At these words, Master Yi Jie and the other two visibly froze for a moment. But for a cultivator like Lin Chen, who was at least fifth-tier, the Lesser Returning Pill indeed wasn't much help.
Compared with the Lesser Returning Pill, money was nothing. Vajra Temple had plenty of devoted followers, including big shots like Wu Hongbin, so they were hardly short of funds.
Now that Lin Chen wanted the reward converted into cash, Master Yi Jie and the others naturally had no reason to refuse. The group went to the well's entrance. Since Master Yi Jie and the other two were injured, Lin Chen had to send them up one by one.
Then Lin Chen made a call and informed Xu Fei about what had happened in Frost Rock Village. Xu Fei told him, however, that Frost Rock Village was within Xuzhou's borders, so the Xuzhou branch of the Demon Suppression Division would take over the follow-up matters.
"This is Xuzhou?" Lin Chen hung up and looked at Master Yi Jie and the others beside him.
Master Yi Jie and the others exchanged glances. They didn't know either. After all, Master Huiming had only been passing through on a pilgrimage, and the small town at the foot of the mountain belonged to Qingzhou. He'd naturally assumed Frost Rock Village was also under Qingzhou's jurisdiction.
Seeing their reaction, Lin Chen realized that Master Yi Jie and the others were just as unaware. He didn't dwell on it and simply said, "Now that everything here is taken care of, I'll head back to Qingzhou first!"
"Thank you for your help, Benefactor Lin!" Master Huiming pressed his palms together, his face full of gratitude.
Lin Chen replied solemnly, "There's no need to thank me. If anything like this happens again, remember to let me know. I hate evil with a passion, and I can't stand Evil Cultivators and strange beasts who commit one wicked deed after another!"
Master Huiming froze. He didn't want to run into anything like this again. If Lin Chen hadn't been there this time, they'd truly have been done for!
Another time?
Still, faced with Lin Chen's enthusiasm, Master Huiming nodded.
After watching Lin Chen leave, Master Huiming turned to Master Yi Jie beside him. "Yi Jie, why did you interrupt me just now? Benefactor Lin truly saved our lives. Even if it meant offering him a technique, we might have been able to negotiate something."
"Senior Brother Huiming, you don't know Benefactor Lin's temperament. If you'd actually agreed, I'm afraid he'd have called you the very next day to ask for the technique." Master Yi Jie glanced at Master Huiming, then continued, "Ordinary techniques are of no use to Benefactor Lin. As for anything too precious, the temple could never agree to give it away."
"You've seen Benefactor Lin's nature yourself. If we agreed to something and then failed to deliver..." Master Yi Jie said gravely.
At that, Master Huiming couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath. Thinking of Lin Chen's ruthless methods made him shudder. Since they couldn't offer him a technique, repaying him with pills and money was a perfectly viable option.
Lin Chen had no idea that what had happened earlier had left Master Yi Jie too afraid to promise a technique in return. At that moment, he was driving back to Qingzhou.
I'm still not down the mountain? After driving for over an hour, Lin Chen couldn't help but stare. At this time, he should already have reached the foot of the mountain.
Thinking of that, Lin Chen began to wonder if he'd taken a wrong turn. He hurriedly opened his navigation app, only to find that, without a signal, it had stopped working.
"I'll just drive until I reach a main road. I'll get my bearings when there's a signal!"
A helpless look crossed Lin Chen's face. He should've turned on the navigation earlier. Now he'd gotten himself turned around in the mountains.
Fortunately, the mountain roads these days were mostly interconnected, so he wasn't worried about being unable to get out. But after another hour of driving, with night already falling, Lin Chen was still going in circles along the mountain road.
Am I stuck in a ghostly loop?
Lin Chen pulled over and carefully surveyed his surroundings. "Looks like this new car still needs breaking in!"
It clearly wasn't a ghostly loop, so Lin Chen could only keep driving. Fortunately, every road had a way out. After another half hour, lights finally appeared ahead.
"There are people at last!"
Lin Chen's face lit up with delight, and he sped toward the lights. More than ten minutes later, he finally arrived at an old-fashioned village.
As soon as Lin Chen got out of the car, an old man approached with a beautiful young woman and greeted him warmly. "You've come a long way, guest. Please, come right in! Today just happens to be our village's bonfire festival."
"What a coincidence?"
Lin Chen paused. Hearing singing and dancing nearby, he nodded. "This should be fun!"
Led by the old man and the beautiful woman, Lin Chen made his way to the square. More than a dozen young men and women in traditional ethnic clothing were singing and dancing.
"Handsome, want to join us?" The woman beside the old man looked at Lin Chen.
"Sure!"
Lin Chen smiled and joined the dancing, led by the woman. At the same time, delicious aromas wafted toward him.
Beside the bonfire, all sorts of food had somehow appeared. The woman who'd invited Lin Chen to dance smiled and said, "Handsome, why don't you have something to eat before dancing?"
"What are we eating?" Lin Chen looked at the woman beside him.
"Our village's special delicacies." The woman smiled.
"Eat my ass!"
Lin Chen rolled his eyes at her and said irritably, "Forget the dancing. I was just humoring you. And you expect me to eat food conjured up by ghost energy? Eat air, do I?"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
At his words, everyone by the bonfire turned to look at Lin Chen in unison. The woman's face darkened instantly. "You knew all along?"
"Obviously!"
Lin Chen curled his lip and glanced at the crowd. "It's the middle of the night, the place is lit up like day, and you're this warm and welcoming to an outsider. Do you take me for an idiot?"
"Whether you're an idiot or not doesn't matter. Now that you're here, don't even think about leaving!" The woman gave a cold laugh. The next moment, everyone's appearance changed. They were more than a dozen men—there had never been any beautiful woman at all!
"Die!"
The ghost in front of Lin Chen barked coldly and lunged for his throat with a claw.
Clang!
The claw came down with a metallic ring, but the terrifying talons failed to leave a single mark on Lin Chen.
"Put some effort into it. I can still take it!" Lin Chen looked at the man in front of him.
"Not good! This guy's tough! Everyone, get him together!"
The man's expression changed drastically. He shouted, and in an instant, more than a dozen ghosts charged Lin Chen, clearly intent on killing him on the spot.
"Oh, so you're using underworld slang on me now?"
Lin Chen gave a cold laugh and activated his Blood Qi True Flame. He swung his fists. Each blow landed, and another figure turned to ash.
"Slain First-order Ghost, Origin +500." "Slain First-order Ghost, Origin +500."
"Ugh, what a bunch of poor ghosts!"
After killing all the ghosts, Lin Chen discovered that almost all of them had been First-order Ghosts. Only two had been Second-order Ghosts, and together they'd yielded just eight thousand Origin.
Seeing this, the male ghost beside Lin Chen immediately prostrated himself and begged, "Master, spare me!"
Lin Chen looked at him, his voice icy. "Tell me what happened. Why are there so many ghosts here?"
"Master, it happened like this..." The male ghost didn't dare hide anything and immediately explained everything from beginning to end.
It turned out that the male ghost and his companions had been bandits. After the authorities wiped them out, they'd unexpectedly transformed into ghosts and gathered here to lure in and prey on travelers.
Lin Chen looked at the male ghost with disdain. "You lot are this few in number, and you still dared to make yourselves kings of the mountain?"
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