65: Chapter 65 A Murder by Borrowing a Knife

The last ray of sunset was completely swallowed by the heavy, leaden clouds.

The dim yellow streetlights on Taiping Old Street had lit up early.

"Bang!"

The glass door of Lins Funeral Shop was slammed open, striking the door stop with a dull thud.

Fatty Wang rolled into the hall like a ball of meat fresh out of the water, panting heavily.

The early autumn evening was already chilly, but a large patch on the back of his jacket was soaked through with sweat, clinging tightly to his body.

He couldn't even pause to speak, grabbing the cold teapot from the Eight Immortals table, tilting his head back, and chugging more than half of it with loud gulps before finally letting out a long breath of stale air.

"Ye-zi! I found out!"

The fatty wiped the tea from the corner of his mouth, quickly stepped up to the counter, and stared with eyes wide open.

"Seventy li outside the western suburbs of Jiangzhou, in Heishui Town, at the abandoned No. 44 Paper Mill! That old fox Master Chen confessed it himself—the core protectors of the Yinshan Sect are all hiding there, plotting something evil with a massive array called the [Hundred Ghosts Night Parade]!"

Lin Ye was looking down, organizing the ten catties of top-quality refined cinnabar sent by the Song family.

Hearing this, his fingers fiddling with the cinnabar paused slightly. He raised his eyes, his expression instantly becoming as solemn as iron.

"Heishui Town? No. 44 Paper Mill?"

Lin Ye stepped around the counter, pulled out a blank sheet of yellow joss paper, laid it flat on the table, and quickly picked up a brush to sketch the topographical outline of the western suburbs of Jiangzhou City.

Hearing the commotion, Leng Yue walked down slowly from the stairs leading to the second floor.

She had changed into a high-collared, form-fitting home dress. Her silver hair was casually pinned up with a sunken wood hairpin, giving off a cold, ethereal vibe untouched by the mortal world.

Frost Star followed behind her sister like a little tail.

Holding a whetstone in her hands, she was enthusiastically sharpening her small, eerie-blue bone dagger, making a grating rustling noise.

"Husband, just hearing this place's name exudes an aura of death."

Leng Yue walked over to the table, her eyes falling on the simple map.

"More than just death aura, this is an excellent place for nurturing corpses and refining ghosts."

Lin Ye tapped heavily with the tip of his brush on a spot at the edge of the map.

"During the Republican era, the Heishui Town area was an execution ground for condemned criminals, and later became a mass grave. Tens of thousands of unclaimed bones are buried beneath the ground."

"After the founding of the People's Republic, to suppress the misfortune there, the higher-ups approved the land to build this paper mill."

He raised his head, glanced around at everyone, and began a deep Feng Shui analysis.

"However, paper manufacturing requires a massive amount of water. The factory area must have dug huge sedimentation ponds and pulping vats. Water belongs to the Yin element by nature, and being soaked atop the ley lines of a mass grave year-round turns those ponds into natural [Yin-Gathering Funnels]."

"The Yinshan Sect picked this place as their lair, using the pungent chemical smell of the paper mill to cover up the stench of corpses and fool everyone. They really went to great lengths."

The fatty's hair stood on end as he listened, pulling his clothes tighter:

"Ye-zi, that old fox also said the Yinshan Sect wants to set up a Hundred Ghosts Night Parade array. That array sounds creepy—what on earth is it?"

Leng Yue let out a cold snort from the side, a complex glint of compassion mixed with disdain flashing across her deep red eyes.

"The Hundred Ghosts Night Parade is the most venomous city-slaughtering technique of evil cultivators. It uses the blood essence of living people as a guide to awaken tens of thousands of sleeping vengeful spirits underground."

"Once the array takes form, everything within a twenty-li radius will turn into a living domain of ghosts. As the malice pours in, plants will wither, birds and beasts will drop dead instantly, and if a living person touches even a trace of the array's black mist, their three souls and seven po spirits will be forcibly ripped away to become food for these evil ghosts."

As soon as these words were uttered, a deathly silence fell over the Funeral Shop.

Fatty Wang's legs went weak, and he collapsed into a chair, his face turned as pale as paper.

A twenty-li radius turned into a ghost domain?

This wasn't some martial arts feud anymore; this was clearly trying to drag all the innocent people in the western suburbs of Jiangzhou to the grave with them!

Just as the atmosphere reached its peak of suppression, a faint light flickered on Lin Ye's retina, and the system's crisp notification chime—cold with a tinge of metallic texture—sounded out.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System Notification: Detected a super-large-scale chained disaster quest [Hundred Ghosts Night Parade of Heishui Town].

With the nest overturned, how could any eggs remain intact? Host, please finalize your pre-battle strategy within three minutes and demonstrate the true grand style of orthodox Daoism!"

The light screen popped open, and three options floated in midair:

[Option A: Lone Hero, Reckless Valor — Without a second word, head straight into Heishui Town with your two zombie wives.]

[Reward: Obtain the title [Unrivaled Reckless Fool]. Consequence: You will fall into a war of attrition against tens of thousands of vengeful spirits. Exhausting your energy, the Yinshan Sect protectors will take the opportunity to complete the array, laying waste to all living things in the western suburbs of Jiangzhou.]

[Option B: Pack up and Flee — Outnumbered, immediately close down the Funeral Shop and flee Jiangzhou City overnight with your tens of millions in savings and your family.]

[Reward: Obtain a limited-edition RV. Consequence: The Ninth Bureau will brand you as a coward who deserted before battle. You will suffer lifelong guilt, and your Dao heart will completely collapse.]

[Option C: Kill with a Borrowed Knife, Serve the Public Good — An array of such city-slaughtering scale is no longer a personal feud. Share the intelligence with the official Bureau of Abnormalities (The Ninth Bureau) for free immediately. Let the official heavy firepower clear out the surrounding grunts, while you lead an elite team straight to the heart of the lair for a decapitation strike!]

[Reward: Husband Points +500, High-tier Array-Breaking Talisman Diagram [Taiyi Heavenly Thunder Talisman].]

Dealing with this kind of anti-human terrorist attack, fighting alone was something only brainless fools in novels would do.

A ready-made official violence machine was standing right there; it would be a waste not to use it.

"I choose C."

Lin Ye gave his answer in his heart without the slightest hesitation.

He turned around, his eyes burning like torches as he stared at Fatty Wang collapsed on the chair.

"Fatty, get your phone out."

Lin Ye's voice was steady and powerful, carrying a reassuring magic.

"Last time at The Fourth Psychiatric Hospital, that Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan from The Ninth Bureau left you her contact info, right?"

Fatty snapped out of his daze and scrambled to search his pockets for his phone: "Yes, yes! Added her WeChat when settling that five-million bounty!"

"Call her immediately."

Lin Ye pulled out a chair and sat down, his fingers lightly tapping on the table surface.

"Tell her that the Yinshan Sect is going to launch the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade array tonight at midnight at the abandoned No. 44 Paper Mill in Heishui Town. Have her apply to her superiors for the highest level disaster alert immediately."

Fatty swallowed hard, his fingers trembling as he dialed Chu Hongyan's voice call.

The ringtone only rang for two seconds before the call was picked up.

From the other end came Deputy Captain Chu Hongyan's slightly tired yet still sharp and capable voice.

"Mr. Wang? Calling me at this hour, does Boss Lin have some instructions?"

Lin Ye grabbed the phone, turned on the speakerphone, and said in a calm tone, "Deputy Captain Chu, it's me, Lin Ye."

The breathing on the other end of the line audibly caught, and her tone instantly turned incomparably grave: "Hello, Mr. Lin. For you to contact me personally, something big must have happened?"