Weird Cultivation, I have a five-organ temple

Chapter 617 I’m here to take you in!
The warhorses that the county soldiers rode had swiftness symbols wrapped around their hooves.

Driven by the talisman, the warhorse's already fast speed was further enhanced, like whirlwinds sweeping through the night.

On his way to the county town, Shang Lu, with his keen insight, clearly saw that there were indeed many witch beasts hiding in the dark night sky.

These witch beasts had very strange shapes; Shang Lu even saw an eyeball with wings.

This eyeball monster was about the size of a fist, with a single vertical pupil filled with bloodshot veins. Its wings were also featherless and fleshy, which looked very strange. Its "eyesight" was extremely sharp, and it could see clearly even in the darkest environment. Its bloodshot vertical pupil could even penetrate mud and rocks to see what was happening underground.

These magical beasts, circling and patrolling in the night sky, spotted the galloping county soldiers immediately and excitedly flew over.

However, they soon turned away in disappointment, neither continuing to monitor nor sending any warnings.

With his keen intuition, Shang Lu quickly understood the reason—there was a shamanic script drawn on the warhorse's rump.

It was this incantation that allowed the patrolling magical beasts to distinguish between "friend and foe".

As for whether there was an extra person among the county soldiers, Wu Shou didn't care.

"Indeed, blending in with the county soldiers was the right thing to do," Shang Lu thought to himself.

If he hadn't been mixed in with the county soldiers, just avoiding the detection of the witch beasts and rampant ghosts in the night sky would have cost him a lot of time and energy.

Shang Lu remained calm and quietly memorized the shamanic script, hoping it might come in handy later. The only uncertainty was whether this script was actually used by the Xuanyi Guards.
We'll only know after today, when we find an opportunity to try it out.

The distance of several dozen miles was nothing to the warhorses blessed with shamanic talismans. Even if there were rugged mountain roads along the way, they walked as if on flat ground, running fast and steadily, much more stable than the paper horses torn by pokeweed.

They returned to the county town in just half an hour.

The warhorses were clearly exhausted, their eyes bloodshot and some even foaming at the mouth. They needed a good rest to recover.

"Open the city gates immediately! You cannot afford to delay the important matter of our esteemed guest!"

The sergeant spurred his horse to the city gate, raised his head, and shouted loudly.

When they left the county town, they also used this gate, and they even made sure the gatekeeper remembered what they looked like.

As soon as the squad leader called out a few times, several lanterns were immediately lit up on the city wall.

The people on the city wall, by the light of the fire, saw clearly what the squad leader looked like and immediately started shouting and yelling to open the city gate.

"Open the city gates quickly! The soldiers are back!"

"Open the door quickly! Don't delay!"

The city gate guards knew very well that these county soldiers who left the city late at night were doing business for the masters of the Black-Clad Guards, and they must not be negligent.

They witnessed the Black-Clad Guards entering the city that day. Even the county magistrate and county commandant were obsequious and fawning over the bigwigs of the Black-Clad Guards.

If these people really delayed the important affairs of the Black-Clad Guard, the county magistrate and county constable would have them skinned alive and brought back to plead guilty without the Black-Clad Guard even having to say a word.

The city gates opened quickly.

The city gate officer in charge of the gate personally stood behind the gate to greet them, repeatedly bowing to the soldiers and thanking them for their hard work.

However, the city gatekeeper paused for a moment after seeing the pokeweed.

In his memory, this person didn't seem to exist when the troop of county soldiers left the city.

After a moment's hesitation, the city gate officer couldn't help but cautiously ask the sergeant, "Brother, is this also one of your brothers?"

Upon hearing this, the sergeant was startled and hurriedly interrupted the city gate officer before he could finish speaking: "What nonsense are you talking about! This is a high-ranking officer from the Black-Clad Guard!"

Upon hearing this, the city gate official broke out in a cold sweat. He no longer had any room for doubt. He hurriedly apologized repeatedly, fearing punishment, and dared not ask to inspect Shang Lu's black robe token—even if Shang Lu did take it out, he wouldn't recognize it, let alone know how to identify it.

Shang Lu simply kept a straight face and acted aloof, never glancing at the city gate official from beginning to end, leaving the official unsure whether the official was truly angry with him.

Soon, Shang Lu followed the county soldiers through the city gate and entered the city.

After watching them walk away, the city gate official finally let out a sigh of relief and ordered his men to close the gate.

Only now did he dare to mutter, "Why is another Black-Clad Guard here? Could it be that a formidable demon has appeared in our county?"

A city gate guard standing nearby, overhearing his words, couldn't help but chime in, whispering, "Boss, I've heard that lately, many newborn babies have been dying suddenly and violently. At first, everyone thought it was an epidemic, but later, when the coroner examined the bodies, he discovered that the children's internal organs were empty and they had bled out completely—clearly the work of demons! A while ago, the shamans at the temple even performed a ritual, but it wasn't very effective… Do you think these Black-Clad Guards might be here to investigate this case and eliminate the demons?"

Before the city gate officer could answer, another city gate guard shook his head and sneered: "The Black-Clad Guards are the King's personal troops, why would they care about such things? Even if it's about capturing demons and ghosts, it should be the job of the temple's shamans or the county's sorcerers."

He hesitated for a moment, quickly glanced around to make sure no one was around, and then said in a low voice, "Have you heard any rumors lately? Do you think the story about newborn babies having their hearts and kidneys removed and their essence drained might be related to the rumors?"

"Shh!"

Upon hearing this, the other gate guards around him were all shocked and gestured to their companions to be quiet and not to talk nonsense. Some even reached out to cover his mouth.

"Do you want to die? The Black-Clad Guards are right here in the county town. If their ghost slaves hear what you say, we'll all be in trouble!"

"Shut up! These are not things we can discuss!"

Whether the rumors are true or false is none of our business!

Although they said they dared not make any rash comments, it's not hard to tell from their reactions that they probably all had such suspicions in their hearts, otherwise they wouldn't be so nervous and fearful.

Although Shang Lu had walked far away, he could clearly hear the commotion behind him.

He remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he thought, "The prophecies spread by the patrolmen have truly had an effect. With people in a state of panic, the saying 'three men make a tiger' will likely be repeated. At that time, the King of Chu might reveal his monstrous form in front of everyone... After tonight, I'll add fuel to the fire and make this prophetic chaos come even faster and bigger!"

The county town was deserted in the dead of night. After the county soldiers passed through the city gate, they were to escort Shang Lu to the Witch Temple—the three Black-Clad Guards who had come to the county were all inside the Witch Temple.

From the memories of the green-faced demon, Shang Lu had already thoroughly investigated the background of the Black-Clad Guards who had come here.

There were three Xuanyi Guards who came here, two of whom had cultivation levels of the seventh rank and one of the eighth rank.

The three of them followed completely different paths of cultivation.

One was a military strategist, skilled in esoteric battle formations. The other was a Legalist cultivator, but not one who practiced the laws of law; instead, he was an expert in cruel tortures.

Another was a shaman who also practiced Yin-Yang magic, and was particularly skilled in Five Elements sorcery. This person's most powerful technique was to disrupt the Yin-Yang and Five Elements within a person's body. With this technique, he repeatedly defeated enemies of higher cultivation levels despite being weaker than himself.

The three arrived at this place four days ago. Under the cover of the shaman temple, they set up an altar and performed rituals, sending out the Guhuo bird to search for traces of the newborn baby.

The Guhuoniao, a type of demon, has a particular fondness for stealing infants and abducting their souls.

With them patrolling everywhere, the three guards in black robes know exactly where there are newborns and where there are pregnant women about to give birth. This allows them to send out county soldiers with vengeful ghosts and remnant spirits to rip out hearts and kidneys and steal essence and blood at the first opportunity.

The three guards in black robes clearly knew that what they were doing was shady and they were afraid of being discovered, so they didn't show themselves. As long as they didn't do these things themselves, even if something went wrong, they could blame it on the county soldiers, saying that the soldiers had been bewitched by demons and made them take the blame.

What they had to do was kill and destroy the souls before the county soldiers could speak.

Now that he knew the details of the Black-Clad Guards, Shang Lu stopped letting the county soldiers follow him, lest he alert them.

After entering the city, Shang Lu dismounted his horse not far away and instructed, "You all go back to the camp to rest. There's no need for you to follow me."

The soldiers were overjoyed and readily accepted the order.

Just as they turned around, Shang Lu took out the Ice Crystal Blue Lotus and blew a breath toward them.

Tiny specks of blue light were blown into the bodies of the county soldiers and their warhorses by his breath.

However, neither the soldiers nor the warhorses noticed anything amiss.

Once they return to their barracks and get some sleep, all memories of tonight will disappear.

Even afterward, when disciplined black witches came to investigate, they were unable to find this memory in their souls.

This memory was directly erased by the Ice Crystal Blue Lotus.

The city gate guards, though they would remember what happened tonight, could not recall what Shang Lu looked like.

After watching the county soldiers leave, Shang Lu headed towards the county's shaman temple.

He had never been to this county before, but guided by the memories of the blue-faced demon, he soon arrived outside the witch temple.

Instead of rushing inside, the pokeweed first released copper ants to scout the area.

As expected, the three guards in black robes were very cautious. Even though they lived in the witch temple in the county town, they secretly set up traps and witchcraft formations, and arranged for evil spirits and witchcraft to patrol back and forth.

Shang Lu snorted coldly, turned to Third Sister and said, "Third Sister, let's set up a formation too, so that the commotion here doesn't get out and we can't let them escape!"

Third Sister nodded and immediately floated around, using the surrounding feng shui terrain to construct an array, creating a barrier-like effect so that Shang Lu could trap him like a turtle in a jar.

A moment later, Third Sister finished setting up the formation and flew back to Shang Lu's side.

The three black-clad guards inside the temple were completely unaware of this.

It's clear that Third Sister's cultivation has indeed made significant progress along with Shang Lu's breakthrough. One wonders if this is the result of Shang Lu's hard work these past few days?

During the time that San Niang was setting up the formation, Shang Lu was not idle either.

He not only figured out the defenses inside the temple through the copper ants, but also found the three black-clad guards.

The three of them were in the main hall of the witch temple.

A team sent elsewhere had already brought back their prey. The three of them were currently in the main hall, taking out the heart, kidneys, and essence blood stolen by the ghost from the scroll of sealing the ghost, and putting them into strange bone vessels.

In the main hall of this shaman temple, there is a familiar face to Shang Lu... no, it should be called an old god—Dong Jun.

It is truly ironic that three guards in black robes are doing such shady things in a shrine dedicated to the sun god.

Shang Lu sneered, "Once I've wiped out these rats, I'll definitely offer incense to Dongjun to purify the heavens. I refuse to believe that after this incident, He would have the nerve to prevent me from making Dongjun Nuo masks or borrowing His divine power and supernatural abilities."

He wiped his face and immediately put on the Nuo mask of the eight-legged, snake-tailed god with the body of a boar. At the same time, he took out the Mountain-Moving Bag from the Impermanence Token.

However, he did not rush to use the Mountain-Moving Bag. Instead, he took out the Gu Gu he had just seized, chanted a spell, and released the Sleeping Gu.

The invisible sleep-inducing insect immediately flew into the witch temple.

Inside the main hall, the three guards in black robes suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness wash over them.

But they quickly suppressed their drowsiness and realized something was wrong, shouting angrily, "Who goes there? How dare you cast a spell on us!"

"What a pity," Shang Lu sighed softly outside the temple.

This sleep-inducing Gu can't even knock out people with seventh or eighth-grade cultivation, so it seems it's not very useful.

Shaking his head, he retrieved the Sleep Gu and threw the Gu cup back into the Impermanence Token.

As the essence of Qi was activated, streaks of earthy yellow light appeared on the face of the eight-legged, snake-tailed god Nuo.

The faint light surged into the mountain-moving bag and instantly turned into mud and rocks.

next moment.

"boom--"

A rain of mud and rocks appeared out of nowhere above the temple!

If it weren't for the fear of making too much noise, pokeweed could have condensed these boulders into mountains.

Even so, this sudden mudslide instantly destroyed most of the mechanisms, magic arrays, and witchcraft in the courtyard of the shaman temple.

The feng shui magic array set up by Third Sister also took effect at this moment, transforming the sound of the mudslide rain into the sound of wind and rain.

Even those around the shaman temple who heard the noise assumed it was just a strong wind and heavy rain, completely unaware that a mudslide was actually occurring inside the temple!
The three guards in black immediately put away the bone vessels and rushed out of the main hall of the witch temple.

Someone stared intently at the surroundings, roaring sharply, "What kind of demon dares to cause trouble at the Witch Temple?!"

Some looked up at the mud and rocks falling from the sky and coldly questioned, "How dare you! You dare to move mountains to suppress a witch temple? Aren't you afraid of being punished by the God of Spring?"

"That's exactly what I was going to ask you."

The pokeweed, riding the fierce wind, leaped over the mud walls of the shaman's temple.

He floated in mid-air, his clothes fluttering, like a god descending to earth, looking down at the three guards in black robes.

“You practice such absoluted and harmful sorcery in the temple of the Eastern Lord. Aren’t you afraid of being punished by the Eastern Lord?”

"You blind fool, how dare you meddle in our business?"

"Now that you know, we absolutely cannot let you leave!"

"Why waste words with him? Capture him and bring him back to our lord!"

The three guards in black roared and launched a fierce attack without hesitation!
(End of this chapter)