After transmigrating into the body of the protagonist's childhood friend, he was targeted by a

Cheng Yan coughed lightly and stepped forward, saying with righteous indignation, "Slaying demons and eliminating evil is the duty of us disciples of the Tianheng Sect. There is no need for such formalities."

"Now that the heretical cultivator has been brought to justice, we must escort him back to the sect for trial. It's getting late, so everyone should hurry home."

He spoke with righteous indignation, and coupled with his blue disciple's robe, he did indeed have a somewhat otherworldly air about him.

The villagers thanked them profusely again before slowly backing away.

Seeing Bai San's haughty and grateful demeanor, Lin Zhixu shook his head helplessly, turned around and called to the other disciples to prepare to take Bai San away.

Just then, Bai San, who had been keeping his head down, suddenly let out a sinister laugh.

"Naive." He slowly raised his face, his eyes gleaming red. "You don't really think I'm that easy to catch, do you?"

Everyone's expression changed.

Cheng Yan's hand was already on the hilt of his sword: "Everyone, be careful!"

Bai San laughed wildly, and suddenly a large amount of black energy surged out from his body, enveloping his entire body.

The black mist surged and churned like a living thing, growing ever larger, and his voice emanated from within, carrying an almost manic smugness: "Haven't you heard of my escape technique? You think you can catch me? You're delusional!"

Everyone was on high alert, their swords flashing as they stared intently at the black mist.

Cheng Yan unleashed his full spiritual power, ready to receive any attack at any moment.

But the next second, the black mist dissipated.

Bai San remained in the same spot.

He was still in the same position, laughing loudly, and hadn't yet managed to wipe the arrogant smile off his face.

Then, looking at the familiar scene before him, his expression froze instantly.

Everyone: "..."

Cheng Yan gripped his sword, waiting warily for a while, but didn't get any follow-up moves.

He turned to look at Lin Zhixu: "Is he... preparing a big surprise?"

Lin Zhixu didn't speak, but simply raised his chin, indicating that he should see for himself.

Bai San finally couldn't hold back any longer. A vein throbbed on his forehead, and he activated the demonic energy within his body once more.

The result was the same; nothing happened.

Bai San broke down.

He glared fiercely at Lin Zhixu, his voice shrill and almost cracking: "How could this happen? What did you do to me?!"

Lin Zhixu slowly walked forward.

Just as Bai San was about to utter a few more harsh words, he was slapped on the back of the head, falling face down to the ground and kicking up a small cloud of dust.

The others gasped in shock.

This will probably disfigure you, right?

Lin Zhixu shook his hand, looked down at him, and said condescendingly, "If you're incompetent, why are you pretending to be a villain? I'm using a Spirit-Locking Talisman made by a Celestial Venerable, which is definitely a top-quality product. Even the Demon Venerable would struggle for a long time. You think you can break free? You're just delusional."

Bai San: "..."

Everyone realized what was happening and immediately straightened their backs proudly.

Cheng Yan waved his hand dismissively: "Take him away!"

……

Back at the sect, after handing Bai San over to the Punishment Hall for processing, the group briefly reported the information they had gathered and then dispersed.

The subsequent events involved demons and evil cultivators, which were not something these disciples could get involved in.

As soon as Lin Zhixu stepped out of the Hall of Punishments, someone called out to him from behind, "Uncle Lin, wait a moment."

He paused, turned around, and saw one of the elders from the Punishment Hall.

Lin Zhixu gave Cheng Yan, who was not far away, a look.

Cheng Yan understood, waved to him, and then led the other disciples away first.

Lin Zhixu followed the elder back into the inner hall.

The elder closed the door behind him, poured him a cup of tea, and politely invited him to sit down: "According to seniority, I should address you as Uncle-Master. However, we are going to discuss official business, so I will not stand on ceremony. Please forgive me if I have been disrespectful."

Lin Zhixu nodded, without any formalities: "Elder, please speak."

The elder sat down opposite him, straightening his expression: "I just heard Cheng Yan say that you subdued this evil cultivator all by yourself?"

Lin Zhixu nodded: "Yes."

"Did you manage to get any information out of him?"

Lin Zhixu thought for a moment and said, "There are indeed some. I originally planned to go back and write a detailed report before submitting it, but since the elder asked, I will just give you a verbal explanation first."

The elder's eyes lit up, and he immediately took out paper and pen from his sleeve, laid them on the table, and prepared to take notes.

Lin Zhixu organized his thoughts and slowly said, "This person calls himself Bai San, but I think it's probably not his real name, but more like an alias based on his birth order."

"This suggests that there may be accomplices like Bai Yi and Bai Er ahead of him, or at least that he has a well-established organization behind him."

The elder paused, then nodded and said, "That makes sense."

"Furthermore, I speculate that the evil cultivators nowadays are roughly divided into two factions. One faction is organized, with stronger backing, and operates more covertly."

"The other faction consists of independent cultivators, who are more numerous but vary greatly in cultivation level. Most of them are wandering individuals who have been bewitched and fallen into evil ways. Although independent cultivators are not strong, they have the advantage of being scattered, making them more difficult to capture."

The elder quickly took notes and nodded repeatedly.

"Organized evil cultivators are troublesome, but they are still traceable. If we can pry information out of the people we capture and follow the clues, we might be able to uncover the forces behind them."

Lin Zhixu reminded him, "Bai San is a cunning man who is good at using a combination of truth and lies. You can't completely trust the information he gives you, but it's not entirely useless either."

"When you are reviewing it, it is best to cross-reference the evidence and find several details that match before deciding whether to adopt it."

The elder repeatedly agreed, closed the notebook, stood up, and bowed respectfully: "Thank you for the reminder, Uncle-Master. We will definitely pay attention to these things."

Lin Zhixu stood up and returned the greeting: "Elder, there's no need to be so polite. If there's nothing else, I'll head back now."

The elder escorted him to the door and watched him walk away before turning back to the inner hall to prepare for interrogating Bai San that very night.

……

Lin Zhixu returned to Qiyue Peak.

With Yu Linzhou absent, the entire peak was eerily quiet.

He returned to his room. During this period of relentless extermination of evil cultivators, his body and mind were stretched to the limit. Now that he could finally relax, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

He quickly washed up and lay down on the bed, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

In the stillness of the night, moonlight streamed in through the cracks in the window.

Suddenly, a wisp of black energy silently emerged from Lin Zhixu's wrist.

The black mist, like a living thing, slowly spread upwards along his skin, growing thicker and thicker until it enveloped most of his body with each breath.

Just as the system was about to protect Lin Zhixu's body, it suddenly saw that the moment the black mist touched Lin Zhixu's chest, a golden light suddenly exploded from his clothes.

The black mist seemed to have been struck hard by a heavy hammer, suddenly contracting and emitting an extremely fine and sharp buzzing sound before dissipating without a trace.

Lin Zhixu suddenly woke up, sat up, and a layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

He instinctively clutched his chest, his heart pounding rapidly, and it took him a long time to calm down.

He took out the black jade pendant from his clothes, examined it carefully in the moonlight, and suddenly stopped.