Chapter 16: Don't Tell Your Mother

Ye Nan stared wide-eyed, thinking his vision was playing tricks. He rubbed his eyes and looked again; the "corpse's" finger twitched once more.

Immediately, the corpse slowly sat up. Ye Nan's face filled with terror.

…

At that moment, Lin Ruoxi and Ye Chen elsewhere were searching everywhere for Ye Nan's whereabouts.

"Strange, Xiao Chen, how did your dad just disappear while walking?"

"I don't know."

Ye Chen replied, knowing Ye Nan's disappearance, he had done it on purpose, not stopping it, just wanting to see what tricks this ghost cultivator had.

He also wasn't worried Ye Nan would come to harm; if any accident occurred, he would stop it immediately.

And his heavenly eye kept watch on Ye Nan's current state.

"This old fool, his courage is too small; a few phantoms scared him senseless."

Over these days of his cultivation, the spiritual energy he attracted has also been subtly changing Ye Nan and Lin Ruoxi's bodies.

If there truly were ghosts, their vital essence would undoubtedly be a great tonic for them, which is also a key reason ghost cultivators would directly target them.

"Hurry and find your dad; his courage has always been small, don't let him get scared into trouble."

Lin Ruoxi, searching for Ye Nan's whereabouts, said to Ye Chen.

"Sure!"

Ye Chen replied.

Just as Lin Ruoxi wasn't paying attention, Ye Chen quietly took out the paper effigy, which transformed into his likeness; Ye Chen's current strength is Qi Refining Eighth Layer, and the paper effigy became ever more lifelike.

With Lin Ruoxi's mortal eyes, she could not possibly notice it was a paper effigy, and moreover the effigy possessed Qi Refining Third Layer strength, enough to guard her safety.

"Protect my mother well; I'm going to save my father."

The paper effigy nodded, then followed Lin Ruoxi's steps.

…

"Supreme Elder Lord, True Lord of the Pure Source and Marvelous Dao, Thunder's Might, come quickly and save me!"

Ye Nan's eyes were full of terror, and at that moment the "corpse" slowly walked toward him.

Ye Nan frantically pounded on the door, while behind him the "corpse" emitted a hoarse, grating growl, twisting its body as it slowly approached him.

At that moment, Ye Chen stood outside the door, not taking direct action.

When people are afraid, their vital essence leaks out in large amounts, and that is exactly what ghost cultivators seek.

But because Ye Nan's body had been nourished by spiritual energy, this situation did not occur.

"It seems this ghost cultivator isn't strong; otherwise it would directly drain people's vital essence rather than use such lowly tactics to intimidate."

In the Gui Wu mortuary, the originally flickering lights went out completely; Ye Nan saw the lights suddenly extinguish, his legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.

But then the dark mortuary lit up again, however not with normal light, but with an eerie green flame; the flame flickered, and two clusters of bloody red light flashed within the "corpse".

"Could it be that I'm going to die here today? My secret stash of money—I haven't even spent those few dozen bucks yet, my life is so hard!"

Hearing Ye Chen heard Ye Nan's words, for a moment he didn't know what Ye Nan was thinking; at this time he was still thinking about his secret money.

"Through observation, this ghost cultivator is weak, and I have also located its position."

Ye Chen gently exhaled, "Dad, I'm coming to save you."

As Ye Chen's words fell, he entered through another door; after pushing it open, those scenes vanished instantly, as if they had never existed.

At that moment, Ye Nan tightly closed his eyes and kept chanting, "Supreme Elder Lord, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, show your power, save me, save me."

Seeing this, Ye Chen helplessly shook his head, approached Ye Nan, and said, "Old fool, did you get scared out of your wits?"

Ye Nan heard Ye Chen's voice, suddenly opened his eyes; upon seeing Ye Chen, his eyes filled with astonishment, and then tears welled up.

"My poor child, you died so miserably, so young and already keeping your father company—you died so unjustly!"

Ye Chen: "……"

"Old fool, are you scared out of your wits?"

Ye Nan embraced Ye Chen, with a hint of sob in his voice, saying, "My child, don't be afraid; even if it's the Nine Netherworld Underworld, your father will surely let you be reborn!"

Ye Nan spoke with absolute conviction, as if he were the master of the underworld.

"Old fool, have you gone mad?"

Ye Chen said while placing his hand on Ye Nan's forehead; the temperature was normal, his mind clear, and there was nothing wrong.

Ye Nan said nothing, merely tightening his hold on Ye Chen a bit more.

"Old fool, you're not dead; that's just a prop—look."

Ye Chen said while circulating his spiritual power to conjure a fake body similar to the previous one; since that corpse was formed of yin energy, the moment Ye Chen pushed open the door and broke the illusion, it dissipated as well.

Hearing Ye Chen's words, Ye Nan half-believing, half-doubting opened his eyes and looked in the direction Ye Chen pointed; he was astonished to find a model lying there, exactly the same as the one he had seen before.

Upon seeing the model, Ye Nan stared dumbfounded for a moment, then burst out cursing.

"Damn! What a lousy ghost house, it scared the hell out of me!"

After saying that, Ye Nan suddenly turned his head, giving Ye Chen a grim look.

"This matter must not be told to your mother, or else…"

Ye Nan said while making a throat-slashing gesture.

Ye Chen said nothing, merely turned and walked out of the prop mortuary.

Seeing Ye Chen leave, Ye Nan glanced at the "corpse" prop on the ground, felt a chill, and hurriedly called out from behind Ye Chen, "Hey hey hey, wait for your dad!"

But Ye Chen ignored Ye Nan's voice, instead thinking to himself, "I need to find Mother; with the paper effigy by my side, there shouldn't be any big trouble. Now I'll just send this old fool to Mother's side, and then we can settle this."

Meanwhile outside Gui Wu, two staff members looked at the surveillance with puzzled faces.

"How did these two suddenly appear? They weren't on the monitor before."

"Maybe they walked into a blind spot of the camera."

"No, they really appeared out of nowhere!"

"All right, all right, I'll give you a day off tomorrow, rest well, you're hallucinating."

"But..."

"No more 'but's, this is a scientific world, we must believe in science."

"Fine..."

After he finished speaking, he looked at Ye Chen and Ye Nan, "But, they really did appear out of nowhere..."

At this moment in Gui Wu, Lin Ruoxi was walking in the gallery; she didn't notice that on the wall portraits, the eyes of the painted figures were following her, their mouths slightly curling up, revealing an eerie smile.

"Xiao Chen, your old man just knows how to run around all day; when he comes back, I'll definitely break his legs!"

Because Zhi Ren and Ye Chen share spiritual awareness, Lin Ruoxi's words were also heard by Ye Chen.

Upon hearing that, Ye Chen couldn't help but shiver.

"Old geezer, best of luck to you."

At this moment, Ye Chen brought Ye Nan and quickly approached the place where Lin Ruoxi was.

Meanwhile, Lin Ruoxi still didn't know that danger was silently approaching.

The person in the painting moved; they slowly floated out of the frame, flying toward Lin Ruoxi and Ye Chen's paper person.

Lin Ruoxi was unaware of all this, still scolding Ye Nan ahead.

And Ye Chen's paper person turned to face those "people in the painting".

He indifferently looked at those "people in the painting", his small mouth slightly open, "Get lost!"