Xiao Nan's actions caused quite a stir, but Qi Jingtao, who was typically low-key, didn't mind at all.
After all, in his eyes, dealing with villains required a dual blow to both body and mind—making sure these people wouldn't even dare to act like ghosts in the afterlife.
Qi Jingtao walked slowly toward the wide-open doors. The doors closed automatically the moment he stepped inside, instantly cutting off the atmosphere between the inside and the outside.
"Big Sister, will Lord Qi be in danger?!"
Neither Xiao Nan nor Zhao Chengyu felt the slightest bit worried.
"Don't worry, little Qing'er! The person who could put Lord Qi in danger hasn't even been born yet!" Xiao Nan yawned, pulled two bags of potato chips out from who knows where, and took out a tablet she had prepared earlier. "Come on, let's binge-watch a show together. In a little while, Lord Qi will come back victorious after avenging you!"
Inside, Qi Jingtao stepped on an inconspicuous object placed on the ground right inside the threshold, crushing it. An oppressive aura surged down from the stairs. With his hands shoved into his pockets, Qi Jingtao quietly gazed at the dilapidated statue of the deity.
"Qi Jingtao, you can't run anymore!" A voice echoed all around.
Turning a deaf ear, Qi Jingtao bent down to pick up a small stone from the ground and casually tossed it forward.
A miserable scream rang out, and a rolling figure tumbled down the stairs.
As it drew closer, it turned out to be a person. Having tumbled down from such a height, though he still had a breath left in him, he was thoroughly crippled.
Without even sparing him a glance, Qi Jingtao lifted his foot and walked upward. The gazes of the statues on both sides—occupied by goodness knows what kind of ghosts and monsters—followed him the whole way. Halfway up, Qi Jingtao clicked his tongue.
In that instant, all the statues turned to powder, black smoke billowing from within them.
Outside, Zhao Chengyu got out of the car, took out a jar, and opened it toward the City God Temple.
Wisps of black smoke could be seen being sucked inside, accompanied by faint, wailing cries of ghosts.
Xiao Nan looked at Ma Qing'er with concern, but the latter was completely absorbed in her show.
There were exceptionally many lesser ghosts this time. If this jar hadn't been capable of holding even two Earth-rank entities without a problem, it wouldn't have been able to hold all of these.
"Big Sister, are these all ghosts?" Ma Qing'er suddenly asked.
"Yes, they are."
"Big Sister, what happens to us after you catch us?"
This question stumped Xiao Nan. On their end at the Administration, they were responsible for rounding up ghosts and distributing bounties, only stepping in when ordinary ghost catchers couldn't handle the situation.
As for what happened to the ghosts that were handed over, Xiao Nan had always assumed they were taken away to be liberated and reincarnated. After all, every three months, Qi Jingtao would take a trip outside, bringing all the lesser ghosts with him.
When he returned, the jars were always empty.
They never asked Qi Jingtao about it because he had too many secrets, and those of them who had followed him since childhood knew what should be asked and what shouldn't.
Noticing Xiao Nan's hesitation, Ma Qing'er broke into a bright smile. "Lord Qi is such a good person, he certainly wouldn't harm us!"
Xiao Nan patted her head, smiled, and said nothing.
Inside, Qi Jingtao stepped up the stairs against a howling gale.
The fierce wind was fighting him for dominance, yet with every single step he took, the gale weakened by a fraction.
By the time he reached the front of the City God Hall, the leaves on the tree to his right stubbornly twitched twice, but still failed to be blown into the air.
Inside the City God Hall, only a single candle was burning, and the deity's statue was as dilapidated as the statues of the Ten Courts of Hell below it. However, the surrounding underworld lieutenants were still as lifelike as before, bearing witness to how prosperous the incense offerings here once had been.
Even so, those statues were clearly abnormal.
Just as Qi Jingtao was considering whether to grind these statues into powder or smash them into rubble, the outer shell of the Black Impermanence suddenly began to peel off, just like cracking open a hard-boiled egg.
The same thing happened to the Leopard Tail, Bird Beak, Fish Gill, and Wasp.
The four underworld commanders plus one Impermanence—even if the genuine articles had shown up, Qi Jingtao wouldn't have been afraid, let alone these cheap counterfeits.
The remaining statues shattered into dust, while these five fakes possessed no intelligence whatsoever and simply rushed forward in a disorderly swarm.
At first, Qi Jingtao thought it had been a long time since he last stretched his muscles. But very quickly, he realized these few weren't even worthy of being sparring partners.
After exchanging a few moves and finding it dull, he casually crippled them all.
The main hall was littered with debris. Qi Jingtao raised his eyes to look at the City God statue.
As expected of a City God, even if it was only a statue, it still retained a remnant of divine might that petty villains could not exploit.
Qi Jingtao produced three sticks of incense from somewhere, lit them, bowed to the statue, and inserted them into the censer, which was reduced to a heap of ash.
Afterward, Qi Jingtao walked toward the statue.
Just as he came within five steps of the statue, the sound of sniffing drifted from behind it.
"Bang!"
"Help! Lord Qi, save me!" A figure bolted out from behind the statue, stumbling forward a couple of steps before Qi Jingtao could grab him, only to be yanked back again.
"It's you." Qi Jingtao looked at the person being held hostage: Shang Yu.
Yet Wujin had clearly said that Shang Yu had been staying at home the whole time.
"Lord Qi, save me!" Shang Yu was scared out of his wits. He hadn't the faintest idea what was going on—he had simply been sleeping at home, and when he woke up, he was right here!
And he even had a knife held to his throat!
Qi Jingtao's gaze was stern, fixed entirely on the person standing behind Shang Yu. To him, Shang Yu was merely a ghost catcher with a few secrets, but those secrets didn't interest him.
"Now, you have twenty seconds."
What was the meaning of this?! The great Qi Jingtao was just going to leave him to his fate!
On the very first second, Shang Yu jumped in fright, but his shoulder was heavily pressed down again.
"Don't move!" The criminal's voice made his eardrums ring with pain.
By the fourth second, Qi Jingtao had found a spot to lean against casually.
If this kept up, he was done for! He had just made a big score and hadn't even enjoyed it yet before losing his life!
Qi Jingtao's oppressive aura was overwhelming, and the criminal involuntarily felt a twinge of fear. It was precisely this fear that caused his knife to pull back slightly from Shang Yu's neck.
By the eighth second, Shang Yu jammed one hand into the gap between the blade and his neck and lashed out with a fierce kick straight to the criminal's crotch.
Yet he had hoped for too much; this blow didn't instantly incapacitate the man with pain, but instead provoked his fury.
Fortunately, he was a ghost catcher after all, and his reflexes were still relatively quick. Using his forearm with all his might, he knocked the knife out of the criminal's hand.
The two of them quickly tumbled into a brawl. As an extreme indoor homebody who rarely stepped out of his house, how could Shang Yu possibly be this man's match?
The blade flashed past his eyes several times, and he could guarantee that by this point, well over twenty seconds had definitely passed.
"Lord Qi! Save me!"
The lighting in here was very dim, and the expression on Qi Jingtao's face was unclear, but he definitely showed no intention of stepping in.
Shang Yu fought desperately against the hand holding the knife, failing to understand why the person's target was clearly Qi Jingtao, yet he was the one being targeted instead.
Was this guy trying to drag someone down with him before he died?
"Qi Jingtao! Are you testing me?" Facing imminent death, Shang Yu's brain began to spin rapidly. "I'm just an ordinary ghost catcher! Lord Qi, if you don't save me, I'm really going to die!"
Normally, someone at death's door wouldn't have so much to say.
Besides, wasn't that a ridiculous thing to say? Qi Jingtao's target was the criminal, not someone on a special mission to rescue Shang Yu. As long as the one who died wasn't him or his target, it didn't matter.
"Qi Jingtao! You can't just ignore me!"
This laughed Qi Jingtao into a rare retort. "Why should I care about you?"
"That bottle! Aren't you curious about that bottle?"
It was a grime-encrusted plastic bottle, no one knew how many years old it was, yet it could serve as a container for holding lesser ghosts.
"I have cartloads of things far more powerful than that bottle." Qi Jingtao yawned. "I can save you, but you have to agree to a condition."
"I'll agree to anything!" Shang Yu's hands were shaking like a sieve, and the tip of the blade was already pressing against his throat, icy cold and likely already breaking the skin.
The moment his words fell, Shang Yu felt his body grow light as the criminal was sent flying off him entirely.
Whether answering or fighting back just now, Shang Yu had acted completely normally, indicating there was no major problem, so Qi Jingtao didn't bother checking on his condition.