Chapter Thirty-Four: The Tiger Harbors Malice!

“Hmph, Wang Jun, aren’t you afraid I’ll have you arrested and dragged before the county magistrate?” the ghostly official threatened.

Wang Zhenling smiled. “You’ll need the skill to do that first!”

His words left the ghostly official’s face shifting between anger and uncertainty. Seeing Wang Zhenling ignore him and walk away, the official was infuriated. No longer caring that Wang Zhenling had powerful connections, he barked, “Seize him!”

Wang Zhenling gave a cold laugh. The City God was truly pushing him too far! He’d retreated to the countryside to cultivate in peace, yet the man refused to let him be, even sending ghostly officials to lie in wait for him.

Did they really think he was someone easy to bully?

As a squad of ghost soldiers rushed toward him, Wang Zhenling sneered, formed a spell with his fingers, and conjured a sword from his palm as cold and clear as moonlight, thrusting it straight out.

“Lunar Demon-Slaying Sword!”

This sword was one of the most formidable divine arts Wang Zhenling currently possessed. Since he was only present in spirit form and could not wield the Solar Ghost-Slaying Sword, the Lunar Demon-Slaying Sword was his strongest technique at hand.

As the sword’s shadow moved, it seemed even the moonlight in the sky was drawn in, striking silently at one of the ghost soldiers.

Though the ghost wore armor formed of official aura, it was powerless to resist the sword’s slanting, moonlike radiance. With a boom, the specter shattered to dust.

The ghostly body, trying to reform as a misty shape, was struck again with another explosive sound. A third detonation followed, and at last, the specter could not reassemble—its soul utterly dispersed!

The sword’s energy, infused with lunar essence, had pierced the ghostly soldier, detonating thrice within to exhaust its full force.

Though the Lunar Demon-Slaying Sword was not as devastating to ghosts as the Solar Ghost-Slaying Sword, it was still more than deadly enough for ordinary spectral soldiers.

None of the City God’s ghostly minions had ever witnessed such a savage technique. Normally, if a ghostly soldier was injured, its formless body could reconstitute itself so long as its strength remained. But under Wang Zhenling’s blade, there was only annihilation.

The rest of the squad recoiled in terror, hesitating to advance. Even the ghostly official was startled, stumbling backward in fright at Wang Zhenling’s ruthlessness.

Wang Zhenling strode calmly through their ranks and withdrew into the pavilion.

The City God’s ghost soldiers hesitated, unsure if they should give chase, and in their indecision, alerted the pavilion’s night sentries.

The pavilion’s ghostly guards were not true soldiers, merely two resentful spirits, far weaker than the City God’s troops.

Appearing as nothing more than two shadowy figures, they blocked the way. “What ghosts are you, daring to intrude upon the pavilion?”

The ghostly official hesitated, then waved his hand, leading the City God’s soldiers away into the darkness.

After all, no matter how small, the pavilion was still a government outpost. However feeble the resentful spirits were, they were still its rightful guards. If any divine or ghostly being dared to force their way in, it could cause a great uproar and bring serious trouble upon the City God. Besides, now that Wang Zhenling’s spirit had returned to his body, they couldn’t apprehend him in the flesh. There was no point in storming the pavilion; retreat was the only sensible choice.

With his spirit returned, Wang Zhenling felt a wave of weakness. That Lunar Demon-Slaying Sword, though mighty, consumed a great deal of energy. The lunar essence he’d accumulated could barely support one or two such strikes.

After all, during his time at the pavilion, he had mostly siphoned off the official fortune for his cultivation, rarely drawing in the essence of sun and moon, so his Lunar Demon-Slaying Sword was limited to just two uses. If those failed to break him free, he would truly be in danger.

“Hmph, so the City God really has been watching me,” Wang Zhenling sneered. “The man bears no ill will toward the tiger, but the tiger plots harm all the same. I’ll have to find a way to bring him down!”

In the end, the conflict between Wang Zhenling and the City God was all because of Chen Bushi. And the struggle between Chen Bushi and the City God revolved around control of the county’s ghostly soldiers.

Those five hundred ghost soldiers were Danling County’s greatest supernatural force and the cornerstone of the City God’s authority—he would never relinquish them. As for Chen Bushi, the county magistrate Zhou Lai had guessed correctly—he was planning something major, and needed to command the county’s ghostly troops for the next step.

Thus, the conflict between Chen Bushi and the City God was almost irreconcilable.

For Wang Zhenling, blending into the government was simply a means to conceal his cultivation. Yet the City God had twice made trouble for him. Even after Wang Zhenling hid himself in the country, the City God refused to give up.

This had thoroughly enraged him. Since there could be no reconciliation, he would have to find a way to eliminate his enemy.

But the City God was no ordinary spirit—he was the true deity of the county.

To put it bluntly, even officials like Zhou Lai could be transferred elsewhere or suffer the ravages of age and death. But a City God could remain in one place for centuries, his foundation far deeper than anything Wang Zhenling could shake.

As a City God, consecrated in red, his cultivation was at least at the level of Divine Netherness, if not true divinity.

Even if it came to a fight, Wang Zhenling would be no match for him.

The Spirit Outing stage was divided into five realms: Divine Sprout, Divine Growth, Divine Concealment, Divine Netherness, and Divine Illumination.

Divine Sprout was the budding of the spirit, allowing for the use of magic and control of objects. By Divine Netherness, one could enter and exit the underworld at will. At Divine Illumination, a spirit could call wind and rain, shape magical domains.

And as City God, with five hundred ghost soldiers under his command and many powerful ghostly officials besides, he likely had no shortage of subordinates who could rival the Spirit Outing stage.

With Wang Zhenling’s strength, not yet even at the Divine Sprout realm—

“This isn’t something I can handle alone… I’ll have to drag my boss into this…”

At this point, Wang Zhenling still didn’t know the full story behind the conflict between Chen Bushi and the City God, nor was he aware of Chen Bushi’s next move. And since his own theft of official fortune was involved, he naturally felt uneasy.

Though he wanted to implicate Chen Bushi, for the moment, he could think of no good way to do so.

The next day, Wang Zhenling led his men on patrol through Guangyang Village, heading straight for the Great Locust Shrine to meet Lord Hu, a meeting that brought much joy. Especially when he visited the three little foxes—after so long apart, their reunion was especially affectionate.

Wang Zhenling took the opportunity to ask Lord Hu about the City God.

Lord Hu was a senior local shrine deity, having served for seventy or eighty years. Though ghosts and spirits could live for centuries, disasters were common. Over twenty years ago, a great calamity had befallen Danling County and the City God had perished.