Two hours later, Zheng Que finally returned to the outskirts of Changfu Town with Qing Li.
The entire town had now become a ruin. Houses had collapsed, courtyard walls had toppled, ponds were choked with debris, and plants and trees had been crushed... Amid the broken walls and rubble, bones showed here and there. Their skin was bluish-purple, and they had no breath left.
The streets were steeped in deathly silence.
Looking at the town just a stone's throw away, Zheng Que suddenly stopped and turned to Qing Li beside him. "How many ghosts are in town?"
Qing Li gave a cold snort and immediately replied, "This old lady sensed only one ghost from [Tongue-Pulling Hell], and it was very weak."
"But I don't know whether that old ghost with nothing but bones is still here."
At that, Qing Li paused, then continued, quite pleased with herself. "Though this old lady wants to stew that old ghost into soup, you little Human Race brat don't need to rush over here just to curry favor with me."
"That old ghost has at least several hundred years of cultivation. We'll have to take our time before stewing it into soup..."
Before Qing Li could finish speaking, Zheng Que had already shouted toward the town, "[Evil Shadow Play]! [Evil Shadow Play]..."
His voice was loud, quickly carrying across the ruins of the entire town and echoing between the broken walls.
Yet after he called more than a dozen times, nothing happened around them, and [Evil Shadow Play] showed no sign of appearing.
Zheng Que frowned. Then, without further hesitation, he walked straight into town.
Tap, tap, tap...
His footsteps broke the town's deathly silence. The once-neat streets were strewn with fallen bricks and dirt, mixed with all kinds of clothes, household goods, and corpses... A faint stench of decay drifted through the air.
Zheng Que walked down the congested main street with Qing Li. All around them, it was like a painting frozen in time, utterly lifeless. They encountered no ghosts along the way and saw no surviving living people.
It seemed that, because of [Evil Shadow Play]'s rampage last night, all the ghosts in the town had been frightened away...
A short while later, Zheng Que and Qing Li had made a full circuit of the town. [Evil Shadow Play] still hadn't appeared, as though it had left town long ago.
Seeing this, Zheng Que furrowed his brow even more deeply. He didn't believe that an "Wicked Sin" like [Evil Shadow Play] couldn't come out during the day, and he certainly didn't believe it couldn't find him now.
There was only one possible explanation for the situation...[Evil Shadow Play] refused to come and serve as his mount, and had secretly slipped away before he reached town!
The nerve!
That "Wicked Sin" was outrageously bold!
The next time he entered the Underworld, he would summon it over again and give it another good scare!
At the thought, Zheng Que gave a cold laugh, then turned and headed straight for the town head's house.
[Evil Shadow Play] had vanished, and for now he had no way to deal with it. But a Great Medicine was still hidden in the town head's house.
That Great Medicine could speed up his cultivation. He had to get his hands on it as soon as possible.
Besides, the town head's ancestors had passed down several old books, which seemed to have been left behind by cultivators. He'd do well to get those too...
As he pondered this, Zheng Que led Qing Li through the ruins to the site of the town head's house.
The most luxurious residence in town in its heyday had now collapsed beyond recognition. The courtyard wall had fallen over entirely, the blue-brick corridor was uneven, and only half of the row of main rooms remained. Tables, chairs, and cabinets lay scattered across the ground, mixed with dirt and sand.
Thud.
Zheng Que kicked aside half a wooden basin blocking his way, looked around, and quickly began searching the ruins of the side room that had served as a study.
Before long, he picked a stack of books out of the mud.
Their covers were wrapped in cloth, and their spines were daubed with red and green... They were the very volumes Xu Houde had laid out on the desk when he'd spoken with Zheng Que earlier.
Zheng Que opened the books and examined them one by one. Most were miscellaneous notes, records of town affairs, social exchanges, account books...
As time passed, he leafed through them for quite a while before finding five unusual volumes.
These five volumes were especially old and gave off a faint scent of camphor.
The first had four characters on its cover: "Ghost Identification." The next three were titled "Basic Spiritual Herbs," "Herb Gathering Notes," and "Medicine Making Essentials." The last appeared to be a journal.
Zheng Que quickly determined that these five books must be the old volumes the town head had said were handed down by his ancestors.
However, they were clearly very old. The paper had grown extremely fragile, and they seemed to have been read often; many sections were damaged.
What surprised him was that the journal began with some records about Taiping County Town, but the later entries turned out to be notes on alchemy.
The town head's ancestor hadn't just been a cultivator—he seemed to have been an alchemist as well!
With no time to read the journal carefully, Zheng Que put all five books away and continued searching the ruins.
Clatter, bang...
Zheng Que shoved aside brick after brick, dirt, pillars, and household goods, searching every inch of the Xu Family residence.
The sun sank toward the west. By the time it was about to set, he had searched nearly the entire Xu Family estate, yet he still hadn't found the Great Medicine.
Zheng Que couldn't help frowning. After thinking for a moment, he turned to Qing Li, who was hanging from a broken beam jutting into the air. "Qing Li, there's a Great Medicine here with a very strong spiritual aura. Can you sense where it is?"
Qing Li gave a cold snort and immediately replied, "You little Human Race brat, do you really think this old lady can sense anything and everything?"
"This old lady's Yin Profession lets her sense only ghosts from [Tongue-Pulling Hell]."
"There's only one ghost from [Tongue-Pulling Hell] here. It's right underground."
"But its Yin energy is too weak. This old lady has no interest in it!"
Hearing this, Zheng Que felt disappointed. But he quickly realized what she had said. Underground?
He had already searched the entire town head's house and found no cellar.
His thoughts racing, Zheng Que immediately said, "Take me to that ghost!"
Qing Li gave a soft snort, but still floated down from the broken beam and headed in one direction.
Zheng Que immediately followed.
Before long, Qing Li led Zheng Que to the middle of a fairly intact patch of ruins. It looked like the spot where the back garden had been. Beside a flower bed stood an artificial rockery taller than two people. Half of it had collapsed in last night's upheaval, leaving the other half standing alone.
Qing Li pointed to the ground beside the rockery, where the garden path had been, and said, "It's right underneath here."
Without hesitation, Zheng Que got to work clearing away all the debris on the ground, revealing a plum blossom pattern made of pebbles and broken porcelain. It looked extremely solid.
Zheng Que punched the paved ground directly.
Thud!!
This patch of ground was far sturdier than it looked. With his current cultivation at the Second Layer of Qi Refining, he struck it with all his might, yet the paving didn't react at all.
There really was something under here!
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