Chapter 112: Great Mercy

I stared at the figures rushing up, and gently clenched my fists. In this world of ghosts, it is easier to sense malice and kindness. With my spiritual awareness, I naturally sensed that the group of people rushing up were full of malice.

Chengxin stood next to me, his hands in his sleeves, his expression calm, but his eyes behind his glasses were already slightly narrowed. He asked me, “Chengyi, there’s something going on.”

“I don’t know what the situation is, but the people coming are not good.” I whispered to Chengxin.

“Oh, it’s okay, let’s get started.” When he said this, Brother Chengxin sipped his teeth and looked quite fierce. I looked at Brother Chengxin in surprise. When did he become so violent? Wasn’t he a gentle and elegant man?

Seeing my surprised look, Cheng Xin suddenly turned his head and stared at me angrily, saying, “Chen Chengyi, do you think I shouldn’t fight like a man? Do you think I should just charm people? Do you think I’m just a male fox?”

“Ah…?” I had never thought about this question, but looking at Chengxin’s eyes, I was “chilled to the bone,” and after exclaiming, I simply shut up.

Behind me, Xiao Chengqian was already laughing and cramping, successfully transferring the hatred that Chengxin had just shown me to him…

I didn’t bother to pay attention to these two crazy people, but continued to follow the group of figures, which were now very close to us.

At this distance, I could clearly see that they were wearing black cloaks, and their entire faces were hidden under the cloaks, giving them a somewhat mysterious air. At this distance, I realized that these ghosts were not coming at us, they were heading straight for Master Hongren. They were here to cause trouble for Master Hongren.

Seeing this, I took a step toward Master Hongren, but Master Hongren sensed my presence and suddenly opened his eyes and said to us, “Stand quietly aside. This is just a promise I made with the owner of this city.”

As he spoke, the group of ghosts had already reached the front of Master Hongren. The two ghosts in the lead sneered and took out a hook from their cloaks, directly and nimbly hooking at Master Hongren’s collarbone.

“Stop!” At almost the same time, I, Huigen, and Jueyuan all shouted, Huigen directly ripped off the monk’s robe on his upper body, rushed forward two steps, and the blood-colored tattoos on his body actually felt faintly flowing, as if the blood-colored vajra on his body had come to life.

The two ghosts didn’t care about us at all. One of them laughed coldly several times in a row, and the other said, “We know who you are. Don’t panic. There will always be a time to act. But you should leave the old monk alone. He won’t allow you to act, or else you can ask him?”

The voice of the ghost was hoarse and unpleasant, full of mockery, which made my heart boil. I saw that the hooks were about to hook into Master Hongren’s collarbone, so I didn’t care about that anymore. I laughed angrily at the ghost and started to pinch the hand gestures the next moment!

“Stop it, the agreement cannot be broken, let them continue, this kind of suffering is not suffering, how can it compare to the suffering in my heart? After I entered the city, this kind of thing has continued, I have become accustomed to it.” Master Hongren’s voice was calm, and when he spoke, the hooks had already pierced his collarbone, and he had not even changed his tone.

My anger was so great that my whole body trembled. Hui Gen’s eyes were wide open, his fists clenched, and his veins on his arms were popping out because of the pain. As for Jue Yuan, he closed his eyes directly, but looking at his twitching cheeks, his mood was not calm.

“The sea of suffering is endless, but I believe there will always be a day when it ends. If you succeed, my suffering will also come to an end. Go…” The two ghosts had already begun to pull the chains attached to the hooks, dragging Master Jueyuan, while Master Hongren looked at us deeply, stood up, and followed the group of ghosts with a very calm look.

“Wait, where are you taking my great-uncle?” Hui Gen suddenly shouted.

The leader of the ghosts turned around and looked at Hui Gen’er, saying in a flirty tone, “Since he is your great-uncle, don’t you know the promise he made? Our lord of the city made a bet with him to see if he would become a part of our city first or if the people (ghosts) in our city would be converted by him. Therefore, we allow him to come out once every five days to preach the Dharma and perform exorcisms, but he must also accept the punishments of our city and voluntarily go to the most chaotic place to receive a ‘baptism’. Isn’t that fair?

Hearing this, my head was buzzing, and I suddenly hated the owner of this ghost town. It had taken a fancy to Master Hongren’s abilities, and it was determined to use the negative energy of the ghosts and the cruel punishments to make Master Hongren submit, assimilate, and become a real ghost that it could use.

Master Hongren was compassionate and merciful, and would rather endure such torture and give up the opportunity to go to the blissful afterlife than to convert the suffering ghosts here and protect the opportunity left by my master to liberate the ghosts here.

This so-called promise is almost clear at this point. Since entering the city, Master Hongren has been suffering from various torments, but he has been treating the ghosts here with compassion. Even in places with mixed yin and yang, he has used his own power to purify some of the yin and yang, trying to save some ghosts, such as Zhu Zhuo, so that they can be more awake for as long as possible.

A truly compassionate and merciful monk.

“Let’s go,” said Master Hongren, looking at our grief-stricken expressions, but his own expression remained calm. Then he looked at me meaningfully and said, “It’s not just me.”

“What are you still talking about?” The ghost in charge was already extremely impatient, and pulled the chain around Master Hongren’s collarbone again. Master Hongren said no more, and followed the ghosts.

Huigen’s teeth were clattering, and I patted his shoulder, only to find it burning hot. The kid was completely flushed with blood. I whispered in Huigen’s ear, “I’m also suffering a lot, so let’s get things done faster.”

Huigen let out a long breath, loosened his fists, and forced a smile that was even uglier than crying on his face. Then he said to me, “Brother, I know. Let’s go now.”

I shook my head and said, “There’s no rush to go to the inner city right now, because there are still a few things to do in the outer city.” As I spoke, I had already begun to look around the square.

“Chengyi, what else is there?” The one who asked me was Jueyuan. I looked at his expression, and I could see that his anger and anxiety were about the same as Huigen’er’s. I was about to explain, but I noticed Zhu Zhuo shaking violently on the side. It looked like he was very scared.

“Kid, what’s wrong with you?” I looked at Zhu Zhuo, who was obviously scared to a certain extent, and couldn’t help but ask in surprise.

“You… you are against the Lord of the City?” Zhu Zhuo trembled for a long time before suddenly blurting out such a sentence.

I sighed and felt that I should probably tell Zhu Zhu about it. In the current situation, we and the city are almost in a life-and-death situation, and there is no need to involve the innocent Zhu Zhu.

In a sense, it has helped us, and we don’t mind delaying a little for Zhu Zhuo. So I simply sat down in the square, beckoning Zhu Zhuo to come over.

Zhu Zhu obediently came over and sat down next to me. I could tell that he didn’t dare to resist. In his opinion, anyone who dared to oppose the Lord of the City must be extremely capable.

“How do you know that we are going against the Lord of the City?” I asked Zhu Zhu as kindly as I could.

“I don’t know, I don’t know anything,” Zhu Zhu hurriedly explained, but when he looked into my eyes, he didn’t dare to argue anymore, and whispered, “Black clothes and black robes are the standard attire of the law enforcement team in the inner city. They love to throw disobedient guys into the moat. Who doesn’t know them in this city? I’m scared.”

“Are you afraid of being thrown into the moat?” I asked Zhu Zhu with a smile.

“Yes.” Zhu Zhu nodded heavily to me, looking very innocent. At this point, he couldn’t pretend to be a middle-aged man’s voice anymore, but instead, he became a child’s voice.

“Well, now I won’t hide it from you either. Let me tell you clearly who we are. You can choose whether you want to continue to lead us or not,” I said calmly.

In this city, there is not much time left for us to be at peace. Maybe there is only a little time left.