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

The lobby on the first floor of the funeral parlor.

The fragrance of pine soot ink intertwines with the cool scent of red spider lilies, brewing a potent liquor that can make one lose their mind.

Leng Yue's soft and alluring voice still lingered in Lin Ye's ears, and the amazing elasticity and icy body temperature coming from the point where their backs were pressed together kept eroding his rational defenses.

The air between the two was so thick it could be drawn into crystalline threads.

Just as Lin Ye's breathing became heavier, preparing to turn around and confirm this ambiguous relationship completely.

"jingle--!"

The old brass wind chime hanging above the glass door suddenly let out a piercing scream.

This was definitely not the crisp sound of a gentle breeze.

The copper bell sounded as if someone was gripping its throat and shaking it violently, producing a dry and grating sound.

The autumn rain outside was pouring down, the rain curtain like a thick gray beaded curtain, splashing water everywhere on the bluestone pavement of Taiping Old Street.

Lin Ye's eyes suddenly turned cold.

He stopped what he was doing and straightened his back.

The languor and heat that had been lingering around me vanished instantly.

Leng Yue also noticed something was wrong.

The hazy, watery light in her eyes froze instantly, and a cold wariness rekindled in her deep red pupils.

She stepped back half a step from Lin Ye's embrace, straightened her moon-white long gown, and stood quietly beside the octagonal table like a peerless sharp blade returning to its sheath.

"A guest has arrived. The atmosphere is very gloomy, with an earthy smell."

Leng Yue's voice was clear and cold, and her gaze pierced through the rain, fixed on the end of the street outside the door.

Lin Ye grabbed a towel from the table to wipe the ink off his hands, and then drew the lightning-struck peach wood sword to his front.

"The yin energy is so strong in broad daylight; this guest probably has ill intentions."

A few seconds later.

A gaunt old man with a hunched back pushed open the glass door and walked in.

The old man was wearing a tattered black raincoat.

Rainwater dripped and pattered onto the floor along the plastic edges.

The water droplets had a murky, slightly yellowish hue, and upon landing, they emitted a strong, foul stench of sewer sludge mixed with formaldehyde.

He wore a large straw hat with the brim pulled down very low, almost completely hiding his face in shadow.

Only his exposed hands had skin that was a deathly bluish-gray, with long, black nails and dark red grime between his fingers.

Lin Ye stood behind the counter, his eyes slightly narrowed, secretly channeling pure Yang energy into his eyes.

Under the Qi Observation Technique, there was not a trace of the yang fire of a living person on this old man's body.

A black, malevolent thread was coiled above his head.

This thread pierced through the roof and stretched into the endless rain curtain outside Jiangzhou City.

A walking corpse controlled by evil magic!

"Boss, I'd like to buy something," the old man said.

His voice was dry, hoarse, and devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Our shop deals in the dead; we have everything: paper money, funeral clothes, and incense for guiding the deceased. What would you like, sir?"

Lin Ye remained calm and composed, his tone indifferent.

The old man slowly raised his head, and beneath his straw hat, his pupil-less eyes stared intently at Lin Ye.

"Buy paper offerings. I need a pair of child figures, a boy and a girl."

As he spoke, he pulled two crumpled banknotes from his pocket and slapped them on the glass counter.

Lin Ye glanced down at it.

It looked like it didn't contain a single coin.

Two brightly colored pieces of paper were printed with the words "Heaven and Earth Bank," clearly indicating that they were ghost money used by the dead!

Using ghost money to buy things from a living person's shop is the most vicious provocation in the metaphysical world, known in the trade as "buying life money".

Once you accept this money, it's equivalent to signing a death contract; the seller's lifespan will be forcibly taken away by the evil energy on this ghost money.

"The money you gave me is not the right amount."

Lin Ye sneered, not even touching the two pieces of joss paper with his fingertips.

"Furthermore, the paper figures in my shop are only made with a skeleton covered in colored paper; I never paint eyes on them. You probably won't find them useful if you buy them."

There's a taboo in the paper-making industry: when drawing eyes on a paper figure, don't dot them.

Once the eyes are dotted, the paper figure gains a spiritual shell, making it extremely susceptible to being possessed and haunted by wandering ghosts.

The old man's dry, cracked lips revealed two rows of blackened teeth:

"It's alright. My master said that he came to Taiping Street today to make this paper figure open its eyes and let it see the inside story of this shop."

As soon as the words were spoken, the true intentions were revealed!

This walking corpse was clearly a spy sent by the evil cultivators of the Yinshan Sect. Taking advantage of the strong Yin energy on a rainy day, it came to test Lin Ye's strength and weakness.

Last night, the Hundred Ghosts Devouring Souls Formation on the cruise ship was shattered by Lin Ye's lightning strike, indicating that the opponent had clearly followed the energy flow to this location.

A faint light flickered on my retina, and the system's mechanical voice, tinged with schadenfreude, rang crisply in my mind.

"Ding! Your Excellency, please exercise self-restraint. System notification: The Yinshan Sect's evil cultivators have been detected using the 'Thousand-Mile Corpse Walking Technique' to provoke you. They are attempting to test your strength with a life-buying offer. Please correct your attitude and retaliate within three minutes!"

The light screen popped open, and three options appeared before my eyes:

[Option A: Cowardly Turtle – Pretend not to understand the other party's slang, wave your hands repeatedly and say that you are just an ordinary paper seller, and drive the walking corpse out of the shop.]

[Reward: You will receive the title "Best Actor-Level Coward." Consequence: The Yinshan Sect will regard you as a weak and incompetent good-for-nothing, and tonight they will send a large number of evil spirits to raze the funeral parlor to the ground.]

Option B: Use their strength against them, engage in a battle of wits from afar—take on this job by turning the tables, using the pine soot ink that Leng Yue just ground and the essence of the Pure Yang Daoist to forcibly add eyes to the paper figure. Draw talismans and set a trap, sending this walking corpse, carrying your Pure Yang Thunderfire, packing its bags and rolling back to its lair to blast that spellcaster's face to smithereens!

[Reward: Official Points +300, Talisman Mastery greatly improved.]

[Option C: Unleash the dogs – Shout "Wife, save me!" and Leng Yue will use her Crimson Lotus Karmic Fire to burn the walking corpse to ashes.]

[Reward: +50 experience points for "living off a woman". Consequence: The walking corpse is destroyed, the caster is unharmed and the causal chain is severed, you lose an excellent opportunity to track the enemy in reverse, and the disadvantage of being in the dark while you are in the light is further amplified.]

Lin Ye's eyes lit up.

This system finally did something humane.

Option B's coping strategy was exactly what he wanted.

Dealing with these rats who lurk in the gutter and play evil tricks, destroying the spies directly is pointless. The real show of force is to go through the network cable and give them a good whack.

I choose B.

Lin Ye gave his answer in his heart.

Instead of getting angry, he swept the two pieces of ghost money on the counter into the drawer, a smug smile playing on his lips.

"Since your master insists that this paper figure open its eyes, I, Lin, will accept this job."

Lin Ye turned and walked to the corner of the shop, and picked out a pair of lifelike children's figurines from a pile of colorful inventory.

The paper figure's cheeks were painted with an eerie highland red, and there were two pale blank spaces where its eyes were.

Lin Ye placed the paper figures side by side in front of the Eight Immortals table, then walked to the spot where he had just taught Leng Yue to grind ink.

Inside the Duan inkstone, the thick, black pine soot ink exudes a faint fragrance.

Lin Ye picked up a wolf-hair purple brush, but instead of dipping it in ink, he lowered his head and bit his left index finger, drawing blood.

A drop of pure Yang primordial blood, shimmering with a faint golden light, was precisely dripped into the inkstone.

"Sizzle!"

The once calm ink began to churn instantly, like boiling oil meeting water.

The extreme strength and intensity of pure Yang blood are perfectly blended with the gentleness of pine soot ink, and a layer of reddish-gold halo faintly appears on the surface of the ink.

Leng Yue, standing to the side, immediately understood Lin Ye's intention.

Instead of making a sound to disturb him, she quietly suppressed her own drought demon aura to the extreme to avoid interfering with Lin Ye's spellcasting aura.

Lin Ye pressed down with his wrist, dipping the brush tip into the crimson ink mixed with pure Yang blood.

He strode up to the paper effigy of the boy and began rapidly reciting the incantation for eye-dotting from the "Complete Collection of Elementary Talismans" (a text on traditional Chinese healing arts):

"One stroke opens the gate to heaven, two strokes open the gate to earth!"

"With three strokes, the path to the netherworld is opened; Yin and Yang are reversed, borrowing the Dharma body!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Ye picked up his pen and began to write.

Two dots of crimson-gold ink were heavily imprinted on the eye sockets of the paper boy figure.

Immediately afterwards, he turned around and placed two dots on the eyes of the paper doll with his purple brush.

The moment the finishing touch is complete.

The paper figures twitched strangely, and their cheeks, painted with rosy hues, seemed to come alive.

The two newly painted eyes exuded a chilling, living aura, staring intently at the hunched walking corpse standing at the door.

But this is not over yet!

Lin Ye didn't give the other party any time to react.

He shifted his focus, using the paper figure's chest and abdomen as a canvas, and meticulously sketched the [Thunder-Attracting Talisman] array patterns onto the colored paper.

With the final stroke, the raging pure Yang energy was completely sealed within the paper figure's thin shell.

"Take it."

Lin Ye pushed the two heavy paper figures in front of the old man, his tone chilling to the bone.

"Go back and tell your master that buying goods from Taiping Old Street comes at a price. Make him wash his neck and prepare to receive this great gift."

The gaunt old man stiffly stretched out his bluish hands and hugged the pair of paper figures.

In the cloudy whites of his eyes, there seemed to be a hint of doubt and apprehension belonging to the spellcaster himself.

The walking corpse was incapable of complex thinking. Its instinct to receive the goods drove it to turn around, dragging its dripping raincoat, and staggeringly disappear back into the torrential rain outside the door.

Watching the walking corpse leave, Lin Ye casually tossed the purple brush into the brush-washing pool.

"My lord, that walking corpse possesses an extremely heavy yin energy. You sealed the pure yang thunder and fire into a paper effigy and used it to take it away. Aren't you afraid it will explode halfway and harm innocent people?"

Leng Yue stepped forward and handed over a clean, dry towel.

Lin Ye took the towel, wiped his hands, and sneered repeatedly.

"I call this using their own methods against them. This formation is called the [Mother and Child Chain Thunder].

"That walking corpse is nothing more than a puppet on strings. In order to control it, the spellcaster must have set up an altar in its lair, and the two are connected by energy. As long as the walking corpse steps within ten steps of the altar and senses the source of the yin energy, the thunder and fire in this paper figure will be instantly detonated."

Lin Ye pulled out a chair, sat down, and drank the already cold tea in one gulp.

"How dare they try to disgust me with ghost money? Today I'll show them what precision strikes and door-to-door delivery really mean."