Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 49 Demons and Ghosts
Lu Zheng quietly walked out of the courtyard and found a figure coming from a distance.

"Miss, why are you not sleeping at night and running around?"

A woman's voice came faintly.

Lu Zheng narrowed his eyes slightly and found that the person who came was similar to the maid Wang Xiu mentioned, and he also felt a hint of sinister energy.

The maid took a few steps closer and finally saw Lu Zheng's appearance clearly, and discovered that the person in front of her was not Wang Xiu.

"You are……"

Before the maid could finish her words, Lu Zheng had already unsheathed his sword, releasing his righteous energy as he slashed at the maid.

The maid was overwhelmed by the righteous spirit, and the sharp sword cut off her head.

Afterwards, the maid's body shrank like a deflated ball, and her clothes and painted skin fell to the ground.

[You killed a first-level ghost, Wen Qi +3!]

Lu Zheng bent down to pick up the clothes and painted skin on the ground and examined them.

The exquisiteness of this painted skin is not up to the quality of a snake demon. It cannot even completely conceal its own aura, which obviously comes from somewhere else.

Wang Xiu heard the noise and saw Lu Zheng slay the ghost with one sword, and knew that Lu Zheng was a scholar with real skills.

She came closer and whispered, "Sir, I'll hide these things so that no one else will find them."

"Okay." Lu Zheng nodded slightly.

Wang Xiu quickly packed up the painted skin and clothes left by the maid and returned to her own residence.

Lu Zheng put away his sword, hid in the shadows, and continued to look for other monsters.

After a while, he arrived at the yard where Wang Xiu's parents lived.

I sneaked in quietly, but found that there was no movement inside.

Lu Zheng quietly broke open a window, looked inside carefully, and found that there was indeed no one there.

He couldn't help but frown. Wang Xiu said that she had just met these two people today.

These two rat demons are considered the leaders of the demons in the Wang family compound.

He's not in the room late at night. Could he be out having an affair?

Thinking of this, Lu Zheng walked lightly to the backyard of the Wang family.

When he arrived at the backyard, he found a man dressed as a servant guarding the gate, and there was a faint flicker of fire in the yard.

Lu Zheng quietly moved and found the best hidden location to check the situation.

Then, he saw a strange scene, which was not the cannibalism that Wang Xiu had described.

In the courtyard, there is a big locust tree with lush branches and leaves.

Under the tree, a middle-aged man in brocade clothes was cutting the roots of the locust tree with a sharp knife.

When the roots of the locust tree were cut, thick juice immediately flowed out.

The color of the sap is light red, and it also emits a faint smell of blood.

Next to it, a woman was holding a copper basin to collect the flowing juice.

The middle-aged man murmured in a low voice: "The taste is weak again. Let's go get a few more people tomorrow. The king is pressing us hard. We are still a little short of this month's quota..."

The woman said, "No one has died in the town these past two days, so we can only attack those outside, and do it more cleanly."

The middle-aged man grinned and said, "Don't worry, haven't we been careful enough in the past few years? No one has noticed..."

Lu Zheng listened to the conversation and roughly understood some of the things.

These demons gathered here to collect the juice from the big locust tree.

Obviously, this locust tree is not an ordinary tree. It has a hint of demonic nature and can absorb blood and flesh to nourish itself. Its juice has certain medicinal properties and can help the demon practice.

In order to collect enough locust tree sap, these monsters have to find people to use as fertilizer from time to time and bury it under the tree.

As for the origins of these people, some were grave robbers or outright murderers. Previously, Lu Zheng had thought these rat demons were harming people simply to satisfy their appetites, but it turned out there was a more important reason.

After observing for a while, Lu Zheng gently drew out his sword and walked towards the gate.

At the gate of the courtyard, the servant had shifty eyes and yawned from time to time, looking listless.

He turned his head from time to time, his eyes wandering around, symbolically keeping watch.

Suddenly, he seemed to see a figure.

He turned his head again and saw a flash of light that blinded his eyes.

Lu Zheng's movements were swift and his sword flew out like lightning.

With one sword, he stabbed the guarding servant through and through.

At the same time, Lu Zheng pushed the servant against the wall and pressed his head hard with one hand to prevent him from making any sound.

The servant stared at Lu Zheng with wide eyes, twitching and struggling all over, but he was not as strong as Lu Zheng and could not break free.

Lu Zheng twisted the sword in his other hand, enlarging the wound, and immediately smelly blood gushed out.

After a few breaths, the other party died completely.

[You killed a first-level rat demon, Wen Qi +5!]

Seeing this, Lu Zheng carefully put the corpse down and slowly drew out his sword.

He reached out and pulled off the painted skin, and saw that underneath the skin was indeed a big black rat, nearly five feet long, with a hideous and ferocious face, not at all like a human.

Lu Zheng had no expression on his face. He walked to the gate, slowly pushed it open, and entered the backyard.

Under the tree in the yard, two rat demons were still carefully collecting the juice from the locust tree.

The rat demon dressed as a middle-aged man heard the slightest movement and said without turning his head, "Xiao Si, why are you coming in instead of guarding the door properly?"

"Come in and ask you something." Lu Zheng said lightly.

"What do you want to ask..."

The two rat demons suddenly felt that the sound was wrong and turned their heads.

The two rat demons were startled when they saw a young man with blood on his body rushing in.

The male rat demon held a knife and asked sharply, "Who are you? Where is Xiao Si?"

Lu Zheng said calmly, "He's just an ordinary scholar. As for the Xiao Si you mentioned, can't you see it?"

The rat demon holding the copper basin nearby heard this, his expression twisted, and he said angrily: "My fourth son! You are such a good scholar!"

But then it put down the copper basin, stretched out its hands and pulled itself off, tearing off its clothes and painted skin together.

A rat demon with a barely human-like and ferocious appearance appeared before his eyes.

The rat demon's eyes were bright red, and the nails on its front paws were as sharp as knives.

It was emitting wisps of black evil aura and pounced towards Lu Zheng.

"Don't……"

The male rat demon next to him wanted to stop it, but it was too late.

Lu Zheng raised his hand and a treasure appeared.

The cultural treasure was instantly activated, emitting brilliant light.

Waves of righteous energy surged towards the two rat demons like a vast ocean tide.

The female rat demon suddenly felt as if she had entered a boiling oil pan. She couldn't help but let out a scream, and her body quickly retreated, with green smoke coming out of her body.

The male rat demon next to it could not escape the attack of Haoran Zhengqi. Its painted skin twisted and deformed in the blink of an eye, and was about to collapse, unable to cover its body.

Behind the two rat demons, wisps of smoke were rising from the sap in the copper basin and the entire locust tree.

(End of this chapter)