Chapter 701: Disaster
Chapter 701: Disaster
"Second Master has lived a life of integrity."
As they captured the demon, the roaring echoes from the village reached their ears, causing Hu Ma to halt in his tracks.
He thrust the Punishment Official's Saber into the ground, facing the direction of the village, and performed a deep bow.
Some people, regardless of their abilities, experiences, or wealth, can make others sincerely admire them simply by living with integrity.
Even though he was a reincarnator, bearing the mark of another world, he still felt genuine respect for Second Master from the bottom of his heart and willingly acknowledged him as his master.
He was also aware of the rules of the Great Sheep Village, and Second Master was likely to be revered as a Sage.
Others might find it laughable, but who said that only literary and martial achievements, authority, and status could make one a Sage?
Didn't living a virtuous life also qualify one for sainthood?
After performing this deep bow, he took a moment to calm himself, then lifted the unconscious demon from the ground. He felt an uncanny lightness in his hands, not due to its actual weight but to an intuition that this person's life was cheap and worthless.
He wanted to find a place to interrogate the demon, but after a moment of hesitation, Hu Ma located a spot surrounded by countless people, with no pits underfoot and no place to retreat.
He set up a ritual altar, tied the demon with a grass rope, and instructed Little Hong Tang to hold the Punishment Official's Saber and keep an eye on the demon.
Then, he clapped his hands together, striking his palms to create a burst of energy that hit the demon's forehead, instantly waking him up.
"Ouch, don't hit me..."
The demon immediately clasped his head as he woke up, "I'm already bowing, and you're still hitting me? Wasn't my bowing for nothing?"
"Don't mention bowing. I hate it when people bow to me the most."
Hu Ma let out a cold harrumph. Although this guy didn't seem as troublesome as he had been earlier, he still couldn't let his guard down. When they fought, this person didn't use any proper techniques, making him extremely tricky to deal with. It was only with Little Hong Tang's help that they managed to capture him.
He remembered Master Ping's warning not to speak a second sentence to members of the Robber Disaster Sect.
He didn't understand the reason for this warning, but he knew he had to interrogate the demon.
So, he stared coldly at the demon and said, "Speak clearly. Why are you here, and why did you harm Second Master?"
"Or else, I'll cut off your head first!"
"..."
It wasn't that he didn't want to cut off the demon's head and interrogate him afterward.
But unless there was some special technique, after a person died, their soul would not immediately leave their body. It often took seven days for the seven souls to scatter and the three souls to depart, allowing the person to become a ghost.
During this time, the person would be in a state of complete emptiness and unconsciousness, known as the Middle Shadow Calm. Even if there was a way to quickly summon the ghost, this technique could easily make the soul forget, resulting in a loss.
Therefore, it was indeed best to interrogate the demon while he was still alive.
"Ah?"
The demon raised his head, peering at Hu Ma through the gap in his arms, wanting to speak but stopping himself.
Then, he turned and saw Little Hong Tang holding the Punishment Official's Saber, which was larger than her entire body, and his face paled in fear. He became more submissive and said, "Who is Second Master?"
"Are you still pretending to be confused?"
Hu Ma opened his mouth to curse, but suddenly realized what he was doing and signaled Little Hong Tang with his eyes.
Little Hong Tang was puzzled and didn't understand the meaning of his gesture.
Hu Ma had to use his ghost whispering skills and whispered a few words to her. Little Hong Tang understood and kicked the demon.
She said crisply, "Second Master is Second Master. Why did you bully Second Master?"
The demon visibly shuddered, and his body tensed slightly, as if he wanted to move away from Little Hong Tang instinctively. Then he said, "I really don't know any Second Master. I just saw someone from the village with resentment, so I wanted to chat with him..."
"Since he had resentment in his heart, he must have wanted to vent it somewhere. I guess the Second Master you mentioned is the person who made him unhappy..."
"Hehe, our technique is called the Attract Disaster Technique. It can divert disaster to others, but who it affects and how is not important."
"It's just a pity that I calculated that this disaster could be big..."
"...but instead, you got beaten up!"
"..."
Hu Ma thought it was time for him to speak, so he gave a cold look and said, "The Great Sheep Village has no grudge against you. Why did you bring disaster here?"
"This village has nothing to do with me..."
The demon quickly replied, "But isn't your Ghost Hunter Executioner here?"
"Of course, I also have no grudge against your Wandering Ghost Hall. But I'm from the Sun Family. We have no grudges with anyone in the world. I just go where there's disaster, and wherever I go, disaster follows..."
"Hehe, this Old Yin Mountain is about to become a place of disaster. I know this is the Hu Family's territory, so I came to take a look. But since I couldn't find the young master of the Hu Family, I had no choice but to find you, the Ghost Hunter Executioner."
"..."
As Hu Ma was thinking, Little Hong Tang, seeing that it was her turn, stepped forward to kick the demon again. "Brother Hu Ma is..."
"There's no need to say more."
Hu Ma stopped her and narrowed his eyes. Although his identity as the Ghost Hunter Executioner was public knowledge, it wasn't widely advertised. How did this stranger, whom he had never met before, find him?
With this thought in mind, his expression turned even colder as he said, "Listen, are you also with the Meng Family?"
"Since you know that I, the Ghost Hunter Executioner, am here, and you still dare to cause trouble for my Second Master, you... truly have some guts!"
"..."
Amidst the stern rebuke, Little Hong Tang also brandished the Punishment Official's Saber, eager to test her skills, feigning to chop off his head.
"Who among the Meng family is associated with such a fool?"
Hearing this, the man let out a cold laugh, smugly saying, "I just know that the Meng family is about to face misfortune, and so is the Hu family. I came here early to witness it..."
"Since you're here, of course, I'll take a look at the Hu family's foundation. Is it really as the legends say, that their blessings have run dry, and they have no ability to resist? The more the Hu family endures, the greater the misfortune that will befall the Meng family. This is going to be quite a spectacle..."
"..."
Hu Ma signaled to Little Hong Tang, who immediately kicked him, "Speak clearly!"
The demon's eyes rolled wildly, clearly intending to deceive, but Little Hong Tang by his side made him feel uneasy. He straightened his chest and shouted, "I don't want to talk!"
"After all, I am the son-in-law of the Sun family. You're just a Ghost Hunter Executioner, and you can't be more courteous to me as a member of the Ten Surnames family?"
"..."
Hu Ma's eyes turned cold. "I only acknowledge the Hu family, not the Sun family. Now that you're in my hands, do you still refuse to speak?"
"I won't speak!"
The demon lifted his head to face Hu Ma directly and shouted, "You kill me!"
"?"
Hu Ma immediately became alert upon seeing this. With a stern look, he said, "You want to die? It's not that easy."
At this question, the demon seemed a bit flustered and whispered, "We're all people of status. Can we just torture people like this? Using whips and beating people isn't the style of the Ten Surnames..."
'This demon doesn't seem to fear death at all, and when he mentions being whipped and beaten, he even seems a bit eager.'
Confronting this demon, although it was an interrogation, it felt more exhausting than the previous fight. He truly didn't know what abilities this Robber Disaster Sect possessed and how to guard against them.
However, from the start of the interrogation, he had been carefully sensing his body and even his thoughts. It didn't seem like any demonic energy had invaded him. So, he narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "I don't like whipping or beating people."
"I'd like to see what it feels like to have bamboo splinters driven into my fingernails, or to have sugar put into my wounds to attract ants."
"Of course..."
He paused and smiled faintly, "There's an even better method. It's to go to the village, squeeze fresh sheep's milk, shave off your hair, grind it into pieces, and then force-feed it to you along with the milk..."
Hearing his words, the man's face truly changed, and he exclaimed, "Is it necessary to go this far?"
"This still won't satisfy my anger!"
Hu Ma suddenly shouted, "Still won't speak?"
"Little Hong Tang, go cut some bamboo!"
"..."
"Speak, speak, speak, or else..."
The demon immediately changed his tone and hurriedly said, "Please don't get angry, Master Executioner. Even your young master would want to spare me..."
"And I truly didn't come here for your Evil Suppression Bureau. The Sun family's blessings have nothing to do with the Hu family's. There's no grudge between us, and even if there was, it's not worth mentioning now. Just watching the Hu family's situation, they won't last much longer."
"Speaking of which, I came here with good intentions to deliver a message..."
"As for the Meng family, haha, they've encountered a crazy young master, and they're about to face great misfortune..."
"..."
Although he was begging for mercy, as he spoke, he became more excited, and his laughter grew louder, "The Meng family thinks that having an ancestor is something to be proud of, but they don't know that their ancestor is nothing compared to what crawls out of the ghost cave. That's real power."
"The Meng family's young master?"
Hu Ma's face turned cold, and he recalled the conversation between the Meng family's patriarch and his wife about their young master. Was the Meng family's young master really about to take action?
Without showing any emotion, Hu Ma slowly asked, "What's inside the cave?"
The person from the Sun family stopped laughing and stared fixedly at Hu Ma. After a long while, he uttered a single word:
"Disaster!"
"..."
Before Hu Ma could ask further, the man's expression turned grim as he spoke, his eyes filled with ghostly flames of anticipation and excitement, "It's the Celestial Guardian Incarnation Manifesting."
"It's something that can turn the heavens into a demonic realm and the earth into a ghostly realm. Ever since the Ancestral Altar was destroyed, it has been completely out of control. The ghost cave has been feeding them for so many years, but it has only temporarily imprisoned them."
"But now, there are fewer and fewer people in the cave, and they haven't had a full meal in many years. Moreover, there was that strange arrow that angered them..."
"In the past twenty years, their anger has never been this intense, and now the Meng family's young master wants to release them..."
"It's easy to let them out, but it's difficult to send them back. Who knows how much they need to eat to be satisfied, hahaha..."
"Perhaps it's one Hu and one Meng from the Ten Surnames?"
"Perhaps, plus one Old Yin Mountain?"
"Hahaha..."
(End of Chapter)
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