I have the face of a great demon.

Master Hong said smugly:

"You can go out and ask around. Who within a hundred miles doesn't know the name of our Qingfeng Temple? Who doesn't ask us to perform rituals? For things like exorcising ghosts, you have to come to our Qingfeng Temple."

Liu Xingchen's lips curled into a playful smile: "So Guibao Temple is that famous."

Master Hong replied confidently, "Of course."

"Everyone else recognizes Guibao Temple, but I wonder if that ghost recognizes it? Will it be scared off by Guibao Temple's reputation?"

Upon hearing this, Master Hong's face instantly turned red; he was furious at Liu Xingchen's ridicule.

"You..." He was speechless for a moment, unsure how to refute.

Seeing this, Chen Wangfu quickly stepped forward to smooth things over, as he didn't want the Taoist priests' argument to affect the important matter of exorcising the ghost.

Master Hong took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, and then said to Chen Wangfu:

"Master Chen, one should not trouble two people with one matter. Who do you intend to entrust with this exorcism today? Please give me a definite answer."

His words carried a hint of threat, suggesting he might turn and leave at the slightest disagreement.

Chen Wangfu was in a bit of a dilemma. Qingfeng Temple had a great reputation and should be able to exorcise ghosts.

But this old Taoist Hua looks like a wise and venerable master, which seems quite good.

He certainly hoped that both sides would work together to ensure the exorcism would be foolproof, but it seems that neither side is willing to cooperate now.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and ordered someone to bring up a tray covered with a red cloth. When he opened it, he found it filled with gleaming silver.

"Two Taoist priests, whoever can drive away the ghost tonight will get this hundred taels of silver."

Master Hong's eyes lit up when he saw the silver.

"In that case, I will stay and guarantee to drive the ghost away for you. However, when the ghost comes again, I will have to act first."

Hua Laodao glanced at him nonchalantly and simply said, "Whatever."

As a cultivator, he naturally wouldn't argue with mortals over such trivial matters.

He wouldn't have bothered coming if it weren't for teaching his apprentices.

After eating and drinking their fill, the two groups sat in the courtyard, waiting for the ghost to arrive.

Time passed slowly until midnight, when a sudden gust of cold wind blew up, the gate was pushed open with a bang, and a figure dressed in funeral clothes jumped into the courtyard.

Liu Xingchen looked closely and saw that it was an old woman dressed in a shroud. The shroud was dirty, so she must have just crawled out of the ground.

The old woman moved stiffly, her legs seemed unable to bend, and she could only hop forward with her feet together.

Upon seeing the ghost appear, Master Hong immediately became energetic. With a wave of his hand, he led several young disciples to surround it.

They rang bells and chanted incantations, performing a ritual.

But the old woman didn't care at all; all she wanted to do was jump into the kitchen.

A young Taoist boy blocked her way. She grabbed him and threw him away with force. The boy flew away like a kite with a broken string.

The Chen Wangfu family hid inside the house and saw this scene through the crack in the door, which terrified them.

They prayed to the gods and Buddhas, hoping that the Taoist priests could defeat the evil spirits and restore their peaceful lives.

At this moment, Hua Laodao, Liu Xingchen, and the others remained calm and composed, watching their performance as if it were a play, and even pointing and commenting.

Hua Laodao pointed at the old woman and began to teach his apprentice.

“My disciples, look. That old woman is possessed by a ghost.”

"After a person dies, their soul will slowly dissipate. But some souls, because of their strong attachments, cannot dissipate for a while. They are nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and thus remain, becoming ghosts."

"You can feel it; the spiritual energy changes where ghosts are."

Liu Xingchen quickly circulated his cultivation technique and sensed the surrounding spiritual energy. Sure enough, he felt that the spiritual energy around the old woman was significantly different, which meant he could sense the presence of a ghost.

Hua Laodao then said:

"Ghosts have no physical form, so they like to possess people's bodies. Human corpses are the most vulnerable to ghost possession. If a corpse is possessed by a ghost for a long time, it will become a zombie."

“You can’t deal with this kind of ghost by brute force. Even if you beat her to a pulp, you’ll only be destroying a corpse, not the ghost itself.”

"The ghost has escaped, and it will possess another corpse in the future, so the scourge will still not be eliminated."

These words were spoken to Tie Zhu, to let him know that brute force alone cannot solve all problems.

After listening, Tie Zhu nodded thoughtfully.

“For ghosts, especially zombies, talismans are the best choice.”

As soon as Hua Laodao finished speaking, Master Hong reached into his robe, pulled out a handful of yellow paper, and threw it at the old woman.

The talismans were scattered all over the old woman, but they had no effect on her; instead, they angered her.

This time, the old woman stopped rushing into the kitchen and instead turned around and lunged at Master Hong.

She no longer eats meat; she wants to eat people.

The old woman was very fast; in the blink of an eye, her stiff arm was in front of Master Hong, and her long fingernails were about to pinch his neck.

Master Hong, quick as a flash, slapped the last talisman onto the old woman's face.

As soon as the talisman was slapped on, it emitted a faint light and then stuck tightly to her face.

The old woman's movements came to an abrupt halt; her body froze in place, as if immobilized by some mysterious force, unable to move any further.

Seeing the pair of dark hands already pressed against his neck, Master Hong finally breathed a sigh of relief and smiled smugly.

The Chen family, who had been hiding in the house, ran out cheering and showered Master Hong with flattery.

Liu Xingchen sensed it for a moment and said:

“Master, I can feel it. There’s a faint spiritual energy fluctuation on the talisman on the old woman’s face.”

Tie Zhu, looking rather simple-minded, sensed it for a moment and said, "Hey, now that Brother Xingchen mentions it, I can feel it too."

"However, the spiritual energy fluctuations are quite weak; I didn't even notice them until you pointed them out."

Hua Wufeng nodded approvingly.

“You’re right. The talisman was activated by that Taoist priest, and it emitted a slight fluctuation of spiritual energy.”

"However, the spiritual power of this talisman is far inferior to that of our talismans; its spiritual power is too weak."

"So our talismans are better than Master Hong's. Master is indeed amazing, he outshone that stinky Taoist priest in one fell swoop."

Tie Zhu's words left Hua Laodao speechless, both amused and exasperated.

"Tiezhu, how can he compare to us? We are cultivators, it would be beneath us to compare ourselves to mortals."

"These Taoist priests only practice fragmented methods passed down from independent cultivators, so they can't achieve great things. Even the talismans they make are substandard."

"No, it can't even be called a talisman; at most, it can only be called a talisman paper."

“This kind of talisman definitely won’t be able to suppress this evil spirit. Just you wait and see, something will definitely happen soon.”