Lin Bai's Methodology

"I promise." Lin Bai took a deep breath and waved to him, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes. "Go, my warrior. I respect your honor."

"Idiot! How can such an idiot exist..." Watching the two men's painfully awkward performance outside, the male Ghost roared inside the shop. Crashes and clatters rang out as he vented his emotions. "Kill him! I'm going to kill him!"

"Then do it!" [Long Xi] secretly rejoiced and played along with more provocation. "Lives are the one thing I've got plenty of! Today, I'll give everything I've got to send you to the Netherworld. If you can't kill me, I'll wipe out your whole family..."

"Come inside and try." The male Ghost's voice abruptly sank low.

The female Ghost, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke. "A Nan, don't. We've endured for three years. If you kill him, all our efforts will go to waste."

A clear young female voice that had never spoken before followed immediately. "Daddy, don't! Let's endure a little longer. Once they've had their fun, they'll leave! Big brother, don't come inside. If you do, my daddy really will kill you. Hurry and go!"

"Enough." The male Ghost's voice brimmed with undisguised anger. "Haven't you figured it out yet? He wants to drive us away. Stay where you are. I'll kill him, and I'll bear all the karmic consequences..."

"Dad, if you kill someone, you'll become a vengeful ghost." The young female Ghost sounded close to tears. "Big brother outside, please stop him! I know you bought the shop. We don't hurt people."

A vengeful ghost?

Hearing those words and considering everything that had happened earlier, Lin Bai's heart lurched. Had his clever scheme backfired? Or were these people acting too?

But there was a saying about ghosts spinning endless lies, and Lin Bai instinctively doubted everything.

After all, he had never seen a Ghost before. Any one-sided assumption could be wrong.

He couldn't afford the price of being wrong.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Bai called to Long Xi and tested the waters. "Young man, how about we stop fighting? They seem pretty pitiful too."

[Long Xi] whipped around and declared with righteous conviction, "Shopkeeper, don't let them bewitch you! How can you trust the words of evil spirits? They're begging for mercy because they fear me. Believe me, once I leave, they'll still harm you. They shouldn't remain in the mortal world at all. Evil spirits, I'm taking you on..."

With a roar, [Long Xi] charged into the shop.

The emotion was there.

The buildup was there too.

You think I won't die just because you say so?

If I don't die, won't all that work have been for nothing?

Half a night!

And all I got was a lousy kitchen knife. Who would settle for that?

So.

I have to die.

Even better if I provoke the Ghost inside into becoming a vengeful ghost. Then this shopkeeper NPC will need me even more.

This instance is mine.

As it turned out.

When someone was dead set on dying, there was no talking him out of it.

Although the female Ghost kept desperately urging her husband to stay calm, and the little female Ghost tearfully begged Lin Bai to hold his companion back and stop him from throwing his life away...

None of it could stop [Long Xi]'s determination to die.

Even when the Ghost mother and daughter sent him back outside, he charged into the haunted house without hesitation. Before charging in, he even mustered the courage he used when visiting brothels and spewed filthy remarks about the male Ghost's wife and daughter.

His language was so obscene that even Lin Bai wanted to cover his ears. The game really was realistic. It didn't censor anything.

Finally.

[Long Xi] successfully drove the male Ghost out of his mind, and the Ghost obliterated him in an instant...

Having watched [Long Xi] put on a performance of seeking death right before his eyes.

Lin Bai let out a sigh of boundless feeling. Even his joy at discovering a method for collecting positive emotions faded.

A lunatic!

The thought of his future life being filled with a whole crowd of nutcases like this made his scalp prickle again and again. This damned game world!

After [Long Xi] died, the shop fell deathly silent. Only insects and birds could be heard.

Lin Bai watched the shop nervously. Had the Ghost really become a vengeful ghost because he killed someone?

What kind of hellish setting is this?

A moment later.

"Dad!"

A desolate cry rang out from inside the shop.

Looking at the shop, Lin Bai asked in bewilderment, "Miss, Long Xi died. Why are you crying for your dad?"

The crying stopped abruptly.

Then.

A figure in flowing white clothes rushed to the doorway, trying to pounce on Lin Bai. But as she reached it, white light flashed. As though she had struck an invisible barrier, she was thrown back hard.

Having confirmed that the Ghosts really couldn't leave, Lin Bai breathed a sigh of relief, lit his fire striker, and approached the doorway to inspect the situation inside.

The fire striker illuminated only a small area. He could see only the little Ghost by the doorway, not the rest of the shop.

Dressed in white with disheveled hair, the little Ghost hovered inside the doorway, her feet off the floor. Faint traces of burns marked her deathly pale face. Her appearance was utterly unremarkable, not even as frightening as Sadako.

Looking closer, though, her delicate little face was rather kawaii. She looked thirteen or fourteen at most.

At that moment.

The little Ghost glared fiercely at Lin Bai, bloody tears streaming from her eyes. "It's all your fault, you bad man! If it weren't for you, Daddy wouldn't have killed anyone. If he hadn't killed anyone, he wouldn't have become a vengeful ghost. If he hadn't become a vengeful ghost, he would have had a chance to become a spirit cultivator. You! You bad man! You ruined everything for Daddy. I hate you..."

All right!

She doesn't seem very smart either.

I haven't even asked anything, and she's already spilled everything.

Lin Bai looked at the little Ghost and put on his gentlest smile. "Little girl, after being shut inside for three years, are you lonely?"

"..." The little Ghost froze. Looking outside, she couldn't help revealing a trace of longing in her eyes. But then she remembered how hateful the man before her was, and her fierce glare returned.

"What's your name?" Lin Bai smiled and asked again.

"..." The little Ghost stared coldly at Lin Bai without a word.

"Who told you that killing someone would turn you into a vengeful ghost?" Lin Bai asked.

"Daoist Li told us. It's all your fault. You ruined Daddy's whole life." The little Ghost was enraged again.

"You're occupying my property." Lin Bai took the deed from inside his clothes. "I'm perfectly justified in hiring someone to deal with you. You shouldn't hate me..."

"This is our home," the little Ghost said coldly, without even looking at the deed. "No one can drive us away."

"Houses are for the living. The dead belong in graves," Lin Bai said calmly.

"You..." The little Ghost glared furiously at Lin Bai.

"Call your parents over. I want to talk to them," Lin Bai said.

"Get lost!" A male Ghost in his thirties appeared in the doorway. He wore a gray robe, his expression icy, black energy coiling around him. "Stop bothering us. I've killed someone and become a vengeful ghost. Having killed one, I don't mind killing a second."

"A vengeful ghost?" Lin Bai studied the male Ghost and shook his head. "You don't look like one!"

"..." The male Ghost and the little Ghost fell silent.

"I think that Taoist lied to you," Lin Bai said.

Through the information [Long Xi] had purchased with his death, he had roughly worked out the personalities of those inside.

Their emotional intelligence was rather low, and their intelligence wasn't much better.

Generally speaking, people like that were ideal partners for swindlers.

"You're saying killing people won't turn us into vengeful ghosts?" The little Ghost widened her blood-soaked eyes. "But the old Taoist clearly said that once we killed someone, our hearts would fill with viciousness, and then we'd become cruel and bloodthirsty. Over time, we'd lose our minds..."

"No, you misunderstood me," Lin Bai said. "I mean that perhaps there's more than one way to become a vengeful ghost."

"..." The two Ghosts struggled to follow Lin Bai's train of thought.

"I believe being a vengeful ghost is a matter of the mind. This little girl just said that killing fills your heart with viciousness, and then losing your mind turns you into a vengeful ghost. There are many ways to fill a heart with viciousness. Killing isn't necessarily required," Lin Bai confidently told the two Ghosts behind the doorway.

A lunatic!

Who wants to discuss ways of becoming a vengeful ghost with you?

At some point, the lady of the house had also arrived behind the doorway. All three Ghosts stared at Lin Bai, black energy shifting around them, finding the man before them utterly unreasonable. How was discussing ways to become vengeful ghosts with ghosts any different from discussing which way to die was more comfortable with people?

Well, he did just drive someone to his death. Someone like him must be loathed by humans and ghosts alike!

"Perhaps you don't know this, but people subjected to negative emotions for a long time have a high chance of suffering nervous exhaustion and developing all sorts of problems. They might go mad or become violent. I think ghosts should be much the same, because I've noticed that the way you think isn't any different from humans."

Lin Bai looked at the three Ghosts and shook the deed in his hand. "I bought this shop. Because of you, I can't get my money back. And I'm a stingy man. I don't want my money going down the drain, so I'll definitely find a way to get rid of you.

"After tonight, you should have realized that I'm rather stubborn. Someone who clearly couldn't beat you was coaxed by me into attacking you again and again, until he lost his life..."

"That was because he was stupid," the male Ghost snapped, shuddering violently.

"I can find more people just as stupid as him." Lin Bai smiled. "I plan to have them come here every night to slay demons and exorcise evil, keeping it up for the long haul. One day, either one of them will get rid of you, or this endless torment will drive you mad and turn you into true vengeful ghosts. When that happens, perhaps you'll attract a heavenly tribulation, or a truly accomplished master will come and eliminate you. No matter how you look at it, I'll win this war in the end."

The little Ghost looked at the man before her in terror, as though she had seen a demon, and involuntarily shrank behind her mother. How could he come up with such a vicious scheme?

"Come inside. I'm going to kill you." As though he had glimpsed their fate, the male Ghost's features shifted out of place, and even the black energy coiling around him trembled.

"..." Lin Bai looked at the family of three and lifted his eyelids. "You come outside."

"..." The Ghost family collectively froze. How could a human be so shameless? Compared with him, that idiot who had come to die was downright adorable!

The female Ghost gently patted her enraged husband, then looked at Lin Bai. "Doing that will get many people killed. Won't your conscience hurt? Are you even human?"

"Strictly speaking, you're the ones who aren't human." Lin Bai swept his gaze over them. "Humans and ghosts walk different paths. I'm doing this for peace in the mortal world."

"We can't leave this house. We've never harmed anyone," the female Ghost asked in a trembling voice. "Why would you treat us like this? Even the Taoist who subdued us never thought of harming us. He even gave us a way to survive..."

"Does never harming anyone make you good ghosts?" Lin Bai sighed. "Look around. Because you're here, this place has lain abandoned for three years. How many people have been forced to move away to make a living, left unable to return to their own homes?

"Not a soul remains in such a prime location, and this situation will continue for another ten years. You've caused such enormous losses, yet you want to brush them aside with a casual claim that you've never harmed anyone? You didn't kill Boren, but Boren lost his home and was forced to wander because of you. Your sins are great indeed..."

"..." The three Ghosts froze.

"Also, based on your experiences..." Lin Bai paused. "I've roughly reached a conclusion. That old Taoist who trapped you here probably wasn't a good man either!"