"The main reason is that nobody pays you, right?"
Xu Long muttered.
"Bullshit. Wealth is just a worldly possession. You bring none of it with you when you're born, and you take none of it with you when you die. What do you need so much money for?"
Uncle Nine glared at him and said.
"But if we had money, we could avoid a lot of unnecessary danger. Take what just happened, for example. Throw a few hundred Blazing Fire Talismans at it, and any ghost or monster would die."
Xu Long muttered. What he liked most was saturation fire.
Just as he had said, there was nothing overwhelming firepower couldn't solve.
If there was, it could only mean there wasn't enough firepower!
"That actually seems to make a lot of sense!"
Hearing Xu Long's words, Uncle Nine froze for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully.
The three of them soon arrived at Li Family Village. Just as they entered, a middle-aged woman ran out.
"Why are you only coming back now?!"
The woman's eyes were brimming with tears. Like Li Si, she had dark circles under her eyes, and a dense mass of resentment shrouded her head.
"This is a big job!"
Seeing this, Uncle Nine and Xu Long exchanged a glance. They knew that once they finished this job, they wouldn't have to worry about food or drink for at least half a year.
"These are the masters I invited. They can help us solve our problem."
Li Si took hold of his wife and explained.
"Ah? If they're masters, why haven't you invited them in yet?!"
Hearing Li Si's words, the woman looked moved. She had clearly been troubled for a long time too.
"There's no hurry. Let me take a look at the situation first!"
With that, Uncle Nine turned to look at Xu Long.
Xu Long quickly took the hint and pulled out two Eye-Opening Talismans, handing one to Uncle Nine and using the other himself.
Hiss!
Golden light flickered, and their previously hazy vision immediately cleared.
Uncle Nine and Xu Long turned their gazes westward almost simultaneously. Yin energy churned there, with a faint trace of blood-red light within it.
"Qiu Sheng, peach wood sword, Blazing Fire Talismans!"
"Got it!"
Hearing Uncle Nine's words, Xu Long immediately handed over the items he had prepared long ago.
They had brought a full assortment of things on this trip. Besides what Uncle Nine had asked for, they also had a full thirty kilograms of glutinous rice.
Gripping the peach wood sword and stuffing the Blazing Fire Talismans into his pocket, Uncle Nine set off at a run toward the banana grove.
Xu Long swept his gaze around, taking in everything nearby by the dim moonlight.
After using the Eye-Opening Talisman to open his heavenly eye, Xu Long saw the yin energy shrouding the entire banana grove and the blood-red light lurking within it.
There was no telling how many people the thing in there had killed. It might have been close to becoming a vengeful ghost.
No! It might already have been a vengeful ghost!
As a veteran expert in capturing ghosts and destroying zombies, Uncle Nine could hardly have failed to think of that.
That was why his expression was equally grave, and his hand tightened around the peach wood sword.
"Over there!"
Just as master and disciple drew near, a blood-red shadow suddenly flashed past.
Without the slightest hesitation, Xu Long grabbed three Blazing Fire Talismans and sent them flying over with his psychic power.
Whoosh!
Boom!
Searing flames sprang into being, instantly lighting up the surroundings.
Caught off guard, the blood-red shadow was struck squarely by the flames and immediately let out a series of piercing ghostly wails.
"Well done!"
Uncle Nine praised him, flicked a Blazing Fire Talisman up on the tip of his peach wood sword, and stabbed viciously at the target.
Hiss!
The peach wood sword passed through the blood-red shadow, and its screams grew even more shrill.
Seeing this, Uncle Nine did not let his guard down in the slightest. He shouted to Xu Long, "Ink line!"
"Got it!"
Hearing Uncle Nine's order, Xu Long grabbed the end of the line and tossed the ink marker over.
The ink marker itself was ordinary, but the ink inside was anything but.
It had been made by burning ten-year-old yang wood to ashes with the flames of a Blazing Fire Talisman, then mixing the ashes with cinnabar. It could deal tremendous damage to sinister ghosts and other such beings.
After catching the ink marker, Uncle Nine and Xu Long rushed at the blood-red shadow from opposite sides.
"Snap it!"
As though their minds were in perfect sync, master and disciple hooked their fingers around the ink line at the same time, then abruptly let go.
Snap!
A piercing explosion rang out amid a dazzling flash of fire. Already severely injured, the blood-red shadow finally could hold on no longer and was burned to ashes by the Blazing Fire Talisman.
"No kill notification?"
Watching the flames gradually die out, Xu Long couldn't help frowning.
"Something's not right. That wasn't the real one!"
Uncle Nine kept his voice down. After working in this trade for a long time, one was bound to run into some rotten people. It never hurt to be a little more guarded.
"Master, is it settled?"
Seeing the flames go out, Li Si came over trembling with fear and asked.
"Though it was quite troublesome, this ghost has been dealt with."
Xu Long spoke as he packed up their things.
"That's good, that's good!"
Hearing Xu Long's words, the fear vanished from Li Si's face, replaced by a merchant's habitual greed and cunning.
"Masters, it's already late. Why don't you spend the night here and go back after daybreak?"
"No need! We still have to do our practice tomorrow morning!"
Xu Long shook his head and said, "Time to settle the bill. Ten silver dollars!"
For an ordinary poor family, Xu Long would only have asked for half a silver dollar, or five hundred copper coins.
But Li Si was different. Unpleasant as it sounded, a rich man's life really was worth far more than a poor man's.
Xu Long's asking price of ten silver dollars was not high at all.
But while Xu Long didn't think it was much, the other man didn't see it that way.
Hearing his words, Li Si immediately bristled.
"Ten silver dollars? Why don't you just go rob someone? You came to my grove and casually set a fire, and now you want ten silver dollars? Are you crazy for money?"
Li Si snorted coldly, his expression furious.
"I'm already being generous by not holding you responsible for burning the banana trees!"
The woman beside him chimed in. "One silver dollar. Take it or leave it!"
With that, the woman tossed the money straight onto the ground, as though she were giving them alms.
"Heh heh, I hope you don't regret this!"
Xu Long sneered, bent down, picked up the silver dollar, and stuffed it into his bag.
There was no shame in picking money off the ground when he had earned it through his own efforts.
But he didn't bend his back lightly. He would make Li Si pay it back hundreds of times over someday.
From beginning to end, Uncle Nine hadn't said a word.
On one hand, he couldn't be bothered to argue with people like this. On the other, he wanted to see how his disciple would handle it.
In the end, Uncle Nine was reasonably satisfied. Qiu Sheng had indeed seen the light.
He had neither argued with the two of them until he was red in the face nor beaten them bloody. Instead, he had chosen a very peaceful approach.
Of course, it was only peaceful for now.
When Li Si came begging in a few days, given Qiu Sheng's nature, he probably wouldn't let the matter rest without extorting a hefty sum.
"Master, what exactly happened back there? Why did you say that wasn't the real one?"
As soon as they left Li Si's home, Xu Long couldn't help asking.
"I suspect there may be a yao in there, and what we killed just now was a tiger's ghost servant."
Uncle Nine explained, "You've heard of serving as a ghost for a tiger, right?"
"I have. It's when someone eaten by a tiger becomes a ghost and is still controlled by the tiger, luring innocent people to it to be eaten."
At that point, Xu Long understood what was going on.
"There's a yao hiding in the banana grove, and the people it killed before became ghosts and were controlled by it."
"Nine times out of ten!"
Uncle Nine nodded. "There's no rush to deal with this. We'll go back and prepare properly. Li Si will definitely come again."