New Times, New Hell

Chapter 108 - Plants vs. Zombies

Yu Zhengdu watched on with wide eyes as the girl in cyan chomped down on the last piece of dirt and swallowed it. He felt like chills were running up his spine.

Only now did he realize that the girl in cyan’s movements were slightly stiffer than the movements of normal people. Her entire being was impossibly thin, and the greenish-purple shadows under her eyes was the color of corpses.

Yu Zhengdu reached an epiphany. While remaining expressionless, he scanned his surroundings. The religious masters and special department employees were in the midst of preparing for work. Nobody had noticed that there was anything strange about the girl in cyan.

Yu Zhengdu had a guess in his heart, but also wasn’t absolutely certain about the girl in cyan’s identity. He didn’t dare to make a big show of finding someone to ascertain his guess either. He feared that if his guess really was right, asking someone would only alert the enemy in advance.

He continuously observed his surroundings, wondering how to share his findings with everyone else. Suddenly, he heard the girl in cyan ask in confusion, “What is that person doing?”

Yu Zhengdu followed her gaze and looked over. Only to sweatdrop.

Close by, a female Daoist priest had pulled out a face mask from her bag. She familiarly ripped open the packaging and placed the mask on her face. They could faintly hear her mutter, “This damned drought demon. It’s been a long time since my skin has been so deprived of water.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” What an elegant female Daoist priest!

He praised her in his heart. Just as he was about to turn around, an idea suddenly struck. He smiled and told the girl in cyan, “She’s using a beautifying face mask. Do you want to try?”

“Beautifying?” The girl in cyan widened her sunken eyes in interest. “I want to try too.”

The Wuqi citizen raised his hand next to them. “Me too!”

Yu Zhengdu: “……Okay.”

He stood up and walked over to the female Daoist priest and told her, “Shijie, may I ask if you still have any remaining face masks?”

The female Daoist lifted up her big, white face and stared at him. Her voice was filled with confusion. “Little householder, you want to do skin care too?”

“Uh, it’s the two ladies over there who feel that their skin is too dry.” Yu Zhengdu pointed at the Wuqi citizen and girl in cyan while lying through his teeth.

The female Daoist priest glanced in the direction he was pointing and lamented, “The female householders truly are very dry! This goddamned drought demon!”

While speaking, she pulled out two more face masks from her bag and generously stated, “Take these over to them so they can rehydrate. Ladies really can’t be careless about their skin for even an instant.”

“Thank you, Shijie.” Yu Zhengdu obediently accepted the face masks. While sending a message to Ming Peiran, he walked back to where he had originally been sitting. He handed the face masks to the Wuqi citizen and girl in cyan. “Know how to use it?”

“Yes yes.” The Wuqi citizen, a crossdressing expert, was an excellent learner. He immediately copied the female Daoist priest and started putting the face mask onto his face.

The girl in cyan wasn’t as smart as the Wuqi citizen, but she replicated the Wuqi citizen’s actions almost exactly. Carefully, she placed the sticky white paper onto her face.

At the same time, Ming Peiran, who had been in the middle of discussing some details with Daoist priest Mu and the employees, received a message from Yu Zhengdu:【Pay attention to the face mask. Don’t say anything.】

Ming Peiran didn’t understand what was going on. He instinctively looked up and turned in Yu Zhengdu’s direction. And then, he saw two girls doing their best to put face masks onto their faces.

Ming Peiran sweatdropped. He thought to himself as expected from girls. They truly live a refined life, not even forgetting to do skin care at such a time. However, even so, Yu Zhengdu didn’t need to especially tattle on them, right?

As soon as this thought struck, he watched as the liquid in the girl in cyan’s face mask dried almost instantly. The entire face mask very obviously turned into a stiff piece of white paper.

Ming Peiran widened his eyes. He was still suspecting that his eyes had tricked him when he heard the female Daoist priest muttering from off to the side, “Damned drought demon. My face mask dried so fast!”

He turned over to look. The female Daoist priest was in the middle of taking her face mask off. Her face mask had dried very quickly too, but definitely not as fast as the girl in cyan’s. That girl hadn’t given the face mask any time for mental preparation at all.

At this time, the employee who had originally been responsible for recording the girl in cyan’s information walked over. He scratched his head and said, “Captain, this tourist can’t remember a lot of her information. She doesn’t have a personal ID number or home phone number. The office at the foot of the mountain can’t find any of her registration information. They can’t make any arrangements for her……”

Ming Peiran almost screamed out loud. At such a critical time, though, he remembered Yu Zhengdu’s friendly reminder. He forced himself to swallow his scream and pressed down on the employee’s shoulder. “That’s fine. I’ll make the arrangements.”

Ming Peiran:【I saw it. What to do?】

Yu Zhengdu glanced at the message. He rapidly went over the events that had transpired since encountering the girl in cyan before sending Ming Peiran a plan of action:【Let’s try】

In the blink of an eye, break ended. The meditating religious masters all opened their eyes. Everyone else started stretching and loosening their muscles up too. Someone asked Ming Peiran, “Captain Ming, is it time to start?”

The girl in cyan watched the flurry of movement around her. She stiffly tilted her head slightly and revealed a strange smile. “Are you going to start hitting the pile of dry bones now?”

In the past, fighting a drought demon had also been known as hitting a pile of dry bones.

Ming Peiran calmly said, “Un, please wait a moment.”

He sent Yu Zhengdu a message:【Done】

Thus, Yu Zhengdu revealed a shocked expression. Speaking in a volume that only the girl in cyan could hear, he said, “A rainbow colored light appeared outside!”

As expected, the girl in cyan got distracted. She looked back at him. “A rainbow colored light?”

“Yes. Do you want to come outside with me to see them?” Yu Zhengdu asked her.

He remembered that when they had first encountered the girl in cyan, she had said that she had been attracted by the light. Later, when the emergency lights had been turned on inside the villa, she had expressed great joy.

The girl in cyan thought about it. “Okay.”

The two of them exited the villa together. As soon as they walked out the door, the girl in cyan immediately widened her eyes. “There really is a rainbow colored light! And it can flash too!”

Only to see that there was a ray of laser light shooting up into the sky from deep within the forest. That light created an arrow-straight rainbow against the night sky, incessantly flashing.

“I want to go over and look at it.” Yu Zhengdu turned around to invite her, “Do you want to come with me?”

The girl in cyan glanced at the busy monks and Daoists around them. She thought about it before revealing another strange smile. “Okay, let’s go look at it. Either way, we have enough time.”

As such, the two walked out of the little yard, shoulder to shoulder, and headed in the direction of the rainbow laser.

A Daoist priest wanted to stop them after noticing this. “Householder Yu, why are you still running around……”

But before he could finish speaking, he got forcefully tugged back by Ming Peiran. Ming Peiran gave him a meaningful look. “Daoist priest, we’ll talk back in the room.”

There was a dense forest right across from the villa. Only convoluted shadows could be seen in the dark. One couldn’t tell where the end was either.

Yu Zhengdu and the girl in cyan strolled through the forest. The ground was very dry; the clumps of dirt sticking out had already turned into powder. Only now did Yu Zhengdu discover that this area of forest had already completely withered. There weren’t even signs of little bugs. If this were during the day, it was possible that there might be dried bug exoskeletons. A very dry and hot slight breeze blew past. Immediately after, wilted leaves rained down.

“I like modern lights,” the girl in cyan suddenly said. “They’re both bright and pretty. And they won’t catch on fire, unlike the torches of before.”

Yu Zhengdu had both his hands stuffed into his pockets. While walking, he chatted with her. “Are you scared of torches?”

“Not really,” the girl in cyan replied. “However, torches are very annoying. The places I pass by are all very dry. Things will start burning even with the smallest flame.”

Yu Zhengdu solemnly nodded. “A fire on the mountain sends you straight to jail when you get off the mountain. One truly needs to be aware of fire safety.”

As they spoke, the two of them neared the area the light was emanating from.

The girl in cyan happily pointed at a big tree up front. “The rainbow light is there.”

A portable laser weapon had been hung from a tall tree. The rainbow light ray was shooting out from that laser weapon, pointing straight at the sky.

“It’s too high up.” Yu Zhengdu looked up at the laser weapon hanging in the air. He suggested to the girl in cyan, “Wait here for a moment. I’ll come back after finding a ladder.”

“No need. I can reach it,” the girl in cyan said. And then, she stiffly jumped straight up from the ground, not even bending her knees in the slightest. With one jump, she had already reached the height of two or three stories. She quickly snatched the laser weapon.

Yu Zhengdu: “……!”

Sister, at least consider the feelings of us normal people before you jump!

It was only because Yu Zhengdu had seen many ghosts before that he didn’t get shaky legs.

The girl in cyan happily played around with the laser weapon for a bit. Then, she looked up at Yu Zhengdu. “We should head back now. The Daoists and monks are still waiting for me.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Yu Zhengdu seemed nonchalant. His hands were still stuffed in his pockets. He leisurely walked forward: however, he silently stayed a few steps ahead of her.

Very quickly, they saw the lights of the villa. From afar, a large, majestic altar table train could be seen outside the villa. From the left to the right, they were all neatly lined up. The incense on the altar tables were all lit. The incense fire floated straight into the sky.

Behind the altar tables, the eminent monks and Daoists were all armed to the teeth. With their hands tight around their magical tools, all of them were nervously chanting incantations while staring straight ahead.

Yu Zhengdu instantly became speechless because of the grandeur of this scene.

What a cross-religion spell-casting moment!

As expected from socialists. Even collaborations between varying religious organizations could be so tight-knit and harmonious!

While fiddling with the laser weapon, the girl in cyan said, “Monks and Daoists still cast spells the same ways they did in the past. They haven’t changed at all.”

“That’s not completely true. Right now, some Daoists are starting to promote scientific cultivation. In the future, they’ll definitely become more innovative and effective,” Yu Zhengdu replied.

The girl in cyan tilted her head. “What’s scientific cultivation?”

“That’s a bit hard to explain. I’d have to start with Newton and Marx.” Yu Zhengdu held his hands out in exasperation. “I no longer have enough time to start lecturing.”

He suddenly asked, “You keep talking about the past. Did you emerge from the dirt in the past too?”

“Emerge from the dirt?” The girl in cyan thought about it and nodded agreeably. “Yes, I’ve emerged from the dirt before. However, I very quickly got buried by Daoists again.”

She revealed a strange smile. “But that won’t happen this time. I’m very powerful now.”

Yu Zhengdu nodded. He muttered to himself, “The ghost catching technologies these days have gotten very powerful too.”

The girl in cyan abruptly turned to look at him. “You already know who I am, right?”

“How could that be possible? This is my first time seeing you!” Yu Zhengdu exclaimed, expression unchanged. “Oh right. Are you a fast runner?”

“I’m alright……” Before the girl in cyan could finish responding, she saw Yu Zhengdu suddenly charge forward. Like a gust of wind, he quickly swung his open hands back and forth as he ran in the direction of the villa. While running, he shouted, “Protect me protect me protect me!”

The girl in cyan: “……”

Everyone in front of the villa who had originally been secretly impressed upon seeing Yu Zhengdu confidently strolling and chatting with the drought demon: “……”

Boss Yu, your image is ruined! Ruined!

As if with wings, Yu Zhengdu charged back towards the rest of the group. Before he could catch his breath, he turned around and placed his hands on his hips arrogantly. He yelled at the girl in cyan, “Drought demon, we’ve already discovered your true identity and have made complete preparations to deal with you. Please cooperate with our work and surrender immediately!”

The religious masters’ mouths twitched. Ming Peiran hurriedly tugged at Yu Zhengdu. “Boss Yu, Daoist pirest Mu just said that since we’ve been interacting with this drought demon for a long time while failing to notice anything wrong with her aura, that means that her skill is far greater than anticipated. Our preparations aren’t complete at all!”

Yu Zhengdu was rendered temporarily speechless. He patted Ming Peiran on the shoulder. “Your reminder came too late. The words have already left my mouth.”

In a moment of carelessness, the girl in cyan had allowed Yu Zhengdu to escape. However, she wasn’t agitated. She continued playing with the laser in her hand while smiling her strange smile. “I’m not scared of you guys anymore.”

As she finished speaking, their surroundings suddenly heated up. The last remaining bit of water vapor quickly disappeared from the atmosphere too. Everyone could feel that their skin was starting to itch.

That female Daoist priest who had just finished using a face mask couldn’t help feeling her face. “It’s too dry……My face is about to crack open……”

At the same time, a “boom” sounded out from the sky above the mountain peak. This shocked everyone so much that they all instinctively looked up. Daoist priest Mu’s expression was solemn. “This is bad. It’s a dry thunderstorm. If we don’t hurry and take care of the drought demon, the mountain is going to catch fire.”

Upon hearing Daoist priest Mu’s words, nobody bothered arguing with the girl in cyan anymore. The religious masters all started saying their incantations.

“The sky and ground are natural; the foul air dissipates; the mystery in the hole; the beautiful Taiyuan; the mighty gods of all around; make me natural……” That female Daoist priest had an impressive cultivation level. She finished reading this incantation first. There was a horsetail whisk in her hand: as she wrapped up the incantation, she flicked the horsetail whisk forward. A gust of wind appeared out of nowhere, instantly picking up the two piles of yellow talismans on the altar table in front of her.

As if being guided, those yellow talismans flew straight at the girl in cyan. The girl in cyan didn’t move away at all, instead allowing the yellow talismans to stick themselves all over her body.

“Slaughter the demon and restrict the evil; kill ten thousand ghosts.” The female Daoist priest flicked her horsetail whisk again. Only to hear a crisp crackling noise. The yellow talismans glued to the girl in cyan had instantly exploded!

Yu Zhengdu started sincerely applauding her. “Shijie is so impressive!”

But after the explosions, the girl in cyan only gently patted at the cloth on her body that had gotten slightly split open by the explosions. She stared at them. Her gaze became dark. “You guys are really very annoying.”

She hadn’t been harmed at all.

The female Daoist priest shrieked, “How could this be?”

“Daoist priest, don’t worry. We can continue!” Ming Peiran hurriedly made a hand gesture. Instantly, employees pulled out two piles of yellow talismans from an open chest. They rapidly refilled the female Daoist priests’s empty supply. Ming Peiran placated, “We’ve prepared enough magical instruments and materials. Religious masters, please do anything you wish. There’s no need to worry about logistics or supplies!”

Yu Zhengdu turned around, only to see that employees were opening chest after chest in the villa, revealing boxes of yellow talismans, cinnabar, peach wood swords, eight trigrams mirrors, black dog blood, etc. There was even a net full of garlic and a few small crosses. He immediately stared on in awe.

The government’s team was honestly too professional! Too rich! Too envy-inspiring!

Ming Peiran smiled at him. “Don’t worry, they’ve all been blessed. These won’t be our weakest links!”

Yu Zhengdu’s mouth twitched. He felt like he ought to say something.

Coincidentally, two employees walked out carrying a chest full of peach wood swords. One of them accidentally stumbled. A book fell from his pocket.

Yu Zhengdu looked down: ……Basic Principles of Marxism?!

Ming Peiran hurriedly picked that book up and dusted it off. Then, he stuffed it into his own waistband and very naturally explained to Yu Zhengdu, “Faith in socialism is faith too. We can’t forget about it at such a time.”

Yu Zhengdu had no response.

At the front line, the religious masters’ fight had already escalated greatly.

The female Daoist priest’s exploding yellow talismans had completely enraged the girl in cyan. The girl in cyan’s skin rapidly dried and shrank. The surrounding air became even drier. It was practically impossible for humans to breathe.

“Ah——” The girl in cyan released a strange and shrill screech. Then, she jumped in place the same way Yu Zhengdu had witnessed in the forest. Her back was straight and her body was stiff. Without any flexibility, she simply shot up into the air. Hot streams of air rippled out from the vicinity of her body. The air seemed to be close to catching fire.

Yu Zhengdu stared at Ming Peiran in shock. “Captain Ming, your hair has started curling up!”

Ming Peiran glanced at him. “Yours too.”

In a rare bout of extreme surprise, Yu Zhengdu’s expression changed. Curly hair was no big deal. If his hair happened to get burned off by the drought demon and he ended up bald, that would be terrible!

At this time, the religious masters all worked together. With the aid of magic, all sorts of magical instruments flew in the direction of the drought demon.

Halfway there, the yellow talismans could no longer handle the high temperatures. They simply burned into ash.

The loud ring of copper bells was like music to everybody’s ears.

Numerous peach wood swords, copper coin swords, and golden kīlas flew forward with great force. With a slight whistling noise, they passed through the sticky heat and pierced straight into the drought demon’s chest.

“Ah——” The drought demon shrilly wailed in the air.

“Hurry, everyone work together!” At Daoist priest Mu’s command, the religious masters all sat on the ground. They closed their eyes and started chanting. Momentarily, only the muttering of incantations remained.

The ring of copper bells continued incessantly. The magical instruments embedded in the drought demon’s chest trembled ceaselessly, digging in further.

The drought demon’s dry and sunken face became even more twisted. Even so, she was still wearing that strange smile. “You guys can’t kill me! But I will kill all of you!”

“Bullshit!” Ming Peiran suddenly held up his hand and yelled, “Bring me my water gun.”

Yu Zhengdu looked at him in surprise. “Captain Ming, so childish?”

“Just watch.” Ming Peiran accepted a high-pressure water gun. He looked at Daoist priest Mu. “Daoist priest, hurry and help me bless this.”

Daoist priest Mu abruptly opened his eyes. While making hand seals, he chanted: “Demon king be controlled, serve me Xuan, remove the evil spirits, Daoism prevails.”

Yu Zhengdu watched this flawless collaboration between the governmental team and the religious masters. He felt very lost.

Immediately after, Ming Peiran charged forward. He lifted the high-pressure water gun up and aimed it at the drought demon. Then, he viciously pressed down on the trigger…… A stream of sticky, blackish-red liquid flowed out.

“Freshly blessed black dog blood. I don’t believe that it won’t kill you, a mere zombie!” Ming Peiran said.

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help imitating Zhou Runfa’s clapping. Innovative. Too innovative.

“Ey, quite a lot of this black dog blood has evaporated too. It’s a bit sticky……” Ming Peiran complained.

Fortunately, the stickiness of the black dog blood didn’t affect its ability to be squirted out or its power. The drought demon had originally been torn up by varying magical instruments already. She was in the midst of an extreme struggle. The black dog blood was basically the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Under the stream of high-pressure black dog blood, the drought demon’s body looked like it had been attacked by acid. Thick, purple smoke started appearing. She released a thundering wail. Unable to withstand it any longer, she flew straight back and fell into the dark forest.

Following the drought demon’s fall, the suffocating heat and stickiness in the air slowly disappeared. Only now did everyone, whose faces were already red, finally manage to slightly catch their breaths. They looked at each other in slight disbelief. “Have we……taken care of her?”

Someone asked, bewildered, “I think so?”

The air didn’t seem to be so hot anymore.

Daoist priest Mu looked up at the sky. The night sky was clear; the only thin layer of clouds that had previously been present was gradually dissipating, revealing the moon that had been covered for a good portion of the night.

The silvery-white moonlight landed on the mountain, clearly illuminating the dry and withered forest.

Daoist priest Mu’s expression became even more solemn. “No, not yet.”

Ming Peiran felt lost. “But……”

Before he finished vocalizing his question, the ground beneath them suddenly started faintly trembling. The rumble of something heavy rolling by could be heard from off in the distance. Shortly after, the forest started shaking too.

The dead trees started falling down one by one.

Everyone was shocked. “Is there an earthquake?”

“Is there an earthquake?”

Daoist priest Mu stood up. He gravely stared off into the distance. “No. There’s something breaking out of the soil!”

The other religious masters immediately got up too. They lined up while facing the forest. “Tonight……there is truly a difficult battle to be fought!”

Under the moonlight, numerous trees in the forest fell. They flipped over into the ground. The earth incessantly swelled up and flattened again, like the surface of boiling water. Following this, the things under the soil revealed their true appearances too.

Si Mountain Ridge was surrounded by wind and water. It was protected from the wind and could gather life energy, rendering it the ideal grave location. After thousands of years, an unknown amount of bodies had been buried under the soil of Si Mountain Ridge – tombs inside tombs, bones on top of bones.

And now, following an inexplicable rainstorm, the mountainside and forest had collapsed. This was enough to allow a rare zombie drought demon to appear.

This drought demon could command the innumerous skeletons buried under the ground.

White skeleton after white skeleton crawled out from the yellow soil. Their eye sockets were empty and sunken. In the moonlight, they reflected a faint silver. Densely packed together, an enormous quantity of them stiffly and slowly started in the direction of the villa following the drought demon’s strange shrieks.

This caused those witnessing this scene to go numb.

“What is actually wrong with Si Mountain Ridge……” Daoist priest Mu’s eyebrows were tightly knit together. His voice was filled with a heavy confusion. “Even though Si Mountain Ridge is in an opportune geographic location, the mortal realm barely has any more magic. Without enough faith, how could Si Mountain Ridge house so many monsters?”

“Faith?” A thought struck. Yu Zhengdu asked, “Could it be related to that cult?”

His words caused everyone’s hearts to skip a beat. However, now wasn’t the time to worry about the question of Si Mountain Ridge’s faith. Right now, they were facing the most serious test.

If they couldn’t take care of this mountain full of skeletons and instead, allowed the skeletons to reach the bottom of the mountain, it was very likely that catastrophe would strike the mortal realm.

“Everyone, keep alert. Whether or not we succeed is all up to fate now!” Daoist priest Mu held out his hand. Yuan Qing handed him a peach wood sword.

The special department’s employees all immediately rushed forward to replenish the religious masters’ varying magical instrument supplies.

The sound of copper bells ringing and chanting could once again be heard. Yellow talismans danced in the wind, floating towards the skeletal army. Magical tools hummed in sync, terrorizing the skeletons into stopping.

The skeletons that got tagged by yellow talismans all shook a bit before landing on the ground and stilling.

“This won’t do. There are too many zombies and skeletons!” An eminent monk collapsed on the ground first due to lack of energy. “We have way too few people!”

The eminent monk wasn’t the only one close to his limits. Yu Zhengdu looked over. There were many other people whose faces were already starting to turn pale.

Though the religious masters had great magical abilities, they were no match for the endless number of skeletons.

If the enemy carried on like this, they would simply be able to tire the religious masters to death.

Yu Zhengdu started feeling anxious too.

At this time, he heard the “bang bang bang——” of a gun. Following the gunshots, skeleton after skeleton fell over.

Yu Zhengdu turned to look in the direction the gunshots had come from. Only to see that at some unknown time, a line of people dressed in camouflage outfits had appeared on the villa roof. Each of them was holding a gun. They laid on the roof, tirelessly shooting at the skeletons.

Ming Peiran said, “Rest a bit for now, religious masters. We’ll hold them back for the time being.”

Yu Zhengdu was astonished. “Guns can be used against zombies too?”

“Of course,” Ming Peiran answered. “Our bullets have been blessed by an eminent monk from Thailand.”

Yu Zhengdu: = = An international collaboration. Badass!

The sound of gunfire continuously rang out. With the addition of the members of the special department, the skeletons’ advancement became slightly slowed. Very quickly, though, the special department could no longer hold them back anymore either.

“Ey! This won’t do! There are too many!” Ming Peiran’s voice was full of agitation.

There were too many skeletons. Though the blessed bullets were effective against them, when one skeleton fell down, there were two to replace it. They were still incessantly pushing forward. Additionally, the special department had brought a lot of heavy equipment. They couldn’t retreat at all; there was also nowhere to retreat to.

The drought demon’s cackles reverberated throughout the entire mountain. “My army will trample you all.”

Ming Peiran was quite sensible. “I guess we’re going to be sacrificing ourselves for our country today……”

“Don’t be so pessimistic.” Yu Zhengdu patted him on the shoulder, took a step forward, and inhaled deeply. “Let me try.”

Ming Peiran was lost. “What are you trying?”

Yu Zhengdu had come up the mountain in casual clothing and with no magical instruments or high-tech equipment. Was he going to start wrestling with the zombies?

Yu Zhengdu didn’t respond to this question. He only took out his phone, pulled up the photo of the Ghost King of Luofeng Mountain’s Magical Seal, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and started lowly chanting.

Since he had left the Hungry Ghost Path, he had started learning how to use the heart seal more diligently. Now was the time for him to test the results of his learning.

Following his low chanting, the originally hot and dry air slowly cooled down: not a natural cool, though. Instead, it was a chill that drove deep into one’s bones and caused one to feel cold from the bottom of their heart.

“W-what’s going on?”

The religious masters felt an unnatural chill surround them during their break. They all started feeling anxious. Immediately after, everyone widened their eyes in disbelief.

Ming Peiran wasn’t an ordinary person. As soon as he saw this, he knew that something had happened. Thus, he instantly pulled out a yellow talisman and glued it to his own chest. Then, he dipped his finger in some cinnabar and drew an eye between his eyebrows.

And then, Ming Peiran: “Fuck! Where did all these ghosts come from?”

Only to see that at some unknown time, a huge crowd of ghosts had already appeared outside the villa door. Though their numbers couldn’t be compared to the mountainside full of skeletons, because of the close proximity, the shock upon seeing them was greater.

Yu Zhengdu said very modestly, “I called them here.”

Ming Peiran looked at him with a shocked expression on his face. “Your company can really summon dozens……no, hundreds of ghosts with one phone call?”

He had originally always thought that Yu Zhengdu had been somewhat exaggerating when saying that his company could summon a dozen ghosts with a phone call. He honestly hadn’t expected……that the other was actually being humble!

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

He didn’t know how to explain either; thus he simply didn’t bother with explaining. Instead, he stared at the group of ghosts outside the villa. The group of ghosts stared back at him too.

The one in charge ingratiatingly asked, “Boss Yu, what orders do you have for us after summoning us here?”

Yu Zhengdu looked in the direction the skeletons were coming from. “Do you guys know how to fight zombies?”

The ghost had a pained expression on. “N-no. Though we’re all dead, they don’t possess thoughts but have a physical body. In a fight, we’re at a disadvantage.”

“Uh, is that so?” Yu Zhengdu thought about it before asking, “Then you guys must at least know how to transport bricks, right?”

All the ghosts revealed terrified expressions. “Boss Yu……”

“Just, you know……” Yu Zhengdu pointed in the direction the skeletons were attacking from. “I want to ask you guys to transport some stuff over to block them.”

“Oh oh oh, that. No problem.” The ghosts finally heaved out sighs of relief. As long as Yu Zhengdu wasn’t really telling them to transport bricks.

There had once been a post on the Fengdu Forum exposing the fact that during Luofeng’s economically challenged period, they had once thought of using the “Five Ghosts Brick Transporting spell” to force ghosts to go carry bricks around at construction sites for money. This scared them so much that they had almost thought that they were really getting sent to transport bricks.

The religious masters had all opened their Yin Yang Eyes. The members of the special department all had their unique tricks for seeing ghosts too. Thus, everyone stared as innumerous ghosts charged in the direction of the dense forest. They did their best to pick up enormous pieces of dirt and branches, layering these in front of the skeletons. There were too many ghosts. In only an instant, the branches and dirt had already formed a long protection line, keeping the skeletons on the other side.

“Hurry, Captain Ming. Take this opportunity to hit the zombies!” Yu Zhengdu said.

Only now did Ming Peiran stop thinking about the Five Ghosts Brick Transporting spell. He immediately ordered his squad members to start wildly shooting.

Skeletons moved stiffly and weren’t capable of thinking. Upon being blocked like this, they honestly couldn’t make their way over for the time being. They could only reach out with their arms and try to feel around. Some even bit at the branches and dirt. Then, they would get hit by bullets and fall down one by one.

The tides were immediately starting to turn.

Everyone exhaled in relief together. After, they gazed at Yu Zhengdu with conflicted expressions.

Pained. Can’t say anything.

But Yu Zhengdu didn’t notice their gazes. Instead, he was watching the special department members in fascination as they fought the zombies. The longer he watched, the more he felt like this scene seemed a bit familiar.

A while later, he reached a realization. “Yi? Isn’t this basically Plants vs. Zombies?”

Ming Peiran: “What?”

Yu Zhengdu excitedly pointed in the direction of the skeletons and said, “I used to play Plants vs. Zombies. My favorite thing to do was to lay down a wall of potatoes in the really front to block the zombies, then place a line of Peashooters in the really back. That way, there would be a blockade in the front and a line of shooters in the back: the perfect collaboration.”

Ming Peiran: “……”

After accepting this set up……

He couldn’t help correcting, “The stuff blocking the zombies weren’t potatoes. They were nuts.”

“Captain Ming has played before too? Ey, it’s all about the same.”

Yu Zhengdu turned around and made a fist at the shooters on the roof. He yelled, “Jiayou, Peashooters!”

The Peashooters: “……”

The author has something to say:

The Five Ghosts Brick Transporting spell appeared in Chapter 13, the first time Boss Yu mentioned his dream of having Xiao Kui becoming the head honcho of all construction sites……