After learning that the female ghost was someone with connections, Han San and Long Feicheng began bickling nonstop.
Just moments ago, the two were addressing each other as "Brother Han" and "Brother Long," but now they were calling each other "Han the lapdog" and "Long the lapdog."
Hmph, men!
Yan Shouyi was speechless at their antics. He wanted to intervene but didn't know who to side with. In his helplessness, he called out,
"Can someone go take care of Xuanxuan for me?"
"I will, I will!" the two immediately stopped arguing, responding in unison.
Kong Xuan had been startled and hadn't recovered yet. The two lapdogs immediately handed her a blanket and poured hot water, showing as much attentiveness as possible.
This gave Yan Shouyi the chance to have a quiet chat with the Night Watchman.
He introduced himself, "As you can see, I am a descendant of Lu Ban, my name is Yan Shouyi, and those two are my friends, Long Feicheng and Han San."
The Night Watchman glanced at the two, then said with certainty, "You are a good person."
Yan Shouyi was taken aback, "Why do you say that?"
"In any case, I can't stand those two idiots," the Night Watchman replied earnestly.
Yan Shouyi laughed so hard he could barely breathe. Fortunately, Long Feicheng and the others were too busy playing lapdogs to hear what the Night Watchman said, otherwise, there would have been no end to it.
The Night Watchman said, "My name is Xu Qian, the Night Watchman."
Yan Shouyi thought for a moment, "Then Xu Zhiping is..."
"You know my master?" Xu Qian asked with some surprise.
Yan Shouyi replied, "Sort of... I came looking for him."
"But my master has been missing for two years, and I'm in charge of this area in Qiantang now," Xu Qian sighed softly.
Xu Zhiping's disappearance was within Yan Shouyi's expectations.
Based on his experience meeting so many descendants of folk sects, whenever he encountered a young descendant of a folk sect, the older generation had usually met with misfortune – either death, serious illness, or simply going missing.
In fact, this was not hard to understand. If the older generation could no longer act, there would be no need for the younger generation to take over.
Yan Shouyi didn't pry further about the missing Xu Zhiping, as he was Xu Qian's master, and if even Xu Qian couldn't find him, why should an outsider worry needlessly?
So, he inquired about the recent events.
Fortunately, Xu Qian had no defenses against Yan Shouyi and directly explained the entire sequence of events.
It turned out that not long ago, Xu Qian discovered that the yin energy in this area was too heavy, with many lonely spirits and ghosts from Qiantang gathering here, preferring to pester those with insufficient yang energy at night.
As the Night Watchman, Xu Qian began patrolling and keeping watch nearby every night. If he encountered any gathering of lonely spirits and ghosts, he would shout at them to leave.
A week ago, Xu Qian passed by Kong Xuan's house. Kong Xuan, a young girl living alone, was already in a dangerous situation. Xu Qian paid close attention to her, but unexpectedly, Kong Xuan later attracted something unclean, which were the young ghosts of the Yu family.
Having been in Qiantang for many years, Xu Qian had some understanding of the local powers in Qiantang, and the Five Great Ghost King Families also knew his name. Therefore, out of respect for the Yu family, Xu Qian had not truly intervened, merely shouting each time he passed by to drive away the Yu family's young ghosts.
Later, however, those young ghosts found a female ghost to be their backer and began lingering at Kong Xuan's house. Xu Qian became annoyed and decided to stand downstairs and watch for a while each time he passed by, warning the female ghost and the young ghosts not to cause trouble.
At first, the female ghost showed some respect. Later, she probably felt Xu Qian was easy to bully and became increasingly brazen.
Until tonight, when the female ghost intended to make a move on Kong Xuan right in front of Xu Qian. Xu Qian finally had no choice but to act.
However, even after intervening, according to Xu Qian's original plan, he only needed to capture the female ghost and send her to the Yu family to be disciplined by the Yu family's Ghost King.
As a result, Long Feicheng acted swiftly and directly severed the female ghost's head, leaving her no chance of recovery!
Even more outrageously, Han San directly revealed his name, making it difficult for the Yu family not to retaliate.
After listening to Xu Qian's account, Yan Shouyi also felt the complexity of the matter.
The Ghost King Families were not to be trifled with. When he was in Rongcheng, he had expended immense effort and gathered the strength of the Lushan Sect, the Guling Liu family, and other companions to bring down the Bai family of Fengfei Mountain.
Now, upon arriving in Qiantang, they had provoked the Yu family, a local power. Moving forward in Qiantang would surely be fraught with difficulties.
"How many Ghost Kings does this Yu family have, and what are their respective strengths?" Yan Shouyi inquired.
Xu Qian replied, "The Yu family is the head of the Five Great Ghost Kings of Qiantang and venerates two Ghost Kings within their household."
"Two... that is indeed a bit tricky!" Yan Shouyi's face showed a thoughtful expression.
"Alas!"
Xu Qian sighed again, "If it were just the Yu family, things would be easy to handle. But the trouble is that you've come at the wrong time."
"What happened now?"
"Qiantang is different from other cities. The Yu family has deep roots, and the other four families were cultivated by them. The four major families now obey the Yu family's orders without question. This means you have provoked five Ghost King Families simultaneously, a total of six Ghost Kings!"
"Good heavens..."
Yan Shouyi was dumbfounded and wished he could travel back a few minutes to grab Long Feicheng, who had killed the female ghost, and rough him up.
No wonder Xu Qian had been wearing such a pained expression since earlier, and no wonder he, who appeared so upright, didn't want to kill the female ghost to eliminate a menace.
It turned out that the powers involved were so formidable!
"This is still not the most troublesome part," Xu Qian said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Because the Five Great Families are very united, the righteous individuals in our Qiantang have also supported each other to counterbalance the Yu family. This has also led to very tense relations between us and the Yu family. For the past month, both sides have been itching for an opportunity and an excuse to make a move. Your killing of a descendant of the Yu family this time has likely provided the Yu family with the perfect reason to declare war on us."
"Damn it..." Yan Shouyi also began to have a headache, "It was just a female ghost, is it really that serious?"
"That's why I said you came at the wrong time," Xu Qian said dejectedly. "If the Yu family wants to escalate this, tonight's incident might become the catalyst for both sides to act."
"Let me calm down..."
Yan Shouyi held his head and tried to organize his thoughts.
So, the righteous individuals in Qiantang were so united and had already formed an alliance, but this was also forced upon them by the Yu family and their ilk. Although there were no fixed rules in this world, a balance would always form subtly.
It was just that this balance was unstable and could be broken at any moment. After a round of cleansing, a new, hard-won balance would emerge.
Little did he expect that the ones to break Qiantang's balance would be outsiders like them, who had only arrived in Qiantang less than a day ago!
Yan Shouyi asked, "You said these righteous individuals support each other... Is there a sect leader?"
Qiantang had no shortage of prestigious and righteous sects. If he could communicate with their high-ranking officials, perhaps this trouble could be resolved.
Xu Qian replied, "We don't have a sect leader. It's just that everyone highly respects an elder, so they are willing to follow her advice."
"Who is that person?"
"A descendant of a folk sect—the Lirong Master, Shen Shuzhen."