While Hu Ma didn't pay too much attention to what the workers were thinking, he observed that after Zhou Datong acquired this unique skill, the workers in the whole manor became more diligent in practicing their stances. He was quite satisfied with their performance.

He didn't just teach Zhou Datong. After carefully studying the oil lamps, he called Zhou Liang in, "There are some medicinal materials on this list. When you have time, go into the city and buy some."

The first four lamps had already been used up. If he wanted to teach others, he had to prepare the lamp oil.

The materials needed to mix the oil lamp, no matter how common or rare, were all expensive, and some were extremely difficult to find on the market.

Therefore, in the Watchkeeper's path, preparing oil lamps was a major event.

But Hu Ma didn't plan to go himself. Instead, he arranged for Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu to go. After all, it was for them, and having them earn some materials to prepare the oil lamps could be considered a tempering exercise for them.

Not only them, but even Zhou Datong, for his first lamp, Hu Ma had just started teaching him and was afraid he wouldn't be sure, so he asked him to try.

But after the first oil lamp, he would have to earn the things needed later by himself.

Of course, Li Wa Zi was an exception. He was currently...

...probably out of luck forever in the Watchkeeper's path.

Not only the things needed to buy oil lamps, but also other affairs in the manor, Hu Ma tried to hand them over as much as possible.

Now that the Red Lantern Goddess had built a temple, the entire Red Lantern Society would likely undergo earth-shattering changes. Although this impact had not yet affected this manor, there had actually been changes.

That was, the Red Lantern Goddess cared even more about face than before.

Night patrols around the manor, not to mention within a ten-mile radius, even if evil spirits stirred up within a twenty-mile radius, would bring shame to her face. Therefore, the workers in these manors had to be even busier than usual.

If people in the surrounding villages came to them with problems, they had to deal with them.

Of course, there was another problem. In the past, they openly collected offering money, bringing the village chiefs over every month to settle the accounts, but now they were a little embarrassed to do so.

This was also why Hu Ma told Zhou Datong and the others to work harder, as the offering money might disappear later.

At first, Hu Ma was worried that they wouldn't do well, but he found that sometimes he underestimated these young men. They had many tricks.

They came from different places. Before, when they followed others to exorcise evil spirits, they did whatever they were told. But now that Hu Ma allowed them to take charge, they boldly prepared all kinds of objects that could exorcise evil spirits.

Hu Ma looked into their small warehouse: chickens, manure, dog blood, pot ashes...

When the surrounding villagers came, they followed them, carrying knives, guns, and manure forks. When they caught someone who was possessed, they would pour chicken blood on their head. If that didn't work, they would press them into a manure bucket for a while. If that still didn't work, they would pour a bucket of dog blood on them and several people would surround them, blowing air.

They were all strong young men, blowing out blasts of pure yang energy one after another.

Not to mention evil spirits, people would lose half their lives.

But once, they encountered a powerful one that they really couldn't cure. Hu Ma thought they were going to come to him, but they hurried back to the manor and strode towards the inner courtyard...

...then turned around and went into the kitchen.

He heard them saying with smiles, "Wa Zi Ge, the things stirring up trouble in Gouzi Village are a bit too much for us to handle..."

"We had no choice but to come back and ask you to take action..."

"..."

"You wait! I'll finish making rice for Ma Zi Ge first."

Li Wa Zi scolded them, then first made rice, and when he was done, he also cooked a pot of brown sugar eggs.

Then, surrounded by everyone, he carried the pot of brown sugar eggs out.

After about half an hour, the group returned, surrounding Li Wa Zi and saying nice things. Li Wa Zi also had a proud look on his face, saying, "It's just a hedgehog spirit passing by. We invited the Third Lord over and solved it." (Third Lord refers to a deity invoked by shamans)

"If we encounter a powerful one, I'll invite Seventh Granny over and let you see something..."

"..."

Hu Ma watched these things happen in the outer courtyard and was a little surprised.

He really didn't have enough experience in the martial world and his eyesight was poor. He never thought that Li Wa Zi was the most promising one...

He was simply the most promising one to come out of the village.

Without anyone teaching him any tricks, he had self-taught himself the skills of a spirit medium...

……

……

Feeling emotional, he was relieved and focused his energy on cultivation.

With the blessing of ample blood food, after half a month, his third viscera had also been activated, and it was time to cultivate the most important kidney.

In fact, in the Watchkeeper's path, the most important of the five viscera was generally acknowledged to be the heart.

But Hu Ma just felt that the kidney was the most important.

After all, the kidney didn't just represent the kidney. Activating it would also activate other very important things.

Especially, Hu Ma not only wanted to activate the kidney, but also planned to put in a lot of hard work here.

The Watchkeepers had a special skill of detaching the four limbs. With deep enough skill, even if the arms and limbs couldn't grow back, they could be detached and replaced with new ones.

And in fact, at the stage of the five viscera, they could also be replaced.

Many legends about heart transplants came from this. However, Hu Ma wasn't so fascinated by the heart transplant method. If he became proficient in the kidney transplant method, it would be amazing in the future...

Especially when the Watchkeeper's kung fu reached a deep level, it seemed that they could also replace them for others.

Of course, whether it was detaching the four limbs or replacing the five viscera, it all depended on skill and mastery.

These were not special skills, but the inherent abilities of the Watchkeepers.

They needed to be done over and over again, refined through thousands of trials.

Sometimes, a person who didn't have the right method could spend decades refining the four limbs stage and eventually cultivate to the point of detaching the four limbs. But on the contrary, a Watchkeeper who obtained the right method and quickly entered the five viscera stage couldn't do it.

So, this kind of thing couldn't be rushed.

And now, things in the manor were progressing smoothly, and the workers were quite worry-free. But in addition to cultivation, Hu Ma didn't forget to be vigilant.

He had been paying attention to the affairs of the Green-Clad Evil Ghost in the city, trying to collect information in every possible way.

Because of the lurking of the transmigrator, the current source of information could only fall on Steward Xu and the Yang Bow brothers.

Hu Ma felt that the time was almost right. He also called Little Red Tangerine over and put a wild rabbit and a wild pheasant in her basket. Zhao Zhu had accidentally caught them while practicing with his fork.

After all, he was brothers with Yang Bow, so he didn't need to send anything too valuable. Sending some game would be more affectionate.

Of course, in addition to sending things, gathering information was the most important thing.

Little Red Tangerine didn't disappoint. She left in a gust of yin wind, and in just an hour or two, she floated back in another gust of yin wind: "The things have been delivered!"

Hu Ma hurriedly said, "What did Yang Bow say?"

Little Red Tangerine thought for a while, tilted her head and said, "He said: My brother Hu Ma is finally enlightened and knows to send a little ghost to inquire about news."

"He also said, tell you to rest assured, if there's anything important here, he'll send Little Cripple over to notify you."

"It's just that you shouldn't give so many rewards. Little Ghost is picky now. When he sees others, his words of blessing aren't sincere."

"..."

"Little Red Tangerine is still the best..."

Hu Ma couldn't help but feel relieved, thinking, "Look at how comprehensive these words are?"

Then he hurriedly asked, "What else?"

Little Red Tangerine said, "The other thing is, he wanted to remind you to be careful. He said that the Zheng guy couldn't stay in the society, so he took a job to cooperate with the Green-Clad Gang to find people."

"Now they're starting to take mirrors and shine them on people in the Red Lantern Society's manors one by one. Those who are shone on are taken away, and no one knows if they live or die. The shopkeepers in each manor can't stop them. When they ask the Red Lantern Goddess, there's no news..."

"..."

"What?"

Hu Ma couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart when he heard this.

It really came.

He had heard earlier that the Green-Clad Gang was visiting people in various paths in Mingzhou City, and he was worried that they would find the Red Lantern Society after searching around.

After all, when it came to people in the paths, where in Mingzhou City were there more than in the Red Lantern Society?

Now it seemed that he hadn't guessed wrong at all.

Although they were saving face and were the last to start looking for the Red Lantern Society, they had finally started.

What was even worse was that the Zheng guy had gone to help the Green-Clad Gang?

Thinking silently, Hu Ma could only nod secretly, which was quite reasonable.

Zheng, the Great Incense Master, had offended the newly promoted Red Incense disciples led by Yang Bow, and had also offended the incense burner with a joke from Erguotou. These were all closest to the Red Lantern Goddess.

Now that he had made a contribution in the fighting match, his situation was the worst. Once this storm passed, he might not even be able to sit securely in his position as Incense Master. Now that he had gone out of his way to help the Green-Clad Gang find people, was he also trying to make a bet?

He just hoped he wouldn't add trouble to himself...

"I understand."

Taking a deep breath, Hu Ma remained calm and asked Little Red Tangerine with a smile, "Didn't I also tell you to ask a question casually?"

Little Red Tangerine nodded vigorously, "Little Red Tangerine remembers, you told me to ask how the winning silver is calculated."

"Yes, yes, yes."

Hu Ma nodded quickly and said, "What did he say?"

Little Red Tangerine said, "Yang Bow Gege said: Silver? What silver?"

"..."

These words stunned Hu Ma, "What's going on?"

"That's two hundred taels of silver. They were paying out at one to two at the time, so they should have paid me four hundred taels, plus a total of six hundred taels..."

"It's gone?"

"..."

That kid Yang Bow, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, wasn't always honest...

He would get it back sooner or later, but he couldn't worry about it now. Hu Ma knew the importance of the matter. From Yang Bow and the others, he learned that the Green-Clad Gang had begun to attack the various manors of the Red Lantern Society, and he knew that he should go into the mountains.

So, when night came and the workers in the manor had all gone to sleep and it was quiet all around, Hu Ma quietly got up.

He instructed Little Red Tangerine to watch the house carefully from the beam, then he changed out of the Red Lantern Society shopkeeper's clothes, put on a straw raincoat, and wore a bamboo hat, then climbed over the wall from the backyard.

It was time to have a formal chat with Senior Old Tree Stump...

Putting my life on the line, adding another chapter, asking for votes!

(End of chapter)