I can push my cultivation progress to the end

“Spiritual Fire, Profound Light, Blazing Flames made manifest, Flame Official descends Qi, Evil spirits all perish, Fire Essence Curse, HASTEN!”

As the terrifying incantation was uttered, seven or eight yellow talismans in his palm immediately ignited spontaneously, transforming into seven or eight golden-red fire swallows that spread their wings and flew in all directions.

After only a few breaths, seven or eight sources of fire began to erupt within the Zhou family mansion.

These golden-red talisman fires, conjured with術法, were indiscriminate, burning almost anything except stone and sand.

Thus, buildings, trees, corpses... all sorts of things were devoured by the talisman fire in a short period, crackling and burning.

Immediately afterward, Li Hai began to cast spells once more:

“Wind Talisman, arise, cleanse evil influences, where the Dao's power reaches, demonic nightmares all perish, Xun Wind Curse, HASTEN!”

Whoosh—

As the remaining yellow talismans turned to ash once more, a surge of strong, fierce winds immediately swept in from the southeast, causing the talisman fires to sway erratically and spread to even more places.

With the wind fueling the fire, the blazing light rapidly spread throughout all areas of the Zhou family mansion.

Seeing this, Li Hai no longer lingered, turning his back to the raging fire and striding swiftly towards other parts of Oxhorn Town without looking back.

The fire in the Zhou family's courtyard grew larger and larger after he left, eventually turning into a monstrous blaze that engulfed the entire mansion.

Fortunately, the Zhou family, out of contempt for the town's commoners, had deliberately left the area around the Zhou residence a barren wasteland, isolating themselves from others, which prevented the fire from spreading beyond the mansion and engulfing other areas; otherwise, nearly half of Oxhorn Town would have suffered.

It could only be said that although the Zhou family had committed a mountain of evil deeds in life, they did not bring trouble to others after death.

Good riddance, a truly good riddance.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Li Hai traversed several miles, leaping over walls and buildings, eventually stopping in front of a solitary building resembling an ancient temple.

Unlike the bustling shops around it, this building's pure black wooden walls and closed doors gave it an extremely cold and stern appearance, like a prison.

However, the building's exterior was not important; what mattered was the sign hanging at the front.

It had three characters written on it: 'Ming,' 'Tang,' 'Guan'.

That's right, this was the Da Jing Demon Slaying Division's outpost that Zhang Miaoji had mentioned.

Just as Li Hai glanced at the sign and was about to walk over and knock on the door, an old man passing by called out to him:

“Hey, young man, are you going into this Ming Tang Guan?”

Li Hai felt that this old man was somewhat inexplicable, but out of politeness, he replied:

“Old sir, what do you want to say to me?”

“It's nothing, uh, this old man just wanted to tell you…”

The old man paused, then mysteriously said, “This place… is haunted; you'd better not go in.”

“?”

This made Li Hai's face fill with question marks.

What did this mean? The official outpost of the department specifically for slaying ghosts and demons… was haunted?

This was a bit of a slap in the face for the Demon Slaying Division, wasn't it?

“Oh, so you know this place is a teahouse; I thought you didn't know and were just wandering around aimlessly.”

The old man looked left and right, then mysteriously said again, “That's right; this teahouse, apart from the tea being expensive and having few customers, has always been quite normal, but yesterday, something frightening happened here.”

Li Hai asked in confusion, “What happened?”

“Yesterday evening, the Ming Tang Guan was doing well, but the lights inside all went out at Hai hour, and it was pitch black; you couldn't see or hear anything from the outside.”

Speaking of this, the old man took a breath and continued, “The People's Militia also sent a few people over in the morning, but as soon as they entered the teahouse, they were trapped inside and haven't come out yet, so now no one dares to go in.”

Hearing this, Li Hai frowned and said, “Didn't the People's Militia follow up on this?”

The old man shook his head: “Perhaps not today; I guess they'll have to send someone tomorrow.”

“Alright.” Li Hai nodded, “I understand.”

With that, he turned and walked towards the Ming Tang Guan.

When the old man saw this, he understood that his words had been wasted, so he immediately shouted from behind:

“Young man, you must listen to the old man; don't go in; if you go, you really won't come out!”

In response, Li Hai only raised his hand and waved, no longer saying anything, which made the old man jump around anxiously but not dare to take half a step towards the Ming Tang Guan.

Standing in front of the Ming Tang Guan's closed door, Li Hai gently pushed it.

Squeak~

With a soft sound, the door opened.

Then, a thick, choking ghostly aura surged out and enveloped Li Hai's face.

But what he saw with his naked eyes was a seemingly ordinary teahouse scene.

All the tables and chairs were neatly arranged.

At the same time, there was a teapot and teacups on one of the tea tables.

It was as if someone had been sitting there drinking tea just now.

But upon closer inspection, there was not a single trace of vitality in this teahouse.

Only wisps of hazy mist, of unknown origin, constantly wandered and flowed within the teahouse.

Looking at all of this, Li Hai said with a strange expression:

“A place of evil?!”

That's right, this Demon Slaying Division's outpost… had inexplicably turned into a small place of evil.

No wonder people outside couldn't see inside the teahouse; with this evil mist, how could they see clearly?

“Strange, strange.”

Li Hai muttered as he walked to a tea table and sat down, “Judging from various situations, this Demon Slaying Division's outpost should have turned into a place of evil at Hai hour last night, and then all the Demon Slaying Lieutenants at this outpost went missing.

Tsk, why is everything so unfortunate? As soon as I arrive, everything shuts down. You could have waited a little longer and let me copy them, ah, sigh~”

After an annoyed sigh, he stood up and began a thorough search of the entire teahouse, wanting to find any possible clues.

But after searching for only a short while, Li Hai slapped his forehead in annoyance and said:

“I almost forgot; I'm also a ghost.”

With that, he suddenly transformed from a human into a ghost, shifting into his ghostly form.

In his ghostly vision, the teahouse immediately turned into a gloomy tomb chamber with more than a dozen dilapidated coffins piled up haphazardly.

Besides these coffins, the tomb chamber contained only clusters of eerie green will-o'-the-wisps; the original tea tables and chairs had disappeared without a trace.

“I can feel it…”

Li Hai, his face pale and blue like a dead man, slowly shifted his gaze downwards and murmured softly, “There is space beneath this layer of the tomb chamber.”

As he murmured, he plunged downwards like a diver, disappearing into the ground in an instant.