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

Wencai threw aside the paper figure and rushed over to hug the Four-Eyes Taoist's leg.

"Uncle-Master! You mustn't do that! There are soldiers with guns everywhere outside. You're not going to break someone out of prison, you're going to deliver meat buns to your door!"

Lin Chen stepped forward, pressing his right hand against the hilt of the Crimson Flame Copper Greatsword, suppressing the force of the Four-Eyed Daoist's forward charge.

"Master, if you carry your weapons to the yamen in broad daylight, Aunt Fengjiao will really be labeled as a rebel," Lin Chen said.

Master Four Eyes glared at him: "Then what do you suggest we do? Just watch your senior uncle get whipped in jail? What kind of bastard is that Mayor Li, daring to arrest people from my Maoshan sect!"

Master Qianhe stepped forward and advised Simu to calm down.

"Senior brother, Junior Nephew Lin is right, we can't force it."

"Think about it, Senior Brother Fengjiao's magical power is above yours and mine, and he's not one to suffer a loss easily. If a few mortals were to hold him at gunpoint, who could stop him if he wanted to leave?"

Lin Chen nodded.

Uncle Nine is a master of the human realm, proficient in Qimen Dunjia and various talismans.

If they really wanted to resist, a few illusionary talismans and earth-遁符 (a type of talisman used for concealment or teleportation) would be enough to fool those security guards, making it impossible for them to obediently put on handcuffs and go to jail.

"Something unusual must be going on," Lin Chen said, looking at the empty streets outside the mortuary.

Mayor Li arrived at Renjia Town with a security team from the provincial capital, arriving precisely half a month before the Ghost Festival.

They didn't investigate anything else right away, but directly sealed off the mortuary and arrested Uncle Jiu. This was premeditated.

In Blackwater Town, over a hundred zombies of former dynasty military officers are about to be released, while in Renjia Town, the government office is experiencing a change of events. The two events must be related.

"Wencai, Qiusheng went to the provincial capital to buy glutinous rice. Did he say when he would be back?" Lin Chen turned and asked.

"I told him, Qiusheng said the rice shop owner in the provincial capital is difficult to deal with, and he won't be back until dark tonight at the earliest." Wencai got up from the ground.

Lin Chen said, "Jiale, you and Wencai stay at the mortuary and redo the array in the courtyard. Spread a thicker layer of glutinous rice along the corners of the walls. Master, Uncle-Master Qianhe, the three of us will go to the yamen to investigate."

Master Four Eyes snorted, then wrapped the Crimson Flame Copper Greatsword again and carried it on his back.

Master Qianhe also adjusted the peach wood sword behind him, and the three of them followed the alleys on the edge of the town toward the government office in the center of the town.

Half an incense stick later, the three of them squatted in a dead corner on the second floor of a teahouse diagonally opposite the yamen.

Through the half-open window, one could clearly see the scene at the entrance of the yamen. Master Si Mu glanced at it and frowned.

This isn't the same group of people Awei used to lead.

At the main gate of the yamen, two half-meter-high machine gun positions were built with sandbags, and two Maxim heavy machine guns were mounted on them, with ammunition belts dragging on the ground.

Outside the compound wall, two squads of soldiers patrolled in a crisscross pattern, carrying Mauser rifles.

"Good heavens, that firepower!" said the Taoist priest with four eyes. "This guy isn't here to be a town mayor, he's here to fight a war!"

Lin Chen focused his magical power into his eyes and looked directly at the sky above the government office.

The upright and incorruptible officialdom that should have permeated government offices was now completely gone.

Instead, a thick, viscous red aura enveloped the entire prison area.

"Uncle-Master, the feng shui of the yamen has been altered," Lin Chen said. "The malevolent energy is soaring to the sky, and there's a heavy yin energy pressing down from below."

Master Qianhe followed the gaze and his expression changed slightly.

"It seems that Senior Brother Fengjiao was drawn in by this yin energy." Daoist Qianhe took out two talismans from his waist pouch, and with a few swift movements, folded them into a paper swallow.

After biting her left index finger, Qianhe used her pure Yang blood essence to draw a hidden talisman on the back of the paper swallow. Then she took out a small porcelain bottle and dripped a drop of rootless water onto the paper swallow's head.

"Go." Chizuru formed a hand seal with one hand.

The paper swallow flapped its wings, its paper body became translucent, and its aura merged into one. It circled halfway in the air, flew towards the high wall of the government office, and flew inside.

Lin Chen watched from the side.

Uncle Qianhe's advanced tracking technique is far superior in both casting speed and concealment effect to the paper crane that Master Simu folded from yellow paper in Li Family Town.

A master who dedicates himself to exorcising demons and monsters has extraordinary background.

The teahouse fell silent. Master Qianhe closed his eyes, his hands maintaining the hand seals.

He described the scene inside the yamen prison through the eyes of the paper swallow.

"Nothing unusual in the front yard, but there are soldiers with guns everywhere."

"There are four hidden sentries at the entrance to the prison, and there are talismans pasted on the door... no, they are blood talismans from Southeast Asia, used to cut off the yang energy of the living."

"The paper swallows have gone in. The first floor is empty, and the second floor is full of empty cells."

"We've reached the bottom... death row."

Chizuru stopped speaking and her brows twitched.

"How is it? Is Feng Jiao inside? Is she missing any limbs?" Master Simu asked as he leaned closer.

"Senior brother is alright," Qianhe said.

"He's perfectly fine. He's the only one in the death row, he hasn't been tortured, and he's not even handcuffed."

Uncle Nine came in by taking advantage of the situation.

Qianhe continued, "My senior brother sat cross-legged on the haystack in the innermost room. He used his finger to dab the dust on the ground and drew a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) array around him to trap evil spirits."

"The walls of that death row cell are abnormal; black water is seeping out from the cracks in the blue bricks. When the black water touches the edge of the Bagua formation, it turns into white smoke and dissolves."

"Senior brother is setting up an array!" said Master Four Eyes.

Chizuru changed her finger gestures, manipulating the paper swallows to approach.

"The paper swallow is approaching the cell door; it seems my senior brother has spotted it."

Qianhe opened her eyes, clasped her hands together in front of her chest, and severed the magical connection.

The translucent paper swallow flew back and landed in Qianhe's palm. A small, fingernail-sized fragment of a yellow talisman was pasted on the back of the paper swallow.

Qianhe peeled off the tattered talisman and wrote two words with the black ash from the prison.

"Hai hour" (9-11 PM).

Lin Chen leaned over and took a look.

Mayor Li mistook the prison for the core of some kind of evil formation, and the black water seeping out indicated that the thing underneath was about to break down.

Uncle Nine used his arrest as an excuse to sit in the death row cell and block the key to the situation.

The paper swallow brought back the words "Hai Shi" (9-11 PM), meaning that there would be a change in the grand formation at Hai Shi tonight, and that those outside should wait for the right opportunity.

"That old fox Feng Jiao is getting bolder and bolder. She ran into the thieves' den by herself to set up a trap. Isn't she afraid of being shot to death by the warlords?" Master Simu cursed.

"Mayor Li must have some knowledgeable evil cultivators guiding him. He locked his senior brother in the lowest level so that he could use his senior brother's pure yang magic to temporarily stabilize the array's core. He also planned to sacrifice his senior brother to the array when the yin energy was at its heaviest at Hai hour," said Daoist Qianhe.

Lin Chen turned and walked towards the stairwell: "Since my master has decided to go at Hai hour (9-11 PM), let's go back to the mortuary to prepare for battle. We'll come over tonight and take down this government office."

With ten gold bars, Lin Chen felt much more confident.

If the things under the government office are really that evil, we can always go to the Heavenly Court to call for help.

As long as the offerings are plentiful, Hercules and Zhao Tianlei could easily plow this government office three feet deep.

The three retreated to the mortuary.

As darkness fell, Qiu Sheng pushed a wheelbarrow filled with sacks of glutinous rice back to the mortuary.

Knowing that Uncle Nine has been arrested and that a prison break is planned for tonight, Qiu Sheng is determined to come and rescue his master.

As darkness fell, Renjia Town fell silent.

At this time of day, there are usually people walking around on the street, but today you can't even hear dogs barking.

Every household kept their doors and windows tightly shut, and Mayor Li's security team enforced a curfew.

Lin Chen sat at the Eight Immortals table in the main hall of the mortuary, with a purple bamboo pen and top-grade cinnabar in front of him.

He put the five Five Thunder Talismans he had drawn into his bosom, and placed the reforged Thunderstruck Wooden Sword across his lap.

Master Simu was wiping the Crimson Flame Copper Greatsword in the courtyard, while Master Qianhe was inspecting the Peach Wood Sword and the Bagua Mirror.

There is still a quarter of an hour until Hai Shi (9-11 PM).

In the distance, the sound of the night watchman's gong could be heard from afar.

"Clang! Clang!"

A roar came from the direction of the town's government office.

The sound was not something a human could make; the tremors could be felt on the ground even several streets away.

Lin Chen stood up and grabbed the lightning-struck wooden sword.

"The time has come; go to the yamen."