Honest, Dependable Li Pusa

Dry rations, a sachet, a waterskin, an Embroidered Uniform Guard waist token, blood.

The stench grew thicker and thicker, until it was unbearable.

Lin Feng presented the offerings one by one.

It wasn't that he didn't want to offer money.

Mostly, he hadn't brought any Hongwu banknotes.

He asked for forgiveness with utmost sincerity.

Because Lin Feng was a reasonable man.

He had come here to shelter from the rain, so he was in the wrong to begin with. If someone took issue with that, he was perfectly agreeable.

If they could talk it out, why not?

But that sense of danger, like needles pricking his back, didn't diminish. Instead, it grew ever more bone-chilling.

Lin Feng straightened up.

His sword wasn't with him. Lin Feng walked over to the rotten table, hooked his toe under it, and came away with a table leg in his hand.

Still utterly sincere, he delivered his final ultimatum. "You three, let's leave it at that. Asking for more would be rude."

Unfortunately, the three of them didn't seem to know what manners were.

Black pus oozed onto the floor. At last, a gust of cold wind swept past, lifting the Mother-Child Gu's bridal veil.

The Mother-Child Gu finally showed its face.

A truly stupid corpse.

Ugly and evil.

Eunuch Ah Qing lunged at him like lightning, too.

Lin Feng let out a booming cry, bringing his Dragon-Tiger Qi and the Mountain God's fury to bear together!

Two buffs at once!

Lin Feng's eyes blazed!

You're not even locals, and you dare run wild here?

"Taste my sword!"

Who knew how much time had passed?

The downpour hadn't stopped. Outside, water still poured from the eaves in an unbroken curtain.

The incense stick in front of the Joyful Spirit Inn gradually spread into a sea of fog. Through the rolling thunder came a corpse driver's voice.

"The joyful spirits approach! The living, stand aside!"

A Corpse Driver dressed in hemp cloth, with another piece of hemp covering his head, emerged from the thick fog.

Behind him were four or five corpses, reeking strongly of medicinal herbs.

Before he even entered, the corpse driver Li Pusa caught the smell of blood coming from the Joyful Spirit Inn ahead, to his astonishment.

"Huh? What's this?"

He hurried inside and saw a Daoist sitting against the wall, covered in wounds. In front of him, Eunuch Ah Qing's head had been severed, and flames still engulfed his body.

Granny Ah Yi was even more thoroughly dead. The last trace of her true spirit had long since vanished.

The strongest one here, the Mother-Child Gu, had been reduced to charcoal.

All three mighty beings were gone.

Li Pusa sucked in a cold breath and swallowed.

What...?

Others might not know where these three mighty beings had come from, but how could he not?

The Joyful Spirit Inn was, in fact, a Yin-Yang Temple.

A Yin-Yang Temple existed in both the Underworld and the world of the living.

Once the shady trades became established professions, guilds naturally followed. There were ingenious people among those who worked such trades, and the Joyful Spirit Inn had been built by one of them.

This particular Joyful Spirit Inn stood at a junction of the earth's veins, and these three were all budget substitutes.

Budget substitutes, meaning bargain-basement replacements.

This location mattered, so all three had been carefully selected.

Baleful forces were used to suppress baleful forces.

Originally, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva should have been enshrined here, with a Ghost King on either side.

The Generals of Increase and Decrease.

To suppress the baleful energy.

Unfortunately, those who worked the shady trades couldn't summon the Generals of Increase and Decrease, let alone Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

Left with no choice, that ingenious craftsman had used baleful energy to suppress the yin veins. All three beings here were ancient corpses.

If they hadn't been bound here, the mere sight of them would have terrified him.

Any one of these three, let loose, would have become a scourge upon an entire region.

And now they were just gone?

Seeing that the Daoist was still alive, Li Pusa asked cautiously, "Master Daoist, this humble one was passing through..."

Lin Feng couldn't make out what came next.

He was almost dead, his five senses fading.

The local gang wouldn't listen to reason. They attacked on sight.

These three had been formidable. Lin Feng had eliminated them all, but he was gravely wounded, beyond saving.

He hadn't done it for any other reason. He simply couldn't swallow that insult.

I'd choke if I didn't get this anger out!

Now he was on the brink of death.

Lin Feng didn't regret a thing.

What occupied his mind was the lack of a sword.

Would I have taken a beating like this if I'd had my sword?

He managed to lift his head and saw [Corpse Driver, Li Pusa] above the newcomer's head.

Lin Feng's first thought was, surprisingly, That's one hell of a name.

Children with humble names are easier to keep alive.

Even Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, was nicknamed Little Piglet. Brother, with a name like yours, you must have one tough fate to have survived to adulthood.

He coughed, blood spilling from his mouth, and weakly beckoned Li Pusa over.

"Pusa, come here."

Li Pusa felt as though a bucket of ice-cold water had been poured over every plate of his skull.

The chill pierced his bones.

How did this Daoist know his name?

While his thoughts ran wild, the uncanny Daoist died. His breathing stopped.

Li Pusa checked him and, with the authority of a Corpse Driver, pronounced him dead. But just as he straightened up and was about to stand—

The dead Daoist opened his eyes, lively as ever.

Even the wounds on his body had completely healed.

Most outrageous of all, Li Pusa saw with his own eyes that even the man's clothes had been restored.

As though nothing whatsoever had happened, the Daoist stood up, adjusted his clothes, and glanced outside.

The heavy rain was still falling.

Lin Feng wasn't sure whether he was imagining it, but he seemed to see some creature flash through the storm clouds.

After a couple of coughs, Lin Feng selected [Continue Game].

Mostly because he felt that this NPC called Li Pusa might be an important character.

He glanced at the corpses behind him.

Lin Feng asked Li Pusa, "You're a Corpse Driver?"

Li Pusa replied, "Yes, Master Daoist, this humble one is."

He stood with his hands held deferentially before him, honest and meek. Frankly, he looked like weak_and_pitiful.jpg.

"You know Bull-Head Stockade, right?"

Seeing how the Corpse Driver behaved, Lin Feng decided to pry some information out of him.

Li Pusa said, "I do."

Lin Feng asked, "You know how to get there, then?"

Li Pusa replied, "Master Daoist, there's no way to get there."

Lin Feng said, "!? What do you mean, no way?"

Li Pusa said, "The mountain road collapsed. You can't get there!"

Lin Feng said, "Think it over again. Really no way?"

Li Pusa, looking miserable, said, "There really isn't, unless you fly over, Master Daoist."

Lin Feng asked, "How did you get here?"

Li Pusa said, "This humble one came by yin roadwalking."

Lin Feng said, "Tell me more about yin roadwalking."

Li Pusa was speechless for a moment. You're a Daoist, and you're asking me about yin roadwalking? But circumstances left him little choice. This Daoist had killed the Three Baleful Corpses one moment and was up and lively the next. No matter how he looked at it, this wasn't someone he could afford to offend.

Especially with that aura of his.

The oppressive air of an official, a chilling menace, a touch of a sword's sharpness, and the free grace of the wind—it was impossible to work out just what this gentleman actually did.

With a sigh, he was about to explain yin roadwalking to the Daoist in full when operatic singing suddenly rose around them again. Lin Feng glanced outside.

The figure that looked like a hanged man came twisting out of the deep woods once more.

"Sir from afar, my uncle invites you over."

Perhaps killing those three corpses had damaged the earth's veins. Whatever the reason, the Joyful Spirit Inn's protection was gone.

That damned uncle was back again.

Li Pusa's brow twitched violently at the sight of that thing.

"This is bad. The Ghost Yamen is summoning someone."

The Ghost Yamen?

Before he could ask what the Ghost Yamen was, Lin Feng's [Sword Heart Clarity] screamed a warning. He spun around, pressed his fingers together, and thrust them behind him!