The ultimate master in the city

The woman inside staggered out, screaming, "I'll eat you all!"

"ah--"

The shop owner and his daughter panicked. Seeing that the master had not appeared, they shouted and ran towards the front door.

Just as the woman was about to catch up, a sharp shout suddenly came from the nearby rooftop: "You beast! How dare you cause trouble?"

The woman and the shop owner and his daughter looked up at the same time and saw a young man in a leather jacket standing on the roof ridge next to them, looking down with piercing eyes, with several glowing yellow paper talismans floating around him.

The shop owner, who had never seen this person before, was taken aback. The woman's face changed drastically, her body twisted, her skin wrinkled, and with a "rip," her entire skin fell to the ground. Immediately afterward, a blood-red figure flashed up the backyard wall and disappeared in another flash.

Zhou Fengchen exclaimed "Damn it!" He, Zhang Shisan, and Monk Yuanzhi had been waiting nearby for a while and had guessed the monster's reaction, but they didn't expect it to be so fast. They quickly used "Wind Shadow Escape" to catch up.

Beyond the courtyard wall lay a dark forest. The red shadow darted into the woods, moving about with terrifying speed.

Seeing that he was about to lose the chase, Zhou Fengchen was not worried at all. Instead, he chuckled and silently counted: three, two, one!

"what!"

Suddenly, the running red figure screamed and its body split in two, falling to the ground with a thud.

"Beautiful!" Monk Yuanzhi and Zhang Shisan appeared from the side, each carrying an ink line.

Monk Yuanzhi was overjoyed, "With you, Old Zhang, I can predict it's coming this way!"

Zhang Shisan narrowed his eyes and laughed, "It's nothing. From the perspective of a prodigy, this is called divination. I know a little about it."

"Then teach me another day."

"No problem." Zhang Shisan waved his hand smugly.

Zhou Fengchen arrived at this moment, looked down, and exclaimed, "What the hell is this thing? How did it end up mixed up with the bride ghost and that pack of wolf demons?"

The red figure vaguely resembled a human, but it had a pair of pointed ears and a short tail, and its claws had sharp hooks. Its body was covered in blood and gore, but this bloody mess looked very natural, as if it was born that way.

Monk Yuanzhi shook his head. "I don't understand!"

Zhang Shisan was also puzzled. "I've never seen anything like it before. The world is truly full of wonders!"

As they were talking, the monster's two halves suddenly healed on their own. Then, with a monstrous scream, it turned into a pile of flesh and sank into the hole in the tree in the ground, leaving only its head sticking out, baring its teeth and yelling, "I won't let you get away with this!"

The three were completely dumbfounded. Was this even possible? Were they dead, or trying to escape?

"Not good!" Zhou Fengchen sensed something as he formed a hand seal. "The aura is strong; he's not dead!"

"Get your tools!" Monk Yuanzhi shouted, pulling out a bag of salt.

Zhang Shisan and Zhou Fengchen also pulled out salt bags, tore them open, and haphazardly sprinkled them over his head, shouting, "I'll pickle you to death, you bastard!"

Upon seeing the salt, the monster's expression changed drastically. It opened its mouth and screamed incessantly, turning into a puddle of steaming white foam in the blink of an eye, emitting a pungent, fishy stench.

Zhou Fengchen and the other two quickly retreated, and only approached after the foam dissipated.

Monk Yuanzhi felt a wave of relief. "Luckily we bought salt, otherwise this thing would have really burrowed into the ground and gotten away. We don't know how to burrow!"

"So salt is sometimes a really good thing. When I'm about to die, I'll take on an apprentice and teach him nothing but how to sprinkle salt." Zhou Fengchen said as he squatted down and poked at the foam with a twig.

Zhang Shisan and the other man chuckled strangely. Seeing Zhou Fengchen stirring up bubbles, they asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Let me examine its body structure... Hmm?"

As they were talking, Zhou Fengchen pulled a bunch of fishbone-like things out of the foam, with a shiny jade piece sandwiched in the middle. When he picked it up, he could vaguely see some words on it.

"What is this thing?" Zhang Shisan and his companion came closer. It was too dark to see clearly, so they took out a lighter and lit it.

By the firelight, one could see the words "Jingnan Demon Taoist" written on the sticky jade piece.

The three of them looked at each other in bewilderment.

Monk Yuanzhi analyzed, "Could it be that this demon was originally a Taoist priest, but later went astray in his cultivation and turned into this monstrous form?"

Zhang Shisan shook his head. "It doesn't look like it. This thing looks like a magic jade disc that can control monsters. It's a bit like the magic of the Sun family in Hubei."

"Alright, no time to study it!" Zhou Fengchen casually wiped the jade piece on the snow, stuffed it into his pocket, and said, "Go back and talk to that supermarket owner, get him to bring back his wife's corpse, then we'll have accomplished our mission. Hurry up and beat up those corpse-transporters, then find the owner's wife and Old Chu, and then we'll all go back to celebrate the New Year!"

Monk Yuanzhi clapped his hands, "All done!"

The three returned the way they came and arrived at the supermarket's backyard, where they found the supermarket owner and his daughter holding the human skin and crying their hearts out. A crowd of people had gathered around them, and some of them with sensitive tear ducts were also wiping away tears.

Upon seeing Zhou Fengchen and his companions enter, the shop owner yelled and rushed over, tightly hugging Monk Yuanzhi's leg, "Master! I believe you now! What happened? Where is my wife?"

Upon seeing this, the onlookers retreated in fear.

Seeing the shop owner and the little girl's sorrowful expressions, Zhou Fengchen and the other two sighed inwardly.

Monk Yuanzhi chanted a Buddhist prayer, bent down and patted the shop owner on the back. "Amitabha! Birth is karma, death is karma. A person lives a hundred lifetimes, but in the end, he is nothing more than a handful of dust. The cause and effect of life and death have long been determined. It is useless to grieve in vain. This is your wife's calamity, benefactor... Please accept my condolences, please accept my condolences, let it go, let it go."

Monk Yuanzhi's words were quite insightful. The shop owner, whether he put them down or not, let out a scream and fainted.

The little girl burst into tears upon seeing it.

Zhang Shisan hugged the little girl and wiped away her tears. "Mommy's still here, watching over you. It's not good to cry, is it?"

The little girl hummed in agreement and nodded, her voice choked with emotion.

Zhou Fengchen scanned the crowd. "Any close relatives here?"

A young man in his twenties stepped forward, nodded, and said, "Me."

Zhou Fengchen revealed where the shop owner's wife was hiding, offered a few words of comfort, and then gave Zhang Shisan and the other man a wink.

The three of them hurriedly left the house.

As soon as he stepped out the door, a group of people behind him all knelt down and kowtowed.

The three of them were so embarrassed that they took off running and didn't stop until they reached the edge of town.

Monk Yuanzhi took a deep breath and said with emotion, "The people in the mountains are so simple and honest. I don't know what the shopkeeper said to them, but they treat us like gods."

"Three outsiders, who can kill demons, plus a woman's skin, and that story you made up—they're scared, aren't they? They should know better!" Zhou Fengchen spat, grabbed a passerby, and pulled out a hundred yuan. "I need to ask you something."

Upon seeing the money, the man reached out and grabbed it, shouting, "Ask me! Ask me!"

Zhou Fengchen asked, "Do you know where Baldhead Ridge is?"

The man was taken aback, then said, "Isn't this it?"

"what?"

Zhou Fengchen and the other two were dumbfounded. They glanced at the mountains to the east, then looked at the distance they had traveled from the south. Good heavens! They had taken a huge detour, turning ninety li into one hundred and eighty li.

"Have you ever heard of any corpse-driving services around here?" Zhou Fengchen asked in a low voice.

"Then you've come to the right person." The man glanced at Monk Yuanzhi with a strange expression and said, "My second aunt's and third aunt's nephew-in-law's grandfather died. We just hired them to transport the corpse. They're in He Tou Zhai, about 30 li west of here."

Crane Head Village? The head of the corpse-driving masters, Crane Old Dragon? The three exchanged glances. Sure enough!

I like the novel "The Strongest Master in the City".