226: Chapter 226 Paper Doll Substitute Bride

"Let's go, let's head downstairs first and see if those brothers from The Ninth Bureau are completely dead. If they're not all the way dead, we can give them a hand."

"Besides, The Ninth Bureau just settled the project payment with us. If we don't do a good job with after-sales service, how are we supposed to mix in the underworld from now on?"

Lin Ye shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and walked toward the stairway.

Leng Yue held her teacup and followed unhurriedly behind him.

Frost Star was quick-witted and poured the remaining half-plate of spiced beef on the table into her own pocket, scurrying along like a food-guarding hamster.

Helena and Ayugu walked at the very back.

Arriving at the inn's first-floor lobby.

That bean-sized kerosene lamp was still flickering dimly on the counter.

The innkeeper had long been so scared that he didn't know which rice vat's bottom he had hidden under.

Three Eight-Immortals tables in the center of the lobby were pushed together.

The three people from the seventh special operations team of The Ninth Bureau were currently sprawled out on the benches in utter wretchedness.

The female operative Hongdou had her eyes tightly shut, her complexion as pale as paper, with two trails of dried blood still remaining at the corners of her eyes. Her entire person was plunged into an extreme state of weakness, twitching from time to time.

Captain Lao Xing was sweating profusely as he used an alcohol cotton pad to clean a wound on his arm.

That wound was flesh and skin forcibly split open by some kind of chilly, yin energy.

"Cough, cough."

Lin Ye walked up to the table and cleared his throat.

Captain Lao Xing raised his head vigilantly, his military triangular dagger tightening in a conditioned reflex.

When he saw clearly that it was Lin Ye and his group, his tense nerves relaxed slightly.

As an elite of The Ninth Bureau, he had naturally seen Lin Ye's top-secret file.

He recognized at a glance that the young man in front of him was none other than the owner of Lins Funeral Shop in Jiangzhou.

But he never expected that this living Yama would show up with his entire family in this impoverished backwater of Western Hunan.

"Manager... Manager Lin?"

Captain Lao Xing swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his voice hoarse.

"You've been through a lot of trouble, old brother."

Lin Ye sat down boldly on the other end of the long bench, casually pulling out a small white porcelain medicine bottle from the system space and tossing it casually onto the tabletop.

The medicine bottle rolled over to Captain Lao Xing's hand.

"This bottle of [Three-Yang Essence-Consolidating Pill], take it, dissolve it in water, and feed it to that female subordinate of yours who understands spiritual sensing."

"If you don't consolidate her foundation and nourish her origin now, her brain will only be fit to go back to kindergarten to repeat the nursery class from now on."

Captain Lao Xing was slightly stunned, looking at the medicine bottle on the table, his eye sockets suddenly turning red.

In this era of spiritual qi revival, such high-grade medicinal pills capable of repairing spiritual trauma were definitely astronomical in price on the black market—priceless and unobtainable.

"Manager Lin, great kindness requires no thanks! But..."

Captain Lao Xing gripped the medicine bottle tightly, looked up at Lin Ye, clenched his teeth, and advised,

"You must never go into the mountains. That thing is not an ordinary zombie or fierce ghost; it is an anomaly rooted in this land. We can't even figure out where its true body is, and physical attacks are completely ineffective."

"Alright, alright, don't complicate simple problems."

Lin Ye dug into his ear, looking completely unimpressed.

"What rules or no rules? When all is said and done, it's just a hooligan hiding in the mountain ravines, relying on some illusions to freeload off someone else's eldest daughter."

"Such despicable behavior is illegal in any dynasty or era. You guys just drink tea and nurse your injuries here. This job, I've taken it."

Lin Ye stood up, stopped talking nonsense with Captain Lao Xing, and turned to walk toward the inn's front door.

"But that girl Cuicui has already been..."

Captain Lao Xing anxiously wanted to say something.

"As long as they haven't bowed to heaven and earth, this wedding cannot be completed. Lin Ye said so."

Lin Ye waved his hand without turning his head and shoved open the inn's dilapidated wooden door.

Outside the door, the pink peach blossom miasma was even denser than before.

The sweet, cloying scent of cosmetic powder in the air mixed with the stench of rotting corpses, making people's eyes sting.

On the bluestone slab street, a thick layer of ghastly white funeral paper money was paved, making a sticky squish sound when stepped on.

"Boss, this fog contains soul-bewitching agents. If you inhale too much, it will cause hallucinations."

Ayugu pinched her nose, pulled out a few shriveled, mint-leaf-like things from the small cloth pouch at her waist, and prepared to distribute them for everyone to hold in their mouths.

"There's no need to go to such trouble."

Lin Ye didn't take the mint leaf.

The Pure Yang True Qi inside his body naturally circulated for a small heavenly cycle.

A pale golden, ultimate yang aura exuded from his pores, forming an invisible Qi field with a diameter of about three meters.

The pink miasma attempting to approach, the moment it contacted this Qi field, was like touching a red-hot branding iron, instantly evaporated clean away.

"Let's go, let's also go join the crowd and give some congratulatory gift money."

Lin Ye, with his hands in his pockets and leading the four people, swaggered along the lingering, faint yin energy on the street toward that rolling, endless black mountain behind the town.

Just as they stepped out of the town's archway, they entered the small mountain trail.

The surrounding temperature plummeted sharply, and tree shadows flickered and swayed like grasping, clawing ghosts and monsters.

Right at this moment.

The air in front of Lin Ye rippled with a familiar wave.

[Ding! Detected the bridal procession of the high-risk Western Hunan folklore rule 'Goddess of Fallen Flowers'.]

[Ahead involves a millennium-old wild mountain cult, with causes and effects intricately intertwined.]

["My Lord, Please Behave Yourself" System has been triggered. Facing this kind of unprincipled, freeloading old bachelor, please make a choice befitting the host's identity:]

[Option A: Better to avoid trouble than to take it on.

A wise man submits to circumstances; turn around and head back, throw five hundred yuan of room fees to the innkeeper, take a hot shower, and cuddle your own wife to sleep—isn't that wonderful?

Reward: One [Green-Haired Hat of a Coward].

Consequences: Cuicui's vital essence is sucked dry, the mountain god's strength greatly increases, and the next one targeted might be the wife by your side.]

[Option B: Grafting flowers onto trees, scamming food and drinks.

Since he wants to marry a bride, why not bring into play Lins Funeral Shop's old trade! Use materials at hand, craft a (top-tier paper doll) to blend into the bridal procession. Infiltrate the interior, undermine the rules from the root, and present this old monster with a super-sized gift without shedding a single drop of blood.

Reward: [Fooling the Heavens Paper Crafting Technique] (Grandmaster Level), 3000 Husband Points.

Consequences: Extremely tests the host's craftsmanship and imagination; if the paper doll is exposed, it will trigger a berserk state prematurely.]

[Option C: Pure Yang Bulldozer, no skills, all feelings.

Pull out the lightning-struck wooden sword, activate Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon, hack all the way from the foot of the mountain to the peak with sparks and lightning, and plow the entire mountain peak into flat land using Taiyi Divine Thunder, letting him know what true firepower deficiency phobia really is!

Reward: [Taiyi Divine Thunder · Heavenly Punishment Chapter] (Unlocks AoE thunderstorm skill).

Consequences: Simple and crude, but Cuicui's living soul is already bound to the rules. Under the cleansing of thunder and fire, whether the old monster dies is unknown, but this little girl will definitely be reduced to ashes, without even a chance for reincarnation/salvation.]

Lin Ye stopped in his tracks and speechlessly rolled his eyes in his heart.

He was very clear that dealing with such filthy things rooted in folklore and concepts—charging in directly might be satisfying, but the risk was too great.

That girl named Cuicui was currently in a Schrödinger's cat state.

Her living soul and physical body had already been forcibly stripped and linked by the so-called mountain god rules.

Once he used his Pure Yang ultimate move here to forcibly break the array, the first to bear the brunt of the backlash would be that innocent girl.

I'm here to reap benefits, not to conduct a massacre.

Besides, fighting and killing every day, wouldn't your hands get tired?

"Choose B!"

Lin Ye decisively issued the instruction in his heart.