146: Chapter 146 The Hidden Trap of Jiangzhou Ghost Market

Lin Ye did not hesitate at all. He brought his sword fingers together, and Pure Yang True Qi instantly poured into his fingertips.

"Seal!"

Lin Ye moved extremely fast, pressing a finger between Bai Yu's eyebrows, and then, with his two fingers pressed together, he swiftly drew an exorcism rune along the edge of the bluish-black tree bark on Bai Yu's arm.

Pure Yang Qi entered the body.

The tree bark texture spreading across Bai Yu's arm instantly stopped growing.

A pungent, burnt black smoke billowed out from the crevices of the tree bark, accompanied by a squeaking sound resembling the miserable screams of a rat.

"Hoo!"

Bai Yu collapsed onto the carpet, panting heavily, his complexion as pale as paper.

That agonizing, piercing pain was finally suppressed.

Ayugu dropped her water cup and walked over, glanced at Bai Yu's arm, and immediately pinched her nose as she took two steps back.

"What a vicious spell! Is this planting trees on a living person? Boss, he has been struck by a wood malediction, and the vital energy and blood in his body are being sucked away as nourishment."

Lin Ye stood up, his gaze locked tightly onto the yellow cloth bundle that Bai Yu was holding in his arms.

A corner of the bundle had been shaken open by the force of Bai Yu's fall just now.

Revealed inside was a piece of wood as thick as an adult's arm, pitch-black like ink all over.

This was indeed a piece of lightning-struck jujube wood with an extremely high age.

Scorched marks from the heavenly lightning still lingered on the surface of the wood. Logically speaking, it should be a supreme, intensely yang holy object for warding off evil.

But at this moment, a layer of fine white fuzz had grown on this piece of lightning-struck wood.

Right in the center of the wood, a narrow slit had split open.

Inside the slit, a scarlet, bloodshot eyeball was spinning frantically!

That eyeball stared fixedly at Lin Ye, exuding an unspeakable greed and malice.

The wood had come alive.

"A hundred-year-old lightning-struck wood actually managed to nurture an evil spirit? And it can even backlash against the vital energy and blood of a living person!"

Lin Ye sneered, his eyes filled with frost.

"It seems that Jiangzhou has welcomed another death-defying dragon crossing the river."

He raised his right foot without hesitation.

The sole of his shoe was wrapped in a layer of Pure Yang True Fire, and he forcefully stepped down right onto that bizarre lightning-struck wood with eyes.

"Splat!"

That scarlet eyeball was directly crushed and exploded by Lin Ye's kick.

Thick black juice mixed with foul-smelling wood chips splattered all over the floor.

The lightning-struck wood convulsed violently twice, letting out a cry like that of an infant.

Afterward, the layer of white fuzz on the surface quickly withered and fell off, turning back into a lifeless piece of black wood.

The evil spirit parasitizing inside was trampled by Lin Ye until its soul was scattered into nothingness.

Bai Yu watched this scene and swallowed hard.

Along with the death of the evil spirit, the tree bark texture on his arm also began to wither and peel off in large patches, revealing the bleeding, fresh flesh beneath.

"Your life is saved. Go to the backyard and find Fatty Wang to get some wound-healing ointment to apply."

Lin Ye withdrew his foot, picked up the lightning-struck wood from the ground, and weighed it in his hand.

It was extremely heavy—truly a top-grade lightning-struck jujube wood heart of over five hundred years.

It couldn't be more appropriate for making magic tools to counter the Miao boundary's Gu arrays.

"Let's talk."

Lin Ye pulled over a chair and sat down, looking down at Bai Yu from a position of superiority.

"What on earth did you run into at the Ghost Market? Who sold you this piece of lightning-struck wood?"

Bai Yu leaned against the sofa leg, picked up the hot tea handed over by Fatty Wang, and gulped it down, his voice still trembling.

"Boss Lin, Jiangzhou's Ghost Market... has been forcibly taken over."

Bai Yu took a deep breath and began to recount that terrifying experience from last night.

"Yesterday, after receiving Fatty Wang's call, I immediately took thirty million in cash cashier's checks to the underground Ghost Market in the northern suburbs' air-raid shelter."

"At first, it went very smoothly. Several familiar stall owners happened to have the cinnabar and aged Polygonatum you wanted."

"However, when I walked to the timber section deep within the Ghost Market, the situation changed."

A trace of fear flickered in Bai Yu's eyes.

"Originally, there were seven or eight grave robbers selling sunk-wood and lightning-struck wood there, but when I went, their stalls were completely empty. Only one person was sitting in the darkness."

"That person wore a hooded black raincoat, and his face was tightly covered. Right in front of him sat this piece of lightning-struck jujube wood."

"At that time, I was in a rush to collect goods, and seeing that the quality of this wood was exceptionally good, I went up to ask for the price."

"That person extended three fingers, saying it only cost three million. On the market, this price was practically a steal, so I immediately took out the cashier's check to complete the transaction."

Bai Yu covered his face and tugged at his hair in agony.

"Blame me for being blind! The moment I hugged the wood in my arms, that person suddenly smiled at me."

"I swear, that was definitely not the laughter of a living person!"

"Immediately after, all the lights in the Ghost Market went out instantly, and I heard dense screams echoing around me."

"By the light of a lighter, I saw those stall owners hiding in the dark... all had their chests pierced by black tree vines, and those vines grew right out of the timber they had collected themselves!"

"They were instantly sucked dry into mummies, nothing but skin and bones, and the lightning-struck wood in my arms also began to take root inside my arm."

"I fought for my life, stepped on those desiccated corpses to run out of the air-raid shelter, got in the car, and rushed straight to your place. Along the way, that wood kept drinking my blood and making an infant's laughter..."

After listening to Bai Yu's narration, the entire hall of the Funeral Shop fell into a dead silence.

Fatty Wang gasped a breath of cold air, a layer of cold sweat breaking out on his back.

"To be able to massacre the entire Jiangzhou Ghost Market overnight, this is definitely not some scattered lone ghosts and spirits. This is an organized and premeditated clearance."

Lin Ye toyed with the purified piece of lightning-struck wood in his hand, his thumbpads rubbing against the scorched marks on it.

Wearing a black raincoat.

Forcibly taking over the Ghost Market.

Using timber to plant evil spirits to consume the vital energy and blood of living people.

This style of operation immediately made him think of last night's crimson blood rain targeting the Funeral Shop, as well as those eerie figures standing in the rain holding black umbrellas.

"Yellow Springs Market."

Lin Ye sneered, spitting out four words one by one.

"Those good-for-nothings from The Ninth Bureau spent a week investigating and still couldn't touch the lair of this online cult."

"As a result, these rats crawled out of the sewer by themselves and started seizing territory in the real world."

Hearing these four words, Bai Yu's body shivered with a chill.

"Boss Lin, you mean... the one that massacred the Ghost Market is that bizarre organization specializing in serial murder cases on second-hand platforms?"

"Besides them, no one else in Jiangzhou has such a massive operation."

Lin Ye threw the lightning-struck wood to Fatty Wang.

"Send it to the quiet room in the basement to store. The yin evil inside this wood has already been completely cleared away, making it a top-tier premium material."

He stood up, walked over to the floor-to-ceiling glass window, and looked at the bustling Taiping Old Street outside.

The manager of the Yellow Springs Market was obviously no longer satisfied with merely harvesting scattered yang energy and yin virtue over the internet.

They had set their sights on the fat piece of meat that was Jiangzhou's underground Ghost Market and wanted to control all the resources of the underworld gates.

And Lin Ye's massive acquisitions of lightning-struck wood and top-grade cinnabar yesterday happened to run right into the muzzle of their guns.

"When a tiger doesn't roar, you treat me like a sick cat!"

Lin Ye tucked his hands into his pockets, anger surfacing on his face.

"Fatty."

"Here!" Fatty Wang immediately straightened his back.

"Contact Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan. Tell her that Lins Funeral Shop is taking on the case of the underground Ghost Market."

Lin Ye turned around, and the coercion of his Pure Yang Dao Body was released without reservation, rattling the teacups on the table slightly.

"Since they want to play, I'll step into the arena myself. I'll strip the Yellow Springs Market down to its underwear, along with their preachy, ghost-pretending manager, and hang them all up on the old street's archway!"