132: Chapter 132 Paper Dolls Staining Blood

"Click... click click..."

The eerie sound of paper folding echoed in the dead-silent living room.

Those four paper-crafted boy and girl figures, dressed in red and green burial garments, took rigid and eerie steps, closing in step by step on Zhao Xue, who sat in the center of the formation.

The paint on their faces began to smudge over a large area due to being contaminated with Yin energy.

The pale smiling faces originally painted on them twisted and deformed.

The dark red liquid seeping from the corners of their eyes dripped down their chins onto the floor, making soft "drip, drip" sounds.

The stench in the air, a mixture of cheap joss ash and the moldy smell of stagnant water, was so intense it made one retch.

"Don't come over! Get away!"

Zhao Xue's legs trembled uncontrollably.

One of the paper boy figures was the first to walk up to the red line drawn by the circle of cinnabar and glutinous rice.

Its arm, entirely cut out from cardboard, reached straight in, attempting to grab Zhao Xue's ankle.

"Sizzle!"

The moment the paper hand crossed the red line, the seemingly ordinary aged glutinous rice on the ground suddenly burst into a dazzling cluster of sparks.

Pure Yang energy exploded along the edge of the formation, directly burning that paper hand into black ash.

The paper doll let out a strange cry, its body recoiling two steps back as if electrocuted.

Lin Ye looked at the paper ash all over the floor and scoffed, "With just this bit of cultivation, you dare to come out and cause trouble?"

Leng Yue stood behind Lin Ye, her dark golden eyes sweeping coldly over the four paper dolls.

She made no extra movements, merely curling her slender fingers slightly.

The stray wisps of Yin energy wandering in the air were instantly snapped directly by her.

To a supreme fierce entity like her who had already stepped into the realm of the Drought Fiend,

low-level Yin spirits like the ones before her, whose physical forms hadn't even fully condensed, were no different from bugs in a ditch.

If not for Lin Ye's prior command, she only needed to release a trace of the origin aura of the Red Lotus Karmic Fire to burn all the evil spirits in this room, along with that shabby speaker, into nothingness.

"Ding-dong. The customer refused delivery; initiating forced delivery procedure."

From the shattered smart speaker, that mechanical, distorted female voice came out once again.

This time, the voice had shed its disguised polite veneer.

As soon as the voice fell, the chandelier on the ceiling of the living room suddenly emitted a muffled "bang", and the lightbulbs shattered in unison.

Glass shards slammed into the ground like hail, and the entire room instantly plunged into pitch-black darkness where one couldn't see their own fingers.

Immediately after, a sudden change occurred.

From the gaps in the originally dry wooden floor, black muddy water began to seep out frantically.

The speed of the water flow was astonishingly fast, overflowing the ankles in just a few seconds.

This water carried a piercing chill, and its surface floated with a sticky layer, resembling grease accumulated in a sewer for several months, mixed with large clumps of detached black long hair.

Zhao Xue screamed because the black water had already overflowed into the Three Talents Lock-Sha Formation, and the cold liquid was soaking through her high heels.

"Boss Lin! Water! The water is rushing in!"

"Shut up, sit still and don't move. That's an illusion created by Yin energy, also known as a ghost's blindfold."

"As long as you don't leave that circle, the water won't drown you. If you really run out, you'll immediately be dragged into the bathtub and drowned."

Lin Ye's voice appeared exceptionally steady in the darkness, carrying a penetrating quality that made one have no choice but to believe.

He stood up, his soles stepping into the ankle-deep black water, yet making no splashing sounds at all.

"Using the Heavenly Slash Sha to cooperate with the dried-up artificial lake to gather Yin energy, forcibly transforming this ordinary single apartment into a [Drowned Yin Domain]."

"It seems you didn't soak in the bathtub for a short time before you died; you've even learned the tricks of water ghosts."

Lin Ye held the copper coin sword in one hand, while his other hand felt out a brilliant yellow [Exorcism and Barrier-Breaking Talisman] from his tactical backpack.

He didn't rush to make a move; first, he raised his head to look at the cement wall right in front that kept seeping water.

"Wronged in life, yet after death you don't go to the underworld to file a complaint, instead playing the ghost and playing the god on a second-hand trading platform."

"What, do you think living people are easy to bully, or do you think my customer didn't pay?"

The black water on the wall churned violently.

Those black long hairs floating on the water's surface began to crawl and intertwine along the wall like seaweed with a life of its own.

Soon, on the water's surface right in the center of the living room, a blurry figure slowly emerged.

That was a woman wearing a white nightgown.

Her body was extremely bloated from being soaked in water, and her skin exhibited a dead person's ghastly pale and ashen hue.

Her damp hair clung tightly to her face, revealing only a bloodshot, bulging eyeball that stared fixedly at Lin Ye.

"Why should she not die..."

The female ghost spoke, her voice a shrill roar laden with heavy bubbling sounds.

Every single word sounded like it was squeezed out from lungs filled with water.

"I spent all my savings... just to buy that limited-edition bag... I just wanted to hold my head high in front of those colleagues who mocked me."

"But the seller cheated me... What he sent was a bunch of torn paper scraps!"

The female ghost's body twisted in pain on the water's surface.

The surrounding water temperature dropped once more with the fluctuation of her resentment, and a thin layer of frost formed on the walls of the living room.

"I went to report it to the police, but they said the amount wasn't enough to open a case... I went online to expose him, but those netizens cursed me, saying I deserved it and calling me a vain, poor ghost!"

"They turned my photos into memes, sending me private messages every day telling me to go die..."

"I just wanted to get my money back... What did I do wrong! I slit my wrists in the bathtub, the blood flowed into the water, it was so cold... really so cold... but my phone kept ringing, all of it messages cursing me, not a single person came to save me!"

Two lines of black bloody tears streamed down from the female ghost's bulging eyeball.

She pointed at Zhao Xue, who was shivering in the formation.

"She! She also bought things on that second-hand platform! How is it that she can buy good things? How is it that she can sleep peacefully? She should come down and accompany me! I sold my pain to her for just fifty yuan... She must accept the delivery!"

Hearing this hoarse and exhausted accusation, Zhao Xue collapsed entirely onto the chair.

Lin Ye, however, only watched all this with cold eyes.

"So what?"

"You were scammed by a swindler and cyberbullied by internet mobs, yet you didn't dare to go look for that swindler to claim their life, didn't dare to trace the network cables to kill those trolls."

"Instead, you picked an innocent corporate slave who had no acquaintance with you, who was just staying up late working overtime and wanted to buy a speaker to help her sleep?"

Lin Ye stepped forward, the Pure Yang True Qi circulating throughout his body along his meridians.

A faint layer of golden light faintly shimmered across his skin, forcefully pushing back the approaching black water by half a meter.

"Bullying the weak and fearing the strong, even being a ghost you are this cowardly."

"This isn't called revenge; this is a typical case of the bottom-feeders harming each other. The most ridiculous thing is that your forced purchase quota is only fifty yuan, which is simply insulting the price levels of Jiangzhou's underground market."

The female ghost was thoroughly enraged by Lin Ye's sharp mockery.

"Die! All of you are going to die! Accept my delivery!"

She let out a piercing shriek.

The four paper-crafted boy and girl figures in the living room that had been forced back by the glutinous rice formation suddenly swelled up, their burial garments fluttering without any wind.

They opened their mouths painted with black ink, revealing rows of fine, saw-like fangs inside, and stepping on the black water, they lunged at Lin Ye simultaneously from four directions.

At the same time, from the black water beneath Lin Ye's feet, over a dozen thick strands of black hair suddenly shot out, wrapping tightly around his ankles like steel wire ropes.

Just at this critical juncture, the air in front of Lin Ye slightly distorted.

A familiar translucent light blue light curtain popped out.

[Ding! Strong Yin spirit obsession and malicious attack detected. Current target: Drowned Net-Grievance Fierce Ghost (Fierce Ghost Tier).]

[The "My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System has been triggered, please host choose among the following three options:]

[Option A: Cyber exorcism, physical network disconnection. Immediately pull out the portable high-efficiency signal jammer, shine the tactical high-intensity flashlight directly into the female ghost's eyes, and shout "The times have changed, old antique". Use high-tech methods to temporarily force back the fierce ghost and escape with the customer.]

[Reward: One bottle of [Anti-Rust Black Dog Blood Spray].]

[Consequence: The female ghost's resentment will completely run amok, parasitizing the customer's phone; the customer will definitely die within three days, and the sign of the Funeral Shop will be smashed.]

[Option B: Fight poison with poison, capitalist backlash. Utilize supreme eloquence and logic to draft an on-the-spot <<Yin-Yang Realms Second-Hand Goods Unconditional Return/Exchange and Mental Distress Compensation Agreement>>, forcing the female ghost to sign and press her fingerprint, and co-opting her as the free customer service representative of the Funeral Shop.]

[Reward: [Yin-Nether Second-Hand Market APP Developer Permissions]. Consequence: Requires the host to be extremely shameless, and may subsequently attract an investigation from the Underworld Price Bureau.]

[Option C: Hardcore Daoist magic, Heavenly Thunder to sweep away sha. Abandon flashy methods, display the absolute suppression of the Pure Yang Dao Body, step on the Nine Purple Gang Steps, hold the thunder-struck copper coin sword, and use the most orthodox Xuanmen thunder magic to smash it together with the Drowned Yin Domain, scattering its three souls and seven po.]

[Reward: One primary magical instrument repair scroll (can be used to repair the soul-fixing mirror fragment), 1,500 Husband points.]