Dig in the dirt, dig deep and down...
Heave-ho! Heave-ho!
Plant tiny seeds, watch tiny flowers bloom...
Heave-ho! Heave-ho!
Lin Ye started digging the second grave mound.
Strangely...
...this time.
He hadn't been digging long before sweat was pouring down his face.
"Strange," Lin Ye muttered under his breath.
Logically...
...this was a gloomy, terrifying graveyard. It should feel cold.
But right now...
...Lin Ye's body felt unnaturally hot.
It was like... a nameless fire was burning inside him, threatening to erupt at any moment!
Could it be...
...just sweat from digging?
But that didn't make sense!
He looked down.
A distinct tent had pitched itself in his trousers.
Digging might make you sweat.
But what did that have to do with... that?
Another twenty minutes passed.
Lin Ye finally hit the coffin lid.
Wait...
Why was the urge suddenly so intense?!
No. No way.
It was too... stiff.
This really wouldn't do.
"Xiaocui!"
Lin Ye finally realized something was very wrong.
"Master? What's wrong?" An anxious voice floated from the jar.
"Don't know... just suddenly feel incredibly hot." Lin Ye's face was flushed a terrifying shade of red. His eyes looked bloodshot.
"Ah?! Why is that? Did Master accidentally ingest something?"
"Just dug up a grave... found a pill inside. Didn't think much of it... seems like it's probably related," Lin Ye explained tersely.
"Master... was that pill called the Dali Ghost Pill?"
"Yes! That's the one!"
At first...
...Lin Ye had thought it was just an ordinary elixir.
But the longer it went on, the more wrong it felt.
"I remember now! That was an occupied grave! A Lust Ghost lived there! He was probably saving that pill to break through to the next stage, but must have forgotten it at home!"
However...
...the speaker might be careless, but the listener was alarmed.
Hearing this...
...Lin Ye froze completely.
Huh?!
What?!
"Xiaocui?"
"Yes?"
"What did you just say?"
"Master, Xiaocui said it was a Dali Ghost Pill."
"And the next sentence?"
"That it was an occupied grave..."
Yes.
That sentence.
After he'd dug the grave.
Then she tells him it had an owner?
"M-Master... Xiaocui is sorry... she only just remembered..."
"......"
Fine.
It wasn't Xiaocui's fault.
Ultimately...
...Lin Ye was the one who dug the grave.
He owned his actions.
He couldn't blame a servant girl.
Besides...
...what was done was done. Talking wouldn't change it.
Right now...
...the most important thing was dealing with the pill's effects.
"Xiaocui, do you know how to... digest this Dali Ghost Pill?"
Breaking through a cultivation stage, he understood.
But shouldn't the energy surge towards his dantian (energy center)?
Why was it charging straight for his... junior?
"Master may not know... this is both a breakthrough pill and a Lust Pill. Its potency is too fierce. It requires... a female ghost to assist in... cultivating together."
"What happens without a female ghost?"
"The universal balance cannot be harmonized. The pill's energy lacks proper guidance. Mild cases: bleeding from all seven orifices. Severe cases: explosive bodily disintegration!"
"......"
That explanation made sense.
But out here in the desolate wilds...
...where was he supposed to find a female ghost to... cultivate with?
Wait.
Xiaocui, why are you silent?
Huh?!
Huh?!
Xiaocui, let me explain!
I really didn't mean that!
The Dali Ghost Pill's effects continued to rage, but Lin Ye couldn't possibly actually do that.
Without a female ghost to guide him...
...Lin Ye had to resort to a crude method himself.
Afterwards...
...he finished digging the half-dug grave.
All three Corpse Digger Ghosts were now on cooldown.
Upgrading his territory still required five hundred Ghost Stones.
Next...
...Lin Ye spent several hours gathering stones around the graveyard.
By late afternoon...
...Lin Ye had successfully broken through to Mid-stage Ghost Soldier.
Only then was the pill's energy fully absorbed!
The intense heat faded. Lin Ye slumped against the jar, taking a brief rest.
But inside, he dared not relax.
Xiaocui had said.
He'd dug an occupied grave during the day.
A Lust Ghost lived there.
Although...
...it was currently off... indulging somewhere, it could return at any moment.
Therefore.
Before nightfall, Lin Ye had to be fully prepared.
"Xiaocui, do you know what cultivation level that Lust Ghost is at?"
As the saying goes:
Know yourself and know your enemy; win a hundred battles.
This was crucial information.
"Master, before Xiaocui's consciousness faded... she only remembers him being Mid-stage Ghost Soldier. Whether he's advanced to Late-stage now... Xiaocui isn't sure."
"Not sure? What do you mean?"
"With a Lust Ghost's aptitude, advancing to Late-stage is very difficult. But he has an ability... cultivating together with female ghosts yields twice the results. After all this time... perhaps he has..."
Here, Xiaocui seemed to recall some unspeakable scenes and trailed off.
However.
Lin Ye understood her meaning perfectly.
"In that case, we'll assume Late-stage Ghost Soldier."
Lin Ye had to prepare for the worst.
"Master, don't pressure yourself too much. Maybe... maybe that Lust Ghost won't even return tonight," Xiaocui offered some comfort.
"It's fine. I know what I'm doing."
Just as Xiaocui said.
The Lust Ghost might come.
Or he might not.
But Lin Ye...
...only had one life.
He had no chips to gamble with!
In other words.
Lin Ye hated the feeling of waiting passively for doom.
Rather than betting on an unknown, he preferred to grasp fate in his own hands.
Opening his inventory, Lin Ye pulled out a pile of Yin Wood.
Wood was no longer needed for territory upgrades.
He'd dug two more coffins that morning, accumulating a surplus.
Using his grave-digging shovel, Lin Ye sharpened one end of several logs. He buried the other end in the earth, camouflaging them with overgrown weeds.
After finishing this...
...the sky had deepened into twilight.
While gathering stones in the afternoon, Lin Ye had stumbled upon a dead black dog. After decomposing it, he obtained a batch of Black Dog Blood.
The coffin nails rewarded by the system had lost their power and dissipated after killing the Foreman Zombie.
Lin Ye coated the sharpened tips of each wooden stake with the Black Dog Blood.
This way...
...he'd essentially crafted a crude version of coffin nail traps.
After arranging three concentric rings of these stakes around his grave, Lin Ye still felt uneasy.
Then.
He pulled out the feminine garments he'd found.
The straps from the underbodice were already serving as the Coin Sword's binding cord.
The fishnet stockings shouldn't go to waste either.
He smeared the remaining Black Dog Blood onto them.
Lin Ye never dreamed that, through this bizarre chain of events, he'd accidentally synthesized a Hempen Net with Dog's Blood!
[Hempen Net with Dog's Blood]: Tool
Grade: Rite
Attributes: A crude Hempen Net imbued with dog's blood. Its spiritual power is weak, but it can have unexpected effects against low-level specters!
The gist was...
...the net couldn't directly kill the Lust Ghost.
But even just restraining it for a short while...
...would give Lin Ye the chance to finish it off!
With everything prepared...
...night finally fell.
Lin Ye lit a campfire beside his grave mound and sat down beside it, waiting in tense silence.
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