Chapter 14 But Whether Righteous or Evil

For a time, all the Truth Sect members raised their eyes to look, clearly with worry rising in their hearts.

This was because the Heavenly Mandate General had personally taken action before, testing the Red Lantern Goddess's magical power once. At that time, they discovered that although this Red Lantern Goddess was a small case deity, her magic was profound and not to be underestimated.

In addition, this time, she directly caused chaos in a city, almost destroying the Truth Sect's army recruited from the noble masters. This showed her great ambition, and the more so, the less they dared to underestimate her in their hearts.

The Truth Sect was angry and anxious, and also wanted to capture her and force her to undo the spell that had shrouded Mingzhou City, and to appease the hearts of those noble masters. But the other party was obviously not simple, so how dare they really send people rashly into Zhu Gate Town?

Therefore, they directly cast spells outside the town, both showing their power and letting the talented people of Mingzhou City see their might, and also with the intention of probing.

Now, as expected, they saw that the Red Lantern Goddess's magic was profound, and everyone guessed the problem. Their eyes only looked at the person in the black sedan, but she was slightly silent, too lazy to pay attention. She only sighed and said lazily:

"But whether right or evil, in any case, she has committed a great taboo."

"This little evil spirit originally obtained the incense token given by the Meng family, which gave her the qualification to become a case deity. But since she received the Meng family's incense token, she belongs to the Tongyin lineage. Since she is from the Tongyin lineage, yet she privately accepts incense and withholds the blood food without returning it, she has already committed a crime punishable by beheading."

"It's just that Meng Shixiong (Meng family brother), is now afraid of causing misunderstandings and it's not appropriate to come forward, otherwise the Tongyin Inquiry Hall would have sent someone to behead her."

"Since we have caught up with this, it is just right to take her down for Meng Shixiong. Whether it is the blood food she has hidden, or the sins she has committed in creating evil for this city, all will be known after a trial."

As she spoke, a hand suddenly stretched out from inside the sedan, holding a token with a bi'an (a mythical beast) pattern on it, surrounded by the character "拘" (jū, restrain), and said, "This thing is temporarily lent to you. After you take her down, we'll talk."

"Hmm?"

The Heavenly Mandate General, Zhong Benyi, was slightly surprised to see this token. During this period of time, due to various misfortunes, his trust and respect for his "wife" were rapidly eroding, and he was even a little impatient.

But now, she seemed to be treating him better. In the past, if she wanted to hand over this token, she would probably throw it directly on the ground, or ask the maids around her to hand it over. But now, she was directly handing it to him herself.

In addition, since she came to Mingzhou, she had been preventing him from doing this and that. Now, she took the initiative to lend him the token, which was even more surprising.

"Just take it and use it."

While the Heavenly Mandate General hesitated slightly, the person in the sedan was unwilling to hold out her hand all the time, so she casually gave the token to the maid beside her, asking her to send it over. She said faintly, "You must understand that there is a reason for choosing your Truth Sect to do things."

"Now the zou gui (ghost walker) path is scattered and disorganized, each forming its own faction, and they are almost forgetting that there is still a main family."

"Your Truth Sect is even more different. It appeared earlier than the Hu family, survived several dynasties, and accumulated a lot of skills, with your own things."

"It's just a pity that in the eyes of our Hu family, although you have relied on taking a dangerous path to achieve success, you are still far from reaching the hall of elegance."

"..."

Just now, seeing her hand over the token, the Heavenly Mandate General's heart had softened slightly, but now, hearing her words, his expression suddenly changed, and he snorted coldly, "What a zou gui main family, what a Zhen Sui (suppressing evil) Hu family..."

"But my Truth Sect doesn't consider itself a zou gui path. Truth is truth, so what does it have to do with others?"

"..."

But despite saying that, he still snatched the token from the maid's hand and threw it to the altar master in the center, who was protecting the green banner, saying, "Then let's see, thinking that the Hu family's treasure can be used as a suppressing object to restrain that Red Lantern."

The altar master under his command immediately caught the token. According to his instructions, he and the remaining six banner-wielding people cast spells at the same time. The six still-intact green banners were all pulled out, vaguely forming a circle, and they held the juzi (restrain character) token in their hands, standing in the middle of the circle.

The person holding the token in the middle of the banner circle knelt down directly, facing the direction of Zhu Gate Town, chanting words in his mouth, hearing phrases like "restrain the red lantern, suppress the evil spirit."

The other five people still revolved around him and the six banners.

In an instant, a sound of thunder was suddenly heard in the air, as if the sky and earth had changed color, and dark clouds were falling with endless thunder. But looking up, they saw sparse stars and a sinking moon. Although it was not a clear day, they did not see any dark clouds.

The thunderous roar seemed like an illusion.

It was not until the banner shook violently again, and the surrounding strong wind rolled up, that the six banner-wielding people, and even the Heavenly Mandate General sitting on horseback behind them, were all startled, their faces greatly changed.

These Li (truth) character banners were all refined by the Truth Sect, and could summon evil ghosts to act according to orders. But just now, when they cast a spell, they had already been broken by the Red Lantern Goddess once. The majesty on them was completely lost, and if they were to summon ghosts again, they were afraid that they would not even be able to summon one-tenth or two-tenths of the previous ones.

But now, surrounded by the juzi token, casting spells again, not only did they not see any decline, but they added a bit of divine power. They only saw the strong wind rising, as if rolling in from the horizon.

With these six banners as the center, mighty and vast, soaring into the sky, the eyes of the people were sore from the wind, and in the blurry state, they seemed to see that there was a golden-armored divine general standing among the six banners, his face blurred, holding chains in his hand, scattering them in all directions with a clatter.

In the next moment, accompanied by this rolling yin wind, they did not know how many resentful ghosts they saw, layer upon layer, coming close to the ground.

They, as the spellcasters, were all frightened by this scene: "This is just a summoning ghost technique, but it actually summoned all the resentful ghosts in Mingzhou at once?"

The Heavenly Mandate General's expression changed slightly, and he looked at the black sedan, but he only saw that there was no movement inside the sedan, only a cold voice rang out: "This is our zou gui main family's town-sui (suppressing the year) method. What do you think? How does it compare to your Truth Sect?"

"Woo..."

The Heavenly Mandate General pursed the corners of his mouth slightly. Before he could speak, he suddenly saw the six banners shaking together. All the resentful ghosts that had been summoned cried out to the sky, scattering and climbing towards Zhu Gate Town, like a tide, like a black mist, instantly submerging the entire Zhu Gate Town.

……

……

"What's that commotion?"

At the same time, when myriad ghosts were crying and rolling resentment was sweeping straight towards Zhu Gate Town, the Left Protector, Shen Hongzhi, had already changed her expression drastically.

Just now, she was still immersed in the thought that the Red Lantern Goddess, having greatly improved her magic power at some point, might really have hope of blocking the Truth Sect, allowing her to escape this calamity as well. But now, she felt this astonishing resentment.

Smelling only a bit of the aura, she could understand that this was even beyond the scope of what mortals could do.

Even beyond the scope that a case deity could withstand.

If, at the beginning, she saw that the Truth Sect did not lead troops over to fight, but only wanted to summon the Red Lantern Goddess away from afar, she was secretly rejoicing, because in that way, although the Red Lantern Goddess would be taken away, the living people in this town could survive.

Now, seeing this commotion again, she didn't even have that idea. With this kind of resentment, myriad ghosts coming together, which living person could protect their life in the face of this power?

"Aiyo..."

Even Diguashao (Sweet Potato Roast), who was next to her, was stunned. Although she was a xing hun (torture spirit), after learning the little ghost sedan-lifting technique, she accidentally opened up her mind. Now, she already belonged to the grandmaster level of summoning and driving ghosts.

But she had always summoned enough ghosts each time. Now, looking at this power, she suddenly realized that she was still far behind. For a moment, her greedy energy arose in her heart, and she was already pondering whether there was hope of learning this skill.

While everyone had their own thoughts, they saw that the Red Lantern Goddess had just resisted successfully once, and then saw the other party's power in such a state, she was so frightened that her red light trembled, greatly eerie. Even the red lanterns all over the town lit up, illuminating the shadows around them like blood.

All the disciples who hadn't had time to escape in the town were trembling, not daring to raise their heads, just watching the red lanterns floating upwards one after another, resisting the rolling resentment that was sweeping in from all directions.

Those who stayed in the town were all loyal to the Red Lantern Goddess, but now, these loyal ones had all become people hiding in the town, watching the Red Lantern Goddess struggle and rampage there alone.

"Chi!"

But just as the Left Protector and Diguashao stood up in surprise, giving the Red Lantern Goddess support in spirit, Huma was still sitting. But seeing this commotion, a great dissatisfaction suddenly rose in his heart, and his eyes turned cold.

'It seems that this collateral branch of the Hu family, although it has long been separated from the Zhen Sui Hu family, still retains some things...'

'...'

The power outside, others could not see through, but he could see through it. It was not something that ordinary methods could achieve. Only the skills in the Town-Sui Book could summon so many fierce gods and evil ghosts...

But the skills in the Town-Sui Book were actually achieved by relying on the Zhen Sui (suppressing evil) office to endorse them. In other words, that collateral branch of the Hu family, although it had been separated, still retained some good things that could borrow the power of the Zhen Sui office, and even lent them to the Truth Sect to use.

'Things that are not in compliance with the rules, and they dare to use them in Mingzhou. Since that's the case...'

His face turned grim: 'Then there's no need to keep them anymore!'

Thinking of this, he became angry, raised his hand and patted the ox cart parked beside him. This ox cart contained everyone's equipment and some black oil ointment for treating injuries. The most critical thing, however, was...

As the cart body swayed, one of the links in the nine-sectioned golden mace in the box suddenly swayed slightly, emitting a subtle tremor that no one noticed.

A trace of imperceptible aura, mixed with the words he spoke using the unique skill of ghost whispering, quickly荡 (dàng, ripple)ed into the night sky:

"Issue the Zhen Sui order, 免拘 (miǎn jū, exempt from restraint)!"