The Martial Saint begins by collecting corpses.

"Knock knock knock." Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Li Xiu turned his head and saw the tall gatekeeper standing by the door. He knocked on the door, and when he saw Li Xiu looking over, he quickly asked:

"Steward Li, that young man said he went out on your orders, and he wants his men to go inside and hide for a while. What do you think?"

Li Xiu calmly said:

"That person probably won't be coming back."

"Don't let them into the house, but there's no need to send them away immediately either."

"Let them stay at the door if they want; we'll chase them away first thing tomorrow morning."

"Yes," the tall gatekeeper replied and left. He returned to the gate of the county government, glanced at the three men, and then went through the gate with another gatekeeper. He did not continue to guard the gate, but left it slightly ajar without closing it completely.

Seeing this, the monkey hurriedly said:

"My lords, what does this mean? Didn't you say we could come in?"

There was no response from inside.

The tiger roared:

"Is something wrong? You took my older brother away, and now you won't let us in. Where did you take my older brother?"

He picked up the carrying pole and was about to rush inside.

Ah Lang held onto Da Hu tightly and shouted:

"Big Tiger, calm down. There's a reason why our brother told us to wait. We'll wait here and not go anywhere. If he doesn't come back for a long time, it's not too late to fight him then."

Upon hearing this, Da Hu snorted coldly, broke free from Ah Lang's bear hug, and then stopped.

Ah Lang breathed a sigh of relief, turned his gaze, and saw a few passersby on the street. He noticed that a few of them had strange looks in their eyes, and he secretly groaned in his heart. They were very likely people sent by Zhao Meng.

If Lu Ming doesn't return, they're all truly doomed.

Fortunately, Lu Ming arrived early and didn't run into them, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Now we can only hope that Lu Ming can actually get things done.

Monkey and Tiger might not understand yet, but Wolf vaguely guessed why Lu Ming had suddenly left.

He sighed inwardly, thinking, "How easy is it to get into the county government office?"

……

In Heishui County, there is a small hill with a temple at its foot, not far from the county government office, and other houses nearby.

But when Lu Ming arrived, he found the surrounding alleys deserted, the walls and courtyards dilapidated, and a cold wind whistling through the air, making the doors and windows creak. Every house was empty.

"Who dares to disturb my peace?"

Lu Ming slowly walked into the small mountain temple, when suddenly he heard a deep and majestic voice coming from inside the temple. Immediately afterward, the door behind him suddenly closed.

With a loud "bang," a cloud of dust was kicked up, and the sound echoed far and wide in the empty and quiet little mountain temple.

The next moment, he saw a burly man with a face as black as charcoal, a robust build, and a dignified expression walk out from a side hall, staring intently at him.

A sense of oppression came over him, making his heart feel heavy. This feeling seemed to be different from the oppression of qi and blood. It had a touch of majesty, making people dare not look directly at him.

Lu Ming sneered slightly. This person spoke grandly, but the voice came from the main hall while the person walked out from the side hall.

Ghosts are ghosts, and they can't help but act sneakily.

Lu Ming didn't waste any words with him and strode towards him.

Anyway, as long as you get close enough to him, the Heavenly Heart Seal can activate its ability to take away the "ghost".

The ghost watched him approach, its face expressionless, its eyes fixed on him without the slightest reaction.

That's good, it saves him from chasing after her everywhere.

Lu Ming quickly covered the distance of a dozen steps and arrived in front of the black-faced ghost.

Based on his previous experience, the ghost should have flashed with gray or white light before he devoured it.

But after waiting for a moment, then two, there was still no movement.

Isn't the distance enough? That shouldn't be the case! If he takes another step, he'll be face to face with this ghost.

"I took one step and caught you."

Just then, the black-faced ghost in front of him suddenly spoke, a cold smile appearing on his face. He took a step forward and pressed down with surging blood energy, punching him in the chest.

Upon hearing his voice, Lu Ming knew something was wrong and immediately retreated hastily, shouting:

"etc!"

The black-faced ghost was taken aback, then burst into laughter:

"So you really are weak, all you can do is talk."

Lu Ming felt a chill run down his spine when he heard the black-faced ghost striding after him.

He was running at full speed, but the distance between them was still closing rapidly. He could almost hear the strong wind brought by the black-faced ghost behind him hitting his spine, like a thorn in his back.

In the nick of time, a brilliant idea flashed through his mind, and he rushed straight to the main hall. Just as the black-faced ghost caught up with Lu Ming, a deep roar finally came from the main hall.

"Defiled mortals..."

As the voice spoke, the main hall door suddenly shattered, and a figure flew out from it, soaring three zhang high in the sky. He was wearing majestic armor and his face was painted with the appearance of a deity.

"Kneel down!"

The man descended from the sky and attacked Lu Ming and Hei Tan Gui.

The black-faced demon's expression changed drastically, and he immediately realized that Lu Ming was not actually a demon.

He and Lu Ming were both people who had wandered into this place, and as a result, they mistook each other for ghosts.

He had thought the ghosts here were as weak as Lu Ming, but he never expected that the real ghosts would be so powerful.

Lu Ming's strength was insufficient to withstand a single blow; if it were him, perhaps there would still be a chance.

Thinking of this, the charcoal demon gritted his teeth, shoved Lu Ming aside, and shouted:

"Let's go and bring the true strength of this demon to the Night Town Division."

Lu Ming was taken aback. The Night Guard? Is that the government office here that deals with ghosts and monsters?

Seeing the anxious look on Kurotan Oni's face, he remained unmoved and shook his head, saying:

"No need."

A hint of disbelief and indignation flashed in Kurotan Oni's eyes; he hadn't expected Lu Ming to give up so easily.

If I had known he would just turn around and leave, I might have been able to escape at the cost of serious injury.

However, at that moment, the ghost in the sky suddenly fell straight down, its overwhelming majesty gone.

He landed on the ground with a thud, kneeling down. His armor and facial paint quickly faded, and he emitted a foul stench.

It turns out that its true form was nothing more than a highly decomposed corpse.

The charcoal demon gaped, his eyes wide with disbelief, staring blankly at Lu Ming, pointing at the corpse on the ground and saying:

"Did you do this?"

Lu Ming's eyes flashed, and he patted his shoulder, saying:

No, it's you.

He then turned and left.

The ghost that just descended from the sky and approached him was immediately swallowed by a green light, and the ghost died.

But this time the color is different, it seems that ghosts also have different levels.

The ordinary gray light has not yet revealed any signs of corpse transformation, but the white light flashing from Sun Dazhi indicates that someone has undergone corpse transformation.

The ghost in this small mountain temple seems to be pretending to be a god. His abilities are obviously stronger, so the level of the green light emanating from his body should be higher than that of the white light.

But what exactly happened? Where did the ghosts come from? Lu Ming didn't know. He only knew that he had gained a lot this time.

[Gain martial arts experience.]

[Acquired martial arts skills: Flying Waterfall Blade, Warm Water Poison Technique.]

[Obtained incomplete bone structure.]