My ancestors were spiritual plant growers, so it's not surprising that I hunt demons every day,

"problem occurs!"

"Judging from the voice, it sounds like Fellow Daoist Zhao Dongming's partner."

At the same time, all the cultivators who saw and heard this changed their expressions drastically.

Chang Feng and Ke Zhongkai, who were leading the charge, quickly turned around and left the Chen family home, shouting in a low voice:

"Come on, let's go take a look!"

The aura that just surged into the sky was indeed emanating from a ghost at the late stage of Qi Refining.

The faces of the rogue cultivators surrounding them also began to darken. After hesitating for a long time, they each took their magical artifacts and followed.

After a whirlwind of running, the group quickly arrived at the Zhao family's residence.

The Zhao family mansion covers an area of ​​three acres. The protective magic array has been broken, and the green tile walls seem to have been pushed down by a huge force, leaving them in ruins.

Outside the golden gate, seven or eight independent cultivators living nearby were already standing back to back, their hands trembling as they held their magical implements.

"Captain Chang and Fellow Daoist Ke have arrived! We're saved!"

Perhaps seeing reinforcements arriving, one of the beautiful female cultivators in red had her eyes light up and, still somewhat shaken, shouted:

"It's a female ghost! A female ghost killed Zhao Dongming!"

Chang Feng and Ke Zhongkai exchanged a glance and quickly asked:

"Fellow Daoist Xu, we followed the ghost's aura all the way from the Cheng family to here. Where is that ghost? Did you see which way it fled?"

Xu Daiqiu stood outside the Zhao family mansion, her red dress adorned with gold thread standing out in the night.

Cui Ying mingled in the crowd and thoughtfully glanced at the woman.

In her previous life, she did not go out with them and did not know all the details of what happened tonight.

But she always felt that the woman's face was gloomy and her sweet voice was somewhat sinister.

Before she could think further, she pointed her slender finger to a small alley next to the Zhao family's house and said with lingering fear:

"They ran that way!"

"Chase!"

Twenty or thirty Qi Refining cultivators, wielding various magical artifacts, chased after them aggressively in that direction.

But after following the remaining ghostly aura for dozens of miles, the group still couldn't find any trace of the ghost. Moreover, the ghostly aura became increasingly faint, and they lost track of the direction several times.

By this time, they had already chased out of Shuangling Village and were almost outside the Phoenix Mountain Range, standing on the main road leading to Chiyang Valley.

"Stop! We can't chase them anymore!"

Looking at the dark and desolate forest ahead, Chang Feng could only make a hand gesture and call out to the cultivators behind him.

The cultivators immediately stopped in their tracks, secretly relieved.

"Alright, let's go back and check first."

Just as Chang Feng and Ke Zhongkai decided to lead their men back to the village, a large group of people suddenly came chasing after them.

These people all possessed considerable power, and each carried magical artifacts or talismans. Some even exuded the aura of demonic beasts, indicating that they were experts who had brought their spirit pets.

Cui Ying looked around and, sure enough, found Xue Changye, whom she had seen a few days ago, in the crowd. Next to him was a thin, elderly man with an extraordinary bearing.

The old man was dressed in plain brocade clothes and had a full head of silver hair.

He was sitting cross-legged on the back of a giant blue wolf that was almost ten feet in size, with three or four smaller phantom wolves following behind him.

"Captain Chang, Fellow Daoist Ke, you should both stop chasing. We've all been fooled by that ghost."

Among the large crowd behind her, Cui Ying saw for the first time since her rebirth the village chief of Shuangling Village, a Qi Refining Level 8 cultivator in a green robe holding the Qingyang Brush, and Xie Qing.

"Village Chief Qi, what do you mean by this!?"

Chang Feng's expression turned somewhat unpleasant upon hearing this, and he went to greet him.

"After you chased after us, we rushed to the Zhao family and just happened to see that the ghost possessed Fellow Daoist Xu Daiqiu and killed several rogue cultivators around him. We were too far away, and the ghost was only injured by Elder Xue's sword energy. It turned around and disappeared without a trace."

After explaining for a few moments, Xie Qing turned to the old man sitting cross-legged on the back of the demon wolf and said:

"Old Xue, that ghost has killed several people in the village in one go. What should we do now?"

The old man first shook his head, then glared at Xie Qing with annoyance, stroking his beard as he said:

"What else can we do? Of course, we'll follow the old rules! Do you really expect this old man to chase after that female ghost with his spirit pet in the middle of the night?"

"Don't dare, don't dare!"

Xie Qing gave a wry smile, then turned to the assembled cultivators and instructed them:

"Fellow Daoists, please go home first! I would like to ask the patrol captains to arrange for people to patrol at night, so that the ghosts will not harm people in our village again."

Shuangling Village has four patrol teams, each responsible for the security of one of the four major areas of the village: east, west, south, and north.

The ghosts could harm people invisibly, so the cultivators had no choice but to be on their guard.

Upon hearing Xie Qing's instructions, the patrol captains present immediately responded and counted their men to form teams responsible for patrolling their respective areas.

Cui Zhengming, standing in the crowd, glanced around and immediately transmitted his voice to Cui Ying:

"Daughter, go home first and let your mother know you're safe. Dad will take the night watch."

Upon hearing this, Cui Ying shook her head almost imperceptibly and replied telepathically:

"Father, let me do it. You go back and keep Mother and the others company."

Cui Zhengming didn't reply, but glared at her, gripped the repaired blue sickle in his hand, and said decisively:

"Father will keep watch tonight. I can take over after you come back from hunting demons tomorrow!"

The village's patrol teams were formed during special periods by each household sending out a freelance cultivator.

If any organization cannot spare any help, they must pay a corresponding amount of spirit stones as compensation.

But the village's patrol team is not like the patrol team in Leiyun City, which is a lucrative job that is only done sporadically.

This is a team formed to defend against monsters or invaders; they might lose their lives and perish at any time.

However, if a family cannot spare the manpower and is unwilling to pay spirit stones, they will be scorned and ostracized by the other independent cultivators in the village.

Moreover, given the serious incident of a ghost in the village injuring several lives and then escaping, the village's patrol team will have to patrol for at least several days before they dare to relax their vigilance until the ghost is captured and the crisis is resolved.

After all, it was a ghost at the late stage of Qi Refining. Few rogue cultivators in the village dared to guarantee that they could protect their families, and no one wanted their homes to be stained with blood.

Seeing the panicked expressions of the cultivators as if facing a formidable enemy, Cui Ying remained calm. In her previous life, the ghost had also been injured by Master Xue and had not reappeared for several days.

"Okay, then I'll go home and rest first."

With this in mind, she responded telepathically before continuing to communicate with the little golden scorpion using her divine sense, quietly following her father just in case.

Only after Cui Ying saw the little golden scorpion crawl out of her sleeve and silently jump into Cui Zhengming's loose belt to hide itself did she feel relieved enough to go home.

Despite all this commotion, Wang Rong, her mother, and her older brother and sister haven't slept yet; they're all sitting in the main room, their faces full of worry.

"Where is the ghost? Or did it run away?"

"They got away. We chased them all the way and almost entered Chiyang Valley, but we didn't see a single ghost."

Cui Ying then recounted what had happened at the Zhao family's house before adding, "Father will be on night watch with the patrol team tonight, and he probably won't be back until tomorrow morning."

"Sigh, the harvest season for the spirit rice is just around the corner, and instead of demonic beasts robbing cultivators, ghosts are causing trouble~ When will this ever end!"

Wang Rong didn't seem surprised by Cui Zhengming's patrol. After sighing, she waved to her children and said, "Go and rest. Your mother will be here tonight."

After saying that, she suddenly realized something and glared at Cui Ying, saying, "Third girl, maybe you shouldn't go into Phoenix Mountain Range to hunt demons tomorrow? From what you've said, that ghost most likely came from Phoenix Mountain Range. If you..."

"Mother, the Phoenix Mountain Range stretches for thousands of miles, what are the chances of us running into each other like that!"

Cui Ying smiled nonchalantly and said, "If we really encounter one, we'll just beat it to a pulp. In broad daylight, I, Cui Ying, have nothing to fear from ghosts and spirits; I'm an upright person."

It wasn't that she was arrogant, but rather that in her previous life, it was she and her second sister, Cui Lin, who participated in the duty.

She was never afraid in her past life, so she's even less likely to be afraid in this one.

"If it were that easy, so many cultivators wouldn't have lost their lives tonight."

After Wang Rong retorted, she didn't try to stop Cui Ying from entering the Phoenix Mountain Range.