Chapter 286: The New Year is Approaching, Earth Temple (5k)

The Ghost who couldn’t handle the pressure and came out on its own was about to say something else, but got forcibly silenced by the Royal Guard Brother’s "three".

If you weren’t asked, you’re not allowed to speak.

With one Ghost taking the lead, inside the already sealed-off Ghost Market, more Ghosts couldn’t stand the pressure. Four more stepped out one after another, kneeling neatly off to the side.

As soon as the Royal Guard Brother finished his countdown—

Lord Zhu nodded.

"Take them all away. Any who didn’t come forward today—if we dig them out later, they’re all yours."

Lord Zhu didn’t hesitate to hand his man a sweet deal. The Royal Guard Brother instantly broke into a bright grin, looking like he wanted to bow in thanks right then and there.

Lord Zhu waved his hand, stopping the Royal Guard Brother.

"No need for all the formalities, we’ve gotta keep up with the times—get rid of some old junk, but keep a few good traditions alive."

The Royal Guard Brother didn’t insist, just bowed to show his thanks.

He didn’t know about the others, but he got the message. Kneeling all the damn time, that’s outdated crap; keeping the Royal Guard’s Edict Prison skills alive, that’s tradition.

Once the Rakshasa Ghost Market opened up again and Lord Zhu left, the pile of Ghosts here scrambled to leave too. Some were afraid of getting caught up in things, others wanted to run and spread the news.

Of course, maybe there were some just trying to run away.

The Royal Guard Brother didn’t care at all. The more that ran, the better—if they all stood up at once, he’d lose all the fun later.

The world changes, and so do customs and rules. Even among Ghosts, nobody wants to be known as a total psycho these days.

He had a whole toolkit of skills with no use for them. Honestly, that was kind of painful.

Now Lord Zhu had given the green light—if he could dig them out himself, they’re his. He couldn’t be any happier.

Lord Zhu left, never once mentioning the guards here. The Royal Guard Brother led his people over to where the guards usually hung out, taking a look at them.

"Look, the Prince saved you some face and didn’t mention you guys. We’ll do the same—no need to embarrass you out there.

The stuff you guys get up to on the daily, taking some bribes now and then—as long as it’s not overboard, we turn a blind eye.

This time, you lot didn’t care who was who, just slapped on the Soul Binding Chains and went for people’s Life Souls.

That’s just ugly. Seriously, have you no shame at all?

You know what to do, so get to it and save us the trouble."

The Royal Guard Brother finished and stopped bothering with them. Then the few guards who’d acted earlier dragged over benches, one by one laying facedown on them.

Other guards, carrying thick wooden rods carved with runes, silently started whacking away. The rods whipped through the air with a whoosh, hitting down hard, every strike solid as hell.

A few guards were nearly beaten till their soul bodies fell apart, but they all gritted their teeth and didn’t make a sound.

This was already them being shown mercy. The main thing was, this was about preserving the Rakshasa Ghost Market guards’ reputation, so it wasn’t done out in public.

Now that they hadn’t cried out, it was also about keeping the last shreds of their dignity.

After more than ten minutes, the Royal Guard Brother stood up.

"Alright, off we go. Word of advice: you’d better sort this mess out perfectly before Scorching Sun Department or anyone else does.

You all know our Prince is all about saving face, and this incident was a huge embarrassment for him.

If you don’t want to lose even more face, you know exactly what you need to do.

Let me put it bluntly: if I don’t find my fun, I’ll be itching all over from boredom.

So don’t blame me for coming to mess with you guys just for the hell of it."

The Royal Guard Brother happily left the courtyard, and the guards present helped up those who had almost been beaten until their souls scattered on the benches.

The leader stood in front of them, letting out a deep sigh.

"Our Prince has done his best for all of us, fighting for our rights all these years.

Even if we haven’t been treated like Demons, at least in some departments, we Nether Souls have started to get jobs too.

Why does someone always have to make trouble and give the Prince grief?

Three days. If everything that happened in the Ghost Market isn’t dug up clean in three days—

I won’t be able to face living, and I’ll just go die for you all then."

The subordinate guards were all about to say something, but got cut off by the leader.

"Cut the crap. Get to work."

At the edge of Wei State, in a small village, Feng Yao had already arrived with his team.

They called this a small village, but actually, after years of turning the hills into fruit orchards, every household doesn’t just make a hundred grand a year. Thanks to ever-expanding logistics, pulling in twenty or thirty grand at the low end and sixty or seventy at the high end every year was super common.

Everyone here lived in their own mini-mansions. Honestly, they seemed way better off than the city folks.

Zhang Laoxi had been brought in earlier to handle stuff here. The corpse-rising problem wasn’t hard—a fresh Walking Dead, that’s nothing for Zhang Laoxi, he could handle it with one hand.

But he never half-asses anything. When he heard this wasn’t the first case here, he took the money and figured he’d dig out the root cause for real, see if the issue could be fully solved.

Who’d have thought the deeper he dug, the crazier it got? He ended up tracing it all the way to a Nether Soul Realm—then realized things had seriously blown up.

And when the Nether Souls in there noticed Zhang Laoxi had tracked them back to the Nether Soul Realm, they didn’t hesitate at all—went straight for the kill.

Zhang Laoxi’s Talismans and Magical Instruments were completely spent. In the end, with nothing left, he made a snap decision and risked using the Yin Spirit Possession Technique, hoping to at least get back and report what happened.

Then he just kept walking, kept walking, and finally came out from Old Zhao’s Family’s basement.