Twin female zombies come to the door: My lord, please have mercy!

Lin Ye slammed on the brakes.

The off-road vehicle came to a steady stop on the flat, compacted dirt ground in front of the stilted house.

He pulled out the car keys and opened the car door.

The cold mountain wind, mixed with strong moisture, rushed towards us.

A woman leaned against the wooden door frame of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, holding a handful of sunflower seeds in her hand, cracking them open with great relish.

The woman was about thirty years old and had a voluptuous figure.

She had a dark blue headscarf wrapped around her head and an apron covered in oil and black stains.

With a half-lit cigarette dangling from his mouth, his slender, almond-shaped eyes, shrouded in smoke, revealed the shrewdness and ruthlessness unique to a street businessman.

Seeing a car stop, the woman spat out the sunflower seed shells in her mouth and stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette in the crack of the door frame.

She greeted us with a swaying waist, speaking fluent Yunnan-Guizhou dialect.

"Hey bosses, are you here for a bite or to stay the night?"

"There's miasma in these mountains, you can't travel at night! There's landslides for ten miles ahead, you can only rest here at Laoya Ridge tonight."

Lin Ye put the car keys in his pocket and patted the hood of the SUV with his other hand.

He replied in the most down-to-earth and casual tone, without the slightest airs of a mystical master.

"Two superior rooms, let's make a stir-fried pork with houttuynia cordata and a pot of authentic red sour fish soup."

"Add more litsea cubeba to remove the dampness from this mountain."

The proprietress, Sister Hua, glanced around at Lin Ye, then her gaze fell on Leng Yue, who was getting out of the car behind him.

Upon seeing Leng Yue's cold and stunningly beautiful face, a hint of surprise flashed in Sister Hua's eyes.

Then she put on that radiant smile again, laughing so hard she was shaking.

"Alright! The boss knows his stuff, make sure there's plenty of Litsea cubeba! Please come in and have a seat! It's windy outside!"

She stepped aside and warmly invited everyone into the house.

The small, hole-in-the-wall restaurant on the first floor is not very big.

The ground was unpolished cement, and it smelled musty from being damp all year round.

There were four or five dilapidated eight-immortal tables with missing legs in the hall, and the tabletops were covered with a thick layer of grease.

A very low-wattage incandescent bulb hung overhead, casting a dim, yellowish light.

Lin Ye and his group of four entered the hall.

In the most secluded corner near the stove, a table of diners was already seated.

They were four thin, sullen men.

The four men were wearing green liberation shoes covered in yellow mud.

His palm was placed on the table, his fingers had large knuckles, and his fingernails were full of black grime that couldn't be washed off.

They were wearing windbreakers, and the fibers of their clothes gave off a strong earthy smell, mixed with the pungent odor of preservatives.

The smell was undetectable to ordinary people, but Lin Ye was all too familiar with it.

A true tomb raider, commonly known as a grave robber.

These people had just crawled out of the ground and still smelled of the mud and stench of the dead.

Lin Ye led everyone to an empty table in the middle and they sat down.

Ayougu pulled out a few cheap napkins and vigorously wiped the grease stains on the table, muttering under her breath that the place was too dirty.

The four tomb raiders stopped eating the moment Lin Ye entered the room.

Four pairs of eyes, gleaming with a fierce light, swept over warily.

The head tomb raider, sitting in the main seat, was a one-eyed man.

He was blind in his left eye, and his right eye was fixed on the long, rectangular canvas bag that Lin Ye was carrying on his back.

He lowered his voice and whispered something to his subordinates in very soft, industry-specific language.

"This is a tricky situation; that man smells of blood and thunder."

"That bag contained some hard stuff, and the woman next to her was even more strange; she didn't seem alive."

The four men exchanged glances in tacit understanding, leaned forward slightly, and subtly reached for their lower backs with their right hands.

There, bulging and bulging, were hidden homemade short-handled muskets.

Lin Ye sat down in the chair, picked up the rough porcelain teapot on the table, and poured himself a cup of cloudy, foamy tea.

He put the tea in his mouth, his expression calm, as if he hadn't heard the undercurrents surging in the corner.

Leng Yue sat to Lin Ye's left.

She did not take off her wide-brimmed hat.

His eyes were lowered as he stared at the chipped teacup in front of him, saying nothing.

"Sizzle."

The sound of hot oil sizzling and stir-frying cured meat came from the kitchen, and the pungent aroma of chili peppers and houttuynia cordata instantly filled the entire hall, masking the smell of preservatives on the porter.

Just then, a crisp metallic clanging sound suddenly came from the tactical backpack that Lin Ye had placed beside him.

"Click."

The sound was extremely soft, yet it stood out starkly amidst the noisy cooking sounds from the kitchen.

It was the bronze box inside the lead-sealed iron box that was vibrating. The severed finger inside was sensing the death aura emanating from the four grave robbers who had been digging up tombs for years, and was restlessly scraping against the inner metal wall.

The four tomb raiders in the corner suddenly changed their expressions.

The one-eyed leader's single eye gleamed with a fierce light.

He slapped his thigh, quickly stood up, and had already pulled the homemade gun halfway out of his waistband.

When encountering fellow travelers carrying strange items in a shady inn in the wilderness, striking first is their only rule for survival.

The cold moon still did not turn back.

She picked up the rough porcelain teacup filled with hot tea, her fingers long and slender, white.

She held the teacup in mid-air and lightly flicked her index finger against the rough surface of the cup.

"Click."

A faint, crisp sound.

A deep crack appeared out of nowhere on the hard, coarse porcelain teacup.

As the crack appeared, a domineering and chilling aura swept across the uneven cement floor toward the octagonal table in the corner.

The four tomb raiders felt a chill on their necks, as if an invisible ice blade was pressed against their throat arteries.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through the lining of their windbreakers, streaming down their backs.

The chilling aura locked their vital energy, and if they dared to make any further movements, the wind blade would definitely sever their necks.

The one-eyed leader stood frozen in place, swallowed hard, and his Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty.

He immediately grabbed the arms of his three men beside him and forcefully pushed the half-drawn musket back down to their lower backs.

"Keep your head down and eat. Don't be a troublemaker."

The one-eyed leader's voice trembled uncontrollably.

He plopped back down on the long bench, picked up his rice bowl and chopsticks, and began shoveling white rice into his mouth.

The four desperados buried their heads deep in the rough porcelain bowls, their bodies trembling uncontrollably, and dared not look at Lin Ye's table again.

The murderous intent vanished without a trace.

Sister Hua came out of the kitchen carrying a huge iron pot.

A bright red sour soup was bubbling in the iron pot, with a grass carp weighing at least three pounds barely visible in the bottom of the soup, sprinkled with bright green litsea cubeba and dried chili peppers.

"The food's here! Authentic red sour fish soup, please enjoy!"

Sister Hua placed the iron pot heavily in the center of the table, steam rising from it.

She wiped her hands with her apron and looked at Lin Ye with a smile, completely unaware of the tense life-or-death confrontation that had just taken place in the hall.

Lin Ye picked up his chopsticks, took a piece of fish that had soaked up the sour soup, and put it in his mouth.

The fish is tender and fresh, with a spicy and sour flavor that explodes on the tongue, and the unique aroma of Litsea cubeba fills the nostrils.

"It tastes good."

Lin Ye commented and then invited Ayougu and Shuangxing to eat.

Ah You was starving, so she picked up the bowl and ate heartily.

Froststar wasn't interested in the spicy and sour fish. Instead, she hugged her portable mini-fridge and ate the ice cream inside, getting it all over her face.

An empty bowl sat in front of Leng Yue.

She didn't touch her chopsticks, but simply sat there quietly, pouring Lin Ye a full cup of tea.

The meal was eaten very quietly.

The four tomb raiders in the corner finished their meal without even paying the bill. They simply threw a hundred-yuan bill on the table and fled down the wooden stairs to their guest rooms on the second floor as if their lives depended on it.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Lin Ye asked Sister Hua for the keys to two guest rooms.

The guest rooms at Laoyaling are on the second floor.

As you climb the dilapidated wooden stairs, the planks creak and groan.

Pushing open the wooden door to the guest room, one finds it simply furnished.

Two single wooden beds covered with yellowed sheets, a table with peeling paint, and a swaying chandelier hanging overhead.

The windows were old-fashioned wooden lattice windows, with drafts leaking through the gaps in the glass.

Ayougu and Froststar moved into the room next door.

Lin Ye and Leng Yue stayed in the guest room closest to the staircase.

Lin Ye placed the tactical backpack on the table.

He unzipped the box, took out the heavy, sealed iron box, and pressed it tightly under the pillow of the wooden bed against the wall.

Then, he took off his dusty coat and held the Soul-Suppressing Copper Coin Sword in his arms.

Leng Yue walked to the window and reached out to close the drafty wooden lattice window tightly.

Then, he turned around and walked to another wooden bed, where he sat down quietly.

The night is deep.

The mountain wind outside the window began to howl.

The wind whistled through the deep valley of Laoyaling, echoing under the eaves of the stilted houses, sounding like a woman's mournful weeping in the dead of night.

A thick fog enveloped the entire mountain range, completely sealing off this desolate mountain inn.

Lin Ye lay on the wooden bed fully clothed.

The bed frame was hard and made a slight creaking sound.

He closed his eyes and slowly channeled the pure Yang energy within his body through his meridians.

The sealed iron box under the pillow remained completely silent.