I am a ghost messenger, why do I need a long life?

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xian wanted to slap his thigh and praise the person who came for his brilliant strategy.

There's more than just a murder happening.

There are so many murders in Yangzhou now!

I wonder what kind of murder case do you like?

I'll get the files right away, you can take a look and choose whatever you want.

Just solve the case after we're done, how about that?

Zhang Xian was thinking about all sorts of things in his mind, but when the words came to his mouth, he still paid attention to the image of the prefect. He pointed inside the house and said:

"To be honest with you fellow cultivators, a murder did occur in Yangzhou. A family of four died here last night."

Hearing this, the young man in the lead's face changed slightly, and the fellow apprentices behind him couldn't help but look at each other.

Xu An looked at their actions, his eyes narrowed slightly and said:

"You're so concerned about whether there's a murder in Yangzhou. What sect or school are you from? Do you know anything?"

They had not had much contact with the monks of the underworld. When they heard Xu An's question, the leader hesitated for a moment, then clasped his hands together and said seriously:

"Jiang Hanye of the Shangqing Sect, following the orders of his master, has brought along his fellow disciples to track down the remaining members of the Lishan Sword Sect!"

"We've discovered many murders along the way these past few days. They were caused by extracting human blood and absorbing souls, so we followed the clues all the way here."

"I didn't expect that I could actually see the Yangzhou prefect today, and he was in the same place with the Yinting officials. It's really a rare thing."

As far as they could remember, they had very few opportunities to deal with the underworld.

As the actual ruler of the human world, the Great Xia Imperial Court and the ghosts of the underworld are separated by yin and yang, and they do not interfere with each other.

This was the first time in their lives that they had seen someone like Xu An and Zhang Xian standing in broad daylight and chatting.

Of course, that doesn't matter anymore.

Because Xu An heard two words that made his heart move slightly.

He looked at Jiang Hanye and said:

"Who are you, Mu Linjiang?"

After these words were spoken, Jiang Hanye's heart paused slightly, and a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

Even in his dreams, he would never have thought that Xu An would directly mention this name in front of so many people.

He hesitated and asked uncertainly:

"Do you know the senior sister?"

His eyes moved slightly, and Xu An saw the confusion between his eyebrows, and immediately understood that he didn't believe how his senior sister could have a relationship with a shady guy like him.

Come to think of it, what is Mu Linjiang's identity?

The most outstanding disciple of the Shangqing sect in contemporary times. As a reincarnated immortal, he acts decisively and without delay.

In front of him, without even having time to pee, the scene of him hacking three people was still fresh in Xu An's mind.

Thinking of this, he said:

"I just met her once."

Jiang Hanye said suspiciously:

"Really?"

He always felt that the relationship between this living ghost in the Yin Court and his senior sister was not simple.

But no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see anything strange.

Xu An could see that he was spying on him, but at this moment, the aroma of incense lingering around his body would block most of the other person's perception.

In addition, he has not yet broken through to the Purple Mansion Realm and has not started practicing the Huangting Sutra. Of course, there is no evidence or suspicious points for him to spy on.

"Why, do you want me to have an entangled relationship with your senior sister?"

He chuckled and retorted, and after his face changed slightly due to choking, Xu An pointed to the room with his chin and said:

"A family of four is in there. I think someone has sucked their blood and spirits dry. Do you want to see it?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Hanye and his fellow junior brothers and sisters behind him exchanged a glance, then stepped into the house one after another to check the corpse.

During this process, Xu An smiled and said:

"Master Zhang, right now, the Great Xia Imperial Court, the Yin Court, and even the major sects in the human world all have people here. Should we invite the people from the Divine Court as well?"

Zhang Xian looked at Xu An and instantly understood what he meant. He said:

"In all my years as an official, this is the first time I've encountered a case where multiple forces must come together to investigate the case."

"Mr. Xu, just tell me which spirit you would like to invite here?"

Xu An turned his head and looked at the small temple built with a few stone slabs next to another big locust tree at the end of Wulipu. He said:

"Please wait a moment, sir. I will be back soon."

Taking a step forward, Xu An quickly arrived in front of the small temple. He reached out and took the thin incense placed on it, and lit the sacred fire with his bare hands.

After lighting the incense, Xu An faced the murals enshrined in the temple, channeling his magical power and the aura of the incense while speaking aloud:

"Xu An, the psychic priest of the Yin Court, respectfully invites the God of Fortune and Righteousness!"

Three burning incense sticks are inserted into the incense ashes.

A wisp of green smoke floated in the air, followed by the scent of incense, which led out a short old man.

He was holding a cane in his hand and wearing a yellow official robe. When he saw Xu An, he couldn't help but say:

"Master Psychic, what do you want from me?"

Although he was officially named the God of Fortune, Wulipu was a remote and poor village with few people. He only received offerings and incense during festivals.

Therefore, as the most basic minor god in the Divine Court, neither he, as the landowner of Wulipu, could compare with Xu An in terms of cultivation nor in terms of authority.

"Landlord, this is the place where you receive tributes and govern. Why are you hiding from us after a murder happened?"

Xu An narrowed his eyes slightly. When he came here, he found that the land of Wulipu had not appeared. Originally, he was not in a hurry to come here to ask, but he did not expect that the people of Shangqing Sect would follow and track them down here.

Any clue could potentially play a huge role.

"Master Psychic, when the incident happened last night, I was concentrating my energy to maintain my divine body and my spiritual practice. I really don't know what happened..."

Xu An wanted to scold him, as the landowner of Wulipu, he actually did nothing...

But on second thought, looking at his aging soul and the sparse incense offerings in this small temple, I suddenly felt that it was understandable.

It is different from the Yinting, which has sufficient Yin energy to nourish the soul and body.

Even if the God of Land is granted an official title of great virtue, it does not mean that they can be casual and live as long as the heaven.

Those who control vast territories or places with strong religious ties, such as the land under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Prefecture, are far more powerful than ordinary lands.

The more offerings they received, the more at ease they became in both their cultivation speed and in facing the yin and yang cleansing of the human world.

But the situation in the wild lands is not optimistic.

The territory ruled by the Great Xia Imperial Court was quite vast, with a total of 3,000 states, among which there were countless uninhabited areas of hundreds of miles.

The land allocated here received no offerings or worship all year round, so of course their lives were extremely miserable.

It was quite difficult for them just to survive, let alone improve their strength and practice hard.

Even more miserable are those who are in those wild and desolate places, where they are driven and enslaved by big monsters, and even worse, they are directly eaten by monsters.

At this moment, the land of Wulipu was clearly not faring well. It had reached a point where they needed to cultivate their energy and preserve their spirit to maintain their physical well-being. It was understandable that they had no time for other things...

"There's no need to hide. The Yangzhou prefect is here, the cultivators from the major sects in the mortal world are here, and I'm here in the Yin Court. There will only be more and more things that require communication in the future. Come with me to meet them..."

The fact that the underworld no longer accepts ghosts will cause the world of the living to become overcrowded with ghosts, which will cause big problems.

Most of the time, mortals have no way out of this situation. At that time, they can only rely on the grassroots monks of the Divine Court and the monks in the human world to work together.

"I will listen to you, sir."

The God of Land did not refuse and followed Xu An back to the crowd with his crutches.

After exchanging pleasantries and knowing each other's identities, the four-party talks officially began.

First, they need to decide on a direction for the investigation.

The person who appeared last night is a big suspect.

The direction he was heading was Yangzhou City, so it was very likely that he was hiding in the city.

In order to prevent him from suddenly attacking and hurting others, we cannot post notices all over the city to avoid alerting others and angering him.

"Sir, there are hundreds of thousands of people in Yangzhou City. If we don't post the notice, how long will it take to find it?"

When the officers below heard this, they were all stunned. It's not even possible to find a needle in a haystack like this, right?

"It's okay. The person who made the move is quite powerful and is a cultivator. The vast majority of people in Yangzhou City are ordinary people."

"All you need to do is hold this spiritual compass. When you encounter someone with cultivation, just get close and the compass will automatically rotate and point to that person."

The disciples of the Shangqing School took out several exquisitely shaped compasses from their bags.

Jiang Hanye looked at the somewhat uneasy group of yamen runners and said:

"To be on the safe side, I will arrange for my fellow apprentices to accompany you. Since we are short of manpower, I would also like to invite the God of Fortune and Lord Xu to accompany us."

Although the God of Land was somewhat reluctant, he nodded and agreed after a brief thought.

Xu An came here to investigate this case, so of course he would not refuse.

Thus, the four-party talks ended.

These two forces should have kept to themselves and operated independently.

At this moment, they were completely united in such a strange way.

On the way back, Xu An looked at Jiang Hanye, deliberately slowed down his pace, and said as if he didn't mean to say anything:

"The Lishan Sword Sect was destroyed, and your Shangqing Sect was also involved. Do you know the whole story?"

Hearing Xu An actually bring up this matter, Jiang Hanye narrowed his eyes and said:

"What information does Lord Xu want to find out?"

You're such a fool! There's something wrong with the Lishan Sword Sect. Your senior sister and I discovered it together...

He complained in his heart, but on the surface Xu An remained calm and said:

"I'm just curious. I've been in the Yin Court before, and I know very little about what's happening in the human world. I want to know why the Lishan Sword Sect, a major sect in the human world, was suddenly wiped out by the three sects working together."

"So much so that after the incident, instead of settling the matter peacefully, you chose to hunt down the remaining members of their sect all the way here."

As he spoke, Xu An narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at him with a puzzled look and said:

"What have they done to deserve this?"

"What have you done?"

Jiang Hanye's face was gloomy and uncertain, and he said in a slightly cold voice:

"You really want to know?"

Xu An nodded:

"Appreciate further details."

"The story begins a month ago. At that time, the eldest sister was suddenly seriously injured and returned to the sect. We didn't know what happened. We only knew that the person who sent her back was a dark-faced man..."

Jiang Hanye began to give Xu An a rough outline of the cause and effect of the entire incident.

Xu An knew very well what happened at the beginning, so there was no need for him to explain in detail.

Everything started after Mu Linjiang separated from him.

At that time, Mu Linjiang had found out that someone in the Lishan Sword Sect was practicing evil techniques, so he rushed to the Lishan Sword Sect's sphere of influence alone.

In order to avoid alerting the enemy, she even disguised herself.

But even so, Mu Linjiang soon discovered that this town, which was under the influence of the Lishan Sword Sect, was full of weirdness.

On the surface, these people seem to be fine, but upon closer observation, you will find that they are obviously slow-witted, with dull expressions, no blood on their faces, and purple lips.

Even if he could occasionally meet a few people who acted quickly as usual, Mu Linjiang could feel that they were staring at him all the time.

In order not to arouse suspicion, Mu Linjiang took the initiative and fabricated a reason that he was entrusted by someone to return the relics of a disciple of Lishan Sword Sect, and took the initiative to test the waters.

Unexpectedly, the other party responded to this test. Those who seemed to be monitoring him immediately asked her not to move and went up the mountain to inform the people in the sect.

"and then?"

Xu An couldn't help but feel that this move was too risky.

"Senior Sister certainly couldn't just wait there foolishly. She resorted to some trickery, knocked out the people who had been following him, and hid in the dark."

"Not long after, she saw more than a dozen people walk out of the Lishan Sword Sect. Each of them was extremely powerful, with the weakest being at the Divine Embryo realm."

"At that time, I was thinking, Senior Sister is really smart. If it were me, I might have been in danger."

Xu An looked at his not-so-bright appearance and nodded in deep agreement. From the fact that he asked his junior sister to help him out just now, it was clear that this kid was too straightforward.

"After that, Senior Sister knew that this matter couldn't be forced, and could only be obtained through wits. Since she couldn't get in that way, she decided to do the opposite."

"Within the Lishan Sword Sect's sphere of influence, Senior Sister disguised herself and looted several important locations, stealing countless gold, silver, and treasures, as well as a large number of precious medicines and weapons."

"Because of the extreme decisiveness, high frequency, and lack of pattern, the Lishan Sword Sect was forced to send strong men down the mountain to guard against this kind of thing from happening again."

"Senior Sister took this opportunity to infiltrate the Lishan Sword Sect while it was empty. Guided by the clues she had, she began to thoroughly investigate the Lishan Sword Sect's practice of evil methods."

"When she arrived at the Danbi Blood Pond, she was astonished by the sight. It contained the flesh and blood of countless living beings, and was teeming with a unique black-purple power, as if it were a living being."

"Just when Senior Sister was surprised, people from the Lishan Sword Sect appeared outside. They had known that Senior Sister was coming here, so they took advantage of her and let her in."

"According to Senior Sister, the people from the Lishan Sword Sect looked very confident at the time and didn't care about her righteous words at all."

"Instead, he smiled and said that as long as he pushed her into the pool of blood, he would turn her into a lackey who would obey his orders. Then she would not distinguish between right and wrong and would not think about these meaningless things."

Xu An's eyes narrowed slightly.

No matter how you look at it, this situation feels familiar...