"Congratulations, you got it right. Too bad there's no prize!"
Lin Chen looked at Landlord Elder and said coolly, "Explain. What exactly happened?"
Lin Chen had originally planned to kill the whole landlord family outright. But the other man had mentioned a master, which clearly meant that someone else was behind Landlord Elder's corpse-raising. He was nothing but a puppet pushed out in front.
He wanted the essence of the landlord family, and he wanted the essence of the Evil Cultivator behind them, too!
"It happened like this..." Seeing he was no match for Lin Chen, Landlord Elder had no choice but to tell the whole story. It turned out that after his wife and child died four years ago, he'd had no desire to go on living.
Just then, a Mysterious Figure found him and claimed he could bring his wife and child back to life. Landlord Elder naturally didn't believe him, but the other man demonstrated his power, making the corpses move and even communicate with Landlord Elder.
After that, Landlord Elder had no choice but to believe him. So he followed the other man's instructions and set up a corpse-raising ground to bring his wife and child back to life. However, during the process, the corpses couldn't leave the corpse-raising ground, or all his efforts would be wasted.
The Mysterious Figure came by every so often to give him materials needed for raising corpses. With the other man's help, Landlord Elder had also become a First Order cultivator.
"Do you think that Mysterious Figure would help you for no reason?" Lin Chen looked at Landlord Elder and sighed softly. "This so-called resurrection just turns them into Corpse Puppets, neither human nor ghost. They aren't your wife and child. They're that Mysterious Figure's puppets."
"No, that can't be. The master said that once the four-year period was up, they'd truly come back to life. He wouldn't lie to me!" Landlord Elder shook his head again and again.
"Still refusing to face the truth? Fine. Don't blame me, then!"
Lin Chen's expression darkened. He'd felt some sympathy for Landlord Elder; otherwise, one punch would have been enough to kill him. But now that he knew the old man was stubbornly going his own way, he wouldn't hold back.
He drove his Blood Qi True Flame, and the temperature in the basement rapidly climbed. At the same time, the two ice coffins began to shake violently.
Bang! Bang!
With two muffled explosions, the ice coffins burst apart, and two figures shot out: a Woman and a Man.
"Old man, let's fight them together!"
"Dad, if we're going to die, we'll die together!"
The Woman and the Man blurred and appeared beside Landlord Elder in an instant. A relieved smile spread across his face. "Good!"
"Ah!"
But in the next instant, Landlord Elder screamed. The Woman and the Man had each seized one side of his neck and were frantically sucking the flesh and blood from his body.
"You..." Landlord Elder stared in disbelief. Why were his wife and child attacking him?
"Idiot. I refined them into Corpse Puppets. You were nothing but a cover!" a hoarse male voice came from the Woman's mouth. He continued, "I made you a cultivator only so that when the Corpse Puppets emerged, they could suck the blood of their closest kin and advance even further!"
"Too bad. Four years of planning, ruined by you. I had no choice but to bring them out early, so the Corpse Puppets are weaker than I expected!" The Woman looked at Lin Chen, her face murderous. "Today, you'll be their blood meal. That should restore some of their strength!"
"Kill..." Landlord Elder looked at Lin Chen, his eyes full of regret. He struggled to force out a single word.
Whoosh!
Lin Chen moved. He blurred and appeared in front of Landlord Elder, then brought down a fist infused with Blood Qi True Flame. The old man turned to ash.
The instant Landlord Elder was killed, the two Corpse Puppets lunged straight at Lin Chen. He hurriedly threw punches to meet them.
Bang! Bang!
Two muffled impacts rang out. Lin Chen and the two Corpse Puppets were knocked backward. Their strength was surprisingly close, and for a time, neither side could get the better of the other.
After a brief exchange of blows, Lin Chen suddenly sensed a sharp attack coming from behind him. Instead of being alarmed, he was delighted. "You finally decided to show yourself!"
Before the words had left his mouth, Lin Chen swung a punch behind him. With a muffled thud, a figure flew backward and slammed into the basement wall.
"You were hiding your strength!"
The newcomer's face changed dramatically. Just moments ago, Lin Chen had only managed to fight the two Corpse Puppets to a standstill. Now he could overpower him—and he was a Third Order cultivator.
Clearly, Lin Chen had been hiding his strength all along!
Lin Chen looked at the newcomer and chuckled. "You're such a cautious person. If I hadn't hidden my strength, would you have shown yourself?"
The Mysterious Figure and Landlord Elder had been extremely cautious whenever they met. Landlord Elder hadn't even had the other man's contact information. The only way to find him was to bait him into making a move.
According to Landlord Elder, the Corpse Puppets were about to emerge. The person behind it all certainly wouldn't be far away at a time like this, so Lin Chen had deliberately held back to lure him out.
The mastermind had indeed taken the bait. That also meant he was most likely somewhere in the urban village, secretly keeping an eye on Landlord Elder.
"Stop him!"
Knowing the gap between them, the newcomer immediately ordered the two Corpse Puppets to block Lin Chen while he tried to escape. After all, if he couldn't beat Lin Chen even with a sneak attack, facing him head-on would be suicide.
As the two Corpse Puppets charged, Lin Chen unleashed the full force of his Blood Qi True Flame. Two punches landed, and both Corpse Puppets turned to ash.
"What!"
The newcomer's face went pale. Two Second Order Corpse Puppets had been wiped out in an instant, without even a scrap left?
He'd already overestimated Lin Chen's strength, yet he'd still underestimated him!
Whoosh!
A figure appeared in front of him. It was none other than Lin Chen. But Lin Chen didn't kill him outright. Instead, he asked, "Do you know Corpse Demon Elder?"
"I don't, but Corpse Demon Elder is an idol to our Corpse Puppet Lineage!" The newcomer shook his head. At the mention of Corpse Demon Elder, though, a yearning look appeared on his face.
Though they both refined Corpse Puppets, Lin Chen had thought the newcomer might have some connection to Corpse Demon Elder. He hadn't expected the man not to know him at all.
"You can die now!" Blood Qi True Flame surged around Lin Chen as he brought down a punch.
"Spare—"
Before the newcomer could finish speaking, Blood Qi True Flame engulfed him, and he turned to ash in an instant.
"Slain a Third Order Evil Cultivator. Essence +2000."
"Essence:"
"Martial arts available for enhancement: Phoenix Undying Body, First Stage (4/9)"
"Enhance!"
Lin Chen chose to enhance it again. The Blood Qi True Flame in his body clearly grew stronger. At this point, even among Fifth Order cultivators, he was no weakling.
Lin Chen called Xu Fei and told him what had happened. When Xu Fei learned that an Evil Cultivator had been refining corpses in a busy neighborhood, he was furious.
The Demon Suppression Division would handle what came next. Lin Chen left the urban village and drove straight back to school.
Li Lin was about to go to sleep when she suddenly heard sirens. Then the first floor was sealed off, and all the tenants in the building were summoned for questioning.
"Uncle Zhou is dead?" Li Lin stared in disbelief. She'd seen Landlord Elder just an hour ago.
"Yes. Zhou Zhiming dug a basement underground and put his wife and child's corpses in it. An electrical leak caused his death." The officer from the Public Security Bureau looked at Li Lin and asked calmly, "Have you noticed anything unusual about Zhou Zhiming lately?"
"Corpses?"
Li Lin's face went pale. Did that mean all the tenants had been sleeping above corpses this whole time?
Li Lin had originally felt sorry for Zhou Zhipeng. But after learning what had happened, she understood that Zhou Zhipeng had lost his mind and gone mad. She couldn't help remembering what Lin Chen had said: a person could be pitiful and still have a hateful side!
Li Lin didn't dare conceal what she knew about the Ghost Marriage. She told the officer, and after giving her statement, she went straight to a hotel for the night. She'd find a new place to live tomorrow.
Before you continue