"Then I'll sit here," he said.
Old Mr. Wang smiled and raised his cane, saying,
"Mr. Zhang, go find that dirty thing. Don't worry, as long as I'm still here, I won't let those things harm anyone. If they dare to come, I'll treat them like the enemy."
In his words,
Even at the age of a hundred, Old Mr. Wang, though an ordinary person, showed no fear.
Zhang Wei understood why. Old Mr. Wang had dared to fight airplanes and cannons with millet and rifles; what were ghosts compared to that?
Next,
He sat back in his chair, like an ancient guardian god, protecting everyone present.
With Old Mr. Wang present, and his cane empowered by the system, Zhang Wei was not worried. Helping Old Mr. Wang's son gather the crowd, he headed towards the highest floor of the mall.
Zhang Wei intended to search from the top floor.
As he walked, Zhang Wei rolled up his sleeves and said,
"It's one thing to disturb me while I'm working, but to involve Old Mr. Wang? You ghost are truly blind. Don't let me catch you."
He was somewhat angry.
If it weren't for the mall's size and the large number of people, he truly wouldn't have bothered Old Mr. Wang.
For this reason,
Zhang Wei decided not to play any games of provoking ghosts. He would use the most violent method to find the ghost and resolve it quickly, without delaying Old Mr. Wang's time with his family.
As he reached the highest floor of the mall,
Yellow talismans flew out of his pocket one by one, like a floodgate opening, pouring out.
Swish.
The talismans were too numerous – ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million, tens of millions, hundreds of millions... like waves, they surged forth, engulfing the top floor of the mall centered around Zhang Wei.
Before long, the entire top floor of the mall, from small storage rooms to every shop, including the cinema, was submerged by the talisman tsunami. Even then, the talisman tsunami did not stop, like a tide breaching a dam, surging towards the next floor of the mall.
Faintly, amidst the roaring talisman tsunami, Zhang Wei's voice could be heard:
"Hiding in the mall, you think I can't find you? I'll fill the entire mall with talismans. Let's see where you can go."
At the same time,
On the fourth floor of the mall, in a clothing store,
There were three ghosts. They were looking through the store's glass at Old Mr. Wang in the mall lobby on the first floor. Their strength was immense; the weakest was a red-clothed fierce ghost, and one of them had even reached the level of a half-step ghost king.
No!
Besides the three ghosts, there was also a person there. Although he was human, he had chosen to collude with the ghosts.
At this moment,
They were staring at Old Mr. Wang. Among them, the three ghosts' eyes, besides the shock at Old Mr. Wang's merit, also held a greedy glint.
"Truly a person of founding minister caliber. This merit is more kingly than a ghost king's."
The half-step ghost king ghost murmured.
The red-clothed fierce ghost beside him nodded:
"With this amount of merit, even if the four of us divided and refined it, we could become ghost kings. It would be as exhilarating as achieving enlightenment and ascending."
As fierce ghosts, they knew very well that the more special a person was, such as a ghost exorcist or someone with immeasurable merit, these individuals, while posing a threat to ghosts, also presented both danger and reward. If they could consume such a person, they could advance by leaps and bounds.
After all, many ghosts cultivated by killing people, devouring their yang energy, and so on, like the Nine Evil Yin Gathering Ghost.
For this reason,
As his words were spoken,
The third red-clothed fierce ghost nodded excitedly in agreement and looked at the only human present:
"Zhao Bingquan, are you sure you can help us kill that old man? Will his merit remain?"
As the saying goes, when a person dies, their lamp goes out. Upon death, dust returns to dust, and earth to earth. Ordinary people, besides their property and computer hard drives, leave nothing behind. Unless a ghost exorcist can leave behind relics, ordinary people are simply gone when they die, and their merit is taken with them.
Therefore, compared to ghost exorcists, ghosts generally dared not approach people with immeasurable merit. Firstly, merit prevented ghosts from getting close. Secondly, even if merit could be utilized by ghosts, upon the person's death, their merit would be taken away, and the ghosts would gain nothing.
But now, things were different.
A few days ago, the person beside them, named Zhao Bingquan, had found them, saying he could help them obtain Old Mr. Wang's merit, but only if they helped him kill Old Mr. Wang, and they would share the merit equally.
Initially, they were hesitant, as killing such a person with great merit would incur karma.
However,
When they learned that Zhao Bingquan had a way to help them retain the merit and avoid karma, and they also discovered that Zhao Bingquan was dying...
Zhao Bingquan was a wanted ghost exorcist who had used his techniques for evil, committing many heinous acts. He had recently been apprehended by the Guardian Department. Although he had narrowly escaped, he was severely injured and on the verge of death.
To prolong his life, he had raised and refined ghost children to sustain himself. However, raising and refining ghosts was against the natural order, and the side effects were immense, making it impossible to sustain his life indefinitely.
Therefore, he set his sights on Old Mr. Wang. Merit was an object of good fortune. As long as he killed Old Mr. Wang and took his merit to prolong his life, he could live much longer, and even claim the merit for himself, bringing him good fortune.
Zhao Bingquan looked at the three fierce ghosts:
"By chance, during a tomb raid, I obtained a heretical art that can transfer merit to others. As long as you help me kill that old man, I can transfer his merit to us. Then, the four of us will be people and ghosts with great merit."
In his words,
Zhao Bingquan coughed repeatedly, a side effect of raising ghost children. However, even his sickly complexion couldn't hide his excitement. With merit bestowed upon him, even if he died and reincarnated, he could be reborn into a good family thanks to his merit.
Out of curiosity, the half-step ghost king asked:
"Are you sure there won't be any issues? We've all killed people and are inherently sinful. Can we still graft merit?"
"Yes, of course."
Zhao Bingquan stated directly:
"My grafting is reciprocal. We gain the old man's merit, and the old man gains our sins. Then, the old man will essentially be a person burdened with heavy sins. And don't worry, I've calculated it."
"That old man doesn't have many years left to live; he won't live much longer. If we kill him now, even if the merit transfer fails, he will take our sins with him to the underworld to suffer. If we have less sin, don't you think that's good?"
"Hurry up and act. Don't cause any more trouble. My ghost children can't last many more days. If I die soon, you won't be able to obtain the merit."
With Zhao Bingquan's words,
The three fierce ghosts dared not delay. They exchanged glances, performed the ghost-confusing eye technique, and prepared to bewitch a person's mind to approach Old Mr. Wang.
Since they themselves could not approach Old Mr. Wang, a human could. They only needed to briefly confuse a person's mind to make them approach and kill Old Mr. Wang.
Just as they were making their move,
Seeing that a person's mind was being bewildered,
At this moment,
With continuous swishing sounds, they seemed to sense something and looked towards the outside of the store, their expressions instantly changing:
"What is that?!"
Zhao Bingquan's pupils contracted sharply.
[Ding! The fierce ghosts' expressions changed. Damn, a tsunami?! No, this is inland. Wait, is that a yellow talisman?!]
[Host gains System Points +90]
As they watched,
They saw countless yellow talismans, like a waterfall, pouring down from the floor above, covering the sky and earth, like primordial beasts released from their cages, sweeping across this floor and quickly heading towards them.
"There are too many."
Zhao Bingquan muttered, completely stunned.
Even Zhao Bingquan was like this, let alone the fierce ghosts...
[Ding! The fierce ghosts are terrified. Not good! Is there a ghost exorcist here?!]
[Host gains System Points +100]
[Ding! The fierce ghosts look at the dense mass of talismans surging towards them and exclaim, "Is it necessary? Using so many talismans against them."]
[Host gains System Points +110]
They went mad for a moment.
Looking at the dense yellow talismans, imbued with heavenly might, the fierce ghosts didn't even think twice and turned to run. It was a joke; the number of talismans was at least tens of billions. Even a half-step ghost king couldn't withstand it.
Instantly,
As they turned to flee, every time they looked back at the surging talismans, their minds were filled with a single thought: Have talismans also experienced inflation like the US dollar? Are they free now? Who is this rich ghost exorcist? Damn them.
For the first time,
Including Zhao Bingquan, the ghost exorcist, they realized that exorcising ghosts could also be a display of wealth.
...