Chapter 278
Chapter 278
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 278
>Chapter Title: Supervising Heaven Division
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Li Huowang grabbed the man by the hair and hoisted the entire corpse up, displaying it to everyone else in Pi County.
“Look closely! The ghost has been destroyed by me! Its form and soul are both annihilated! Pi County will never again suffer from shriveled yang or yin!”
Li Huowang’s voice echoed continuously over Pi County. After a moment, with a “boom,” the cheers and shouts of the Pi County residents nearly flipped the sky over the entire county.
Everyone present was weeping with joy, the abnormally gloomy expressions on their faces vanishing without a trace.
Many people immediately reached into their clothes, pulling out ropes and chains used for binding, and flung them high into the air.
Even more knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly to Li Huowang, whom they had just questioned, chanting words of gratitude like “second parents.”
Magistrate Yang, standing nearby, came forward with several bailiffs, using their long staffs to lift the ghost’s corpse and begin a parade through the streets.
As these people returned home to tell their families, the news quickly spread throughout Pi County.
Immediately after, the status of Li Huowang and the others from out of town rose markedly. Wherever they went, people stuffed vegetables and food into their arms. Elderly folks with white hair even kowtowed in thanks upon seeing them, saying they had saved their grandsons.
That evening, Pi County’s finest restaurant, Fengyang Tower, was booked by Magistrate Yang to host a banquet for the honored guests.
As the savior of the entire county, Li Huowang was seated at the head table. Anyone in Pi County with even a modicum of status came forward to toast him, as if it were some great honor to offer Li Huowang a drink.
The oppression that had shrouded every Pi County resident was gone. The county, which should have been dead silent, was gradually transforming into a normal town, its once-desolate streets now bustling with life.
Atop the boisterous restaurant, Gouwa, Gao Zhijian, and the others devoured the finest dishes, each one reluctant to let even their tongues go to waste.
Even the exact same dish tasted worlds apart when made by their own hands versus Pi County’s best chef.
“Xiucai, you must study hard from now on, you hear me? Only by studying well can you one day walk the heavens’ path like the young Daoist here, and after, people will treat you to feasts like this!”
Lv Zhuangyuan stuffed his face relentlessly, oil dripping from his mouth, yet he didn’t miss a beat in instructing his youngest son.
“You old bag of bones, what do you know? Food couldn’t even plug your asshole!” Xiucai set down his chicken and picked up a fine liquor from the side, about to pour it into the cup in front of Li Huowang.
Before he could pour, Bai Lingmiao reached over and took the cup first. “Senior Brother Li doesn’t drink. He gets drunk very easily.”
With that, she ladled some glistening shark fin soup and brought it before Li Huowang. “Senior Brother Li, have some noodle soup. You worked hard saving the entire county.”
Li Huowang’s lips twitched into a strained smile. He picked up a large chicken leg and tossed it under the table. Immediately, the sound of Mantou chewing and swallowing followed.
Feeling Mantou’s tail thumping against his calf, Li Huowang’s mood lifted slightly.
Taking in the lively scene before him, Li Huowang drained the shark fin soup in one gulp and stood up. He pointed toward the drunken Yang Hongzhi in the distance. “Keep an eye on him. Don’t let him get too happy and drink himself to death.”
Amid the laughter and cheers, Li Huowang descended from the brightly lit restaurant. Compared to the restaurant’s revelry, the streets of Pi County were no less festive.
Firecrackers exploded nonstop, and with each crackle, red paper scraps flew everywhere, dyeing the streets and alleys a joyous crimson.
As soon as the “crackling” stopped and the smoke hadn’t yet cleared, a group of children in new clothes swarmed over, squatting on the ground and giggling as they picked up the duds that hadn’t gone off.
They might not fully understand what had happened, but they knew they no longer had to endure the agony of iron piercing flesh—and they could eat treats they never got on ordinary days.
At the end of the street, a man wearing a large-headed hood painted with red lips and rouged cheeks held a floral ball high, leading a green dancing dragon.
Behind the dragon came suonas blaring cheerful tunes.
Such a grand spectacle instantly drew all the children. Forgetting the firecrackers, they jumped joyfully, circling the dancing dragon.
Scenes like this were everywhere in Pi County. Ordinary days had turned into something like New Year’s celebrations.
Li Huowang, with his cold expression, stood out starkly as he wove through the crowds.
But he wasn’t the only one who seemed out of place amid the festivities.
From courtyards with green couplets on the doors and white cloth hanging, came the sound of wailing. These were the homes of those killed by the ghost today—and killed in gruesome ways.
Li Huowang glanced toward one such tragic courtyard before continuing on.
Accompanied by this discordant mourning, he eventually arrived at the morgue in the county yamen.
No matter how lively it was outside, a place like this would always have someone on night watch.
Yet the steaming pot of fragrant meat stew on the table, along with the black jar sealed with a “liquor” label, showed the county hadn’t stinted them.
The moment Li Huowang entered, the coroner and the green-clad bailiffs hastily dropped their feet from the table and invited him to join them.
“All of you, leave. This ghost cultivated for a millennium and is no ordinary thing. I must perform a ritual to eliminate any future threats.”
Hearing this, they dared not linger and hurried out with bows and scrapes.
In the now-silent morgue, corpses lay neatly on the floor, each covered with a white sheet.
Li Huowang walked past the cold bodies one by one until he reached the last. He yanked off the white sheet, revealing the beggar who had been possessed by the ghost.
The man looked disheveled with a scruffy beard and ragged clothes, but oddly, his body wasn’t filthy—there was none of the stench a beggar should have.
His face was utterly ordinary, the kind you’d lose in a crowd. His most distinctive feature was his eyebrows: thick, heavy, single-bar brows.
As Li Huowang examined him closely, the corpse suddenly snapped its eyes open, meeting Li Huowang’s gaze.
Seeing Li Huowang with arms crossed, he took a step back, then reached up and peeled off the yellow talisman stuck to his forehead.
“Interesting, interesting. What talisman is this? What does it do?”
“I don’t know. I just stuck it on randomly. Someone else drew it.” Li Huowang’s response was remarkably calm, as if he hadn’t expected the man to wake at all.
The single-brow beggar flipped over and hopped down from the wooden slab. He shook off the dust, and his body jingled with the crisp clink of metal.
“Daoist, how may I address you?” He bowed toward Li Huowang, his gaze frank and open.
“Sitting Reflection Cult, Er Jiu.”
Unwilling to give his real name, Li Huowang used the alias of the long-dead Jiang Yingzi from the Sitting Reflection Cult. “If I’m not mistaken, you must be from the Supervising Heaven Division?”
The single-brow man didn’t deny it. “Indeed, I’m just a lowly grunt from the Supervising Heaven Division. Daoist, you’re sharp. I only gave a glance earlier, and you caught on.”
(End of chapter)