"Um?"

Noticing the strange movement in his arm, Hu Ma's expression changed drastically. He turned, held his saber horizontally, and forcefully struck his left arm.

The baleful aura on the saber instinctively retreated into the blade upon encountering him, but Hu Ma used every ounce of strength he had. With a loud thwack, he suppressed the thing within his left arm that sought to cause trouble.

He was somewhat surprised. The thing sealed within his left arm was extremely difficult to remove. Dahuangpao had sealed it with one layer, and he himself had used Yin Jiangjun's finger to nail it into his bone. He never expected that it would still attempt to escape at this juncture.

Was it because even it couldn't bear to watch the methods of that Meng family young master?

Thinking about it, it was almost laughable. The methods of this Meng family young master were truly savage, ruthless, and decisive.

Hu Ma had thought that the most cruel methods he had seen since his reincarnation were Digua Shao's blood sacrifice of those three villages and Hou Erjiu's slaughter of his entire Wu clan.

He didn't expect to witness even more savage methods so soon.

It was that Meng family young master. The scale of his ambition far exceeded his imagination. Refining Yin Jiangjun could be said to be a casual act, and using the Grass Head Eight Waning Gods could be said to be to ruin this Lantern Blessing Festival. But now, he was using the Meng family's signature technique, using the living to serve ghosts…

…He had already overheard his conversation with High Official Tie Jun earlier. What else was there to say?

This was a method aimed at him, just like Yin Jiangjun, all to keep an eye on him in Mingzhou, all to force him to sit down and talk.

However, compared to using Yin Jiangjun to refine a ghost general platform and using Yin soldiers to monitor his movements, this method was now even more blatant and vicious.

If he had to find an analogy, what he was doing now was no different in essence from what Granny Cui did in Danyang Village when she buried the cursed object under the crooked-neck tree to harm him.

The only difference was that the scale of the action was larger, burying a mass grave and a burial ground for the dead.

But the key was that all of this was happening right in front of him, right before his eyes. If he hadn't come to Shima Town, everything would have been unclear, and he would have been plotted against and suffered a great loss for no reason.

But fate was so miraculous. Because he came here, the Meng family's insidious methods were revealed to him one by one, and the situation became subtle again.

Then…

Hu Ma's eyes gradually turned cold, and his teeth clenched slightly. The Meng family never forgot about the Hu family, but as a descendant of the Hu family, how could he dare to forget about them?

However, he had always been careful and wary, afraid of being discovered. But at this moment, he truly and deeply felt a killing intent towards the Meng family again. This killing intent was not just because of anger, but because of fear!

In this world where all kinds of bizarre tricks could take lives, how could anyone not be afraid of such a powerful family constantly trying to kill you?

To put it bluntly, even his final decision to intervene in this matter wasn't because Hu Ma was so noble as to do it for the Yiqian Church, for not eating beef, or for the people of the town. It was because he knew that the Meng family had come for the Hu family.

He just wanted to see what methods the Meng family had prepared.

Now, he had seen them!

"Since that's the case, then let's truly use the Hu family's Town Guardian Codex to fight against your Meng family's Spirit Communication Technique!"

With a flurry of thoughts, he gritted his teeth and took out a section of life incense from his chest. He was about to summon Little Hongtang to prepare for a real altar, revealing his identity as a member of the Hu family.

The Meng family had a backup plan, and he had already made preparations to set up an altar in Shima Town, so that when the other party was powerful, he could set up the altar and have a chance to fight them.

Of course, setting up this altar would also be quite troublesome. The Meng family would immediately know that he was here, and his identity as a member of the Hu family would be difficult to hide. Many things might become very passive later.

Moreover, even if he set up the altar, he wasn't confident that he could leave the Meng family's life here. He could only deter the other party, letting them know that the Hu family already knew their intentions, similar to shaking the mountain to scare the tiger.

Setting up this altar would only give him a 30% advantage at most, but with no transmigrators present and the entire Shima Town isolated and helpless, what better way was there?

But just as Hu Ma was thinking about setting up the altar, he suddenly sensed something was wrong.

He saw countless ghost banners waving, and countless evil ghosts crawling densely, laughing and making noise, about to engulf the entire Shima Town. The Yiqian Church members and those who had been invited to watch the ceremony were all terrified, but they had no way to deal with it.

However, facing the endless hungry ghosts and the Shima Town residents whose lives were in danger, they should have been extremely frightened and shouting. But for some reason, they weren't. The town, which should have been in chaos, suddenly fell into a deep silence.

It was as if a black cloth had suddenly been placed over the town. The next moment, when the ghosts entered the town, all the lights in the town went out, and all the voices disappeared, leaving only a deathly silence.

Not only had all the sounds in the entire town disappeared, but the entire town, as if it had turned into a black lake, even those Yin ghosts that had poured into the town seemed to hesitate at this moment.

"What is this?"

Outside the town, the Meng family's second young master, who had already summoned something unknown, didn't seem to have expected this change. A strange look appeared on his cold, empty face as he woodenly looked towards the town.

The Tie Jun High Official beside him also noticed something was wrong and slowly opened his eyes, a look of surprise on his face.

"Dong," "Dong," "Dong."

Just as everything was silent and the entire world seemed to have darkened, several clear clapper sounds suddenly rang out in the pitch-black night.

The sound of the clapper was extremely clear, but it seemed strange in this atmosphere, because this was what those street performers and acrobatic troupes would knock to attract patrons, reminding everyone that the highlight of the performance was about to begin.

Now that everyone in Shima Town had been frightened by the eerie ghost cries, who would be in the mood to listen to the performance at this time?

But the sound of the clapper just happened to ring out at this time.

And coincidentally, with the sound of the clapper, lights suddenly began to appear. It was an oil lamp that lit up from the deep darkness, illuminating a comical face painted with greasepaint, with its eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips, and mouth twisted, and its eyes shining brightly.

The entire town was dark, but only his place was lit, so the Yin ghosts all flew towards him. The grease-painted face suddenly burst into laughter, cupped his hands around his mouth, and suddenly spat forward, instantly burning a cloud of fire across dozens of feet.

Countless vengeful ghosts were extinguished by the fire cloud, burning with a crackling sound.

Immediately afterward, as if ignited by this cloud of fire, the lights in the town lit up one by one, illuminating an area of three or four feet.

And in this light, the actor on the stage, stepping to the sound of the clapper, waved the big flag in his hand, awe-inspiring, stirring up an unknown number of Yin ghosts that had invaded the town, and then shook it forcefully, shattering their souls.

Immediately afterward, the gongs and drums sounded, and the Suona horn blew, the music soaring into the clouds, exciting and loud, dispelling an unknown number of Yin spirits.

On the street, countless figures also stood up. The ones juggling large vats whirled the vats around and around, collecting an unknown number of eerie ghost shadows into their vats.

The ones selling fried dough sticks used both hands and feet, the fire burning extremely brightly, but what was in the pot wasn't dough sticks, but clearly struggling and crying Yin ghosts, all filled into the oil pot.

"Grandpa hug, Grandpa hug…"

The little girl who was urging the white-bearded old man to hug her also suddenly changed her expression and giggled, "No need for Grandpa to hug me, carry Grandpa on my back…"

So, the trembling old man carrying her put her on the ground, and his huge body turned upside down, using the little girl's shoulders as a fulcrum. Little by little, he burrowed into the package on the little girl's back. Then the little girl untied the package, faced forward, and shook it hard.

The actors, fortune tellers, traveling performers, and business people all stood up, facing the Yin ghosts that had poured into the town, using all kinds of methods. At the same time, several people slowly passed through the crowd and walked towards the entrance of the town.

Because their methods were too clever, even the residents of the town didn't notice it.

This Lantern Blessing Festival had arranged for the Dharma King to bestow blessings, but it hadn't arranged for a spirit parade. But now, a spirit parade suddenly started, instantly dispersing the evil ghosts driven by the Meng family.

In the lively spirit parade, the different people appeared one by one, smiling, gradually leaving the town.

Walking in the front was the leader of the opera troupe who had first stood up. He was wearing black opera clothes, with a cynical sneer on his face. He swaggered to Hu Ma's side, tilted his head, and looked him up and down, seeming quite unconvinced.

But in the next moment, he suddenly clasped his hands together, then gently stroked his chest with his right hand, bowed to Hu Ma, and said softly, "Jin Chen'er, the chief disciple of the No Beef Willow Branch, greets the wise master of our church."

As he started, the one juggling large vats, the one playing with monkeys, and the one carrying the old grandpa to stroll the streets all rushed over, and at the same time bowed to Hu Ma, saying, "Chen Erhe and Song Dan Niu, the disciples of the No Beef Skin Branch, greet the wise master of our church!"

In the entire Shima Town, in the midst of the countless previously dazed and miserable residents, people stood up one after another, took off their disguises, and stood on the streets, rooftops, behind trees, and in oil pots.

At the same time, they saluted Hu Ma: "No Beef disciples are here under orders to greet the wise master of our church!"

(End of chapter)