Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

Only after Zhao Sheng gave the order did these village men climb up from the ground, their backs bent severely as if they were afraid to stand taller than the young noble.

"Liu Sanba, hurry up and tell the noble exactly how your brother's whole family met such a tragic death. Don't you dare lie; otherwise, you can forget about being the temporary village head."

"Ah, rest assured Manager Zou. I will definitely be earnest, definitely earnest!"

As he spoke, the yellow-faced old man smiled widely as he looked towards Zhao Sheng and Gui Li.

After receiving a signal from Zhao Sheng's eyes, his back bent even lower as he spoke with a face full of sorrow, "The incident has to be traced back to half a month ago..."

After the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the yellow-faced old man stopped speaking, looking very nervously at Zhao Sheng and Gui Li, his attention mostly fixed on Gui Li, who was wearing the Daoist robe.

As for Zhao Sheng, well! An eight-year-old baby, no matter how noble, is still not as impressive as the other Mage with stronger mana.

Upon hearing the story, Gui Li's brows relaxed and he spoke as if at ease, "The ghostly creature causing trouble must have just been born not long ago. Even if it is fierce, it's nothing more than a resentful ghost. I originally thought it was an old ghost that had accumulated years of malice, but it turns out to be a newly formed ghost. Junior brother, this is an easy task for us."

Zhao Sheng had been silent the whole time, but now he suddenly said with a cold face, "You village heads deserve to die!"

The smile on the yellow-faced old man's face instantly froze, and he quickly began to frantically explain, "Noble one, we are wronged! This has always been the custom in our area. When a new bride enters the household, the village head must be the first to 'taste the soup.' This is done firstly to check whether the bride has ever been dishonest, and secondly to collect Phoenix Sunflower.

"My older brother had no idea the bride would be so suicidal. She hung herself on the same day, and after her death, she turned into a Fierce Ghost seeking lives. Poor my sister-in-law and my two nephews. They hadn't committed any sins, yet they were all claimed by the ghost."

The more the yellow-faced old man spoke, the more aggrieved he felt, until in the end he couldn't help but shed old tears, and those around him also started to cry.

"Our village head is a righteous person. While other villages have extended their blood taxes for three years, ours is only for two. Even the interest is lower than in other villages. The village head is a righteous man!" someone brave quietly supported him with a chime in.

Gui Li suddenly snorted coldly, and everyone around immediately knelt down in a large group.

"Junior brother, the Phoenix Sunflower is a type of precious blood specifically designated for collection by our sect. This substance encloses life and harbors death, containing yin and nurturing yang, and has many mysterious uses," Gui Li explained lightly.

Zhao Sheng's eyes flashed, and he spoke in a very cold tone, "Get up, take me to the scene."

Liu Family's Village was not large, with only about a hundred households. The village had only one road connecting it inside and out, and at the end of the road, a large courtyard with green bricks marked the place where the incident happened.

This courtyard housed ten large tile-roofed rooms; five, facing north to south, were for living. On the left were two rooms for livestock, on the right two rooms for the kitchen and storage, and there was also a granary built with green stone walls.

At that moment, the center of the courtyard held four thin pine coffins. The surface of the coffins was covered with black-winged flies, massing together densely.

As they reached the entrance of the courtyard, the other villagers suddenly stopped, their expressions filled with panicked fear, while the yellow-faced old man rushed ahead, waving his hands wildly to drive the flies away.

Zhao Sheng looked thoughtfully at the black blood scabs in front of the main house's door.

Gui Li strode to the front of the coffins, waved his sleeve, and the coffin lids were immediately flipped over onto the ground.

"Junior brother, come take a look."

Responding to the call, Zhao Sheng stepped forward, looking down into the coffin to see that the corpses' skin was pallid, covered in corpse spots, and their faces filled with despair and fear, yet their bodies had not a single wound.

Observing the other three corpses revealed the same condition.

Seeing this, Gui Li nodded silently to himself, thinking, "The bodies are this rotted, yet junior brother remains unfazed. It seems everyone has underestimated him. Sanbao is not as frivolous and arrogant as he seems."

"Hmm, the Divine Soul of this person has indeed been devoured by the ghostly creature, no injuries on the body, yet blood has been drained all over the floor. Brother, that ghost is no trivial matter! It seems to possess the ability to drain blood from a distance."

"Ghosts have many varied and bizarre talents; blood-sucking, in itself, is not so unusual. However, the fact that this ghost has just emerged and was able to kill four people cannot be ignored. We cannot let it continue to act violently, for it will become a huge menace in a hundred or so years," Gui Li stated, looking around with an extremely stern expression.

"Strange, where has the female corpse gone?" Zhao Sheng muttered to himself before looking towards the yellow-faced old man and asking, "Where is the hanging woman's corpse now? Take us to see it."

Upon hearing this, Gui Li's gaze also shifted to the man.

"Reporting... reporting to the lord, the... the body suddenly disappeared from the courtyard last night."

The yellow-faced old man knelt again, his voice trembling, apparently very afraid of being blamed by the lord.

"Eh, could it have turned into a living corpse?"

Upon hearing this, Gui Li's face brightened with excitement, and he instantly flipped his hands to reveal a yellow paper talisman between his fingertips.

He chanted under his breath, and in the blink of an eye, with a flick of his sword finger, the talisman suddenly ignited in flames, burning up into ash. At the same time, a faint ring of golden light spread out swiftly, enveloping the entire courtyard.

The next second, from within the four coffins rose four strands of grey mist, sharply visible under the golden light.

Looking at this, Gui Li furrowed his brows, "Strange, there's no Corpse Qi from that female corpse here?"

Zhao Sheng, however, said, "Brother, where the female corpse has run off to, or whether it has been stolen by some adept, is not important. What matters is to eliminate that resentful ghost first, to prevent it from harming others."

"Junior brother... Hmm, you're quite right, junior brother. I was too eager for the thrill of the hunt and got distracted," Gui Li admitted as he moved his sleeve, and a palm-sized black porcelain bottle fell into his hand.