Times Have Changed

"Young Master Pan, we've found it!"

It took Hao Liang about ten minutes to receive the information from the Luocheng branch.

Pan Shuai immediately went to the laptop to check.

Dahuai Village is a village located far from the city or even the county seat.

Luocheng is surrounded by mountains on many sides, and Dahuai Village is located at the foot of Mangshan Mountain and adjacent to the Luo River.

There's nothing particularly special about this village, except that there's an old locust tree that's over a hundred meters tall.

It is said that this old locust tree has been here for over a thousand years.

Nothing else... is particularly special.

Pan Shuai immediately instructed, "Liangzi, have the field team members who are closest go and investigate first. We'll be there right away. Luo Hao, contact Baima Temple, Shaolin Temple, and Laojun Temple and ask them to send people to Laohuai Village as well. Also, contact the court and ask them to send a monk over."

He then called to Xing Tian and the others, "Let's go. More than fifty urban legends are now tied to Lu Li. We have to find him now."

Xing Tian nodded silently.

He didn't mention Lu Li's situation, nor did he mention the clues they knew.

In his mind, Lu Li would be completely fine.

Or rather, he actually hoped that the other party would be more efficient in eliminating Lu Li.

That won't work either, because that would mean the other party is even more powerful than Lu Li.

It would be best if they both perished, so that they could complete their mission without lifting a finger.

And there won't be any other dangers.

In order to obtain intelligence, Xing Tian and Pan Shuai rode in the same car.

The other four Descendants followed behind in their SUV.

In Pan Shuai's car, none of the four people spoke; only the roar of the engine and the buzzing of wind and road noise filled the air.

About ten minutes later, Pan Shuai's phone rang.

He drove with one hand and pressed a button on the Bluetooth headset he was wearing with the other. "This is Pan Shuai, please speak."

"What?! Okay, I understand. Don't act yet, let's wait until we get there."

After hanging up the phone, Pan explained the situation: "Two members of the field team who arrived first went in, and then they lost contact."

Hao Liang and Luo Hao both had a somber expression.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at Xing Tian in the passenger seat. The upper half of his face was in shadow, while only the lower half was occasionally tinged with a yellowish hue by the rapidly passing streetlights.

"Xingtian, you know Lao Lu, right?"

Xing Tian was startled, but quickly recovered.

My reaction after seeing Lu Li must have been observed, and Lu Li also showed that he recognized me.

So he didn't try to deny it, saying, "I know him, but we're not very close."

Pan Shuai nodded and then asked, "You should also know about Old Locust Village, right? I noticed that the expressions of the five of you changed when the Ouija board spirits wrote about Old Locust Village."

Seeing that he had been exposed, Xing Tian simply stopped hiding it. He had even thought of a reason beforehand: "I know that our mission this time, besides supporting you, is to investigate Lao Huai Village."

"According to reliable intelligence, the origin of the urban legend may lie in Laohuai Village. At the very least, there are clues there that are related to the roots of the urban legend."

Hao Liang, sitting in the back seat, frowned. "But the first urban legend like the Ouija board was recorded in historical books in 192 AD, which is more than 1,800 years ago."

Xing Tian didn't speak, but Pan Shuai chimed in, "The old locust tree in Laohuai Village is over a thousand years old."

They remained silent for the rest of the journey, but Xing Tian did not receive any notification that the mission was complete.

It seems that Pan Shuai must be confirmed to have clues related to the origin of the urban legend in Laohuai Village, and the mission will not be considered complete until he obtains those clues himself.

Ultimately, we still have to go to Laohuai Village.

But then he thought about how Lu Li was in Old Locust Village, and how the guy who could take him away was almost certainly also in Old Locust Village...

Xing Tian's heart sank into his stomach.

Almost another hour passed before they finally arrived at their destination.

A torrential downpour started here at some point.

But Xing Tian and the other four were still deeply shocked.

The once somewhat desolate area outside the village was now bustling with activity.

Countless tents were pitched on the cleared land, and people came and went in an endless stream.

There were people setting up machinery, workers wearing hard hats, and even excavators and large trucks...

Countless searchlights illuminated the night sky.

The atmosphere... is a little different from what Xing Tian and the others expected.

Shouldn't it be a group of people going deep into the village to solve various dangerous puzzles and rescue Lu Li?

But Pan Shuai's actions told him that rescue was definitely necessary, but it required a saturation-style rescue.

When they followed Pan Shuai into the largest tent, they were even more dumbfounded.

This tent appears to be a combat command post.

In the middle of the tent was a large sand table, which even had a bunch of architectural models on it.

Then they saw a group of Taoist priests and monks gesturing with blueprints, and a greasy middle-aged man in a suit with a beer belly and a receding hairline was casting a spell, whittling wood piled on the ground into strips and assembling them into a model, which was then placed in the position designated by the Taoist priests and monks.

Upon seeing Pan Shuai and his group enter, a middle-aged Taoist priest and two middle-aged monks, one fat and one thin, walked over. The sorcerer also stopped his spellcasting and strolled over.

"Captain Pan, I heard this mission is quite challenging?"

"Yeah, that's why I called you all here in the middle of the night."

Pan Shuai turned around and introduced Xing Tian and the other five.

"This is Master Yuansheng, the person in charge of the delegation from Baima Temple this time."

"Amitabha, this humble monk greets all benefactors." The one with his hands clasped together and bowing slightly was the thin, middle-aged monk.

"This is Master Shi Yongfa, who is also the leader of the Shaolin Temple martial monks' action team for this operation." The slightly plump monk nodded with a smile.

"The last one is Abbot Shanxin, who is also the leader of the team from Laojun Temple."

"Greetings, this humble Taoist." The Taoist priest, whose hair was half white, flicked his whisk and bowed with one hand held up in front of his chest.

Pan Shuai then introduced the middle-aged, Mediterranean-looking monk in a suit, saying, "This is Master Dai Zongli, a monk from the Los Angeles Intermediate People's Court."

Teacher Dai pushed up her glasses, tidied a tuft of unruly long hair on her Mediterranean hairstyle, and said with a smile, "It was supposed to be Xiao Fang who came, but she's still away on a business trip, so I had to come instead."

"Greetings, esteemed masters."

Xing Tian shook hands with each of them.

Well...

Aside from the fact that the monk from the court looks a bit off, at least the monk and the Taoist priest are still within Xing Tian's understanding.

It even gave him a sense of familiar comfort.

Indeed, people still prefer to be in contact with things that align with their own understanding.

But soon, his understanding collapsed.

What shattered his understanding was that of Master Shi Yongfa.

He pulled a Type 95 assault rifle from his wide sleeve and asked, "Benefactor Pan, how to deal with Dahuai Village is entirely up to you! If you say attack, this humble monk can take it down with his men in less than half an hour!"

He patted the assault rifle in his hand. "It was blessed by three hundred high monks in our temple. It's definitely powerful enough to kill ghosts."

"Amitabha......"

Before Pan Shuai could speak, the gaunt Master Yuansheng next to him put his hands together and chanted a Buddhist prayer. Then he took out a Gatling gun and said, "This machine gun of mine has been blessed by the 'Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters Spoken by the Buddha.' Not only can ordinary ghosts not get close to me, but even if all the dead souls on Mangshan Mountain came out together, I could deliver them all (physically)."

Xing Tian and his four companions were completely dumbfounded.

But the most shocking part was yet to come.

Pan Shuai waved his hand, "Masters, please calm down. If the situation becomes uncontrollable, it will not be too late for you and your disciples to take action."

"Not bad." The handsome old Taoist priest stroked his goatee, looking calm and collected. "Besides, with the swarm of ghost-repelling drones jointly developed by Lao Jun Temple and Norinco, as well as the Type 90 122mm 40-tube wheeled talisman rocket launcher, there's no need for you to show up."

Xing Tian: "..."

What the hell is all this?!