After the ghost-hunting master descended the mountain, his fame spread throughout the capital.

However... less than half an hour after leaving the city.

Jiang Dusheng, who was right beside the official road, almost tumbled off his horse and sat down in a simple teahouse, his face pale.

She regretted it.

The burning pain in my inner thighs and the dizziness from the bumpy ride haven't completely subsided.

If she had known this would happen, she should have hired a carriage!

After this experience, she had a clear understanding of her own riding skills: she could ride, but she was by no means good at it and disliked it very much.

Or... should I use a speed scroll?

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she shook her head vigorously and rejected it.

A hundred miles away... How many speed-traveling talismans would it take to make one round trip?

Each talisman consumes spiritual energy and materials, especially those that travel long distances, which require even more.

She had barely received the ten thousand taels of silver and didn't want it to turn into a pile of talismans so quickly.

Being stingy... no, it's more like my thrifty instincts got the better of me.

Jiang Dusheng looked at the chestnut horse leisurely grazing on its fodder, gritted his teeth, stretched his almost stiff limbs, and resignedly climbed back onto the horse's back.

Two hours later.

When the outline of an unusually quiet and even somewhat desolate village came into view, Jiang Dusheng almost slid off his horse in a disheveled manner.

He stumbled upon landing and almost fell to his knees.

The soreness in my thighs and buttocks had reached its peak, and every movement was accompanied by the groans of my muscles.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, wetting a few stray hairs.

She leaned against the horse to catch her breath for a moment before slowly straightening up and looking at the lifeless village.

The aura of shattered jade on that earring became even clearer here.

A smile slowly appeared on Jiang Dusheng's face, reflecting the last trace of crimson in the sky. The corners of his lips curved into a beautiful arc, yet it inexplicably sent chills down one's spine.

"devil…"

She ground her molars, forcing out a few words through her teeth, her voice brimming with the fury that had been stirred up by the jolts, "You just wait!"

Jiang Dusheng stormed into the village, and the moment he stepped in, it felt as if he had entered another world.

As far as the eye could see, there was no one there.

A thin layer of dust floated on the dirt road, and the doors and windows of the houses on both sides were tightly locked, some even nailed shut with wooden boards.

As dusk approached and the sky grew darker, the faded lanterns hanging from the eaves of every house swayed gently without any wind, emitting a few faint, sinister laughs that no one else could hear.

Suddenly, shadows flickered at the alleyway ahead, and more than nine women gracefully emerged.

They wore dresses of various colors, but the colors were unusually bright, as if they had just been cut.

The nine women were all slender and graceful, with delicate waists and necks, their eyes lowered and their smiles even playing on their lips.

However, their steps were light and airy, as if they were walking on cotton, their breathing was so light that it was almost non-existent, and the rhythm of their chests rising and falling was strangely regular.

It doesn't resemble a living person; it's more like... a paper doll that's been infused with fake life force and forcibly propelled into existence.

Jiang Dusheng did not stop walking, but his eyes turned cold.

Her right hand hung at her side, her fingertips already secretly holding several yellow talismans for warding off evil.

"Using a corpse to entertain guests?" She scoffed, her voice unusually clear in the quiet village. "Quite a grand scheme."

As soon as she finished speaking, she flicked her wrist, and the talisman between her fingers seemed to come alive, transforming into several golden streaks of light that accurately shot towards the foreheads of the nine women.

"Pfft! Sizzle!"

The moment the talisman touched the women's foreheads, it was as if a red-hot iron had been pressed against wood; there were no screams, only sounds like air being deflated.

Immediately afterwards, the color and vitality on the faces of those once slender and vibrant women quickly faded, and their skin withered and turned ashen at a visible speed.

Her once smooth hair became dry and brittle, and her clothes instantly became rotten and tattered.

They maintained their walking posture, but as if all support had been removed, they collapsed to the ground one after another.

In the blink of an eye, nine vibrant women turned into nine shriveled corpses wrapped in exquisite dresses.

Judging from its state of decay, it seemed as if it had been dead for some time, but was kept alive on the surface by evil magic.

Jiang Dusheng frowned slightly as he glanced at the rapidly decaying corpses.

She crouched down, her fingertips lightly brushing against the wrist of a female corpse, her spiritual energy probing outwards.

"Life force was forcibly drained away..."

I should have brought Xie Jinchen with me.

He works at the Dali Temple, specializing in criminal cases and unusual crimes. Examining corpses and investigating cases is his job, so he should be able to find out the identities of these women soon.

But... it's too late to think about this now.

Jiang Dusheng stood up and, without further delay, stepped through the gaps between the dried corpses on the ground and continued walking towards the place in the village with the strongest ghostly aura.

This vengeful ghost has lingered for a hundred years, killing people and extracting their souls, using corpses as puppets. It is clearly not a benevolent creature, and its intelligence is not low.

The deeper Jiang Dusheng walked into the village, the colder and more biting the air became.

Just then, a series of sharp suona sounds suddenly rang out from the dead silence.

The melody was distorted and bizarre, not at all festive, but rather exuding a sinister, ghostly aura.

Immediately afterwards, the surrounding scenery changed drastically.

Suddenly, bright red silk cloths appeared out of nowhere on the doors and windows of the dilapidated houses on both sides, and red lanterns swayed on the withered trees by the roadside.

Scattered red debris even appeared on the ground.

A voice, indistinguishable by gender, seemed to press in from all directions, carrying a strong sense of threat:

"Today is the joyous occasion of my master and mistress's wedding. If you don't want to become meat scraps at the banquet, get out!"

Jiang Dusheng stopped in his tracks, showing no fear in the face of this sudden, joyous scene.

She lazily lifted her eyelids and spoke to the empty street in a cold voice:

"What if you don't leave?"

"You're asking for death!" the effeminate voice shouted sharply.

Before he could finish speaking, the window of a house next to Jiang Dusheng, which was covered with red cloth, suddenly burst open.

A chilling aura, carrying a biting cold and a fishy smell, rushed straight at her face.

Jiang Dusheng's eyes sharpened. He lightly touched the ground with his toes, bent his waist backward, and changed his footwork, sliding back several steps in an instant.

The yin energy brushed past her hair and struck the ground behind her, corroding the compacted soil and creating a small pit from which wisps of black smoke rose.

"Tsk, resorting to violence at the drop of a hat, he's definitely not a reasonable ghost." Jiang Dusheng steadied himself and patted the dust off his sleeves.