Chapter 1 Red Lantern Illuminates the Night, All is Well...

"Red lantern illuminates the night, all is well..."

At the same moment, Hu Ma had already lifted the red lantern and came out with Zhou Datong and the Liang brothers.

A long, drawn-out shout, and the red light illuminated the dark night.

He had to come out; the boss had arrived.

The trick that the Erguotou brothers had pointed out, although a bit devious, was particularly effective.

The old shopkeeper hadn't taught him how to invite the Red Lantern Goddess to descend. Having already decided that Hu Ma would die in his place, he superficially ordered him to do his best to keep the lantern from going out, but in reality, he was the one who least wanted the Red Lantern Goddess to descend.

This was something that Hu Ma could slowly figure out himself. The old shopkeeper kept saying he wanted Hu Ma to avenge him, but if it was truly about revenge, Hu Ma might have had a chance to survive.

The only situation that would guarantee his death was if the shopkeeper had other plans besides pure revenge.

Revenge shouldn't be held onto for too long; it would go bad.

In this respect, he was very different from Wu He, the girl. Wu He didn't mind using him once, but it was only using him, and at least she wanted to leave him a chance to survive. But the old shopkeeper wasn't leaving him any.

This could also be guessed from the fact that he didn't teach him how to invite the Red Lantern Goddess to descend. He taught him so many tricks of the night watchman, but this one thing that the foreman should learn, and wasn't even a secret, he never mentioned.

However, since the old shopkeeper wouldn't teach him, and Erguotou knew but couldn't teach him privately, otherwise it would be difficult to explain where he learned it from if asked later, and it wouldn't be easy to clarify the details.

Fortunately, Erguotou seemed to know a lot about the Red Lantern Goddess, so he helped him devise a plan to divert the trouble.

Instead of inviting the Red Lantern Goddess, he would force her to come.

The Red Lantern Goddess had a large territory and many lanterns. She didn't personally descend just because she sensed some evil spirits.

If the evil spirits blew out the lights, she might be angry, but she wouldn't come. But if a strong resentment directly impacted the lantern, and the oil lamp inside didn't go out, then she would have to come…

To see who was so bold!

So, when that resentment, which could have taken his two little lives, impacted the lantern through the substitute paper effigy, the lantern became even redder. Hu Ma hurriedly lowered his head, not daring to look at the red lantern at this moment, but he could feel something scrutinizing him.

At this moment, his whole body was torn and bleeding, incredibly miserable.

But when the red light shone on him, he actually felt his skin gradually turning numb and tingly. The red light seemed to have some ability to make him forget the pain. These lacerating wounds, like a death by a thousand cuts, seemed to suddenly not affect him anymore.

If he didn't lower his head to look at the injuries, it would seem as if the wounds had already healed.

Then, the red lantern slowly floated up, as if waiting for him to pick it up.

Of course, Hu Ma had to quickly pick it up. Erguotou had told him what to pay attention to when facing the Red Lantern Goddess.

He picked up the red lantern and also kicked the dazed Zhou Datong.

The group picked up the red lantern and slowly walked out of the main room. In the instant that the red light illuminated the inner courtyard, the evil spirits that had just poured into the inner courtyard, gleefully, suddenly scattered in all directions. The courtyard became particularly quiet, silent.

Then, when Hu Ma, carrying the red lantern, came to the outer courtyard, the windy courtyard also became quiet.

"Dong, dong, dong..."

Only the sound of the clapper outside the courtyard was still ringing, and it was getting more and more urgent.

But Hu Ma didn't care anymore. He carried the red lantern and walked forward slowly, and he saw the three Tan Er Cult (Altar Cult) demon men sitting at the gate and along the base of the walls on both sides.

They were all wearing patched, dirty clothes, some with tools for mending pots beside them, some with a barber's carrying pole, and some with a sugar-blowing rack.

The only thing they had in common was that they all had an altar in front of them, covered in a lot of blood.

They had been busy all night, finally breaking into the courtyard, but before they could blow out the lantern, they saw the lantern light up. Judging from their expressions, they were terrified and distorted, and seemed to want to escape, but they were unable to move, illuminated by the red light of the lantern.

In a hurry, they could only move their throats and shout something in a mixed-up way.

Faintly, one could hear words like "organs," but unfortunately, this shout wasn't finished.

Or rather, when the red lantern shone on them, the altars in front of them suddenly filled with cracks.

The next moment, the altars directly melted away, and something inside trembled, reaching out a pink little hand, but this little hand was also melting.

Like a candle.

Immediately afterward, what melted was the flesh and blood of these three Tan Er Cult demon men.

They were still mumbling something in their mouths, but suddenly blood began to flow from their mouths, then their noses, then their eyes, and ears.

It wasn't just blood that flowed out, but a mixture of blood and flesh, pouring out of their seven orifices. Their bodies also collapsed little by little, until they turned into a shriveled human skin, falling onto a pool of blood-red things.

And the red lantern, at this moment, became especially eerie, red like blood.

"Truly worthy of being the only scourge of Mingzhou Prefecture..."

Hu Ma thought in his heart, but of course he didn't dare to say it. He even tried to suppress the thought as soon as it flashed through his mind. What scourge? This is the Red Lantern Goddess!

He carried the red lantern, not even looking at the three tragically dead demon men, and slowly walked out of the village.

The red lantern light shrouded the night with a layer of dark red, eerie temperament.

There was a rustling sound behind him. It was the people of the town. They had been disturbed by the Tan Er Cult all night, and they could guess what had happened. They were just trying hard not to come out and watch the excitement.

Even the children who had been clamoring to come out and watch the "monkey show" had been slapped so hard that they would never dare to mention the word "monkey show" again in their lives. Only when they heard the sound of the clappers disappearing did someone tremble and peek out.

But when they looked, they only saw Hu Ma carrying the red lantern, his face illuminated by the eerie red light.

Hu Ma turned to look at the villagers, nodded lightly, smiled reluctantly, and then turned and walked out of the town.

Feeling that he should say something, he shouted out, "Red lantern illuminates the night, all is well..."

After all, he had patrolled the night a lot, so he was familiar with it.

For a moment, the silence of the night was broken. In the voices of "Red lantern illuminates the night," he carried the lantern, step by step, and walked into the wilderness.

Behind him, the people of the town were so frightened that they didn't dare to make a sound, but knelt down, knocking their heads one by one.

There was no one around, silent.

This night, which had become turbulent because of the Tan Er Cult's rampage, became infinitely quiet because of the Red Lantern Goddess's descent.

Hu Ma borrowed the red light and saw that in the depths of the night, he didn't know how many things were hurrying to escape into the distance. These evil spirits, which had been summoned by the Tan Er Cult's evil arts to blow out the lights, wished they had two more legs when they saw the Red Lantern Goddess.

He also saw that there were many who couldn't escape, and they stood there blankly, prostrating themselves and kowtowing to the red lantern, not daring to get up until they had passed.

Red lantern illuminates the night, all is well.

When Hu Ma, carrying the red lantern, shouted it out, it represented the will of the Red Lantern Goddess.

This was originally the territory of the Red Lantern Goddess, and they had to patrol for the Red Lantern Goddess every night.

And since the Red Lantern Goddess said that all was well, no one dared to cause trouble.

But as he passed through a patch of wild graves, he heard the wild grass move. A yellowish thing wanted to run, but it was too late, so it stood up and stared blankly at the red lantern, unmoving, its two round little eyes glowing red.

He didn't know which Huang Xian (Weasel Immortal) family member it was, but it was clearly terrified.

Hu Ma noticed that the red lantern's light seemed to fluctuate slightly, and the surrounding night became much more sinister, as if it was about to pinch this little thing that didn't kneel when it saw itself to death.

So he hurriedly said, "This is a good family who has worshiped the Goddess. Tonight, they have helped a lot."

Then the lantern light dimmed slightly again.

Hu Ma winked at it, and the little yellow thing also reacted, and hurriedly bowed to the Red Lantern Goddess, pointed in a certain direction, and with a whoosh, scurried behind the grave and disappeared.

Hu Ma carried the lantern all the way, following that direction, and passed through the wilderness, arriving at a grave.

From afar, he felt resentment overflowing, shouting out.

"Still fighting?"

He wasn't surprised. With the blood food stolen, Shopkeeper Wu and the Tan Er Cult would inevitably fight to the death, with no way out.

The strong resentment in front of him, he had seen it and almost lost his little life, but now that he was carrying the red lantern, he wasn't afraid at all and walked straight forward.

From afar, he saw two figures intertwined, the smell of blood assailing his nostrils. One of the figures, when it saw the red lantern coming from afar, was already eager to run towards the Old Yin Mountain, but had been entangled all along.

Only when the red lantern got closer did it finally seem to find an opportunity and staggered to escape, but before it could run a few steps, its body suddenly tilted and fell, as if it had been drained of blood and flesh, and collapsed on the ground as lightly as human skin.

Continuing forward, he saw Wu He, the girl, huddled in a dog skin, sobbing, covered in injuries.

Then he saw Shopkeeper Wu. Both of his arms were broken, and a terrifying wound had been torn open in his chest, revealing his internal organs. Beside him were corpses that had died tragically, their heads smashed and their brains flowing all over the ground.

When the red lantern light shone on his face, his lips trembled, surprised and desperate: "Red... Red..."

Facing the pale-faced and trembling Shopkeeper Wu, who seemed to want to try hard to say something complete, but when he saw the head stretching out from behind the red lantern, the words stuck in his throat, and even his scalp tingled slightly.

It was Hu Ma, who should have been dead.

But now he was still alive, slowly stretching his head out from behind the red lantern, looking at him with a calm expression, with a faint coldness on his face: "Shopkeeper, I brought our Red Lantern Goddess to save you..."

"Why don't you kneel down and respectfully welcome the Goddess's arrival?"