227: Chapter 227 It's easy to invite a god, but hard to send him away

[Ding! Choice confirmed.]

[Congratulations to the host for obtaining [Grandmaster-level Paper Effigy Crafting Technique: Crossing the Sea Under Mask of Sky]. The paper effigies crafted with this skill can temporarily deceive heavenly secrets and the rules of Yin and Yang, making the fake look like the real thing.]

A massive wave of memories and techniques regarding ancient paper effigy crafting instantly surged into Lin Ye's mind.

A wicked smile curled the corners of Lin Ye's mouth as he turned to look at his wives behind him.

"Wives, hold on a second. Let's prepare some congratulatory gifts for this Lord Mountain God."

"Helena, go to the roadside and snap off a few century-old willow tree branches heavy with Yin energy for me. Make sure they have good flexibility."

"Ayugu, lend me that bamboo tube in your hand and get me some corpse powder that can emit a strange fragrance."

"Frost Star, go pick up a few dozen sheets of the white paper money scattered around the town just now."

The four women were completely baffled by his sudden ordering around.

"Brother-in-law, what do you want paper money for? That stuff can't be eaten as a meal."

Though Frost Star muttered under her breath, her movements were extremely nimble. Transforming into a blur, she ran back within seconds carrying a large stack of rain-drenched paper money.

Helena also efficiently pulled out her tactical dagger and quickly sliced off a dozen willow branches as thick as an infant's arm from a nearby withered tree.

"Just watch and see."

Lin Ye took the materials and squatted right there on the muddy mountain path.

His hands danced like butterflies weaving through flowers, moving so fast it dazzled people's eyes.

Weaving the skeleton, setting the shape, and binding.

In less than two minutes, a female skeleton the height of a real person with a graceful figure was formed.

Immediately after,

Lin Ye mixed the white paper money picked up by Frost Star with mud water and the corpse powder provided by Ayugu, evenly pasting it onto the willow branch skeleton.

Under the blessing of this grandmaster-level paper effigy crafting technique,

those ragged paper coins fused seamlessly, and the surface became smooth and delicate.

Resembling a real person's pale yet elastic skin.

"My husband's craft is truly ingenious, but in this desolate wilderness, why make a paper effigy?"

Leng Yue stood to the side, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Doesn't this old bachelor like to snatch brides? I figured that although Cuicui is pretty and tender, she's still a mortal after all. How could she possibly satisfy Lord Mountain God's appetite?"

As Lin Ye spoke, he fished a cinnabar brush out of his system space.

He began to carefully outline the paper effigy's face.

Drawing the eyebrows, dotting the lips, and opening the eyes.

As the final stroke of cinnabar fell, the paper effigy, which had originally looked lifeless, seemed to come alive!

Especially that face; Lin Ye had intentionally painted it to be extremely seductive and charming.

The corner of the eye even bore a captivating tear mole.

The elusive smile at the corner of its mouth exuded a flirtatious aura that could tempt even an old monk into returning to secular life.

Not only that,

Lin Ye, this old scoundrel, fully pushed a pervert's aesthetic to the extreme when crafting the paper effigy's body.

The exaggerated fullness of the paper effigy's chest, combined with the willow waist and plump buttocks...

It was practically molded according to the exaggerated, physics-defying proportions of housewives in anime.

"Bah! Vulgar! Boss, what on earth is packed inside your head to craft this paper effigy so dissolute and indecent!"

Ayugu covered her eyes, peeking through her fingers with flushed cheeks.

Frost Star, however, unhesitatingly crowded forward, even reaching out to pinch the paper effigy's exaggerated chest with an unconvinced expression:

"Tch, it's just stuffed with a lot of paper inside. In terms of feel, it definitely isn't as good as mine. Brother-in-law, do you like this flamboyant style?"

"Shoo, shoo, shoo, what do you know? This is called catering to one's preferences."

Lin Ye slapped away Frost Star's mischievous little hand and stood up.

He walked over to Leng Yue and reached out to pinch her icy, jade-like fingers.

"Wife, lend me a wisp of your ultimate Yin origin to add some 'living breath' to this paper effigy."

Leng Yue gave him a helpless, reproachful look, but still obediently flicked her finger.

A faint wisp of zombie Yin qi silently sank into the center of the paper effigy's brow.

"Hum!"

With the blessing of this wisp of Yin qi, the pale paper color on the surface of the effigy instantly faded, gradually taking on a ruddy luster resembling that of a living person.

If one didn't look closely in the dim night, they absolutely wouldn't be able to tell this was an inanimate object!

"Mission accomplished."

Lin Ye clapped his hands in satisfaction.

He brought his sword fingers together and covertly drew a miniature Pure Yang magic array that doubled as a tracker and an explosive on the back of the paper effigy.

"Off you go!"

Lin Ye snapped his fingers.

That seductive paper effigy bride truly began to act like a living person, her heels off the ground as she walked on tiptoe in a graceful posture, "floating" along the mountain forest trail toward the direction of the faint suona music deep in the mountains.

"Let's go, wives. The good show is about to begin."

With his hands in his pockets, Lin Ye led the four women, following a few dozen meters behind the paper effigy leisurely, just like going to watch an open-air movie at the village entrance in the middle of the night.

The mountain path was rugged, and the peach blossom miasma on both sides grew thicker and thicker.

After walking for about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense,

a flat clearing suddenly appeared in the mountain hollow ahead.

In the center of the clearing,

a large-scale wedding procession was parked there.

However, the sedan-chair bearers were all paper-crafted puppets with pale faces and exaggerated red rouge smeared on their cheeks.

Their movements were stiff and uniform, their feet not touching the ground.

The musicians playing the suona and cymbals on the side were mountain zombies and ghost minions covered in green fur with hollow eyes.

That mournful, shrill festive music that made people want to hang themselves came precisely from their shriveled throats and worn-out instruments.

Right in the middle of the procession sat a shabby, glaringly bright red bridal sedan.

Beside the sedan, a girl covered with a red bridal veil—Cuicui—was standing blankly like a puppet.

Standing beside her was a dwarf old man less than one and a half meters tall, with a heavily hunched back and a wretched, rat-like face.

The old man was wearing an oversized, ill-fitting red robe, rubbing his hands together and staring lewdly at Cuicui.

"This... This is the so-called mountain god?"

"His appearance is way too random, right? He looks just like a giant rat that has gained sentience."

Hiding in the grass in the dark, Ayugu couldn't help muttering a complaint.

Lin Ye didn't make a sound, merely signaling everyone to keep quiet and watch the show.

Right at this moment,

the dwarf old man seemed to grow impatient of waiting and was just about to reach out to lift Cuicui's red veil.

Suddenly,

a gentle breeze blew past.

A "woman" with a graceful figure and a peerless, fox-like seductive face came fluttering out of the nearby woods.

That was precisely the paper effigy avatar crafted by Lin Ye!

The paper effigy twisted its exaggerated water-serpent waist and walked up to the dwarf old man.

Due to being attached with that wisp of Leng Yue's ultimate Yin origin, the pure Yin qi emitted from the paper effigy was simply richer and more alluring than ten virgin maidens combined!

"Oh my goodness! Dear mother of mine..."

The dwarf old man's pair of mung-bean-sized little eyes instantly widened into complete circles when they saw the paper effigy's exaggerated figure and vixen-like face.

Saliva directly dripped down his chin onto his red robe.

Having served as the mountain god in this impoverished backwater for over a hundred years,

when had he ever seen such a top-tier stunner?

Compared to this "top-tier stunner" with an explosive figure right before his eyes, the thin and gaunt country girl Cuicui beside him wasn't even worth a head of Chinese cabbage!

"Gulp."

The old monster swallowed a mouthful of saliva fiercely.

He didn't harbor the slightest bit of suspicion at all.

Because in this miasma-filled deep mountain, anything that could actively walk over was, in his simple neural pathways, naturally a "top-tier sacrifice" attracted by his rules.

"Wonderful... Absolutely wonderful... Heaven has opened its eyes; tonight turned out to be a double-yolk egg!"

"Finish one, then do another. Blissful."

The dwarf old man spun around in place out of excitement.

A wretched smile squeezed out onto his rat-like face.

He shoved Cuicui aside, rubbed his hands together, and greeted the paper effigy lewdly.

"Little lady, let this deity properly cherish you..."

The old man reached out his paws covered in black hair and impatiently grabbed the paper effigy's slender waist.

Hiding in the dark, Lin Ye looked at the old monster's lust-blinded, lecherous appearance and smiled:

"Old thing, lust is a knife hanging over the head."

"You wouldn't know, it's easy to invite a god, but hard to send one away!"

Lin Ye hid his right hand in his sleeve, his joined sword fingers slowly flipping:

"Today, I'll let you taste what it means to have close-range, zero-error—minimally invasive directional blasting."

"Explode!"