205: Chapter 205 Retention

Taiping Old Street.

Morning sunlight slanted across the bluestone pavement.

Lin Ye stood inside the front door of the Funeral Shop, quietly gazing through the glass door at the elderly sanitation worker sweeping the street opposite.

The old man stopped, set down his broom, turned around, faced the century-old locust tree that had nothing in front of it, and made a motion as if pushing open a door.

"Click."

A faint, phantom sound rippled through the air.

A gentle breeze blew past.

The old man's body peeled away from the fingertips down, like a sand sculpture that had lost its moisture.

The white sand didn't scatter in the wind after falling to the ground; instead, it gradually assembled into a miniature doorway on the pavement.

A deathly silence fell.

This bloodless, eerie phenomenon was far more chilling than ferocious specters brandishing claws and fangs.

Helena, standing behind Lin Ye, instinctively took a half-step back with her slender legs.

She could feel the terrifying law of reality distortion lingering in the air.

"Boss... what kind of magic is this?"

Helena's voice trembled.

The light emanating from the pile of white sand closely resembled the holy light of heaven described in the Holy See's scriptures, yet it brought absolute death.

"This isn't magic, nor is it Daoist art."

The spiritual perception granted by his Pure Yang Dao Body allowed Lin Ye to see through to the essence of things.

"This is a bug in Earth's underlying code after the burst of the spiritual qi tide. You can think of it as the Heavenly Dao getting sick and sneezing, creating a high-level rules-based anomaly."

"This thing is pretty interesting. Killing without a blade, relying entirely on imagination."

Just as Lin Ye was about to push the door open and go outside to inspect the white sand,

a light patter of footsteps came from the wooden staircase to the second floor.

Ayugu walked down the stairs on tiptoe like a little thief sneaking away from home, carrying a jam-packed backpack and clutching a black bamboo cylinder containing her Life-Bound Mother Gu in her hand.

Today she had changed into a grand, traditional ceremonial outfit of the Miao Territory Saintess; she clamped her hands firmly over her silver ornaments as she moved, terrified of making a sound.

Her time was running out.

She didn't want to leave the curse inside her body behind in the Funeral Shop and drag down these people who, despite constantly bickering with her, genuinely treated her as one of their own.

She had planned it all out: while Lin Ye was drinking tea in the front lobby, she would sneak out the side door in the back courtyard and take a taxi straight to the Ten Thousand Mountains.

"Yo, is the Miao Territory Saintess planning to go back to her village for a blind date? Dressing up so grandly."

A teasing voice echoed through the hall without warning.

Ayugu froze all over, one foot suspended in midair, unable to step forward or pull back.

She turned her head stiffly.

Lin Ye had turned around at some point and was leaning against the Phoebe zhennan tea table, playing with a celadon teacup, looking at her with a half-smile.

"B-Boss... I... I'm going out to buy breakfast."

Ayugu stammered out a lame excuse.

"Buying breakfast requires carrying a thirty-pound hiking bag and wearing your prized Saintess outfit? What, is the old guy selling Jianbing Guozi at the entrance of the old street holding a beauty pageant today? Wear formal attire and get one free?"

Lin Ye put down his teacup, strolled leisurely to the foot of the stairs, and looked up at the little Miao girl who was trying hard to stay composed.

Ayugu bit her lower lip, her eyes inexplicably stinging with tears.

She didn't dare look Lin Ye in the eye. Lowering her head, she feigned nonchalance and said,

"Oh, Boss, don't worry about it. My mom is urging me to return to the Ten Thousand Mountains."

"She says Er Gouzi from our village made something of himself and raises three hundred pigs at home, and insists I go back to get married. I'm just bowing to family pressure."

"If your uncles found out you described them as a pig-farming Er Gouzi, they'd probably rush to Jiangzhou overnight to clean house."

Lin Ye sighed.

How could he fail to see through her clumsy act?

In fact, back when they were in the Ten Thousand Mountains, he had already sensed something inside Ayugu, and it was nothing simple.

Last night, when she unnaturally refrained from playing video games all night, he had kept an eye out.

"Alright, stop putting on a sob story here. Your acting is way too exaggerated and not emotional at all."

Lin Ye reached out and unceremoniously gave Ayugu a flick on her head, which was laden with a heavy silver crown.

"Ouch!" Ayugu cried out in pain, clutching her head and glaring at Lin Ye.

"Do you really think you're some tragic heroine saving the world? Carrying a lousy backpack and running back to throw your life away?"

Lin Ye wiped the smile from his face.

"For any employee hired by me, Lin Ye, unless they commit a mistake and get fired, even if King Yama comes with the Book of Life and Death to claim them, he'll have to ask if the sword in my hand agrees first."

He pointed at the black bamboo cylinder Ayugu was tightly clutching in her arms.

"So what if there's a curse in your body? Your boss's nine nether purgatory tower has plenty of empty rooms."

"When the day comes that you truly can't suppress it, at worst I'll use Pure Yang Fire to burn you for three days and three nights, roasting all those bugs thoroughly so you can eat them as snacks."

As Ayugu listened, her tears unexpectedly started falling patter-patter.

"Boss... you're a big idiot."

Ayugu wiped her tears while cursing without mercy.

"Once that thing erupts, all of Jiangzhou will turn into a nest of venomous gu! Do you even know what the big picture means?!"

"I don't give a damn about the big picture, I only care about protecting my own."

Lin Ye snatched the backpack off her back and tossed it casually onto the sofa.

"Scram upstairs and change out of this opera outfit, then scram back down to eat."

"Brother-in-law! I smell something really delicious!"

Just then, another burst of cheerful footsteps sounded on the wooden stairs leading to the second floor.

Frost Star, dressed in a thin camisole nightgown with her long fair legs bare, rushed downstairs like a gust of wind.

The Nether Empress didn't even look at Ayugu, who was weeping like pear blossoms in the rain; her heterochromatic eyes were fixed intently on the pile of glowing white sand on the bluestone pavement outside, a hungry green light flashing in her eyes.

"Is that a new flavor of Pop Rocks? It smells like something that makes your mind go completely blank!"

As Frost Star spoke, she wanted to push open the glass door and go grab a handful to stuff into her mouth.

"Stop."

A cold, clear voice sounded behind her.

Leng Yue walked slowly down the stairs, her moon-white cheongsam spotless and free of dust.

She reached out two fair fingers, accurately scruffing Frost Star's nape of destiny, forcefully pulling the gluttonous giant loli back.

"There is no vitality in that sand. If you eat it, though you won't die, your brain will probably become even dumber."

"What's wrong with being dumb? As long as it tastes good!" Frost Star muttered softly, still struggling.

Lin Ye couldn't be bothered with this pair of weirdos. He walked up to the glass door without opening it.

Instead, he retrieved the repaired bagua soul-fixing mirror from his system space.

This mirror could pierce through all delusions and reveal the origin of cause and effect.

Lin Ye infused Pure Yang True Qi into the mirror surface.

A layer of eerie light like water ripples shimmered across the bronze mirror's surface, slowly aiming at the pile of glowing white sand forming a doorway pattern outside the door.

"It seems the weather of Great Xia is truly about to change."

Lin Ye looked at the reflection in the mirror.

Within the field of vision of the soul-fixing mirror,

that pile of white sand was the entrance to a mental network labyrinth.

Deep within this labyrinth, there appeared to be countless pupil-less eyes greedily peering through this miniature "door" at everything in the real world.

"A naturally formed rules-based anomaly?"

Lin Ye put away the soul-fixing mirror and tapped his fingers lightly against the glass door.