The Heavenly Court is gone, I don't want to be a True Lord.

The next day.

The North Bay and South Bay are separated by the Liang River, and there is not much interaction between them. Fishermen only go there to work when the river level drops in autumn and winter.

Compared to Nankou Bay, Beikou Bay is more barren, after all, it is farther from Fushan City, and the people here are very ignorant.

Sun Bao's mother had married into the family from the other side of Beikou Bay, so she personally led Zuo Qi to the other side.

Zuo Qi received a more grand welcome in Nankou Bay than he had imagined.

The clan elders personally led a group to welcome them at the village entrance.

Zuo Qi didn't want his image to be too perfect in the eyes of these villagers, so he didn't mention the purpose of going to the other side of the river, only saying that he wanted to go to the other side to see if he could catch the treasure fish.

He opened the fish market and had Sun Bao with him, and no one suspected anything.

After much refusal, Zuo Qi finally managed to say goodbye to the villagers of Nankou Bay, and took a small boat belonging to a fisherman in the village, carrying Da Hong to the other side.

With Sun Bao's mother's introduction, Zuo Qi also met the child who had encountered the water ghost and seemed to have been possessed by an evil spirit.

The child, who looked about seven or eight years old, lay on a straw mat with a pale face. His pupils were grayish-white when his eyelids were turned up, and there was a small but deep wound on his neck, indicating that he must have bled a lot.

Taking advantage of the moment when the child's parents turned around, Zuo Qi opened his Heavenly Eye.

Lifespan: 3 (5)

[Spiritual Essence: 1 (6)]

In addition, Zuo Qi also saw traces of energy flowing like that of demons on the child.

Its current state is half human and half demon.

This was the first time Zuo Qi had encountered someone who had survived being attacked by a water ghost.

As is well known, water ghosts are bloodthirsty. Once they encounter a living creature, especially a human, they will do everything in their power to drain the blood from the body. Those who are no match for a water ghost are often drained of all their blood and turned into a dried-up corpse.

Zuo Qi became increasingly curious about the child's plight. Under normal circumstances, to save this child, it would require the intervention of a master of the fourth level or above, whose qi and blood would penetrate the child's body to dispel the demonic power remaining on the child's body.

However, Zuo Qi is not a practitioner of the Four Practices, and his Qi and blood cannot be released externally.

After thinking for a moment, he took out some dried snake meat from his pocket, soaked it in water, and then ground it into a paste with a stone before feeding it to the child.

He then used his Heavenly Eye to carefully observe the distribution of demonic power, slowly kneaded it, and placed his hands on it, circulating the Ice Sea Fist Seal, recalling the process of absorbing the ice pearl.

The effect was poor, but at least it worked.

After more than two hours, the child finally woke up.

His eyes were unfocused; he was not fully awake yet.

The child's parents wept with joy. Their family was small, and this child was their only child. Fortunately, they met Zuo Qi today.

As he spoke, he was about to kneel down in front of Zuo Qi.

Zuo Qi quickly stepped aside, saying, "I have some questions for the child."

Once the child's parents nodded, Zuo Qi asked the child what had happened.

The child, named Shitou, was very excited to learn that Zuo Qi had saved him. After thinking for a moment, he spoke when he heard Zuo Qi's question.

"I went to the river to dig for loaches with Big Fish from the east end of the village. Then I accidentally fell into a river hole. It was very dark there at first, but then several immortals appeared, their bodies shining with light. They said something about wearing muddy waves as clothes or something. I can't remember them."

"Then how did you get out?"

"I don't know either. That deity tapped me and I fainted. My father found me."

Zuo Qi looked at the child's parents, and they both nodded in unison, indicating that the child was right.

Zuo Qi fell silent.

He wondered what the stone had encountered, but with his limited knowledge, he still couldn't figure it out.

After thinking for a moment, Zuo Qi spoke.

"Sun Bao, take your mother and Shi Tou's family back to the fish farm first."

The palace that Stone mentioned might be special. He felt that Stone might hold some secrets, so he decided to take Stone back first.

Sun Bao hesitated, then turned and left with his men.

When Shi Tou woke up, his parents respected Zuo Qi very much and obediently went to pack their things.

……

Zuo Qi, carrying his halberd, led Da Hong towards the river cave where Shi Tou had disappeared.

River caves are formed by the constant erosion of riverbanks by the river, creating water-filled holes in the land.

Soon, Zuo Qi arrived at the river cave.

The cave was very deep. Zuo Qi used his halberd to measure it. The 2.3-meter-long halberd was completely submerged in the water, but he still couldn't reach the bottom. After thinking for a while, he took out the water-repelling bead and went into the water directly.

The water was dark, and Zuo Qi opened his Heavenly Eye.

We descended six or seven meters before we felt our feet were on solid ground, but we still didn't see the palace in the mouth of the rock.

Amidst my surprise, I suddenly saw something that looked like a tombstone on the rock wall to my left!

The position of Lord of Lianghe River.

Is someone making offerings here?

There was also a faint smell of blood in the water.

Zuo Qi frowned immediately. What kind of good person could be enshrined in such a dreadful place?

As I was thinking this, I was suddenly startled. I saw bubbles appearing on the rock walls all around me, as if something was about to come out.

Hiss~!

A familiar roar could be heard.

To Zuo Qi's horror, more than a dozen water ghosts of varying sizes emerged from the rock walls on both sides.

These water ghosts were different from the ones we had seen before; they had some special markings on their bodies, like some kind of talisman.

To Zuo Qi's relief, most of them were water ghosts with about ten years of cultivation.

If it weren't for his Heavenly Eye, he wouldn't even be able to see the existence of these water ghosts.

Ordinary people in the water, even if they are masters of the fourth level, may not be able to escape easily when facing the elusive water ghost.

Unfortunately, these water ghosts encountered Zuo Qi.

Now that he has broken through the third level of cultivation and has a handy weapon, even though his combat power is somewhat weakened in the water, he has the Heavenly Eye to see through the weaknesses of the water ghosts.

Faced with the raging horde of water ghosts, Zuo Qi moved swiftly, like a tiger descending a mountain, charging forward without dodging or avoiding.

The halberd in his hand whistled through the air, stirring up the water and causing chaos.

Bang bang bang!

With several muffled thuds, the three water ghosts that came towards them barely had time to stick out their long tongues before Zuo Qi's halberd pierced their core weak points.

[Slay demons and monsters, Heavenly Fortune +6]

The thirteen water ghosts instantly transformed into spirits and ice beads, floating in the water.

Zuo Qi took out the yellow jade, collected the essences one by one, and then collected the ice beads before exploring again.

There were two waterways connecting the river, but nothing else was found, and the palace in the stone mouth was never seen from beginning to end.

Could it be that the palace the stone saw was a water demon's lair?

Given the large number of water ghosts here, it's not surprising that there's a demon's lair.

……

Two middle-aged farmers carrying loads on their shoulders arrived from the direction of Beikouwan Village; one of them was none other than Xu Feng.

"Lao Shan, here to collect the fish?"

Xu Feng smiled憨厚ly, "The weather's been nice these past few days, your village must have had a good harvest, right?"

The villagers of Beikou Bay responded with smiles.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the other party, Xu Feng suddenly remembered something and asked, "I heard that a child in your village was possessed by a water ghost? How is he now?"

"You mean Stone? Sigh." The man sighed. "Stone's father is frantic. This morning he said if Stone doesn't wake up soon, he's going to go to the city to find those officials."

Upon hearing this, Xu Feng's expression changed slightly, and his pupils contracted slightly.

"How pitiful."

After a pause, Xu Feng took out a packet of herbs from his pocket. "But encountering an evil spirit isn't a big deal. This is some good medicine that our village is currently preparing. Please take it to Shi Tou."

After dealing with that person, Xu Feng's expression instantly darkened.

His companion also looked worried. "Brother Feng, what should we do? It seems that the child just happened to enter the demon's lair a few days ago and actually survived. Will the news get out?"

The water demon's lair is hard to find. They finally found it some time ago and used the Xu family's secret treasures to move the lair to that river cave. They planned to use some special methods to imprison the group of water demons and then revive the lair when needed, releasing the water demons they had been feeding.

I didn't expect to hear about the Beikou Bay incident this morning, so I rushed over. It turned out to be the last thing I wanted to see.

"Draw water, level the riverbed, and move everything that can be moved as soon as possible."

After thinking it over, a ruthless glint appeared in Xu Feng's eyes.

Once word gets out that something strange is happening in the river cave, it will inevitably attract unwanted attention. If anyone finds out that someone from the Xu family is hiding nearby, there will never be peace.

The companions were somewhat reluctant to part with it. They had lured the demon's lair here and raised so many water ghosts. They had put in a lot of effort, and now it was all wiped out so easily. They wondered how those water ghosts were doing.