88: Chapter 88 Miao Sour Fish Soup

The early autumn morning light pierced through the thin clouds, slanting into the spacious living room of the guesthouse.

The patches of light on the floor drifted slowly as time passed.

A pungent, sour aroma that went straight to the head drifted in the air.

Lin Ye pushed open the frosted glass door of the bathroom.

Steaming hot water vapor rolled out along the gap of the door.

He casually wiped his damp short hair with a towel, his bare upper body showing well-defined muscle lines.

A few droplets of water slid down his solid abdominal muscles into the edge of his black sports trousers.

After a deep conditioning session of yin and yang intersection overnight,

the Pure Yang Qi and blood within his body became increasingly abundant and solid, and every move of his exuded a steady aura as majestic as a deep pool and towering mountains.

He draped the towel over his shoulders and walked toward the open-plan dining room following that bizarre aroma.

In front of the large dining table, Fatty Wang was holding a white porcelain bowl, his fat face wrinkled into a bitter melon.

Holding bamboo chopsticks in both hands, he picked up a curved strip-like object that was dark red all over and covered with fine whiskers, his eyeballs almost popping out.

"I say Sister Ayugu, Big Brother Fatty usually treats you well, is what you cooked here sour soup fish, or braised centipede?"

Fatty Wang swallowed a mouthful of saliva, dead or alive not daring to stuff that thing into his mouth.

Ayugu was wearing that black midriff-bearing short T-shirt, and the silver ring on her neck jingled loudly.

She akimboed with both hands and raised her chin proudly.

"You don't know quality! This is the special Scarlet Dragon Beard Grass from the Ten Thousand Mountains in our Miao region. It looks like a bug, but it's actually a heavily nourishing medicinal herb."

"I simmered it in the kitchen for a full three hours. Star anise, cinnamon, and my secret cold-dispelling Gu powder were added to this pot of sour soup. Drink a sip, and I guarantee you won't feel cold for three days and three nights!"

Frost Star squatted on the nearby chair, holding a piece of frozen pig's blood just taken out of the refrigerator, eating it with great relish.

The little girl glanced at Fatty Wang with her deep blue odd-colored pupil, a black-bellied smile curving at the corner of her mouth.

"If Big Brother Fatty doesn't eat it, Frost Star can reluctantly help you finish it, but after Frost Star finishes eating, she might can't help wanting to bite people."

Fatty Wang's hand shook with fright, and with a "clatter", he dropped that dragon beard grass back into the bowl.

He would rather eat poison than dare to offend this netherworld little Corpse King who chewed ferocious ghosts as snacks.

"I'll eat! Miao specialty, how fresh."

Lin Ye pulled out the chair at the master seat and sat down, casually picking up the large bowl filled with bright red sour soup in front of him.

He lowered his head and took a big sip.

Pungent, heavily sour, mixed with a strange herbal bitterness, instantly exploded in his mouth.

This soup was scalding hot down the throat, and upon falling into the stomach, it instantly turned into a ball of raging fire.

Lin Ye keenly perceived that the weak medicinal power contained in the soup base was being rapidly absorbed by the Pure Yang Dao Body, transforming into wisps of warm currents wandering through his limbs and bones.

"Good craftsmanship! Dispelling cold and consolidating the foundation, suitable for people with a weak constitution to drink."

Lin Ye gave a pertinent evaluation.

Hearing the praise from The Big Boss, Ayugu's eyes curved into two crescents, and she triumphantly raised her eyebrows at Fatty Wang.

The door of the master bedroom made a soft sound.

Leng Yue had changed into an elegant moon-white long dress, with a few secretive spider lilies embroidered with silver threads at the hem of the skirt.

She walked lightly to Lin Ye's side and pulled out a chair to sit down.

She did not speak, her gaze lingering on that bowl of bright red sour soup for half a second, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed.

The zombie's body repelled this kind of spicy and dry living human food, and she preferred those cold, pure energies.

Sensing her discomfort, Lin Ye pushed a plate of crystal-clear cut fruit in front of her.

The two exchanged glances without any overstepping actions.

Leng Yue's slightly cool fingertips picked up the edge of the fruit plate, gently nodding, her eyes hiding tenderness that only Lin Ye could understand.

Just after breakfast, the doorbell of the guesthouse was rung.

Fatty Wang ran to open the door.

Standing outside the door was Su Qinghan, the chief designer of Tianzhu Design Institute.

She was wearing a neatly tailored black professional suit, with some dark circles remaining under her eyes from staying up late drawing blueprints.

But her mental state was much better than the near-death, withered appearance of the past few days.

Ever since Lin Ye burned down the Centipede Soul-Eating Demonic Aura entrenched on the back of her neck with a fire, her awe for this Funeral Shop had already been engraved into her bones.

"Master Lin."

Su Qinghan walked into the living room, her attitude extremely respectful.

She didn't dare to look at Leng Yue more than once, and directly placed the heavy metal combination lockbox in her hand flat on the coffee table.

"The final renovation blueprints of the Funeral Shop were revised overnight by my team and me. The materials for the underground quiet room have all been replaced with the highest specification obsidian, and the position of the gathering-qi formation eye is accurate to the millimeter."

She opened the lockbox and took out a stack of construction blueprints exuding the fragrance of printing ink.

Lin Ye took the blueprints and read through them carefully.

The lines were regular, and the spatial layout perfectly matched the gathering-wind and gathering-qi layout of the Feng Shui Liqi school.

After witnessing real Daoist magic, this materialist designer seamlessly integrated metaphysics with modern architecture.

"The blueprints are fine. The construction team will enter tomorrow, and Fatty Wang will be responsible for supervising the work."

Lin Ye rolled up the blueprints and placed them aside.

"Designer Su, you came here this trip not just to deliver the blueprints, right?"

Su Qinghan's body shuddered slightly, she pushed her glasses frames, and her expression became unprecedentedly solemn.

"Master's discerning eyes, the blueprints are only one. I came this time to beg Master to save someone."

She took a deep breath, her tone revealing deep fear.

"It's that venture capital company behind the ancient temple in the east of the city last time. I used my connections in the industry to find out the background."

"The actual controller behind that shell company named [Senhai Capital] is the Zheng family, who started out by smuggling underground antiques in Jiangzhou. And Zheng Tianhao, the head of the Zheng family, is a ruthless character who stops at nothing to achieve his goals."

Lin Ye tapped his fingers gently on the sofa armrest:

"The Zheng family, Yinshan Sect. This interest chain is woven quite tightly. Is the person you want to save related to the Zheng family?"

Su Qinghan nodded, her eye sockets slightly turning red.

"It is my mentor from my university days, and also a well-known antique collector in Jiangzhou, Mr. Shen."

"Half a month ago, Mr. Shen attended a private closed-door auction held by the Zheng family, and he spent a huge sum of money to bid for a Ming Dynasty [Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Bronze Mirror]."

"Ever since that bronze mirror was invited home, the Shen family has fallen into complete chaos."

Su Qinghan's voice began to tremble, her hands tightly twisting together.

"At first, dark red, fishy-smelling blood flowed from the tap water pipes at home, followed by several apprentices of Mr. Shen seeing headless shadows crawling on the wall in the corridor in the middle of the night."

"Last night, Mr. Shen's most beloved youngest grandson stood in front of that bronze mirror in the middle of the night, laughing while cutting his own hair with scissors. When Mr. Shen went to pull him and looked at the mirror surface, he was so scared on the spot that a cerebral hemorrhage broke out."

She raised her head, looking at Lin Ye with pleading eyes.

"Mr. Shen said that the himself he saw in that mirror... had no head, and at the broken neck, a Human-faced Spider was crouching."

Speaking up to this point, Su Qinghan's body trembled violently involuntarily, her voice as soft as a mosquito's.

"Mr. Shen said that the feeling of 'having no head' was not just visual. When he stood in front of the mirror, he would feel bursts of bone-chilling coldness coming from his neck, just like a rusted iron saw pulling inward inch by inch along his spine."

"And his body in the mirror was still moving, even waving at him, but what spewed from the broken neck was not blood, but thick, unmelting black smoke."

"The most terrifying thing is Mr. Shen's youngest grandson..."

Su Qinghan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, her eyes full of fear.

"When the child was cutting his hair, he kept muttering in his mouth: [Grandpa, my head is too heavy, the uncle in the mirror said he would help me take it down to wash it.]"

"When Mr. Shen went to stop him, he clearly saw that the grandson in the mirror was already holding his own head in his hands, smiling at him like holding a basketball. But in reality, the child clearly only had a pair of scissors in his hand, and that dislocated sense of space and time made Mr. Shen collapse on the spot."

As Su Qinghan described, the light in the guesthouse living room seemed to dim by a few points, and something in the shadows of the corner seemed to be quietly wriggling, trying to measure the neck circumference of everyone present.

Fatty Wang gasped, subconsciously touching his own neck.

Ayugu also put away her playful thoughts, her eyebrows tightly locked, obviously hearing the danger in this.

"Judging by your words, this is most likely [Mirror-Reflected Beheading], which is an extremely evil ominous death curse."

Lin Ye spoke coldly, revealing the essence of this bronze mirror.

"When ancients were buried, high officials and nobles often had the custom of live sacrifice. Some evil-faction alchemists, for the sake of the resentment of the person in the tomb, would cut off the heads of living people, pour fresh blood onto bronze ore, and cast so-called tomb-suppressing mirrors."

"This mirror has been buried underground for hundreds of years, absorbing the dead qi of the earth's veins, and has long become a life-claiming evil object."

Lin Ye gazed at Su Qinghan's pale cheeks, his tone certain:

"Anyone whose headless appearance is reflected by this mirror will definitely be beheaded within three days. The Zheng family taking out such an unearthed extremely ominous object for auction is simply deliberately plotting for money and taking lives."

Just at the moment when Lin Ye's voice fell.

In front of his retina, dim lights intertwined, and the crisp mechanical sound of the "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System rang on time in his mind.

"Ding! "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System prompt: Detected the tentacles of evil of the Zheng family—the money-laundering white glove of the Yinshan Sect. To cut weeds, one must eradicate the roots. Please host finalize the game-breaking strategy within three minutes and sweep away this urban haze!"

The light screen popped up, and three options floated in mid-air:

[Option A: Close the door and turn away guests — — Wave your hand to say 'Daddy just earned 100 million, need to rest', and shut the seeker of help out.]

[Reward: A pair of salted fish slippers. Consequence: Clues are completely broken, the Yinshan Sect will complete a new round of layout in secret, and the entire Shen family will be wiped out.]

[Option B: Startle the snake by hitting the grass — — Carry a peach wood sword and kill directly toward the Zheng family villa, interrogating the origin of the mirror.]

[Reward: Savage Bull Physique + 5. Consequence: The Zheng family raises heavy troops and evil cultivators, rushing over rashly will lead to a bitter battle, and the other party will immediately destroy all evidence of collusion with the Yinshan Sect.]

[Option C: Ride the current and lure the snake out of its hole — — Accept the exorcism commission of the Shen family. Eradicate the evil aura of the ancient mirror, refine it into an anti-tracking magic weapon, and thereby figure out the secret contact network between the Zheng family and the Yinshan Sect.]

[Reward: Husband Points + 300, True Explanation of the Daoist Secret Art [Yuanguang Technique].]

These three options placed in front of him had no suspense.

The Yinshan Sect's stronghold had crafty rabbits with three burrows, rushing over rashly would only startle the snake.

Following the vine to get the melon using the Shen family's ancient mirror was the strategy that should be had.

"I choose C."

Lin Ye made a decision in his heart, his eyes returning to calm.

He stood up and draped the black jacket hanging on the back of the chair over his body.

"This job, I'll take it. Lead the way, to the Shen family."