Ghostly Shadow in White

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye.

It was ten o'clock at night.

Xu Qing had finished his patrol. His patrol today had been from two in the afternoon until ten at night, and nothing unexpected had happened.

At this moment.

Xu Qing had returned to his residence.

Rustle...

A rat snake crawled out from the corner, its two-and-a-half-meter-long body coiling.

"Brother Xu."

Not long after.

Yu Chen arrived, pushing a large flatbed cart with Yu Hu. Piled on the cart was a hundred jin of meat, which had cost a hundred taels of silver.

One jin of meat for one tael of silver.

It should be known.

In the current times, there was hardly any food. Many refugees and disaster victims outside the city were starving to death, so naturally, the price of food like meat was rising, with one jin of meat costing one tael of silver.

It could be said.

It was ten times more expensive.

"Mhm."

Xu Qing glanced at it. "Bring it in."

"Alright."

Yu Chen nodded. He and Yu Hu quickly pushed the flatbed cart into the courtyard. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he said, "Brother Xu, here is the hundred jin of pork you requested."

"Count it."

"Okay."

Xu Qing lifted the gray cloth covering the top and took a look. It was indeed a hundred jin of pork. Although it wasn't very fresh, there were no problems.

"No problem."

Xu Qing said.

"How much silver?"

Xu Qing asked.

"One hundred taels."

Yu Chen replied.

"Alright."

Xu Qing took out a hundred taels in banknotes from his huai, plus ten taels of silver. "Here's one hundred and ten taels of silver. The extra ten taels are for your hard work."

"No, no, you don't have to."

Yu Chen waved his hand. He only accepted the hundred taels of silver. "Brother Xu, you are Hu Zi's Master. I don't need any hard work fees for helping you."

"Take it."

Xu Qing said.

"This..."

Yu Chen saw the look in Xu Qing's eyes and nodded. "Thank you, Brother Xu. Hu Zi, aren't you going to thank Master?"

"Thank you, Master."

Yu Hu bowed respectfully.

"It's already very late, you two should go back."

Xu Qing said.

"Okay."

"Goodbye."

Yu Chen and Yu Hu nodded, and they left. Xu Qing closed the courtyard gate, and only Xu Qing and a rat snake remained in the entire courtyard.

"All this meat is for you."

Xu Qing pointed at the hundred jin of pork on the flatbed cart and said to the rat snake, "Eat a lot, eat diligently, and finish all this hundred jin of pork as soon as possible."

"Hiss hiss..."

The rat snake excitedly flicked its tongue, slowly climbed onto the flatbed cart, and began to bury its head and swallow. It swallowed a large piece of meat.

However.

The rat snake was, after all, an ordinary snake. Its digestive ability was average. It would probably take many days for it to finish all hundred jin of pork.

"Take your time."

Xu Qing gazed at the rat snake on the large cart, pondering, "It's good that it's winter and the weather is cold. This pork won't spoil even if it's left for a while longer."

The night passed uneventfully.

The next day.

Xu Qing woke up early, ate a pound of Black Mountain Tiger Meat, and headed outside the city to begin his patrol duty for the day. Since it was the time for distributing porridge in the morning, Xu Qing saw Jiang Feiying again.

"..."

Xu Qing tried his best not to look around casually and stood in his designated spot.

Time flew by.

Finally.

Jiang Feiying finished distributing the porridge. As usual, she prepared to leave the porridge stall, but she stopped as she walked past Xu Qing.

Xu Qing's body tensed slightly.

"Miss, what's wrong?" asked Zilan, the maid beside Jiang Feiying.

"Nothing," Jiang Feiying shook her head. She looked at Xu Qing, her stunningly beautiful face still wearing that warm and sweet smile. "Hello, have we met somewhere before?"

"This..." Xu Qing lowered his head slightly and said, "Miss Jiang, I'm just an ordinary martial arts school apprentice. How could you have met me? You must have mistaken me for someone else."

"Is that so?" Jiang Feiying's expression was doubtful, and she asked again, "What's your name?"

"Xu Qing," Xu Qing replied.

"And which martial arts school do you study at?" Jiang Feiying asked again.

"Azure Hawk Martial Arts School," Xu Qing said.

"Then perhaps I really did mistake you," Jiang Feiying said with a hint of apology in her expression.

"It is my honor," Xu Qing replied.

"..."

Xu Qing raised his head and silently watched Jiang Feiying's retreating figure.

"Am I being targeted?" Xu Qing's expression turned slightly grim.

Just now.

Xu Qing's instincts had greatly heightened his vigilance, and the evil ghost mask in his embrace had reacted violently. This eldest daughter of the Jiang Family was very unusual.

"Hoo..." Xu Qing took a deep breath and murmured softly, "I just wanted to be an invisible nobody, I'm too lazy to meddle in other people's business."

"And yet..."

"They've still set their sights on me."

Two in the afternoon.

Today's patrol duty was over.

Xu Qing returned to his residence.

Inside the house.

In one of the rooms.

Xu Qing placed the hundred pounds of pork and the rat snake in the room. The rat snake was to eat as much pork as possible each day until it was full, then constantly exercise to digest the pork with its utmost effort.

Today.

The rat snake had eaten ten pounds of pork.

[Rat Snake LV1: 1/10.]

"I can only take it slow," Xu Qing said.

Inside the courtyard.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Xu Qing was practicing Eight Extremities Fist. Although he had to go on patrol every day, which cut his martial arts training time by more than half, he still practiced Eight Extremities Fist without interruption.

[Experience +1]

[Experience +1]

Unknowingly.

The sky had completely darkened.

It was late.

It was already around ten o'clock at night.

"Hoo..."

Xu Qing stopped. He exhaled a breath of stale air, glanced at the dark sky, and returned to his bedroom. He put on the evil ghost mask.

Slowly.

Xu Qing seemed to have fallen asleep.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Suddenly.

In the courtyard.

Wisps of yin qi permeated the air, and a sinister aura appeared. It came from an unknown source, and a ghastly white ghost shadow entered Xu Qing's residence.

The view zoomed in.

Whoosh!

Instantly.

This ghost shadow's feet did not touch the ground. Its hair was disheveled, and it was clad in a white long gown. It could ignore walls and directly entered Xu Qing's bedroom.

Hiss hiss...

The rat snake clearly sensed something and moved restlessly inside the house. However, because the doors and windows were closed, the rat snake could not crawl out.

In the bedroom.

The ghost shadow had already entered and was hovering by Xu Qing's bed. Its long black hair flew everywhere, like black giant pythons coiling and circling in the air.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!!!

In an instant.

This long black hair was like black spears, piercing towards Xu Qing on the bed, about to pierce his head.

"Kekekeke..."

Suddenly.

A sinister, eerie laugh rang out.

In the corner of the bedroom, the hidden Shaman Evil Ghost revealed its presence. It quickly extended its bony, withered old right hand, which grew against the wind, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a giant ghost claw.

Crack! Crack!

In just two or three moves.

The hair of this white-clothed ghost shadow was torn off by the Shaman Evil Ghost.

"Die!"

Boom!

Xu Qing's eyes suddenly snapped open. Powerful energy erupted. He leaped from the bed, his blood essence reacting, his Pill Force bursting forth.

"Eight Extremities Fist! Collapse!"

Bang!

Xu Qing rushed to the front of the white-clothed ghost shadow. With another furious shout, he punched out with his right hand. His Pill Force erupted, his blood essence surged, and he directly shattered the white-clothed ghost shadow with a single punch.

"Ah!!"

The white-clothed ghost shadow exploded, scattering into a mist of ghosts. In the end, only a single strand of black hair remained, drifting down from the air.

Then.

This strand of black hair also dissipated.

"Hoo..."

Xu Qing took a deep breath. He was completely awake now.

You should know.

Earlier today, Xu Qing had a feeling that Jiang Feiying was targeting him. So, when he went to sleep tonight, he released the Shaman Evil Ghost beforehand.

As expected.

Tonight, a ghostly figure in white did appear.

If it weren't for the Shaman Evil Ghost guarding him, Xu Qing might have been in trouble if he had fallen asleep. This ghostly figure in white appeared and disappeared without a trace, making it difficult to detect.

Time flies.

In the blink of an eye.

Seven days later.

Since the appearance of the ghostly figure in white last time, Xu Qing hadn't been attacked again, which was quite unexpected. However, he didn't dare to be careless, letting the Shaman Evil Ghost guard him every night.

Ten o'clock at night.

Xu Qing arrived outside the city. Today was his tenth day on patrol duty, and his patrol shift was from ten o'clock tonight until six o'clock tomorrow morning.

Furthermore.

Since the strange incident seven or eight days ago, which resulted in the loss of three members of the patrol team, the other members no longer dared to have any other thoughts.

Therefore.

Nothing significant had happened these past few days.

Everything had been relatively peaceful.

"Brother Xu."

Liu Xiao said to Xu Qing as they walked on patrol, "After all these days, the refugees and disaster victims outside the city haven't decreased; instead, they've become more numerous."

"Indeed."

Xu Qing nodded.

You should know.

The day Xu Qing first started patrolling, there were only about 40,000 refugees and disaster victims outside the city. In the roughly ten days since then, that number had increased to about 60,000.

That's more than half.

Most importantly.

The Three Great Families and the Yamen were providing less and less porridge, and the porridge itself was becoming thinner. The refugees and disaster victims outside the city had also noticed this.

"This can't go on like this."

Su Changhe shook his head. He looked at the refugees and disaster victims around them and mused, "With so many refugees and disaster victims gathered here, if things aren't handled properly, it could lead to a disaster."

Unknowingly.

Time had already reached twelve o'clock midnight.

Hum! Hum!

Suddenly.

Xu Qing's eyes narrowed. He looked at the refugees and disaster victims lying on the ground around him. These disaster victims and refugees suddenly stood up shakily.

One, two, three...

More and more.

In the blink of an eye.

Nearly two-thirds of the disaster victims in the area Xu Qing was patrolling inexplicably stood up at this moment, their eyes hollow, like walking corpses.

"What?!"

"What are you doing?"

"All of you, lie down and sleep!"

"..."

Liu Xiao and Su Changhe's pupils contracted, and they shouted angrily.