City God Temple

Liu Jin withdrew the Reverse Life, and his body slowly returned to its normal skin color. Zhao Fengnian peeked out from behind a pillar, and only after confirming that the battle was over did he jog over.

He squatted down, picked up a piece of debris, and examined it from all angles, clicking his tongue as he said, "Brother, this old demon's thousand years of cultivation was burned away in three breaths by you. This thing is quite heavy."

Liu Jin didn't reply. He was still thinking about the tree demon's last words. Although those words couldn't shake him, they were indeed a useful reminder.

Just as Zhao Fengnian was about to ask what to do next, a sudden gust of cold wind blew by, and the air around the Great Buddha Hall abruptly turned cold. It wasn't the kind of cold that comes with winter; it was a chilling aura, surging in from all directions, wisps and strands, clinging to the skin and seeping into the bones.

Immediately afterwards, eerie green lights appeared in the darkness outside the hall. They weren't lanterns, they were eyes.

Hundreds and thousands of eyes drifted slowly from the depths of the forest, some large, some small, some near, some far, densely packed in the night, surrounding the entire Lanruo Temple.

The female ghosts controlled by the tree spirits have arrived.

They were women who were killed by tree demons in their previous lives. After death, they could not be reincarnated. Their souls were locked within a ten-mile radius of Lanruo Temple by the tree demon's evil energy. They slept during the day and came out at night to lure passersby for the tree demon.

Now that the tree spirit is dead, they sensed the disappearance of the demonic energy that had been suppressing them, and swarmed over.

They didn't rush forward; instead, they stood outside the hall, their eerie green eyes fixed on the interior.

Some were standing, some were floating, some had half their bodies buried in the ground, some were clinging to the top of the wall, and some were hanging upside down on the branches of trees.

Most of them were young, but their faces lacked the color of a living person, and there was no resentment or anger, only a sense of bewilderment as they finally gained freedom after being imprisoned for a long time.

Zhao Fengnian stood at the entrance of the palace, looking at the scene before him, his throat bobbing involuntarily.

He glanced back at Liu Jin, opened his mouth, then closed it again. His expression was complex; it wasn't fear, but rather a feeling of being moved.

Looking at these female ghosts, he was reminded of himself back then, when he was also suffocated by the Mark of Gluttony, unable to live or die.

These female ghosts had also been suppressed by the tree demon for countless years. He knew that feeling—not being in control of one's own life, not even having the freedom to want to die.

"Brother," he lowered his voice, "I'll go see them off."

Liu Jin didn't speak, he just nodded.

Zhao Fengnian walked to the pile of tree demon remains, squatted down and carefully picked through them. He picked up a palm-sized, dark green fragment and examined it closely for a while. Then he changed to another fragment and finally chose the root core that was the size of a human head, the darkest in color, and the densest in texture.

This is the culmination of the tree spirit's thousand years of cultivation, and also the most resilient part of her body. The wood is as dense as iron, and it feels heavy in the palm of your hand. You can faintly feel the residual demonic power flowing slowly within it.

He closed his eyes, grasped the root core with both hands, and chanted a short incantation. This was not a sophisticated method; it did not require complicated rituals or lengthy refining. Based on his perception of the tree demon's remains, the root core itself could be used to temporarily contain ghosts. It was just that the carrier was crudely processed, so simple that it could only be used temporarily.

The root core slowly heated up in his palm, and very faint fire-colored patterns appeared on its surface, disappearing in an instant.

He turned the core over and held it up to the female ghost closest to him outside the hall, speaking softly as if afraid of frightening them: "Don't be afraid, I'll take you away."

......

"I never expected this chubby guy to have such a sentimental side."

"He was probably reminded of the past. He was almost controlled too, and he's still fighting against the Mark of Gluttony."

"But what Grandma Tree said is true. No wonder so many people have messed up. What you consider common sense may be taboo in other worlds. You don't even know when you've done something wrong."

"Yes, that makes sense. Grandma Tree is actually a really nice person."

"He wanted to shake Liu Jin's resolve, but he didn't know that Liu Jin's roots are on Earth, and we don't care about that."

"Hahaha, an unconventional and invincible person."

......

Zhao Fengnian tucked the root into his pocket; it felt heavy, and even through his clothes, he could feel the cool, demonic energy pulsating slowly, like a still-beating wooden heart.

He walked to the entrance of the hall, took a deep breath, and lowered his voice to the female ghosts surrounding the hall: "Don't make a sound, follow me. Don't float, walk. Don't light up your eyes, extinguish your will-o'-the-wisps, walk like a living person. Yes, line up, one after another."

The female ghosts looked at each other in bewilderment. A young girl ghost in a blue dress was the first to land, her bare feet stepping on the gravel without making a sound.

The other female ghosts followed her example, one after another falling from the walls, treetops, and rooftops, forming a loose line and following Zhao Fengnian into the depths of the dense forest.

As Zhao Fengnian walked, he pulled out a handful of fine powder from his sleeve. This was the only wizarding material he had left. He crushed it with his fingers and sprinkled it on his own footprints and the footprints of the female ghosts behind him.

The powder melts upon contact with the ground, emitting a very faint sulfurous smell, neutralizing most of the remaining negative energy.

He then took a string of bone pieces from his waist and hung them around the neck of the female ghost in the green robe at the front. The bone pieces gently collided, emitting a low hum, which perfectly covered the yin energy fluctuations that the female ghosts involuntarily emitted as they walked.

The magic used to conceal the presence of the living could be used on the dead, albeit with some difficulty. He walked and sprinkled the moonlight as he went, casting dappled shadows on him through the gaps in the tree canopy. The ring of fiery scales on the back of his hand was still faintly visible, adding a few warm rays to the heavy night.

The City God Temple is located beside the official road outside the east gate of Jinhua City, while Lanruo Temple is located in the north and east of the city, respectively.

Zhao Fengnian stopped in his tracks when he saw the two ever-burning lamps at the temple entrance in the distance. He couldn't go any further; if he did, the temple's protective array would sense a living person approaching with a group of ghosts.

He squatted behind the bushes by the roadside, took the rootstock out of his pocket and placed it on the ground, then took out half a charcoal pencil and a crumpled piece of paper from his sleeve, and hurriedly wrote a few lines by the moonlight.

The gist of the message is that the tree demon at Lanruo Temple has been exorcised, and these women were all harmed by the tree demon, their souls trapped for many years and unable to be reborn. The message earnestly begs the City God to have mercy and send them into the cycle of reincarnation. A piece of the tree demon's remains is offered as a donation.

He folded the straw paper and stuffed it into the crevices of the root, then placed the root in the middle of the main road, ensuring that the first person passing by after dawn would see it. After doing this, he took two steps back and bowed deeply to the root.

Then he turned to the female ghosts behind him. They stood in the shadows by the roadside, their eerie green eyes much dimmer, making them look more like a group of ordinary lost women, only their faces were paler and they cast no shadows.

"Go inside, all of you. Pick a comfortable spot. The City God will take care of everything after he takes you away. Remember to line up properly when you're reincarnated. Don't cut in line. You'll all be new souls over there, and no one is more precious than anyone else. Line up properly and you'll be reborn into a good family in your next life."

He spoke in a deliberately relaxed tone, but his voice trembled as he uttered those words, and his eyes were redder than usual.

The female ghost in the green robe glanced back at him, her lips twitching slightly as if to say "thank you," before transforming into a wisp of faint smoke and disappearing into the root core. One by one, the other female ghosts also vanished into the root core.

The last one to go in was a kid who looked to be only ten years old. He stood barefoot in the roadside bushes, bowed earnestly to Zhao Fengnian, and then turned into smoke and disappeared inside.