Chapter 1 A Blow to End All

Carrying the demon-suppressing golden mace, no head in all the world is safe from its strike!

Ever since acquiring this mace in Shixiazi Village, Hu Ma had been pondering whose head deserved its blow. Now, he understood, and this was the perfect moment to strike.

He took a step, unleashing his Entering the Mansion cultivation and Four Pillars Dao technique without reservation. However, against the demon-suppressing golden mace, it was still insufficient. The demon-suppressing golden mace was too heavy, so heavy that he could barely lift it.

But when he harbored a firm will, knowing who he wanted to strike and for whom he struck, he raised the mace. Not only did he raise it, but it was as if the vast, sinister aura within the entire Demon Suppression Bureau was rolling over and empowering the mace.

The weight of the mace almost exceeded Hu Ma's current abilities and understanding.

Then, he clenched his teeth, his eyes stern, and aimed it directly at Mingzhou City, fiercely bringing the raised mace down, as if to shatter the horrified faces of his distant relatives as well.

"You scheme and calculate, relying only on the fact that you think you know the Demon Suppression Bureau better than I do, that you understand the golden mace better than I do, but you are wrong..."

"Indeed, no one around me understands the Demon Suppression Bureau. Even before Granny left, she didn't tell me about the history of the Demon Suppression Bureau, but that's because she knew there was no need to tell me these things anymore. I have my own ways of understanding them."

"From the moment I took the demon-suppressing golden mace, I had already learned a lot from it, and I also saw many people who influenced this mace and were related to it, all kinds of people, each with their own story, but..."

"...there was no emperor you spoke of!"

"..."

Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, and he even found it somewhat amusing.

When he officially took the mace in the abandoned village, various illusions arose. He saw someone bestowing the demon-suppressing golden mace in a place similar to a golden palace. To receive this mace meant having the courage to fight ghosts and suppress demons, destroy gods and eliminate temples, and even uphold the rules of yin and yang.

From that moment on, Hu Ma knew the responsibility of the Demon Suppression Bureau and understood the burden of wielding this mace. However, he couldn't clearly see the appearance of the person who bestowed the mace, but he knew one thing clearly.

That person was definitely not the emperor.

It was precisely because he deeply understood this that when he saw the other party actually use that human skin to deal with him, he only felt it was absurd and ridiculous.

He didn't know much about the past of the Demon Suppression Bureau either. Perhaps it was indeed once dispatched by the emperor, but the emperor had been skinned for twenty years, and from twenty years ago, when this mace was re-bestowed, the Demon Suppression Bureau was already different from before.

Sensing the weight of the golden mace in his hand, he couldn't help but mock those in the city: "You self-proclaimed, orthodox distant relatives of the walking ghosts, your horizons are ultimately too small. Even now, you still obsess over the so-called emperor..."

"It's just..."

"...look at these Ten Clans, is there any one that truly puts the emperor in their eyes?"

"..."

In a flash of thought, the golden mace he raised suddenly fell heavily. Although the mace was only held in his hand, the moment it fell, all that could be heard was the whistling of sinister winds, a sound like mountains collapsing and the earth splitting.

"Whoosh..."

Within Mingzhou City, all the tightly closed doors and windows were suddenly blown open by a gust of wind at this moment, sweeping away everything in its path.

How many spirits and resentful souls were hidden in the countless houses in Mingzhou, some harming people, some raised by people with ulterior motives.

These spirits, even when the Guanzhou City God was invited, couldn't be found, they were hidden so deeply. But now, under this remote strike of the golden mace, miserable and desperate sounds rang out everywhere.

Someone suddenly looked up and saw that the vase on their table, from which a fox demon would emerge at night, suddenly shattered. Someone felt dazed, and the wronged soul that had haunted them for so long dissipated.

Someone raised a dog at home that always looked at them with hatred. But now, as the wild wind raged outside the city, they suddenly saw a slender shadow emerge from the dog's ears, exactly resembling their enemy.

Someone had been worshiping their ancestors' spirit tablets for three or four years. When the wind blew, the tablets suddenly fell to the ground and shattered. They heard a bitter plea for mercy and realized that they had been worshiping the wrong ancestor, that someone else had been eating the incense offerings for three or four years for nothing.

All these things were not intentional by Hu Ma, he didn't even know these things existed. It was only because the golden mace was struck towards the direction of Mingzhou City that these spirits and wronged souls hidden in the city, violating the order and rules of yin and yang, were suddenly struck.

Wherever the demon-suppressing golden mace is, ghosts, gods, and humans must all abide by the rules.

And at the same time, as the wild wind filled the entire city, and strange noises arose one after another, in the heart of the city, on top of that tall building, Fourth Master Hu, kneeling on one knee, holding the so-called imperially bestowed nameplate, felt his expression change drastically, his head buzzing.

He widened his eyes, only to see the imperial decree he was holding in his hands suddenly shatter into pieces and turn into dust.

Along with the remaining imperial aura on Zhong Benyi, the General of Heavenly Mandate, who was still bewildered on the battlefield outside, was also affected by the aftermath of this strike and vanished. But precisely because this so-called imperial aura dissipated, his eyes suddenly became clear, and he suddenly understood many things.

He suddenly looked up at the mysterious figure with the mace, and a heartfelt awe arose in his heart. And when awe appeared, the arrogance in his heart disappeared, and remorse filled his heart.

Crack!

And as the imperial decree held by Fourth Master Hu shattered into pieces, the red cloth covering the clay statue behind Second Master Hu was also torn into strips by the wind. Immediately afterward, the clay statue couldn't even last for a moment before suddenly collapsing.

"How dare you..."

And in the splashing fragments of the clay statue, he vaguely heard a voice shouting angrily, and a wisp of the Guanzhou City God's true spirit that was hidden inside escaped instantly.

After all, he was a dignified City God of a prefecture, enjoying incense offerings for hundreds of years. Now that his dharma body appeared, it was so immense that it almost covered the entire battlefield, forcing everyone to look up. Especially those hungry ghosts from Guanzhou, their heads were lifted up in a daze like puppets.

This Guanzhou City God possessed vast power, obscuring the sky and covering the sun, but a wisp of his true spirit was fleeing rapidly.

The distant Guanzhou had long been deserted, but there were still temples of this Guanzhou City God everywhere, and even in such disaster-stricken and barren lands, the incense inside his temples was even more prosperous.

And among them, there was an even larger one, with a golden statue erected in the main hall, erected by the Emperor of the Yi Dynasty two hundred years ago, which had always been filled with incense.

Of course, it was also because it was deserted so quickly that even if one had money, they couldn't buy food. In addition, the Guanzhou City God had his own Yin soldiers to protect him. For the people of Guanzhou, his power had been intimidating for a long time, so the gold foil on the statue hadn't been torn off by the starving people to sell for money.

And now, as the Guanzhou City God fled rapidly, the golden statue in the temple suddenly emitted golden light, turning into a golden cloud to resist this mace.

And beneath the golden cloud, there was a wisp of dark mark on his body, quickly burrowing into the ground, trying to escape to the underworld to avoid his responsibility.

Borrowing the hungry ghosts to resist this mace, dispersing his magic power to cover the secrets of heaven and earth, then fleeing back to Guanzhou, borrowing the emperor's golden body to resist this mace, and sneaking into the underworld to hide his true spirit, this Guanzhou City God did everything he could in this moment.

But for Hu Ma, he simply smashed down the mace in his hand.

From the moment he swung the mace, it was equivalent to scaring away the Guanzhou City God who had been invited to the altar. In the world of esoteric arts, this meant winning the battle.

But what's the point of scaring him away?

I have to beat you to death!

"Crack!"

The movement was decisive and swift. Because it fell too fast, it even created a shrill whistling sound, and the ground was smashed into a pit.

And at the same moment that this pit appeared, the gloomy dark clouds that had gathered in the sky due to the Guanzhou City God's magic power suddenly split in two. The sunlight was dazzling, suddenly shining on the earth, making people realize that it was already dawn.

The next moment, those hungry ghosts who had been affected by the Guanzhou City God and raised their heads in a daze all seemed to lose their strength, and with a thud, they knelt on the ground.

The indifferent expression on their faces disappeared. Some were confused, some suddenly remembered everything, covered their hearts, and touched their foreheads to the ground, crying bitterly. At this moment, they finally turned back into living people.

And in Guanzhou, all the temples of the Guanzhou City God seemed to have been struck by invisible lightning. Suddenly, the temples were shattered, and the statues inside, whether clay or gold, were all shattered into pieces at this moment, their spirituality disappearing.

The true spirit of the Guanzhou City God, which was trying to escape into the underworld, felt the ground as hard as iron the moment it touched the ground. It looked up in fear, and along with the turbid air on its body, it also emitted an abnormal feeling of terror, unwilling, angry, and crazy, but it could only watch the vast power fall.

It crushed them into pieces, pressed them into powder, and then dissipated into nothingness. Not only the Guanzhou City God, but also the turbid air on its body, were all completely clean, completely disappearing at this moment.

"Crack!"

As the Guanzhou City God completely disappeared, the land of Guanzhou suddenly boomed, as if there was an earthquake, sinking a few points. Or rather, the weight suddenly increased by a few points, so it fell sharply, shaking the earth all around.

Then, a series of muffled thunders rumbled in the air, crackling and响作响. The dark clouds were dense, and the lightning rumbled. Guanzhou, which had been arid and barren for several years, desolate and lifeless, with almost no living people, suddenly experienced a torrential rain at this moment.

Heaven and earth became silent at this moment. This mace fell, as if it had struck the hearts of countless people.

Even in the direction of Old Yin Mountain, someone stood up from a tree stump, quietly watching this mace, the expression on his face was unknown whether it was sighing or gratified: "I once asked, where should this strike land..."

"Either strike a heavy one, or strike a ruthless one, but he said that it must be a loud enough one..."

"Now that this mace has fallen, it's heavy enough. It shattered the Guanzhou City God's golden body, destroying two hundred years of incense and fortune. It made Guanzhou return to the human world..."

"It's also ruthless enough. A dignified City God of a prefecture, his soul annihilated, even the Meng family's ancestor couldn't protect him, reminding people..."

"Most importantly, it's loud enough..."

"..."

He couldn't help but laugh: "Those who still believe in imperial decrees should wake up."