After fifteen years of cultivation, he finally reached the pinnacle of the first rank!

Chapter 164 Ghost Shadow
Hu Ruian moved his body and rose from the ground, leaping over the high wall of the Tianjin Guards' residence in front of him and disappeared in front of Wu Shang and the other man.

Seeing this, Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong looked at each other, then looked around at the dark streets around them.

At some point, a cool breeze blew from the dark and quiet street behind them, causing the two of them to shrink their necks unconsciously.

However, the two did not find anything unusual.

At the same time, Hu Ruian landed lightly into the courtyard of Tianjinwei Mansion.

The Tianjin Guards' mansion in Shengzhou was gloomy at night. The doors of the halls and houses were tightly closed, and there were no lanterns lit in the corridors. There was no one on duty, and everything around seemed extremely quiet.

Hu Ruian entered the mansion and walked along the corridor in the courtyard. He walked silently, not even the corners of his clothes made any sound in the wind, and his figure moved like a ghost.

Hu Ruian was not familiar with the Tianjinwei Mansion in front of him. He just walked and observed his surroundings.

His purpose was to see a ghost, and also to check if there was anything abnormal about the Tianjin Guards in front of him?
After all, there was no ghost anywhere else in the entire Shengzhou city, but Tianjinwei was haunted. Moreover, a deputy commander and many martial arts masters died in this incident. There must be some story behind this.

As time passed, in the dark and silent night, Hu Ruian walked around the Tianjinwei mansion for most of the time, but did not encounter anything unusual along the way.

He frowned slightly, but when he reached a remote hall in the northeast corner, he suddenly stopped and came to a halt.

Hu Ruian looked towards the hall in front of him. Unlike other places in the mansion, the doors and windows of each house were closed and locked, but the door of this hall was ajar, with a narrow gap opened.

The night was heavy and the surroundings were so quiet that almost no sound could be heard.

He looked at the hall in front of him with its door ajar, narrowed his eyes slightly, and then slowly approached silently.

At the same time, the energy in his body locked onto the surroundings of the hall, ensuring that no movement would escape his eyes.

Just at this moment, a black shadow suddenly flashed out from the crack of the hall door.

Hu Ruian's eyes moved, and he subconsciously wanted to take action, but he soon discovered that the black shadow was actually a huge cat with a pitch-black body.

The big cat seemed to sense the dangerous aura from Hu Ruian. It suddenly stopped running and raised its green eyes to look at Hu Ruian.

Then it opened its mouth and let out a "meow", suddenly breaking the silence in the darkness around it.

Hu Ruian frowned slightly, stopped his attack, and looked at the big cat for a while.

The big cat in front of me had dark fur all over its body, but I didn't know what it ate to grow up. Its body was actually the same size as a local dog, and it was very strong, completely different from a normal cat.

Hu Ruian shook his head. It was just a cat. He didn't take it seriously.

He ignored the other party and continued to look at the hall in front of him.

But at this moment, a creepy laugh suddenly came from the courtyard behind Hu Ruian.

He looked back suddenly, and there was nothing in the darkness behind him, but the sinister laughter kept ringing out.

"Pretend to be a ghost!"

Hu Ruian snorted coldly, and his figure disappeared from the spot in an instant, but in the blink of an eye, he came to the place where the laughter came from, carrying a huge amount of martial arts energy.

However, what surprised Hu Ruian was that as soon as his figure turned into a shadow, the voice disappeared out of thin air.

At this moment, a vague shadow emerged from a place where Hu Ruian could not see, and then floated past him silently.

He seemed to sense something and looked back suddenly, but he only saw a blurry, shadowy and distorted "ghost" slowly and quietly floating past his eyes.

"Ridiculous!"

Hu Ruian shouted in a deep voice, without moving, he raised his hand and grabbed the ghost through the air.

In an instant, the surrounding true energy of heaven and earth condensed above the ghost into a giant hand that stirred up a strong wind, covering an area of ​​several feet in radius, and fell towards the ghost from top to bottom without any warning.

"Low...Low..."

A sinister laugh suddenly sounded from behind Hu Ruian, with a hint of mockery.

The next moment, the ghost figure that was about to be grasped by the giant hand of true energy suddenly disappeared from its original place.

For a moment, the giant hand grabbed nothing.

Not long after, the disappeared blurry ghost figure quietly appeared from the roof not far from Hu Ruian.

The ghostly shadow was slowly floating on the eaves, and like the creepy laughter, it seemed to be full of provocation to Hu Ruian below.

Seeing this scene, Hu Ruian's face suddenly darkened.

He turned sideways, looking at the ghost on the roof and the dark place in the sky where there was no one but bursts of strange laughter were heard.

Hu Ruian's face turned serious. The ghost figure and the laughter in front of him seemed to be completely ignoring him, which really made him angry.

The next moment, Hu Ruian closed his eyes lightly, and then slowly opened them again.

In an instant, he exhaled, and the air was like the lungs of the earth surging. With him as the center, the energy of the surrounding heaven and earth condensed like mountains.

The invisible true energy of heaven and earth formed a drum in mid-air, and suddenly a sound roared out, with the force to swallow up rivers and seas, suppressing the sinister laughter in an instant.

At the same time, Hu Ruian's robes fluttered like thousands of sails, leaving only a residual shadow on the spot, and the next moment he appeared behind the ghost.

Then, without any warning, he slapped forward with his palm, and the wind from his palm tore through space, with an imposing power that could split the sky, destroy mountains, and shatter hills.

Under this palm strike, even if an ordinary celestial being took it head-on, he would probably be hit so hard that his true energy would dissipate, his bones would be broken and he would die on the spot.

Obviously, Hu Ruian was angry and wanted to let this mysterious thing in front of him know how powerful he was.

As for whether the other party would be slapped to death by him, he didn't care much. After all, it was the other party's own fault.

If he didn't use real tricks, the other party would really think that he was like the previous people who could be easily fooled.

With a loud "bang", the entire space in front of Hu Ruian seemed to collapse under his palm.

The blurry ghost figure also turned into an afterimage under this palm and disappeared from the air.

At the same time, the sinister laughter not far away seemed to be dissipated by the powerful sound waves similar to those of the Kuiniu war drum.

For a moment, the entire night sky of the Tianjinwei Mansion fell silent again. Whether it was ghost shadows or laughter, they all disappeared in an instant under Hu Ruian's thundering attack.

Hu Ruian's figure quietly landed on the roof tiles, and the true energy of heaven and earth condensed around him gradually dissipated.

He glanced around; it was empty everywhere except for the huge black cat squatting on the stone steps in front of the hall, which had its door ajar. It was now raising its head, and its emerald eyes were looking at Hu Ruian on the roof.

Soon, the big black cat suddenly opened its mouth and meowed, then turned its head and looked towards Hu Ruian not far away.

Hu Ruian suddenly felt something and turned his head to look. He saw that the ghost figure he had slapped into nothingness before suddenly appeared in the air not far away from him, floating silently. At this moment, the creepy laughter suddenly sounded again from above Hu Ruian.

That shrill laughter contained undisguised sarcasm and ridicule, as well as a hint of extremely sinister and chilling meaning.

Seeing this scene, Hu Ruian's face changed.

It was obvious that the ghost and laughter could ignore his attacks, and he seemed to have no way to deal with these mysterious things.

However, Hu Ruian would naturally not give up. He attacked again without hesitation.

Unfortunately, the situation was almost exactly the same as before, and he could do nothing about the ghost and laughter.

Instead, the ghost and the laughter mocked him more unscrupulously, almost floating around him and calling out sinisterly into his ears.

"Who are you?"

The ghost shadow and the laughter were too abnormal, and Hu Ruian had no way to deal with them. He could only step back to temporarily distance himself from them while shouting in a deep voice.

However, the ghost and the laughter showed no sign of responding, but just followed Hu Ruian like a shadow and a maggot that gnawed at his bones.

Wherever he went, the ghost and laughter followed him, and Hu Ruian was unable to get rid of them for a while.

In desperation, he had to attack again, but the situation still did not improve.

At the same time, the big black cat sitting on the stone steps in front of the hall looked at all this with its green eyes, and just licked its paws with its tongue.

Hu Ruian glanced at the big cat and the hall behind it, and saw that as time passed, the ghost and the laughter were getting closer and closer to him.

His expression changed drastically, and his body immediately turned into a shadow and retreated backwards, temporarily planning to leave the Tianjin Guard Mansion first.

He was deeply surprised by the strangeness of the ghost and the laughter. Moreover, as the ghost and the laughter continued to approach him, the sense of crisis in his heart became stronger and stronger.

Reason kept reminding him that he could no longer stay here.

Soon, Hu Ruian's figure flashed out from the high wall of Tianjinwei Mansion and appeared in front of Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong who were waiting in front of the gate.

Seeing Hu Ruian coming out, Wu Shang and the others hurried forward and asked:

"Sir, have you found anything?"

However, just as they finished speaking, they heard an extremely cold laugh, which made their backs chill.

The two men subconsciously looked above the lintel of Tianjin Guard's gate, only to see a blurry and distorted ghostly shadow floating in the air, with laughter constantly coming from around it.

Fortunately, the ghost and laughter stopped at the edge of the mansion and showed no intention of coming out.

Wu Shang and the other man were immediately shocked and looked at Hu Ruian hurriedly. However, the other party did not explain much, but just said:

"Let's leave this place first."

After saying this, he glanced at the Tianjin Guards' residence in front of him, and then left without stopping with Wu Shang and the other two.

Just after they left for a distance, Wu Shang and the other man suddenly turned around. They both heard a clear word "death" from the cold laughter.

It was not until Hu Ruian and his companions completely disappeared that the ghostly shadows and laughter above the gate of Tianjinwei slowly dissipated.

At this time, in a dark alley not far away, the old man who was pushing the tea bag cart walked out silently from the night.

He glanced in the direction where Hu Ruian and the other two had left, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I thought you guys would find something, but in the end, it's just three more bodies tomorrow."

As he spoke softly, the old man turned his head and glanced towards the gate of Tianjinwei. However, he had no intention of getting closer. He just shook his head, then turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

At the same time, Hu Ruian and the other two rode their horses quickly in the night, all in silence.

Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong looked at each other and saw that Hu Ruian's face was not very good, so they were very tactful and didn't ask any more questions.

Half an incense stick later, the three of them arrived at the gate of a magnificent mansion with bright palace lanterns, red walls and glazed tiles, and stopped their horses.

Hu Ruian sat upright on his horse, glanced at the words "Mei Mansion" written on the door plaque, and then turned to Wu Shang and the other man beside him and said:

"The ghost incident at Tianjin Guard is not simple. It is somewhat beyond my expectation."

As he spoke, Hu Ruian's expression suddenly became extremely serious, and he said:

"Remember, both of you, no matter what happens tomorrow, you must remember to stay close to me... His Highness."

Hu Ruian sighed. He originally wanted Wu Shang and the other man to stay with him so that he could look after them and prevent them from getting into trouble because of seeing ghosts and laughing.

But on second thought, he even began to worry about his own safety.

I'm afraid that tomorrow the wisest and safest choice is to stay with Li Musheng.

Upon hearing this, Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong looked at each other, a hint of surprise flashed in their eyes, and they immediately took Hu Ruian's instructions into their ears.

After all, even Hu Ruian was so afraid of the ghosts and laughter in the Tianjin Guard branch. They naturally knew their own limitations and knew what to do to save their lives.

And then, Hu Ruian didn't say anything more. They came to Mei Mansion to meet Mei Yan, the commander of the Tianjin Guard branch.

The matter of the haunting in the Tianjinwei Mansion can only be put on hold for the time being, although Hu Ruian still feels that this matter is extremely strange and may become a breakthrough.

But it was obvious that the water seemed a little deeper. Now he could not continue to explore it, so he had to get back on track to deal with the affairs of Shengzhou.

Of course, Hu Ruian knew in his heart that he probably wouldn't be able to get anything out of it this time.

After all, he and Mei Yan have the same position, and the other party's family background and status are far above his own. If the other party is unwilling to cooperate and just do things perfunctorily.

Even if he has the support of Prince Li Musheng, he probably won't be able to do much about the other party.

But no matter what, he still has to give it a try.

After knocking on the door and asking the servant to inform them, Hu Ruian took Wu Shang and the other two and walked towards the depths of the mansion under the guidance of the doorman.

Palace lanterns were hung high in the Mei Mansion, and the entire mansion was as bright as day.

Not long after, Hu Ruian and the other two were taken to a backyard garden and stopped.

Unlike the deserted Tianjin Guard branch office which was like a ghost town, this place was brightly lit and bustling with people, creating a bustling and lively scene.

(End of this chapter)