Chapter 105

The Taoist priests looked at this group of incredibly rich individuals with strange expressions, their minds almost unsettled.

Thinking that these people were not only young and wealthy but also much more powerful in cultivation than them, the Taoist priests couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed.

Forcing themselves to look away, they gazed at the formation that had been completely destroyed after a fierce battle, and couldn't help but sigh: "The ancient demon-sealing formation has already been damaged this much. I wonder how many demons have already escaped, like that six-armed demon god, slipping into the human world."

The old Taoist with a goat's beard shook his head: "Let's go. We should report this situation and see how to handle it."

He turned to Ke Xingzhou: "Daoist Ke, would you like to come back with us to Jiangcheng?"

Ke Xingzhou thought for a moment. Although he hadn't had much fun on this trip and had been constantly chased by members of the Nine-Headed Dragon, he wasn't really someone who liked going out much. Now that he had some free time, he felt a bit tired.

He shook his head: "No, I still have some matters with the underworld. Let me wait for them to come to me."

Earlier, many of the Taoist priests had witnessed Ke Xingzhou summon Lu Li to collect his achievements, and they all knew his prominent connection with the underworld’s ghost officers. However, hearing him speak so casually about the ghost officer coming to find him, the Taoist priests couldn't help but feel envious.

Since the battle between gods and demons, the world's spiritual energy had been gradually depleting, and now there were no longer any practitioners left. Even those with natural talents for Taoist arts were becoming rarer.

There was a time when their ancestral master could freely travel between the human world and the underworld. But in this generation, not to mention entering the underworld, even seeing a ghost officer was something most Taoists could hardly experience.

Otherwise, the Qingyun Temple in the capital wouldn't have gained such fame in just a few years simply for knowing a ghost officer.

They had all seen how Qingyun Temple communicated with the ghost officers. Rather than an exchange, it was more like inviting them to do a job, with an attitude so respectful that no offense could be found, which was why they could invite one or two ghost officers to appear.

Once the ghost officers arrived, there would be no further communication with the Taoists from Qingyun Temple. Usually, they would just handle the matter and disappear.

It was like those scoundrels who come and go after having their fun.

Even such scoundrel behavior was something many temples couldn’t even get a taste of! So when they saw Ke Xingzhou interact with the underworld’s ghost officers so casually, like friends, the Taoist priests were truly amazed and envious.

Even if the ghost officer Ke Xingzhou summoned was just an intern, Lu Li was still a judge, which made him a level higher than the ghost officers Qingyun Temple usually interacted with.

They originally thought this special treatment was already quite exceptional, but then Ke Xingzhou mentioned that the underworld was coming to find him for business.

The Taoist priests' emotions could no longer be described as envy. For a moment, they even felt a bit jealous of Ke Xingzhou, quickly reciting the Cleansing Heart Spell twice to calm down.

Ke Xingzhou, puzzled, met the gazes of the Taoist priests.

Why were their minds suddenly unsettled?

After so many years of cultivation, their hearts were not as steady as Zhu Chu’s, a newcomer who had just entered the path. Was it because they were older and had unstable blood pressure?

The old Taoist with the goat's beard almost shed tears from his gaze at Ke Xingzhou’s seemingly indifferent expression. Unable to bear it any longer, he averted his eyes and changed the subject: "It’s getting late. Let's head down the mountain now."Chapter 105

Because they were dealing with evil forces, the local police were kept outside the formation in a safe area by the Taoist priests.

Huang Mao and those few demons who had switched sides were also here.

The police officers sent by the Mountain City Police Station were all elites, a group of energetic young men following the chief to handle the case. Initially, they had looked down on the chief's cryptic words, even suspecting that he had been brainwashed by the evil forces.

After spending an hour with a group of demons with strange and terrifying appearances, they were all completely convinced.

At the moment Ke Xingzhou dismantled the sealing formation, two lightning-like horns suddenly grew out of the demon's head with a goat-like face. His previously clean face suddenly grew thick, coarse black goat hair.

At that moment, a new recruit from the special police team, who had just joined, was being questioned by the goat-faced demon about his salary. Upon seeing this, the recruit's heart almost stopped, and he nearly shot at the demon.

Who would have known that these demons were completely unaware of how terrifying they looked? Especially after being adopted by the Xiaoyao Sect, each one probably thought they had become legitimate demons, and they were as active as a dog just released from a week-long confinement, eager to chat with anyone they met.

When Ke Xingzhou and the others came down from the mountain, they happened to see the demons chatting with a dazed police officer, complaining: "You don’t know, that black-hearted Six-Armed Demon built an evil sect for himself. We all agreed to accept incense offerings together, but who knew he used his strong build to occupy the central position in the main hall, becoming the highest-ranking god of the Nine Dragon Temple. We can only sit by the walls, and we can’t even slack off. We have to sit as still as golden statues, and my hemorrhoids are almost killing me!"

"Forget the hemorrhoids, but we hardly ever get any incense offerings. The evil forces he gathered are even stingier than the miserly Gerontai. Even if they donate money, they only offer three incense sticks. Many people just go directly to Six-Armed and don’t even think about sharing with us!"

"Xiaoyao Sect is the best. Although we just joined, it feels like coming back home!" The goat-faced demon sighed, "Really, I suggest that if you die and go to the underworld, get a 'Yangjian Resident Certificate' or something, and join the Xiaoyao Sect! It’ll definitely give you an unprecedented working experience!"

The police officers: "…"

The chief: "…"

For a moment, they didn't know whether to be shocked that demons could have hemorrhoids or whether to be surprised that these demons had learned the brainwashing tactics of the good ghosts from the Xiaoyao Sect so quickly.

They even knew about "Gerontai"!

The chief, dazed, after learning the demons' true identities, couldn't help but wonder if this was a cultural invasion of the demon race by humanity.

Seeing the Taoists appear, the chief quickly pulled himself back from his thoughts and asked, "Taoist, how did it go? I think I heard thunder-like noises just now. Was there heavy resistance? Do we need to send in the special police to help?"

The Taoists fell silent for a moment.

Their gazes involuntarily drifted to the Xiaoyao Sect members, and the goat-bearded Taoist hesitated before speaking: "The resistance was quite intense..."

But it was easily resolved by Taoist Ke Xingzhou from the Xiaoyao Sect.

The chief was surprised at how efficient the Taoist Association was, but then, recalling the videos he had seen online recently, where Taoists shouted "Believe in science" while flying across rooftops, it seemed somehow reasonable.

They had mobilized the special police force with great fanfare, but in the end, it was all for nothing. The chief felt a sense of relief.

His gaze shifted, and he immediately noticed that someone seemed to be missing from the crowd.

The chief's expression tightened: "Was there a casualty during this operation? Please send a Taoist to lead the way and have the medical staff rescue the person immediately."

However, the Taoists looked even more peculiar, and after a moment of silence, they waved their hands, "There's... no need."

The chief: "?"

He thought, what’s going on with these Taoists? Someone is really missing!

Moreover, it was said that this was one of the actors performing on Insect Mountain tonight. If something happens and the fans find out, it would cause a huge public relations crisis!Recently, there have been frequent supernatural incidents, and with the southwest region deeply affected by the evil path, just tonight, some well-informed media outlets have been calling to ask where the Taoist priests from the Nine Dragons Temple have gone, wondering if they were captured by them.

If another celebrity goes missing, he can already imagine what tomorrow's news will say.

The police chief frowned and was about to explain the situation to the Taoist priests, but was interrupted by the old Taoist with a goat beard raising his hand.

The old Taoist with a goat beard spoke with difficulty: "That person was also a demon."

The police chief: "?"

Although the chief knew a bit about metaphysics, he had never personally experienced it, so hearing this made him completely confused.

Just then, Huang Mao suddenly exclaimed, "Ah, I remember!"

Everyone turned to look, and saw Huang Mao, who had been unusually silent and deep in thought the whole way, suddenly look enlightened, excitedly saying to them: "I know who Yan Xingwei is! Didn't I used to deliver news from the headquarters? Later, I was replaced by a bird keeper? It was him! That guy called Yan Xingwei!"

After a pause, probably noticing the strange expressions on everyone’s faces, he looked around, but didn’t see Yan Xingwei.

"Eh, did you let him slip away?"

The police chief also followed his gaze, his face showing "There are so many of you, you can't seriously let him slip away right under your noses?"

The Taoist priests: "…"

Although the situation was urgent at the time, and the actual events weren’t so simple to summarize, the outcome was pretty much the same.

The Taoist priests didn’t know how to react, and after a long silence, they nodded.

Huang Mao, frustrated: "The person was right in front of you, how could you let him slip away? Ah, what a pity!"

The Taoist priests: "…………"

The Taoist priests thought to themselves, "You're an evil path follower, why are you showing such regret for your former companion escaping?" But they couldn’t find any real fault, so they could only silently shed tears.

Sorry, they were old, and didn’t realize that this Yan Xingwei was actually a demon…

The Taoist priests were deeply upset, but the three from the Xiaoyao Sect remained completely unaffected. Zhu Chu smiled and stepped forward, holding up his phone and asking the chief: "Can we take a picture?"

The chief was taken aback, a little embarrassed, instinctively pulling in his beer belly: "Do you know me?"

But who knew, as soon as he asked, Zhu Chu became confused, hesitating before speaking: "Who are you?"

The chief: "??"

Zhu Chu blinked and then realized: "Oh, you misunderstood. This is the first time our Xiaoyao Sect has cooperated with the government to perform a ritual. Such a great publicity opportunity, we definitely have to post it online and share it with the followers!"

The chief: "…"

Zhu Chu continued, "Maybe it will attract more good ghosts and demons to come and apply! One brings one, and before long, our industry will expand to the scale of the Nine Dragons Temple!"

The chief: "…………"

The more he listened, the more wrong it felt. He couldn’t help but turn to look at the Taoist priests from Jiangcheng: "Good ghosts… demons… can they really be recruited? Do you have approval documents from above?"The Taoist priests opened their mouths, feeling somewhat at a loss.

How would they know if the Xiaoyao Sect's actions had been approved? Their temple didn't even have the qualifications to do such things.

However, considering that the other side had already become friends with the ghost officers, even if only an intern judge, and had to meet with the underworld officials later, it seemed they must have obtained the approval documents, right?

The Taoist priests thought for a moment, feeling there was no flaw, and were about to nod in agreement.

Then, they heard Zhu Chu's puzzled reply: "What approval documents? We have a business license and an operating permit, does that count?"

The Taoist priests: "…"

The police chief: "…"

Seeing their reaction, Zhu Chu was also stunned: "Isn't that okay? We also have Taoist certificates and conversion certificates..."

He felt a little embarrassed when mentioning these, since he hadn't even thought about getting these documents before. It was only after the chubby and thin Taoists from the Nine Dragons Temple in the capital city had reminded him that he realized his sect was missing some paperwork.

Fortunately, although their sect was small, and they had fewer members, they were still recorded in the Taoist Association, and could recommend two people for conversion each year.

He and his junior brother had just used up the quota.

Zhu Chu looked at the police chief with innocent big eyes, but the chief fell into deeper silence.

The Taoist priests: "…………"

Everyone's expression became serious all of a sudden.

--

After the police chief and the Taoist priests explained things to Zhu Chu, he finally realized that his sect did not have the qualifications to recruit employees from other races.

According to them, the Xiaoyao Sect at least had to report their intention to recruit ghost employees to both the underworld and the human government, undergo risk assessments and qualification checks from both sides, and after approval, could start recruitment.

The same applied to the demon and monster races.

Ke Xingzhou didn't understand business matters, always leaving everything to Zhu Chu, and hearing this, he also fell into confusion.

Is it really so complicated to run a Taoist temple?

He couldn't help but recall the days spent on the mountain with his master. At that time, he never felt his master was managing the sect. As for approval documents, the old man, who never liked dealing with the government, would certainly never handle that.

Ke Xingzhou couldn't understand why others didn’t need so many procedures.

If the Taoist priests knew what he was thinking, they would probably be speechless. After all, besides the Xiaoyao Sect and the now-defunct Nine Dragons Temple, which Taoist temple would recruit ghost employees, monster employees, or even demon employees?

They had all thought that the Taoist temples in the capital were hiding their secrets, not mentioning the booming popularity of their temples during the Dharma gatherings. They thought all Taoist temples were run this way and were planning to learn from them when they got back.

Who would have thought that the Xiaoyao Sect didn’t even have approval?

If it weren’t for Ke Xingzhou and these two disciples making significant contributions in this mission to eradicate the evil path, and appearing to have proper values, they might have suspected that the Xiaoyao Sect was actually an evil sect.

Considering that Ke Xingzhou had saved their lives, everyone had to suppress their bewildered feelings.

The police chief saw that they didn't react much and didn't want to say more, so he could only furrow his brows and tell Ke Xingzhou: "You need to contact the underworld and your local Special Events Handling Bureau in the capital as soon as possible to get an approval certificate. Otherwise, if there's another anti-crime operation, your temple will be in trouble!"Ke Xingzhou also realized the seriousness of the situation. Upon hearing this, he nodded seriously, indicating that he would take care of it.

The ghosts and demons who had just joined the Xiaoyao Sect through recruitment were all confused.

They understood what had happened, but their first reaction wasn’t to feel that the Xiaoyao Sect had deceived them into joining without even proper documents. Instead, they were concerned about their future.

One demon god, with a goat's head, genuinely worried: “What about us demons? Our Great Demon God hates humans, we’ll never be able to apply for an internship, sob, we might even get killed…”

Zhu Chu was shocked when he heard this: "Your family is that brutal, if you don’t obey, they kill you?"

The demon god nodded, indicating that this was the way of the demon race.

For their race, obedience was the most important quality. Not to mention that joining the Xiaoyao Sect was essentially betraying the Great Demon God, even if it was just for the Great Demon God’s needs, they would unhesitatingly offer their lives as fuel to restore his power.

Zhu Chu gasped: “Your demon race is so feudal? No wonder you were easily lured away by our employees. A feudal society is nothing like our modern socialist society!”

After the Nine Dragons Temple was destroyed, the incense and faith were reclaimed, and the demon gods' minds became even more chaotic.

Hearing this, the demon god instinctively felt something was wrong but still nodded tearfully: "Who would have thought? We used to sit on the altar, thinking we could learn some of your human world’s secrets. Instead, we ended up hearing all these trivial matters. The old lady coming to offer incense eight times a week just because she got hemorrhoids..."

Everyone: "…"

So this is where your knowledge of “hemorrhoids” came from...

Everyone, who had studied history, felt sympathy for the demon gods upon hearing that they still lived under such an ancient societal system.

The police chief thought for a moment, considering the specific situation: "If we can't contact the demon government, at least we should get a stamp from the Special Events Handling Bureau, to avoid any diplomatic issues if the demon race comes after us later."

The Taoist priests: "…"

Wait, how did this turn into a diplomatic issue?

However, the others seemed completely unaffected by any problems. A few of the demon gods even gratefully approached the police chief, shaking his hand with tears in their eyes, saying: “Thank you! You’re truly a good police chief, doing real work for the people!”

Since the Nine-Headed Dragon entered the country and sparked a superstitious wave in the southwest, the police chief hadn’t been praised like this in a long time, and for a moment, he felt somewhat embarrassed.

His face turned red with excitement as he shook the demon god’s hand up and down with pride, saying: “Serving the people, it’s my duty!”

The demon gods were even more moved: “Chief!”

“Comrade!” The chief fervently grasped the demon god’s hand back, creating a passionate moment that almost brought tears to the eyes of those watching.

The Taoist priests: "…………"

The Taoist priests fell silent for a moment, glancing at each other.

For some reason, they felt like the world was rushing toward a direction they had never imagined.Of course, as the evil faction's supporters and henchmen who have been wreaking havoc domestically, Huang Mao, the demon gods, and those ghost soldiers and strange creatures must face legal punishment.

However, there was a division when it came to handling the specific individuals.

According to the rules of the underworld, when ghosts cause trouble in the human world, if no one dies, it is usually not investigated unless reported by the public. Moreover, as the underworld is now overflowing with ghosts, there is no energy to deal with the minor offenses of the good ghosts. Therefore, evil ghosts among the ghost soldiers can be taken to hell for punishment, but the good ghosts are basically not held accountable.

The worst outcome would be that they stay working at the Xiaoyao Sect.

As for the strange creatures, the demon race’s ancestors have always been protective. Xiang Ting had already asked for their opinion, and the general idea was to send the strange creatures back to them, and whether they were dealt with would be another matter.

As for the demon race, there was even less to say. Their vicious nature meant that apart from the most basic suppression of power, there were no more rules to bind them. The demon gods disturbing the human world was something they actually enjoyed, and they would never punish these troublemaking demon gods.

Therefore, after calculating, the strange creatures, ghost soldiers, and demon gods would all be dealt with by the Xiaoyao Sect, and they would have to wait until the Xiaoyao Sect’s approval documents came through before they could work off their sins properly.

For a group of non-human beings who had endured so much hardship, this wasn’t a punishment at all—it was practically enjoyment.

Only Huang Mao remained, whose background and experiences were also quite tragic. He had even been a witness for a time, but since his attitude had been bad when first caught and he had always sided with the evil faction, his worldview was obviously wrong, and he was still taken away by the police.

Huang Mao sat in the police car, watching the crowd, the ghost crowd, and even the demon crowd slowly fade away, tears slowly filling his eyes. In the end, he couldn’t hold it in anymore and cried out loud.

Zhu Chu shook his head and sighed: "One must abide by the law in life…"

Ke Xingzhou nodded: "We must follow the regulations."

The Taoist priests: "…"

They silently looked at the three members of the Xiaoyao Sect, thinking, "You guys are the least qualified to say that!"

But when they turned and saw the dense crowd of non-humans behind them, they realized that not following the rules also had its advantages—each of these non-humans possessed abilities far beyond ordinary humans. If the Xiaoyao Sect didn’t limit them with their unorthodox methods, and allowed them to be controlled by the evil factions, it would surely cause a devastating blow to the human world.

The Taoist priests felt a deep sense of emotion and were no longer as opposed to the so-called evil methods.

However, at that moment, the Xiaoyao Sect’s eldest disciple turned around, waved at the non-humans, and then brought out a cardboard box. Inside, neatly arranged, were the latest models of paper-made mobile phones.

“Take the phones, and if you don’t know how to use them, ask the senior employees. Then open the unethical map, and directly navigate to Xiaoyao Sect—it’s the ‘Wanli Film and TV Shooting Base,’ not the ‘Xiaoyao Sect Taoist Cultural Experience Base,’ don’t make a mistake with the navigation!”

After saying that, he turned around and met the speechless gazes of the Taoist priests. He scratched his head and apologized, saying, “There are so many employees. How much would it cost to fly everyone? Our Taoist temple is just starting, we don’t have much money, please understand!”

Just as he finished speaking, the Taoist priests saw Assistant Liu rushing in, holding a velvet box that looked very expensive.

Nie Chen took it, opened it, and inside was a row of pigeon egg-sized imperial green jade. Even the jewel-encrusted trays looked dull next to that green.

The Taoist priests: "…………"

You call this "not having much money"?