Chapter 550: Dumbstruck
“Alright then, let’s go with the original plan. You’ll slap it with the ink stamp and I’ll pull it into my painting realm. As for how we’ll deal with it, we’ll leave that for later. My painting realm is different from what it was anyway. Even if we can’t kill it, we can at least seal it away,” said Shu Xiaolou.
The plan was set. With the ink stamp in hand, Lin Jin disappeared into the door that opened up behind him.
In an instant, Lin Jin arrived at the Visitation Hall.
A Visitation Hall without visitors. Although the place looked no different from usual, to Lin Jin, it seemed creepier than before.
‘All because of that zombie behind door number three,’ Lin Jin mused.
He went over to door number three and studied it carefully. He was terrified that the thing inside had escaped while he was away.
Though, judging by the looks of it, there were no signs that the door had been opened at all.
This was a good thing.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Jin placed two hands on the wooden door and activated the strength of both his pet beasts. Blood-red light glowed around him and the door began to move.
***
At East Continent, inside a villa hidden deep within Bald Mountain stood Appraiser Yan in black robes. With a grave expression, he stared at the strange wooden door in front of him.
This wooden door had been crafted by a group of the world’s best carpenters, using the unique three-realm ghost wood. Most would consider it a priceless treasure. Upon closer observation, one would notice a box behind the door. It was a sealed box about the size of a large coffin.
Standing before that large coffin was a man dressed completely in white robes made of paper. He was now hanging a wooden token, labeled ‘Three’ onto the wooden door in front of the coffin.
This person in white had stiff and ash-gray fingers. His entire being was exuding grayish energy of the dead. His skin was a mixture of brown and purple, and they clung tightly to his bones. A rusted iron nail was hammered into his forehead, holding up an amulet scribed with blood. His appearance was nothing but harrowing.
This was the Demonic Appraisal Association’s White Envoy, a zombie puppet who heeded only their chief’s instructions.
Appraiser Yan was Black Envoy.
The zombie White Envoy hung token number three onto a protruding nail on the door. Upon doing so, the door and the box behind it began to tremble.
It reacted as if a taboo spell had been activated and connected.
Eerie laughter was produced from White Envoy’s lips. What’s most bizarre was how his facial features showed no emotions, as if the laughter was coming from someone else.
“Black Envoy, you’ve done well. In such a short amount of time, not only did you succeed in retrieving the third token, but you also obtained the second token, much to my surprise. I will remember your contributions,” a sinister voice remarked with absolute authority.
Black Envoy bowed at once. “It is my duty to serve you, Chief.”
“Good, good. I will open door number three now and retrieve the refined zombie. Our strength will surely increase after that. Our first order of business shall be to wipe out all enemies. If we can also successfully retrieve the zombie beast from door number two, tsk tsk, we’ll have the strength to wipe out a premium country.”
Having said that, White Envoy reached over to pull open the wooden door.
The strength he possessed exceeded that of hundreds of men.
The wooden door creaked noisily as it was pulled open.
As a tiny slit was opened up, the dense energy of the dead came seeping out immediately. Instead of stepping away, White Envoy leaned in to sniff at the aura, as if he was indulging in it.
“Wonderful! This zombie has been trapped inside for five hundred years and was refined for that long. Its strength must be several times more powerful than the first one. My scheme from back then to borrow Master’s secret realm to refine corpses has been perfect after all. Maybe, I’ll even get the chance to enter that realm this time and survey Master’s secrets.” White Envoy had spoken so softly that only he could hear what he said. Even so, his voice was filled with excitement and anticipation.
White Envoy pulled harder, opening the door so much wider so that more of the death aura swarmed out.
Appraiser Yan stepped back. He knew how dangerous it was for mortals to come in contact with the death aura. Even if it didn’t cause instant death, the consequences would be just as troublesome to handle.
By now, the door had been opened halfway through. White Envoy was fighting the weight of the heavy door. The dark gray aura was unusually dense, but one could still make out the silhouette of a human standing inside.
Like a puppet.
“I, Corpse Taoist, had spent so much effort in the past, sacrificing my own human body to raise a zombie inside Master’s secret location. As expected, the fruit of my labor is superbly sweet! For five hundred years, this body of mine has been cultivating. Once it awakens as a zombie, it will be stronger than an immortal! We will be unchallenged!” mumbled White Envoy excitedly.
He had been waiting too long for this day.
However, just as he reached out his arm to pull the zombie away, he saw another door open up not too far away as well.
White Envoy stood frozen stiff. For a moment there, he felt terror and fear.
An emotion that had been lost for so many years was unexpectedly revived.
At that moment, he was truly frightened.
Only a handful of people in this world could frighten Corpse Taoist like this.
He had a few seniors and juniors from the past, and among them, he feared only their elder senior, Dragon Taoist.
Apart from him, the person he feared most was none other than their master, Daojun!
The reverence and fear he had for his master had been etched deep into Corpse Taoist’s bones. He also knew that the location where he hid, raise, and refined zombies was a place his fellow brothers couldn’t find. Only their master knew because it was their master’s secret realm.
Their master, Daojun, was said to have passed away several hundreds of years ago.
That was why Corpse Taoist dared to raise zombies in his secret territory. However, what did he just see?
On the other end, someone had pushed the door open. Corpse Taoist instinctively thought of his master, Daojun. After all, given what he knew, only Daojun was capable of entering and leaving that mysterious place. Meanwhile, he had had to obtain assistance from countless other methods to be able to open this one door. Even then, he couldn’t venture inside.
This was the reason for his fear. At that instant, his body stiffened up, and he did not dare to move.
Corpse Taoist had stored his soul and psyche into an amulet and nailed this amulet onto White Envoy’s corpse with a soul-suppressing nail, forcibly possessing this zombie. After hiding for several hundred years, he even established the Demonic Appraisal Association just for this day. That zombie inside the door was Corpse Taoist’s original body. Hence, one could imagine the effort and time he sacrificed on this project.
Of course, this project wasn’t something one would be proud of, especially since it betrayed his master’s teachings. Thus, Corpse Taoist was frightened out of his wits. Had he seen who it was on the other side of the door, he would have just knelt and prostrated before them.
Like Corpse Taoist, Lin Jin was also startled.
After exerting much effort to open up Visitation Hall’s third door, he was greeted by a greyish blob of death aura, and what seemed like another door on the other side. There was also a vague white silhouette of a human as well.
What’s this?
Lin Jin’s mind suddenly became muddled.
Both men were dumbstruck but the zombie wasn’t. Zombies were bloodthirsty creatures who craved human flesh. Wafting from one of the doors was the mouth-watering smell of a live human. The smell of dead meat came from the other door. The choice was a no-brainer for the zombie.
Taking advantage of Lin Jin’s confusion, the zombie pounced at him.
Right now, Lin Jin could only deal with this zombie first.