Chapter 1 Li Wazi

It was Li Wazi.

Of all the lads from the Great Sheep Stronghold, Li Wazi was the cleverest.

If he wanted to follow Xu Ji, Hu Ma wouldn't say anything. Of course, if anything happened, Hu Ma wouldn't care.

Now, seeing that the other lads, although they'd suffered some minor losses, were at least unharmed, he sighed when he saw that Li Wazi had somehow fallen into the well. He looked pale and lifeless. He reached out and closed his vacant, staring eyelids.

"Lower a rope!"

Hu Ma shouted upwards, his voice echoing through the well opening.

He tied the rope around Li Wazi's waist and had him pulled up first before looking around.

The well water was filthy, foul-smelling, and bone-chillingly cold. After a careful search, he found some fragments of red cloth in the corner.

He crouched down and saw a skeleton. It was long decayed, with bits of flesh clinging to the bones. He could vaguely make out that it was a woman, and the clothes she wore, soaked in the well water, were dirty and foul, resembling a red wedding gown.

"A pitiful person..."

Hu Ma thought of what the evil spirit had said and vaguely guessed at a story.

But he only sighed inwardly, not daring to speak it aloud.

Second Master had taught him that one must not show weakness when facing these evil spirits, and that sympathy and pity were also a form of weakness.

Evil spirits were ignorant, and even if they could communicate, it didn't mean their logic was the same as living people's.

If he showed sympathy here, she might think he was an easy target and harm him instead.

He kept a straight face, stuck the fire striker into the damp mud of the well wall, and picked up the bamboo basket.

Little by little, he scooped the skeleton out of the water at the bottom of the well and placed it in the bamboo basket, picking up the scattered bones for her.

Even though the corpse was decayed, it still took up a lot of space at the bottom of the well, making it difficult to move. When Hu Ma picked her up, the bones shifted, and the head suddenly came close to Hu Ma's neck.

Ghostly fire seemed to flicker in the already withered eye sockets, and the rotten mouth had sharp, jagged teeth.

Hu Ma's movements stopped abruptly. The bottom of the well was cold and silent, without a sound of breathing.

"Don't cause trouble. I have some Daoist skills," Hu Ma said slowly, holding his breath. "At this distance, one Blood Yang Arrow would be too much for you to bear."

After saying this, he waited for a long while before continuing his actions.

He wasn't lying to her. He dared to come down because he had three pillars of Daoist cultivation. If he really had to fight, it would be in this well, where no one could see, that he could let loose.

However, of course, it was best not to fight.

Perhaps frightened by Hu Ma's words, the skeleton really behaved itself, and Hu Ma placed it piece by piece into the bamboo basket.

Once everything was packed, Hu Ma breathed a sigh of relief and signaled to the people above to pull it up.

"Clatter..."

Just then, the skeleton's arm, resting on the edge of the bamboo basket, jiggled slightly, and a dull gold bracelet fell off.

It landed at Hu Ma's feet, splashing a few drops of dirty water.

Hu Ma was stunned for a moment, then understood what the female corpse meant. He coldly smiled as he picked up the gold bracelet and stuffed it back into the bamboo basket.

"Don't pull this trick. We didn't come down here for your things."

A faint sigh echoed from the bottom of the well, and the bamboo basket was indeed pulled up steadily.

When Hu Ma also climbed out of the well, he saw that the lads around him were all far away from the bamboo basket, and their gazes toward Hu Ma were almost worshipful.

Not only the lads around him, but also from some of the low grass huts nearby, villagers seemed to be looking at him with awe. In the dark night outside the huts, something also seemed to be secretly watching him.

"The goal is achieved..."

Hu Ma breathed a sigh of relief and told the lads to collect her bones, as he had said before, and bury them next to the official road.

Then light a few incense sticks and burn some paper money.

The lads were still afraid in their hearts, but with Hu Ma by their side, they were a little braver. Plus, Hu Ma had already fished the person out of the well and nothing had happened, so helping to collect the bones was nothing. So three or four people stepped forward to help collect them.

Hu Ma also took the opportunity to check on Li Wazi, only to see his eyes wide open, his face pale, and no breath at all.

His body was already stiff, but it didn't seem quite like a real dead person.

Perhaps because something was secretly protecting them, the rest of the matter went surprisingly smoothly.

Together, the lads found hoes and spades, dug a deep pit away from the village, and buried the bones. Throughout the whole process, they were not disturbed again. Hu Ma burned incense in front of the grave and softly consoled her.

By the time they returned to the village, it was already dawn. The village, which had been empty all night, had gathered countless people.

"Thank you, Great Dharma Master..."

"We have been plagued by this evil spirit for a long time..."

It was clear that the people in the village were sincerely grateful, but the person they were thanking was not Hu Ma.

It was Shopkeeper Wu, who stood with his hands behind his back next to the well.

He ignored the villagers kowtowing around him and looked at Hu Ma, saying blandly, "Where's Xu Ji?"

"I don't know."

Hu Ma's heart sank when he saw the old shopkeeper come to the village.

He knew that this was a critical moment, so he silently adjusted his expression and stepped forward, saying, "Last night, I saw him leave with these lads early in the morning. Knowing that I couldn't compete with him, I secretly followed behind."

"I was thinking of snatching his victory when he was about to succeed, but I didn't expect that after a while, I suddenly saw a gust of yin wind, and someone screamed. Knowing that something had happened, I plucked up my courage and went over."

"On the road, I met this group of lads who had been bewitched. I also avoided a few evil spirits and found Young Master Xu Ji's wooden sword."

"Seeing that there were still people missing, I returned with these lads to rescue them."

"But I didn't expect that the others had all been found. Even Li Wazi, who somehow fell into the well, was found."

"But Young Master Xu Ji has not been found. I don't know what happened to him."

Speaking of this, he paused slightly, as if he had just remembered, and said, "Oh, right, there's one more person. He's hanging from a tree at the foot of the southwest mountain."

"I saw him last night, but I felt that the yin energy here was menacing, as if there was something powerful here. I saw that the lad was already dead, so I didn't dare to approach. I just brought the lads back to the village."

This answer was very frank. He didn't hide his desire to take credit at all.

He even directly spoke out his dissatisfaction.

Shopkeeper Wu listened to his words without saying much. His expression was slightly gloomy, and he suddenly turned to ask the others:

"What exactly did you do when you came together?"

"I...we..."

Facing Shopkeeper Wu's gaze directly was Hu Zi, who was familiar with Xu Ji. His face was pale, and he didn't dare to lie, saying in a trembling voice, "We followed Young Master Xu Ji here. Young Master Xu Ji told us to light torches and stand around the well."

"If we saw anything strange, we were to blow hard on it and scrape the surrounding stones and walls with knives. He...he also told Li Wazi to...pour things into the well."

Now that Xu Ji's whereabouts were unknown and Shopkeeper Wu's expression was gloomy, he really didn't dare to lie.

He even told the truth about forcing Li Wazi to approach the well.

"Was this what he poured?"

Shopkeeper Wu squatted down by the well with a sullen face. There was some wet, black, muddy soil on the ground, which was what Li Wazi had spilled.

The others nodded repeatedly. Shopkeeper Wu picked up a little, brought it to his nose, and sniffed. His face became even gloomier.

"Brainless idiot."

He snorted coldly, "He was sent to solve the trouble, not to cause trouble. Pouring this in the middle of the night, does he really think he's still being protected by the Red Lantern Goddess?"

The others were all confused and silent.

Hu Ma thought to himself, could it be that the thing Young Master Xu Ji used was inherently prone to attracting evil spirits in the middle of the night?

Unexpectedly, this preparation just happened to hide the tricks he had secretly done.

Of course, even without this, he wasn't afraid.

The evil spirits he had lured with blood bait had long eaten everything clean, leaving no trace. Who could blame him?

"Alright, let's find the people first!"

Shopkeeper Wu didn't ask any more questions, gave the order with a cold face, and had a group of lads busy themselves.

Behind him, the villagers had already sent elderly people over, holding two bolts of coarse cloth and a basket of eggs, seemingly wanting to follow the local customs to thank these Dharma Masters for eliminating the evil spirits for their village, but they didn't dare to approach.

"Brother Hu Ma, are you alright?"

Zhou Datong and the others also hurried over, looking him up and down with concern.

Yesterday, they wanted to come along, but Hu Ma didn't let them. They hadn't slept well all night and had followed the shopkeeper over early in the morning.

"I'm fine."

Hu Ma shook his head and looked at Li Wazi by the well, saying, "Carry him back. After all, we're from the same stronghold."

When Zhou Datong and the others saw Li Wazi's tragic state, they all felt a little pity. Through the conversations of those people just now, they understood Li Wazi's experience.

Young Master Xu Ji himself had high Daoist skills and was protected by old objects, but he didn't do the dangerous things of pouring things into the well and forcing the evil spirit out himself, nor did he let his followers do it. Instead, he forced Li Wazi to do it. How could they not be angry in their hearts?

Of course, in their hearts, although they were a little angry, they also had some resentment.

Not to say he deserved it, but Li Wazi had brought it on himself.

The lads from the stronghold had simple concepts and never thought about those useless things.

Two people were sent to find the villagers to borrow a door panel and carry Li Wazi back to the stronghold, while the others joined the search for Xu Ji.

In the daytime, the light was sufficient, and they were worried about the evil spirits, so they couldn't spread out. It was much more convenient than at night. First, they found the lad who had been hanged on the tree. His face was blue, his eyes were bulging, and his tongue was sticking out a long way.

But when they came over last night, it was still filled with menacing yin energy, and they felt creepy.

Now, everything was normal, the sun was shining brightly, and only the person hanging on the tree swayed back and forth in the wind.

His dim eyes stared down at the crowd from above.