Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 544: Reincarnation (Part 554)

Whoosh...

Winter solstice has arrived, and the cold wind has swept southward. In just a few days, the earth has been covered in snow, and the desolate atmosphere has become even more pronounced.

Even under such circumstances, the flames of war in various places have not ceased. The flames brought by the disaster have scorched the earth, and countless people have been displaced. It is unknown how many people will die in this winter.

On the mountain path, Zhong Kui walked alone on the snow-covered land. He was wearing a thick cotton coat, but it was still difficult to keep out the winter wind.

"This winter is colder than all the previous years combined."

He muttered to himself as he walked through a barren, leafless forest before finally returning to the main road.

He carried a sword on his back and had a large cloth bag at his waist, which was bulging as if it contained a lot of things.

"This time we captured a large number of wandering souls, as well as three evil spirits, and also successfully killed quite a few walking corpses. Bringing them back to the underworld should be enough to exchange for a lot of ghost money!"

Having traveled extensively, Zhong Kui can now be considered to have made his official debut, and he can even successfully deal with unruly wandering ghosts and vengeful spirits when facing them alone.

Of course, in most cases, Li Ping'an still has to step in to deal with the vengeful ghosts.

"Because of the war, we are encountering more and more wandering spirits on the road. It is impossible for me to bring them all back to the underworld on my own."

Thinking of this, Zhong Kui's expression turned somewhat grim.

Since the incident in Qingzhou, he received another order from the underworld, ordering him to go to Liangzhou.

At the same time, he also learned that the Underworld was moving in the same direction as him, with the Underworld Law Division, led by Ma Han, extending its influence towards Liangzhou.

As war raged across the land, the Underworld's expansion was astonishing, and it had already begun to extend its reach to various prefectures beyond Luo Prefecture.

Whether it was Qingzhou, Xuanzhou, Jiangzhou, or Liangzhou, they all became the direction for the development of the Underworld.

This is mainly due to the large number of casualties caused by the war.

For example, within the territory of the Zigu Goddess in Changzhou, forces that can absorb wandering souls and evil spirits as their soldiers are ultimately few and far between.

In most other factions, when people die, their bodies are simply buried and dealt with hastily. No one cares whether the dead will turn into evil spirits and disturb the world.

Because there are many evil spirits in the secular world, and with the continuous natural and man-made disasters during this period, it is normal for many people to think that there are more evil spirits causing trouble. As long as everyone closes their doors and windows at night and properly worships the shrine, it will be fine.

The rest depends on your luck.

It was at this critical juncture that the forces of the underworld began to develop rapidly in various regions.

Their main job was to exorcise evil spirits and ward off evil, and they did not require people to offer sacrifices or sacrifices, which quickly won the favor of many people.

Ordinary people treat goodwill in a very simple way: they replace all the shrines in their homes with shrines dedicated to the Lord of the Underworld.

As for the appearance of the shrine, it varies according to what each person desires.

"Crack~"

Suddenly, a noise came from behind the high snowdrifts nearby; someone must have broken a dead branch that had fallen to the ground.

"Who is it!" Zhong Kui shouted in a low voice upon noticing the commotion ahead.

Zhong Kui stopped in his tracks, his right hand instinctively gripping the hilt of his sword behind him, and frowned as he looked over.

During this period, he not only encountered many ghosts and spirits, but also human-caused disasters.

He once saw people exchanging children to eat in a dilapidated temple, using snow as water, lighting a bonfire in the temple, and treating each other's children as food to fill their stomachs, no different from hungry ghosts.

Seeing this scene had a tremendous impact on his young mind.

Upon seeing that he was alone, the other party charged at him menacingly, brandishing a machete.

The other person was clearly so hungry that he was skin and bones, and even though he was wearing thick clothes, he couldn't hide his weakness.

Even so, it gives people a strong sense of madness and morbidity. Just one glance is enough to make you feel trapped in the other person's twisted evil thoughts.

If Li Ping'an hadn't intervened in time to scare the opponent away, Zhong Kui would likely have been in serious trouble.

He has some skill in dealing with ghosts, but he lacks experience in dealing with people.

Sure enough, shortly after Zhong Kui spoke, a group of people emerged from behind the snowdrift.

These were all tall men, dressed in rags, their hands and feet red from the cold in the snow, but even so, they could not hide the greed and malice in their eyes.

Their gazes first fell on Zhong Kui's clothes and the bag at his waist, and then on the man himself.

The Liangzhou under the rule of the King of Liang was not much better than the area under the jurisdiction of the Evil Spirit True Lord, the biggest reason for which was the war.

King Liang held considerable military power and commanded a large army.

However, these armies varied in quality. After a battle with the evil spirit army, if they were victorious, they would forcibly abduct women from the farmhouses around the battlefield to celebrate.

If they are outmatched, they will still plunder money from farmers around the battlefield, all under the guise of doing what is best for the people, and make the victims claim that they voluntarily 'donated' military funds.

As this continued, more and more people in Liangzhou suffered from the ravages of war, and chaos ensued.

After confirming that Zhong Kui was alone, the group blocking his way quickly approached him.

The leader, a tall, thin man, stared at Zhong Kui's still somewhat chubby face with a gleam of green in his eyes, his malice surging forth like a tsunami.

They dared not resist the army of the King of Liang, so they could only turn to those weaker than themselves.

"I don't want anything else, but the hands and feet must be mine." The tall, thin man's words were sinister, and in the blink of an eye, he had already decided who would own Zhong Kui's body.

His words caused a burst of laughter from those around him, especially when they saw that Zhong Kui did not turn around and run away, the laughter became even louder.

In their view, Zhong Kui was clearly too frightened to move, a situation they had witnessed several times before.

Last time it was a brother and sister; their family members died in the war, leaving only the brother and sister.

After they found out, they broke into the other party's house. The siblings were so frightened that they didn't dare to move, and in the end, they were cooked and eaten together.

As the group drew closer, Zhong Kui's gaze grew increasingly cold.

He could smell the stench emanating from these people; it was a pure evil originating from the depths of human nature, even more repulsive to him than any demon.

Just as one of them was about to grab him, Zhong Kui's seemingly stiff body suddenly moved.

All everyone heard was a 'whoosh' sound as the longsword was drawn, its light like mercury pouring out, followed by crimson blood blossoms blooming on the white snow.

The man's outstretched arm was severed at the shoulder by Zhong Kui, and warm blood splattered on half of Zhong Kui's expressionless face, making his small body appear taller in the eyes of the onlookers.

The tall, thin man saw Zhong Kui sever a man's arm but remained expressionless, and he knew something was wrong.

In the secular world, age does not mean everything.

Even seemingly harmless seven or eight-year-old children can possess the power to kill.

At this moment, Zhong Kui was seen holding a sword, and a fierce aura emanated from his not-so-tall body, which frightened the group of people into taking a few steps back.

"You bunch of scum, come any closer and I'll chop you all up one by one!"

Zhong Kui's brows were furrowed with gloom, somewhat resembling Lin Beixuan when he first descended to the mortal world. Seeing his imposing aura, the crowd exchanged bewildered glances, but none dared to step forward.

The tall, thin man had seen a bit of the world and knew that this little kid in front of him probably had some kind of special ability, and was not someone ordinary people like them could mess with.

After a period of standoff, he then instructed everyone to slowly retreat.

During this time, one of the underlings asked, "Boss, are we really just going to let him go like this?"

The tall, thin man glanced at his henchman beside him: "What else? Go up there and die?"

"This kid doesn't seem simple. Judging from how he just cut off Lao Qi's arm, he seems to have killed quite a few people."

"To kill so young without blinking an eye, he's probably even more dangerous than that porcelain maker we met before."

Hearing this, the younger brother was stunned for a while before saying, "These apprentices do have some skills, but in the end, we still managed to steal that porcelain maker. It's true that they know some strange tricks, but we outnumber them. Do you think we'd be afraid of a seven or eight-year-old child?"

"Hmph!" The tall, thin man sneered, "What do you know? Don't think you're easy to deal with just because you're young. Have you forgotten how Wang Lao Er died?"

"We can handle ordinary people, but when it comes to dealing with these fortune tellers who have established their own mansions, we don't even know how we died."

As they talked, the group lamented that they had returned empty-handed and could only eat the leftovers from the previous days.

However, they did not notice that not far behind them, in the white snow fog, a small, thin figure silently followed.

The group quickly returned to their hideout.

This is a cave at the foot of a mountain. A simple shed made of dry branches was built next to the cave to protect it from wind and snow.

The cave was dark and damp. Several women, dressed in tattered clothes and covered in dirt, huddled together, using this method to keep warm as they had no warm clothing.

Their eyes were numb, and the bruises on their exposed arms clearly showed that they had suffered a lot of humiliation before.

Upon seeing the tall, thin man and his group return, their numb gazes were replaced by fear.

"Damn it, why did the fire in the cave go out? Don't you know to go out and find firewood to start a fire again?"

Back in the cave, the tall, thin man was furious and took out his anger at the women on them.

The women huddled together in fear, not daring to fight back as the tall, thin man punched and kicked them, only letting out muffled sobs.

All their clothes were stolen by this group, and how could they dare to go out to gather firewood in the midst of the heavy snow with only a thin layer of clothing on them? That would be tantamount to courting death.

Fortunately, one of the henchmen quickly retrieved the firewood left over from yesterday and lit it, which restored some of the temperature inside the cave.

At this point, the dim scene inside the cave was gradually illuminated.

In the center of the cave, a large pot came into view, placed on a stone platform, containing the leftovers from yesterday's meal.

In the cold liquid floating with a faint oily sheen, there were two small human-shaped skeletons.

"Brother He, there's no need to get angry. There's enough food in the pot for us to eat for a few days. I'll heat it up now."

Upon hearing this, the expression on the tall, thin man's face softened slightly.

He walked up to a woman, grabbed her hand, and was about to drag her into a corner of the cave to assault her.

Seeing this, the henchmen next to him burst into laughter, seemingly having forgotten the unpleasantness of the failed hunt that day, and were ready to join the battle.

Suddenly, someone heard a noise and turned to look outside the cave. They saw a figure standing at the entrance, quietly watching the scene.

"Old... boss!"

Hearing his underlings' shouts, Boss He stopped his violent actions, looked up, and then saw Zhong Kui slowly walking into the cave, his long sword scraping against the ground, making a piercing sound.

Zhong Kui's gaze was icy as he first swept over the women and finally landed on the large cauldron in the center.

In his field of vision, in the corner next to the large pot, a brother and sister were embracing each other and sobbing.

They seemed to sense Zhong Kui's gaze and looked up at him.

Not all those who die unjustly become vengeful ghosts; most become restless wandering souls after death.

Although they harbored resentment, they lacked the power to take revenge and were easily dispersed by the evil aura of the villains.

The brother and sister in front of me are just like that.

Upon witnessing this scene, Zhong Kui's anger instantly reached its peak.

He knew that the world was in chaos, a breeding ground for malice in human nature, and that some people were more terrifying than ghosts.

He understood the look in Boss He's eyes, so he followed.

Although he had somewhat anticipated what was happening, when he actually saw it, he still couldn't suppress the anger in his heart and wanted to vent it.

So he took the cloth bag from his waist and released all the vengeful spirits he had captured during this period.

Suddenly, a cold, damp wind swept through the cave.

"I'll give you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Apart from those women, I want everyone else dead."

"If you do well, I will report this to the underworld and have you suffer less punishment in purgatory."

As soon as Zhong Kui spoke, the three fierce ghosts exchanged glances and then suddenly rushed towards Boss He and the others.

He Laoda originally wanted to negotiate with Zhong Kui, but after hearing Zhong Kui's words, he was immediately terrified.

Before he could even put on his pants, he felt a cold wind brush against his face, and his body became cold and stiff. A disheveled, fierce ghost rushed towards him.

"what!!"

……

Zhong Kui stood outside the cave with his sword, listening to the continuous screams coming from inside, his face expressionless.

"Aren't you afraid of being punished by the judge if you do this?" Li Ping'an floated beside Zhong Kui with his legs crossed, and said calmly.

"Evil people need evil spirits to deal with them. If I were to take action myself, it would be breaking the rules of the underworld. But these people were killed by vengeful ghosts, so what does it have to do with me?"

"Even if you report this matter to Lord Yin Si, I still have a reason."

Hearing Zhong Kui's confident answer, Li Ping'an couldn't help but laugh out loud: "I never said I would report this matter, and I reckon even if I did, no one would punish you."

During their brief conversation, the sounds inside the cave gradually subsided.

Zhong Kui re-entered the cave, where three blood-soaked ghosts stood in the center, bowing to him.

Even the vengeful ghost never imagined that one day it would be doing the work of eliminating evil and upholding justice.

Zhong Kui glanced at the corpses on the ground, extracted their souls, put them into a cloth bag, and then walked towards the two wandering siblings, slowly extending his hand.

"I'll take you to be reincarnated!"

(End of this chapter)