Lu Yibai couldn't help feeling curious about the ghostly creature suppressed by the Lion Umbrella.
Never mind whether it was strong. Just the fact that it possessed intelligence and wasn't a complete idiot already placed it among the elite of ghostly creatures...
Perhaps this was a ghostly creature with a story?
Regardless, Lu Yibai remained wary of it. In fact, because of its uniqueness, he was even more vigilant.
The gates to the new world had already been opened. Along with its splendor came an extra measure of danger. Boss Lu wanted to live to a ripe old age, after all.
Dawn broke in the east, and the sky gradually brightened.
After destroying the ghost fiend and taking a trip through the "Tomb within a Tomb," Lu Yibai felt slightly tired.
It was daylight. Time to sleep.
Boss Lu, whose days and nights were reversed, entered dreamland just like that.
Of course, before going to sleep, he placed the Lion Umbrella far away.
In his sleep, he had no idea that the Lion Umbrella he had tossed into the corner trembled slightly.
At the lion's head carved into the umbrella handle, its eyes flashed. Gray-black light surged, and a vague black shadow slowly took shape.
Before it could do anything, a small leaf slowly crawled out of Lu Yibai's trouser pocket.
It was a leaf from the old locust tree outside the Answer Bar. That night, it had secretly slipped into Boss Lu's pocket.
The old locust tree leaf was like a little paper person. First, one corner poked out of the pocket, as though it were sticking out its head to look around.
Then it saw the slowly condensing black shadow.
If Lu Yibai had been awake, he would certainly have noticed that the ghostly creature's shadow was clearer than ever before.
The "Tomb within a Tomb" was rich in Yin energy. Perhaps it had silently absorbed some of it.
The old locust tree leaf landed beside the bed. It stood upright and wobbled and twisted slightly, as though stretching after waking up.
Then the leaf hopped several times across the bed, as if it were building up a running start.
With one leap, it slowly floated from the bed toward the black shadow.
It floated very, very slowly. Very, very slowly.
However, the ghostly creature's shadow was still in the process of condensing and couldn't move.
The ghostly creature could only watch helplessly as the leaf floated right in front of it.
The leaf hovered before it for a while, then seemed to summon all its strength and floated toward its face.
It clearly drifted gently onto its face, just like a fallen leaf floating across your face when you rode past a big tree—itchy, but not painful.
But the damn ghostly creature was sent flying!
It had seemed featherlight, yet in reality it was as though the leaf had slapped it with tremendous force!
What the hell was that move?!
Chicken Butt! Damn it all!
The ghostly creature didn't have time to react before it was slapped straight back into the Lion Umbrella!
The gray-black light at the lion's head slowly faded. The Yin energy the ghostly creature had painstakingly accumulated vanished completely. More precisely, it had been directly dispersed!
The leaf, shaped like a little paper person, fell to the floor. As though nothing had happened, it became indistinguishable from an ordinary fallen leaf.
It was a locust tree leaf.
The locust tree was the ghost among trees.
Lu Yibai slept for a long time, and soundly.
He had been fighting ghost fiends every day recently, and both his mind and body felt slightly fatigued.
However, he had never slept too deeply. He had kept his guard up.
The Yin energy and ghostly energy in the "Tomb within a Tomb" were so dense that there was no telling whether the ghostly creature in the Lion Umbrella might secretly absorb a wave of it.
That thing seemed to have quite a talent for oral work. In any case, Lu Yibai had never noticed how it absorbed Yin energy and ghostly energy normally.
Perhaps it had some special sucking technique?
But strangely, the thing hadn't come out to cause trouble?
How strange.
Inside the "Tomb within a Tomb," Lu Yibai had also carefully observed the suppression runes carved into the walls. There were only a few patterns repeated back and forth, and he had basically learned them all.
Before going to sleep last night, he had even used Night Watchman power to carve two of them into the corner of the bed, planning to get the better of it.
But he hadn't managed to trick it!
Boss Lu felt empty inside. What a pity!
The ghostly creature in the Lion Umbrella probably never would have imagined that even without the old locust tree leaf interfering, it still would have been thoroughly brutalized.
What a tragic world.
After washing up, Lu Yibai picked up the Lion Umbrella from the corner.
He continued practicing the Basic Umbrella Technique inside the room.
It was still afternoon, and quite a few people were visiting the cemetery to tend their ancestors' graves.
Some burned paper money, while others set off firecrackers. The air was thick with smoke and dust.
At times like this, Lu Yibai generally chose to stay indoors and practice his umbrella technique.
By now, he could perform the first few forms of the Basic Umbrella Technique with impressive force.
He had to admit that actual combat really was beneficial. His progress was astonishingly fast.
During his practice, Lu Yibai spotted a fallen leaf on the ground.
"Huh, isn't this a locust tree leaf?" he said as he picked it up.
The old locust tree outside the Answer Bar already looked quite old. Lu Yibai was rather curious about it and wondered how many years it had stood there.
Every time he approached the old locust tree, he felt especially peaceful inside. He had no idea why.
The leaf in his hand was just a little drier than ordinary fallen leaves, though he didn't know why that was, either.
Tomorrow would be his final day training at the cemetery. Tonight, he had to enjoy himself properly and deal with several more ghost fiends.
When night fell, Lu Yibai indeed proved to have an "easily attracts ghosts" constitution, and another ghost fiend formed.
Using the Lion Umbrella, he split the ghost fiend apart, producing twenty of them in one go.
Because they were collections of chaotic consciousness, the twenty ghost fiends were like twenty idiots. After their "mouths"—which they used to absorb Yin energy—were severed, they lunged at Lu Yibai like zombies.
The Lion Umbrella in Lu Yibai's hands displayed its might, and the ghost fiends vanished one after another.
Ssshh—
The final ghost fiend also completely dissipated.
Lu Yibai propped the Lion Umbrella against the ground and panted heavily.
Of course, if an ordinary person who couldn't see ghost fiends had witnessed this, they would have assumed Lu Yibai was having a fit.
Wrestling with the air.jpg.
His improvement was obvious. Earlier, dealing with ten had been somewhat difficult, but now he had directly doubled that number!
His Basic Umbrella Technique should at least count as minor mastery by now, right?
He just didn't know what it looked like when Lin Xiaoqi and Ji Dekeng fought with their umbrellas.
To this day, Lu Yibai still hadn't seen Lin Xiaoqi use her Cat Umbrella.
As for Ji Dekeng's Dragon Snake Umbrella, he had only seen it once or twice. For all he knew, Ji Dekeng was currently slaughtering his way across Magic City.
To be honest, Lin Xiaoqi was easier to imagine. Lu Yibai genuinely couldn't picture Ji Dekeng's fighting style.
This gay man, who loved wearing a three-piece suit, round black-rimmed glasses, and taking tiny mincing steps, was a little too distinctive.
After brushing the dust off his clothes, Lu Yibai was in high spirits.
Tomorrow, he could go home!
Before he knew it, he had already come to think of the Answer Bar as his home.
(PS: First update. Sorry, I forgot to set the scheduled release...)
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