Revenge and Vindication

Ye Qianfan watched Fat Aunt lumber toward the exit, but merely called out in an indifferent voice.

"Ye Fu, she's yours!"

Crack!!

Little Fu suddenly sprang out from his hiding place and snapped Fat Aunt's neck.

Then Ye Qianfan waved a hand. "Dig in!"

Crunch, crunch~

At those words, Little Fu wagged his tail in delight, then devoured his own wife in great mouthfuls.

Holding the house deed, Ye Qianfan walked over to Fat Aunt's body, took her finger, dipped it in her own blood, and pressed it onto the deed. That would count as her consent!

Even if she disagreed, it didn't matter. She was dead anyway and could no longer live in a house meant for the living!

"Doesn't this count as unleashing a ghost to hurt someone?"

The Daoist made a snide remark from the side.

But Ye Qianfan shook his head. "Ever since I discovered that Little Fu could actually get hungry, I'd already decided how to deal with Fat Aunt. I think this was the best end for her."

"And it's not as though I didn't give her a chance. If she'd sincerely apologized and returned what rightfully belonged to me, I could have spared her life."

"She chose this road herself. Besides, I wasn't the one who killed her. It was the man who shared her bed!"

"You're a sly one. By having Little Fu kill her, you kept that karmic debt from landing on your head," the Daoist grumbled. "But you can't keep running around with a ghostly thing like him forever. Sooner or later, someone will find out."

"I don't understand the Puppet-Making Technique."

Ye Qianfan nodded in agreement with the Daoist. "But if we want to leave Fog City and head to the Puppet Sect on Azure Cloud Mountain, we first need to find a suitable map."

"According to Ye Fu's memories, though, buying and selling maps of the Great Yao Kingdom is strictly forbidden. There's only one way to get one!"

"What way?"

The Daoist hurriedly asked, since he was anxious too.

He didn't want to keep living in someone else's body. If he could return to the Puppet Sect, he could at least get a body of his own first!

"Only members of the Demon-Quelling Office are entitled to a map," Ye Qianfan said. "They're responsible for traveling to the various cities to slay evil beings. Without a map, they wouldn't even be able to get there!"

The Daoist asked again, "It's not that easy to join the Demon-Quelling Office, is it?"

"If I remember correctly, the Demon-Quelling Office holds an assessment in every city on the first of June each year," Ye Qianfan continued. "Today happens to be May thirty-first, so tomorrow should be assessment day. We have to get inside before the city gates close. Then we can just go check outside the government office!"

"Then hurry up. The sun's about to set."

Hearing this, the Daoist grew anxious as well. Right now, no one wanted to return to the Puppet Sect more than he did.

How could he possibly not be anxious?

"Wait. Let me find Old Fu's secret manuals and incomplete texts first. We'll take them into the city with us."

With that, Ye Qianfan began rummaging through Old Ye's study.

Sure enough, he soon found several books with replaced covers among a pile of miscellaneous volumes. One was Miscellaneous Discussions on the Arts, which included material on soul cultivation. The other three were the Corpse Refining Technique, the Corpse Control Technique, and the Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Secret Art.

When Ye Qianfan saw that last secret art, his face immediately reddened.

All of Ye Fu's past amorous exploits in the city surfaced in Ye Qianfan's mind at once. This secret art really was outrageously stimulating.

Not only had the old man used it to keep his golden spear from ever falling, he could also bed countless women in a single night.

Tsk, tsk!

Those romantic escapades were simply too numerous to count.

Unfortunately, Ye Qianfan had no time to study the secret art's contents now. As Ye Fu had grown older, his body had also become less able to keep up with his desires, so he hadn't practiced this extraordinary art in a long time.

Naturally, the book's contents had gradually faded from his memory, while his familiarity with the Corpse Control Technique had grown by the day.

That was also why Ye Fu had chosen to become a corpse carrier!

Aside from the good money he earned carrying corpses, the main reason was that the job gave him the time and opportunity to practice the Corpse Control Technique. He could even work with corpses and use the chance to find suitable ones to refine into zombies!

Other people knew nothing about this!

But Ye Qianfan had inherited Ye Fu's memories, so he knew that Ye Fu's greatest assets weren't the possessions currently out in the open. They were the three zombies he had secretly hidden in a cave beneath the Mass Burial Ground.

One Green Zombie and two Hairy Zombies!

From weakest to strongest, zombie ranks were divided into...

Purple Zombie, Black-and-White Zombie, Green Zombie, Hairy Zombie, Flying Zombie, Wandering Corpse, Crouching Corpse, and Undying Bone.

Although a Green Zombie was fairly ordinary, if one entered a village without an expert guarding it, it could easily slaughter the entire village. It could even turn the whole village into an army of zombies, making it quite terrifying.

As for Hairy Zombies, they were already beyond ordinary zombies. Hair grew from their skin, and their entire bodies could be considered impervious to blades and spears. The higher their cultivation, the tougher their bodies became.

They could even leap onto rooftops or into trees with ease, bounding as though they were flying. Ordinary fire and sunlight could do nothing to them!

They could already be considered warrior-general level.

However...

Ye Qianfan had no intention of digging up Ye Fu's three greatest treasures right now.

After all, where could he go with three zombies in tow?

If someone mistook him for an evil Daoist and killed him, he would be in trouble. So Ye Qianfan decided to resolve the matter of his body first. He would enter the city, then find a government office and see whether any notices about the Demon-Quelling Office's assessment had been posted!

At the city gates.

Two gate guards checked the entry permits of those coming in, one by one.

But Ye Qianfan also noticed that commoners in ordinary clothing, as well as people returning after going out with the Patrol Army to work in the various districts, invariably faced harassment from the guards.

Not only were they made to open their baggage for inspection, they were also ordered to take off their clothes and shoes so the guards could check whether they were bringing any prohibited items into the city.

At first...

Ye Qianfan had been quite worried that the guards would give him trouble. After all, his current body was made of paper. Although the Daoist's Painted Skin technique concealed it, paper could never hold back fire. One careless slip might expose him.

There was another problem too. Ye Qianfan's small bundle contained pieces of canopy from yellow paper umbrellas, which he used to repair his body whenever necessary.

If they discovered that he was carrying equipment belonging to the Patrol Army...

Ye Qianfan had no idea how he would explain it.

"Daoist, do you have some illusion that could make the gate guards think I'm a high-ranking official or noble or something, so they won't inspect my belongings?" Ye Qianfan whispered to the Daoist inside his belly. "Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll be exposed!"

"Of course!" the Daoist said smugly. "An illusion is simple, but it requires props, and I'd have to cast it!"

Ye Qianfan was rather speechless. "Look at our situation. Is that practical right now?"

"True..." Looking at the gate guards watching everyone like tigers eyeing their prey, the Daoist said helplessly, "It isn't!"

However...

Before the two of them could work out a solution...

It was nearly Ye Qianfan's turn. Just as he worried that he too would be singled out and made an example of, he looked at an old man standing ahead of him in line and suddenly thought of a plan!