On the day of the New Year, heavy snow begins to fall.
After several days of intensive patrolling, Anping County finally passed the New Year's Eve smoothly.
In this festive atmosphere with thousands of lights and the sound of firecrackers, Chu Bai asked for leave from the department. Taking advantage of this rare leisure, he climbed on a fast horse and hurried back to Chu Family Village.
Before entering the village, I saw from a distance that there were people standing under the old locust tree at the head of the village.
Today's Chu Bai is no longer the poor student who came to the city to seek a living, but Principal Ninth Rank "Demon-Slaying Token" who is famous for hundreds of miles around.
Especially in the villages around Chu Family Village, who doesn't know that Chu Household has a Prodigy who kills False God and leads the army?
"Look, that's Mr. Chu!"
"I've met Mr. Chu!"
Cheers and awed looks came flooding in.
The neighbors gathered around, some carrying home-cured bacon, some holding dried fruits, and their words were full of flattery and pride.
Although Chu Bai was not good at playing both sides, he did not put on any official airs towards these simple fellow villagers. He smiled and socialized with the clan elders one by one, and after greeting them politely, he returned to the front of his courtyard surrounded by everyone.
Pushing open the courtyard door, what you see is no longer the low and dilapidated mud thatched house in your memory.
Thanks to Chu Bai's salary and rewards over the past six months, Chu Household's old house has been renovated.
The green bricks, large tiles, and flying eaves and walls look particularly majestic in this countryside. The yard is cleaned spotlessly, and the red Spring Festival couplets are neatly pasted, giving off a prosperous New Year atmosphere.
"Big Brother is back!"
Hearing the noise, mother Li quickly walked out of the kitchen wearing an apron. She wiped her calloused hands on the apron nervously, but her face burst into laughter.
Chu Bai looked at his parents and couldn't help but feel a little touched in his heart.
With enough money and meat to nourish him, his father Chu Xianglin's waist has become much straighter. His face that always had a bitter look in the past is now rosy and full of energy.
Li no longer looks thin and haggard due to busy housework as before. He has put on a neat new cotton-padded jacket and looks much richer.
The nine-year-old sister Xiao Man wears two braids, which makes her look much cooler.
She is now arranged by Chu Bai to study at the Azure Cloud Academy in the county town, which can be considered as following the old path of Chu Bai.
Chu Bai also had an old acquaintance among them, so he naturally took great care of this sister. After reading the book for several months, Xiao Man's eyes became a little more agile and elegant.
The younger brother became a complete naughty boy, grabbing the hem of Chu Bai's official uniform, looking curiously, and running around in the yard.
"It's good to be back, it's good to be back. Hurry, the dishes are all here, wash your hands and eat!"
In the kitchen, the aroma overflows.
Li tried his best today, filling a big table with chicken, duck and fish.
This New Year's Eve dinner, the whole family sat together, without the constraints and worries of previous years, and there was harmony and laughter while changing cups.
Chu Bai took out a few boxes of Spirit Tea from the backpack he carried with him and poured them for the two elders himself.
"Father, mother, this is the Spirit Tea that Senior Brother Lu brought from Prefectural City. The medicine has extremely mild properties and is best for nourishing the muscles and bones of mortals. You should drink more of it on weekdays."
Chu Xianglin held the tea cup, smelled the refreshing fragrance, and took a sip. The corners of his wrinkled eyes were a little moist.
He is a sensible person, and he knows that his son is enjoying great fame in the city, but there are many swords and swords hidden behind this scenery.
In order not to cause trouble to his son, during this period of time, besides playing chess under the tree with several clansmen in the village, he never easily interacted with the stewards of the wealthy clans in the city. Even if someone wanted to use Chu Bai through him, he was blocked by him with a pipe and a pot.
In his opinion, guarding this three-quarter acre of land, not embarrassing his son, and not hindering his son's official career is his greatest duty as a father.
Li didn't think that far ahead. She looked at the bright big house and the pair of children under her knees, and she was only satisfied with the current life.
She happily gave Chu Bai a piece of braised pork, and told Xiao Man to study hard so that she could take care of her brother's worries.
Outside the window, Chu Family Village fireworks were rising, and the sound of firecrackers was coming from far away.
Chu Bai sat in the banquet, looking at the peaceful smiling faces of his parents illuminated by the candlelight.
He is fighting and cultivating outside, and is living step by step in the intrigues and intrigues of the officialdom. Isn't it just the peace and stability that he seeks at this moment?
On this New Year's Eve, he is no longer the cold Demon-Slaying Token, but an eldest son who is guarding the lights and accompanying his parents.
The sound of firecrackers marks the end of the year, and the spring breeze brings warmth to Tusu.
As the clock struck midnight, the fireworks in the sky gradually dissipated, and Chu Family Village, which had been noisy all day, finally sank into the snow-covered silence.
Parents, siblings, are mortals after all and cannot stay up late at night, so they go back to their rooms to sleep amidst laughter and exhaustion.
Chu Bai blew out the red candles in the main room and returned to the side room alone.
His cultivation level has now reached Qi Refining Fifth Layer, and his energy and energy are far beyond ordinary people. He only needs to meditate for a moment every day to be worth several hours of deep sleep.
He sat cross-legged on the couch with his eyes slightly closed. He did not rush to breathe out spiritual energy, but started to operate the [Keep One Scripture] that polished Divine Sense.
Divine Sense is extremely difficult to practice, and its progress is much slower than a breakthrough in cultivation. Even with the blessing of Fate Destiny, it is still at the "proficient" stage. However, the benefits it brings are real.
As the secret technique was operating, Chu Bai felt a slight heat between his eyebrows, and an invisible wave centered on him, spreading quietly to all sides like a spider web.
Ten feet, fifteen feet, twenty feet...
All the slightest movements within a radius of twenty feet were clearly reflected in his mind at this moment.
He could hear the steady and long breathing of his parents in the next room, could feel Xiao Man occasionally turning uneasily in his sleep, and even the weak pulse of life of the few winter insects huddled in holes under the courtyard wall to avoid the cold could not escape his perception.
Under this almost God's perspective, the surrounding world becomes three-dimensional and transparent.
However, at this moment, Chu Bai suddenly felt a sense of disobedience in his heart.
Amid the steady and normal breathing of the neighbor next door, there was an extremely slight, almost sliding sound.
The thing moved very fast, seeming to stop at the stove in every room for a moment, and then move again.
Chu Bai opened his eyes suddenly, Divine Sense locked on the place where he stayed - the main house next door.
He clearly felt that as the figure stayed, the sound of breathing in the room, which was still strong, attenuated by half at that moment, and the originally ruddy Qi became a little gray.
"Not an ordinary thing, nor an ordinary thief."
Chu Bai stood up and flew out of the window like an arrow.
He did not directly open the door and disturb the neighbors' sweet dreams. Instead, he used [Formless Cloud Hand]'s skillful energy, tapped his toes gently on the snow, and like a light feather, he quietly rolled into the neighbor's courtyard.
He held his breath and concentrated, his eyes were slightly focused, and the light of [Golden Eye Illusion-Breaker] flashed away.
Beside the still-warm ashes of the stove, a translucent monster that looked like a baby but had a long, pointed tail was lying greedily on the stove, sucking in the last trace of human life emanating from it.
"Year-End Wraith."
Chu Bai instantly turned to the records in the Demon-Suppression Office file in his mind.
This thing is a kind of supernatural being that accidentally grows due to the bad luck at the end of the year and the lingering smoke and smoke.
They are born from stove fires and specialize in sneaking into people's homes through the stove opening on New Year's Eve to suck people's energy. Although one time of smoking is not fatal, it will make people weak and sick and everything will go wrong in the months after the spring.
Year-End Wraith is extremely timid and has special concealment methods that cannot be detected by ordinary people.
"Sure enough, the new year is a sad time."
Chu Bai secretly said. Year-End Wraith often does not appear alone. As long as one is found, it means that a group has spawned around the village.
If these little things are allowed to absorb and grow, and finally merge into one, they will turn into "Greater Year-End Wraith". At that time, it will not be as simple as being weak for a few days, but it will cause a plague among the whole village.
At this time, this Year-End Wraith was immersed in the pleasure of sucking in popularity, its perception was reduced to the lowest level, and it didn't even notice that Principal Ninth Rank Demon-Slaying Token was already standing less than three feet away behind it.
Chu Bai was not in a hurry to alert the enemy.
He took out the Demon-Slaying Iron Token from his waist, touched the Spell Power with his fingertip, and an extremely subtle wave was instantly transmitted through the Great Zhou Law Net.
He is summoning the Demon-Slaying Squad members who are patrolling the surrounding area.
Then, he waved his backhand, and the iron sign exuded a pure Yang official aura, like an invisible barrier, covering everyone within a hundred steps of his courtyard.
With this Demon-Slaying Token's coercive guarding, other Year-End Wraiths in the village would never dare to get even half a step closer to Chu Household.
As for Chu Bai himself, his figure swayed slightly and disappeared into the dark shadows again.
Generally speaking, after Year-End Wraith absorbs the energy of this family, he will go to find his companions to join him.
He wanted to follow the clues and catch all the dirty things that had lurked into the village during the reunion of thousands of families.
After the Year-End Wraith had absorbed the popularity of this family, its body expanded slightly, and a few strands of turbid gray air could be vaguely seen swimming under its transparent body.
It twisted its slender tail and was about to slide through the gap in the wall to the adjacent courtyard. However, the moment it approached, it seemed to have hit an invisible wall of fire.
The Pure Yang Official Aura emitted by Demon-Slaying Iron Token is restrained under the control of Chu Bai Divine Sense, but to such an evil little thing, it is like the scorching sun that is so close at hand.
The Year-End Wraith was so frightened that he let out a harsh but invisible scream. His whole body suddenly curled up into a ball, and then like a wild dog whose tail was burned by fire, he turned around and ran away from the village.
"Surprised?"
"It just so happens that we can take advantage of this opportunity to find out its movements."
Chu Bai stood on the eaves, his cloak rustling in the cold wind.
He did not take action immediately, but was like a goshawk overlooking its prey from a high altitude, with the lightness of [Firestep Dash] on its feet, following it not far or near.
The little monster ran extremely fast, almost gliding against the snow.
It escaped from the continuous roof ridges of Chu Family Village and plunged into the Abandoned Timber Yard area at the end of the village that never sees sunlight all year round.
The moment we stepped into the forest farm, the air suddenly cooled down.
The snow here is no longer as white as in the village, but has turned a sickly gray-white color due to long-term erosion by Yin Qi.
Dead trees stood like blackened skeletons in the wind and snow, and the air was filled with a strong smell of rotten vegetation and fishy smell, which was pungent and unpleasant.
Deep in the forest farm, there is an abandoned Land God Temple that has long been dilapidated.
Between the ruins and broken walls, dozens of bright green fires danced silently in the biting cold wind, flickering on and off.
Chu Bai stopped a hundred steps away, his golden eyes focused.
I saw dozens of Year-End Wraith densely gathered in the open space of Land God Temple.
Their spiky limbs are intertwined with each other and biting wildly. Some are devouring the same kind, while others are desperately trying to fuse their bodies into one. Sharp hissing sounds come and go in Divine Sense's perception, and the scene is extremely weird and disgusting.
"It turns out that this place was used as a nest."
Chu Bai looked at this scene with a flash of understanding in his eyes.
Year-End Wraith is not a natural monster, but the "end-of-year remnants" formed by the resentment caused by poverty, illness, and loneliness among the crowds of people at the turn of the year, condensed in the smoke of unburned gunpowder and gunpowder.
These things are the projection of the suffering of all sentient beings.
If in previous years, the incense of the Kitchen God in every household was strong, they would just attract some popularity and then dissipate on their own.
But this year, perhaps because Anping County has experienced successive turmoils, the anxiety and resentment in the hearts of the people are far greater than in the past, and these remnants have gathered together to form a disaster.
At this time, most of the Year-End Wraith in the center of the clearing have merged, and a violent aura unique to "demon" is slowly rising.
Once they are completely combined, they will become a real evil--[Great Wraith].
Once it takes shape, the villages with a radius of dozens of miles will probably fall into a great plague.
"Found it."
Chu Bai slowly walked out of the shadows, stretched out his right hand, and the colorful light swirled in the palm of his hand.
It would indeed be time-consuming and laborious to search for these scattered little things all over the village, but now that these dirty things are seeking their own death together in order to unite, for him, it is just a matter of flipping his hands.
"Master Chu."
On the edge of the forest farm where the cold wind is howling, snow shadows are moving.
Not long after, more than ten Demon-Slaying Guard dressed in Demon-Suppression Office costumes and black cloaks had gathered.
They are all the elites of Qi Refining Third Layer, and their Demon-Slaying Iron Token waists glow with a cold red light in the night. Each one of them carries a strong War-Slaying Qi, which instantly dilutes the gloominess of this place.
This group of people was patrolling nearby. After receiving the signal from Chu Bai, they did not dare to delay at all and rushed over at full speed.
The leading guard took a step forward and knelt down on one knee in front of Chu Bai, his eyes full of awe. In this Anping County, the name of Chu Bai has long been the soul of Demon-Slaying Squad.
Chu Bai stood on the rocks, his cloak fluttering in the wind. He looked at the group of subordinates who were still on duty on New Year's Eve, and his originally cold eyes softened slightly.
He waved gently, signaling everyone to stand up, and his voice spread clearly in the silent snow forest:
"Thank you for your hard work. This is our reunion night, but I have to let my brothers stay in the cold with me in the wilderness. But..."
Chu Bai raised his hand and pointed not far away.
"If these dirty things come together, tomorrow morning, the people within a radius of ten miles will not be able to see the spring sun. Now that they have happened, no one should be spared."
"Since it is the result of resentment, let it be completely dispersed in this wind and snow."
Chu Bai's tone was cold, and the killing energy around him [General Star Destiny] surged out like a great tide at this moment, sweeping away the coldness of the abandoned Land God Temple.
"Follow me to get rid of evil spirits."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Bai's whole body energy exploded.
"Take your orders!"