Chapter 4

If it weren't for the fact that the incident with the long-haired bandits had already passed one or two hundred years ago, they would have been scared shitless by now.

"Don't be afraid, they're just shadows. Just shadows..."

As he said this, the long-haired bandits were getting closer. The shadows, though somewhat blurry in the wind, remained orderly, surrounding everyone...

Or rather, surrounding the entire General Temple.

Everyone felt something was amiss. At this moment, even the most hard-mouthed would realize that these shadows were far from simple.

And the images recorded by the so-called magnetic field wouldn't be this vivid and three-dimensional...

"Ah..." One of the hooligans, either bold or nearly scared out of his wits, actually shouted and lunged at the shadows, swinging a steel pipe...

But it passed through the shadow like mist. Then, the guy started screaming, foaming at the mouth, and rolling on the ground.

The situation looked like an epileptic seizure!

Everyone was terrified. The leader shouted, "Damn, walking the night road too much really brings out the ghosts. We've been in the江湖 (jianghu) for so long, but we never thought we'd encounter evil here today. Brothers, with no way out, we have to fight!"

At this moment, they were already surrounded. In front was thick fog, and behind was the dilapidated temple, leaving no escape or retreat.

For a moment, their ferocity seemed to be ignited. These hooligans weren't scared shitless. Instead, under the leader's encouragement, the two beside him also threw caution to the wind, shouting, "Fight!"

"Definitely the work of this broken temple. Watch me smash this rotten face first!"

One of them, his ferocity unleashed, kicked the door of the General Temple.

Unfortunately, he forgot that sandalwood is known for its sturdiness, let alone such old material.

After being treated with the secret method of the General Temple, the door, though looking old and broken, was as hard as steel. Not to mention his kick, even an elephant might not be able to break it down.

This kick not only failed to break the door but almost sent him flying. As he clutched his foot and screamed, he heard his companions shouting in terror, "Be careful!"

Before he could react, he felt a coldness on his back, as if a thousand-year-old ice had stuck to him. He was almost frozen stiff, unable to move.

Then, he felt an evil, icy consciousness rise from behind, directly rushing to his brain.

"Damn, it's a ghost attack..." This was his last thought...

Outside, ghostly howls echoed everywhere. Tang Changsheng heard clearly, but a cruel smile appeared on his face: "Hmph, even if the General Temple is like a tiger fallen on the plains, it's not something you wild dogs can bully!"

As he spoke, the smile on his face suddenly froze.

It was the key, or rather the Bagua mirror, in his hand, which began to shine with a ripple-like light.

The ripple then enveloped Tang Changsheng, and in the next moment, he disappeared without a trace, as if he had never appeared in the quiet room...

With Tang Changsheng's disappearance, or rather the disappearance of the Bagua mirror, the pearl hanging high in the quiet room slowly brightened again.

As the light gradually illuminated, the fog outside, which was getting closer to the General Temple, seemed to encounter its natural enemy and retreated step by step...

Tang Changsheng didn't know that the next day, several helicopters landed in front of the General Temple.

Seeing the temple door tightly closed and the bodies lying haphazardly outside, the burly men who got off the helicopters shivered.

Until a lean old man in his fifties jumped down and respectfully knelt down, bowing three times to the General Temple.

Then he stood up, looked at the bodies on the ground, and the hooligans who were scared out of their wits, and said, "Clear these bodies away..."

"Boss, we came so late, won't the General Temple's priest be angry?"

A man over two meters tall, as strong as a bear, now comically lowered his voice, with a sly expression, and whispered.

The old man didn't speak, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes...

"Should we go in and explain a bit..." the man said.

The old man trembled, "Are you crazy? Didn't you see how these hooligans died? Without the priest inviting you, you dare to step into the General Temple?"

This scolding made the burly man realize. He looked at a hooligan who was still alive but foaming at the mouth, crying and laughing, shouting, "Ghost, there's a ghost, save me..."

The nearly two-meter-tall man shivered and dared not say more.

The old man then took out a satellite phone, "Hello, Zhang Dacheng? I'm Zuo Xingfa... Something happened at the General Temple, seven or eight hooligans are dead outside, and five or six are insane!"

Almost clearly, the sound of a sharp intake of breath could be heard through the signal. After a long pause, a dry voice came from the other end, "I'm no longer involved in the underworld, and I've washed my hands and gone clean... I'll handle the official matters for the dead."

In other words, he had nothing to do with the rest.

Zuo Xingfa laughed dryly, "Alright, but what if the priest asks you?"

The former underworld boss on the other end trembled, and after a long pause, said dryly, "The General Temple hasn't contacted us for over ten years!"

Zuo Xingfa chuckled, "You can explain it to the priest yourself!"

Saying that, he hung up the phone. His mood improved significantly...

How to put it, when a person is down, seeing someone else in the same predicament can be a comfort?

Zuo Xingfa, after all, was a big shot in Xiajiang. Now, for the sake of the General Temple, he was on edge, trembling with fear.

If he didn't drag Zhang Dacheng, his fellow sufferer, into the mess to share the fear, he would be very upset!

Strange, the General Temple hadn't contacted them for almost twenty years.

According to their private observations, it seemed that magic was becoming harder to practice in this world, and there were fewer and fewer high-level practitioners...

Why today...

Seeing the bodies and hooligans on the ground, the small thoughts that had just arisen in Zuo Xingfa's mind vanished!

Soon, the news that a dozen hooligans had come to the General Temple to cause trouble but were suppressed by the temple's priest, with some dead and some injured, spread again among the three major families in Xiajiang.

"Strange, strange. In recent years, it's said to be the end of the Dharma, and Daoist magic is no longer effective. How does the General Temple still have such great power..."