47: Chapter 47 The Most Ominous Item

On the other side, Frost Star's method of searching was much simpler and cruder.

The little girl had absolutely no interest in that scrap metal.

She crouched beside a collapsed stone platform, desperately digging with both hands through the ash and soil.

Before long, she let out a happy, soft cry.

Resting in the soil was a smooth, pitch-black bead the size of a longan.

The surface of the bead emitted a faint black light, and inside, it seemed as if countless pained, wailing human faces were sealed.

"A soul bead condensed from top-grade resentment!"

Lin Ye took one look and was secretly shocked.

To a living person, this thing was a highly toxic death warrant; to touch it was to die.

Yet to Frost Star, it was a treasure.

She casually wiped the dirt off the bead with her sleeve, opened her small mouth to reveal sharp little fangs, and without hesitation, tossed the soul bead inside.

"Crunch!"

A crisp crunching sound followed.

Frost Star crunched the soul bead as if it were a candy bean.

A thick, pure stream of black energy overflowed from the corners of her mouth, instantly sucked back into her body.

The little girl contentedly narrowed her heterochromatic eyes, and the icy aura of the Nether Corpse King on her body grew faintly stronger.

"Don't go around eating things of unknown origin; be careful of getting a stomach ache," Lin Ye scolded in a low voice.

"I know, Brother-in-law, this tastes like expired vinegar; it's not exactly delicious."

Frost Star licked her lips and continued digging in the ruins.

Lin Ye withdrew his gaze and focused his attention on a stone platform in front of him.

The surface of the stone platform was covered with a thick layer of black corpse wax.

Lin Ye used the hilt of his peach wood sword to scrape away the corpse wax, revealing a palm-sized, broken Bagua mirror covered in green verdigris.

The edges of the broken mirror were jagged, and the mirror surface was incredibly cloudy, covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

Lin Ye reached out and picked up the broken mirror.

The moment he held it, a strange aura that was both gloomy yet permeated with a hint of peace surged into his palm.

The Primary Talisman Compilation and his Feng Shui knowledge raced through his mind.

"This is... a fragment of a soul-fixing mirror?"

A flash of joy crossed Lin Ye's eyes.

The soul-fixing mirror was a Taoist magical artifact used to soothe frightened souls and suppress resentment.

This broken mirror had been nourished by the Yin energy outside the City of Wrongful Deaths for who knows how many years and had long since mutated.

Although it had lost its original exorcism capabilities, it had gained a strange ability to conceal the vitality of living people and soothe restless souls.

This was a rare and bizarre item!

Lin Ye carefully tucked the broken mirror into his inner pocket.

Just then, a deliberately hushed exclamation came from Fatty Wang not far away.

"Ye-zi! Ye-zi, come quickly and take a look, I think I've dug up a treasure!"

Lin Ye gripped his peach wood sword, quickly rounded a few stone pillars, and arrived at where Fatty Wang was.

Fatty Wang was kneeling in a pile of skeletal remains.

His hands were covered in grayish-white powder, and he was clutching an object as black as ink.

Lin Ye leaned in to look and was instantly stunned.

It was a butcher's knife.

The blade was wide, its surface covered in dark red rust and layers of dried blood.

The handle was polished from a thick, unknown animal bone and had developed a patina from use.

The knife lay quietly in the fatty's hand, the blade faintly emitting a heart-stopping, dark red baleful aura.

"Where did you find this thing?" Lin Ye asked, frowning.

"It was buried under this pile of bones."

The fatty lowered his voice in excitement, holding up the boning knife with both hands.

"Ye-zi, don't look at how ragged this knife is; the moment I touched it, that hair-raising feeling of fear in my heart vanished instantly!"

"Holding this thing, I feel like I could punch a cow to death right now! This is definitely a magical artifact for exorcism!"

Lin Ye activated his Qi-viewing technique to carefully examine the boning knife.

This was an item of great ominousness that had accumulated countless amounts of baleful energy!

In ancient times, butchers killed countless living things, and the knives they used naturally carried a baleful aura capable of intimidating wandering ghosts.

This knife had drifted into the Ghost Market and, after being eroded by Yin energy, had become a genuine, bizarre, and lethal weapon.

If a living person wore it for a long time, they would inevitably have their mind eroded by the baleful energy and become bloodthirsty and murderous.

But Fatty Wang was an exception.

This guy had a very light Eight Characters and weak Yang Qi, making him the easiest target for evil spirits in his daily life.

With this baleful boning knife in his hand, it was a case of fighting poison with poison; he could use that baleful energy to intimidate evil spirits, while also providing psychological comfort to this cowardly fatty.

As long as he controlled how long he carried it, this knife was practically a tailor-made life-saving artifact for the fatty.

"The knife is good; it has extremely heavy baleful energy and can suppress Yin evils."

Lin Ye nodded.

"However, this thing has too much baleful energy. Usually, keep it wrapped in red cloth and under your bed. Only draw it when you encounter something unclean. Remember, it must not touch the blood of a living person."

"Understood! I understand!"

The fatty treated it like a treasure, quickly taking off his coat to wrap the boning knife in layer after layer, clutching it tightly to his chest.

With this thing by his side, his previously trembling legs finally stood firm.

The four of them continued searching the ruins of the Ghost Market for about a quarter of an hour.

Lin Ye also sporadically found a few pieces of Underworld ore containing pure Yin energy.

Taking these ores back to set up in the Yin-gathering array at the Funeral Shop would have excellent results.

Just as everyone was preparing to explore a collapsed palace deeper inside.

"Woo!"

A dull horn blast exploded without warning in the depths of the thick fog.

The grayish-white ground beneath their feet began to tremble violently.

Lin Ye jerked his head up, his gaze piercing through the heavy red fog to look at that towering black city gate.

He saw those two tightly shut, massive bronze city gates slowly opening inward.

The sound of metal grinding was like heavy hammers striking hard against everyone's hearts.

Lin Ye's vision far exceeded that of ordinary people; through the red fog, he clearly saw a scene at the edge of the door crack that would shatter one's liver and gallbladder.

Those heavy, mountain-like bronze doors were not opened by some mechanism at all.

On the inner side of the widening crack, countless pale, bloated palms without fingernails were densely clawing at it!

It was those indescribable entities behind the door, imprisoned for who knows how many years, piling up on the door, using their bloodied, mangled finger bones to forcibly drag the door crack open.

That piercing grinding sound was entirely the sound of finger bones being snapped, rubbed, and crushed against the bronze door.

A terrifying pressure, impossible to describe in words, poured out from the opening crack!

"Not good! The city gate has opened!"

Leng Yue's expression changed drastically. Without hesitation, she flashed in front of Lin Ye, spread her arms, and pushed her aura as a half-step Drought Demon to the limit, forming an invisible barrier to desperately resist the terrifying death aura sweeping toward them.

"Brother-in-law!"

Frost Star also felt that pressure, which was enough to tear her apart; her little face turned pale with fright, and she threw herself into Lin Ye's arms, clutching his waist tightly.

Fatty Wang's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground, clutching the coat-wrapped boning knife to his chest as he scrambled toward Lin Ye.

"Can't be greedy anymore, retreat!"

Lin Ye made a prompt decision.

An ancient ruin of this level contained things that they absolutely could not contend with right now.

If they really waited until the city gate was fully opened, any ancient malevolent soul running out from inside could wipe them all out.

He wrapped one arm around Leng Yue's slender waist and pulled the collapsed fatty up with the other.

"Run! Back to the bus!"

The four of them burst into their fastest speed, fleeing for their lives in the thick fog.

The sound of the city gate opening behind them grew louder and louder, and that bone-chilling cold, like needles on their backs, nipped closely at their heels...

Two minutes later, that dilapidated blue and white bus finally appeared in their line of sight.

The headlights on the front of the bus had already gone out.

The driver in the driver's seat seemed to have sensed the commotion outside and was preparing to start the vehicle.

Through the windshield, Lin Ye clearly saw the driver slowly raising its bloated right hand.

Its fingers hovered over the red button controlling the bus door's hydraulic valve and were pressing down.

Accompanied by a faint "hiss" of leaking air, the originally open folding doors had already begun to slowly close toward the middle.

Once the doors locked, they would be completely abandoned in this soon-to-be-rampant Underworld ruin, becoming nutrients for the City of Wrongful Deaths.

"Get on the bus, quickly!"

Lin Ye kicked open the ajar door and threw the fatty inside first.

Then, he pulled Frost Star onto the step.

Leng Yue brought up the rear.

Just as she was about to step onto the bus, a giant tentacle made entirely of condensed black resentment suddenly shot out from the thick fog behind her.

The tentacle tore through the air with a thunderous momentum, fiercely wrapping around Leng Yue's ankle.

"Wife, watch out!"

Lin Ye's eyes split with rage, and the Pure Yang Qi in his body erupted without reservation.

He lunged half his body out, grabbed Leng Yue's wrist, and pulled her hard into the bus.

Leng Yue reacted extremely quickly.

A flash of gold-red Karma Fire flickered in her eyes, and her other hand, with fingers joined like a blade, slashed precisely at the black tentacle with the edge of her palm burning with Red Lotus Karmic Fire.

"Sizzle!"

The tentacle let out a shrill scream and was burned clean off by the Karma Fire.

Taking advantage of this recoil, Leng Yue fell into Lin Ye's broad embrace.

The two of them rolled onto the rusted floor of the bus.

"Bang!"

The bus doors slammed shut the moment they fell in.

The engine let out a manic roar.

This ghost bus, traveling between the Yin and Yang realms, also felt the awakening of that terrifying existence behind the city gate.

The accelerator was floored, and like a frightened wild bull, it plunged into the thick white fog of the return journey.

Inside the bus, Lin Ye lay on his back on the cold floor, gasping for air.

His heart pounded in his chest like a war drum.

Leng Yue was pressed on top of him.

Her silver hair cascaded down, obscuring Lin Ye's vision.

She lifted her head slightly, her stunningly beautiful face inches from Lin Ye.

The two could clearly feel each other's ragged breathing.

"Husband, it's okay now."

Leng Yue's voice was as soft as water, carrying the peace of having survived a disaster.