"What do you think this is?"

"This isn't a cabbage. This is a Tangshang Ke (hall guest). Even though it's just an An Shen (altar spirit), it's still worshipped under the Meng family's banner and receives incense offerings!"

Others struggled to understand the Meng family's second young master's rage at this moment. Even Tie Jun, the Datang official beside him, secretly criticized the Meng family's second young master for his lack of composure, not as good as himself, the Shousui Ren (year-守歲人).

But for the Meng family's second young master, the situation was different. The Meng family could accept a disciple suffering a slight loss occasionally, but they could not accept something like this.

The Caotou Ba Shuaishen (Eight Decaying Spirits) were only An Shen; it wasn't a matter of getting to the bones. But the key was that these Eight Decaying Spirits were raised by the Meng family themselves, trained by their own hands. Now, they were killed here by those treacherous and evil means. The situation was different.

This represented that the foundation of the Meng family had been violated...

Therefore, the Meng family's second young master also revealed a face full of furious and fierce anger.

As his blood splattered on the black flag hanging down from the flagpole, a gust of wind suddenly swept around, and the temperature dropped sharply, as if it had turned into the weather of the freezing season.

The Meng family's second young master, who had been full of anger, suddenly changed his face when the Yin wind blew. It seemed that all the anger had disappeared, leaving only a cold expression. A pair of closed eyes slowly opened.

On the surface, there seemed to be no change. He just glared his eyes and looked in the direction of the Shima (Stone Horse) Town. They were at least twenty or thirty *li* away from Shima Town, with dense forests in between, so they couldn't see anything.

But as he opened his eyes, his eyes turned white. In the depths of the whites of his eyes, there seemed to be a strange pupil that blinked slightly.

The people around him suddenly had a thought in their hearts. It seemed that the Meng family's young master wasn't looking, but something was borrowing his eyes to look at Shima Town.

"..."

"Whoosh..."

At the moment when these eyes looked at Shima Town, Xiao Hongtang, who was helping Hu Ma guard the brazier in the town, jumped in fright, her eyes wide open.

When the Caotou Ba Shuaishen had watched the fire before, it had only flickered once before immediately resuming its burning. But at this moment, even though it was just a wisp of Yin wind blowing, it flickered suddenly, leaving only a tiny bean of light, as if it would be completely extinguished in the next moment.

Her small face was full of surprise, but there was no panic. Instead, she seemed happy all of a sudden. She pulled the basket hanging on her arm in front of her, just waiting for the fire in the basin to go out so she could take something.

But the result disappointed her.

The fire in the basin was about to go out, and there was only a very weak bean of light left, but it had maintained this state, almost extinguished, making people impatient.

"Hmm?"

At the same time, Hu Ma felt something and suddenly turned his head. He felt as if he was being watched by something. For a moment, he felt a sense of instinctive horror.

"Something is watching me?"

He suddenly understood in his heart and felt afraid for the first time.

He was now using the method in the *Zhen Sui Shu* (鎮歲書). As long as the brazier was still burning, no one could see his appearance clearly. Just now, the Caotou Ba Shuaishen had tried their best but could not break his method; that was all the skill of this technique.

But now, for no reason, without any warning, he was almost seen through in an instant?

He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth suddenly, condensed his *faxiang* (法相), and dispelled the surrounding Yin energy. The *sha qi* (煞氣) on the blade also grew with it. With preparations, it was even more difficult for people to see his appearance clearly.

"What exactly is that? Just a casual glance almost broke my spell directly. The Meng family's skills are more terrifying than I imagined..."

"..."

Although he barely defended himself, his heart thumped and became heavy. He knew that the other party was not deliberately looking at him; it was just a casual glance.

If they deliberately used some skills, what would happen?

As he was thinking, his mind suddenly sensed something and realized that something was wrong. He immediately looked nervously to the side. In the next moment, he suddenly raised his fierce blade and stared intently into the depths of the dark night.

"Whoosh..."

At the same time, the Meng family's second young master, who glanced over and did not see Hu Ma clearly, did not force it. He had invited that mysterious thing into his body, and he could only ask the other party to help him do two things. Looking at this glance was just a matter of convenience.

Since he didn't see clearly, he immediately withdrew his gaze, and then blew a breath toward the town.

This breath, accompanied by the wind on the black flag, instantly swept into the town.

It seemed that a low sigh sounded, carrying some vague and indistinguishable words.

"One altar, one demon den, karmic debts entangling without end..."

At this moment, the Caotou Ba Shuaishen were killed. Shima Town, which had just been shrouded in a deep mist, became brightly lit. The town's boiling popularity instantly dispersed the dense mist.

Not far from Hu Ma, the limbs left behind from the killing of the Tangshang Ke and Fu Ling Ren (possessed spirit people) were clearly lifeless. Although there was some remaining resentment and Yin souls, they were about to collapse and could not become a force. But now, they were suddenly swept up by the Yin wind.

Whether it was the bodies of the servant girls and servants on the ground, or the broken spirit tablets, they were all swept up, vaguely piecing together in the air in a chaotic manner.

Immediately afterwards, laughter suddenly rang out. Those broken fragments seemed to have strange things wriggling and struggling. Strange and blurred shadows drilled out one by one.

Some of them were lying on the ground, some were running with difficulty, some had flags stuck in their bodies, vaguely, densely packed, as if they had drilled out from the ground, one after another non-stop. In a blink of an eye, they had become an unimaginable number.

Hee hee, haha...

After these strange and blurred shadows crawled out, they actually made a sinister and strange laugh, and some of them made a whimper, as if they had just crawled out of hell. Their twisted hands, feet, and bodies were desperately dancing in the air.

Greed, madness, grotesqueness...

After this brief vent, some of them suddenly looked at Shima Town. There were happy people and a bustling atmosphere, which seemed to have a fatal attraction to them.

Whirr whirr whirr...

Almost without any hesitation, they crawled towards Shima Town like crazy. In the dark crowd, the cold wind became heavier. Even vaguely, black flags were unfurled, fluttering, as if pointing the way for them...

"What the hell are those things?"

Catching a glimpse of these things, Hu Ma's heart thumped, and he had a bad feeling.

He had a fierce blade in his hand, and the Dawei Tiangong Jiangjun (Great Might Heavenly General) *faxiang* was still condensed on his body. He was not worried that these things would hurt him at all, but the key was that those things did not have the slightest intention of coming towards him.

They just escaped and immediately rushed towards Shima Town. Facing that dense number, he didn't know how to stop them even if he wanted to.

"One altar, one demon den, this is troublesome..."

At the same time, on the Shima Town, the people were cheering, but in this endless joy, they vaguely felt something was wrong. It was as if there were always vague, dense, and noisy sounds of laughter and chatter in their ears, making them feel uncomfortable.

They didn't know what had happened, but they had a clear unease in their hearts. The feeling of restlessness made them feel uncomfortable.

In the inn, Lao Suanpan (Old Abacus) was holding the small flag. He saw that the flag surface was becoming more and more wilted, and his expression suddenly changed. But this time, it was not fear, nor was it to escape.

It was extremely deep, as if he couldn't believe it: "Every An Shen is suppressing a den of little demons. Killing the An Shen will release this group of little demons. A gust of wind will scatter them, and it's nothing more than a few more lonely wild ghosts in this world..."

"But the Meng family... that child of the Meng family actually, actually wants to serve the demons on the spot?"

"Bastard..."

He murmured, and suddenly felt a sense of unwarranted anger: "You are breaking the rules..."

"Even if you use the Caotou Ba Shuaishen to worship the people in this town to death, you can say that you accidentally injured the people in the process of fighting..."

"But you, in order to push this karmic debt onto his head, blew the Yin wind and used living people to serve the demons, turning this town into a ghost den. Even if you are a member of the Meng family, you are publicly breaking the rules..."

"..."

This was framing, a public framing, but it was a method that made it impossible to escape.

Of the three souls of a person, the Karma Soul is used to record the karmic debts of this life. Hu Ma killed the Caotou Ba Shuaishen, but the evil ghosts suppressed by the Caotou Ba Shuaishen entered the town to eat people.

Then, the deaths of these people would be recorded on Hu Ma's head. The more karmic debts recorded, the heavier the Karma Soul would be. To a certain extent, it would even lead to sudden death.

"..."

In panic, he only saw that the black mist outside the town was spreading, thicker than before, gloomy, heavy, as if the dark clouds in the sky had become heavier and heavier, and were descending from the sky, about to completely engulf the Shima Town.

"Living people serve ghosts, Yin and Yang are indistinguishable..."

Outside the town, even Tie Jun, the Datang official, couldn't help but sigh in a low voice and slowly closed his eyes, as if he couldn't bear to see this tragedy.

"Has the level of the Ten Clans really reached the point where even a young master in the family can completely disregard any rules and reputation?"

Amidst this chaos, Hu Ma reined in his horse and raised his blade, looking at the ghost flags fluttering and the groups of ghosts wandering above the Shima Town, and a slight feeling of trance arose in his heart. He was somewhat suspicious, and also seemed somewhat tired.

But just as he was still stunned, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his left arm. Vaguely, the thing that had been hidden in his arm seemed to be desperately trying to break through his flesh and escape.

In the rolling Yin wind, he could even see that it seemed to have revealed half of its shadow, desperately shouting in a certain direction of the Shima Town: "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"The Hu family is here, and you're still framing him in front of them?"

(End of chapter)