I defeated the saint with a parry.

"Let's go! Little Red Leaf will take us there."

Little Red Leaf pointed in a direction, and three figures disappeared into the wind, hurrying away.

A few breaths later, they arrived at the location where Little Red Leaf's mother had set up her stall, on the busiest street in the north of the city.

The place was in complete chaos, with overturned stalls on all sides and fresh vegetables and various snacks scattered on the ground, but none of the vendors were there.

Even the shops on both sides of the street had their doors and windows tightly closed, and the usual hustle and bustle was completely gone.

"The constables from the yamen, even though the troublemakers are ghost cultivators, they shouldn't be able to protect the whole street."

"Not only that, what about the other colleagues in the Demon Suppression Division?"

How come no one from the Demon Suppression Bureau was present when there was trouble in the city?

This is definitely not right.

"Master Lion, can you smell where they've gone?"

"You bastard Xu Ling! We're lions, not dogs!" the Lion Lords shouted in unison. "Besides, that's not how you use the barrier lions."

That being said, it's true that a nose isn't something you can just have for nothing.

The two transformed kittens sniffed the scent on Little Red Leaf's body, then began searching along the spot where Red Leaf's mother had been overturned, finally looking towards the northeast.

"The smell followed that direction; it was a mixed bag, and there were quite a few people. It wasn't just the smell of ghosts, but also a lot of people."

"Walk!"

Two lion statues led the way, and they followed the shops to the north, winding their way through various alleys, from the main street to the back alleys, until they arrived at a City God Temple.

The City God Temple in Fancheng is located in the northeast corner. It doesn't occupy a large area. It's a small two-courtyard house. If it weren't for the plaque of the City God Temple hanging at the entrance, it would even give people the illusion of a normal house.

The temple was particularly noisy at this time.

Xu Ling led Zhong Song into the temple, where they were greeted by familiar faces.

The small courtyard in front of the temple was crowded with forty or fifty people. Half of them were standing in the surrounding corridors, while the rest were all in the courtyard, surrounded by several inhuman-looking figures.

"Um?"

"Master Zhao!"

Zhao Yi looked over upon hearing the sound, initially beaming with delight, but the moment he saw Zhong Song, he exclaimed in shock, "Holy crap, something's fishy!"

"Where did this ghost come from! Take it down!"

The people hiding inside the City God Temple all looked over and rushed forward, shouting "Catch the ghost!" without any fear. These people were carrying various weapons, from cleavers used for butchering pigs to kitchen knives and machetes they'd somehow found; some even had sickles and brooms as they surrounded them.

Judging from their attire, they are all merchants from the nearby area.

Needless to say, the group of vendors who had disappeared all came here. Sure enough, a soft exclamation came: "Hongye! Old Zhong? What are you doing here?"

Old Man Zhu gathered his strength and shouted, "Everyone! Don't make a move! Those are my daughter and officials from the Demon Suppression Division, not some ghost like Wang Mazi!"

"what?"

The crowd stood frozen, their hands gripping the sickles and other weapons; it was awkward to put them down, but equally awkward to keep them.

Zhao Yi also realized what was happening and chimed in, "Hold on! This Lord Zhong Song is the demon slayer who died saving me last time. We were just too excited to react, please forgive us. Let's just keep guarding..."

"Why didn't you say so earlier? If it were a demon slayer, that would be completely different. How could a scoundrel like him compare!"

Zhao Yi wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead and came forward with Old Man Zhu. Beside the old man was a pretty young woman who was also selling tofu.

"Lord Xu! Lord Zhong! It feels like we've met again in this temple, it's like a lifetime ago."

Xu Ling smiled and cupped his hands in greeting: "Boss Zhao, you have quite the methods. You gathered everyone here and even took down Wang Mazi's group. If we had reacted any slower, none of us would have escaped either."

"Hahaha, Lord Xu, please don't make fun of us." Zhao Yi returned the greeting with a smile: "We also heard the announcement from the Demon Suppression Division and were already on guard against these scoundrels. They had only been on the street for a short while when they attacked Madam Zhu, and we captured them."

"Then why were you hiding in the City God Temple?"

"Ask them!"

Zhao Yi kicked Wang Mazi and the others who were tied up.

"Speak! Tell the officials of the Demon Suppression Division what you said before!"

Wang Mazi and his group of five were no match for the dozens of ordinary people in front of them, not to mention that there were quite a few people with cultivation levels among them, just like Zhao Yi and Old Man Zhu.

Even a small portion of it would be enough to feed Wang Mazi and his gang.

The reason we could let them bully us before was simply because we weren't united back then.

Wang Mazi, kicked, didn't dare complain and began to confess: "We were all tricked to death by evil cultivators. They tricked us into going to the City God Temple to find something, but we didn't find anything there, only a secret passage. Unfortunately, after we went down there, we lost our memories after walking in that passage for a short while. Now that I think about it, we were killed by those evil cultivators."

"That evil cultivator told us that if we could obtain that item, he would guide us in our cultivation. When we asked them why they didn't go themselves, they said that the City God Temple was protected by incense offerings and could ward off ghosts, so they couldn't get in."

"Incense offerings?"

Xu Ling looked at the stone statue of the City God, but couldn't discern any trace of divine power.

This is completely different from what he experienced in Taoyuan Village.

He patted one of the lion statues uncertainly: "Can you see the City God's spirit path?"

The Moon Lion had already looked at the stone statue when Wang Mazi mentioned it, as had most of the people in the temple, who also paid their respects to the City God.

Moon Lion shook his head: "There's no need to listen to this person's nonsense. If there were really any gods in this City God Temple, they would have been invited by our Demon Suppression Division to serve as priests long ago. Why would they need to live in such a small courtyard?"

Zhong Song also said, "What Master Lion said is right. The City God Temple doesn't have much incense offerings on weekdays, and it can't even support the temple keeper. So where does this City God come from? The idea of ​​warding off ghosts is utter nonsense."

"So Chun Chun was tricked. It's not safe here either."

The vendors also realized the problem, and a few of them couldn't hold back and rushed up to beat Wang Mazi and his group.

Zhao Yi asked, "Then what do we do? These ghostly things are everywhere in Fancheng now. Where else can we go besides staying at the City God Temple?"

"It's alright." Xu Ling pointed to Zhong Song and Zhao Xiong and said, "With these two senior brothers here, everyone can stay at the City God Temple and treat our Demon Suppression Division people as the City Gods."

"What? You'd rather believe in gods than in us demon slayers?" Xu Ling glanced around and, finding everyone silent, couldn't help but remind them, "Think about it: when demonic or human calamities strike Fancheng and the surrounding areas, are the Demon Suppression Division the first to step forward, or the City God? Those who risk their lives to protect you, are they gods or demon slayers?"

"Lord Xu is right." Zhao Yi stepped forward and pointed at Xu Ling and Zhong Song, saying, "Everyone knows me, Old Zhao. Our family survived this business trip entirely thanks to Lord Zhong and Lord Xu's risking their lives."

He then pointed to Zhao Xiong: "Back then, there was a village outside Fancheng that became a ghost village. Everyone should have heard the story of how an official risked his life to save people. If I'm not mistaken, this Lord Zhao is the one from that story."

As he recounted his story, and with the help of Old Zhu's family, more and more people in the crowd recognized Zhao Xiong and Zhong Song.

"Master Zhao and Old Man Zhu are right. The officials of the Demon Suppression Division are willing to risk their lives to protect us. Why shouldn't we trust them?"

"Exactly. Every time something happens, they're the ones who rush to the front lines. If we don't trust them, who else can we trust?"

"With them here, we can rest assured."

......

Seeing that the situation had stabilized, Xu Ling turned to Wang Mazi and asked, "Tell me, where did you come from?"

Before Wang Mazi could speak, a murderous intent suddenly erupted from the crowd, and two streams of spiritual energy struck Wang Mazi and his group. In an instant, the five of them turned into ghostly energy, their souls scattered.

"who!"

Zhong Song roared and instinctively tried to step forward, but he forgot that his magical weapon had been destroyed in the battle with the Human-Faced Tiger, leaving him standing empty-handed. Zhao Xiong, standing beside him, was in the same situation... He had self-destructed, leaving him with nothing.

The crowd had already scattered the moment the dirty trick was revealed, exposing the person.

"Butcher Wang, how could it be you?"

Zhao Yi exclaimed in surprise, "You've been selling meat in Fancheng for over ten years, how come...?"

"So it seems you were the evil cultivator who killed Wang Mazi and the others back then," Xu Ling continued. "With your cultivation level, you're at least at the Sea Gazing Realm, yet you've hidden yourself in Fancheng for over ten years. You've really gone to great lengths."

What?

Many people in the crowd were familiar with Butcher Wang. They all set up stalls here and saw each other every day. Who would have thought that a butcher would actually be an extraordinary cultivator?

"Lord Xu is indeed as rumored, possessing a brilliant mind that can guess things accurately with a mere whim." Butcher Wang gripped his slaughtering knife, showing no panic despite his identity being exposed: "But if you want to find the secrets of this place, I'm afraid it's impossible."

"Let's not wait any longer, my friends from the fox clan," Butcher Wang called out.

An aged voice responded, "You humans are truly boring. You could have exposed yourself, but you had to drag me along."

Standing beside Zhong Song, Old Man Zhu suddenly threw away his cane, and in a flash, he transformed from an old man into a standing red fox.

Another scenic spot overlooking the sea.

His voice also changed, gradually becoming younger, and finally becoming what is known as a youthful voice: "Butcher Wang is right, you all should not go down to this City God Temple."