didn't pay much attention to these Infant Spirits, his entire focus fixed on the goat.

As soon as he saw it preparing to kowtow, he was greatly alarmed.

Villages raised sheep, pigs, and livestock. The livestock in the villages were often slaughtered before they were kept for too long, but there were always some special ones, either because they ate something or simply lived too long, that would become somewhat malevolent.

Just like this old mountain goat that had matured. As it got older, it would learn to stand up like a human and even kowtow.

But this kowtow was not a good thing. One kowtow could knock a person's soul away.

In a village adjacent to Great Sheep Village, a shepherd once went out to herd his sheep and was killed when an old mountain goat kowtowed and knocked his soul away, causing him to walk dazedly off a cliff.

Facing this sinister Ghostly Puppet, Second Master dared not be careless. Seeing that the other party had already performed a kowtow, Second Master also took a step forward, knelt down on both knees, and kowtowed towards it.

Their heads collided with a "bang."

After this collision, both heads felt a bit dizzy. The goat's gaze towards Second Master changed.

Second Master knelt down too quickly, and the goat's kowtow turned into a headbutt.

You can turn it into a pot of mutton, make it lie down obediently to be milked, or even hug it for warmth at night, but you absolutely cannot insult it by headbutting.

In the world of sheep, this is the greatest provocation, without exception.

So the goat was instantly provoked and its ferocity ignited. Its two hooves jumped high, and it butted him again.

Bang, bang, bang, bang...

They fought back and forth, evenly matched.

Meanwhile, Hu Ma had already rushed forward and grabbed Xiao Hong Tang from the ground.

With a flick of his hand, he threw off the Infant Spirit that was entangled with her. Before the other party was even in the air, he shouted.

"Pfft!"

The fierce fire in the furnace surged, and an arrow of Yang energy shot out, piercing the Infant Spirit and causing it to dissipate into nothingness.

Hu Ma, holding Xiao Hong Tang in one hand and the Mountain Splitting saber in the other, strode towards the cave entrance.