Uncle Nine: You were supposed to drive corpses, so you summoned the Monkey King!

The front yard of the mortuary.

The paper figure, which was being held down by Lin Chen, became agitated.

Their paper clothes turned blood red, black blood tears flowed from their eyes, and their speed and strength increased dramatically.

Three blood-red paper figures bypassed Lin Chen and Master Simu.

They floated towards the guest room, where Ren Tingting was staying!

Wen Cai grabbed a peach wood sword and stood in the doorway of the guest room.

"Don't come any closer! I'm warning you, don't come any closer!"

The paper figure ignored Wencai and raised the paper knife to chop downwards.

Wen Cai closed his eyes and wildly swung his sword; the paper knife was about to chop off Wen Cai's head.

"Get out of here!"

Lin Chen activated his telekinetic ability.

Three proficient-level corpse-suppressing talismans flew out of his arms and stuck to the backs of the three blood-red paper figures.

The talisman for suppressing corpses was not very effective on paper figures; it only froze them for a second.

Take advantage of this one second.

Lin Chen had already charged forward, and with a whip kick, he struck the paper figures in the waist. The three paper figures were kicked to pieces by brute force, shattering into pieces in mid-air.

The altar in the backyard.

Uncle Nine saw the old cripple spitting blood.

"You dare to show off your unorthodox skills before an expert!"

Uncle Nine bit his middle finger, put a drop of his blood on the surface of the brass Bagua mirror, raised the Bagua mirror with both hands, and aimed it at the bowl of water on the table.

"The profound origin of heaven and earth, the root of all energy!"

"break!"

A golden light shone from the Bagua mirror and shone into the bowl of water.

The water bowl cracked in the middle, and the water spilled all over the table.

The image on the water's surface shattered.

Dozens of miles away, in an abandoned mine, an old cripple let out a scream, and the straw figure in his hand burst into a golden flame.

It quickly burned to ashes.

The old cripple's hands were scalded with blisters. He took several steps back, clutching his chest and spitting out a mouthful of black blood.

The straw figure was destroyed.

The remaining paper effigies in the front yard of the mortuary had gone out of control.

It fell from mid-air.

Before it even landed, it burst into flames in mid-air, turning into ashes on the ground.

The courtyard returned to silence, with only the cold wind still blowing outside the gate.

The Taoist priest with four eyes leaned on a bronze greatsword.

"Damn, this old guy is actually quite skilled."

Lin Chen put away the lightning-struck wooden sword and walked to the center of the courtyard to check the ashes on the ground.

The ashes smelled of corpses.

"Master, Senior Uncle, it's alright now."

Lin Chen shouted towards the backyard.

Uncle Nine came out from the backyard, sweat beading on his forehead.

Fighting from a distance is very taxing on one's mental and magical energy, especially when the opponent is a seasoned expert in evil magic.

Wen Cai threw away the peach wood sword in his hand and sat down on the ground with a thud.

"I was so scared! Thank goodness Tingting is alright!"

The guest room door opened a crack, and Ren Tingting peeked out.

"Brother Lin, Uncle Jiu, have you driven away the monsters outside?"

Lin Chen nodded.

"It's alright, Miss Tingting, you can rest assured."

Ren Tingting glanced gratefully at Lin Chen and closed the door again.

Uncle Nine walked to the center of the courtyard, looked at the ashes scattered on the ground, and frowned.

Its daybreak.

A long night has passed.

Uncle Nine sat on the grand chair in the main hall and took a sip of cold tea.

Master Si Mu sat to one side and spoke.

"Is this old cripple a tortoise?"

"After all that, he just sent a few worthless paper figures to their deaths. What exactly is he trying to do?"

Lin Chen stood aside and began to analyze.

"Master, this is a feint."

"Those paper figures were troublesome last night, but they couldn't hurt us at all."

"His goal wasn't to kill, but to buy time."

Uncle Nine gave Lin Chen an approving look.

"Lin Chen is right."

"When we were fighting each other from a distance, I saw where he was hiding."

"It's that abandoned mine shaft in the west of the town."

Uncle Nine put down his teacup.

"Use the paper figures to distract us and cover up the commotion on the other side of the mine."

"That old cripple is definitely using the extremely yin energy in the mine to help the zombies accelerate their transformation."

Master Four Eyes' expression changed.

"Senior brother, what do you mean?"

"Is Old Master Ren about to evolve into a true armored zombie?"

Uncle Nine nodded.

"They're probably even harder to deal with than the armored zombies."

"That old beast has a Yin-gathering array placed on him by the cripple. Once it is unleashed, even a lightning-struck wooden sword might not be able to break through its defenses."

A true armored corpse is impervious to swords and spears, and immune to water and fire. Ordinary talismans cannot even leave a mark on its body.

Lin Chen's eyes showed no fear, but rather a hint of excitement.

The stronger the armored zombie, the richer the rewards from the system.

If you can kill someone of a higher level, you might get a mid-level or high-level spell.

"Uncle-Master, now that we know he's in the mine, we can't wait any longer."

Lin Chen spoke decisively.

"We must take advantage of today, when the sun is at its strongest, to wipe out his stronghold."

"We absolutely cannot allow that zombie to take shape."

Uncle Nine stood up and made a decisive decision.

"Alright! Today we'll go and confront this coward from twenty years ago!"

Uncle Nine looked at Wencai.

"Go to the woodshed and release your senior brother."

Wencai ran to the backyard, unlatched the woodshed door, and Qiusheng came out. As soon as he saw Uncle Jiu, he knelt on the ground.

"Master, I was wrong! I'll never dare to go to Xiaoyu again!"

Uncle Nine snorted.

"I don't have time to settle accounts with you right now. I need to go to town to take care of something."

Uncle Nine walked to the table, picked up a pen, and wrote down a list.

"Go to the rice shop with Wencai and buy fifty catties of raw glutinous rice."

"Remember, it has to be pure glutinous rice. If you dare mix in even a single grain of regular rice, I'll break your legs!"

"Go to the market and buy ten roosters, they must be old roosters over three years old, and extract their heart blood."

Finally, I went to the pharmacy and bought five ounces of top-quality cinnabar.

Qiu Sheng took the order and nodded.

"Don't worry, sir, I guarantee I'll handle it perfectly!"

Wencai followed Qiusheng, and the two of them pushed their bicycles out the door.

Only Uncle Nine, Si Mu, and Lin Chen remained in the mortuary.

"Four Eyes, go and prepare the ink line and the Bagua mirror."

"Lin Chen, take this opportunity to draw some more high-level corpse-suppressing talismans."

Lin Chen nodded in agreement and went into the study.

Yellow paper and cinnabar pen were prepared in the study. Lin Chen circulated the Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture, and the magic power in his body flowed to his right hand along the meridians.

He picked up a brush, dipped it in cinnabar, and drew talismans on yellow paper. Relying on his high spiritual attribute, he almost never failed to draw talismans.

A faint golden light flashed across each of the completed corpse-suppressing talismans.

One hour later.

Lin Chen drew thirty high-level corpse-suppressing talismans in one go.

A system notification sound plays.

[Ding! Daily talisman drawing task progress reached.]

[The skill level for the Corpse-Suppressing Talisman has been increased to Master.]

[Spell drawing efficiency increased; talisman power increased by 30%.]

Lin Chen wiped his sweat and put the talisman away.

With these thirty master-level corpse-suppressing talismans, even an armored corpse can be immobilized for more than five seconds.

It was noon.

Qiu Sheng and Wen Cai pushed the cart back, with a large bag of glutinous rice tied to the back seat, ten large roosters hanging on the handlebars, and a small wooden bucket containing black dog blood.

Uncle Nine immediately got to work, mixing the rooster's blood, black dog's blood, and cinnabar together, pouring it into the ink line, and re-marking the ink line.

Master Simu carried the bronze sword on his back.

Lin Chen carried a lightning-struck wooden sword and had a bag of talismans hanging from his waist.

Once everything is ready.

Uncle Nine summoned Ah Wei and the security team to the mortuary. Ah Wei, who was really lazy, was a little unwilling to be called over.

"Uncle Jiu, why did you call us here in broad daylight?"

Uncle Nine gave his instructions with a stern face.

"We're going to the west mine to get rid of the zombies."

"You will stay at the mortuary, guard the gate, and protect Miss Ren's safety."

Upon hearing that the zombie wasn't at the mortuary, Awei immediately perked up and patted his chest to assure him.

"Don't worry, Uncle Jiu, with me, Ah Wei, around, not even a mosquito can get in!"

Uncle Nine shook his head, having little hope for this guy. With manpower shortages, he had no choice but to try anything.

"Set off!"

The group left the mortuary with their ritual implements.

Abandoned mine shafts in the west of the town.

It's noon now, the sun is high in the sky, and the closer you get to the mine, the lower the temperature gets.

There was a mine entrance, and a black, eerie wind blew out of the opening.

"arrive."

Uncle Nine stopped and took out the Bagua compass.

The compass needle kept spinning.

"Such a heavy aura of yin and evil."

"This place is a natural breeding ground for corpses."

Lin Chen looked at the dark cave entrance; what was inside was waiting for them.