Ruins of the past

Taoist priest Fayuan said: "This case of corpse transformation in the Immortal Way was originally investigated by our Qingyang County Taoist Temple. We also arrested this demon. How could it be your turn to interrogate him?"

Li Changqing said coldly: "The case is huge and involves local eunuchs, officials, gentry and wealthy families. The Demon Suppressor must personally interrogate it." As he said, he waved his hand and said: "Take the person away."

The Demon-Suppressing Division and the Celestial Master Sect were originally two different systems: the state religion and the imperial court. They both hunted demons, and there had long been friction between them.

Especially when the Demon Suppression Division was first established, the Tianshi Sect sent people to help a lot, providing many martial arts, Taoism and alchemy methods.

But later, as the Demon-Suppressing Division was used by the royal family to fight against the Tianshi Sect, the conflict between the two sides became more and more intense.

Seeing that Li Changqing was about to take away the demon he had captured, Fa Yuan stood up and said, "Li Changqing! When will the Demon Suppressing Division capture the people captured by the Tianshi Sect?"

Li Changqing walked up to Fa Yuan step by step and said with an evil tone: "Fa Yuan, you are not qualified to steal someone from me."

After Li Changqing finished speaking, he saw a flash of sword light. As if Taoist Priest Fayuan had been hit hard, he flew out like a cannonball. His face was pale, and he was speechless for a long time while pointing at Li Changqing.

Li Changqing looked sideways at Fa Yuan and said: "I am Qian Hu, the Demon Suppressing Division. If the court officials and their families are involved in the demon cult, they are all under my control. If you are dissatisfied, let the Lingzhou Dao Gang Division come and talk to me."

The Lingzhou Dao Gang Department is the organization within the Tianshi Sect that manages all Taoist temples in Lingzhou.

Fayuan's face turned livid after hearing these words. He was obviously furious, but he was unable to stand out despite his inferior skills.

Faced with the fierce power of the Demon Suppressing Division, no other officials present were willing to stand up for Fa Yuan, but Li Changqing seemed unwilling to offend everyone too harshly, and finally agreed to lead people to interrogate Master Tianji in the county prison cell.

…

On the chair outside the cell, Hao Yongtai looked at the cell worriedly.

The boy said from the side: "Don't worry, young master, this is also a county prison cell after all. No matter how overbearing the Demon Suppressor is, he will not do anything to the prisoners here."

But just after they had waited for a cup of tea, a horrifying roar, like a roar from another world, came from the depths of the cell. All the soldiers and officers on the scene trembled instinctively and were unable to move. move.

Hao Yongtai looked at the cell with a hint of horror and said with difficulty: "Demon?!"

Amidst the loud rumbling sound, the outer wall of the cell was directly broken open. The clouds blocked the moon at some point, and the entire scene was dark.

In the dark cell, a ghostly laughter swept across, and a huge creature was squeezing out of the cell little by little.

Suddenly, as the clouds rolled in, the moonlight shone into the yard again, revealing the true appearance of the monster.

Screams and cries of agony rang out one after another, and the timid officer even fainted instantly after seeing the true appearance of the figure.

It was a huge, swollen, twisting ball of flesh. There were dozens of intertwined pale arms of different lengths growing on the ball. Each arm was covered with sarcomas that looked like buds. The sarcomas moved as they moved. As soon as it moved, thick green mucus was continuously secreted from it, dripping on the ground and exuding a burst of meaty aroma.

But the most frightening thing is the weird, distorted face on the top of the meat ball. The mouth of the face opens and closes slightly, and it seems that countless identical faces can be seen through the gaps in the upper jaw.

Chu Qi glanced at the face and felt like he was about to vomit, but he could barely tell that it seemed to be the face of a master of secrets.

It was like an evil beast from another world roaring out of the cell, releasing waves of fear that could drive people crazy with every move.

Just when Chu Qiguang was shocked by the unprecedented monster in front of him, another figure holding a demon-slaying knife tore through the night sky like black lightning.

The light of the knife cut through the air, accompanied by a strong smell of rust.

The figure shuttled back and forth around the monster at a speed that exceeded Chu Qiguang's visual observation. The long knife in his hand cut through the atmosphere and let out one after another sharp screams.

As the sword light passed over the monster's body like thunder and lightning, and with heart-piercing screams of pain, the monster's body was torn apart, and finally turned into flesh and blood scattered on the ground.

The black lightning-like figure also stopped, it was none other than Qianhu Li Changqing from the Demon Suppression Department.

At this moment, Li Changqing's skin was red all over his body, and he was emitting waves of heat, like a cooked shrimp.

At the same time, his eyes were completely white, with no pupils visible.

After killing the monster, veins popped up on his face, as if he was fighting against some invisible force.

I saw him grabbing a bottle of elixir from his arms, quickly taking one, and his expression relaxed slightly.

Chu Qiguang thought to himself: 'Did you take the magic-suppressing department's elixir? ’

It wasn't until a stick of incense passed that the strange phenomena on Li Changqing's body would gradually subside and return to his original normal appearance.

At this moment, Li Changqing looked at Hao Yongtai, Chu Qiguang and others who were still looking at him. He cursed: "What are you looking at? Do you want to die? Go to the Taoist temple immediately and call someone to give the Fa Yuan." Call us and deal with this demonic corpse.”

Hao Yongtai immediately called a police officer who was still able to move to the Taoist temple to summon people, and then glared at Li Changqing: "What did you do?"

Li Changqing said coldly: "Didn't you see that he was possessed by a demon?"

Hao Yongtai said angrily: "The demon from the Immortal Way was fine when he was handed over to you. Is this how you turned him into a demon?"

Li Changqing said calmly: "It is normal for evil cult demons to become demons if they do not believe in Taoist Xuanyuan."

Seeing him turning around and about to leave, Hao Yongtai subconsciously stretched out his hand to stop him. Chu Qiguang secretly yelled something bad. Just as he was about to stop him, he saw a black light flash from Li Changqing's hand, and the scabbard hit Hao Yongtai directly. With his hand, his arm was completely broken.

Hao Yongtai groaned and was supported by Chu Qiguang and stepped back.

Li Changqing glanced at them coldly: "You two...if you disrupt the law enforcement of the Demon Suppression Department again, I will not give you mercy."

After speaking, Li Changqing stopped looking at Chu Qiguang and Hao Yongtai and led the team away, leaving behind a mess in the county government.

But Chu Qiguang's mind was still filled with memories of the monster killed by Li Changqing.

It wasn't until Hao Yongtai gritted his teeth and touched his arm, then reached out and patted Chu Qiguang's shoulder that he came back to his senses.

Hao Yongtai sighed: "Brother Chu, what should we do next?"

Chu Qiguang asked, "That monster just now...is it a demon?"

Hao Yongtai endured the pain in his hand and said casually: "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Chu Qiguang asked again: "On weekdays, Taoist temples kill demons and eliminate demons... those who are drowned by demons... those who are captured by demons... and those who go crazy during cultivation..."

Chu Qiguang exhaled: "The demon they fell into is the demon in front of them?"

Hao Yongtai asked in confusion: "What's wrong with you?"

'What's wrong...' Chu Qiguang shouted in his heart: 'In addition to turning into monsters, people in your world can also turn into such monsters. ’

In fact, there is a saying that ordinary people can become demons, and they need to believe in Taoist Xuanyuan, and they need to use the power of faith to prevent themselves from becoming demons... Chu Qiguang has long known this from Ergou's memory.

There are even all kinds of Ergou that I have heard since I was a child...such and such a scholar who reads too many books will easily become a demon, someone's old man learned too many crafts and became a demon and was burned to death, someone's child was too smart and became a demon and drowned... ...Only by praying to Taoist Xuanyuan every day, and through devout faith, can we resist the evil contamination.

But under the inertial thinking of modern earthlings, he thought about the "possessed people" who were drowned, burned, and hacked to death by Taoist priests in his memory. He always thought that Taoism used this to make money, and the imperial court used this policy to fool the people. It’s almost like burning witches on earth.

He recalled that he was studying in the Hao family's library before. No wonder Hao Yongtai was concerned about whether he read too much. No wonder no one came to such a big library. No wonder Hao Xiangtong sneaked in if he wanted to study, but his family still didn't support it...

‘That’s why rich people take martial arts exams, and why the scriptures on martial arts are so simple, with only 20,000 words, it’s also to reduce the probability of practitioners becoming possessed by demons. ’

‘That’s why Qingyang County, this world… is full of stupid people and stupid women. ’

'But...there is such a thing as being possessed...people can turn into monsters...what's the principle behind this? ’

‘Belief in Taoist Xuanyuan can resist being possessed by demons. What’s the point of this? Is the god Xuanyuan Dao Zun real? ’

All this gave Chu Qiguang the feeling that in this world, people were not chasing knowledge, but knowledge was chasing humans.

Chu Qiguang tried his best to calm down his mood: "No wonder... no wonder Taoism is so powerful. This is because the people of the world really cannot do without them, and people need faith to resist being possessed by demons." ’

Thinking of this, Chu Qiguang suddenly became worried whether he would become a demon? He has read a lot of books and mastered a lot of knowledge, but he still doesn't believe in Taoist Xuanyuan.

He thought in his mind: ‘I must ask Qiao Zhi when I go back. ’

Later, Chu Qiguang asked Qiao Zhi, but Qiao Zhi said: "The more difficult the path of cultivation is, the higher the realm, and the more you learn, the greater the risk of becoming a demon. But you are originally a deity from heaven and come down to earth. There are The resources to become an immortal. It means that you won’t become a demon even if you learn the method of becoming an immortal, so what can you do if you learn more knowledge about the mortal world?”

Later, Chu Qiguang also learned that the probability of monsters becoming possessed is much lower than that of people, so it would be okay even if most of them did not believe in religion.

And at this moment in the yamen.

Hao Yongtai pulled Chu Qiguang, who was a little restless, and asked, "Brother Chu, we need to go to the Wu family quickly and inform father and others about what's going on here."

Chu Qiguang helped Hao Yongtai, who had a broken hand bone, leave the county government office.

Soon after, the Taoist priests from the Taoist temple rushed over and began to arrange rituals and clean up the demon corpses.