Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

The magistrate may be busy, but that doesn't mean Ling Ziling will give up the idea of ​​throwing people into the yamen. These are all ordinary people, except for that fake old woman who looks a bit different. She might have been specially sent by that "fairy" from the capital, but now it's probably beyond her reach.

She's not from here, so how it's handled isn't really her concern. The victims are scholars like Guo Shen; let them discuss it with the local magistrate.

And if you go now, you can catch a show featuring human-demon-ghost characters, so why not go?

"So that's how you use the yellow talismans you posted. You found the person so quickly. I thought you had calculated it in advance."

On the way to the yamen, Xiao Cui asked Ling Ziling how she found these people.

After spending so many days together, Xiao Cui had a general idea of ​​what Ling Ziling was capable of. Besides talisman magic, she could also perform divination. She had even heard that Ling Ziling had used divination to save her sect from a annihilation. This time, she was caught after only a few steps. Xiao Cui's first guess was that Ling Ziling had used divination.

“If this were still where I was, I would definitely consult a fortune teller first, and then go straight to block the road, but here…”

Lingziling aimlessly flicked his whisk, seemingly chasing something.

“In the first few days after I arrived, I consulted the oracle about various things. Perhaps there was a difference between the two worlds, because the results were very strange. Also, the night stars and the earth's spiritual energy made me feel like something was missing, but upon closer inspection, it seemed like nothing was missing.”

The Taoist methods she cultivates are indeed quite traditional, but compared to those here, there are still many differences. This causes Ling Ziling's divination here to always deviate slightly. The deviations are not significant, but they still affect the final results. Currently, she is still in the adjustment phase and does not plan to use it frequently.

If it weren't for this, she would have successfully found Miss Wu long ago and given her a bunch of protective treasures, so that no matter what kind of villains they were, they would definitely not be able to leave alive.

But now she's not so sure, so she can only keep an eye on Zhu Erdan, the Ten Kings Palace, and the thugs and ruffians on the street who are asking for a beating.

Ling Ziling even considered that if she broke the legs of all the scoundrels in the city, she could prevent the murder of Miss Wu and restore order. In the end, however, this method was too brutal and time-consuming, and she couldn't guarantee that she would only break one leg. So, the plan was never used.

"I can't be sure... The celestial and solar phenomena are different where you are?"

"There are some differences, but when I look closely, the Big Dipper stars basically match. As for the sun and moon... several suns have appeared in the Bitter Realm before, so they are not of any reference value. I suspect that the energy forms are different. There are many races in our area, and a lot of interconnected alien worlds. These differences are probably what caused the calculation results to be off."

"It must be really lively where you are."

Having heard so much, Xiao Cui was rarely surprised anymore. Even if it was about several suns and moons, or a demon god about to destroy the world, each time she heard it, it was very abstract, and she could only see some descriptions in the stories of gods and demons.

Based on this alone, she really couldn't imagine a world that matched the descriptions of these people. She also couldn't understand how that place could contain so many races, forces, natural disasters, and man-made calamities. It seemed that all the catastrophic disasters were just commonplace there. She didn't know whether to be grateful or sad.

"It's very lively, frighteningly lively."

For some reason, Ling Ziling started sighing along with Xiao Cui. Xiao Cui was right; it was indeed too lively, so lively it was frightening.

When they arrived at the yamen, they found that a large crowd had already gathered there, and they all looked to be from the Zhang family. They couldn't get in.

"...a vixen?"

Xiao Cui twitched her nose, clearly smelling something. She had only heard about Miss Zhang's miraculous recovery, but had never seen it with Lianxiang and the others. She didn't know that besides ghosts and humans, there were also monsters involved, and fox demons at that.

In fact, because she came with Liu Qingyuan's spirit, she took the empty road into the city. Not to mention Lianxiang, the fox spirit who lived near Flower Street with Sang Xiao, she had never even seen Hongyu, who was also a fox spirit outside the city.

"Could that sister who went to the Zhang family be the fox spirit?"

It seems that the older sister who went looking for her also had feelings for the scholar. A fox and a human, which reminded her of Ying Ning. In fact, it's not just foxes; very few love stories between demons and humans, or humans and demons, are truly happy. There are just too many differences in lifespan, race, beliefs...

People were gathered at the door, so the two of them couldn't go in. They could only stand outside and listen to what was going on. Neither of them were ordinary people; they had excellent hearing and could hear the conversation inside very clearly.

The story goes something like this: Miss Zhang, who has been resurrected, says that she was the daughter of former Magistrate Li, and that her resurrection was unintentional. She hopes that the Zhang family will let her go, but the Zhang family has witnessed their dead daughter open her eyes. They only have one daughter, so of course they are unwilling.

There is also a woman named Lianxiang. Xiaocui is probably the fox demon she smelled. Lianxiang can testify that the body of Miss Zhang is inhabited by the soul of Miss Li. However, she cannot say that the reason she knows these things is because she is a demon herself. She can only vaguely say that she was guided by an immortal, which is not strong evidence.

There was also a scholar, whose voice was a bit soft and whose presence was weak, so he wasn't much of a reference. Everyone held their own opinions and refused to give in. The county magistrate in the hall seemed to be trying to smooth things over. In short, it was very chaotic and very busy, but it was still unclear why they were so busy.

The story of the dead coming back to life is already bizarre. Not long after Miss Zhang died, while preparing for her funeral, they saw their daughter open her eyes again. Rather than believing that a strange ghost had possessed their daughter's body to return to life, the Zhang family was more willing to believe that their daughter had come back to life.

Unfortunately, the girl who came back to life was surnamed Li, not Zhang.

"As long as they understand who the soul inside Miss Zhang's body belongs to, that should be enough, right?"

After listening for a while, Ling Ziling realized that the argument was a dead end, so she decided to step in and help them resolve the matter.

Perhaps due to Jian Feidao's interference, Lianxiang found Miss Li, who had been resurrected, ahead of time. At this time, her appearance had not changed and she still looked like Miss Zhang. Lianxiang could recognize her and was looking at Miss Li's soul. She only needed to use a little magic and some talismans to open the eyes of the Zhang family and let them see that it was Miss Li's soul and not Miss Zhang's soul. Then everything would be solved.

Although it was somewhat cruel for the Zhang family to directly shatter their illusions, Miss Zhang had indeed passed away; otherwise, Miss Li's spirit wouldn't have entered. Her passing by the Zhang family at the perfect time meant that Miss Zhang's spirit should have successfully gone to the underworld by now. Instead of letting things drag on like this, it would be better to go back and finish the rest of the funeral arrangements, otherwise the seventh day after her death would have already passed.

"Stop arguing, I, the Taoist priest, will resolve this matter for you."

Thinking this, Ling Ziling darted into the crowd, and before anyone could react, a girl in pink appeared before them.

"...Are you a Taoist priest?"

The magistrate looked at the suddenly appearing girl. Ever since the Song family was predicted by the Taoist priest to face a fatal disaster, all the Taoist priests in the city, regardless of their abilities, had been driven away. The magistrate had not seen any Taoist priests come here for some time.

"Naturally, Biying Xianchen is spiritually powerful, a descendant of Zhang Tianshi."

"this person……"

Lianxiang had never met Ling Ziling, but that didn't stop her from guessing the girl's background. From her appearance, Ling Ziling was about the same age as Miss Li and Miss Zhang, but she was holding a whisk and said she would help them solve their problems.

Xiao Cui followed Ling Ziling in and their eyes met. Lian Xiang, who was observing, made eye contact. With just one glance, Xiao Cui knew she was right. This beautiful woman who called herself Lian Xiang was a fox demon.

In other words, the ordinary scholar named Sang Xiao in the hall has won the hearts of both the fox demon and the female ghost, and they get along well with each other; the three of them have a very good relationship.

"...That's pretty impressive."

After scanning the people in the hall, Xiao Cui withdrew her gaze and uttered this sigh.

Lianxiang could also tell that Xiaocui was a fox spirit. She couldn't tell Ling Ziling's background, but she had a fox spirit by her side, so she must be a capable person. Therefore, she agreed to let Ling Ziling help them solve the problem.

Sang Xiao was an ordinary mortal. He had experienced Lianxiang's abilities firsthand. If Lianxiang agreed, then he naturally agreed as well. Miss Li had transformed from a ghost into a human and lost her abilities as a ghost, but she and Lianxiang were already like sisters. If Lianxiang chose to believe in spirits, then of course she would believe as well.

The Zhang family was actually unwilling. No matter how extraordinary Ling Ziling seemed, she was still a little girl about the same age as their young lady. Even if she was a Taoist priest, how much ability could she have at her age?

However, since their daughter, who had miraculously returned from the dead, had agreed, there was nothing they could do. As for the county magistrate, he was eager to resolve this absurd matter as soon as possible. The claim that she had returned from the dead was only Zhang's side of the story, and that the resurrected Miss Zhang was not her was also only Sang Xiao's side of the story. The county magistrate had never seen any of these things, and he didn't know how to judge the case. He just wanted to find out as soon as possible and leave.

Since most people agreed, Lingziling didn't delay and used the talisman water to open the eyes of the Zhang family. They saw that the body inside Miss Zhang was not their deceased daughter, but a completely unfamiliar girl. They could only accept that their daughter had really left.

"Now that the problem is solved, then this official..."

"Not yet, please come with us."

"?"

With Miss Li's matter seemingly resolved, the remaining issues were entirely Zhang's family affairs. Just as the magistrate was about to leave, Ling Ziling stopped him. While this matter was settled, they hadn't yet given an explanation to the men who had arrested the scholars.

With the Zhang family's daughter's miraculous recovery concluded, the case of the missing scholars, which had been dropped, was reopened. The scholars were caught, and they all, willingly or unwillingly, discussed the matter and realized that they had simply been wronged, neither having had a romantic encounter nor possessing any extraordinary talent. This time, of course, they were willing for the magistrate to continue the investigation.

The old woman leading the group was exposed; she was actually only in her thirties, but had disguised herself as an old woman with a thin human skin mask.

According to Xiao Cui's examination, this is a real human skin that has been treated with special techniques. It may have been specially made by a painted skin so that ordinary people could use it easily.

The murderer who killed the scholar was found, and the person who was caught was naturally taken back for interrogation. However, as soon as the yellow talisman sealing his mouth was removed, the person opened his mouth and said that his master was a high-ranking official in the capital and that they had someone behind them.

As mentioned before, the magistrate of this place is a coward who only tries to smooth things over when faced with difficult situations. When he heard that a big shot from the capital was involved, he naturally didn't want to continue the investigation. Any official from the capital could easily crush him. The arrogant and domineering Song family in the city used to be high-ranking officials in the capital, and no one dared to offend them.

Why are you so afraid of officials?

Ling Ziling couldn't understand this at all. He was a county magistrate, while the other side had been acting arrogantly and doing evil for many years. How could the other side be so cowardly? You have been a county magistrate for so many years, yet you have no authority at all?

"Officials appointed by the imperial court are indeed difficult to deal with. Why don't we wait for the immortal master to return before we discuss this further?"

Xiao Cui could understand this to some extent. When she was Wang Yushi's daughter-in-law, she often saw all sorts of people coming to give gifts. Even though Wang Yuanfeng was a fool who didn't know anything, those people still treated him with utmost respect.

"Are imperial officials so special? In our country, dynasties and countries have changed again and again, and imperial officials are like consumables. Even the emperors have died several times... um, um..."

Although Ling Ziling was telling the truth, this wasn't a place of national fragmentation and hardship, but rather a place with a unified feudal dynasty, a place where literary inquisitions were rampant. You couldn't just say things like "the emperor is dead" casually, so Xiao Cui immediately covered her mouth.

Actually, according to Xiao Cui's habits, it would have been more dignified to just use magic to seal her mouth, but the two of them had only argued over some inexplicable issues before and had never really sparred with magic. She didn't know if her magic could subdue Ling Ziling, so she simply used physical silencing instead.

"Lingling, you can't say things like that."

"Uh...uh..."

Ling Ziling, who had been manually muted, could not speak. She could only pat Xiao Cui's arm to indicate that she understood and asked her to let go.

"...Isn't that the case?"

The emperors here aren't immortal. If we consider the average lifespan, those in the Bitter Realm might live even longer. It's just that they all die suddenly, and not many die peacefully.

"As for."

Xiao Cui rarely had a serious expression. She and Ling Ziling were not afraid to say these things, but if these words got out, the emperor wouldn't care who said them, he would only care where they came from, and the whole region would suffer.

"It seems we've come back at just the right time."

A familiar voice came from above, and Liu Qingyuan and Jian Feidao appeared at the entrance of the yamen. Each of them was holding a young man, who, judging from their clothes, were scholars similar to Guo Shen and his group.

These two must be the last two scholars who went missing and haven't returned yet. They thought it would be more convenient to take them directly to the yamen so they could explain things directly, and that's how they ran into Ling Ziling and Xiao Cui.

At this time, Lianxiang and the others had not yet left. The Zhang family hoped that Miss Li would go back with them to see Miss Zhang's grandmother. The old lady used to love her granddaughter the most, and now that such a thing had happened, they should give the old lady an explanation.

Miss Li was passively resurrected in another's body. She actually wanted to go with Lianxiang and Sang Xiao. Lianxiang saw the Zhang family's affection for their daughter and knew they wouldn't mistreat Miss Li. Therefore, Lianxiang was trying to persuade Miss Li to go back to the Zhang family first. The other person was no longer a ghost, and a living person's body needed to be well taken care of. Moreover, after inexplicably dying and coming back to life, Miss Li hadn't eaten anything yet, which wouldn't do.

A white light appeared at the edge of her field of vision. Lianxiang turned her head and saw two new people who had appeared at the door. They were both immortals in white robes and with white hair, and she recognized them.

"Seniors, you're back. How did things go?"

"Ran."

"Who ran away?"

"Those two guys who helped capture the scholar have been rescued."

Liu Qingyuan sighed, her expression full of regret.

"I never expected that there would be such a top expert here who could rival the innate level."