For a moment, it was a classic case of wide eyes staring back at wide eyes.
He Fenghua felt a buzzing in his brain, his old face quickly flushing red as if he had been hit by a petrification curse. He stood frozen on the spot, utterly dumbstruck.
The group of Demon Eliminators were equally stunned, rendered speechless, as if the scene had been paused.
Though they were skilled in dealing with demons, their years of training had never covered how to handle the sight of their superior running around naked.
An awkward atmosphere began to spread...
Neither side spoke first, as no one knew what opening line would be appropriate in such a situation.
Should they say, "Master He, your buttocks are so pale"?
He Fenghua froze for one second, two seconds, three seconds—then suddenly snapped back to reality. With a *thud*, he buried his face in the ground, muttering repeatedly, "You can't see me, you can't see me..."
Everyone present was a martial artist, and with the eerie silence of the scene, they naturally heard He Fenghua's muttering.
Fortunately, these individuals had some emotional intelligence and understood one crucial principle:
When you see your superior in an extremely awkward situation, do not try to help. Doing so won’t make you seem considerate or understanding; it will only make your superior feel even more mortified. The best course of action is to pretend you didn’t see anything and leave quickly.
At this moment, the Demon Eliminators exchanged knowing glances. None of them were foolish enough to ask He Fenghua why he was sunbathing his buttocks, nor did they bother to greet him. Instead, they all pretended not to notice, casually making excuses to leave.
"The moonlight is quite nice tonight, very bright."
"Indeed, the moon is so round tonight."
"By the way, Brother Li, I know a great spot. How about we go moon-gazing?"
"Moon-gazing? Count me in."
"Let’s all go together."
As the group was about to leave with their excuses, a voice suddenly emerged from nowhere: "Master He! Why are you lying on the ground? Get up, it’s cold down there!"
At that moment, He Fenghua’s body stiffened. He felt a sweet sensation in his throat, and a surge of blood rushed up—*spurt*—
The combination of unleashing his full energy, overexerting his body with a secret technique, and the sheer terror of social death caused He Fenghua to vomit blood and faint on the spot.
The other Demon Eliminators were also frozen in place, momentarily at a loss for what to do.
A single thought crossed everyone’s mind: *Who the hell is this person? Their emotional intelligence is so low it’s practically nonexistent—no, it’s as if they have no emotional intelligence at all.*
Someone with sharp eyes noticed He Fenghua had vomited blood and fainted, and they could no longer pretend not to see. They quickly shouted, "Master He has collapsed! Someone help!"
Thus, the group had no choice but to awkwardly gather around, as they couldn’t just leave their superior lying unconscious on the ground.
The poor He Fenghua was surrounded by the crowd and then taken away for medical treatment. Thankfully, he had already fainted; otherwise, he might have died from sheer embarrassment.
In the shadows, a mirror image watched as He Fenghua was carried away. Satisfied, it nodded and then dissipated into nothingness.
Truly, it was a case of "leaving after the deed was done, leaving no trace of one’s name."
At the Drunken Immortal Pavilion,
Gu Qingfeng was drinking wine and laughing uncontrollably, leaving Wang Fatty and Xu Daizi utterly confused and slightly creeped out.
The quick-witted Wang Fatty sensed something was off and hurriedly went to settle the bill, feeling a huge weight lift off his shoulders once it was done.
"Master Gu, why are you laughing?" Wang Fatty cautiously asked.
"Hahaha..." Gu Qingfeng glanced at Wang Fatty, laughing so hard he could barely catch his breath. Finally, he uttered a sentence that left the two completely baffled.
"Tonight’s moon is so bright and round, hahaha..."
The next day,
Gu Qingfeng eagerly went to clock in for work—it was the most enthusiastic he had ever been.
When he arrived at the Yin Mountain County branch of the Demon Suppression Bureau, he casually asked someone, "Where’s Master He? I heard there was a fire here yesterday. Is Master He alright?"
The person who heard Gu Qingfeng’s question immediately looked strange, their face twitching as they tried to hold back laughter. After struggling for a while, they finally said, "Master He caught a cold last night and has already left in a hurry."
Gu Qingfeng feigned shock: "A cold? Last night was so chilly. I should have reminded him to wear more layers."
Upon hearing the mention of wearing more layers, the person could no longer hold back and burst into laughter: "Hahaha... Yes, he really should have worn more clothes."
Gu Qingfeng almost lost his composure from the person’s laughter and quickly walked away.
He thought to himself, *He Fenghua really can’t handle things. I was even planning to gift him a burial plot and arrange a ghost marriage for him. Who knew he’d run away after just one bath?*
But his departure was for the best. From now on, Yin Mountain County would be under my control.
In high spirits, Gu Qingfeng left the Demon Suppression Bureau branch and decided to grab some breakfast. He had been so eager to see He Fenghua that he hadn’t eaten in the morning. Now that no one was around to supervise him, he could skip work without worrying about his salary being docked. Why bother working at all?
On the way, Gu Qingfeng asked a random passerby where the most famous breakfast spot in Yin Mountain County was. The person told him that the most renowned place was Dou’s Donkey Meat Pancake in the southern outskirts of the city—a true delicacy of Yin Mountain County.
As the saying goes, "In heaven, there’s dragon meat; on earth, there’s donkey meat."
Gu Qingfeng’s interest was immediately piqued, and he rode his shabby little horse to the southern outskirts.
Half an hour later, he arrived in the outskirts, wandering around aimlessly like a headless fly. Despite asking several passersby for directions, he still couldn’t find the donkey meat pancake stall.
The problem was that Gu Qingfeng could only distinguish east and west—he knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west, so he could tell those directions.
But how was he supposed to figure out north and south?
"Up is north, down is south, left is west, right is east"?
If that were the case, then north would be in the sky!
Gu Qingfeng looked up at the bright sun in the sky, but there was no donkey meat pancake up there.
He sighed helplessly, realizing that not only could he not tell north from south, but he had now also lost his sense of east and west.
It was already noon.
He couldn’t even remember the way back, and the area was completely deserted, with no one around to ask for directions.
Gu Qingfeng thought for a moment, then slapped his shabby horse: "As the old saying goes, a shabby horse knows the way home. Why don’t you take me back?"
The horse snorted and continued munching on the wild grass by the roadside.
Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice rang out.
"Friend, meeting here is fate. How about sitting down for a cup of tea?"
Gu Qingfeng was instantly startled.
Who was that?! He hadn’t sensed anyone at all!
After all, he possessed the soul power and perception of a grandmaster, along with sharp hearing and vision. Normally, even a grandmaster would find it difficult to approach him unnoticed.
Gu Qingfeng followed the voice and saw, deep in the woods, a large boulder on which sat a figure entirely cloaked in black.
In front of the figure was a set of tea utensils, and the fragrance of green tea wafted through the air.