Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

Feng Xiaolu hesitated for a moment, but finally clicked "accept".

The phone was on speakerphone, and Zhang Nanshan's voice rang out again, this time much more serious: "Feng girl, tell this old man the truth, what exactly happened at the scene?"

Feng Xiaolu glanced at Chen Anran, and seeing him nod, she briefly recounted the process of discovering the zombie and subduing it with glutinous rice and a peach wood sword. Of course, she omitted the extraordinary nature of the peach wood sword and glutinous rice, only saying that they were ancestral magical artifacts combined with her junior brother's profound cultivation.

Zhang Nanshan was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone before slowly saying, "Junior brother? Are you sure he's not your senior brother? Girl, it seems your junior brother is someone with real skills."

Feng Xiaolu instantly bristled, "Grandpa Zhang, I don't like what you're saying! I'm clearly a person with real skills too! I'm his third senior sister! Besides, someone like me would be a legendary Qi Refiner in ancient times!"

"A mere Qi Refiner, a little brat in the early stages of Qi Refining."

After a brief exchange of words between the old man and the young girl, Zhang Nanshan returned to the main topic, "The things you've encountered aren't that simple. Feng girl, didn't you just say that besides the zombies, there's also a 'crying' fiend?"

"Yes, that's what Mr. Wang said, and we also heard crying."

"This is troublesome..." Zhang Nanshan's voice was solemn. "Zombies are formed when a person dies with a lingering resentment, which combines with the yin energy of the earth, and the spirit is trapped in the corpse. They have a spirit but no soul, and are confused and vicious. As for the fierce ghosts, they are mostly people who died unjustly. Their souls are trapped in resentment due to their obsession, and they have a soul but no spirit, and are elusive and strange."

He paused, his tone growing increasingly heavy: "Now, this place has both fully formed zombies and malevolent spirits causing trouble. The person behind it all probably wants to merge souls and spirits to create a flying zombie."

Feng Xiaolu didn't react much to these words, but Chen Anran suddenly remembered a sentence she had seen in her previous life and blurted out, "When a ghost possesses another ghost, even the gods are terrified."

Zhang Nanshan was silent for a few seconds on the other end of the phone, seemingly digesting Chen Anran's insightful summary, before speaking with admiration: "'A ghost possessing another ghost'...that's right, exactly! If the soul and spirit are forcibly fused under the influence of evil magic, the resulting flying zombie will not only be incredibly strong and have a body of steel, but will also possess the strange and unpredictable supernatural abilities of a ghost, making it extremely difficult to deal with. It seems that your junior brother, Feng, is indeed a wise man."

Feng Xiaolu puffed out her chest with pride. Although these words were spoken by her junior brother, his face was her face!

"Grandpa Zhang, what should we do now? That fierce ghost will definitely show up tonight," Feng Xiaolu pressed.

"The most urgent task is to prevent the soul from merging with the body," Zhang Nanshan said solemnly. "The zombie has been removed, and its spirit has dispersed, but its malevolent nature remains. We must exorcise or suppress it before it is activated again by the person behind it or instinctively seeks a new 'body.' Otherwise, even without a zombie body, it may possess other evil entities or harm people to enhance its resentment and become even more ferocious."

He paused, then added, "Ordinary physical methods are not very effective against fierce and treacherous spirits. We need magical artifacts or talismans imbued with pure yang energy or powerful mental energy, or scriptures to convert them. Are you... prepared?"

Before Chen Anran could speak, Feng Xiaolu quickly said, "Don't worry, although our Yunyin Sect is not a legitimate Taoist sect, we still have some methods for slaying demons and monsters."

"Good, that's good. If you can't handle it, escape immediately. I'll come back to help you then."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Anran complained, "She was terrified a moment ago and even told me she was going to find a real Taoist priest."

Feng Xiaolu put away her phone and chuckled, saying, "That's because I didn't know you had a divine artifact, Junior Brother. If I had known, would I have been scared?" With that, Feng Xiaolu took Chen Anran's hand and walked out of the building.

"Senior sister?"

"Oh dear, it's only afternoon, there's still plenty of time before evening. Let's grab something to eat first, and then go sing some karaoke or something."

The warm sunshine outside helped Feng Xiaolu relax her tense nerves.

"Singing is fine, but drinking is out of the question. I don't want to come to this building alone at night." Chen Anran was being pulled along, somewhat helplessly.

During his few days in Lincheng, Chen Anran discovered one of Feng Xiaolu's hobbies: she liked to go drinking and singing when she had free time.

Feng Xiaolu pulled Chen Anran along as they strolled through the bustling streets of Lincheng, eventually disappearing into a stylish-looking bar.

It was still early, and there weren't many people in the bar. Soft jazz music flowed gently through the air.

"Two glasses of juice, please," Chen Anran said to the waiter before Feng Xiaolu could speak.

Feng Xiaolu pouted, but didn't object. She just rested her chin on her hand, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Chen Anran: "Junior Brother, to be honest, could you teach your 'nurturing' method to your senior sister? If our magical artifacts were all that powerful, wouldn't we be able to walk sideways in the martial world?"

Chen Anran chuckled and took a sip of the orange juice that was served to him. "Senior sister, this method is a bit special, and it might... be a little difficult to learn." He paused, then added, "But senior sister, you can give me your tools of the trade. After we've dealt with this, I'll help you 'nurture' them."

Feng Xiaolu's eyes lit up instantly. "Really?"

"Authenticity guaranteed".

"Then I'll be a true Taoist priest from now on! Hahaha! Slaying demons and eliminating evil is our duty! As long as the money's right!"

Chen Anran looked at Feng Xiaolu's excited face and found it somewhat amusing. Then she changed the subject, "Senior Sister said that once the spiritual energy recovers, you and Second Senior Sister won't have to work so hard. You can all stay in the sect on the mountain like when Master was still here."

Upon hearing this, Feng Xiaolu's eyes flashed with a hint of nostalgia, but she quickly shook her head and sighed, "I'm afraid there will be even more places where we'll need money then. The revival of spiritual energy sounds wonderful, but resource competition, sect reconstruction, disciple training—all of these require money. What can we do with our current resources? Senior Sister is just too idealistic... Besides, even our Senior Sister can feel the revival of spiritual energy, so why can't people from other hidden sects feel it? Everyone wants to seize the initiative, but that initiative isn't so easy to grab."

Chen Anran smiled slightly. Seize the initiative? Do you think they can outmaneuver me?

"Third Senior Sister, be optimistic. Maybe our sect will be able to overpower everyone else in the future?"

Feng Xiaolu scoffed, not believing it. Even if her junior brother had a secret method to nurture "magical artifacts," it was hard to guarantee that other sects and families with deep foundations didn't have their own hidden treasures or secret methods.

Feng Xiaolu casually replied, "We'll see when the time comes."

Chen Anran didn't explain further, but instead took a sip of orange and asked, "By the way, Third Senior Sister, have you been in contact with Second Senior Sister lately?"