The ultimate master in the city

His voice was very youthful, and he wasn't very old.

Zhou Fengchen scoffed, "That's some serious bragging. You're practically frozen solid squatting here. How can you even feel a fish taking the bait?"

He could be quite irritating sometimes, which made the man a little angry. He snorted and said, "I'm not fishing for fish!"

His snort startled Zhou Fengchen, who looked him over carefully before sneering, "Not fishing? If you dare say anything like... like Jiang Ziya's 'willing fish take the bait' nonsense, I'll slap you across the face, you hear me?"

The man got angry, "I can say whatever I want, what's it to you?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the fishing rod dipped, as if something had taken the bait. The man exclaimed happily, "Where has another fool gone into the water in the middle of the night? Hahaha, I can finally give my master an explanation!"

He then forcefully reeled in the fishing line.

Zhou Fengchen blinked, frowned, moved a little to the side, and looked down.

Ripples began to appear on the water's surface, then grew larger and larger until finally a large splash appeared, and a person was hooked up by the fishing hook.

It was a woman, around thirty years old, wearing a floral cotton-padded jacket, with long, wet hair, a pale face, wide eyes, and her body twitching. She raised both hands to her forehead, as if trying to scoop up water.

She was clearly a woman who had just drowned!

The fisherman pulled the woman up, laid her across the log bridge, and then, intoxicated, leaned over her and took a sniff, chuckling wickedly with a strange black aura emanating from her body.

This appearance and these actions are truly terrifying and horrifying!

Zhou Fengchen took a deep breath and said, "Quite a haul! One person fell up here; that should be enough to feed us for several days, right?"

The fisherman paused, removed his hat to reveal a bald head—he was indeed a monk, not very old, around seventeen or eighteen, but with a small, round, dark face and pointed ears. He grinned at Zhou Fengchen, revealing a set of fangs, and said, "Aren't you afraid of me?"

Zhou Fengchen cracked his neck, pointed at himself, and said, "You idiot! Can't you tell what I do for a living?"

The young monk's expression changed. He threw down his fishing rod, picked up the woman, and tried to run away.

Zhou Fengchen sneered, drew his knife, and slashed down in mid-air, "You beast! Prepare to die!"

puff!

"ah--"

The little monk had barely taken a step when he was cleaved in two by a single stroke. With a scream, he instantly transformed into two dead cat pieces and fell into the river, along with the woman's corpse.

Zhou Fengchen quickly put away his knife and hung upside down on the log bridge to grab the woman. However, he only managed to grab the tip of her hair before his hand slipped, and with a splash, the woman's body fell into the river.

He exclaimed "Oops!" and went back onto the log bridge, quickly taking out his rattle-drum and shaking it twice, "Xiao Bao!"

Little Bao appeared on the bridge, looking dizzy, and said pitifully, "Daddy, I miss Mommy!"

"Don't think about your mother yet!" Zhou Fengchen pointed at the river: "You're a ghost, do you have any way to retrieve that woman's body? People who died unjustly need to be prayed for and laid to rest."

Xiao Bao looked even more pitiful, pouting, "No!"

"What can you do? You unlucky kid." Zhou Fengchen spat, put his palms together, first chanted "Amitabha Buddha," and then silently recited "The Sutra of Rebirth in the Pure Land."

I repeated it three times before stopping, and then I turned around and saw Xiaobao crying loudly.

This is truly a ghostly wail; anyone passing by would be terrified.

Zhou Fengchen sighed, reached out and hugged it to his chest, and asked, "Men, why are you crying?"

Xiao Bao nestled in Zhou Fengchen's arms, tears streaming down his face, "We men missed our mom!"

"Hehe..." Zhou Fengchen was overjoyed, carrying it as they walked across the bridge, coaxing it all the while, "Your mom went to visit relatives with your aunt, they'll be back tomorrow. It's not worth us men crying over this, right? We have big things to do in the future..."

Xiao Bao nodded, seemingly having understood, and finally stopped crying.

Reaching the riverbank, Zhou Fengchen glanced back at the water. "This cat demon is fishing for people. Within a three-mile radius, anyone who goes into the water now will die. How eerie is that? Where did all these ghostly things come from? There are so many ghosts and demons around; there must be some old monster roaming nearby!"

Xiao Bao shook his head, "I don't understand!"

"What do you know?" Zhou Fengchen asked casually as he carried it towards the village.

"I miss my mom!"

"Why are you missing Mom again?"

"Um!"

"Huh?"

"I miss my mom!"

"..."

……

Upon returning to the village, Zhou Fengchen put away Xiaobao and looked ahead. He saw that the entire village was brightly lit, and his grandfather's house was surrounded by people. Some people stood in front of the door, craning their necks to look around. When they saw Zhou Fengchen return, they were overjoyed and shouted, "Oh! The Daoist Master is back! The Daoist Master is back!"

slam-la-

A large group of people ran out of the house, led by Zhang Shisan and Monk Yuanzhi, who came forward and asked, "How did it go?"

Zhou Fengchen shook his head. "We chased them into a cave, lost them, and the cave was full of holes. Then, when we turned back, we killed a little monk cat monster who was fishing in the river. Don't you think that's strange?"

Zhang Shisan asked curiously, "What kind of cat monster?"

When Zhou Fengchen gave a brief explanation, Zhang Shisan and Monk Yuanzhi merely clicked their tongues in amazement, while the villagers watching from the sidelines had never heard of such a strange thing before. They were almost in a frenzy, exclaiming "Oh my!" and gasping for breath. Looking at Zhou Fengchen, they treated him as if he were a god.

Zhou Fengchen waved his hand and asked, "How are those three girls?"

Zhang Shisan shook his head and pointed to his grandfather's house, "They've all been brought over. Go in and take a look."

Zhou Fengchen was surrounded by the crowd as he entered his grandfather's house. Inside, there were three beds, and on the beds lay the three girls, their eyes closed and motionless. They weren't dead, but they were in serious trouble!

Zhang Shisan said, "I just performed a ritual to summon back the seven spirits, but I couldn't. It's said that the seven spirits are very ethereal, representing essence, energy, and spirit, and they shouldn't have been lost."

Zhou Fengchen nodded and said to his grandfather, "Let everyone disperse!"

Grandpa nodded in agreement and waved to everyone, finally managing to scatter the crowd. Only Grandpa and his wife, their three daughters, and their family remained in the house.

Zhou Fengchen then pulled Zhang Shisan and Monk Yuanzhi aside and said, "I suspect that all of this was done by the Scattering Flower Ghost King."

Zhang Shisan and Monk Yuanzhi had both heard of the Scattering Flower Ghost King, and after a moment of surprise, asked, "You mean...?"

Zhou Fengchen said, "The seven souls of the three girls have probably been taken away by the Scattered Flower Ghost King. This Scattered Flower Ghost King is someone that Master Wang needs to deal with. We definitely won't be able to get them back."

Monk Yuanzhi asked, "Then... what should we do?"

Zhang Shisan thought for a moment, "Actually, this matter has nothing to do with us, but the people in this village have been kind to us, so we can't just ignore it. I think we can try to get help from that Taoist Master Wu. If we can find the seven souls of the three girls, I will set up a great evil-repelling formation in the village, and then we can just leave."

Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi both nodded. "That's a good idea!"

After the three of them discussed it, they told Grandpa what they planned to do and then asked him where Master Wu was.

The old man thought for a moment, then shook his head. "This... I'm afraid it won't be easy to handle. Master Wu has a very strange temper!"

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