Taiping Inn

Beimang County, County Office.

From the outside, the County Office was shrouded in heavy black fog, and it was pitch dark. But it was not the case inside the County Office. The lights were still on. In the lobby of the County Office, there were three chairs.

These three chairs originally belonged to Shang Xi, Sun Bujian and Magistrate Wang. Now Sun Bujian was killed, and his chair was occupied by Hong Chengchou who retreated from Guanque Inn.

At this time, the three of them were sitting on the chairs, each of them silent. The candlelight in the lobby illuminated the faces of the three people in an uncertain way, and also dragged their shadows long. The shadows kept jumping with the candlelight, as if they were ghosts with fangs and claws.

Outside, there was Wu Zhen from the Vajra Sect, Su Yunyan from the Cihang Sect, Madam Lu from the Taiping Sect, and a Purple Mansion Sword Immortal who had fallen but was still not to be underestimated. On the other hand, fortunately, he was a Purple Mansion Sword Immortal who had fallen into the realm. If he hadn't fallen into the realm, he and Wu Zhen would have joined forces, and even this array center would not have been able to stop them.

At this time, the three of them really felt a bit trapped.

After a long time, County Magistrate Wang finally broke the silence, but what he said was not very relevant to the current situation: "What should we do with those Qingluan Guards? The leader, Zhao Wuqi, is also a master of the Return to the Realm, and his weight is not light."

Shang Xi placed the sword on his knees, closed his eyes and rested, and did not say a word.

Hong Chengchou leaned his halberd against his side and asked, "Where are those people?"

Wang Zhixian said, "Some are still in the city, and some have already left the city. Because they are Eunuch Liu's men, we didn't do anything to them. Even if there are some zombies and ghosts, they shouldn't be able to do anything to them."

Hong Chengchou snorted coldly, "We have already reminded them in advance. Since they don't listen to our advice, let them fend for themselves. If they run into the hands of those righteous people, it will be their bad luck. We are now It's hard to guarantee, how can I manage them. "

This magistrate of Beimang County was also a genuine scholar in his early years. He studied hard for ten years and passed the examination for a scholar first, then a juren. He failed to pass the imperial examination and could only fill the vacancy of the eighth-rank county magistrate as a juren. Don't underestimate the county magistrate. A county government is small but complete. There are six rooms corresponding to the six ministries of the court. The county magistrate is also called the county master, who is the eldest master, and the county magistrate is the second master. If the county magistrate is absent, the county magistrate can act as the county magistrate. His original boss died of illness in office, and then he acted as the county magistrate. He worked for another three years, and was evaluated as above average. He took off the word "acting" on his head, and then was transferred to Beimang County, becoming a genuine seventh-rank county magistrate.

When he first arrived here, he also had great ambitions and wanted to do something practical for the people under his rule. He was not the kind of young man who was stupid because of reading books. He had been the county magistrate for several years and knew that the most important thing for an official was to make friends with the local gentry and wealthy families, so that the government could pass the orders. Otherwise, he would be a puppet. But he never expected that there were no wealthy families in Beimang County. There was only a cloud above his head, that is, Zaoge Zong. So, under the suggestion of the local county magistrate, he went to Guanque Inn to visit the shopkeeper, and then got in touch with Zaoge Zong.

To Mr. Wang's surprise, Zaoge Zong did not put on airs. He treated the newly appointed county magistrate with courtesy. First, he held a big banquet, and then presented a pair of enchanting beauties at the banquet. After the banquet, he presented 100 taels of gold and 500 Taiping coins, which flattered the county magistrate who was already prepared to be rejected.

Wealth and beauty are in front. The beauties are charming and enchanting, and the gold and silver are dazzling and moving. After hesitating for a moment, Magistrate Wang accepted it with a smile.

Afterwards, Zaoge Sect sent people to the door and respectfully asked the county magistrate to do a few trivial things. It was not a big deal to take advantage of others, so Magistrate Wang would naturally not refuse. Afterwards, Zaoge Sect also presented a thank-you gift. In this way, Magistrate Wang boarded the big ship of Zaoge Sect and got deeper and deeper into it. In the end, he could not extricate himself and lost his initial ambition of revenge.

By now, Magistrate Wang was no longer a scholar like a Confucian disciple, but a disciple of Zaoge Sect. In fact, the magistrates of Beimang County have always been from Zaoge Sect. If they refused to follow Zaoge Sect, they would either be squeezed out or die suddenly in office for no reason one day.

This time, Zaoge Sect was able to set up three large formations in the city, and at the same time used the county government as the center of the "Refining Spirit Formation". Magistrate Wang can be said to have made great contributions.

When Magistrate Wang heard this, he was not a man of the underworld after all, so his face turned pale.

Shang Xi, who had been resting with his eyes closed, slowly opened his eyes and said, "If I had known this, I should have kept these Qingluan Guards in the county government office and used the "Spirit Refining Formation" to refine them into "Eighteen Dark Dings", which would be more useful than those yamen runners."

Hong Chengchou said dejectedly, "Master Shang, what's the point of you saying this now? Master Sun, who presided over the formation, is dead, and Master Fan, who handled this matter, is also dead. You and I are both warriors, and we can only barely activate the formation to protect the county government office. We are not strong enough to refine the "Eighteen Dark Dings". Besides, they After all, they are Eunuch Liu's men. It is one thing for us to ignore them, but it is another to take the initiative to attack them. "

Shang Xi was about to speak when an old voice came from outside the hall: "It's no big deal to kill Liu Yi's people. When have we ever been afraid of anything in Zaoge Sect?"

This voice, at first glance, seems a little weak, like the half-dead voice of a dying person, but when you listen carefully, it reveals a sense of transcendence, which is similar to the "ethereal sound" of Xuannv Sect.

The three people in the hall stood up from their chairs at the same time and looked out of the hall together.

Then they saw a "Yin Yang Gate" appear out of thin air in the courtyard outside the hall, and four white paper figures carrying a coffin slowly walked out of the gate. These four paper figures were the most common paper figures, the kind used to burn for deceased elders in the family. There were two men and two women, the men on the left and the women on the right, with pale faces, snow-white blush, two black eyes, grinning, and a stiff smile, which was particularly creepy.

The four paper figures stopped a few feet away from Datang like living people and put the coffin on the ground.

Seeing this scene, the three people rushed out of the county hall and knelt down to salute: "I didn't know that the sect master had arrived. I didn't welcome you from afar. I hope the sect master will forgive me."

The lid of the coffin opened automatically, and then a tall old man in a shroud slowly sat up from the coffin. Unlike the Tibetan old man in Beimang Mountain, the face of this Tibetan old man was intact and his aura was different.

If the old man in Beimang Mountain seems to be the emperor of the underworld, with great power and suffocation, then this old man is ethereal and unpredictable, unfathomable and difficult to see.

The Zaoge Sect has the "three refining" method, so the old man has three bodies, corresponding to: refining the spirit, refining the corpse and refining the soul. The incarnation of the hunchbacked old man that was destroyed in Jingzi Town in Jingzhou earlier was the incarnation of the corpse refining of the old man, and the incarnation that appeared here at this time was the incarnation of refining the soul. The original body of the old man in Beimang Mountain corresponds to the refining of the spirit.

The cultivation of the incarnation outside the body is the most expensive, especially the level of the incarnation, which is directly related to the thing that is refined into the incarnation. If a fairy thing can be refined into an incarnation outside the body, then the incarnation will have the unparalleled cultivation of the longevity realm, but the only one who can do this is probably the immortal in the sky.

The two external incarnations of the old man Zang are made of different materials. Although the corpse-refining incarnation is made of various high-quality corpses, including warriors in the Return to Truth Realm, alchemists in the Innate Realm, and the bodies of many monsters, it was finally pieced together piece by piece, but it was still inferior in essence and destined to be unpresentable, so it only has the cultivation level of the Return to Truth Realm.

But this soul-refining incarnation is different. It is a great monk in the Heavenly Realm who passed away. His body is immortal and he left behind a golden body. The old man Zang spent a lot of effort to snatch it away, occupy the nest, and refine it into his own external incarnation. Therefore, this soul-refining incarnation comparable to the Heavenly Realm is the treasure of the old man Zang, and he will not use it casually.

Now his original body has to sit in Beimang Mountain, so he had to use the soul-refining incarnation. After Shang Xi and Hong Chengchou saw this incarnation, they put down their original hanging hearts. As long as the sect master sits here, the overall situation can be settled.