How did I, who just ascended to heaven, become an evil spirit?

Hearing this, Li Hu roughly understood, and he and his companions around him were also amazed at almost the same time.

"Such a wondrous method of cultivation exists in this world?" The frilly rat peeked out from behind Old Man Yuan, rubbing its sleepy eyes, and said regretfully, "If only rats could also be granted titles."

"My home is nearby. I was just passing by and thought I'd ask you gentlemen for a favor. Please let me go." Knowing he couldn't escape, Chi Yue nervously scratched his head and said with an embarrassed smile.

"That's not right." At this moment, Wong Tai Sin suddenly shook his head, his eyes filled with wariness.

"This place is more than 300 miles from Zhongzhou City. I know exactly what kind of people and cultivators live nearby. But as far as I know, there are no villages or towns, let alone any savage cultivators. You are lying."

"You didn't just pass by; you came here on purpose to find us."

Huang Daxian's gaze turned serious. At this moment, the little figures that the black beans around Chi Yue had conjured also raised the swords in their hands, as if they would not let Chi Yue leave until she gave them an explanation.

"I...I...I..." Chi Yue became anxious, "My home is really around here."

But no matter how Chi Yue explained, Huang Daxian still didn't quite believe it.

"Stop talking nonsense, what's your purpose in coming here?" Huang Daxian commanded his little man to pounce on her, and in a few rounds he had already subdued Chi Yue, pinning her to the ground with her hands behind her back, making her obedient.

Seeing this, Chi Yue's temper flared up, and she roared, "You idiot! If you don't believe me, I'll take you there!"

Huang Daxian is considered a local here, but Chi Yue refuses to admit that she is an outsider. Their views clash here, and they argue and quarrel for a while, neither of them can convince the other.

But just as everyone was staring at the unfamiliar Huang Xiu, Chi Yue, something unusual happened to Sun Jiabao, who had been crawling on the ground behind them.

He lay on the ground as if he had fainted from fright, his skin was deathly pale, his body was convulsing, white foam was coming out of his mouth, and he kept muttering something under his breath.

"Jia Ma, Jia Ma, swift as fire! Stepping on the Seven Stars, clouds part and mist dissipates..."

At this point, Ma Jiabao was already in critical condition. His limbs were twisted into unhealthy positions, making him look like he was having an epileptic seizure. This scene startled Ma Shuisheng, who was the first to see him.

"Dad! What's wrong, Dad!" Shui Sheng rushed to Ma Jiabao, pushing and shoving him anxiously, trying to wake his father.

"Jia Ma, Jia Ma, swift as fire! Stepping on the Seven Stars, clouds part and mist dissipates..." Ma Jiabao was simply reciting some common travel mantras he used to recite.

"One step to catch up, two steps to chase, three or four steps to cross the mountain stream, rise at dawn, sleep at midnight, and care not for official roads or barren fields."

He revealed the whites of his eyes, his face gradually contorted into a ferocious expression, and suddenly he abruptly stood up, grabbing Shui Sheng by the neck.

Shuisheng was terrified by his father's sudden action, and in the ensuing scuffle, the two of them got into a tangle.

The commotion finally caught Li Hu's attention. He turned around, stared at the two people struggling on the ground, and frowned in confusion.

Suddenly, Li Hu noticed something was amiss.

The clay statue on Ma Jiabao's back had a missing piece at the corner of its mouth, apparently because Ma Jiabao was quite frightened by Chi Yue and huddled on the ground protecting Shui Sheng when the piece was chipped off.

From a distance, it looks like a clay statue with its mouth open, revealing a deep, hollow cavity inside.

At this moment, wisps of smoke were rising from the mouth of the clay statue, and the smoke was being released at an accelerating rate, gradually forming a mist in that area.

The mist, mixed with the mountain wind, seemed to have a mind of its own and rushed towards the group, enveloping Li Hu and his companions almost instantly.

Li Hu also caught the scent; it was like the smell of incense ash emanating from an old incense burner, mixed with the morning dampness, giving people an inexplicable sense of unease.

"I'll go check on the situation."

As Yan Yang spoke, he prepared to draw his sword and take a step forward.

But Yan Yang suddenly realized that his legs seemed to have a mind of their own, and he tripped over his own feet, falling to the ground with a thud.

Yan Yang hasn't made that childish wrestling move since he was three years old.

For some reason, he blushed slightly as he got up, gave an awkward smile, and took another step forward.

Pfft!

Yan Yang tripped over his own feet once again, failing to take a single complete step, and fell to the ground once more.

"This..." Yan Yang was somewhat flustered.

It was as if, in that short moment, he had forgotten how to walk, and after falling and staggering to his feet, he couldn't take another step.

Li Hu also noticed this, and it seems that such symptoms are not limited to Yan Yang.

The group of people around me seemed to have forgotten how to walk.

In just a short while, Yuan Sou, Huang Daxian, Qi Yuehong, and even Chi Yue, who had just been about to step forward, all fell to the ground with a thud.

Li Hu also tried to take a step, but the action seemed to have vanished from his mind, as if all his experience and memories of walking had been extracted in an instant, leaving only the abstract and elusive concept of walking in his brain.

Apart from the fancy rat, a four-legged creature, everyone else is in a difficult position to move.

"What's going on?" Old Yuan seemed somewhat panicked.

Not only him, but everyone else looked astonished.

How could a creature that walks upright forget how to walk?

Li Hu instantly realized the problem; this must have been caused by the evil spirit on Ma Jiabao's back.

"How strange indeed! I just remembered something. I wonder if any of you have ever heard the story of 'Imitating the Walk of the Man from Handan'?" Wong Tai Sin seemed to have remembered something, and after hurriedly getting up from the ground, he slapped his forehead and said.

"I've heard of it, is it related to this?" Old Yuan asked, somewhat puzzled.

Wong Tai Sin's brows were almost completely furrowed as he continued:

"Legend has it that during the Warring States period, there was a young man from the State of Yan who heard that the people of Handan in the State of Zhao walked with a graceful gait. So he traveled thousands of miles to find them and wanted to learn their posture and gait."

"When he arrived in Handan, he followed passersby all day, carefully observing how they lifted their feet, how they took steps, and how they swung their arms. If he thought someone walked well today, he would try to walk like that person. If he thought someone else walked even better tomorrow, he would try to walk like that person again."

"After studying for a long time, he not only failed to learn the elegant gait of the people of Handan, but he also completely forgot how he used to walk. In the end, he couldn't even walk properly."

"Gradually, he couldn't survive as a cripple, and he died in Handan not long after..."

"We know all that you're saying," Old Yuan said impatiently. "So what exactly happened?"

Huang Daxian clapped his hands and said, "In ancient times, this Zhongzhou City was called Handan!"

"This is the place where the Yan man forgot to walk."

"That happened so long ago, how do you know?" Chi Yue was getting a little creeped out by this and retorted unconsciously.

"I'm from Zhongzhou. I heard it from the old folks in my neighborhood when I was a kid." Huang Daxian scratched his head, but his tone was quite certain.

"Now that I think about it carefully, it really was evil spirits causing trouble. Today, we've probably fallen into the same trap as those people from Yan!" Huang Daxian slapped his thigh and said with some resentment.

"Don't panic!"

Upon hearing this, Old Yuan, trembling, forced himself to speak words of comfort, "It's easy for an ordinary person to die, but it's different for us Yin Sha beings. With Tiger Lord and Master Qi in charge, if a fight breaks out, we might not lose."

Yuan Sou seemed to know that there was no way to retreat today, and for the first time ever, he did not back down first.

He forced down his trembling hands and pointed a finger at the clay statue, saying, "Look, Ma Jiabao seems to have changed."

While everyone was talking, the clay statue shattered in many places due to Ma Jiabao's struggles and convulsions. Small pieces of clay fell to the ground, mixing with the large amount of white foam he spat out, turning the ground into a mess of yellow mud.

Ma Jiabao rolled around in the mud, his body and surroundings stained brown.

At this moment, the large clump of yellow mud on his back began to wriggle, like a viscous living thing, with dried earthworm-like things inside stirring up and down in the mud layer, appearing and disappearing.

This clay sculpture of Grandpa Shenxing has truly come to life.

The clay figure resembled a wriggling creature, quickly enveloping Ma Jiabao's upper body and exuding an eerie aura.

The moment the package was finished, Ma Jiabao's limbs were forcibly twisted to an angle that no ordinary person could reach, his whole body arched up, and he sprang up from the ground, staring straight at Li Hu and the others.

"Jia Ma, Jia Ma, swift as fire! Stepping on the Seven Stars, clouds part and mist dissipates!"

Ma Jiabao kept repeating the mantra he used when activating his powers, but his voice had changed. It no longer sounded like the words of that timid porter, but rather a tone of anxiety mixed with sadness, interspersed with occasional sobs. He was a completely different person.

From a distance, Li Hu appeared to be surrounded by black mist, especially the completely melted mud statue on his back, which had a large bulge, making him look like a hunchbacked monster.

Although it was inconvenient for Li Hu to walk, he could still fight by controlling the flying sword with his true energy from a distance.

Chi Yue also became nervous at this moment. Inspired by the flower rat, she transformed back into her previous weasel form.

A hint of excitement flickered in her eyes. Judging from her posture, she didn't intend to take the opportunity to escape. Instead, she wanted to test the depth of this clay statue.

"Waaaaah."

Ma Jiabao fixed his gaze on the group, then suddenly exerted force with his thin, bony legs, charging towards them with the momentum of a galloping horse.

"Attack!" Li Hu shouted.

Seeing this, the group used their best skills.

Wong Tai Sin conjured soldiers from beans, summoning dozens of tiny figures from the ground to meet him.

However, these little people were also restricted in their movements. After falling several times on the ground, they had no choice but to crawl forward on their hands and feet, imitating Chi Yue.

Thus, Li Hu's flying sword struck Ma Jiabao first, its long blade piercing straight towards Ma Jiabao's throat.

The blow pierced through, leaving a gaping hole in his throat from which gushed blood mixed with mud.

However, despite suffering such a fatal injury, Ma Jiabao did not stop at all. He only staggered, but quickly regained his balance and charged at the group again.

The lump of mud on his back slowly crawled to Ma Jiabao's throat, blocking the hole and stopping the bleeding.

"No! Don't kill my father!"

At this moment, Shui Sheng stood up shakily and ran wildly towards Ma Jiabao's location, crying in fear and shouting in a hoarse voice.

After all, they were father and son. Although Shuisheng was dissatisfied with his father's daily offerings to the clay statue, what he had just witnessed still made his heart skip a beat.

"Please, please, don't kill my father."

He walked towards Ma Jiabao's location while crying.

Upon hearing Shui Sheng's call, Ma Jiabao seemed to remember something. Even the severe injury that pierced his neck couldn't stop him, but at this moment, a suspicious expression appeared on his face.

Although his entire face was covered in mud, his expression was incredibly lifelike as he turned to look at his son.

"Is it really a child?"

This time, the voice sounded somewhat like Ma Jiabao's real voice. He waved his hands in front of him as if he were blind, tentatively reaching towards the direction of the voice while staggering forward.

Li Hu was also somewhat moved, so he put away his flying sword and decided to check the situation first.

Ma Jiabao turned and walked towards his son, while five-year-old Shuisheng rushed over, crying.

Li Hu initially thought that this was Ma Jiabao's will temporarily overcoming Shenxing Grandpa's performance, and that it was a scene of a father and son's deep affection overcoming the will of evil spirits.

Just as Ma Jiabao was about to approach Shui Sheng, his mud-covered face suddenly broke into a strange smile, and his whole face instantly turned cunning.

Ma Jiabao suddenly reached out and grabbed Shui Sheng by the throat, pulling him into his arms. He then turned to face Li Hu with a smug look in his eyes.

"Oh no!" the fancy mouse suddenly cried out.

Li Hu also realized the change in the situation. Ma Jiabao's actions just now were all an act. Because that sword strike made him realize that he might not be a match for Li Hu, he pretended to be a father and son and took Shui Sheng hostage.

"You...you...put him down, we can talk." Yuan Sou crawled out from behind Li Hu on all fours, looking somewhat anxious.

"These two are just passersby we met on the road. You don't really think they can save your life, do you?" Qi Yuehong took out the Moon Pearl, pretending to erase them both at the same time.

"The child is innocent, Grandpa Shenxing, please have mercy," Old Yuan said, bowing from afar.

"Killing one is the same as killing two, so you might as well be buried with these two mortals!" The Moon Pearl in Qi Yuehong's hand suddenly shone brightly, and a cold aura instantly swept over his body.

"Heaven cherishes life!"

"My sword has never been ineffective!"

The two talked at once, one playing the good cop and the other the bad cop. Both were cunning and shrewd evil spirits who had lived for hundreds of years. They subconsciously wanted to use negotiation tactics to distract the evil spirit.

Because they noticed that Chi Yue had already transformed into a weasel and had just turned around and disappeared into the surrounding grass and trees. Now, she had silently appeared in the bushes not far behind Ma Jiabao.

They need to buy time for the only person on the field who can move normally and has some fighting ability.

"Hehe...hehehehehe."

Ma Jiabao seemed unable to utter a single complete threatening sentence beyond his mantra. Upon witnessing the two men's negotiating tactics, he simply grinned foolishly, as if he were watching a lively comedy show.