Stop it, Taoist, Your Fight almost Ruins the DAO!

In Longjiang everything is expensive, and living here is by no means easy.

A single meal had cost Yi Chen two hundred taels of silver. He had been eating from noon until the afternoon, and after two rounds of dishes, he finally left the Gathering Dragon restaurant with a grimace of pain.

When Yi Chen saw the bill, he thought he had entered a swindler's den and almost pulled out the Dragon-Slaying Sword to fiercely confront the restaurant owner.

Just as Yi Chen raised an eyebrow and placed his hand on the Eight Immortals table, ready to enact the classic table-flipping move from the "Crow Brother", the restaurant owner directly produced a list of expenses.

One tael of silver for a Longjiang small yellow fish, and Little Miao had proudly shown off by ordering a hundred and twenty of them.

Even after rounding down, the meal still cost two hundred taels of silver.

After paying with a heavy heart, Yi Chen tied his luggage onto Little Miao. He had decided that from now on, Little Miao would be carrying all the luggage on their journey.

By this time, it was already late. After leaving the Gathering Dragon, Yi Chen found the nearest Red Dust Inn, checked into the best room available, and prepared to rest.

As for the conversations he overheard while dining, Yi Chen was initially startled and thought he had the "Conan body", able to overhear critical information by chance, but then things seemed a bit off. For a time, he couldn't be sure if the recent turbulences in Longjiang Prefecture were real or just a fear-mongering marketing scheme concocted by the big city.

Regardless, he had already decided to purchase supplies tomorrow at noon before setting off.

It didn't matter to him.

None of his business.

Like a yo-yo.

...

...

At night, the moonlight was enchanting.

In Longjiang Town, at the Peacekeeper's Office.

Frustrated, Qian Yueru glared at the thick stack of pleas for help on her desk. Her pale fists clenched tight, she suddenly slammed her hand down on the desk and stood up with a flourish.

"Utter lawlessness, utter lawlessness!"

"These demonic powers from Yin Mountain Prefecture, Red Brothel, and the Netherworld Cult are downright insane."

"Just because of the prophecy from a dying man, they dare to stir up trouble in my Longjiang Prefecture, showing no regard for my Peacekeeper's Office."

"One week, I just need one more week. Once reinforcements arrive, I'm going to thoroughly cleanse all the guileful, villainous, demon-worshipping scum around Longjiang Prefecture."

Qian Yueru held in her hands pieces of intelligence, all concerning the various demonic homicides that had occurred in Longjiang Prefecture in recent days.

The cause of the affairs was very simple.

Longjiang Prefecture is famous for its Longjiang River.

Legend has it that, over a thousand years ago, a half-human, half-dragon expert from the Netherworld Cult, the Evil Dragon Daoist, had secluded himself in meditation to court death, but ultimately failed and perished.

As the leading war general of the Netherworld Cult, the Evil Dragon Daoist's cultivation had already reached the pinnacle of the "Refining Spirit and Reversing the Void" stage, one step into the realm of Enlightenment, deserving of the title of a half-step True Monarch.

The Evil Dragon Daoist possessed three treasures: Dragon Origin, the Great Destructive Divine Spear, and the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

Recently, one of the Netherworld Cult's chief augurs, skilled in divination, Mingyunzi, was near the end of his life. He used his own life as fuel to divine a celestial omen that the Evil Dragon Daoist's retreat would manifest in the world within a hundred years.

The location was near Longjiang Prefecture.

And by slaughtering a large number of living beings in Longjiang Prefecture within a short time for a blood sacrifice, one could prematurely trigger the appearance of the Evil Dragon Daoist's retreat.

This prophecy, leaked by a traitor from the Netherworld Cult, shook the world. Many evil spirits and forces converged, stirring trouble and engaging in mass killings.

Too many demonic and evil creatures arrived, and although she had dispatched all the experts from the Longjiang Prefecture Peacekeeper's Office, it was like trying to extinguish a raging fire with a cup of water. People continued to perish inexplicably.

She desperately hoped for some true experts to come and help her weather this difficult week until reinforcements arrived.

After the outburst, Qian Yueru stretched out her hand, rubbed her beautiful face, and turned back to pore over the recent intelligence.

Suddenly, a piece of intelligence piqued her interest.

It was a secret report sent by an undercover disguised as a peddler, roving the streets daily.

Yi Chengzi, a Daoist from Hidden Dragon Temple in Fengyun County, arrived in Longjiang Prefecture today and checked into Red Dust Inn.

"Yi Chengzi?"

Qian Yueru repeated the name, it sounded familiar to her.

Right, it was the name Lin Zhenbei, a high-ranking military officer she had met at the ministry, mentioned in passing.

In private, he had said that Yi Chengzi was a hidden gem from their Ping'an County, an upright person who would one day bring glory to their county.

"Now is the time to recruit, and I can't be too picky. Tonight, I should pay a visit to invite him, hoping that the officer wasn't just boasting and Yi Chengzi isn't just a big name with no substance."

Although she wasn't too impressed with Lin Zhenbei's talk of a hidden gem, wondering what kind of expert could come from a backwater county like Fengyun.

But with an attitude of trying even a dead horse for lack of a live one, Qian Yueru decided to make the visit anyway.

An extra person meant extra strength, which could help protect more civilians.

After all, Longjiang Prefecture was in desperate need of people.

"I hope, I hope you won't let me down, Yi Chengzi," Qian Yueru muttered to herself, picked up two eight-trigram axes that were as tall as a person, and slowly walked down the long street.

It would be a good opportunity for her to see for herself which unfortunate souls dared to make a move on her turf tonight.

Her eight-trigram axes were already thirsting for action.

Chop! Chop! Chop!

Chop down these bastards!

*

*

The bright moon cast a white glow over the land.

In the main hall of the Red Dust Inn, Wang Gouhai, the night shift attendant, was squinting his eyes half asleep and half awake, slumped over the table.

As for why he had such an odd name, it was because when he was young, his mother heard a wandering Taoist say that he faced a calamity that year and might not survive but taking a lowly name could offer a chance for survival.

Consequently, the grand name Wang Gouhai came into being.

It was a tranquil night, with most guests asleep, allowing him a perfect chance to slack off a little.

What kind of worker doesn't sneak a little rest during the job?

It was a clear thought in Wang Gouhai's mind.

Every penny earned from work is simply quid pro quo; that's called salary, what one rightfully deserves.

Only when slacking off on the job, does one truly earn their money.

With this worldly wisdom, he changed jobs three times in a year...

Just as Wang Gouhai was about to switch to a more comfortable position for a little more shut-eye, a sudden gust of wind blew in, clattering the inn's door.

"Damn it, such bad luck, why the sudden wind? If it wakes the guests, I'll get scolded by the boss again."

"I might have to change jobs again."

Wang Gouhai muttered to himself, and got up intending to close the door properly.

But just as Wang Gouhai reached the entrance and peered outside, the scene before his eyes made him jump, his soul nearly flying out.

Down the street, amidst the light mist, a blood-red coffin was hurtling towards the direction of the inn at breakneck speed.

At the same time, a string of chilling laughter began to echo around the inn.

Seeing this, Gouhai didn't even try to close the door. He scrambled towards the lobby.

Unfortunately, though he wasn't slow, the blood-colored coffin was faster, and it hurtled straight towards Gouhai.

Gouhai closed his eyes in despair.

Damn it, I'm really going to die.

I'm splitting apart.

At that moment, he remembered his mother mentioned a wandering Taoist had foretold a calamity this year.

Dead accurate!

As Gouhai was resigned to his fate, closing his eyes in wait for death, the excruciating pain he imagined did not come.

He opened his eyes to see.

A pair of gigantic hands, like palm-leaf fans, were pressing down on the flying blood coffin from the sky.

A tall silhouette loomed over him, casts it shadow over the blood coffin as well.

"You little brat, are you the one disturbing Taoist's peaceful dream?"

"What's with the barking in the middle of the night?" Yi Chen sneered.

The sudden change and loud noises naturally woke up the other sleeping guests in the inn, many of whom came out wrapped in their night gowns.

However, the scene before their eyes left them utterly shocked.

All they could see was a tall Daoist standing in front of a blood-colored coffin, one large hand firmly pressing down on its lid.

This disturbance seemed to have bewildered the blood coffin.

It fluttered mid-air when suddenly, a tall Daoist figure flashed before it, barring its path to the server and yanking it down.

The blood coffin went quiet for a moment, then began shaking vigorously, as if angered.

The lid suddenly tore open a small crack, and something inside seemed to be struggling to get out.

Yi Chen, with one hand, exerted force, and the tremendous power resealed it.

The coffin's lid was stunned.

In all its life, it had never seen such a vile turn of events.

It began to shake even more violently. After a struggle, the lid finally slid open a bit further.

Yi Chen, with one hand, exerted force, and the tremendous power resealed it.

This time, Yi Chen directly sat his rear on the ground and, like a bronze cast iron clamp, fastened his hand on the coffin lid, refusing to let go.

The blood coffin was utterly furious, shaking even more violently, but all its struggling was in vain; the whole coffin seemed welded to the ground, completely immovable and inflexible.

A frozen tableau.

The crowd looked on, dumbfounded by the scene before them.

Holy crap, has it gone wild?

What had they witnessed?

In the dead of night, they had heard a string of weird cackles and a demonic wind that rattled the doors and windows.

Running out to see, they beheld a tall Daoist pressing his hand on a sinister blood coffin that now seemed to be rendered immobile?

It had gone wild, totally insane.

It must be a dream.

Smack!

A crisp sound suddenly echoed from the crowd; it was the sound of a slap across the face.

Intense pain informed the recipient of the slap that all of this was not a dream, but reality.

A bizarre reality.

Thus, the situation reached a deadlock.

It was so quiet that the drop of a pin on the ground could be heard.

The blood coffin, initially ferocious, now lay still—an entire transformation that took less than three seconds.

It calmed down.

Erni the Corpse King had never suffered such an indignity since achieving her mastery.

This time, Yin Mountain Mansion, along with Hell Sect and Red Mansion, had banded together, aiming to instigate a massacre in the shortest time possible while the masters of the Peaceful County Bureau were distracted and unable to react, to quickly draw out the residence of the evil dragon Daoist and divide his legacy among themselves.

The assault location she chose was this very inn.

With a burst of strength, she pushed open a gap in the blood coffin again.

But another surge of force hit, and the lid closed once more.

After three such tug-of-war rounds, Erni could no longer hold back.

"Taoist, go to hell!"

The blood coffin shook violently and burst apart, turning into a cloud of debris, as a terrifying figure appeared before the onlookers.