Chapter 172 Gold Medal Boxer

The incense master felt irritated. At this moment, Yin Zhen’s right shoulder sank.

A Paperman had silently appeared behind her, its palm pressing down on her shoulder. Heavy yin energy seeped from her shoulder into Yin Zhen’s entire body. Although it could not shake her while her emotions were suppressed at this moment, the Paperman’s strength was bizarrely immense. It pressed down so hard that her shoulder blades CREAKED, pinning most of her body to the chair, unable to move.

"Don’t forget." The incense master’s voice turned cold. "Your sister’s soul is still in my hands. Through her, I can take your life at any time."

He thought these words would at least force Qiao Yun to make a slight concession. However, to his surprise, the moment he finished speaking, Yin Zhen forcefully flicked her still-mobile left hand. A dagger flew from her grasp, stabbing straight into the center of the incense master’s forehead!

The impact knocked the incense master’s head backward. The dagger sank in entirely, leaving only the hilt exposed, but no blood flowed from his forehead. There was only the faint sound of tearing paper.

Seeing Yin Zhen with her chin raised in disdain, the incense master trembled with rage. Gritting his teeth, he raised his hand and pulled the dagger out. A pitch-black hole was left on the Paperman’s forehead, its edges curling slightly to reveal the empty inner layer of paper beneath.

It was merely a Paperman body double. Yin Zhen wasn’t surprised in the slightest; she would only be surprised if a big shot like him lacked defensive measures.

The incense master wished he could tear Yin Zhen into eight pieces right now, extracting her soul to forge a lantern, but after a few seconds, he forcibly suppressed his fury. Qiao Yun was still of great use to him; this was not the time to completely fall out with her.

He turned around to calm his emotions. "I know you hate being controlled by me and refuse to listen to my orders. Fine! I can give you your freedom, but you have to do three more things for me!"

Without waiting for Yin Zhen’s response, he barreled on, as if terrified she might disrespect him again.

"My setup at Renxin Hospital took ten years. It would have fully matured just by sacrificing the entire hospital during this year’s Ghost Festival, but someone snatched my prize away last month. I’ve already investigated and found out that the interceptor is a woman named Zhang Yueqin. This woman is highly shrewd, and her background has no flaws. I’m afraid she has quite the backing.

"She was originally under the control of the Abnormal Investigation Bureau but escaped last night. I want you to capture her alive and bring her back. She has an eight-year-old daughter; if you like, you can dispose of her however you please. The ghost I raised beneath the hospital is very special, and you are the only one who can handle this task.

"The second thing: I want you to take a trip to Sanmen Town with Liu Hua and Zhang Hai to bring back a piece of ’goods’ for me. We’ll talk about the third thing after you finish the first two. You can choose which one to do first and which one to do second."

The incense master finally turned his face slightly, glancing at Yin Zhen from the corner of his eye. Qiao Yun had hated being controlled since she was young, so every time the incense master made her do something, he would give her multiple choices to grant her the illusion of controlling her own actions.

"After all three things are completed, I will dispose of your sister’s soul. From then on, you will no longer be a Pilgrim of the Temple Worshippers’ Association. You can go wherever you want!"

[Triggered Copper Card Event]: Gold Medal Boxer

[Event Explanation]: Every mysterious organization has a Gold Medal Boxer, but in reality, they are just the unlucky bastard responsible for doing the dirty, tiring work with a staggeringly high casualty rate. That’s right, it’s talking about you! Your boss is your biggest backer. Do not disobey him; you currently cannot defeat him at all.

[Event Requirement]: Head to Sanmen Town to pick up the goods. What are the goods? The boss didn’t say, and you shouldn’t ask. If you ask, the answer is ’you don’t need to know.’

[Event Reward]: Word count +3,000, attribute points +10, Random Item x1.

The system was clearly stirring up trouble, hoping she would go to Sanmen Town. Hmph, she absolutely wouldn’t go! Just as Yin Zhen was about to speak, she saw the latest message sent by Bai Qiang.

[Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence]: Did you know? Guan Lan and Guan Xing really transmigrated into Zhang Yueqin and Qin Jia. This is way too dramatic!

Yin Zhen was speechless. What was even more dramatic was that she had once again become the opponent of the protagonist of Ancient Abyss. The dark hand of fate was truly too dark—was this the Strength of the Villain Aura? So the system was using her rebelliousness to provoke her into accepting the task of capturing Zhang Yueqin alive, wasn’t it? She wasn’t trying to forcefully save face; she had simply seen through the system’s insidious schemes!

The Paperman behind Yin Zhen disappeared. She glanced at the event description again and asked expressionlessly, "What are the goods?"

The incense master shot her a look. "You don’t need to know."

"..." Yin Zhen paused. "I don’t like searching for people. Tell me once you have that Zhang Yueqin’s exact location. I’ll go to Sanmen Town first. I don’t need anyone tagging along."

The incense master was practically furious enough to die. "Don’t forget you’re a fugitive right now! Without Liu Hua and Zhang Hai’s help, you won’t even be able to reach Sanmen Town, and that piece of ’goods’ isn’t something you can transport back on your own!"

"When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning. I’ll contact you beforehand. You just need to ensure that on the way back, the goods never leave your hands for the entire journey."

Yin Zhen stood up. "The people from the Abnormal Investigation Bureau can track me. You deal with it."

"..."

Who the f*ck was the boss of the Temple Worshippers’ Association anyway?!

"I want to rest!"

The incense master waved his hand, signaling her to scram immediately. The Paperman that had pressed down on Yin Zhen’s shoulder earlier reappeared at the doorway, bowing in an inviting posture. Slinging her laptop bag over her shoulder, Yin Zhen walked in the direction the Paperman indicated.

After Yin Zhen left, the drafty-headed incense master’s head BUZZED. He grabbed the teapot from the desk and ruthlessly smashed it onto the floor, rolling his bracelet faster and louder.

On the way to the guest room, Yin Zhen saw the woman in the cheongsam from earlier sitting at a stone table beneath a large tree in the corner of the courtyard. She was doing her makeup in front of the mirror of a vintage vanity box. Beside her, a lean buzz-cut man squatted on a stone stool, eating noodles from a bowl larger than his head.

Noticing Yin Zhen standing in the distance, the buzz-cut man lifted his face from the bowl and shouted at her.

"Have you eaten? Want some oil-splashed noodles?" After shouting, he tossed a clove of garlic into his mouth and ate it along with the noodles.

The woman in the cheongsam frowned and covered her nose. "Can you not eat garlic?"

"You fool! Eating noodles without garlic is a waste of good noodles!"

If Yin Zhen guessed correctly, these two were Liu Hua and Zhang Hai, the ones who would be going to Sanmen Town with her to pick up the goods. Both of them felt like Sealers. Obtaining their memories would definitely allow her to understand the incense master better.

The time limit of the Emotion Suppressor was almost up. Yin Zhen ignored the two of them for the time being. She found an empty guest room, went in, and after carefully inspecting the area, she expanded her Spiritual Barrier to fill the entire room.

The moment the Medicine’s duration ended, Yin Zhen immediately felt the rebound of her emotions. Tension, anxiety, and fear made her tremble uncontrollably. Her face turned pale, and it was exceedingly difficult to suppress these feelings. If she were in the Ghost Realm, where Fierce Ghosts ran rampant, such a strong emotional rebound would certainly attract their attacks.

Unless she used Emotion Suppressors continuously. The Item Explanation didn’t mention any limits on the quantity used within a short period. However, Yin Zhen could imagine that after taking it multiple times, once she stopped the Medicine, the emotional rebound would be incredibly severe. If things went wrong, a person could be directly crushed by their emotions, or driven mad.

As time passed, Yin Zhen’s rebounding emotions slowly settled down. Just as she was about to rest, she looked up and suddenly found that the window was covered with Papermen’s faces! They were squeezed together one by one, pressed against her window, peering inside.

"Damn it!"

Yin Zhen cursed in a low voice. Her Spiritual Barrier’s shielding power over the human emotional field was insufficient, still causing her to attract ghosts. Fortunately, her emotions had calmed down now. With every blink, a few of the Papermen clinging to the window vanished, and in no time at all, they had completely disappeared.

Yin Zhen couldn’t care less now whether she had aroused suspicion, but she couldn’t sleep anymore tonight. She had to stay awake the entire night.

Taking out Half a Book, Yin Zhen consumed 500 words to clear the "Structural Repair" on the first page, and reproduced "See you next Chapter." Before following Liu Hua to the ancient mansion, she had also saved her file, which was enough to deal with various unexpected situations.

Opening her laptop again, Yin Zhen sat in a position directly facing the door. She took out a brand-new children’s smartwatch from her bag and had A rewrite the watch’s program to download a tech-version of the "Eye of Death" for Bai Qiang. Before setting off tomorrow, she would find a locker to store it in so Bai Qiang could pick it up herself. This trip to Sanmen Town was one hundred percent going to end in disaster, and she definitely wouldn’t be returning in the short term.

"A, you don’t need to look up the information on that bracelet man from earlier for now. Help me search for all the information related to Sanmen Town, especially regarding supernatural legends. Trace the timeline back ten years—no, dig up the oldest information you can find, organize it into an app, and send it to my phone."

"Understood. Searching for you now."

Windows automatically opened and overlapped one by one on the computer screen. Yin Zhen took a casual glance and saw many pictures related to traditional puppetry. This was very supernatural!

The windows flashed too quickly for her to see any detailed content. Taking out the notepad and pencil she had snagged from the hotel out of her bag, Yin Zhen began to sketch the appearance and build of the man she met tonight. Pictures could be posted in the system’s forum. When the time came, she would hang his portrait in the forum and let all the Players dig up the Identity of the protagonist of Autumn Tomb.