Chapter 55: Zombie: I’m Being Pinched Between Two Big Shots and It’s Tough

“Your skills are as good as ever.”
Xiao Mochen’s goatee trembled with his grin.
He gave a thumbs-up to the woman in front of him.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Xiao.
Please come again next time!”
A woman in a silk nightgown leaned against a doorframe covered in small advertisements.
Her rose-red nail polish had a glazed sheen under the neon sign of the “Foot Bath Massage,” making her look charming and captivating.

“Of course, of course!”
Xiao Mochen waved his hand and walked into the small alley.
The dry night wind, carrying the carbon dust from the barbecue stall at the entrance of the alley, swept across his sunglasses.

The hem of his Daoist robe swept across the floor, which was full of suspicious rubber product packaging.
Several warm, pink spotlights lit up in the glass doors on both sides of the alley.

This small alley, located in a village in the city, was full of shops like foot bath massages.
As for what they were actually for, it was unknown.

“Tsk, do I have to go and work part-time again?”
Xiao Mochen’s footsteps scared away a stray cat that was rummaging through the trash.
The white light of his phone was reflected on his face.

The line of text “Balance: 137.2” pierced through the toad-like sunglasses on his nose and landed on his eyes.

The red string tied to the handle of his horsetail whisk broke without any warning.
The moment the acrylic pendant with the image of an anime character fell, the sky suddenly tore open and a torrential rain poured down.
The bean-sized raindrops hit the tin roof of the massage parlor with a “pitter-patter.”

“Of all people to look for, you had to look for this poor Daoist…”
Xiao Mochen’s eyes suddenly sharpened, and he casually waved his horsetail whisk, startling the gray doves under the eaves.

The pupils of the heavily made-up women who were still standing at the entrance of the shop at this early hour of the morning instantly turned a talisman-water-like grayish-blue.
The sound of the shop doors closing and the sound of the rain wove into a strange chord.
The neon light of the last massage parlor sparked in the rain.

The downpour washed away the old essential oil stains on the alley floor, and the accumulated water suddenly turned a strange ink color.

A “click” like a dislocated joint came from the depths of the rain curtain.
With every step the long-haired figure took, the exposed foot bones in his broken military boots crushed three floor tiles.
Rainwater was dripping from his jawbone.

“Demon slayer… traitor… kill…”
The stiff figure’s voice was as piercing as nails scraping on tiles.

“A zombie? It’s been a while since I’ve seen one.”

“Little fellow, tell me why you’re looking for this poor Daoist…”
Xiao Mochen pulled out a greasy take-out receipt from the cuff of his Daoist robe.
“Is it for fortune-telling or to change your fate?”

His fingertip condensed a red light and quickly drew a talisman on the receipt.

“The bearded and angry-eyed one sweeps away the haze, and with one sword, he can quell the sorrow of the ten halls!”

The moment the incantation fell, the take-out receipt suddenly burned in the rain curtain, emitting a green smoke.
A tall, illusory figure vaguely condensed in the green smoke.

“Official Zhong, catch the ghost!”

The green-faced judge’s phantom stepped out of the green smoke, and in that instant, he swung his sword and split the rain curtain.
The canopy at the entrance of the alley was sent flying thirty meters away by the sword qi.

“Boom!”

The bronze blade and the scarlet fingernails collided, sending out orange-red sparks.
Each spark exploded into a thumb-sized scorched black hole in the rain.
The muscles of the figure’s arms suddenly swelled several times, and a silk-like black gas, as solid as a real object, wrapped around his exposed arm bones.

The blast wave produced when the blade and the claws made contact blew away the raindrops, creating a waterless space around them.

The vacuum zone lasted for a full seven heartbeats.
When the raindrops fell again, the residual qi of the green-faced judge’s sword blade cut the rain curtain into a diamond-shaped grid.

The figure retreated several meters before stopping.
In this confrontation, his sharp claws had all been shattered, and the old white clothes on his body had been cut into several rags by the sword pressure.

The black gas wrapped around his body showed an unstable form, with faint signs of dissipating.

Xiao Mochen had already beaten this zombie, which had been a huge headache for the Demon Suppression Division, to the point of its corpse qi about to dissipate with just one move!

“Is that so?…”
The hem of Xiao Mochen’s Daoist robe suddenly moved without any wind.
The moment the figure and the green-faced judge clashed, the blast wave lifted his long hair, and also allowed Xiao Mochen to see the pale face hidden under the long hair.

He pinched his fingers and calculated, then chuckled twice.
With a wave of his horsetail whisk, he dispersed the phantom of the green-faced judge.

“I’ve driven the corpse qi from your body this time.
Don’t harm anyone again in the future…”
He said out of the blue,
“Little fellow, there’s still someone waiting for you…”

“Boom!”

But before his words could fall, a ball of green flowing fire shot through the air and exploded in front of the figure.
The green flame clung to his body like a bone-eating maggot, burning the black gas that was about to dissipate.

“That little mouse is my prey!”
A cold female voice came from the darkness opposite.

A thunder suddenly boomed in the sky, and a bolt of lightning illuminated the darkness in the rain curtain.

A woman held a pipe.
The silver thread embroidery on the hem of her cheongsam had a moonlight-like sheen in the rain curtain.
Behind her, the totems of a blue luan spreading its wings appeared on the thirty-six black iron umbrella surfaces, shielding her from the downpour.

The person who had come was Guan Qing.

“If your senior sister knew you were running to a place like this every day, she probably wouldn’t be very happy.”
Guan Qing’s pipe lightly tapped the umbrella rib, and the green fire in the jade pipe bowl illuminated the faintly flowing patterns on the umbrella surface.

“Hey, what are you talking about? I’m helping fallen women!”
Xiao Mochen chuckled and raised his horsetail whisk, turning into a gentle breeze that blew away the green flames that were burning the figure.

“A-Qi!”
As Guan Qing’s words fell, the girl in the black sailor suit beside her instantly turned into a stream of light and rushed towards the figure.
The hem of her sailor suit tore into a meteor’s tail flame, and the sharp claws that popped out of her fingertips had a poisonous, cold light.

“That won’t do!”
Xiao Mochen suddenly pulled out a receipt.
“The night rain dyes the clothes and the nine heads return, the swaddling clothes are soaked in blood and the soul is taken! Guhuo, take the clothes—”

The yellowed take-out receipt suddenly unfolded into an oiled paper umbrella, spinning out the Sanskrit of the Rebirth Mantra.

The infant’s silver bracelet hanging from the end of the umbrella rib suddenly cried, and the phantom of a nine-headed bird poked its sharp beak out of the embroidery on the umbrella surface.

“Meow!”

A-Qi’s belt was suddenly hooked by the umbrella rib, and the three cat ghost talismans hidden in her sailor suit’s short skirt burst into a purple fire.
She flipped over and swung her claws, tearing through the three layers of the umbrella surface, only to find that each layer of silk was embroidered with the “Tale of the Cat Presenting Auspiciousness,” which was used to suppress cat demons.

The pearl held in the beak of the blue luan on Guan Qing’s hairpin suddenly vibrated its wings.
The clear cry of the divine bird shattered the raindrops within a thirty-meter radius.
The ancient pressure made the charcoal fire on the barbecue grill at the entrance of the alley instantly condense.
“Back then, even the Bi Fang of Kunlun had to bow its head when it saw me, let alone a mere Guhuo?”

“That’s not right,” Xiao Mochen chuckled.
The silver threads of his horsetail whisk instantly wrapped around A-Qi’s ankle, and the cat tail exposed under her skirt exploded into a feather duster.
“When I was working part-time at a pet hospital, I cured at least a thousand cases of cat distemper, if not eight hundred.”

“This little fellow still has unfinished karma.
He can’t die here.”

“Did you think about their unfinished karma when he killed my little demons?”

Guan Qing’s pipe lightly tapped the bluestone slab.
Behind her, the thirty-six umbrella-wielding people suddenly formed a formation.
All the blue luan totems on the umbrella surfaces opened their eyes at the same time, and the rainwater dripping from the edge of each umbrella turned into a green fire lotus platform.

The blue luan guard team, formed by the thirty-six people, instantly surrounded the figure like a city wall.

“The cycle of heaven, why not let him follow it?”
Xiao Mochen’s horsetail whisk swept away the falling tiles.
The cuffs of his Daoist robe suddenly billowed, and the take-out receipts hidden in his secret pocket flew out, burning in the rain curtain and turning into countless green-smoke-like phantoms.

In the chaos, nine sword marks suddenly tore through the rain curtain.
The figure’s two claws actually formed a sword seal similar to the orthodox Daoist sect, and the sword qi carved nine regular marks on the wall.

The airflow from the sword marks overturned seven illegal shacks, and the rain, mixed with blood, formed a pattern similar to an eight-trigram array on the ruins.

And when the chaotic airflow had subsided, the figure had already dissipated like green smoke, nowhere to be found.

Guan Qing’s heel suddenly pierced into the ground, and the blue luan divine fire burned through three streets along the underground water veins, but only evaporated a purple smoke with the smell of a corpse.

This heavy rain had already washed away the figure’s aura.
Even Guan Qing couldn’t accurately find his location for a while.

She held her umbrella and crossed the battlefield, brushing past Xiao Mochen.

“If you stand in my way again next time, I’ll kill you first!”

“Don’t worry, his corpse qi has already dissipated.
He won’t harm anyone again.”
Xiao Mochen waved his hand and withdrew the phantoms in the sky.
“This matter, why not let the younger generation handle it?”

“You want me to trust you once?”

“So many times already, what’s one more?”

When A-Qi passed by, she suddenly hissed at Xiao Mochen.
Her puffed-up tail swept away the peeling paint on the wall, revealing the blue bricks inside.

“He will receive the punishment he deserves…”

After Guan Qing’s group had gone far away, Xiao Mochen suddenly bent down and picked up the anime character pendant that was soaked in the rain.
“Don’t you think so? Little Zhenxun?”

The roar of an SUV’s engine suddenly pierced through the rain curtain.
When Xu Zhi jumped out of the car, his tactical long boots crushed the reflection in a puddle.

“Master, are you okay?”
His messy hair was soaked by the rain curtain, and bean-sized water droplets fell from his forehead.

“I’m fine.”
Xiao Mochen smiled and stroked his beard.
“By the way, do you have any money? Master is about to starve to death!”

“I suggest you go to the Demon Suppression Division’s cafeteria.
It’s very cheap.”
Xu Zhi had no intention of helping this master.
After all, this was not without precedent.

Last year, he had tricked Xu Zhi out of two months’ salary, saying that he was borrowing money to help a Daoist friend repair a temple.
But later, the Daoist priest from the White Cloud Temple had called and asked Xu Zhi why he was renovating their toilets.

After being interrogated, he had learned that all the money he had transferred to his master had been spent in places like foot bath massages.

Xu Zhi looked at the familiar nine sword marks on the wall.
“Do you know these sword marks?”

“Of course I do!”
Xiao Mochen smirked and came closer.
“I’m very familiar with them.
Do you want to know? Twenty thousand, and I’ll tell you everything!”

“Master, are you crazy about money?”
Xu Zhi looked this money-grubbing master up and down.
He had had a good income before from helping people with feng shui and fortune-telling.
He should have been financially free long ago.

‘Is foot bath massage that expensive?’

“Boss! There’s a result from the comparison!”
Zhou Xuan’s voice suddenly came from the headset, mixed with the “dada” of a keyboard.
“You’d better come back as soon as possible!”