Chapter 1 Is This the Place?

Hu Ma stood still, looking around warily and anxiously, and glanced at the large locust tree. Half of the tree trunk had turned black, and a large number of bells were scattered on the ground. The branches and leaves drooped listlessly.

"Just now, Grandma fought with it?"

"..."

"This is the famous Locust Granny of Lao Yin Mountain."

When Second Master approached the old locust tree, he also slowed down his pace slightly, and said to Hu Ma in a low voice, "In the surrounding villages, all the infants who died young were, in the past, thrown into the pigsty, crushed and baked together, then thrown into the ground as fertilizer."

"But since Locust Granny appeared, they have all been sent here to be buried, and those families who can't have children will come to pray and then conceive."

"..."

"What the hell is that?"

Hu Ma thought of the black balls on the branches when Grandma fought with the old locust tree in the mirror, resembling infants. He felt strange and horrified, and tremblingly raised his head, "Why is it fighting with Grandma?"

"The strangeness lies here..."

There was even a hint of bizarreness in Second Master's voice, "Locust Granny is a famous benevolent deity in these villages, dedicated to sending infants who died young to be reincarnated."

"People in our village who couldn't have children before, Grandma would advise them to come to Locust Granny to pray. As long as they are sincere enough, offer sacrifices, and kowtow three times, if the bell rings, it means there is a child willing to follow the couple..."

"The more the bell rings, the more are willing to follow."

"They are all kind-hearted, how could they fight?"

"..."

"Sending infants to reincarnation?"

Hu Ma listened, and suddenly thought of something a little strange, but in his anxiety, he didn't have time to think about it.

"Hehe, it's not them fighting."

Just then, a laugh was heard. Turning his head, he saw that the old shopkeeper and the porters had also arrived, stopping far away.

The old shopkeeper stood with his hands behind his back, looking around at the mess, and sneered, "The old locust's spirituality has collapsed, and evil energy is overflowing. Some powerful thing must have possessed it, turning it into a puppet, and then it fought with your Grandma."

"And then?"

As soon as Hu Ma heard his words, he thought of the White-Faced Mountain Demon who had been driven into the village to find him.

It seemed that the thing sent by the Meng family was very good at this kind of ability.

He was immediately worried about Grandma's condition, and in his anxious eyes, he saw the old shopkeeper looking left and right, as if he had discovered something, and sighed softly, "Your Grandma is still kind-hearted, she knows that this old locust tree is actually innocent, and these little people who are parasitizing on the tree are also innocent."

"So she summoned Yin Thunder, but only split half of the old locust tree, leaving it a life."

"..."

Hu Ma and Second Master next to him trembled slightly in their hearts, vaguely understanding that this was indeed Grandma's style.

"But..."

Before they could rest assured, they heard the old shopkeeper say, "Hehe, when ghost walkers fight, the most taboo thing is to be soft-hearted."

"She left the old locust a life, so she herself must have suffered a great loss."

"..."

"Ah?"

Hu Ma was shocked and immediately said, "Then... where is Grandma now?"

The old shopkeeper frowned, his eyes scanning around, as if he was quickly deducing in his mind.

Just then, Xiao Hongtang, who had come with Hu Ma, suddenly raised her head.

She sniffed with her nose and immediately cried out in surprise, "Grandma."

Before her voice fell, a red shadow flashed, and she ran quickly towards a direction in the forest.

The others didn't know what was happening, but Hu Ma caught a glimpse of it and immediately followed Xiao Hongtang quickly. Second Master also nervously took the broadsword on his back in his hands and followed quickly.

The old shopkeeper glanced at them and knew that they had received news from the ghost messenger. He wasn't in a hurry to deduce it himself. Some nosy porters also wanted to follow and see what was going on, but he stopped them:

"Don't join in the fun, there are still some things that haven't been resolved inside!"

"..."

"..."

Hu Ma quickly followed behind Xiao Hongtang, passing through a small path submerged in weeds, vaguely seeing that there was a cliff in front of him. Behind the sparse bushes, he could vaguely see that there seemed to be a cave under the cliff. Wisps of smoke floated out of the cave.

"Grandma is there?"

He was delighted and quickened his pace, but suddenly, he saw Xiao Hongtang being pounced on by a dark, blurry object. The red shadow and the black shadow twisted into a ball, making sounds of tearing and gnawing like beasts.

Taking a closer look, it was actually a little person about the same size as Xiao Hongtang, his whole body painted black, exuding a cold and twisted aura.

Hu Ma was startled and hurried to help, but suddenly heard a strange laughter.

He hurriedly stopped and turned his head to look, and his body trembled slightly.

He saw four or five such monsters squatting on the tree on the left and on the ground, tilting their heads slightly and staring at him with pale eyes.

But it was not them who made the laughter, but a goat that turned out from behind the tree. Its horizontal pupils made people feel scared unconsciously. The laughter he had just heard was actually its cry, but it was as chilling as a sneer.

Upright Goat!

This was one of the monsters he had seen before. It was clearly the most normal, but it made people feel the most uneasy.

"It's controlling the spirits on the locust tree."

Just as he was startled, Second Master's voice rang from behind him, "These dolls were not originally evil spirits, but they were turned into evil spirits by someone."

"There is no hope for reincarnation anymore..."

"..."

Second Master slowed down his pace, walked to Hu Ma's side little by little, put the broadsword in his hand, and whispered, "Little Hu Ma, you can't deal with this kind of thing. Let your Second Master do it. You go and see how Grandma is now..."

Hearing Second Master's voice, Hu Ma felt a great sense of security in his heart.

Vaguely feeling that Second Master could definitely restrain this ghost goat, he nodded, took the broadsword, and suddenly rushed forward.

When those ferocious and twisted infant spirits saw Hu Ma move, they suddenly jumped up from the ground and pounced on him.

Hu Ma only felt a burst of infant cries in his ears, and felt inexplicably irritable, dizzy and nauseous.

But as soon as he moved, the fire in his abdomen burned up, and his movements were swift. He only cared about rushing forward. Second Master behind him rushed forward and roared, shaking back these infant spirits.

His sixty years of boy's practice seemed to carry some masculine and evil-breaking energy in his roar.

However, it only shook back the infant spirits. Their small bodies were actually ferocious and terrifying, and they rushed up again.

Second Master knew that these infant spirits, who were originally adopted by Locust Granny and wanted to give them another chance to be reincarnated, had now lost their way back and were infected by evil energy, so they were already ruthless and terrifying. He didn't dare to be careless, and used a blocking punch to block in front of him.

Those infant spirits couldn't stop in time, and their sharp teeth bit Second Master's arm, like a string of mice.

Second Master's arm was bitten with blood, and a look of pain flashed across his rock-carved face, but compared to that, those infant spirits were even more painful.

They wouldn't let go, but after being stained with Second Master's blood, white smoke suddenly rose from their bodies, as if they had been poured with sulfuric acid, and they were in great pain. Then Second Master waved his arm, throwing them away along with the blood.

While still in the air, several of them had already dissipated.

But at the same time, a ghostly laughter rang out, and the goat watched coldly, suddenly bending its front knees slightly.

It actually lowered its head, leaned forward, as if it was going to kowtow.

"Old Goat Kowtows..."

Second Master didn't take these infant spirits to heart, and kept all his attention on this goat.

Seeing it kowtow, he was shocked.

In the village, sheep, pigs, and livestock are raised, and the livestock in the village are often not raised for too long before they are slaughtered, but there are always some special ones, or they have eaten something, or it is just because they have lived for too long, and they will become a little evil.

Just like this old goat that has become a spirit, after a long time, it will learn to stand up like a human and kowtow.

But this kowtow is not a good thing. One kowtow can knock out a person's soul.

In a village next to Danyang Village, there was once a shepherd who went out to graze and was knocked out of his soul by an old goat, and fell off a cliff and died in a daze.

Facing this evil thing, Second Master didn't dare to be careless. Seeing that the other party had already kowtowed once, Second Master also took a step forward and knelt down, kowtowing to it.

The two heads collided, making a "bang" sound.

After this collision, both heads were a little dizzy, and the goat's eyes looking at Second Master changed.

Second Master knelt down too fast, so the goat's kowtow turned into a head-butting contest.

You can make it into a mutton pot, you can let it lie there obediently to squeeze goat's milk, and you can even hug it to warm the bed at night, but you must never use head-butting to insult it.

In the world of sheep, this is the biggest provocation, without exception.

So this goat also aroused its ferocity, jumped high with its two hooves, and slammed its head over again.

Second Master also braced himself and continued to headbutt it.

Bang bang bang bang...

The two fought back and forth, evenly matched.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Hu Ma had already rushed forward and grabbed Xiao Hongtang on the ground.

With a flick of his hand, he threw away the infant spirit that was entangled with her. While the other party was still in the air, he opened his mouth and shouted.

"Pfft!"

The raging fire in the furnace surged up, and a stream of yang energy shot out, directly piercing through the infant spirit and dissipating into nothing.

Hu Ma, with Xiao Hongtang in one hand and the broadsword in the other, strode towards the entrance of the cave.