There is only one inn in the small county of Tingshui, so the name of the inn is Tingshui Inn.
At this moment, in the hall of Tingshui Inn, the warriors were in a relaxed mood and returned to the questions they had been asking Du Heng before.
Li Tongzhou raised his glass of wine to Du Heng, and asked with ulterior motives.
"Brother Du, who exactly is this Mr. Ji? We have been through life and death together for many times, and have survived many difficult times. We can be considered friends in need. Please tell us about him!"
"Yes, Mr. Du!"
"That's right, Master Du, please tell us about it. Mr. Ji is like this, huh..."
A man with a loud voice blew an air bubble imitating Ji Yuan's behavior. His imitation was weird, but everyone knew what it meant.
"Just by blowing, he turned those ghost dolls into ashes. That ability is incredible! Is Mr. Ji a god?"
"Yes, yes, yes. My father once told me that for warriors like us, it is better to trust a knife than to trust any bullshit ghosts or corrupt officials. I have always believed that those weird things were just legends. This time, I have learned that there is always someone better than you!"
"Yes, Lao Cui, go to the kitchen and cook some more dishes for you heroes to drink with."
The innkeeper also joined in the commotion.
Du Heng was also very interested. He could not refuse, but he did not want to. This group of friends was very different from those friends who had joined forces to fight the tiger back then. Although the time was not long, they had traveled all over the country together in recent years, eliminated bandits, caught bullies, and even eliminated corrupt officials in disguise. This time they were fighting against evil spirits together and would never leave each other. They were true friends for life and death.
Although he would not talk too much about Ji Yuan's personal matters, Du Heng felt that there were some things that everyone already knew but had not thought through, which could be made clear. Moreover, judging from Mr. Ji's previous behavior, he did not hide things too much.
"Okay, let me tell you about it. But first of all, there are some things that Mr. Zhao might not like, so I won't say too much. I will tell you everything I can."
"That's right!" "That's right!"
"That's right!" "Hey, Master Du, tell me quickly, I'll pour you some wine!"
…
“Ahem~”
Du Heng cleared his throat, then lowered his body and spoke.
"You all know that I sent a letter to you, sir, before winter came, informing you of the unusual situation here, right?"
Everyone nodded, and even the inn staff who were unaware of this nodded subconsciously.
"Then tell me, how long does it take for a letter to get from Jinzhou to Jizhou, Deshengfu in Jizhou!"
"Jizhou?"
"My goodness, this won't take several months!"
The innkeeper also made an exaggerated remark.
"I once wrote a letter to a merchant in Gyeonggi Prefecture, and it took half a year for it to arrive!"
Du Heng smiled.
"So, I think my letter may have arrived in Jizhou a few days ago and was seen by the gentleman."
The loud-voiced man looked around and couldn't help but interrupt.
"Mr. Lu Ji, you came here in such a short time? He must have flown here!"
"Ahem...that's what you said, not me!"
Du Heng coughed and gave a mysterious answer, and the people around him suddenly realized what was going on. Combined with the experiences of the past few days, they became more clear about some of their guesses.
It’s a pity that although Du Heng said a lot that night, he didn’t reveal questions like where Mr. Ji lived, and others didn’t dare to ask too much.
. . .
As the subject of discussion, Ji Yuan did not think so. He was ready to deal with the evil master and disciple, and then concentrate on experiencing the insights he had gained from the previous fight.
There is actually nothing magical about the fishing rod on Ji Yuan’s shoulder. It’s just that with his personality, he prefers to use old things that he is used to.
So after making another fishing rod, I finally wrote a few words on it and used some tricks to make some superficial changes to the fishing rod and the fishing line. For example, the fishing rod can be rolled up like a ball of wool and put away in the sleeve.
The excuse that it was inconvenient to carry and letting the old turtle watch the fishing rod by the Chunmu River was purely for the purpose of keeping the old turtle waiting there.
At this moment, Ji Yuan was picking up these two people who practiced evil ways, so of course he couldn't go back to Ning'an County. He was also afraid of polluting his own land. To deal with these two, he had to leave it to professionals, or professional ghosts and gods.
Jinzhou is vast and sparsely populated. Not only do many counties and districts lack decent City God Temples, but even the City Gods in some prefectures are certainly not as powerful as those in the heart of Dazhen. Moreover, Ji Yuan is not familiar with them. Selecting people to go there in this way will inevitably arouse the suspicion of launching a war to question the enemy, and there will also be a process to resolve the embarrassment, which is somewhat troublesome.
The first thing that Ji Yuan thought of was the underworld of Chunhui Mansion. After all, there had been an experience of interrogating a snake demon in the information that Yin Chenmu had conveyed before. Ji Yuan was quite impressed with their professional abilities.
So after leaving Tingshui County, Ji Yuan jumped directly into the air, riding the clouds and controlling the wind to clear away the surrounding air currents and snow, temporarily creating a windless environment for himself.
Ji Yuan looked at the roast chicken and wine jug in his hands and realized that he had indeed not eaten or drunk anything for several days.
On the plate held in the right hand, the roast chicken, which had been completely cooled, was now roasted. After a few breaths, it was steaming hot again, and the aroma filled the air.
"Not bad, not bad. The heating technique is good. It's not burnt."
While Ji Yuan was eating roast chicken and drinking hotpot in Yuntou while traveling, some people spread the news about the previous fight in Tingqiu Mountain. To a certain extent, it confirmed the rumor that the real devil was actually a hidden dragon and crouching tiger inside Dazhen.
. . .
After sunset the next day, it was already late at night and deserted outside the City God Temple of Chunhui Prefecture. In this dark night when no one was walking around except the night watchmen and patrolmen, a man in a white shirt was carrying two people on a bamboo pole with an exaggerated curvature and approaching the City God Temple. It was Ji Yuan who had just returned from Jinzhou.
When he reached a certain distance in front of the City God Temple, Ji Yuan used his magical powers to transform yin and yang, crossing a boundary between the Yin and Yang worlds, and the scene of the gates of hell appeared before him.
Seeing a man in white carrying two people over, several ghost messengers at the gate of hell stepped forward and asked him questions.
"Who are you, and why are you intruding into the underworld of Chunhui Mansion?"
The person who came was definitely not a ghost. As a ghost, he could tell from the heavy footsteps hitting the ground and the anger on his face, but he was obviously not a mortal either.
In order to save some trouble, Ji Yuan directly took out the gloomy wooden plaque that he had retrieved from Hu Yun after returning to Ning'an, and handed it to the ghost messenger.
"This is the wooden sign of the City God of Chunhui Prefecture. Please inform him and say that Ji Yuan is visiting!"
As soon as he got the wooden plaque, the ghost felt the lingering majesty of his own City God. He did not dare to neglect him and said to Ji Yuan, "Sir, please wait a moment," and hurried into the underworld.
After the City God of Chunhui Prefecture saw the sunken wood, there was no trouble at all. After a brief greeting and explanation of the matter, the souls of the two evil cultivators, a man and a woman, an old man and a young man, were directly extracted and locked up in the depths of the Punishment Prison.
During this process, the woman was hit by a spell and the old man was still in a coma.
About a day later, the old man's soul finally woke up under the nourishment of the negative energy of the underworld. The moment he regained consciousness, he felt the coldness around him and could hear screams in the distance.
My vision and memory were a little blurry. I tried my best to recall what happened before. A master came to chase me, and the mountain god was defeated. I had no memory of what happened afterwards...
"Am I dead?"
"Hehe, you're right. You're almost as good as dead now!"
A voice sounded in front of him, causing the old man to look up suddenly. His vision became clear, and a tall figure in official uniform and with a hideously ugly face was standing in front of him. Looking around him, he saw torture instruments everywhere, with deformed monsters chained to them, and the sounds of whipping and screaming that were heard from time to time.
"Where? Hey, he asked himself where he was!"
“Hahahahahaha….” “Yeah hehehehe…”
“Hohohoho….” “Woohahahaha…”
The surroundings were filled with strange, sharp and terrifying laughter. Some came from those strange people who looked like officials, and some came from the monsters on the torture instruments, which were practitioners. The old man also felt waves of malicious chill coming at him.
“Hahahahahaha, ah…haha…ah…”
A monster was still laughing one moment, and was immersed directly into a wok of oil the next moment. With a "sizzling" sound, it immediately let out a shrill scream, but no matter how painful the scream was, it was still smiling at the old man.
All the evil ghosts and monsters around were laughing. They all knew very well that the old man was deeply sinful. Because he was chained to the bronze pillar of the Sin Platform, and because the evil black cloud above his head was so thick, the ghosts and monsters in purgatory wanted someone to be as miserable as them, or even more miserable than them.
The man in official uniform looked at the old man sternly.
"Where did you say you were?"
The old man felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. This was probably the legendary underworld purgatory. Even practitioners would not be willing to come here.
The miserable laughter around brought great stimulation. Many of the monsters that looked deformed were actually human beings in their previous lives. They were tortured by the laws in purgatory and no longer had any human form. These old men had heard the rumors, so they immediately made some associations when they saw them.
"Why are they...laughing at me?"
The old man spoke timidly.
"Hehehehe, that's naturally because I can see people who are more miserable than them. You, an evil cultivator, have committed countless sins. After the Immortal Master removed the talisman from your body, you became extremely evil..."
The most vicious executioner in the Punishment Department of Chunhui Prefecture glanced at him and said.
“The Punishment Department doesn’t plan to interrogate you. My lord said that a demon like you won’t confess anything. We can just use hundreds of extreme punishments. Besides, a cultivator’s spirit is solid, so there’s no need to worry about anything. We in the Punishment Department have a saying that goes, ‘A quick death is the greatest happiness.’ Hehehehehe… you’ll understand soon!”
As he was speaking, the evil barrier platform seemed to be moving, and a dark red area appeared in front of him. The wailing sounds of countless long-tongued evil spirits, withered bones and dead souls were getting closer and closer...
Just half a day later, deep in the Punishment Prison, the old man only uttered one sentence except for his hysterical screams.
"Ahh... I recruited them. Who said I didn't recruit them? I recruited them!"