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

"Playing tricks." Four Eyes snorted coldly.

"Over a hundred corpses of former dynasty generals who haven't drunk blood—do they really think they can turn the world upside down?"

Uncle Nine walked to the edge of the pit and glanced at the three or four hundred-pound pure iron gate standing inside.

The Five Thunder Talismans on the doorposts had been burned to ashes, but the remaining righteous energy of heavenly thunder still lingered on the iron bars, making a faint crackling sound.

The earth's vein channels are now severed.

"Lin Chen." Uncle Nine turned to look at Lin Chen.

The junior apprentice was still catching his breath when he bent down to pick up the lightning-struck wooden sword from the ground.

"Uncle-Master, what's wrong?" Lin Chen straightened up and shook off the black water that was stuck to the blade of his sword.

"Your strength..." Uncle Nine paused, swallowing the rest of his sentence, and changed his words, "The Five Thunder Talisman consumes too much energy. You just forcibly summoned lightning; how much magic power do you have left?"

Lin Chen examined his dantian.

The Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture was circulating much slower. Forcibly using the large iron gate in conjunction with the Five Thunder Talisman, plus the forceful explosion of the Blood Fiend Corpse earlier, had put a considerable strain on the body.

"Forty percent remains," Lin Chen replied.

He touched his brow; the mark left by Zhao Tianlei, the vanguard officer of the Fire Department, was still warm.

He still has his cards up his sleeve, but he doesn't plan to reveal them easily.

The high cost of the offerings is one thing, but the best resources should be used wisely.

"Let's go back to the mortuary first," Uncle Nine decided.

"Since the Blackwater Town has already been unsealed, it's too late to stop it now. The Ghost Festival is when the yin energy is at its strongest, so we need to prepare all the necessary ritual implements before we set off."

The four left the government office.

The security team outside had long since disappeared, and even the Maxim heavy machine gun that was set up at the door was lying askew to one side.

With Mayor Li dead, the gang of thugs who were taking military pay naturally scattered.

Back at the mortuary, the courtyard was brightly lit.

Wencai and Jiale were carrying winnowing baskets and scattering raw glutinous rice at the base of the wall.

Awei was lying on a bench under the eaves, herbal medicine applied to his buttocks, groaning in pain.

"Master, you're back!" Qiu Sheng greeted them from the main room.

"Go to the storeroom and take out the mahogany box under my bed," Uncle Jiu instructed Qiu Sheng as he walked inside.

When Ah Wei saw Uncle Jiu return, he quickly asked, "Uncle Jiu, what did the mayor say? Can I still keep my job as the security captain?"

"Mayor Li is dead," Lin Chen said casually as he pulled out a bench and sat down.

Awei couldn't catch his breath and almost rolled off the bench.

He stammered, "Dead...dead? If the commander-in-chief blames us, won't Renjia Town be shot?"

"He colluded with evil cultivators from Southeast Asia, intending to fill a mass grave with the lives of everyone in the town. If I hadn't killed him, you would have become food for the Blood Fiend Corpse by now."

Lin Chen didn't even glance at Awei, picked up the iced tea on the table and gulped down half a pot.

Awei shrank back and dared not utter another sound.

Qiu Sheng ran out carrying a dusty mahogany box and placed it on the octagonal table.

Uncle Nine lifted the lid, revealing a dark yellow Bagua mirror inside. The edges of the mirror frame were covered with a reddish patina, and the yin-yang fish in the center was made of pure silver.

"Master, you brought out this treasure?" Wencai leaned closer, his eyes wide open.

"With over a hundred coffins in Blackwater Town, what will they use to support them without this Yin-Yang Bagua Mirror?"

Uncle Nine bit his middle finger and applied his blood essence to the yin-yang symbol. A warm, golden light shone from the mirror.

Master Simu sat to one side, wiping the Crimson Flame Copper Greatsword with a cloth stained with incense ash.

The white marks left on the blade by the blood-fiend corpse slowly faded as the incense ash rubbed against them, revealing dark red flame patterns.

"Junior brother, are you alright?" Uncle Nine asked Qianhe.

Chizuru shook her head, grabbed a handful of raw glutinous rice from the cloth bag, and pressed it under her ribs.

When the glutinous rice touched the skin, a wisp of black smoke rose up, and the originally white rice grains turned grayish-black.

He changed the glutinous rice three times until the grains stopped changing color, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

"A little bit of yin energy, it's no problem." Qianhe stood up, drew the peach wood sword from her back, and said, "More than a hundred corpses of former dynasty generals, I want to see how powerful they really are."

Lin Chen did not participate in the elders' pre-battle mobilization.

He asked Jiale to go to the kitchen and bring out three large bowls of well-cooked meat soup, which he then stuffed into his stomach along with four large white steamed buns.

Physical rituals for the deceased deplete one's vital energy and blood; relying solely on meditation for recovery is too slow, and the deficiency must be replenished with ordinary meat-based foods.

After eating and drinking his fill, Lin Chen felt his hands and feet regain their strength.

He went back to his room, found a purple bamboo pen and some top-quality cinnabar, and spread out some yellow paper.

The magic flowed, and the pen tip danced across the paper.

In the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he drew ten master-level Fiery Talismans and five Thunder Talismans. After finishing them, he felt a soreness in his meridians, a warning that his magical power was overdrawn.

Lin Chen put away the paper and pen and carefully placed the talisman close to his body.

At 3:45 PM, the gate of the mortuary was pushed open.

Uncle Nine carried a yellow cloth bag on his back and held the Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Mirror in his hand. Four Eyes carried a fifty-pound Crimson Flame Copper Greatsword, and Thousand Crane had ink lines wrapped around his waist.

Lin Chen carried the reforged lightning-struck wooden sword and walked at the very back.

Qiusheng, Jiale, and Wencai stayed at the mortuary to look after the place and were responsible for protecting Awei and the townspeople.

The four of them hurried north along a small road outside the town.

Tonight is the Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell are wide open.

The moon in the sky was veiled in a reddish glow, and soft sobs could be heard from the weeds on both sides of the road.

A cold wind blew in gusts, making people's backs feel cold.

Just after we crossed a hill, a shower of white paper money drifted from the fork in the road ahead.

A gong sound came from the thick fog.

"avoid."

Uncle Nine lowered his voice and took a few steps back into the woods by the roadside.

Four Eyes and Thousand Cranes followed suit and retreated.

Lin Chen stood still, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"Lin Chen, don't cause trouble." Uncle Nine pulled Lin Chen into the bushes. "Today is the big day, and the underground passage is open. As long as they don't disturb the living, we'll pretend we didn't see anything."

Lin Chen released his grip and circulated the Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture, controlling his vigorous qi and blood within his meridians, preventing any leakage.

As the thick fog dissipated, a long line of illusory figures dressed in tattered hemp clothing slowly walked along a side road.

The leader was a headless ghost holding a broken gong, followed by men, women, and children.

Their faces were blank, and their feet seemed to be touching the ground.

The yin energy rolled along the ground, and a layer of white frost formed on the leaves.

The procession moved very slowly, taking a full incense stick's time, before the last little ghost disappeared into the distant graveyard.

Uncle Nine pulled a handful of yellow paper from his bag and scattered it in the direction where the group had disappeared.

The yellow paper fell to the ground and spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into sparks.

"The toll has been paid, let's go." Uncle Nine straightened his Taoist robe and continued on his way.

In the latter half of the night, the four entered the territory of Blackwater Town.

Surrounded by mountains on all sides and sunken in the middle, it is a natural basin that gathers yin energy.

As soon as Lin Chen stepped into the edge of the basin, he smelled a stench of corpses, a smell mixed with the earthy odor, all of which was the smell of old, stale bodies.

The town was unusually quiet.

Not even a dog barked, and not even an insect chirped.

Every household had its doors tightly shut, and yellowed talismans were pasted on the windows to ward off evil spirits.

The four followed the direction with the strongest corpse aura to the abandoned mortuary at the east end of the town.

The walls of the mortuary had collapsed by more than half.

The more than one hundred thin-skinned coffins that were originally placed in the courtyard are now all upside down on the ground.

The coffin lid was kicked open, and the burial goods and shrouds inside were scattered everywhere.

"It's all empty."

Si Mu stepped forward and kicked aside a piece of broken wood, looking at the Yin-gathering array on the ground covered with red and black runes.

Chizuru squatted down and crushed the powder on the ground with her fingers.

"These footprints are more than an inch deep, meaning they were made by someone wearing heavy armor weighing dozens of kilograms."

Lin Chen walked to the largest main coffin in the center of the courtyard.

The bottom of the coffin had been pierced by a sharp tool, leaving a few dark blue bristles along the edge of the hole.

"This isn't a warrior's corpse." Lin Chen plucked a stiff hair and examined it on his fingertip. "This is a hairy zombie that's about to evolve into a bronze-armored zombie."

Just then, a series of rhythmic scraping sounds of metal scraping came from the bamboo grove in the backyard of the mortuary.

"Click..."

A strong aura of malevolent energy, mixed with the bloody smell of battle from the previous dynasty, surged into the front yard.

"Retreat to the courtyard gate and form a battle formation," Uncle Nine shouted.