Chapter 144: At Least Five Hundred Yellow Talismans

At the critical moment, I shoved the already bent tactical baton in my hand straight into the man's mouth.

With a crisp snap, he actually bit the baton clean in half. Seizing that brief window of opportunity, I executed a butterfly roll and wriggled free from beneath him.

Once on my feet, I grinned at him and chuckled, "You don't seem surprised by my arrival at all!"

"Jiang Huai, current owner of the Jianghuai One-Stop Funeral Services parlor. More importantly, you are our boss's enemy. The boss said you would come and instructed us that if you showed up, we should keep you here."

Things instantly became clear and straightforward: "So, Lin Feng is your boss."

He let out a cold snort, which served as the best possible confirmation for me.

That meant Lin Feng knew I would trace things back to the Ma Family Village, and she also knew I would come here. She had long since arranged for people to wait for me.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked at the middle-aged man before me and asked, "Do you really think you're a match for me?"

The man laughed out loud, "Just by myself, maybe not necessarily. But if we come together, well, that's hard to say."

Hearing this, my brow furrowing slightly, I suddenly realized I had been surrounded by seven people.

Among these individuals were the ticket seller who had grappled with me earlier, the three guys who had originally tried to bury Yin Cheng alive, and the remaining two I had basically seen around the Ma Family Village.

Seven of them at once—they certainly thought highly of me.

"You guys should all be dead, right? Though you're currently trying your utmost to maintain human appearance and human habits, dead is dead. Viewed now, you're merely monsters refined into Corpse Howlers by Lin Feng using esoteric arts."

The Corpse Howlers here were not the howling demons of myth and legend.

Although they were a type of zombie, they could still retain human reason, habits, and twisted memories.

In this regard, they were a cut above Corpse-Dogs, but all these things ultimately led to the same destination—none of them could truly make it onto the grand stage.

"Before we start, I still have a few questions I'd like to clear up, just to satisfy my curiosity."

Without waiting for their permission, I went straight ahead and asked, "Requiring ID cards to enter the haunted house—was that actually so you could figure out the exact birth date and time of everyone who went inside, and then screen them according to your requirements?"

I paused for a moment and continued, "Once they were screened out, someone would step forward to take their photos, and once the target was confirmed, someone else would be specifically assigned to make a move."

I looked around the surroundings, "Actually, the entire Ma Family Village is, for you—no, for the entire Cicada Society—a hunting ground. Anyone who enters cannot escape."

"There never was any ancestral sacrifice in the Ma Family Village, was there? It's all just a trick pulled by your Cicada Society, meant to lure people here for sightseeing so it'd be much easier for you to make your move."

"I'm just curious, what kind of standard do you use to pick people, and what sort of people are buying lives from you?"

I pointed my finger at the seven people in front of me, "If I'm not mistaken, you lot were also kidnapped here previously, weren't you? It's just that after dying, you were messed with and turned into this, becoming the dogs of the Cicada Society."

"Though I understand your memories and thoughts have already been tampered with, have you ever thought about your families?"

As soon as those words left my mouth, the seven of them looked at each other in blank dismay. Perhaps a certain word in my speech had provoked some thought within them.

Yet they were merely dogs trained to do tasks; no useful words could be squeezed out of their mouths.

However, I understood one thing: these Corpse Howlers required someone to cast spells to control them.

Don't look at how lucid these Corpse Howlers seemed right now; that was only because the caster needed to concentrate single-mindedly on controlling them without any interruption.

Dealing with Corpse Howlers was impossible unless their physical bodies were beaten to a pulp, otherwise they would always regenerate.

To completely cripple them, one needed to find the spellcaster controlling them.

The Ma Family Village was so vast; trying to find the spellcaster right now was probably out of the question.

"Never mind. Once I finish you off, the person behind you will naturally crawl out."

The seven of them were in no rush to make a move. In their eyes, I was already a cooked duck that couldn't possibly fly away.

Yet in my eyes, weren't they just as incapable of escaping?

The Way of Heaven is fair; although these corpses sounded and looked immensely formidable, there was one catch: as long as they were corpses, they would all fear one specific thing.

That was the Thunder Technique, especially the orthodox Maoshan Thunder Law I harbored within myself.

I took off my shoulder bag and casually fished a thick stack of yellow talisman papers out from inside.

I weighed the stack of yellow talismans in my hand, smiling self-mockingly at the seven figures, "I originally prepared these to give to Lin Feng, your boss. But since you guys are in such a rush, I suppose I'll hand them over to you instead."

Without giving anyone a chance to react, I tossed the stack of yellow talismans straight up into the air.

I hadn't carefully counted how many there were in total, but I guessed there were at least five hundred.

Drawing those talismans had damn near ruined my hands.

Under their astonished gazes, I rapidly formed hand seals with both hands, chanting under my breath: "Three thousand paths of Dao, Supreme is the Thunder. Ten thousand bolts of heavenly thunder, annihilate all wicked specters! I am none other than the Thunder God, and the Thunder God is none other than me. Obey this command instantly!"