38: Mountain God Festival (5)

Hei Jing bared his bright white teeth. As soon as he stepped out of the teleportation array, he began clenching his fists. "Eating people, are you? This Underworld Marshal can't take it anymore!"

The diving black hawk hadn't even reacted before it was knocked to the ground by a single punch from Hei Jing.

Hei Jing could be considered the best-tempered among the Ten Underworld Marshals; at the very least, he rarely swore. But at this moment, he truly couldn't hold back.

While brutally beating the black hawk, he cursed angrily, "I'll pound you to death, you ugly demon! I'll pound your eight generations of hawk ancestors to death..."

"Isn't cultivating properly to take human form good enough? You just had to learn to eat people and take shortcuts!"

"Taking shortcuts is one thing! But you even tortured and killed the three souls and seven spirits of mortals!"

"A perfectly fine girl, eaten by you until she doesn't even have a chance at reincarnation in her next life..."

Countless wisps of ghostly energy, fine as spiderwebs, gushed endlessly from Hei Jing's body as he was in a state of extreme fury.

At this moment, Hei Jing could no longer maintain his usual mimicked appearance of an ordinary person.

His body began to swell uncontrollably, much like an inflated hot air balloon.

And as this ghostly energy expanded to its limit—all of the ghostly energy suddenly burst forth!

A figure that made demons shudder appeared the moment the black hawk looked up.

Its face was iron-blue and terrifyingly hideous, with sharp fangs exposed. On its head, it wore an ink-black official hat inscribed with the words "Peace Under Heaven."

It was dressed in a dark, deep black robe, and its entire body exuded a ghostly power that made demons tremble with fear.

Those wide-eyed black eyes were filled with endless rage and a fierce light, staring fixedly at the bald hawk in front of it!

At the same time, Hei Jing's right hand tightly gripped a "Life-Snatching Hook" that shimmered with cold light; the chain was covered in curved hooks and venom-dripping claws.

He swung the Life-Snatching Hook, rushing straight toward the black hawk with a sharp whistling wind.

With a crisp "whoosh" sound, the Life-Snatching Hook accurately hooked onto the black hawk's massive head and, with lightning speed, slammed it against the ground a thousand times.

"One thousand and first..."

"Job done!"

Accompanied by a crisp "crack" sound, the black hawk's head instantly burst open, and red and white brain matter splattered everywhere on the ground.

Seeing this, Hei Jing reached out his right hand and easily grabbed the soul that had just escaped from the black hawk.

Following that, he skillfully placed this wisp of a soul into the storage bag he carried with him.

After finishing all this, Hei Jing grumbled indignantly, "Damn it! Once I return to the Underworld, if I don't make you properly experience our Underworld specialties..."

"I would truly be failing that young girl who was tortured to death!" With that, Hei Jing's figure flickered, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed back into that "Green-Haired Ghostfire" youth.

Hei Jing unbuttoned his crisp suit jacket and then took a few steps forward.

Carefully, he covered the young woman, whose body was broken and ruined, with his clothes!

The four people who had just finished vomiting while leaning against a tree were still a bit dazed as they watched Department Head Hei Jing dispatch the black hawk in a flash, with Jiang Yi and the others particularly stunned.

"Department Head, shouldn't we question it?" Star, having collected himself, used a tissue to wipe the demon blood splattered on his face.

"No need! Back at the base, with torture and interrogation, it will confess everything," Hei Jing said coldly, hands in his pockets. "You all performed well this time; your bonuses will be doubled when we return."

Star nodded, but deep down, he didn't feel the usual joy.

"Da, da, da..." The sound of flesh flying.

Du Wenqing ran up to the black hawk's corpse, unleashing her primal strength. She kicked it over a hundred times until her legs grew sore and she had absolutely no strength left in her body, only then did she stop.

With scarlet eyes and teeth gnashing loudly, she said, "Department Head! When we get back, can you let me pound... the black hawk's soul? The woman it tortured to death... was Nannan's childhood friend..."

Hei Jing patted Du Wenqing on the shoulder and sighed, "Okay!"

"My condolences." He looked at the other three. "I'm going to go deal with the old bastard at the Mountain God Temple first; you three take your time!" Having said that, Hei Jing picked up the Life-Snatching Hook from the ground and vanished into a wisp of black smoke.

Jiang Yi hoisted the woman's body onto his back, and together with Du Wenqing and the others, they walked toward the Mountain God Temple. Along the way, no one spoke.

...

Hei Jing weighed the wailing stick in his hand. It had been a long time since he had gone on a killing spree; the moment he gripped it, his blood began to boil!

He whispered, "Innate Ghost Domain!"

"Strange birds and monstrous snakes, cold sun and sorrowful clouds. Beishan leans on the yin, linked and connected..."

"Add to that the fact that Jiang Family Town is located on an ancient battlefield's mass grave—it would be hard not to form a Ghost Domain, right?"

"Sigh! How terribly unlucky! I wonder how many living people are left?" Bai Xuan, dressed in white Hanfu, wearing a Nether Jade pendant, and holding a folding fan, spoke with a disgruntled expression.

"Why are you here, 'Flashy Bai'? Didn't the BOSS tell me to handle this exclusively?" Hei Jing looked at Bai Xuan vigilantly.

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm not here to steal your performance credits." Bai Xuan closed his folding fan. "It was the BOSS who sent me to pass on a message: keep it low-key, don't kill them all."

"The BOSS wants to publicly execute the evil ghosts in the Mountain God Temple!"

"Alright then!" Hei Jing replied, while cracking his neck, which made a series of popping sounds.

He gripped the eerie wailing stick in his hand and walked toward the Mountain God Temple.

Although he couldn't immediately wipe out all these evil ghosts, the rage in his heart needed to be vented one way or another.

Arriving in front of the Mountain God Temple, Hei Jing flew up and kicked the tightly closed temple door with great force.

With a loud "bang," the door was kicked wide open.

Hei Jing pursed his lips, curiously surveying the situation inside the temple. The Underworld had always found it baffling that a Tier 3 ghost entity had appeared so early!

It turned out that what was being worshipped in this temple was not a Mountain God, but an old evil ghost that had been absorbing incense offerings for hundreds of years.

Thinking of this, Hei Jing couldn't help but mutter, "Looking at it this way, isn't Jiang Family Town just asking for trouble!"

Walking into the temple, apart from the golden statue of the evil ghost, there was nothing else around. There were only a dozen or so coffins standing neatly there, connected by white silk threads.

Furthermore, similar to the streets of the ancient town, the interior of the temple was also hung with countless red lanterns, making the entire Mountain God Temple appear as if bathed in the scorching sun, presenting a fiery red hue.

Hei Jing stepped inside, walking slowly step by step, and finally stopped in front of the shrine.

On the offering table, there were some offerings of chicken, duck, and fish, as well as a few white cranes. Their necks looked as if they had been broken, hanging off the table, with blood dripping steadily from the gashes in their necks.

Hei Jing looked up at the statue of the evil ghost, and the next second, the wailing stick in his hand, fast as lightning, "whooshed" and vanished.

The head of the evil ghost statue was knocked off with a "crack" and rolled onto the ground with a "gurgle, gurgle..."

From the clean break, black mist actually began to emerge.