The ultimate master in the city

Chapter 49 The Loyalty of Mountain Spirits

Around one o'clock in the morning, the neighborhood was pitch black and quiet, with only the light rain pattering down.

Just then, a funeral procession suddenly appeared from the alley ahead. The group in front was dressed in mourning clothes and carrying mourning sticks, paper figures, and paper horses. In the middle, eight people carried a large red coffin, and behind them was a group of women who were crying and wailing.

Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi temporarily put aside the matter of losing money, looking completely bewildered.

Monk Yuanzhi asked in a low voice, "Has anyone died in the neighborhood these past two days?"

Zhou Fengchen scratched his head and said, "I don't know. Even if someone dies, there aren't funeral processions in the middle of the night, are there?"

Monk Yuanzhi said, "That's hard to say; maybe this is just the rule here."

Zhou Fengchen was about to retort when he suddenly exclaimed, "Hey, why are all these people so short?"

Monk Yuanzhi said, "A funeral procession isn't like playing basketball; what's the point of having someone so tall?"

Just then, the funeral procession stopped not far away and held up a crookedly written elegy.

Monk Yuanzhi squinted and read: "The injustice awaits redress as he rides a crane to the west; his righteousness reaches the heavens, his eyes will never close in peace. Horizontal scroll: Eternal glory to Lord Black Crow!" My goodness, this handwriting is really ugly.

Realizing something was amiss, he turned around in surprise and exclaimed, "Black Crow?"

Zhou Fengchen's face darkened. "It's that clay statue we killed last night at Old Man Wang's house in the north of the city!"

Monk Yuanzhi was startled. "Then... what the hell are these monsters?"

Zhou Fengchen said, "Do you remember the matchmaker that Old Wang mentioned? We both forgot about it yesterday."

Monk Yuanzhi exclaimed, "Oh dear! I understand now. This matchmaker has come to avenge Black Crow. He's the one who burned our money. It's truly a case of 'if you don't nip it in the bud, you'll regret it for eternity!' Brother, how confident are you in dealing with such a large group?"

"Let's take a look first." Zhou Fengchen placed his hands in a hand seal on his temples and whispered, "Xuanwu, open the Heavenly Eye."

His eyes turned red. He quickly scanned the room, then lowered his hand and said in a low voice, "Go upstairs and bring me the mirror in the bathroom and my suona."

Monk Yuanzhi nodded and immediately ran upstairs. Not long after, he returned carrying a large mirror and holding Zhou Fengchen's suona in his hand.

The two hid in the shadows. Zhou Fengchen bit his finger and wrote a large "Abandon" character on the mirror. He then drew some talismans next to the character. He then pinched the suona and whispered, "These are a group of mountain demons. They've only been practicing for a few years, but there are too many of them. In a moment, listen to my command: you hold the mirror and I'll blow the suona. We'll wipe them all out in one fell swoop."

Monk Yuanzhi nodded in agreement.

Just then, a handsome little boy dressed in mourning clothes stepped out from the funeral procession, his eyes red from crying. He sobbed, "Alas! King Black Crow was a man of unparalleled righteousness, willing to go to great lengths for his friends. He was truly a hero among us, yet he died tragically at the hands of this evil sorcerer! Evil sorcerer, come forth! Give me justice!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the crying behind her grew even louder.

Monk Yuanzhi swallowed hard and said, "These bastards have come demanding justice. Are we supposed to reason with them?"

"Why bother arguing with them?" Zhou Fengchen spat. "Didn't you hear him call me a heretic?"

"You evil Taoist priest, born of a father but raised by no mother, come out here..."

The boy's insults got increasingly vulgar.

Zhou Fengchen gritted his teeth and silently counted: "Three, two, one, grab your weapons!"

Monk Yuanzhi rushed out with the mirror in his arms, slamming it to the ground. The mirror flashed, reflecting a beam of light that instantly enveloped the funeral procession.

Zhou Fengchen immediately picked up the suona and began to play it loudly and harshly.

The handsome boy was the first to be hit. His face changed, and he fell to the ground in pain. Then, a group of people behind him all fell to the ground, rolling around and screaming in agony.

In just two or three minutes, the group of people was gone, and on the ground appeared several monsters with webbed feet, blue faces and fangs, and a group of pheasants and foxes.

The boy, now a monster, gritted his teeth, got up, let out a strange cry, and started to lift the coffin. Several other monsters also staggered to their feet to help, and together they lifted the coffin and ran into the alley.

Seeing this, Zhou Fengchen quickly handed the suona to Monk Yuanzhi, saying, "Boss Monk, find a rope and tie up these pheasants and foxes. I'm going to chase after those mountain demons."

With that, he pushed off with his feet and entered the alley in a few leaps.

……

It was late at night, and the rain was getting heavier. There were almost no pedestrians on the road. Several blue-faced, fanged mandrills carried a large red coffin and ran wildly along the street. The scene was terrifying no matter how you looked at it.

Zhou Fengchen deliberately slowed his pace, pausing at a distance. These monsters had to be eliminated, but first he needed to find a good place, otherwise it would be difficult to deal with them on the street.

After chasing each other for twenty minutes, the mandrills panicked and ran into the shore of the central lake in the suburban park, where they were blocked by the lake water.

The opportunity is coming!

In the light drizzle, Zhou Fengchen, with his hands behind his back, slowly pressed forward.

"Chirp chirp chirp..."

The mandrills panicked, looking at Zhou Fengchen and then at the lake, their faces filled with terror, letting out strange cries.

As Zhou Fengchen approached, just as he was about to speak, the mountain demon that the little boy had transformed into suddenly put down the coffin, stretched out its sharp claws, and bared its teeth as it charged forward, seemingly intent on taking everyone down with it.

Zhou Fengchen frowned, dodged the lunge by sidestepping, raised his foot and kicked horizontally, sending the mountain demon flying into the air. Then he sprang up and chopped down with his palm.

"Snapped!"

"Awoo!"

The mandrill crashed heavily onto the muddy ground, splashing water everywhere. Its bones broke, and it died.

"Waaah..."

The other mountain demons carrying the coffin exchanged glances, let out mournful howls, then simultaneously put down the coffin, kowtowed several times to it, and then stretched out their sharp claws to tear open their own chests, ripped out their internal organs, convulsed a few times, and fell to the ground dead.

Zhou Fengchen stared in disbelief. Was this... suicide?

He stood there stunned for several minutes before finally walking toward the coffin. He moved a corner of the coffin aside and looked inside. Inside was a pile of broken mud and stones, which was the very statue he had smashed in the temple on Beimang Mountain.

He sighed, somewhat puzzled as to where these otherworldly mountain spirits and monsters got their loyalty and integrity from; they were even more reliable than humans.

He silently gathered the six mandrills, each about the size of a child, together, stuffed them into the coffin, and then pushed the entire coffin into the depths of the lake.

Standing on the shore, he recited the "Sutra of Rebirth in the Pure Land" for a while, then shook his head and went back to his rented room.

The area downstairs from the rented apartment was deserted. Monk Yuanzhi was squatting at the entrance of the building, lost in thought. When he saw Zhou Fengchen return, he stood up and asked dryly, "How was it?"

Zhou Fengchen gave a bitter smile, "Kill them all!"

Monk Yuanzhi said dryly, "This is truly a sin. Let's go upstairs and take a look."

Zhou Fengchen followed him back to the room, only to find the room full of the corpses of pheasants and foxes. A group of creatures full of spirit had all died.

Zhou Fengchen asked, "How did you die?"

Monk Yuanzhi said, "They were just tied up and taken upstairs, and in the blink of an eye, they all tore each other apart and died."

Zhou Fengchen paused for a moment, then said dejectedly, "Forget it! Let's bury it."

The two men found some iron tools and wooden shovels in the room, carried a pile of corpses to the back of the building, found a place with soft soil, dug a pit, and buried them whole.

Back in their room, looking at the ashes of banknotes in the basin, both of them were speechless.

After a while, Monk Yuanzhi said, "This matter is really strange and bizarre, and it's also a bit damn bad. We made money, lost money, damaged our karma, and ended up with nothing."

Zhou Fengchen also said, "The key point is that my 17,000 yuan has absolutely nothing to do with this matter, and it's gone too!"

Monk Yuanzhi scratched his head, a bitter taste in his mouth, "Go to sleep, go to sleep, we're not destined for windfall gains!"

After this incident, Zhou Fengchen lost all interest in work and lay down on one side of the bed with Monk Yuanzhi, both fast asleep.

They didn't know how long they had slept, but suddenly they heard a loud bang on the door, as if someone had kicked it open. Groggy, they got up and saw a group of police officers outside, shouting sternly, "Lie down! Don't move!"

Zhou Fengchen and Monk Yuanzhi exchanged a glance, both completely bewildered. What did that mean?