Chapter 120: Elevator

【The reason I came here is because I covet the inheritance of the Yin family.】

The text typed on the screen this time was very long and took some time to read. Feng Yushu lowered her head and read silently:

【The Yin family is an ancient family. In the long history measured in centuries, the people in their family have stably controlled the rules of more than one ghost.】

【Such hereditary families generally instill in their younger generation the moral concept of sacrifice from an early age, as well as the life philosophy of maintaining the family's long-term prosperity by sacrificing the small self.】

【In this way, the family turned eerie rules into a dangerous but controllable violent weapon, using blood ties as a link to stably pass down one weapon after another from generation to generation within the family, until modern times.】

"There is actually such a thing..." Feng Yushu was fascinated. This kind of secret was something she had never encountered before. She couldn't help but continue reading, wanting to know what happened later.

【Then their family was exterminated.】

"Ah, this..."

【Although the Kunpeng is dead, its wings are still rich. Even the Gridders who exterminated the Yin family back then couldn't scrape clean all the wealth of this thousand-year-old family, so I came here to get the remaining inheritance they hid in Nursing Village.】

Since things had reached this point, there was no need to explain further.

Ning Zhe was not someone who would be moved by wealth. Secular money was nothing but bones and dung to a Gridder. There was only one possibility for an "inheritance" that could move someone like Ning Zhe.

"The ghost of the Yin family." Feng Yushu had the answer in her heart.

Rules had no strength, only suitability and unsuitability, ease of mastery and difficulty of mastery. And the ghost that could be deeply hidden in such a place by a thousand-year-old family like the Yin family at the time of their extermination undoubtedly possessed extremely high practicality.

At this very moment, "Fen Wu" was still watching from the shadows.

A ghost that had been passed down from generation to generation in a family, a stable rule that had been tested for a thousand years, was exactly what Ning Zhe needed most right now.

【Ji Taimi's mother mentioned in the letter that his grandfather hid a "thing" that could kill Gridders in the deepest part of Nursing Village. That is what we are looking for.】

Ning Zhe then typed new text on the screen:

【The letter also said that it is a deep place that cannot be reached by human power.】

Feng Yushu felt puzzled. Since he knew where it was, what was he waiting for?

Since the ghost of the Yin family was hidden in the deepest place, why did Ning Zhe only commit suicide 3 times and stop? Why didn't he go all the way to the deepest layer of Nursing Village, but had to stop at this -2 layer without sound?

【We don't have enough money.】

Before Feng Yushu could ask this question, Ning Zhe gave the answer.

"Not enough money?" Feng Yushu's expression stalled, and she quickly understood what Ning Zhe meant.

Qian Cai was used to "go back."

The way to fall from the human world to a deeper world was death. This was an irreversible, one-sided process. The Ming Realm of the Ghostly was not a domain that living people should set foot in. From the moment they committed suicide twice, the dead bodies sinking to the bottom of the lake were pressed with the weight of a thousand jun, and there was no possibility of seeing the light of day again. They could never go back to the human world.

Unless... there was some way to achieve 【Resurrection from the Dead】.

Coincidentally, Wealth Wu Tong could.

"This is the ancestral industry of the Yin family. It just so happens that the God of Wealth, Wealth Wu Tong, is also a ghost of the Yin family... perhaps it's not a coincidence. The life-buying money of Wealth Wu Tong is the rope to crawl back to the human world from the abyss, and it is the elevator to return to the ground from the basement. This is a perfect process designed by humans, with a beginning and an end."

Thinking of this, some problems that had once troubled Ning Zhe also had answers.

The reason Ji Taimi's father, Ji Wuxie, had to risk his life to go to Chuyun Mountain was perhaps to retrieve "Wealth Wu Tong" from the dead Ji Bochang. That was the God of Wealth of the Yin family, and the Yin family knew the rules of Wealth Wu Tong completely.

But Ji Bochang's ruthlessness far exceeded everyone's expectations. He set a trap, planned the loss of control of Wealth Wu Tong, and sent out invitations to a group of unsuspecting Gridders. In the future predicted by Lan Shiwen, the God of Wealth bought the entire city of Yun.

With no hope of recovering Wealth God, Ji Wuxie had to return to Juxian Garden, trying to recover the two ghosts among the three immortals of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity that had not yet been unsealed.

Then he died.

"Let's do a math problem first..." Ning Zhe closed his eyes slightly and listed some important information in his heart:

1. For every layer deeper you go into Yanglao Village, you need to kill yourself 1 time, which means losing 1 life.

2. If you want to return to the layer above from the current layer, you need to buy 1 life from Wealth Wu Tong.

3. Wealth Wu Tong will raise the price. In the first transaction, the initial price of 1 life is 1 life-buying coin. The second transaction rises to 2 coins for 1 life, and the third is 4 coins for 1 life.

... 1, 2, 4, 8, 16... and so on.

"If you view the space-time structure of Yanglao Village as a building with different floors, Wealth God is the elevator to go upstairs, but starting this elevator requires payment. Every time it starts, the price doubles." This was Ning Zhe's most intuitive view of this Yin family ancestral industry.

Then how many floors does this "building" have?

This brings us back to that folk saying with some Taoist color:

【When people die, they become ghosts; when ghosts die, they become 'Gui'; when 'Gui' die, they become 'Xi'; when 'Xi' die, they become 'Yi'; when 'Yi' die, they become 'Wei'; when 'Wei' die, they become 'Formless'.】

If the final "Formless" is also viewed as a layer of the world, then the layered world structure of Yanglao Village has 7 layers. To return from the deepest "Formless" to the "Human" on the 1st layer, you need to buy 7 lives.

For 1 person to return to reality from the end of the abyss, it costs 1+2+4+8+16+32+64=127, 127 life-buying coins. This is the most ideal situation, because Ning Zhe actually hasn't fully figured out Wealth Wu Tong's price-increasing rules. The largest life-buying transaction he has seen so far cost 2 copper coins to buy 1 life for the siblings Shi Yurou and Ji Yunying.

After 2 is 4, what is after 4? Is it 8 or 16?

Is Wealth Wu Tong's price-increasing rule doubling or squaring?

Ning Zhe doesn't know, so he doesn't dare to gamble. However, even if he doesn't gamble, even if he calculates according to the most optimistic situation, it costs 127 life-buying coins for 1 person to return to reality from the deepest part of Yanglao Village.

That is a huge sum that Ning Zhe cannot afford.

"I didn't expect that even after becoming a transcendent, I would still be troubled by money." Ning Zhe shook his head.

With the clarity of the truth, he already understood that he really didn't have the capital to go to the deepest part of Yanglao Village to find out.

【Ning Zhe, what should we do now?】

Feng Yushu's typing speed suddenly became much faster. Knowing that Ning Zhe might have made a wasted trip, she looked even more anxious than Ning Zhe himself:

【Is there any way to earn more money here?】

Ning Zhe patted her shoulder to signal her to calm down, lifted his head to move his gaze away from the locked door, looked for windows or small holes in the old brick wall that he could slip into, and typed another line:

【I'll go inside and take a look, wait for me for a while.】

=9+Shu_Ba

Feng Yushu nodded obediently.

However, Ning Zhe didn't set off immediately, but spent a few minutes typing a long paragraph on the screen again:

【Try to be careful outside, don't act rashly. In this village, there should still be a rule that causes death.】

"Instant-death rule?" Feng Yushu's brows furrowed.

【Our experience in front of the Earth Temple earlier proved one thing: people cannot kill dead people, but ghosts with instant-death rules can.】

【Simply put, using conventional means such as knives, swords, or firearms can only change a person's life from 1 to 0, but cannot change 0 to -1. To do something like "killing a dead person," you need an instant-death rule similar to Special Permission or Ye Yao.】

For example, the death taboo of the Serpent God.

【People who have already died will not die again, unless you use rules to force them to die.】

【And since Ji Taimi's mother let him come here and let him go to the deepest part of Yanglao Village, it means that there must be a way to reach the deepest part here.】

Otherwise, how would Ji Taimi, a mere mortal, go to a deep-layer world that can only be reached by killing through rules?

If you say that the God of Wealth Wealth Wu Tong is the ascending elevator to the ground, then that unclear instant-death rule is the descending elevator to hell.

"Even if I can't get the inheritance of the Yin family hidden in the deepest layer, at least I have to figure out the situation here first, so that I can be prepared if I come again in the future." Ning Zhe clarified his goal.

After searching around, he didn't find any windows that were still open. Ning Zhe simply didn't waste any more time. The teenager's body turned into a wisp of thin smoke, and then turned into a bee, passing through the screen mesh above the gate and entering the small building.

After entering the door, Ning Zhe turned back into his original appearance and was about to walk inside, but before he could take a step, Ning Zhe's footsteps stopped, and the facial features on his face changed quietly.

To be safe, he turned back into Ji Taimi's appearance.

Although it was daytime, because the doors and windows were closed, the living room on the first floor was still in a closed darkness, especially after all the colors faded, it appeared even more quiet.

A "Fu" character was pasted upside down on the single-door refrigerator. It was an old appliance from seven or eight years ago. A basket to prevent mosquitoes and flies was buckled on the round wooden table, and two simple home-cooked dishes could be vaguely seen inside. The wooden cupboard leaned against the wall, and broken porcelain pieces were scattered all over the floor.

Everything in front of him was so quiet, so strange, and so familiar, as if walking into a faded old photograph.

Ning Zhe's calm gaze swept over the living room and stayed on the broken porcelain on the floor under the cupboard. A few large pieces could still vaguely see the original shape of the bowl that had been broken.

"Didn't this broken bowl get swept away by Grandfather a long time ago? Why is it still here?" Ning Zhe was a bit puzzled. Could it be that there was a time-lagged synchronization between the -1 layer and the 1st layer?

But if that were the case, how would one explain the bowl that Ji Taimi smashed in the cupboard when he was on the 0 layer before?

Or... was that bowl really smashed by Ji Taimi?

Just as Ning Zhe was thinking, the door of the room not far away opened.

A frail and thin figure walked out from behind the door. The soft outline was so familiar, as if she had been holding his hand and walking happily on the way home just ten minutes ago.

"Brother, you're back?" Yin Lishang stood at the door of the room, and a smile bloomed like a flower on her face covered in acne and skin moss.

Ning Zhe's face turned pale instantly.

Not because he saw Yin Lishang's cheeks, but because... he heard her voice.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 121 =====