The Adept from Dragon Tiger Mountain

Ye Fan opened the villa door, and a sour stench immediately hit him.

A ghostly figure in blue suddenly dropped from the roof and floated in front of Ye Fan. Its disheveled hair covered both sides so thoroughly that he couldn't tell which was its face and which was the back of its head.

With a flick of his hand, Ye Fan slapped the ghost away. "You need a haircut, idiot!"

Standing in the hall, Ye Fan felt dozens of pairs of eyes fixed on him. He frowned and released a wisp of killing intent!

The ghosts instinctively backed away from him.

Bullying the weak and fearing the strong-people did it, and ghosts were no different.

A thick layer of dust had accumulated inside the villa. Ye Fan chose a room and used a Dust-Cleansing Talisman to give it a quick cleaning.

Ye Fan set up several protective formations in the room to keep those suicidal ghosts from intruding.

Once his preparations were complete, Ye Fan took out a bronze ding he had bought on Antique Street and began refining artifacts.

Although Ye Fan had watched many master artifact refiners at work, this was his first attempt. He made a few other things to test the waters, then started refining the Yin Ghost Banner once he had gotten a feel for it.

By the time Ye Fan finished refining, five days had passed.

As soon as Ye Fan stepped outside, he saw someone skulking around the flower bed, peering this way and that.

"What are you doing?" Ye Fan suddenly appeared behind Cai Zhenjun.

Cai Zhenjun jumped in fright. He turned around and blinked at Ye Fan, his face brimming with curiosity. "Buddy, did you hear that some reckless idiot bought Villa Eighteen?"

Ye Fan nodded. "I heard. What about it?"

"I heard the guy went into the haunted house five days ago and hasn't come out. Who knows if he died in there!" Cai Zhenjun said with a sigh.

"That haunted house is no big deal. How could he possibly die?" He was an accomplished cultivator. What could those wandering ghosts possibly do to him?

"No big deal? Buddy, you make it sound so easy! Let me tell you, I took some people in there, and we saw loads of ghosts! They nearly scared me to death!" Cai Zhenjun said, shaking his head.

Ordinary people couldn't see ghosts, but the haunted house was heavy with yin energy. At certain times, even ordinary people could see them.

Ye Fan looked at Cai Zhenjun in puzzlement. "You went inside? You trespassed!"

Cai Zhenjun gave an awkward laugh. "Nobody was living there before, right? A few girls were curious about the haunted house. As men, of course we had to step up and protect them."

Ye Fan blinked and asked with great interest, "Does bringing girls to a haunted house work? I heard they throw themselves into your arms. Is that true?"

Cai Zhenjun laughed awkwardly. "Not really!"

Of course, he had heard that it hadn't worked because he had been such a coward. His buddies told him afterward that he had screamed even louder than the girls when he saw a ghost. All the girls thought he was a useless wimp they couldn't rely on. What a dark stain on his past! He couldn't bear to look back! Still, it wasn't really his fault. He had been expecting a girl to throw herself into his arms. Who could have known that instead of a girl, a faceless female ghost would come over?

"Oh, what a shame. If it worked, I'd bring my sweetheart here," Ye Fan said, looking disappointed.

Cai Zhenjun was speechless.

While Cai Zhenjun and Ye Fan were talking, several security guards walked over. Seeing Ye Fan safe and sound, they all looked relieved. "Young Master Ye, are you all right?"

Ye Fan clasped his hands behind his back. "I'm fine!"

"That house..."

"There were a few cockroaches inside. I squashed them all," Ye Fan said casually.

The security guards looked at Ye Fan with strange expressions. Since he was fine, they exchanged a few perfunctory words with him and left.

"Buddy, that's so cool! So you're the new owner of Villa Eighteen. Why didn't I think of that trick?" Cai Zhenjun said admiringly.

Ye Fan asked in confusion, "Trick? What trick?"

"Buddy, stop pretending! You bought a haunted house and told everyone you were living there, but you're actually staying somewhere else. That way, you look brave and invincible, right? If only I had brains like yours!" Cai Zhenjun said animatedly.

Ye Fan looked at Cai Zhenjun and waved a hand. "You're overthinking it. I live in the haunted house."

"How could anyone live in that place?" Cai Zhenjun said skeptically.

Ye Fan smiled. "Just because you can't live there doesn't mean I can't!"

"Ah! I get it. The ghosts moved out, right?" Cai Zhenjun asked.

Ye Fan nodded. "Yes, they did."

He had spent five days refining the Yin Ghost Banner. Once it was complete, he had captured every ghost in the house in one go.

Cai Zhenjun looked at Ye Fan enviously. "Buddy, you're so lucky. That house cost over ten million to build, and land prices have skyrocketed these past few years. If it weren't haunted, people would be fighting to buy it for fifty or sixty million."

Ye Fan smiled. "Oh, not at all. I just happened to be there at the right time!"

Ye Fan arrived at the Morning and Evening Company. The receptionist was delighted to see him.

"Young Master Ye, you're finally here."

Ye Fan looked at the receptionist in confusion. "You seem really happy that I'm here?"

"Young Master Bai is in a meeting! Why don't you go upstairs and wait for him?" the receptionist said eagerly.

Ye Fan nodded. "Sure!"

The two receptionists exchanged glances as Ye Fan disappeared from view.

"President Bai has been in a bad mood these past few days. Could it be because Young Master Ye hasn't come?"

"I don't know! But it's very possible."

"Does President Bai really like someone like Young Master Ye? That's some pretty odd taste."

"Honestly, Young Master Ye came here in slippers."

Ye Fan idly waved the Yin Ghost Banner as he waited in the meeting room, bored out of his mind. After an hour, Bai Yunxi finally came in.

"You're here," Bai Yunxi said.

Ye Fan nodded. "Yes! Look at my magical artifact! The Yin Ghost Banner."

Bai Yunxi looked at the Yin Ghost Banner in Ye Fan's hand. With that banner, Ye Fan looked exactly like a charlatan. "How did you bring that thing in?" Surely he hadn't carried such a huge Yin Ghost Banner over his shoulder? If he had, the people at the company would have enough gossip to last another two weeks.

"I'm a low-key person. I'm not that flashy!" Ye Fan said.

Bai Yunxi was speechless. Someone who clung to a seventh-floor window in broad daylight, pretending to be a gecko, actually had the nerve to call himself low-key?

Ye Fan shook the banner in his hand, and the Yin Ghost Banner immediately shrank by a third. He shook it a few more times, and it shrank to the size of two palms.

"That thing can grow and shrink!" Bai Yunxi's eyes widened. It felt like something out of a fantasy.

Ye Fan nodded. "Yes! This is my first magical artifact. It took a lot of work to refine it. When I came out, I saw your missed calls. Sorry, I blocked all incoming calls while I was refining. Did you need something?"

Bai Yunxi frowned and sighed. "That Starved Ghost went after my niece again. The Jade Pendant you gave her blocked it once, but I'm afraid it won't give up."

Ye Fan frowned. "Looks like it's a vengeful ghost! An ordinary ghost wouldn't have been able to strike again so soon after being attacked by a bead from your Fortune-Turning Bead last time, even if the Lightning Talisman hadn't worked."

"We couldn't reach you a few days ago, so Grandpa contacted Dragon Tiger Mountain," Bai Yunxi said.

"Oh, those shamans. Did they deal with it?" Ye Fan asked.

Bai Yunxi shook his head. "No. Dragon Tiger Mountain sent an adept over. He said the monster had already fled, and unless it appeared again, they couldn't catch it. So the people from Dragon Tiger Mountain are guarding Momo now. But that isn't a long-term solution. Momo still needs to go to school, and they can't protect her every moment."

If the monster didn't appear after a while, the people from Dragon Tiger Mountain would probably leave.

Ye Fan nodded. "After we eat, I'll go see if I can track that ghost down." With the Yin Ghost Banner, tracking it should be easier.

"All right. Where have you been these past few days?" Bai Yunxi couldn't help asking.

"I went to the villa I just bought," Ye Fan said.

Bai Yunxi faltered. "Was the villa all right?"

"Nobody had lived there for a long time. It was a bit dirty!" Ye Fan said.

Bai Yunxi was speechless. That wasn't what he had been asking! "What about the ghosts in the villa?"

"I captured them all," Ye Fan said.

Bai Yunxi breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good. By the way, my grandfather shared the medicine you gave him last time with my grandmother. That's all right, isn't it?"

Ye Fan shook his head. "There's no problem. It was meant for elderly people anyway."

Xiao Chi hadn't thrown away the medicine Ye Fan had given him, but he hadn't wanted to take it either, so he had left it in a drawer.

When Bai Yunxi's grandmother went to get her health supplements, she took Ye Fan's medicine by mistake and swallowed a pill. Afterward, she positively glowed and seemed several years younger. Seeing that, his grandfather couldn't resist and took one too. Lately, the two of them had been going out in the evenings to dance with other seniors, full of energy.

After work, Bai Yunxi took Ye Fan straight to the hospital.

At the hospital, a young man saw Ye Fan, and resentment immediately filled his face. "You! You! It's you!"

Ye Fan looked at the furious person in front of him, first confused, then struck by recognition. "You... you're that kid from the other day!"

"Kid? Kid, my ass! You're the kid!" Zhang Xuan said through gritted teeth.

"You know each other?" Bai Yunxi asked suspiciously.

"We met once before. He kept wanting to spar with me. Huh, you've grown a horn on your head!" Ye Fan said.

Zhang Xuan glared at Ye Fan, nearly coughing up blood from sheer anger.

At the military hospital, Zhang Xuan had challenged Ye Fan twice, only to be defeated with a single blow both times. Accustomed to praise, Zhang Xuan had always considered himself one of the best of the younger generation of practitioners. Yet the moment he ventured out, he encountered someone truly formidable. How could he bear such a blow? "You bastard! It's all your fault!"

Something suddenly occurred to Ye Fan. "Did you get that bump when you crashed into something back then? You can't blame it all on me! It's your fault for being so frail that you went down in one hit!"

Zhang Xuan glared at Ye Fan in humiliation and anger. "You bastard! What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Bai Momo!" Ye Fan said.

Zhang Xuan knitted his brows and cast an indifferent glance at Bai Yunxi.

Bai Yunxi felt a little embarrassed. In the world of practitioners, the rule was not to engage two masters for the same matter. Only when one master was at a complete loss would another practitioner be invited. After all, practitioners were proud people. Inviting two meant distrusting one of them, and it was easy to offend someone that way.

"Ye Fan is my friend!" Bai Yunxi said.

"Boyfriend!" Ye Fan added from beside him.

Zhang Xuan looked at Ye Fan in bewilderment. "Third Young Master Bai, why did you find yourself a boyfriend like this?"

Ye Fan frowned. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean? What's wrong with having someone like me?"

Zhang Xuan was speechless.