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

Seeing Yan Yang's confident demeanor, Qi Yuehong, who was usually calm, began to lose his composure and looked around in surprise and uncertainty.

However, the evil spirits clearly hadn't realized they were in danger; they were simply deeply disappointed that they couldn't eat the sword immortal's flesh.

"Useless thing! You must have stolen some of the offerings when you were setting up the altar, which is why the sword immortal is unhappy!" One of the evil spirits who had just helped set up the altar cursed at the evil spirit next to him.

"Nonsense! Which eye of yours saw me steal food? I could say I saw you piss in the incense burner! When the sword immortal comes down, you'll be the first one he kills!"

Li Hu gripped the hilt of his sword, paying no heed to the noisy chatter of these evil spirits.

However, Yan Yang's guess was correct. Li Hu was very familiar with this kind of sword energy; it was just like the way he himself used it.

This indicates that Sword Immortal Li Hu was already present before Yan Yang invited the immortals.

Sa—

Another sound of sword energy and gale arose from all around, accompanied by a soft "whoosh," as if something else had been struck.

Everyone heard the sound clearly, but with all the noise around them, they couldn't immediately pinpoint where the sword energy had struck.

Amid the chaos, only one tiger spirit stood upright and remained still. After about three breaths, it collapsed forward to the ground with a thud, revealing a deep, bone-revealing wound on its back that had almost cleaved it in two.

The tiger spirit, which had fallen to the ground, made no sound. When the evil spirits went forward to investigate, they discovered that the tiger spirit had died sometime earlier.

"The worm... the worm is dead! Grandpa Sword Immortal is angry!"

The tiger spirit was a rare and fierce warrior here. In a single encounter, before anyone even knew who had attacked, the tiger spirit collapsed with a thud, which terrified all the evil spirits present.

Instantly, all the evil spirits fled in terror, realizing that these sword energies and gusts of wind were aimed at them.

They couldn't understand why the Sword Immortal wasn't like the Moon Immortal, who simply appeared and was easily killed. They felt a chill run down their spines and instinctively wanted to escape.

But it was simply too late.

sough--

Two more sword energies and gusts of wind suddenly appeared from nowhere.

One strike hit the horde of evil spirits, severing seven or eight huddled together in half; another strike hit the stage, splitting the offering table in two, and the bowls and plates crashed to the ground with a clatter.

Li Hu gripped the hilt of his sword, adopting a defensive stance, ready at any moment to deal with any sword energy that might strike his head.

The two sword energies he just witnessed further confirmed his suspicions.

Just as it's impossible for two bullets to be fired simultaneously from a gun barrel, these two sword energies arrived perfectly in sync; only an immortal could accomplish this.

Previously, every time he was chased by Sword Immortal Li Hu, it was the same scene. He had never seen the true appearance of Sword Immortal Li Hu, only these elusive sword energies. Now he had to be extremely cautious.

Otherwise, their fate would be exactly the same as the other two corpses who died on the spot.

While calculating in his mind, he unleashed more than a dozen sword strikes, cleaving the fleeing evil spirits in twos and threes. In an instant, only a handful of evil spirits remained alive.

At this moment, Qi Yuehong's face had turned ashen. He had painstakingly built up this group of more than a hundred evil spirits, and this sudden loss caught him completely off guard; it was an utterly unexpected disaster.

As if he had just thought of something, he turned to look at Li Hu, who was still standing there unharmed, his gaze fixed on Li Hu with disbelief on his face.

Just as Li Hu was about to approach Qi Yuehong to discuss a decision, the white fur all over Yuan Sou's body stood on end. It hurriedly dodged the fallen evil spirits, crawled under the stage, its legs trembling, and shouted loudly at Li Hu in a trembling voice:

"Tiger Lord! Tiger Lord, please stop! Don't kill anymore!"

These words left Li Hu completely bewildered; for a moment, he couldn't tell whether the speaker was addressing the immortal Li Hu or himself.

The strong wind came quickly and went quickly.

Before long, they had turned this small camp in the Broken Limb Hill into a complete mess.

In just ten breaths, not a single intact building could be found on the mountaintop. The ground was covered with deep marks left by sword energy, and the blood of the evil spirits of various colors flowed everywhere like colorful eggs that had been smashed against the wall.

But only,

Centered on Li Hu, the ground within a ten-meter radius was spotless. These sword energies seemed to deliberately avoid Li Hu's position, as if afraid of harming him in the slightest.

The sword energy finally stopped.

But everyone remained quiet and wary, staring in Li Hu's direction, their silence terrifying.

It wasn't until several dozen breaths later that Yuan Sou dared to confirm that the sword energy had stopped, so he tentatively moved his feet and crawled out from under the stage.

Seeing that there was truly no more sword energy, Old Man Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But at the same time, she looked at Li Hu with an extremely terrified expression, unsure of how to face this god of death.

"Brother Li, what do you mean by this?"

Qi Yuehong's face had turned completely black. He had narrowly escaped injury from the sword energy attack, and upon reaching Li Hu's side, he was furious, yet still unwilling to accept defeat, he asked...

"Could it be that I have failed to provide adequate hospitality these past few days, and you are making fun of me? Or taking your anger out on these evil spirits that infest this mountain?"

"Brother Qi, you've misunderstood. This wasn't my doing." Li Hu quickly waved his hand, unsure of what to say.

"Brother Li, you told me at first that the immortal Li Hu was chasing you and that's why you ended up here. That's why I took you in."

Qi Yuehong staggered to Li Hu's side. Although she was not seriously injured, she still looked extremely disheveled.

He continued, "But today, not only did the Sword Immortal refuse that brat's summons, he also unleashed a fierce wind that scattered all my brothers across the mountain, leaving you completely unharmed. Do you think I'd believe that?"

"I wasn't the only one who was unharmed," Li Hu replied.

"Then how do you explain your complete escape unscathed! If this sword energy and gale were the work of a sword immortal, why didn't he kill you?!"

"Two of the three corpses have already departed. If you die, he can advance further in the ranks of immortals. You fled here for three months seeking to escape the Sword Immortal. Why hasn't the Sword Immortal made a move yet?"

Qi Yuehong loudly accused Li Hu, filled with righteous indignation, but at the same time she was somewhat wary of him.

In his opinion, if Li Hu really wiped out the evil spirits of the entire Broken Limb Hill so easily, then he, a left-handed moon cultivator, would never be able to defeat him.

Of the three thousand great paths in this world, none are without their mastery of the battlefield. A heretical evil like Qi Yuehong, one in ninety thousand, can only resort to underhanded tactics. If a direct confrontation were to occur, Qi Yuehong knew that he was no match for Li Hu.

"It wasn't me, it wasn't me at all. If Brother Qi doesn't believe me, then I have nothing to explain." Li Hu took out the Moon Pearl from his pocket.

"Let's return this bead to Brother Qi."

Looking at Li Hu's self-righteous demeanor and then at the bead in his hand, Qi Yuehong was caught in a dilemma, unsure whether to accept it or not.

The two remained locked in a stalemate for a while.

Just then, Old Man Yuan finally ran over, panting heavily, breaking the awkward silence between the two.

While the two were locked in a stalemate, he searched through the entire mass of corpses at the severed limbs camp, and led two surviving evil spirits to Qi Yuehong's side.

"Commander, good news! Two brothers are still alive!"

Li Hu looked in the direction of the two people Yuan Sou had led him to, and saw that one was a ghost of impermanence floating in mid-air, and the other was a grimy rat crawling on the ground.

"You bastards are lucky. Aren't you going to thank the deputy commander for sparing your lives?"

Qi Yuehong continued to openly and subtly harass Li Hu.

He couldn't understand why Li Hu was doing all this, so for a moment he didn't know how to face Li Hu. He was just so angry that he could only say sarcastic things.

Li Hu wasn't annoyed. He reached out and pulled Yan Yang, who had been hiding behind him, over.

After the chaos subsided, six living beings remained: Qi Yuehong, Li Hu, Yan Yang, Yuan Sou, Wuchang Gui, and Huazhi Shu.

Originally there were 109 evil spirits, but now only five remain. As everyone gathered together, Old Man Yuan looked at the scene and his eyes darted around, as if he had thought of something.

He squatted down on the ground, scratched his cheek, and asked:

"Old Ghost, Rat, if I remember correctly, you two didn't eat the Moon Immortal's flesh just now, did you?"

Both the Impermanent Ghost and the Flowery Mouse shook their heads.

Neither of them had eaten meat. Since the impermanent ghost had no physical body, eating meat was of no use to it. In its daily life, it simply lived by absorbing human energy.

The fancy rat, being too weak, was pushed to the ground from the start. It was already quite an achievement that it managed to escape from the chaotic pile of evil spirits to avoid being trampled by other evil spirits.

"Hiss..." Yuan Sou looked as if he had just realized something, but he was still hesitating and thinking.

Qi Yuehong was the first to lose her composure and asked, "Old Yuan, have you discovered something?"

"Commander."

Old Yuan first stood up and clasped his hands in a fist salute, saying, "I discovered that the evil spirits that died had all eaten the flesh of the Moon Immortal."

Upon hearing this, everyone seemed to suddenly understand, as if they had grasped some crucial clue, but they still couldn't immediately figure out the truth.

Yuan Sou continued his analysis: "If that's the case, Commander, this gale might not actually be something Tiger Lord did."

"We devoured the flesh of the Moon Immortal, which is an act of utter horror throughout history. It is only natural that Bai Yujing was extremely enraged and sent down this fierce wind."

Qi Yuehong hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, and then said:

"What you're saying makes sense, but only a sword immortal could unleash such a sword aura. Since a sword immortal has descended to the mortal realm to enforce the law, why not also kill Li Hu?"

"Am I destined to die?" Li Hu asked grimly, something he couldn't understand either.

"If the Sword Immortal is five parts suspect, then you, Li Hu, are at least three parts!"

Qi Yuehong's anger surged again, and she looked like she was about to cry. "Did all those hundred-plus brothers of mine die in vain?!"

"Am I just going to let all my decades of hard work go to waste?!"

Knowing his grief, Li Hu stopped making further provocative remarks and silently pondered the sword immortal's motives.

No one spoke again.

This loss was a shocking event for everyone, so each of them started to make their own calculations.

"My lords, I think we should not linger here any longer."

At this moment, the impermanent ghost, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

"We have been gathered here for a long time, and this place has long been targeted by cultivators from all walks of life. The evil spirits are full of rare and precious materials. Now that it has been destroyed, it must be extremely dangerous now. I think it would be best if we left as soon as possible, otherwise another battle is inevitable."

"Commander, perhaps we should leave first, find out Bai Yujing's intentions, and then find another cave dwelling."

"When we regroup and know our enemy better, it won't be too late for you to lead us to a comeback and pursue our great cause again."

His sincere and steady advice eased Qi Yuehong's expression considerably.

"Know yourself and know your enemy...then plan for a great cause..." Qi Yuehong repeated these two sentences softly.

The area fell silent again, only to be broken by the fancy mouse after a long while.

"So where should we go now?" the fancy mouse asked, its eyes wide.

The white ape, Yuan Sou, scratched his waist, pondered for a moment, and then said, "I do know of a treasure land."

He began to pace through the crowd.

"Before venturing out into the world, I lived in seclusion in Blackwater Mountain for eighty years. There was a cave in Blackwater Mountain where the elders of our lineage of spirit monkeys lived."

"That elder is three hundred years older than me, and his cultivation is not shallow. He is a diviner who has transformed into a spirit, and is said to know the past five thousand years and the future five thousand years."

"If you want to know anything, just toss in a few copper coins, hehe, guess what?"

Old Yuan circled around among the group, then announced, "The answer is clear!"

"To achieve great things, we need talented people. This is exactly the kind of place we need now. Before we do anything in the future, we might as well consult that old ape to predict our fortune. It would be better than suffering such an undeserved disaster as we have today."

Yuan Sou usually boasted on the stage, but if he said these things at ordinary times, probably few people would believe him.

However, even in her current state of utter confusion, a glimmer of hope appeared in Qi Yuehong's eyes.

"Is what Old Yuan said true?" Qi Yuehong asked.

"Yes, I wouldn't dare to lie." Old Yuan waved his hand and smiled in acknowledgment.

"Good, that's excellent."

Qi Yuehong composed herself, sighed, and said, "Let's find that old ape and find out what's going on with this strange gale today. We'll make plans for what happens next."

"Take care, everyone. We'll take our leave now."

At this moment, Li Hu suddenly cupped his hands and said, "Let's save some face for each other. If we meet again in the future, I, Li, will treat you to a drink and a good chat."

These words came abruptly, but after saying them, he grabbed Yan Yang and turned to leave.

He finally saw it clearly: Qi Yuehong and her gang of evil spirits were a complete ragtag group, and following them around like headless flies was a waste of time, which was obviously not a good choice.

"Wait!" Qi Yuehong suddenly interrupted loudly.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch. Don't even think about escaping until you've cleared your name."