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

Hearing this, Li Hu lost his patience: "I'm determined to leave. Besides the Sword Immortal, who can stop me?"

He gripped the hilt of his sword, his gaze sharp, and his eyes flashed with murderous intent as he turned to look back.

"Brother Qi, have you made up your mind?"

Li Hu's tough attitude immediately made Qi Yuehong's expression unnatural. He clenched his fists, looking ready to strike at any moment.

Upon seeing this, Yuan Sou and Huazhishu's legs went limp instantly, and they trembled uncontrollably.

Yuan Sou swallowed hard, forcing himself to remain calm, and approached Li Hu, saying with a forced smile, "Master Hu, Master Hu, please don't joke."

He forced a smile, his eyes darting around as he pondered a way to ease the tension.

"Tiger Lord, I'm sure you'd like to know what this Sword Immortal is all about, wouldn't you?"

"You've been hunted by the sword immortal for three months, and today, with such a perfect opportunity, you're the only one they've spared. Don't you want to know why this sudden change in attitude happened?"

"This immortal has transformed into a demon; if we cannot kill the immortal in return, we will not know what the immortal is thinking."

"Even if you have to live in suspicion your whole life, you'll never have peace of mind."

Old Ape feigned composure with his clumsy acting, but what he said truly resonated with Li Hu.

Sword Immortal Li Hu's ambiguous attitude made Li Hu feel uneasy. He had been chasing him for three months, but today he deliberately let him go. This was really unreasonable. He had never been the kind of person who liked to play with his prey.

Therefore, Sword Immortal Li Hu deliberately avoided me with his sword aura today.

There must be a reason for this.

However, the distinction between immortals and the wicked is clear, and they cannot sit down and talk about it. This is what is troubling Li Hu now.

"Go on," Li Hu said, loosening his grip on the sword hilt and addressing Yuan Sou.

"Hey, I'm glad you're calmed down."

Old Yuan circled around Li Hu and continued, "The divination ape on Blackwater Mountain can communicate with the gods and knows everything. If you want to know the ins and outs of this matter, you only need to have that divination ape toss a copper coin once."

"If I'm not mistaken, you don't have much to go now. This thing has just become an evil spirit, so it's best for everyone to stick together and travel in groups so you can look out for each other on the way."

"Tiger, why don't you come with us? If you change your mind along the way, no one can stop you, right?"

Yuan Sou spoke with sincerity, and Li Hu, who was more responsive to gentle persuasion than force, thought it over and over again before finally nodding.

If we want to understand the root cause of the sword immortal's change in attitude, this is the only clue we have right now.

Moreover, after what happened last night, the group that now wants to kill Sword Immortal Li Hu has changed from just Yan Yang and himself. It might not be a bad thing for everyone to be together.

Seeing Li Hu nod in agreement, Old Yuan clapped his hands excitedly:

"Commander, Tiger, you two, please proceed. I'll clear the way for you!"

"It's over a thousand li from here to Blackwater Mountain, but it will only take half a month to get there. If we have a fast horse, we can get there in five days without wasting any time."

After saying that, Yuan Sou quietly beckoned Yan Yang to go pack his luggage with him.

The five men and one rat immediately set off, leaving the area before any other bystanders arrived at the limb-severing site.

Yan Yang was the least experienced among them, so he carried the luggage and walked at the back.

Flowery Mouse sat on Yuan Sou's shoulder, two spirits followed behind Li Hu, and Impermanent Ghost floated above the group as a lookout, while Li Hu and Qi Yuehong, because they didn't like each other, walked separately on opposite sides of the group.

If Li Hu walked in the middle of the road, Qi Yuehong would rather die than follow behind him, and would insist on walking a few steps faster, leaving the others far behind.

Li Hu was unwilling to be so childish as to hold a grudge, but he was used to walking with the speed of the wind, which increased the speed of the whole team.

Therefore, it only took one day to get out of the Broken Limb Hill and travel more than two hundred miles of mountain road in one go.

One-fifth of the journey has been completed.

During this time, everyone in the group remained silent. Qi Yuehong was unwilling to talk to Li Hu anymore, and the atmosphere created by the two leaders made the other four people feel terrified.

However, it was Yuan Sou who eventually broke the awkward silence; he simply couldn't stand the two immortals battling it out.

"Commander, Deputy Commander."

Yuan Sou, panting with his knees propped up, humbly bowed to both sides of the group and said, "Both of you are extraordinary people with the bearing of immortals. However, Yan Yang and I are still mortals, and it would be too much of an honor for us to travel with you."

"Zhongzhou City is just below this hill. We might as well buy a few horses, prepare some dry rations, and get some rest. It's better than the hardships of the journey."

"At this rate, I'm afraid I'll perish on this road before I even reach Blackwater Mountain."

His tired monkey face was plastered with a smile, a fawning expression.

Li Hu looked back and saw that Yuan Sou and Yan Yang were indeed exhausted.

Yuan Sou's monkey hair made him look unremarkable, while Yan Yang's clothes were soaked with sweat, he looked disheveled, walked heavily, and was carrying luggage.

This young swordsman was taciturn, and Li Hu could see the tenacity in his bones. He didn't say anything, but his condition was probably even worse than that of the old ape.

Seeing this, Li Hu took out a silver ingot from his pocket and tossed it to Yuan Sou: "Let's go, we'll go to Zhongzhou City on the way, take Yan Yang to find an inn to buy some food, and then continue our journey tomorrow morning."

That silver ingot was worth ten taels, more than enough for the group to stay for half a year.

The old ape chuckled as he accepted the silver, but then suddenly a look of difficulty crossed his face:

"Thank you for the reward, Lord Tiger. However, with my pointy mouth and monkey-like face, I'm afraid I'll cause a commotion if I enter the city. Transformation is a profound skill, and I... don't know how to do it yet."

After some discussion, the group decided that Yan Yang should pretend to be a young man performing monkey tricks and lead the old ape and the fancy rat into the city.

The impermanent ghost can hide its form at any time, making it invisible to mortals.

Li Hu and Qi Yuehong, disguised as scholars traveling the same route, walked behind.

The Central Plains are a thoroughfare connecting nine provinces.

The town was bustling with peddlers and laborers from all walks of life, so the group didn't attract much attention when they entered.

However, the group had barely stepped into Zhongzhou City

They were immediately blocked by a large group of refugees who looked like beggars, who surrounded Li Hu and his companions like a tide in an instant.

It is early spring, a time of famine. The Central Plains is a convenient place for transportation, so it has become a gathering place for a large number of refugees and beggars.

These beggars were very good at judging people. They ignored Yan Yang, who was dressed in tattered clothes, and instead surrounded Li Hu and Qi Yuehong, who were dressed in brocade robes.

"My lords, please spare me a meal."

"My lord, my dear lord, please have mercy! My whole family hasn't eaten for three days."

The beggars, men and women, adults and children, were all skin and bones, with prominent cheekbones and sunken eyes. Upon seeing the two well-dressed people, they all knelt down instantly.

Li Hu didn't take it to heart. Seeing how pitiful they were, he took out a handful of copper coins from his pocket and scattered them far away with a clatter.

"Scatter, don't block the way," Li Hu shouted in a deep voice.

Li Hu expected the beggars to rush out and grab the coins, but to his surprise, the beggars simply wiped away their tears and remained unmoved, as if they didn't care about the coins at all, and continued to kneel in front of the two men.

"What does this mean?" Li Hu asked.

"Sir, you must be from out of town. You may not know this, but we refugees fleeing famine have no identity in Zhongzhou City and cannot buy food. The guards at the city gate are watching us closely."

"If they knew we took the money, they would definitely rob us the moment my husband left."

An old beggar pleaded tearfully, "If you, sir, have a kind heart, please give us a piece of bread to eat so we can get through the night. That would be an act of kindness, and you would surely have many children and grandchildren in the future!"

The old beggar knelt down on the ground, weeping and muttering auspicious words, while a group of beggars behind him kept kowtowing.

This put Li Hu in a difficult position. After becoming an evil spirit, they don't need to eat. Right now, even Yan Yang is starving, so where can they find steamed buns to eat?

"Scatter, I didn't bring any food with me."

Just as Li Hu was about to continue persuading them to leave, several refugees suddenly rushed out from the direction of the city.

They shouted excitedly, "Wong Tai Sin is distributing porridge at Caishikou! Wong Tai Sin is distributing porridge!"

After saying that, the refugees continued running without looking back, seemingly just passing by and stopping at the city gate to give a heads-up.

The news that someone was distributing porridge spread like wildfire among the refugees at the city gate. The refugees who had been kneeling before Li Hu begging for food immediately stood up, bursting with joy and tears, and ran barefoot towards a certain direction inside the city.

Li Hu and his group were caught in the crowd and found it difficult to break free for a while.

Li Hu dared not use his true energy to protect himself. These refugees were all physically weak, and Li Hu was afraid that if he used his true energy casually, he could knock out the surrounding refugees. Therefore, he could only follow the flow of people and slowly walk in the direction they were heading.

After turning through several streets and alleys, the six of them finally reunited. At this moment, Li Hu finally saw what the Wong Tai Sin, whom the refugees had been talking about, looked like.

The man was dressed in coarse cloth, with a bushy beard and hair, dark skin, and kind eyes; he could be spotted at a glance in the crowd.

He stood beside a large bucket of rice porridge, holding a spoon, and was serving the porridge to the refugees who were swarming towards him. His hand holding the spoon was quite steady, and even though the porridge was sticky, not a single drop spilled as he swung it.

Although this person looked like an ordinary person, the others still noticed something amiss.

"This person possesses spiritual power and has an extraordinary temperament; he must be a cultivator seeking immortality," said the Impermanent Ghost, who hovered in mid-air, squinting his eyes and gathering his sleeves as he looked at the person from afar.

Li Hu saw it clearly too, and after a long while, he said:

"Full of spiritual energy and surrounded by immortal aura, this person is probably only one step away from ascension."

"Ascension?"

These words immediately filled Yan Yang with envy. He stared longingly at the kind person distributing porridge in the distance, somewhat mesmerized, but he had no idea what Li Hu meant by "immortal aura."

After all, among these six people, only Li Hu and Qi Yuehong had ascended to immortality; the rest of the evil spirits were just mountain spirits and monsters.

This was the first time Yan Yang had ever seen a near-immortal, which left him momentarily stunned.

"Let's leave now, don't waste any more time." Qi Yuehong, who hadn't spoken until now, frowned and turned to leave.

Upon hearing this, Li Hu also prepared to set off, squeezing out from the bustling crowd of refugees.

Just then, a group of constables wielding iron bars burst into the crowd, shouting and scattering them before rushing straight to the center.

"Get out of the way!"

"Who gave you permission to distribute porridge here?!"

The head constable, arrogant and domineering, kicked over the porridge bucket in front of Huang Daxian, stuck out one leg and stepped on the porridge bucket, glaring at Huang Daxian as he spoke.

Thin porridge spilled all over the ground, but when the yamen runners came, none of the hungry refugees dared to step forward to drink it, remaining silent as if trembling with fear.

"If you're distributing porridge here, who will buy the rice from our yamen? Do we have any porridge distribution permits from the county magistrate?!"

The bailiff unleashed a torrent of abuse, spitting all over Huang Daxian's face.

These yamen runners, befitting their status as the official swordsmen and cannons of Zhongzhou City, displayed their tyrannical and domineering side. Not only did no one dare to utter a sound, but they even pushed and shoved Huang Daxian, who was taller than them.

Wong Tai Sin staggered a few steps after being pushed, but he wasn't angry.

He picked up the overturned porridge bucket, then placed his hands on his chest and apologized profusely.

"Sir, isn't distributing porridge a good deed that brings good karma? You should do this to accumulate some merit for yourself so you won't go to hell in the future."

"How dare you curse me!"

Wong Tai Sin seems to have extremely low emotional intelligence. He speaks bluntly, and his words not only failed to comfort the constable, but instead angered him.

"Go to hell!"

The head constable cursed and suddenly raised the iron bar in his hand, smashing it down on Wong Tai Sin's head.

This blow was incredibly powerful. If it had landed squarely, Huang Daxian, with his mortal body, would probably have ascended to heaven on the spot.

Boom!

Li Hu moved like a crane, flashing forward and catching the iron rod steadily with a wave of his hand. No one could even see how he arrived, and not a gust of wind was stirred up on the ground.

"And who are you, you damn bastard?"

The constable was furious when he saw someone dare to challenge his authority, and he wanted to draw his iron rod to teach them another lesson.

But he suddenly realized that Li Hu's scholarly hand was like an iron clamp, and no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't pull the iron rod out.

These constables were all skilled in martial arts. The leader, realizing he'd encountered someone trying to cause trouble, was even more displeased. He shouted at the rest of the constables behind him:

"Gentlemen, you are upholding the law! Guards, take this scoundrel out!"

"yes!"

Instantly, seven or eight iron rods came in from all sides of Li Hu, pressing against his waist and chest, intending to push him to the ground and beat him severely.

But the constables suddenly discovered that Li Hu's body was like an iron plate that had taken root. No matter how hard they tried, Li Hu's feet remained firmly planted, and they could not budge him an inch.

The head constable's face immediately changed, and he looked at Li Hu as if he had seen a ghost.

"Sir, distributing porridge is a good deed, and by giving out one more bowl of porridge, there might be one less corpse on the streets tomorrow. Why do you do this?"

Li Hu said softly.