Chapter 9 Please Stop Talking...
"Hic."
To shut the two of them up, Qi Dian ordered an extra-large serving of fried chicken and cola. The meal left Old Man Huang hiccupping continuously.
Seeing the night grow darker, the old man finally walked out of the small hut. "I'm off. You two do your work properly. Little Qi, in the drawer there's Huang..."
"Old man, hurry on your way. The electric scooter will get anxious waiting." Yue Wen quickly pushed him along, interrupting his incantation.
After seeing off the old man, Yue Wen turned back to Qi Dian and said, "Then I'll take care of the lantern monsters here. Many thanks, Brother Qi, for letting me have this."
"It's nothing." Qi Dian remained as aloof as ever.
Tonight, the eastern outskirts were foggy. A thin layer of white mist lingered in the cemetery, making the atmosphere increasingly gloomy.
Half the cemetery had been cleaned last night, so new yin creatures wouldn't spawn so quickly. Yue Wen went straight to the other half behind the hill. By now, clusters of ghostly flames had already emerged again.
These days, it wasn't easy to find random evil spirits to fight within the city. Outside in the wastelands, demons and monsters were a dime a dozen, but his current strength didn't allow him to go out yet.
So Yue Wen treasured these lantern monsters, which he had fought hard to obtain. He leaped forward, killing one with each sword strike, clean and efficient.
The baring, clawing lantern monsters instantly turned into two smoking piles of wreckage.
He did a rough calculation. Clearing all the lantern monsters from the entire cemetery would earn him roughly thirty-plus Suppression Coins—a fairly considerable income.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, chopping lantern monsters was probably more worthwhile than fighting those larger demons and evil spirits. After all, these things carried no risk, were plentiful, and could regenerate endlessly.
Easy to kill, not tiring, economical and practical.
Yue Wen was already contemplating going back to contact a few other cemeteries in the city and taking on more lantern-monster-grinding jobs.
It had just reached midnight, and Yue Wen, going full throttle, was already about to finish clearing the entire cemetery.
The few remaining lantern monsters were scattered far apart. He needed to put on the Demon-Revealing Mirror and carefully follow the yin energy to ensure he cleaned them all up without missing a single one.
The moment the Demon-Revealing Mirror was in place, Yue Wen suddenly sensed something off.
Tonight, there wasn't any demon qi appearing, but he discovered that the yin energy concentration was much stronger than last night. The wilderness in all directions was filled with tides of gray mist!
When the gray mist moved, gusts of yin wind followed.
This wasn't right.
It was normal for a cemetery to have yin energy, but this yin energy was mixed with spiritual energy and nightmare creatures. It should have dissipated along with the nightmare creatures. Since Yue Wen had cleared most of the lantern monsters, the place should have remained clear for a while.
But the yin energy was growing denser. There could only be one reason for that.
Some being carrying powerful yin energy had arrived.
"This cemetery really is lively..." Yue Wen muttered, looking around to find the direction where the yin energy was heaviest.
If he had really come here specifically to collect money for clearing evil spirits, he would probably be annoyed... working overtime every day for a few measly coins, for real.
But right now, Yue Wen only felt excited.
Just as he was assessing the situation, as the yin energy grew thicker, the yin wind in the cemetery also began to howl. Suddenly, a wave of spiritual power rippled through the void.
Pfft—
A withered, shriveled hand burst out from the ground in front of Yue Wen!
"Hm?" Yue Wen's expression turned stern. "A corpse transformation? No, someone is using techniques to animate the buried corpses!"
Accompanied by cracking sounds from the ground, corpses—some broken, some intact—broke through the soil one after another!
Back from the dead!
They carried mournful whimpers and howls in their throats, heads drooping. They didn't attack the nearby Yue Wen, seemingly lacking any perception.
They simply walked toward the same direction in a strange posture.
Yue Wen looked in that direction. After a brief pause, he twisted his body, mimicking the way those corpses moved—drooping his head, contorting his limbs—and merged into the group of corpses, walking along while also mumbling like them: "Wabba labba sibba sibba..."
Causing such a huge commotion.
He was going to see just who was behind this!
...
On the western side of the cemetery, at the edge of an earthen slope in the woods, stood a black figure.
It was a tall, thin man wearing an unmarked black tracksuit. His face was hidden within a wide hood, only a hooked nose faintly visible.
Beside the man stood a long, great banner. As he formed seals to activate it, the banner fluttered loudly, emitting tide-like yin energy. Waves of yin energy rippled out, filling the entire cemetery and awakening the recently buried corpses underground.
Complex array patterns spread out beneath his feet like a spiderweb.
After death, people would more or less have some residual mental power left. Even ordinary people with weak souls would take about seven days for this trace of mental power to completely vanish.
The technique he was currently employing clearly mobilized all the fresh corpses in this cemetery that still had residual mental power, guiding them to become puppet-like existences capable of simple movements.
The Art of Corpse Summoning.
With one command, a hundred corpses walked by night!
In less than five minutes, the recently buried corpses in the cemetery had all gathered in the open space below the slope, densely packed. One glance was enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Yue Wen was mixed in among them. Just as he had expected, within the overwhelming waves of yin energy, his living aura was thoroughly concealed.
Seeing the large wave of corpses lined up in formation, the black-clothed man on the slope let out a sinister laugh. Then he flipped his hand and pulled out... a cell phone.
He opened a chat app, tapped to record video, and while filming the corpses from left to right, he said, "Boss, look. The mission is going smoothly. Everyone recently buried in the eastern cemetery is here, and there's a lot of them. Many corpses are mangled and bloody, so photos aren't good for identification. Just tell me the target's name. I only need to call out once, and I can make him step forward."
After sending the video, the other side replied instantly with two words.
After reading it, the man in black turned off his phone. Facing the corpse crowd below from his elevated position, he intoned in a deep voice: "The Dharma comes from impermanence, the command governs Yin and Yang! Those who bear the name I call, step forward... Zhang Wei!"
As he exercised his supernatural power, the mass of corpses began to sway their heads with strange restlessness. The moment this name was called, over a dozen corpses suddenly trembled as if receiving a command, all stepping forward in unison!
Slap.
Their synchronized steps produced a dull thud.
"..." The black-clothed man seemed speechless for a moment. Then he pulled out his phone again and sent a voice message: "Boss, do you have any more information? There are over a dozen named Zhang Wei here... I can't carry them all back for you, right? The information you provide should ideally be related to things before death, otherwise the residual mental power might not respond."
Only a few seconds passed before the other side sent another message.
"Jie jie." The black-clothed man let out two sinister laughs and commanded again: "The Dharma comes from impermanence, the command governs Yin and Yang! Those who match my words, step forward... Zhang Wei who had just worked unpaid overtime at the company before death!"
Following his shout, after a brief commotion, half of the dozen-plus Zhang Weis who had stepped forward just now took another step!
"..." Looking at the six or seven corpses standing before him, the black-clothed man frowned deeply and muttered, "Capitalists these days really deserve to die."
He sent another voice message to the other side: "There are also quite a few who worked overtime before death. Any more information? Like the deceased's long-standing obsessions or something."
A moment later, the other side sent another reply.
"This should be no problem now, right?" The black-clothed man raised his head and spoke again: "Those who match my words, step forward... Zhang Wei, a lifelong single virgin who spent all day working overtime at the company and never had a girlfriend in his entire life!"
"Wabba labba wuwu!"
Following his command, four corpses walked out howling with sobs!
The "wabba labba" tones from their mouths, if listened to carefully, were clearly saying: Please stop talking...
"F*ck, are you guys done?" The black-clothed man completely lost his composure. "What kind of world is this? There's more than one person this miserable?"
And Yue Wen, hidden in the array, noticed that one of the corpses was wearing suspenders and had a center-parted hairstyle. He suddenly remembered what Black Meow had said yesterday.
The employer behind this black-clothed man was looking for the same person that the three cat demons had been looking for yesterday!
Seeing that the black-clothed man seemed somewhat emotionally devastated and was about to send another message, a clear shout suddenly came from the distance.
"Brazen heretical cultivator—"
Good morning.
Before the novel goes premium, I'm planning to hold a monthly ticket lottery event. Haven't done it before, so let's give it a try. Friends who cast monthly tickets from the book's release on October 20th to three days after it goes premium can participate. There are many winning slots; everyone has a chance.
Haha, but I'm too lazy to prepare too many gifts, so I'm just going to send red envelopes directly.
(Thanks to the operations officer for their hard work.)
[Event Requirements]
Take a screenshot of your monthly ticket stub for this book. Leave a comment with all monthly ticket records from the release date of [I've Seen Dragons] to three days after going premium in the event post to participate in the lottery. It's recommended to vote in multiple batches. The lottery will use the last four digits of the ticket stub screenshot as the lottery number.
[Event Guide]
Qidian APP:
My Account — Monthly Tickets — Monthly Ticket Memorial Album — Screenshot of this book's voting record
[Event Rewards]
Special Prize: 1 winner, 200 RMB;
First Prize: 4 winners, 100 RMB each;
Second Prize: 8 winners, 50 RMB each;
Third Prize: 16 winners, 1,000 Qidian points each;
Fourth Prize: 32 winners, 500 Qidian points each;
Fifth Prize: 50 winners, 200 Qidian points each;
Consolation Prize: 80 winners, 100 Qidian points each;
Additionally, 10 fan titles will be drawn for book friends with Disciple fan value or above in any of Pei Buliao's books (a screenshot of fan value for any book is required).
[Total Reward Explanation]
The maximum Qidian point reward per person is 3,000 points. Points exceeding this amount for an individual will automatically return to the total prize pool for re-drawing.