The rose hadn’t stopped fighting, swallowing two more resentful spirits in one go. It sensed something was off about the atmosphere around them.
The intense evil energy emanated from the rabbit head. However, its transformation had been so swift that none of the spirits had noticed it.
The ghosts’ eyes were fixed on Nan Deng, assuming he was the ghost king.
The Bagua Ring struck again, causing the nearby ghosts to dodge rather than attack proactively.
“Why would a ghost king be with a celestial master?”
“And the earth spirit… the ghost king holds an earth spirit…”
Resentful spirits are naturally inclined to follow a ghost king, seeing it as their sole leader. But seeing a ghost king accompanied by a celestial master and an earth spirit was unheard of.
The rose’s branches and the Bagua ring continued attacking the ghosts, adding to their confusion.
Feeling the scrutinizing and probing stares from the spirits, Nan Deng hastily scooped up the rabbit head and clung to Lian Yi. “What do these ghosts… want?”
He hadn’t witnessed the rabbit head devouring Gu Xu’s soul. He only heard a slight noise behind him and felt the sudden surge of evil energy.
Nan Deng grabbed the rabbit head’s ears and sniffed, indeed smelling the lingering evil energy.
Lian Yi furrowed his brow slightly and looked around.
The evil energy emitted by the rabbit head would also be detected by the celestial masters in the area. When they came, it wouldn’t just be the ghosts they had to deal with.
He glanced again at the rabbit head in Nan Deng’s arms, clearly implying that it should resolve the mess it had caused.
The rabbit head’s ears drooped. Taking advantage of Nan Deng’s inattention, it wriggled free from his grip and jumped to the ground.
Lian Yi held Nan Deng tightly, comforting him, “It’s okay, everything will be fine soon.”
Nan Deng buried his face into the fabric in front of Lian Yi, occasionally hearing the commotion of resentful spirits being attacked.
The rose was still outside; the pot Nan Deng held was nearly empty. When he looked down, he could only see a small section of branches extending outward.
But Lian Yi’s embrace was safe, and the resentful spirits couldn’t approach even half a step.
Just as Nan Deng’s nervousness was beginning to ease, he suddenly heard the excited voices of the resentful spirits again.
“It’s over there!”
“What’s going on? More than one ghost king?”
“Doesn’t matter, let’s go see!”
Taking advantage of the brief moment earlier, the rabbit head moved to the other side of the street and transformed once more.
It no longer hid its presence; its expanding form grew larger and larger. In the darkness, it opened three crimson eyes, completely losing its original appearance.
Including some resentful spirits rushing from afar, they followed the scent and were redirected towards the location where the giant beast appeared.
In the blink of an eye, all the resentful spirits surrounding them had left.
The intersection suddenly became much quieter and emptier. Lian Yi released Nan Deng and escorted him away in the opposite direction, saying, “Let’s go.”
The rose consumed the last remaining solitary resentful spirit and withdrew its branches into the pot.
At this moment, Nan Deng touched his head and realized the rabbit head was gone.
Lian Yi kept walking, taking him to a secluded corner nearby, and reassured him, “It’ll be fine.”
Nan Deng also sensed the renewed surge of evil energy. But in his haste to follow Lian Yi away earlier, he hadn’t paid much attention.
He turned his head towards the direction where the disturbance occurred, recalling the odd behavior of the resentful spirits before and the peculiarities of the rabbit head.
A vague thought surfaced in Nan Deng’s mind. He grabbed Lian Yi’s sleeve and asked, somewhat dazedly, “Over there… is it, Xiao Tu?”
Lian Yi remained silent for a moment before responding, “Yes.”
The rabbit head had always disguised itself in front of Nan Deng, seemingly reluctant to let him see its true form.
Thinking back to Nan Deng’s initial reaction upon seeing the rose reveal its sharp teeth for the first time, and the differences before and after the rabbit head’s transformations, Lian Yi could guess the reason behind it.
The rabbit head had gone to great lengths to soothe the timid mountain god.
Since Nan Deng had learned about the existence of the earth spirit and his own identity, his acceptance had grown significantly. He pursued, “Is Xiao Tu very powerful too?”
The rabbit head had admitted yesterday that it had caused damage to Yezhang Tower, allowing Nan Deng to escape from inside.
But how exactly it had done it still intrigued Nan Deng. He glanced discreetly outside. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see the intersection they had come from.
“Hmm,” Lian Yi nodded, “It’s more powerful than the earth spirit.”
Nan Deng couldn’t help but widen his eyes, lips slightly parted, his expression a mix of astonishment and surprise. “Really?”
Lian Yi couldn’t resist reaching out, gently touching the side of his face. “Really.”
Before Nan Deng could say anything else, they heard hurried footsteps outside.
There were quite a few footsteps passing by on the street, likely from the celestial masters. Lian Yi immediately held his breath and gestured silently to the rose in front of them.
The rose hadn’t found a suitable place to settle yet, and Nan Deng, worried it might be discovered, didn’t want to take any chances.
Those people quickly moved away. After a while, a familiar petite figure jumped down from the wall, landing precisely at Nan Deng’s feet.
It was the rabbit head. Nan Deng joyfully picked it up and carefully examined its body. “Xiao Tu! Are you hurt?”
The rabbit head rubbed Nan Deng’s palm and let out a small burp.
Taking advantage of the chaos after devouring many resentful spirits while in its true form, it had turned back just before the first batch of celestial masters arrived, sneaking away to follow the scent and find Nan Deng.
No resentful spirit would pay attention to a palm-sized rabbit head. They were still puzzled why an aura similar to a ghost king would appear on a giant beast, gathering together and refusing to leave even after being swallowed.
Seeing the rabbit head unharmed, Nan Deng felt relieved. “As long as you’re okay…”
He continued to examine the rabbit head, pinching its soft plush ears with a deep curiosity in his eyes.
Pretending not to notice, the rabbit head shook its ears cutely.
Tonight’s plan had been disrupted. Discovering the aura of a ghost king level was unsettling, and the celestial masters outside weren’t much calmer than the resentful spirits.
After weighing the pros and cons, Lian Yi decided to return first and assess the situation tomorrow night.
Nan Deng had no objections. The rose had also consumed many resentful spirits and remained quietly digesting in the flowerpot.
They retraced their steps, encountering scattered resentful spirits along the way, which Lian Yi dealt with effortlessly.
They returned to the motel close to four in the morning. Nan Deng couldn’t sleep even after taking a shower. He turned off the lights in the room and looked out through the crack in the curtains.
Approaching from behind, Lian Yi whispered, “They didn’t find us. Don’t worry.”
Tonight had caused quite a stir. But in reality, the rabbit head consuming resentful spirits had helped the celestial masters significantly.
Without understanding the situation, they mistook the chaos god’s aura for the appearance of a ghost king. Even if their whereabouts were discovered, it would provide an opportunity to uncover who intended to harm the mountain god.
Lian Yi remained vigilant beside Nan Deng. Close to five in the morning, Nan Deng finally grew tired.
Once he fell asleep, Lian Yi took out his communicator.
There were several unread messages. Lin Jiu had contacted him, but he hadn’t had a chance to read them last night.
“In the Changyang area, several patients have recovered without treatment. Do you know anything about this?”
“I and my teacher are preparing to go to Changyang to see the situation.”
“We’ve arrived.”
Changyang is the area where the parrot spirit resides, and Lian Yi and Nan Deng stayed there overnight.
Patients recovering without treatment… Lian Yi lowered his gaze, looking at Nan Deng sleeping in his arms.
Before they left, the parrot had asked for a few strands of Nan Deng’s hair.
The parrot had indeed mentioned wanting to try if the mountain god’s hair could be effective against the epidemic, but they had left in a hurry and didn’t know how it managed.
If the patients’ recovery was indeed due to Nan Deng, it would also indicate something else.
The epidemic’s origin was likely influenced by evil energies or similar, rendering conventional medicine ineffective. Hence, the hospital’s struggle to find a treatment.
However, the Inner Court had not detected any abnormalities either, suggesting either deliberate concealment or that the means of spreading the epidemic were difficult to detect.
Lian Yi relayed this information to Lin Jiu and asked him not to spread it for now.
He chose to trust Lin Jiu but still harbored distrust toward Weng Ping Ran.
Even if he didn’t say anything, the fact that the patients were cured by the earth spirit would eventually be discovered.
Sure enough, shortly after sending the message, Lin Jiu replied, “We’ve found hospital surveillance footage confirming it was indeed a parrot earth spirit.”
The parrot had a small bottle in its claws containing an unknown transparent liquid.
In the surveillance footage, it approached the sick patients’ beds and sprayed the liquid from the bottle onto their faces.
“We’re already on our way to track down the earth spirit.”
Lin Jiu didn’t rest all night, and neither did Weng Ping Ran. He refused to waste any time and was determined to find out the reason.
Lian Yi put down the communicator and didn’t reply further.
It wasn’t until noon the next day that Lin Jiu sent a new message.
“We negotiated for a long time before the earth spirit agreed to give us a drop of the water from the bottle.”
The parrot was cautious, not letting the celestial master see that the bottle still contained a few strands of hair, using another container to deliver it.
It also didn’t disclose seeing the Mountain God, only saying that this water was its own secret formula.
“It seems like Teacher believes… but that’s good.”
Lin Jiu rubbed his forehead and then returned with Weng Ping Ran.
Weng Ping Ran treated the drop of water given by the parrot as a treasure, taking a tiny portion to the hospital for research.
He was reluctant to use the rest and worried that temperature changes might affect the drop, so he carefully stored it in a temperature-controlled box.
However, in the afternoon, Lin Jiu saw the earth spirit parrot with an even larger bottle appearing at the hospital.
Since it had already been discovered, the parrot no longer hid, humming a tune as it searched for patients in the hospital, spraying water on them.
If it saw someone with a pale complexion, who might be infected, it would also spray them.
It didn’t want the celestial master’s help either, using up the water in the bottle alone and then flying away with the empty bottle.
Weng Ping Ran was also at the hospital, witnessing the entire process, his face darkening.
“Forget it,” he sighed, rubbing his forehead. “As long as this water works.”
In the afternoon, Nan Deng woke up and got out of bed, also learning about this matter.
He almost thought he misheard, asking again, “My hair can cure illnesses?”
Lian Yi nodded, and the expression of disbelief on Nan Deng’s face turned into joy.
He tried to digest this information, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “Then I have plenty of hair!”
Nan Deng knew there were many people recently who had fallen ill. Because of this, many had died, leading to an increase in resentful spirits.
It was just some hair; he could cut it short. If it could help, he was willing to assist.
Lian Yi looked at the excited Nan Deng and reached out to embrace him. “Good.”
