Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 106: Can it still summon the Hehuan Demoness?

Ah Nuo quickly led his group into a grand hall filled with Buddhist light. When a monk tried to stop them, Ah Nuo slapped him across the face.

The monk blocked the attack, and a tremendous force surged through him, sending him flying as if riding on clouds. He then embedded himself in the wall with a "bang," causing the wall to crack like a spider web.

Not to mention the monks in the arena, even the city lord's guards were wide-eyed with amazement.

Is this a little girl?

Wait a minute, let us check if you're a demon first...

Ah Nuo had no time for their long chatter. The flowers and plants in the temple could tell her where the bones were hidden; she needed to lead the way. But her master was currently dealing with a third-grade demonic cultivator, and that woman was waiting behind to stab her—it was extremely dangerous. Ah Nuo had to go back to help her master.

She quickly threw a piece of cake, which crashed down on the Buddha statue in the hall.

The Buddha statue collapsed like tofu after being hit by the discus, quickly revealing a crater underneath.

The city lord's guards stepped forward and saw a large pile of small bones.

Everyone's eyes were blazing with fury: "Beast!"

The prefect glanced at him with a grim face and said sternly, "The entire army must capture the evil monk from Hongfa Temple and not let a single one escape!"

Shouts of battle rang out from all sides, but Ah Nuo didn't utter a single word from beginning to end. He vanished in a flash and went back to help his master.

Even the prefect was taken aback by her speed: "How did she raise such a young child to this level of strength? Was Lu Xingzhou's cultivation level so low because he fed all the rare and precious herbs to the child?"

That's at least half right...

The infant ghosts' encirclement fell into chaos. Their home base had been suddenly seized by the prefect, and the infant ghosts were now unsure whether they should concentrate their forces to eliminate Lu Xingzhou first, turn back to fight the prefect, or simply flee.

Seeing Lu Xingzhou's nonchalant, smiling demeanor was infuriating. The demonic cultivator's murderous aura quickly took over, and the infant ghost's eyes turned red: "All of you, attack! You want to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path? I'll show you the price of meddling!"

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" Several monks had already approached Lu Xingzhou, and golden Buddhist light bombarded him.

The monks down there are actually practicing Buddhist techniques...

As the Buddha's light blasted towards him, Lu Xingzhou finally had no choice but to ignite the talismans again and quickly summoned a mirror.

The Buddha's light struck the mirror and reflected back.

The monks dodged the returning Buddhist light, their fists already aimed at Lu Xingzhou's face.

No matter how strong Lu Xingzhou is, he is still just a Daoist cultivator. It's already difficult for him to be entangled in close combat, let alone a cripple in a wheelchair, so he has no chance of fighting... etc.

Lu Xingzhou suddenly reached out and grabbed the monk's wrist as he was being slammed towards his face, and stood up in full view of everyone.

With a loud thud, a kick landed squarely on the monk's abdomen. The monk coughed up a mouthful of blood, his wrist gripped so tightly he couldn't even fall. Lu Xingzhou casually pulled him aside, and his companion's fist slammed into his head, killing him instantly.

The scene seemed to freeze for a moment. The force of that kick... You say you're a cripple? Don't you get tired of sitting in a wheelchair all the time? All for this one kick?
How can there be such bored people in the world!

With another "bang," Lu Xingzhou executed a graceful spinning side kick, sending another monk flying backward and crashing into the courtyard wall.

The infant ghost gasped, no longer in the mood to fight Jing Ge, and was about to flee.

A small figure suddenly appeared and punched him in the back.

The infant ghost parried Jing Ge's knife with one hand, and in the midst of the chaos, turned around and took a punch. His body swayed, and he almost vomited blood.

What kind of incredible strength does this kid have?!

The escape was abruptly cut off, and the infant ghost suddenly found itself surrounded.

Lu Xingzhou's spirit talisman and soul banner had completely driven away the ghost infants, and now they were scattered to deal with the other monks, as if Lu Xingzhou alone was an army.

No wonder he didn't care about the so-called encirclement at all... As long as someone could hold off the infant ghost himself, he could handle the other subordinates on his own.

Lu Xingzhou dashed through the crowd, seemingly rampaging, but his eyes were as cold as ice, as if he were waiting.

He was waiting for Pei Chuyun to make a move.

This most intense and chaotic moment is when the enchantress is most likely to launch a sudden sneak attack.

He also had a double agent lying in wait, just waiting for this moment.

But to Ying Shuang's surprise, the judge, who was usually so shrewd, seemed to have miscalculated this time.

From beginning to end, the demoness showed no sign of making a move. She hid on the roof of the guest courtyard, quietly watching the battle unfold without budging an inch.

The battle, though a long story, actually lasted only a few breaths. Ah Nuo had already joined the fight, and the prefect followed.

The strongest power was obviously not meant to be used to capture other monks; capturing the infant ghost was the core objective. With A'nuo's escape route cut off, the infant ghost couldn't shake off Jing Ge and A'nuo, two sticky pests, for a while. After only a short struggle, the wind howled around them as the prefect and his strongest guards surrounded them.

The infant ghost roared in fury: "Meng Guan! You've been in close contact with me. If my secrets get leaked, do you think the emperor will let you off easy?"

Prefect Meng Guan clasped his hands together, and a burst of Buddhist light, purer than that of the monks of Hongfa Temple, shot out. At the same time, he laughed and said, "How could Your Majesty not understand the feigned compliance in order to investigate the case?"

The infant ghost was clumsy and extremely embarrassed: "Didn't you ever consider that Gu Zhanting might not believe your nonsense!"

"Whether he believes it or not is not so important..." Meng Guan said, "I am more surprised that Mr. Lu was able to determine that I was not one of the infant ghosts and that he would send his disciple to meet with me. You clearly saw me walking arm in arm with the abbot, so intimately."

Lu Xingzhou looked up at the battle in mid-air and finally spoke: "When I went to see Commander Jing, no one was guarding the Qian family's residence, allowing Commander Jing to stay there. At that time, I suspected that the Prefect might be a good person... If he really intended to arrest Commander Jing, a place like the Qian family's residence should have been thoroughly searched. How could Commander Jing be so comfortable? Either the Prefect is a lazy bum who doesn't want to do anything, or he is intentionally letting Commander Jing go..."

"..." Jing Ge silently hacked away without uttering a sound.

Meng Guan laughed and said, "This guess seems insufficient. Perhaps I am indeed just holding a position without doing any work?"

"But the prefect sent someone to inform Huo Lu that I was here. It doesn't seem reasonable for the prefect to target me for no reason. The reason he did this seems to be that his malice is directed at Huo Lu." Lu Xingzhou smiled and said, "Thinking about it, that makes sense. If I were the prefect, I would never be happy to have a member of the Huo family come to be the prefectural assistant. It wouldn't be long before the prefect would be sidelined. Who would be willing to accept that?"

Meng Guan's smile vanished.

“Since the prefect wants me to fight Huo Lu, it at least proves that the prefect and Huo Lu are not in cahoots. And since I’ve already concluded that Huo Lu and Ying Gui are in cahoots, it proves that the prefect and Ying Gui are not in cahoots either.” Lu Xingzhou sighed. “It might be arbitrary to just guess like this, but combined with the fact that the prefect intends to release Commander Jing, the two corroborate each other, and it’s pretty much the case. At least it’s worth having A Nuo try to send a message. If the prefect is just going through the motions with A Nuo, then my apprentice and I would have already run away with our buckets. Since the prefect is willing to send troops, then I, Lu, am also willing to take the risk.”

No one spoke anymore; only the silent battle raged on.

Even the infant ghost was unconsciously distracted, thinking to himself that Meng Guan had been feigning compliance with him all along because he had no evidence and could only try to approach him secretly. Clearly, he couldn't just send troops whenever he wanted; otherwise, he would have already done so, why would he need to wait for Lu Xingzhou?

Therefore, the first thing Lu Xingzhou did in the battle was to unleash the Soul Banner. The wailing of ten thousand ghosts gave outside observers a signal that "there really are demonic cultivators here." Meng Guan felt that he had found the evidence and decisively led his men in.

But that soul banner belonged to his mother, Lu Xingzhou, not mine!

The infant ghost felt it was caught in an extremely ridiculous predicament, and it would not be able to rest in peace if it died!

He couldn't help but want to find out the truth: "Then how do you know that Hongfa Temple is a place for demonic cultivators?"

Lu Xingzhou blinked: "The Hehuan Sect of the Maidens told me."

Pei Chuyun: "???"

"Bang!" While everyone else was slightly distracted thinking about the intricacies of the matter, Ah Nuo didn't want to. Taking advantage of the infant ghost's apparent distraction, she blasted through the black mist defense with her little fist, grazing the infant ghost's ribs.

The excruciating pain brought the infant ghost back to its senses. Suddenly, it gritted its teeth, and its already small body shrank even more violently, with the infant's head in its lower abdomen showing a look of pain.

Jing Ge, who had been silently fighting, suddenly shouted, "Be careful! He's going to self-destruct and escape as an evil infant!"

Meng Guan and A Nuo quickly protected themselves. A loud explosion rang out in the arena, leveling the small hill in the guest courtyard to the ground.

Taking advantage of everyone's momentary lapse in attention, a phantom infant shrieked and vanished: "Lu Xingzhou, the Joyous Union Sect of the Maidens! I'll remember this!"

Pei Chuyun: "..."

The light vanished in an instant.

Jing Ge's expression was grim: "Chase them! We absolutely cannot let this demonic cultivator escape!"

Meng Guan's expression was also very grim: "I'm afraid we won't be able to catch up."

Lu Xingzhou turned to look at the empty surroundings and smiled slightly: "It's alright. There are people who aren't in the center of the battle and are waiting to provide support on the sidelines. Her escape techniques are excellent, she'll make it in time."

The evil infant was fleeing when suddenly a stunningly beautiful woman appeared before him, blocking his way without him even realizing it.

"The Sect of the Maidens of Harmony!" The evil infant was horrified and took a detour.

But how could his dying, broken evil infant possibly outrun a fresh force like Pei Chuyun?
Suddenly, the mimosa flowers bloomed before his eyes, and the evil infant became delirious. A slender hand lifted him up by the back of his neck.

The evil infant weakly cursed, "You slut! I have not offended you, why..."

Pei Chuyun was even more furious than him: "When you believed his instigation and started to hate us, this was the only possible outcome."

The evil infant was stunned for a moment: "Misunderstanding...? Since it's a misunderstanding, why not release me, let bygones be bygones, and work together to deal with Lu Xingzhou..."

"Too late." Pei Chuyun said expressionlessly, "I can't believe you won't hold a grudge later... Besides, I'm also a demonic cultivator. Only a fool would turn down a dog that's offered up on his door."

Evil Infant: "?"

Pei Chuyun pointed a finger at the evil infant's brow, causing the infant's soul to spin wildly and completely lose its self-awareness.

Pei Chuyun first put the evil infant into a storage bag, frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly chuckled: "What a bastard. But now that I have a third-grade evil infant as a trump card, are you really so confident that I can't kill you next?"

(End of this chapter)