230: Chapter 230 Work-Life Balance

In the late hours of the night in Phoenix Settlement, the cold rain finally stopped.

The layer of pink peach blossom miasma shrouding the sky above the town rapidly dissipated with the complete demise of that rat spirit deep within the Ten Thousand Mountains, revealing a few dim starlights.

At the end of the bluestone-paved street, the two pale paper lanterns in front of Yuelai Inn appeared exceptionally lonely in the night wind.

Captain Lao Xing, leader of the Seventh Special Operations Team of The Ninth Bureau, was sitting on the threshold of the inn.

He held a cheap cigarette in his hand that had burned down to the filter, letting the ash fall onto his muddy tactical boots.

Beside Captain Lao Xing was a pale-faced Hongdou and a nervous-looking Xiao Liu.

Opposite them, Old Li and his wife were kneeling on the water-logged bluestone pavement, continuously kowtowing toward the direction of the mountains.

Their foreheads were bruised and cut, mixing with rain and blood, while desperate whimpers escaped their lips.

"Captain... it's been nearly two hours."

"Manager Lin and the others... still come back?"

Xiao Liu swallowed a dry lump of saliva.

Captain Lao Xing took a deep drag of the very end of the cigarette butt, then fiercely stubbed it out in a puddle with a hiss of "sizz".

"That thing is the embodiment of a rule; Great Xia's thermal weapons cannot pierce it, and Daoist arts can hardly harm its foundation."

"Although Manager Lin caused a massive uproar in Jiangzhou, this is, after all, the Ten Thousand Mountains, the home turf of those underworld ghosts..."

Captain Lao Xing did not finish his sentence, but that sense of desolate helplessness had already cast a shadow over the hearts of everyone present.

Just as Old Li's wife was crying to the point of almost fainting.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

A casual set of footsteps drifted over from the darkness at the other end of the street.

Captain Lao Xing looked over vigilantly, instantly grabbing the military mitsubishi dagger beside him with eyes as sharp as an eagle's.

Hongdou and Xiao Liu also instantly entered a state of tactical readiness.

"Ouch, my goodness, this mountain road is truly damn hard to walk on, stepping high and low. If I had known earlier, I would have kept that big black bear as a temporary mount."

A young voice laced with helplessness was the first to break the dead silence of the night.

Immediately following that.

Reflected in the dim light of the inn, several figures slowly walked out from the darkness.

Walking at the very front was Lin Ye, wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt.

Behind Lin Ye, the four women Leng Yue, Frost Star, Helena, and Ayugu were not only completely unharmed, but their clothes were barely even dirtied.

Especially that little loli with silver-blue twin tails, who was chewing on some unknown snack in her mouth, making crisp crunching sounds.

"Cuicui?!"

Old Li and his wife were stunned for a full three seconds before letting out a heart-wrenching cry, stumbling and crawling as they lunged forward.

Lin Ye bent down and handed Cuicui, whom he had been carrying on his back, into the arms of Old Li and his wife.

"Alright, stop howling. She's fine."

Lin Ye picked his ear with a relaxed tone.

"She just inhaled some psychedelic miasma from the mountains, plus her soul was hooked by some minor sorcery from an old pervert who looks like a refined rat spirit. Once the sun shines tomorrow morning and you feed her a bowl of hot ginger soup, she'll be bouncing around energetically guaranteed."

Holding their regained daughter, Old Li and his wife trembled all over with excitement.

They turned around and were about to kowtow to Lin Ye with loud thuds of "bang, bang, bang".

"Great benefactor! Living Bodhisattva! You are the great benefactor of our Old Li family!"

"Hey, hey, hey, stop right there!"

With quick eyes and nimble hands, Lin Ye lightly flicked his toes against the bluestone pavement.

A gentle stream of Pure Yang True Qi directly lifted Old Li and his wife's knees, forcefully preventing them from kneeling down.

"Uncle, Auntie, this is a society ruled by law now; we don't do this kneeling business. My lower back isn't great, so I can't accept this heavy courtesy."

"Besides, if you really want to thank me, you might as well cook a couple more bowls of rice noodles for me tomorrow morning and put in extra beef toppings; that's much more practical than kowtowing."

Captain Lao Xing and his two team members walked up quickly.

"Manager Lin... that rule... how did you resolve it?"

Captain Lao Xing swallowed a mouthful of saliva, unable to hold back asking the question in his heart.

That was a conceptual entity against which even The Ninth Bureau's high-explosive bombs and Celestial Master talismans were ineffective!

"What concept or non-concept; you guys at The Ninth Bureau are simply too superstitious about science and rules."

Lin Ye put his hands in his pockets and curled his lips.

"That old monster likes snatching brides, so I conveniently used a few willow twigs and joss paper to craft a top-tier bride with big wavy hair and sent her over."

"Then I drew a Pure Yang explosive array on the paper figurine. As soon as that old lech hugged it, with a 'boom', he was directly cremated along with his crime tools."

"This is called defeating magic with magic and counteracting tricks with routines. Understand?"

The three of them were dumbfounded.

Crafting a paper figurine as an explosive package to seduce a folkloric ghost story?!

What kind of heaven-defying train of thought was this!

"As expected of Manager Lin... I have learned much."

Captain Lao Xing smiled bitterly and shook his head; The Ninth Bureau could never learn this Living Yama's style of doing things in this lifetime.

...

Early the next morning.

Sunlight finally pierced through the gloom of the past few days, spilling over the ancient town of Phoenix Settlement.

When the residents of the town learned that the terrifying "Mountain God's Marriage" hanging over their heads had been completely resolved by a few outsiders, the entire Phoenix Settlement boiled with excitement.

The entire Phoenix Settlement boiled with excitement.

Early in the morning.

The threshold of Yuelai Inn, where Lin Ye and the others were staying, was almost trampled flat by enthusiastic townspeople.

Old Li and his wife slaughtered a New Year pig they had raised themselves, stewing a large pot of fragrant slaughtered-pork dish.

The town mayor led a group of white-haired clan elders, carrying homemade corn liquor, cured bacon, and wild sealwort and wild ginseng freshly picked from the mountains, lining up to deliver them into the inn's lobby.

The grassroots commoners of Great Xia have always expressed their gratitude in the most direct and rustic ways.

There were no lengthy hymns of praise, only the frantic desire to stuff all the most delicious things in their homes into the benefactor's mouth.

"Young Master Lin, eat more! This bacon was cured last winter; it's so fragrant!"

"Immortal Lin, take this wild ginseng to soak in wine; it invigorates yang and replenishes Qi!"

Inside the inn lobby.

Lin Ye sat at the main seat of the eight-immortals table like an old patriarch who had won a battle and returned home in glory.

Facing this group of rustic townspeople, he didn't put on any airs of an expert at all.

While heavily chewing on a piece of greasy yet not-cloying slaughtered pork, he picked up a crude earthenware bowl, clinked glasses of corn liquor with the mayor, and laughed heartlessly.

"Good wine! Mayor, old sir, don't stand on ceremony, everyone sit down and eat together! I'll accept this wild ginseng; whether it invigorates yang doesn't matter much, mainly because I just like to soak things in wine to drink."

"Sister, this slaughtered-pork dish is so delicious! It smells and tastes much better than the burgers eaten at the amusement park!"

Frost Star, that Nether Empress, had completely transformed into a rice-devouring machine at this moment.

She was clutching a half-eaten large pork knuckle in her hand, her mouth shining with grease.

While eating, she was still staring at a plate of stir-fried pork kidneys on the neighboring table.

"Boss, are we not heading into the mountains today?"

At this moment, Ayugu, holding a pair of chopsticks on the side, asked with some confusion.

"What mountain are we heading into? We fought wild boars all night last night; can't we rest for a day?"

Lin Ye picked up a peanut, tossed it into his mouth, and rolled his eyes.

"Besides, since your mother said her limit is approaching, that means the array core hasn't completely collapsed yet."

"Let's rest and recuperate in this town for a day, eat and drink our fill, recharge our energy and spirit, and then comfortably charge in tomorrow morning. It's all about combining work and rest."