Old Zhang's body began to sway,
and he slowly stood up.

Faintly,
the crisp sound of bone-on-bone friction could be heard from within his frame.

A very strange feeling was emanating,
at least for the people in the bookstore.

In reality, there really is such a thing as official authority. You might not feel anything special when you see the village secretary at the entrance of your village, but going higher up, for ordinary people, there really is a kind of invisible pressure.

It was as if when he stood up,
the sky above,
was also lifted up.

Naturally,
everyone else became relatively "shorter."

Fortunately, the people in the bookstore weren't purely ordinary people. Although they felt a bit short of breath and a little tightness in their chests, they weren't so scared as to kneel down and kowtow.

If it were before,
perhaps they would have.
Back then, Lawyer An was really quite a mess when he first saw the projection of the Xie Zhi clone.

But with their own boss's glorious record of twice tearing apart Xie Zhi with his bare hands,
the deterrence of Xie Zhi, that aura, was obviously greatly discounted in the eyes of the bookstore crowd.

It's like seeing the goddess on TV taking a noisy diarrhea twice in the cubicle next to you.
Well, the words are rough, but the principle is sound.

Old Zhang stood up,
staring at Zhou Ze,
with supreme majesty.

Sometimes,
standing in a high position for too long, you often regard yourself as a "god," which is what the great man meant by being detached from the masses.

Xie Zhi felt that
when it stood up,
the person in front of it
should kneel down,

but the person in front of it just looked at it calmly,
without the slightest hint of fear.

In fact,
Xie Zhi could even see the corners of the other person's mouth twitching slightly.

This was,
this was!!!!

He was actually holding back a laugh!!!!

"It's a big one, bigger than before, you blockhead."

"Yes… it… is…"

"You come to deliver things every time, and each time it's bigger than the last. If I didn't know better, I'd think you two were buddies back in the day."

"I… didn't… use… to… think… it… was… so… love… ly…"

It was really too kind,
too kind.

It came bearing gifts;
coming once should have been enough, yet it came three times like visiting a recluse!

On the bookstore's side, apart from Lawyer An's speculation that Ying Gou had already awakened, everyone else was actually uncertain.

But on Boss Zhou's side,
firstly, his strength had greatly increased recently.
Just beating up the Flower Fox Marten was the best proof of that.

Secondly, there was a kind of expansion that came with having a blockhead in hand, making him feel invincible!

"Meow!"
The black cat called out,
its voice
carrying a hint of trembling.

Clearly,
as an artifact spirit,
it was afraid of the existence before it.

But it still continued to manipulate the formation, blocking the connection between the things within the formation and the outside world.

Back then, the old man created a barrier that isolated the connection between Detective Chen's Xie Zhi clone and its main body. Now, this formation has the same effect.

It's the same principle as when Xu Qinglang merged with the Sea God's portion,
to put it bluntly,

the principle is to forcibly merge a clone while hiding it from the main body, thereby creating a *fait accompli* through the method of getting on the bus first and buying the ticket later, forcing the other party to hold their nose and acknowledge your existence.

Therefore,
as long as the formation isn't broken,
Boss Zhou and the one inside him
are not afraid!

Moreover, they weren't afraid of the Xie Zhi's main body coming in person later. That level of existence, not to mention whether it could normally appear in the Yang realm, even if it really came regardless, it wouldn't be without any commotion.

At that time, it wouldn't just be a simple road closure;
but wind and rain would rage, and jeez, it would definitely be a big scene. When that time came, naturally, they'd do whatever felt right.

"It's you?"
Xie Zhi lowered its head, looked at itself, and then looked at Zhou Ze.

A smile appeared on its lips,
and it said:

"What a coincidence?"

Yes,
very coincidental.

It had only been lurking for a few hours,
and it was directly discovered.

It could be said to be
quite embarrassing.

It was a bit like planning to co-opt a member of a black society to be your informant,
only to find the boss of the organization and prepare to co-opt him.

"You are presumptuous, daring to hunt my clone! Today, I, in person with a wisp of my spirit, will surely bring you to justice!"

The refined language
carried a sense of oppression.

Boss Zhou was still not flustered at all. This feeling was like watching the chicken that was jumping around the most joyfully in the yard putting on a show, imagining what it would look like when it was taken out of the oven later.

Moreover, it was like an opera singer's aria, out of place.

Xie Zhi raised its hand,
intending to break the formation first.

Boss Zhou also raised his hand,
he couldn't let Xie Zhi break the formation.

"Crack!"
A crisp sound rang out.

It wasn't the formation cracking,
but streaks of red electric snakes began to travel all over Xie Zhi's body.

Xie Zhi's hand, which had just been raised,
fell down.

Its body trembled,
and it actually sat back down in the chair,
its head drooping,
a look of astonishment on its face.

"This is…."
Xie Zhi placed both hands on its chest,
where
Zhou Ze had just stuffed a Stupid Pen.

"Heh… heh…"
From the depths of its heart,
came the chuckle of the blockhead.

Zhou Ze could understand.
Back when the blockhead and he were not on good terms, every time it got angry, it was forcibly sealed down by the Stupid Pen.

He had experienced that taste, and now seeing others experiencing it, he naturally felt much more comfortable.

"How can this pen be here…"
Xie Zhi was a little puzzled, and a little dazed, but its tone and movements still revealed a natural fluency.

"Crack!"
The crisp sound came again from the chest.

A large "Seal" character was suspended above Xie Zhi, beginning to press down!

Xie Zhi raised its head,
opened its mouth,
and let out a roar.

The "Seal" character trembled, blocked, unable to truly descend.

"Such a small place actually has such interesting things."

Xie Zhi opened its palm,
a patch of black darkness wandering in its palm,
and then slammed it into its chest:

"The laws of heaven and earth are eternal, Seal!"

"Zzzzzz…"
The sound of boiling oil rang out.

Xie Zhi let out a low growl in its throat.

When it moved its palm away,
at Old Zhang's chest, where Zhou Ze had stabbed the Stupid Pen,
a black halo actually appeared.

The Stupid Pen, which excelled at sealing,
was actually sealed!

This scene surprised even Zhou Ze.

Boss Zhou was surprised, and the bookstore crowd on the periphery was terrified.

Originally, in their eyes, that pen was the key to the seal, the trump card. Now that their greatest reliance was sealed, what should they do next?

A look of understanding appeared in Xu Qinglang's eyes.

"A Dharma Beast is an existence that controls the Dharma, sealing everything illegal and irregular.
The art of sealing is its specialty.
A miscalculation, a miscalculation."

Using the art of sealing against a Dharma Beast
was really like showing off one's skills in front of the master craftsman.

Lawyer An rolled his eyes at Xu Qinglang and said, "Now is not the time for you to be a supporting character and explain things from the sidelines, is it?"

Xu Qinglang smiled and looked at Lawyer An and said,

"I don't know why, but when I see you're not nervous, I'm not nervous either."

"…" Lawyer An.

Did that mean that he was really a coward when there was real danger in the past?

However, having said that,
Xu Qinglang still took out a talisman and silver needles from his pocket. He was planning to forcibly stimulate his body's potential in a desperate situation, inviting the Sea God to possess him!

The little monkey also jumped out of the old Taoist's arms and lay on the bar, biting its teeth, its body trembling, ready to transform into a demon monkey at any time.

On the walls of the first floor of the bookstore, the green of the vines had already covered them, ready to fall at any time.

In the corner,
the little boy stood up, his mouth slightly open, trying to mobilize the baleful aura within his body.

The little loli stood beside the little boy, not speaking.

Even the old Taoist,
at this time actually put his hand into his crotch,
his expression was very serious,
but this action,
coupled with this expression,
was really as comical as it could be.

Lawyer An was stunned for a moment.

Damn it,
was this a TV series they were about to film?

Everyone was showing a determination to die?

Should he add some exciting and tragic background music for them!

This was often seen in war movies, where several wounded soldiers gathered together and charged towards the enemies that pounced on them again under the smoke.

No, no,
or were they all drama queens?

Yes!
Lawyer An suddenly understood.

He had more information than others,
that was, the one inside the boss,
if nothing unexpected happened,
should have awakened.

Didn't they see that the boss still had a normal expression?

Lawyer An really didn't believe that Zhou Ze was pretending!

He wasn't pretending,
he had to pretend!

Lawyer An's bone hand was exposed. With only one arm left, he looked quite like Yang Guo. It was a pity that there was no giant eagle in the bookstore, only a silly marten.

Sometimes,
Lawyer An would also miss his previous self, wearing a wine-red suit, well-dressed, cold, and refined.

At that time, he could have completely been a cover figure for men's fashion magazines.

But now,
sigh…
In fact, it wasn't his fault. It was that this world, this society, was too cruel. Anything beautiful would be distorted and deformed here.

He walked forward,
to the edge of the formation,
his face calm,
without any excessive force,
only a faint melancholy.

His bony fingers gently fiddled at his lips,
and he said lightly:

"Boss, you retreat first."

The standard of acting emphasized artistic conception rather than cumbersome words. In this regard, Lawyer An was very successful.

Then,
Lawyer An was stunned.

Because he felt that he had succeeded too much.

First of all,
his own boss actually nodded,
and began to retreat,
really not saying a word, not being the least bit wishy-washy.

Afterward,
the red circle of the formation in front of him actually took the initiative to open a gap for him, signaling him to go in.

Especially the black cat that was manipulating the formation,
he didn't know if it was really stupid or pretending to be stupid.

Seeing that he didn't go in in time,
it actually made a sound, urging him:

"Meow!"