Black clouds rolled, and Yin energy surged. The attack of two ghosts comparable to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm was extremely terrifying to the cultivators of Falling Star City.
The ghost head saber and white bone fork in the hands of the two ghosts alone were enough. One flashed with green light, and a ghastly green ghost fire emerged in the Yin energy. With a slight shake, it slashed out a large swath of Yin energy wind blades.
The white bone fork flashed with red light as if it were alive, turning into a huge white bone snake. Driven by the ghost, it created a large area of blood and gore. The sound of swooshing kept coming, and countless blood-red bone spurs shot out from it.
The cold aura emitted by the ghost mist alone made the low-level cultivators pale and tremble.
Not to mention that there were many mortals in the city who had never seen such a scene. Many people fell directly to the ground, their faces ashen.
But after waiting for a few breaths, some keen cultivators discovered that no attacks had fallen into the city. Apart from feeling the whistling Yin wind and the loud booming sound, no substantial attacks had landed.
Moreover, another cloud of Yin appeared in the sky at some point, blocking these attacks.
"What kind of monster is that?"
The few Foundation Establishment cultivators sensed it more clearly. They seemed to see a vague, huge shadow in this newly appeared Yin cloud, like a monster. Strangely, its aura was even colder, and it was also a ghost.
The black mist rolled for a moment, and the monster inside disappeared. Immediately afterward, the ghost holding the ghost head saber let out a scream. A scarlet ghost head bit into the ghost's body, tearing apart most of its body.
The scarlet ghost head made a crunching sound in its mouth, as if it were chewing on something delicious.
The torn ghost did not die directly. Its body shrank by more than half, appearing extremely hideous. A deep sense of fear appeared on its blue-faced, fanged ghost face. It let out a strange cry and turned to flee.
But a flash of red light was seen, and a long red tongue instantly wrapped the terrified ghost in it, pulling it a distance of more than ten feet, and then it was grabbed by a furry black claw and sent into a large mouth hidden in the Yin wind.
A burst of excited roars came from within, and the Yin energy dissipated, revealing a black-haired giant monkey more than ten feet tall.
The giant monkey patted its belly, looking extremely satisfied. Its copper bell-like eyes turned and stared at the remaining ghost holding the white bone fork, grinning, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.
The remaining ghost showed an even more terrified expression, immediately turning into a cloud of Yin wind and fleeing towards its master's location.
The ghost monkey chuckled strangely, arriving first despite starting later, and quickly turned into a cloud of Yin wind, wrapping the fleeing ghost in it. A heart-wrenching scream came from within, and the ghost was destroyed.
Although the ghost monkey had not yet recovered its original strength, it was absolutely easy to deal with two sixth-order ghosts.
The whole process only took a few breaths. The cultivators and mortals in the city had not yet recovered from their fear, and the crisis had been quietly resolved.
"Ah, what's going on? My blood ghost has been destroyed."
At the same time, there was also a scream. It was the two ghost cultivators who released the ghosts. The blood ghosts were connected to their minds, and they were instantly destroyed. Their minds were also greatly affected.
Of course, they also noticed the suddenly appearing ghost monkey. Sensing the powerful aura on the ghost monkey, the two ghost cultivators were extremely horrified and fled without thinking.
Their blood ghosts were not weak, but they were destroyed in an instant, indicating that the enemy was not someone they could deal with. Only by escaping quickly could they have a chance of survival.
The ghost monkey's eyes flashed fiercely, turning into Yin wind and chasing after them. After a moment, a burst of explosions came from not far away. After more than ten breaths, the Yin wind and mist gathered in the air quickly dissipated.
The hot sunlight shone down again, but Falling Star City was now quiet. The cultivators and mortals inside were staring blankly at the sky, with an expression of disbelief.
It wasn't until a long while later that a dignified voice rang out. "The crisis has been resolved. Fellow Daoists can rest assured and stay here."
The speaker was the current city lord of Falling Star City, the middle-aged scholar.
The middle-aged man was also relieved. He was the city lord and the only Golden Core cultivator here. Facing two powerful ghosts just now, he couldn't stop them at all.
He had originally planned to abandon the city and flee, but he was stopped by two late-stage Golden Core ghost cultivators. After a brief exchange of blows two or three times, he was at a disadvantage and almost died.
Unexpectedly, the strange giant monkey that suddenly appeared not only easily destroyed the ghosts, but also scared the two ghost cultivators into fleeing in panic.
At this time, the giant monkey had also disappeared without a trace. This was obviously not a wild beast or demon beast.
The scholar man had no idea who had resolved the crisis. He released his divine sense to check a large area, but found nothing.
With a wave of his hand, he retrieved his severely damaged natal magic weapon. In any case, the crisis had been resolved, and other things didn't matter now.
Thinking in his heart, the scholar returned to the city lord's mansion, but he was restless. After thinking about it, he took out a communication jade token and contacted the sect.
After all, this change almost destroyed Falling Star City. He still had to notify the sect in case of any further situation.
At the same time, he summoned the guards of the city lord's mansion and asked them to strengthen their defenses.
With the city lord's soothing voice, Falling Star City became noisy again. Both mortals and cultivators were talking about what had just happened.
The scene just now had only taken half a cup of tea's time. From sensing great fear, feeling the crisis of life and death, to the current stability, it was like a dream.
But many cultivators still felt uneasy. For a time, many cultivators left in a hurry and quickly left Falling Star City.
This strange experience became a strange event in Falling Star City for a period of time afterward.
Some people speculated that this experience was caused by a battle between powerful ghost cultivators that affected Falling Star City.
Some people said that it was the ghosts refined by evil cultivators who were harming the world and wanted to slaughter Falling Star City. As for why the two ghosts were instantly destroyed, there were various opinions.
Some said that a powerful cultivator passing by solved it casually. Some said that the Nascent Soul elders of the Haoyuan Sect and other major sects took action.
And Zhang Ling, who had solved all this, did not leave far. He was on a low mountain near Falling Star City, looking at the two corpses lying on the ground, deep in thought.
These were the two ghost cultivators who had launched the attack just now. He had easily captured them and had already used the Soul Searching Technique, but he had not obtained any information.
Because the souls of these two guys had also been restricted. As soon as he searched their souls, they died with blood flowing from their seven orifices.
This reminded him of the situation when he had just teleported back and searched the souls of two cultivators in the Hundred Soul Sect. Could these ghost cultivators belong to some mysterious force?
With a flash of fire in his hand, two fireballs flashed and turned the two corpses into ashes.
In the air in front of him, there were still four storage bags. Zhang Ling also checked the things inside. Apart from a few ghost magic weapons and some Yin spirit stones, there was nothing to prove the identities of these two ghost cultivators.
Zhang Ling smiled and didn't bother to think too much about this matter. He turned his head to look at the black-haired ghost monkey beside him, who was playing with a ghost head saber and a white bone fork.
He summoned the ghost monkey back into the Yin Soul Banner, put it away, and left as a yellow light.
……
Two hours later, Zhang Ling was walking on a street again, looking at the scattered crowds, feeling a sense of恍惚. Suddenly, he caught sight of a huge bluestone by the roadside with the three characters "Qing Shi Ling" engraved on it.
Zhang Ling stopped in his tracks, touched the bluestone, and his eyes became a little complicated.
He had an impression of this bluestone, but the words on it should not be Huangyao Town, the three characters should be Qing Tian Village.
The street he was now occupying was the only main road of Qing Tian Village where he had lived, but at this moment, the flow of people nearby was not large, but not small either.
This street was much wider than he remembered, and there were many tile-roofed buildings on both sides. With this street as the center, there were also more than a dozen small roads interspersed.
There were as many as three or four hundred households. This was much more prosperous than the dilapidated village in his memory, like a small town.
Zhang Ling had a sense of恍惚. Was it that he had remembered wrongly and come to the wrong place? But this was indeed the location of Qing Tian Village. After two hundred years, it had undergone such a big change.
Times had changed, and this place had become a familiar yet strange place.
This place had become a peaceful village and town, and he could still see many merchants located here, as well as several large carriages loaded with goods. The mortals living here seemed to be quite wealthy.
Only the location of this boulder had not changed much.
"Young man, judging by your appearance, this is your first time coming to Qing Shi Ling, right?"
Beside the stone sat an old man with a hunched back, wearing coarse cloth clothes. Seeing a young man standing still, he asked.
"Old man, I also lived here when I was a child. I didn't expect that after not coming for a long time, this place has changed so much." Zhang Ling showed a sighing smile.
"Haha, the changes are naturally great. I have lived here for half my life, and this place used to be a desolate village. These changes have happened in the last twenty or thirty years." The old man showed a mouthful of yellow teeth and also sighed.
"Can you tell me about it?"
"Since you want to hear it, I'll tell you about it. It's good to have someone to talk to when I'm idle." The old man smiled and pointed to a stone next to him, asking Zhang Ling to sit down, as if he was planning to tell a story.
Zhang Ling didn't care and sat down on the stone, listening carefully.
"To say that this place was originally called Qing Shi Village, it was a village formed a hundred years ago by the government organizing a group of people to reclaim wasteland. It was originally just a small village, and the villagers lived a difficult life. Thirty or forty years ago, someone found a lot of medicinal herbs in the nearby mountains, and gradually this place became a little famous, but for the original villagers here, it was at most enough to make a living.
The prosperity it has today must be said to have started more than twenty years ago, when a gang called the Medicine Gang took a fancy to the nearby mountains. Therefore, they occupied this place.
It must be said that this Medicine Gang is very different from other gangs. It does not make a living by robbing homes and being fierce and ruthless. Instead, they are proficient in medicine and value this place, and they also want to open up a large number of medicinal fields to plant herbs. This is why there is the prosperity of today.
It is said that the Medicine Gang has a large influence, and the government is quite supportive. For those who live here, if the child of which family can become a disciple of the Medicine Gang, they will basically not have to worry about food and clothing. If they are lucky enough to understand medicine, they can make a living in big towns."
The hunchbacked old man had a lot to say. He seemed to have not spoken so much for a long time, and he talked eloquently about the changes in this place.
Hearing the Medicine Gang, Zhang Ling's heart also froze. He didn't know if this Medicine Gang was the one he had once stayed in.
Back then, his first cultivation technique was obtained unintentionally from the Medicine Gang. This was how he stepped into the world of cultivation. Two hundred years had passed, and this gang still existed, and it sounded like its influence was even greater than before.
This was really impermanent. It was also a strange thing that a mortal gang could exist for two hundred years.
The old man spoke for a full half an hour, talking about the changes in this place, as well as some customs and human feelings, as if he had endless things to say.
What he said were all the situations of the last hundred years, and he obviously didn't know that there was a Qing Tian Village a long time ago.
Until a clear voice entered his ears, the old man smiled embarrassedly and stopped talking.
"Grandpa, you are talking nonsense to others again. Dad is back and asked you to go back to eat." A seven or eight-year-old child ran from the other side of the street, calling out to the old man with a childish face.
"Slow down, Feng'er, don't fall."
The old man saw the child running over and shouted with a loving face.
"I know, Grandpa, who is this big brother?" Seeing Zhang Ling sitting next to his grandfather, the child made a face at Zhang Ling.
"Hehe, big brother, this is the little old man's grandson, he is used to being naughty, please forgive him." The old man touched the child's head and smiled.
Zhang Ling naturally didn't mind. Looking at this child, he thought of his childhood. Unintentionally, a flash of light flashed in his eyes, and he noticed that this child actually had spiritual root qualifications.
He didn't expect to meet a child with spiritual roots here.
"It's not early, big brother, you haven't found a place to stay yet, right? If you don't mind, stay at my house for a night." The old man lovingly patted the dust off the child's body, stood up, and said to Zhang Ling again.
"I have a place to go." Zhang Ling also stood up and shook his head. Then, he reached into his arms, and two books appeared in his hand.
"Old man, you have told me a lot of things. I only have these two books, so I will take them as a thank you."
"Uh, big brother, why are you so polite? I'm just talking about some common things." The hunchbacked old man only glanced at the two old books and didn't care.
The child named Feng'er seemed very interested and jumped down, took the books in Zhang Ling's hand, flipped through them randomly, blinked his big eyes a few times, and asked curiously.
"Big brother, what are these books? Are they martial arts secrets? Feng'er wants to be a hero when he grows up."
"Haha, that's a good ambition. Then you can read these two books carefully." Zhang Ling smiled at the child, then waved his hand at the old man, and went along the street on his own.
Behind him, he could still hear the old man's voice of retention, as well as the sound of the child flipping through the pages.
