You've already caught the embroidered ball, and you still say it's not my husband?

The monster was actually a fat catfish!

And it has been lying dormant underwater at the ferry crossing!

Suddenly leaping ashore, it was about to devour Lu Xuan, but Lu Xuan easily dodged it.

The villagers were all panicked. They were terrified and scattered in all directions.

This enormous catfish had a gaping maw with sharp teeth and long whiskers, and emitted a foul stench when it opened its mouth... It looked even more ferocious and terrifying than a crocodile, and no one wanted to become this beast's meal!

"Holy crap, he's only a sixth-rank official!"

Even Bao Bulu's eyes widened, and his teeth chattered.

Judging from the aura emanating from the fat catfish, it was clearly a sixth-grade demonic beast. If the catfish had pounced on Bao Bulu just now, its small body would likely have been swallowed whole...

So, like the crocodile, it was terrified of this fat, sixth-grade catfish!

After missing its target, the fat catfish turned around, adjusted its angle, and aimed at Lu Xuan.

Its eyes, as big as large bowls, had no whites; they were filled only with greed and bloodlust, making them terrifying!

In an instant, it opened its mouth wide again and pounced on Lu Xuan!

Despite its bulky appearance, it is surprisingly agile and moves just as fast as when it leaped out of the water!

"Oh my god!"

The donkey was startled and quickly hid far away.

Lu Xuan gave a light snort and raised his right hand in a grasping motion.

"rise!"

The three wooden stakes, each more than ten meters long, that had fallen at his feet were lifted off the ground in an instant, thrown into the sky by a tremendous force, and then plummeted down with immense force!

All that could be heard were three loud bangs. Before the fat catfish, which had opened its mouth wide to pounce on Lu Xuan, could even reach him, it was pierced through its tail, fins, and abdomen by three wooden stakes.

The three wooden stakes, like three giant nails, pinned the catfish to the ground!

pat pat pat.

The catfish struggled frantically, its tail thrashing wildly. Blood gushed from the wound where the stake had pierced its body, but it was unable to break free for the time being!

The villagers, who had been fleeing in panic, stopped in their tracks when they heard the commotion behind them and turned around to see this unbelievable scene.

"Huh? This...this..."

"Everyone stop! Don't run anymore! The monster has been subdued by... this guy!"

"Hiss~ What happened? How did the water monster suddenly get pinned to the ground?"

The villagers gasped in shock.

The catfish monster that had terrified them all was easily pinned down by Lu Xuan!

Lu Xuan looks very young, only seventeen or eighteen years old, how can he be so powerful?

Is he even better than Awei?

What the hell!

The crocodile, bound tightly in chains, nearly bulged out of its eyes; its vertical pupils were almost turning into horizontal ones.

This morning, it unfortunately encountered this fat catfish in the river. The other fish was more powerful than it, already at the sixth rank, and was greedy and cruel by nature. It bit off and swallowed half of its tail in one bite... It was as terrifying as a nightmare!

And what about Lu Xuan?

With a wave of his hand, he pinned the fat catfish to the ground!

Wouldn't that be even more terrifying?

"Wow~ Just what level of cultivation does this person possess? Terrifying! Little Crocodile can't afford to mess with him, absolutely can't afford to mess with him!"

Glug~

The crocodile swallowed hard. Suddenly, it felt that being bound hand and foot with chains wasn't so bad. It would accept being disemboweled; at least it was more comfortable than having its body pierced by a wooden stake...

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the water monster subdued, but at that moment, something unexpected happened.

The dark-skinned man, Awei, suddenly appeared beside the fat catfish.

His dark, muscular body bulged as he suddenly squatted down and exerted force—not to beat up the catfish, but to… pull out a wooden stake!

What?!

"Is Awei helping that man-eating water monster?!"

"What exactly is going on?"

Why would Awei do such a thing?

All the villagers were stunned and dumbfounded; their minds had gone blank.

Lu Xuan remained calm and showed no surprise, stating the truth in a composed manner: "It's very simple, they were always in cahoots."

The dark-skinned man was completely incapable of catching a crocodile at the peak of the seventh rank; it was the catfish that helped him out and then staged this whole thing!

As for why he acted... it might not just be for fame and fortune, but rather to find a scapegoat to take the blame and escape punishment.

"How could this be... How could Awei..."

The villagers still found it hard to believe, and some were even reluctant to believe it.

Awei, a villager who had lived with them for decades and whom they had just regarded as a hero, was actually in cahoots with this ferocious, man-eating catfish!

Awei is the owner of this catfish!

At this moment, with Awei's strenuous assistance, the fat catfish finally broke free from the three wooden stakes.

We've escaped successfully!

"Fatty, let's run! Run into the river!"

The dark-skinned man, Ah Wei, affectionately called the fat catfish "Ah Fei."

Seeing that his plan had been exposed, and knowing he was no match for Lu Xuan, he only wanted to escape!

"Damn it, where did this kid come from? He's always ruining people's plans!"

He was also very angry.

If Lu Xuan hadn't suddenly appeared and meddled, he would have already completely fooled these foolish villagers. Once the officials arrived, he could have fooled them a bit more and perhaps even made the crocodile a scapegoat, thus successfully closing the case...

Unfortunately, he ran into Lu Xuan!

Lu Xuan is still a captain (intern) of the Demon Suppression Division, isn't that what he's here to handle?

Call ~

The dark-skinned man's eyes were filled with resentment. He had considered that if things were exposed, he would just throw caution to the wind and let Fatty eat everyone in the place before making a getaway.

That's completely impossible!

Lu Xuan was too strong, incredibly strong. He could pin a sixth-rank fat catfish to the ground with a wave of his hand. He and the fat catfish used all their strength to finally break free from the wooden stake. Even though the fat catfish wasn't injured, it couldn't resist at all!

Escape! We must escape! Escape immediately!

However, an unexpected situation occurred.

"Master, that guy is too strong. Taking you with me might not get us far... Why don't you do me a favor and become part of Fatty's family!"

The fat catfish's voice sounded simple and silly, but to the dark-skinned man it felt like falling into an ice cave, a chill running from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head!

The fat catfish, using the excuse that things were going badly, didn't want to help him escape; he just wanted to eat him!

Ah ~

Before the dark-skinned man could react, the fat catfish's massive jaws snapped shut—

In the final moments of his life, he began a replay of images in his mind.

Their ancestors were all fishermen, fishing in the watery and swampy areas.

Decades ago, his father went fishing on the river and gave an old man a ride to the other side.

The old man was a "wise man". Seeing that his father was kind-hearted and asked for nothing in return, he taught him a simple "health preservation method". The content of the health preservation method was very simple, similar to school radio calisthenics. He said that if you practiced it, you could strengthen your body.

His father practiced it for a few months and found that this health preservation method was indeed effective. He would practice it a few times whenever he had free time, and he also let the dark-skinned man practice it from a young age. As he practiced, the man unknowingly stepped into the threshold of cultivation and, many years later, he had the cultivation level of the eighth rank!

When he was fifteen, he caught a catfish.

This catfish has actually developed intelligence and can speak to beg for its life!

He then kept the catfish in a water tank and fed it fish, chickens, or ducks every day. The catfish would eat any dead animal carcass without hesitation.

The catfish grew bigger and bigger, and soon the aquarium couldn't hold them anymore, so they had to be released into the blackwater river...

At first, the catfish were quite well-behaved, only eating fish and shrimp in the river.

However, as his size and cultivation level increased, his nature became increasingly greedy, and he would often steal poultry that came to the shore to drink water!

They even started secretly eating people!

Over the years, there have been occasional incidents of fishermen or children disappearing in Shuize Township.

However, the frequency was low, only a few times a year, and it failed to attract the attention of the villagers.

They assumed it was just some fishermen who encountered storms or other accidents, or perhaps some child who was playing accidentally fell into the water and was swept away...

however!

As the fat catfish's cultivation level increased, so did its audacity. Not long ago, after advancing to the sixth rank, its greedy nature was fully exposed.

The day before yesterday, it ate its fill, devouring all the fishermen fishing on the Blackwater River!

The dark-skinned man scolded the fat catfish afterwards, but it was to no avail.

This made him extremely anxious.

The fat catfish ate twenty or thirty people, causing such a big incident. The government will definitely investigate and may even seek help from the prefectural government to invite someone more capable to investigate.

And his master, the murderer, will certainly be implicated as well...

While he was frantically pacing around, the fat catfish discovered a crocodile that had become a spirit in the river!

So the crocodile became the unlucky one and was hung up...

Unfortunately, despite all the careful planning, they still miscalculated!

Lu Xuan's arrival and meddling in this "meddling matter" ruined his plans.

And the fat catfish he had raised for twenty years, in order to escape successfully, did not hesitate to devour its master; its gaping maw was already down—

Click, click.

The fat catfish chewed up its owner's body along with twenty years of care and affection, and swallowed it whole!

After devouring its master, the fat catfish replenished its energy and its aura recovered slightly. It immediately turned around and fled towards the river!

It was like a large black rat, incredibly fast, and in an instant it was near the riverbank, then suddenly leaped forward—

Just when it thought it could successfully jump into the Blackwater River and escape, it suddenly heard a detached voice from behind.

"Mysterious Talisman Manual - Binding".

A talisman appeared in an instant, transforming into a thick spiritual rope. It moved with lightning speed, catching up with the fleeing fat catfish in a flash and binding it into a meat dumpling!

With a slight exertion of his fingertips, Lu Xuan pulled the plump catfish back.

A loud rumble shook the ground.

The fat catfish crashed heavily at Lu Xuan's feet.

"No, don't kill..."

Terrified, it tried to beg for mercy, but Lu Xuan's eyes remained indifferent, and the Jingluan Blade in his hand had already slashed down.

boom!

The fat catfish's head, bigger than a round table, split in two like a ripe watermelon...