Chapter 11: Lin Bai's Methodology

"I promise you." Lin Bai took a deep breath, waved his hand at him, and feigned wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, "Go, my warrior, I respect your honor."

……

"Fool, how can there be such a fool in this world..." Watching the two men outside putting on a cringeworthy act, the male ghost roared inside the shop, a clattering of sounds erupting within as he vented his emotions, "Kill him, I must kill him."

"Die!" Longxi felt a surge of joy, playing along with the Provocation, "The thing I have the most of is my life. Today, even if I have to exhaust all my strength, I will send you all to Difu. You can't kill me, but I will finish off your whole family..."

"Try coming in." The male ghost's voice suddenly dropped low.

The female ghost, who had not spoken for a long time, suddenly said: "Anan, don't. We have already endured for three years; if you kill him, all our previous efforts will be wasted."

A crisp female voice that had never made a sound before followed immediately: "Father, don't. Let's just endure it; once they are done making a scene, they will naturally leave! Big brother, don't come in. If you come in, my father really will kill you. Leave quickly!"

"Say no more." The male ghost's voice was filled with unconcealable rage, "Can't you see it yet? He just wants to drive us away. Don't move, I will kill him, and I will bear all the karma myself..."

"Father, if you kill someone, you will turn into a Vengeful Ghost." The young female ghost's voice carried a sobbing tone, "Big brother outside, I beg you, stop him quickly. I know you bought the shop; we don't harm people."

……

Vengeful Ghost?

Hearing these words and connecting them to what had happened before, Lin Bai's heart skipped a beat. Did he overplay his hand? Or were these guys also acting?

However, there is an idiom called "ghosts tell endless lies," and Lin Bai instinctively doubted everything.

After all, he had never seen a ghost before, and any one-sided assumption could be wrong.

He could not afford the price of being wrong.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Bai called out to Longxi, testing him: "Little brother, why don't we stop fighting? They look quite pitiful too."

Longxi turned his head abruptly and said righteously: "Shopkeeper, don't be bewitched by them. How can you believe the words of evil spirits? They are begging for mercy now only because they fear me. Believe me, once I leave, they will still harm you. They shouldn't be staying in the human world to begin with. Evil spirits, I'll fight you to the death..."

With a loud roar, Longxi charged into the shop.

The emotion was there.

The setup was also there.

You say you won't die, so you won't die?

If he didn't die, wouldn't all the previous effort be in vain?

It had been half the night!

All he got was a broken kitchen knife; who would be willing to accept that?

Therefore.

He had to die.

It would be even better to provoke the ghosts inside into becoming Vengeful Ghosts; then this shop-opening NPC would be even more unable to leave him.

He was determined to have this dungeon.

……

Facts proved it.

When a person is dead set on dying, you cannot persuade them otherwise.

Although the female ghost kept bitterly urging her man to stay calm, and the little female ghost was begging Lin Bai with a sobbing voice to hold back his partner and pleading for him not to come and throw his life away...

But none of this could stop Longxi's desire to die.

Even after the mother and daughter ghosts pushed him out, he still charged into the Haunted House without hesitation, even going so far as to summon the courage he would use to enter a Goulan, spouting filth to insult the male ghost's wife and daughter before rushing in.

The filth of the language made even Lin Bai want to cover his ears. The game was truly realistic; they didn't even censor it.

Finally.

Longxi successfully made the male ghost lose his mind, and in an instant, he was wiped out...

……

Watching Longxi stage a "chronicle of seeking death" right in front of him.

Lin Bai let out a sigh of infinite emotion, which even diluted the joy of discovering the method to collect Positive Emotion.

A madman!

Just thinking that his future life would be filled with a bunch of lunatics like this made his scalp tingle. This damn game world!

……

After Longxi died, the shop fell into a deathly silence, and only the sounds of insects and birds could be heard by his ears.

Lin Bai looked at the shop nervously. Did he really turn into a Vengeful Ghost because he killed someone?

What kind of hellish setting is this!

A moment later.

"Father—!"

A desolate cry of grief came from inside the shop.

Lin Bai looked at the shop and asked curiously: "Big sister, Longxi is dead, why are you crying for your father?"

The crying stopped abruptly.

Then.

A figure in white drifted to the doorway, wanting to pounce on Lin Bai, but as she reached the entrance, a white light flashed, and she seemed to hit an invisible barrier, bouncing back heavily.

Confirming that the ghost really couldn't leave the door, Lin Bai breathed a sigh of relief, lit a tinder, and leaned close to the entrance to observe the situation inside.

The light from the tinder was limited, and he could only see the little ghost at the entrance, unable to see the situation inside the shop.

The little ghost was dressed in white, her hair disheveled, standing inside the door with her feet off the ground. On her pale face, traces of fire could vaguely be seen. Her unremarkable appearance was not even as terrifying as Sadako.

However, looking closely, her delicate features were actually a bit kawaii. She looked to be at most thirteen or fourteen years old.

At this moment.

The little ghost glared fiercely at Lin Bai, blood-red tears streaming down from her eye sockets: "It's all you, it's all you bad person. If it weren't for you, Father wouldn't have killed anyone. If he didn't kill anyone, he wouldn't have turned into a Vengeful Ghost. If he didn't turn into a Vengeful Ghost, he would have had a chance to become a Spirit Cultivator. It's you, you bad person, you ruined everything for Father, I hate you..."

Alright then!

It doesn't look like they are very smart, either.

I hadn't even asked anything yet, and they already exposed everything.

Lin Bai looked at Xiao Apiao and revealed his gentlest smile: "Little sister, have you been lonely being locked in this house for three years?"

"..." Xiao Apiao froze. She looked outside the door, a trace of longing involuntarily appearing in her eyes, but immediately after, she remembered how hateful the person before her was and switched back to a fierce gaze.

"What is your name?" Lin Bai smiled and asked again.

"..." Xiao Apiao looked at Lin Bai coldly and said nothing.

"Who told you that killing someone would turn you into a fierce ghost?" Lin Bai asked.

"Daoist Li told us. It's all your fault; you ruined Father's life." Xiao Apiao was provoked again.

"You occupied my house." Lin Bai took the deed out from his bosom. "It is only natural that I hire someone to deal with you; you shouldn't hate me..."

"This is our home." Xiao Apiao didn't even look at the deed and said coldly, "No one can drive us away."

"Houses are for the living; the dead should live in graves," Lin Bai said, unhurriedly.

"You..." Xiao Apiao glared at Lin Bai with rage.

"Call your father and mother over; I want to talk to them," Lin Bai said.

"Get out!" A male ghost in his thirties appeared at the doorway. He wore a grey robe, his expression was icy, and black Qi coiled around his body. "Do not come and disturb us again. I have killed people before and have already become a fierce ghost; I don't mind killing a second one."

"A fierce ghost?" Lin Bai sized up the male ghost and shook his head. "You don't look like one!"

"..." The male ghost, Xiao Apiao.

"I think that Daoist lied to you," Lin Bai said.

Through the intelligence obtained by sacrificing a life via 【Longxi】, he had roughly deduced the personalities of the few people inside.

Their emotional intelligence was a bit low, and their IQ wasn't high either.

Generally speaking, such people are the ideal partners for a swindler.

"You say killing people won't turn one into a fierce ghost?" Xiao Apiao widened her blood-stained eyes. "But the old Daoist clearly said that once one kills, the heart will be filled with baleful energy, then one will become cruel and bloodthirsty, and over time, one will lose their mind..."

"No, you misunderstood my meaning," Lin Bai said. "My meaning is, perhaps there is more than one way to become a fierce ghost."

"..." The two ghosts couldn't keep up with Lin Bai's train of thought.

"I believe that a 'fierce ghost' is a subjective concept. Just now, this little sister said that killing leads to a heart filled with baleful energy, and subsequently losing one's mind leads to becoming a fierce ghost. There are many ways to fill a heart with baleful energy; it doesn't necessarily have to be by killing." Lin Bai looked at the two ghosts behind the door and said confidently.

He's a lunatic!

Who wants to discuss the methods of becoming a fierce ghost with you?

I don't know when, but the mistress had also arrived behind the door. The three ghosts stared at Lin Bai in unison, black Qi floating around their bodies. They felt that the person in front of them was exceptionally unreasonable. What is the difference between discussing how to become a ghost with a ghost, and discussing which method of death is more comfortable with a human?

Well, he did indeed force a person to their death just now; such a person must be hated by both the living and the dead!

"You might not know this, but being tortured by Negative Emotion for a long time gives a person a high probability of developing mental weakness, leading to all sorts of problems, or going insane, or going mad. I think ghosts should be about the same, because I discovered that your way of thinking is no different from humans."

Lin Bai looked at the three ghosts and shook the deed in his hand. "I bought this shop. Because of you, the money cannot be refunded. As for me, I am a stingy person and don't want my money to go down the drain, so I must find a way to get rid of you."

"Through tonight's events, you should have realized. My personality is relatively stubborn. A person who clearly couldn't beat you was incited by me to attack you time and time again, until he lost his life..."

"That's because he was stupid," the male ghost trembled violently and said angrily.

"I can find more people as stupid as him." Lin Bai smiled. "I plan to have them come here to subdue demons and eliminate devils every night, and keep at it for a long time. One day, either you will be eliminated by one of them, or you will be driven to madness by this endless torture and become true fierce ghosts. When that time comes, perhaps it will attract a Heavenly Tribulation, or attract a true high-level expert to eliminate you. No matter how you look at it, I will win the final victory in this war."

Xiao Apiao looked at the man before her in terror, as if she were seeing a demon. She couldn't help but shrink behind her mother. How could he think of such a vicious scheme?

"You come in, I want to kill you." The male ghost seemed to see their ending; his facial features shifted, and the black Qi coiling around his body trembled.

"..." Lin Bai looked at their family of three and raised his eyelids. "You come out."

"..." The ghost family collectively fell into a stupor. How could a human be so shameless? Compared to him, that idiot who came to die just now was simply cute to the point of exploding!

The female ghost gently patted her angry husband and looked at Lin Bai, saying: "If you do that, you will kill many people. Won't your conscience hurt? Are you even human?"

"To be accurate, you are the ones who aren't human." Lin Bai swept a glance at them and said, "Humans and ghosts walk different paths; I am doing this for the peace of the human world."

"We cannot leave the house and have never harmed anyone," the female ghost asked with a trembling voice. "Why must you treat us like this? Even the Daoist who captured us never thought of harming us and even gave us a way to survive..."

"Just because you haven't harmed anyone, does that make you good ghosts?" Lin Bai sighed. "Look around. Because of your existence, this place has been desolate for three years. How many people have been forced to move away for their livelihood, unable to return to their homes?"

"Such a good location and not a single person is here, and this situation is set to continue for ten years. You have caused such great losses; do you think you can just brush it off with a lighthearted 'we haven't harmed anyone'? You didn't kill Bo Ren, but Bo Ren was displaced because of you; your sins are great..."

"..." The three ghosts were stunned.

"Also, through your experience," Lin Bai paused, "I have roughly deduced a conclusion: the old Daoist who trapped you here probably wasn't a good person either!"

(End of chapter)