Chapter Thirty: Ghostly Peach Talisman

  "I'll ask the intelligence team to gather information about zombies, and also let colleagues in the transportation department set up checkpoints on the way from Xiangxi to Jiangnan, strictly controlling them. If there's any situation, they must report it." Li Jian Tian added.

  Mao had no choice but to agree.

  "I'm dispatching two teams of police to ambush the villa you mentioned, I'll bring two officers to investigate from the front and draw their attention. You and Mao Daozhang will sneak into the villa to search. If anything happens, the two standby teams will strike at any time." Li Jian Tian arranged the tactical action and said to me.

  "Yang Guo, lead the way, take action immediately." Li Jian Tian issued the order.

  Just as I was about to leave, a familiar call came in. It was Lin Mo calling. My heart skipped a beat and I secretly answered it on the side.

  "Yang Guo, my brother is back." Lin Mo was very happy beside the phone.

  "What? What's going on? Your brother is back? Really?" I couldn't believe my ears.

  "Yes, Brother said he took advantage of the guards' negligence and escaped." Lin Mo added.

  "That's great, we were also planning to go save your brother." I was delighted in my heart.

  But I always feel that something is not right, for a moment can't say what it is. How could things be so simple? Could they really have escaped so easily? My right eyelid keeps twitching, left eye jumping for wealth and right eye jumping for disaster, a thread of unease surges up to my heart.

  "Is your brother injured?" I asked.

  "Fortunately, brother is fine and didn't get hurt, what a relief!"

  "How is this possible?" I said incredulously.

  "What did you say? Hmph! Do you want my brother to get hurt?" Lin Mo was somewhat displeased with what I said.

  "No, just come back, I'll tell them the good news now." I wonder if I'm thinking too much.

  Then I hung up the phone and walked over absent-mindedly.

  "Yang Guo, hurry up, we're ready to set off." Li Jian Tian urged.

  "It's no use going now, Lin Yu has already returned." I said in a low voice.

  "That's great!" Li Jian Tian was extremely delighted, as if a huge stone in his heart had been lifted.

  "What's wrong with you? You look unhappy," Li Jian Tian asked, noticing something was off.

  "I always feel something is wrong, but I don't know what's wrong."

  "I clearly heard earlier that Lin Yu was suffering from physical torture, but when I came back, there were no injuries. Moreover, it is said that she escaped secretly, and in the villa, there were at least more than ten well-trained black-clothed men, making it very difficult to escape. Even with a natural barrier of a vineyard behind us where we could hide, it would only be temporary. If Ah Mei hadn't saved me, I reckon I'd already be dead by now, and I deeply feel that way."

  "What do you mean?" Li Jian Tian asked worriedly.

  "It's possible it's fake," I said firmly.

  "What? Impossible! With a similar appearance, the figure must have been noticed by family members, not to mention habits and temperament." Li Jian Tian quickly denied.

  "Who says it's impossible? The world is full of wonders, and there are all sorts of masters. Among them, there is a kind of witchcraft that can not only change one's appearance but also switch souls." Mao Shi Jiu stepped forward at this moment and said with certainty.

  "What's this 'easy soul' you speak of? What kind of easy method is it?" I suddenly became very interested.

  "This sorcery originated in ancient Greece, where they had a cruel punishment called 'soul stripping', which was to strip the soul from the body and then fry it in an oil pot. The pain suffered by the soul is beyond what the physical body can endure. As for soul swapping, it's just extracting half of a person's soul, marking the extracted half, and imprinting it onto a well-prepared body. The person whose soul was extracted temporarily becomes a living dead person, or what you call a 'vegetable', while the imprinted soul can take on all the physical characteristics of that person, without any difference from the original person, but with their consciousness being controlled by someone else."

  I and Li Jian Tian were shocked with our mouths agape, never expecting that even the soul could be extracted, this sorcery was too vicious.

  "If so, wouldn't Lin Mo be in danger?" I was worried sick.

  "I'm just saying it's possible, I didn't say it's true, don't be nervous, do you still need to see it for yourself to confirm?"

  "Come on, let's go to Lin Mo's house now." I was anxious.

  "What's the hurry, now if we go, we'll surely startle the snake in the grass. Then he'll come to a dead end and Lin Yu will be a dead man for life." Ma Shi Jiu stopped me from going.

  "I reckon the Bull Group is doing this to make the police let their guard down and not investigate the zombies being transported, so I dare say that your little girlfriend and her family are extremely safe now, don't worry. The top priority now should be intercepting the zombies." Mao Shi Jiu's analysis was very reasonable.

  "But there isn't even a single clue?" Li Jian Tian spread out his hands.

  "The clue must be in the Taurus Group, we have to go there." Mao Shi Jiu patted me on the shoulder and said.

  But I was still distracted and worried about Lin Mo's safety.

  "Oh!" I came back to myself.

  "But how could it be possible to steal secrets without their knowledge when the Bull Building is heavily guarded?" Li Jian Tian asked.

  "This is actually quite simple, they can change souls, we can change faces. Yang Guo, let's go to the villa you mentioned first and take a look at the appearance of their young master." Mao Shi Jiu smiled slyly.

  Before long, we arrived outside the villa.

  "Yes, there are grapes to eat." A voice emerged from me.

  Suddenly something darted out of my sleeve and ran towards the grape field. It was none other than Ah Mei.

  "Ah Mei, come back." I immediately stopped her. Ah Mei heard my voice and immediately stopped in her tracks, looking at me pitifully.

  "I'll go buy a big pile of various fruits for you. Now just stay put obediently."

  "Okay." Ah Mei lowered her head and returned with a humiliated expression.

  "Damn it, a talking field mouse! I thought I misheard." Ma Shi Jiu's eyes widened in surprise as he stared at me.

  At this time, Ah Mei gave Mao Shi Jiu a defiant look and shook her butt at him.

  "This......" I was at a loss for words, unsure of where to begin.

  "She is my sister." I said sincerely.

  "Haha, the field mouse is your sister, you acknowledge the field mouse as your sister." Cao Jingru almost laughed so hard he fell over.

  "You're a dead fat boy. Watch how I'll teach you a lesson for bullying my brother." Ah Mei said, extremely furious.

  Sister Ah took the opportunity to drill into Cao Shi Jiu's clothes, now Cao Shi Jiu's face was wonderful, wanting to laugh and cry at the same time, being rolled on the ground.

  "I was wrong, Mouse Sister, I know I was wrong, stop it quickly." Mao Shi Jiu couldn't bear the tickling.

  "Apologize to my brother, otherwise watch me torment you to death."

  "Get this master and apprentice to apologize? No way." Mao Shi Jiu still had a tough mouth.

  "Look at me scratch you to death, scratch you to death." Ah Mei scratched even harder.

  "Sorry, sorry, stop it quickly." Mao Shi Jiu finally couldn't bear it and compromised.

  Sister stopped and said in a bad temper, "Next time you bully brother, you'll be in trouble." Sister finished speaking and hid into my sleeve.

  Cao Jing Yu struggled to get up from the ground, clutching his waist and yelling "aiyo aiyo". I couldn't help but laugh with joy beside him.

  "This ancestor granny is really not to be trifled with! I'm also stupid, going to provoke this living fossil, my brain really short-circuited." Ma Shi Jiu scolded himself.

  "Fossil? Ah Mei has lived for over 200 years at most, how did she become a fossil?" I asked in puzzlement.

  "200 years? The birth of a spiritual body won't stop at 2,000 years, some even take tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years. This sister of yours is no ordinary person, the essence of heaven and earth takes thousands to tens of thousands of years to possess spiritual intelligence, and it seems that her spiritual intelligence has already reached 7 or 8 years old, from when she first had spiritual intelligence to now, it's possible that 200 years have passed, but if we calculate from her initial state, isn't that just a living fossil?" Mao Shi Jiu explained.

  "You're a lucky kid, the spirit is willing to follow you, and you'll definitely have great fortune in the future." A hint of envy flickered in Mao Shi Jiu's eyes.

  I'm a bit muddled and confused, but I won't treat Ah Mei as a tool to be used, instead I'll treat her like my own little sister, I've made up my mind in secret.

  "Look quickly, there's movement inside." Mao Nineteen pointed at the villa.

  Several people came out of the villa, among whom one was particularly conspicuous in white clothes, while others were all in black, surrounding him.

  "Is it the person in white clothes?"

  "Right, judging from the trend, it's probably so."

  "Don't you know who it is?" Mao Shi Jiu asked speechlessly.

  "At that time I was under the bed, and I didn't know what was going on above." I quickly covered my mouth, having accidentally spoken out of turn.

  "You're snooping around other people's homes, it's simply ruining the reputation of our sect! You've lost face for all of us Mount Mao Taoists. However, personally, I still admire you."

  "Oh? So you're a fellow traveler! Hehehe!" I pointed at Mao Shi Jiu, and he pointed back at me.

  "The one in the middle, I think it's time, I'm going to make a move." Mao Shi Jiu said as he took out a talisman.

  "Have you heard of Ghost Painting Peach Charms?"

  I nodded and said, "Isn't it just a description of messy writing and drawing?"

  "Old Five, come out. Attach yourself to this talisman and draw the appearance of that person wearing white clothes." Mao Nineteen said to a gourd.

  A puff of white air emerged and floated into the talisman paper. The talisman paper also floated up, flying towards the direction of the villa.

  A few minutes later, the talisman paper flew back. Mao Shiying grabbed it with one hand and opened the gourd, and the white gas drifted in again.

  "Look at this, it's called a ghost painting peach symbol, haha." Mao Shi Jiu smiled proudly.

  There was an extra face on the talisman paper, but it was drawn in a messy and disorderly manner, truly a ghost painting a peach symbol.

  "Can this be right? It doesn't seem like it at all!" I said, somewhat disbelieving.

  "Come with me and you'll know whether it's okay or not."

  After finishing speaking, we left the villa and headed to the Bull Group's Bull Building, and soon arrived at the destination.

  "Now, burn the talisman and dissolve it in water to drink." said Mao Shi Jiu.

  "Ugh, how disgusting." I waved my hand in disgust.

  "Hurry up, don't drag on, do you want to save your little girlfriend or not?"

  "Alright." I pinched my nose and gulped it down.

  Just after drinking, something magical happened.