"I promise you." Lin Bai took a deep breath, waved to him, and pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of his eye. "Go now, my warrior. I respect your honor."
"Fool! How can there be such a fool in the world…" Watching the two men putting on a clumsy performance outside, the male A Piao roared inside the shop, CLANGING and BANGING sounds echoing as he vented his emotions. "I'll kill him! I'll definitely kill him!"
"Kill me then!" Dragon Breath's heart leaped with joy, playing along with the provocation. "If there's one thing I don't lack, it's lives! Today, I'll give it my all to send you lot to Hades! You can't kill me, but I'll slaughter your entire family…"
"Just try stepping in," the male A Piao's voice suddenly grew low and threatening.
The female A Piao, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke, "A Nan, don't! We've already endured for three years. If we kill him, all our previous efforts will be wasted."
A clear female voice, never heard before, immediately followed, "Daddy, no! Let's just endure it. They'll leave when they're tired of making a scene! Big Brother, don't come in! My father will really kill you! Please leave quickly!"
"Enough!" Male A Piao's voice was filled with barely suppressed fury. "Haven't you all realized? He's deliberately trying to drive us away! Don't move! I'll kill him. I'll bear all the karmic consequences…"
"Daddy, if you kill someone, you'll turn into a fierce ghost!" the young female A Piao's voice choked with sobs. "Big Brother outside, please, I beg you, stop him! I know you bought the shop. We don't harm people!"
A fierce ghost?
Hearing these words, combined with everything that had happened, Lin Bai's heart skipped a beat. Had he outsmarted himself? Or were these people also putting on an act?
However, there was an idiom about ghosts telling a pack of lies, and Lin Bai instinctively doubted everything.
After all, he had never encountered an A Piao before; any unilateral assumption could be wrong.He couldn't afford the price of a mistake.
After a moment of contemplation, Lin Bai called out to Dragon Breath, probing, "Brother, perhaps we shouldn't fight? They look rather pitiful."
Dragon Breath whirled around and declared righteously, "Shopkeeper, don't be deceived by them! How can you believe the words of evil spirits? They're begging for mercy now because they fear me. Believe it or not, once I leave, they'll harm you again. They shouldn't exist in the mortal realm in the first place! Evil spirits, I'll fight you to the death…"
With a loud roar, Dragon Breath charged into the shop.
The mood was set.
The groundwork was laid.
You think he won't die just because you say so?
If he didn't die, all the previous effort would be for nothing.Half a night's work!The reward was just a broken kitchen knife. Who would be satisfied with that?
So, he had to die.
It would be even better if he provoked the A Piao inside into becoming a fierce ghost; then this NPC Shopkeeper would rely on him even more.He was determined to clear this instance.
As it turned out, when someone was hell-bent on dying, there was no stopping them.
Although the female A Piao kept desperately pleading with her husband to remain calm, and though the young female A Piao tearfully begged Lin Bai to hold back his companion and stop him from rushing to his death…
None of it could extinguish Dragon Breath's fervent wish to die.
Even when the mother and daughter A Piao pushed him out, he still charged headlong into the Dreadful Mansion. Before rushing in, he even summoned the bravado of one entering a den of vice, spewing vulgar taunts at the male A Piao's wife and daughter.
The filthiness of his language made even Lin Bai want to cover his ears. This game is truly realistic; it doesn't even censor profanity.
Finally, Dragon Breath successfully enraged the male A Piao, who lost all reason and, in an instant, obliterated him.
Watching Dragon Breath enact his own elaborate suicide right before his eyes, Lin Bai heaved a profound sigh. Even the joy from discovering a method to collect positive emotions was dampened.
Madmen!The thought that his future life would be filled with such lunatics made his scalp tingle. This damned game world!
After Dragon Breath died, a dead silence fell upon the shop. Only the chirping of insects and the calls of birds could be heard.
Lin Bai stared nervously at the shop. Had the male A Piao really turned into a fierce ghost from killing someone?What kind of ridiculous rule was this!
A moment later.
"Daddy—!"
A mournful cry echoed from within the shop.
Lin Bai looked at the shop and asked, puzzled, "Little miss, Dragon Breath is dead. Why are you crying for your dad?"
The crying stopped abruptly.
Then, a figure in white rushed to the doorway, intending to pounce on Lin Bai. But as she reached it, a white light flashed, and she was flung back as if hitting an invisible barrier.
Confirming the ghost couldn't actually leave the shop, Lin Bai breathed a sigh of relief. He lit a fire fold and cautiously approached the doorway to observe the situation inside.
The fire fold illuminated a limited area. He could only see Little A Piao at the entrance, not the situation deeper inside the shop.
Little A Piao was dressed in white, her hair disheveled. She floated just inside the doorway, her face ghastly pale with faint burn marks. Her appearance was quite generic, even less frightening than Sachiko.
On closer inspection, however, her delicate features were actually somewhat cute. She looked to be thirteen or fourteen at most.
At this moment, Little A Piao glared fiercely at Lin Bai, tears of blood streaming down her cheeks. "It's all your fault, you scoundrel! If it weren't for you, Daddy wouldn't have killed anyone! If he hadn't killed, he wouldn't have become a fierce ghost! If he hadn't become a fierce ghost, he would have had a chance at spiritual cultivation! It was you! You villain! You ruined everything for Daddy! I hate you…"
Well, well. She didn't seem too bright.He hadn't even asked anything, and she'd already blurted out everything.
Lin Bai looked at Little A Piao and offered his gentlest smile. "Little sister, being trapped in this house for three years, were you lonely?"
"…" Little A Piao was stunned. She looked outside, and a flicker of longing involuntarily appeared in her eyes. But then, remembering how detestable the man before her was, her gaze turned fierce again.
"What's your name?" Lin Bai asked with a smile.
"…" Little A Piao stared coldly at Lin Bai, saying nothing.
"Who told you that killing someone turns you into a fierce ghost?" Lin Bai inquired.
"Daoist Master Li told us! It's all your fault! You've ruined Daddy's entire life!" Little A Piao was enraged once more.
"You're squatting in my house." Lin Bai produced the deed from his robes. "It's perfectly reasonable for me to hire people to deal with you. You shouldn't hate me…"
"This is our home!" Little A Piao retorted coldly, without even glancing at the deed. "No one can drive us away!"
"Houses are for the living. The dead should be in their graves," Lin Bai stated calmly.
"You…" Little A Piao glared furiously at Lin Bai.
"Call your parents over. I want to talk to them," Lin Bai said.
"Get lost!" A male A Piao, appearing to be in his thirties, materialized at the doorway. He wore grey robes, his expression icy, and a dark aura coiled around him. "Stop bothering us again! I've killed someone; I've already become a fierce ghost. Since I've killed one, I don't mind killing another."
A fierce ghost? Lin Bai sized up the male A Piao and shook his head. You don't really look like one!
"…" The male A Piao and Little A Piao were speechless.
"I think that Taoist tricked you," Lin Bai said.
From the intelligence Dragon Breath had paid for with his life, Lin Bai had roughly deduced the personalities of those inside.Low EQ, and not very high IQ either.Generally, people like this were ideal targets for scammers.
"Are you saying killing someone doesn't turn you into a fierce ghost?" Little A Piao's blood-red eyes widened. "But the old Taoist clearly said that once someone kills, their heart will be filled with hostile energy, gradually making them cruel and bloodthirsty, and eventually, they'll lose their mind…"
"No, you misunderstand me," Lin Bai said. "I mean, perhaps becoming a fierce ghost isn't limited to just that one method."
"…" The two A Piao struggled to follow Lin Bai's train of thought.
"I believe 'fierce ghost' is more of a state of mind," Lin Bai said confidently, looking at the two A Piao behind the door. "The little sister here just said that killing fills the heart with hostile energy, leading to a loss of rationality and thus becoming a fierce ghost. However, there are many ways to fill a heart with hostile energy; killing isn't the only one."
This guy is insane!Who wants to discuss with you how to become a fierce ghost?
At some point, the mistress of the house had also appeared behind the door. The three A Piao stared intently at Lin Bai, the dark energy around them fluctuating. The man before them seemed utterly unreasonable. Discussing how to become a fierce ghost with ghosts—what was the difference between that and discussing with a living person which way of dying was more comfortable?
Fine, he had indeed just driven someone to their death. A person like that would surely be despised by humans and detested by ghosts!
"Perhaps you don't know this, but being tormented by negative emotions for a long time can lead to mental breakdown in humans, causing all sorts of problems, like going mad or becoming hysterical. I imagine it's much the same for ghosts, as I've noticed your thought processes aren't all that different from humans."
Lin Bai looked at the three A Piao and waved the deed in his hand. "I bought this shop. Because of you, I can't get my money back. And I happen to be a thrifty person; I don't want my money to go down the drain. So, naturally, I have to find a way to get rid of you.
"From tonight's events, you should have realized my personality is rather stubborn. That fellow clearly couldn't beat you, yet I goaded him into attacking you repeatedly until he lost his life…"
"That's because he was an idiot!" the male A Piao retorted, trembling violently with anger.
"I can find many more just as idiotic as him." Lin Bai smiled. "I plan to have them come here every night to 'subdue demons and exorcise evil,' and I'll keep this up indefinitely. Sooner or later, either you'll be eliminated by one of them, or this endless torment will drive you completely mad, turning you into true fierce ghosts. When that happens, perhaps you'll attract a Heavenly Tribulation, or maybe a truly powerful cultivator will come to eliminate you. Either way, I will be the ultimate victor in this War."
Little A Piao stared in horror at the man before her, as if seeing an Evil Spirit, and instinctively shrank behind her mother. How could he think of such a venomous plan?
"You come in! I'll kill you!" the male A Piao roared, his features contorting as if envisioning their demise. The dark energy around him trembled.
"…" Lin Bai glanced at the family of three and raised an eyebrow. "You come out."
"…" The A Piao family was collectively stunned. How could a person be so shameless? Compared to him, that fool who'd just gotten himself killed seemed downright endearing!
The female A Piao gently patted her enraged husband's arm and looked at Lin Bai. "Doing that will cause the deaths of many people! Doesn't your conscience bother you? Are you even human anymore?"
"To be precise, it's you who aren't human," Lin Bai glanced at them. "Humans and ghosts walk different paths. What I'm doing is for the peace of the mortal realm."
"We can't leave the house! We've never harmed anyone!" the female A Piao asked, her voice trembling. "Why are you treating us like this? The Taoist who subdued us back then never thought of harming us; he even left us a way to survive…"
"Just because you haven't harmed anyone, does that make you good ghosts?" Lin Bai sighed. "Look around you. Because of your existence, this place has been desolate for three years. How many people, for the sake of their livelihood, were forced to move away, unable to return to their homes?
"Such a prime location, yet devoid of people. And this situation is set to continue for another ten years, all because of you. You've caused such immense losses; do you think a simple 'we haven't harmed anyone' can just wave it all away? You didn't strike them down yourselves, but countless people have been displaced because of you. Your sins for this indirect harm are immense…"
"…" The three A Piao were dumbfounded.
"Also, based on your experiences," Lin Bai paused, "I'd wager that the old Taoist who trapped you here wasn't a good person either!"