Chapter 162: Preparing for Level 7
Half an hour later, Lin Huai opened her eyes.
On the low coffee table before her, a pure white lotus rested quietly inside a glass vase, fully in bloom.
The blossom had shed every trace of crimson and pink, turning entirely snow-white. This meant Lin Huai had completely purged every last remnant of dark thought from its core.
She let out a soft, relieved breath and carefully tucked the rare flower into her inventory.
It was the dead of night, and heavy snow was falling beyond the glass panels. The temperature had plummeted into a bitter, biting chill. Yet with the full list of Level 7 materials finally gathered, Lin Huai was far too restless to sleep.
Without waiting for morning, she pulled out her Undertaker Permit and activated the portal to the Crematorium Station.
Steering the hearse right up to the station’s main gates, she locked the coordinates and pressed confirm on the upgrade interface.
Rather than shivering in the cabin, she slipped into the crematorium’s heated lobby to chat through the night with Sister Hanba.
Inside the hall, the heating was running at full blast, creating a warm sanctuary completely separated from the frozen white gale blowing outside.
As soon as she entered, Lin Huai pulled out a folding table, wooden chairs, and a porcelain tea set, setting them up neatly in the center of the room. She sat down opposite Sister Hanba, pouring two steaming cups of fragrant tea.
“Lin Lin, why are you visiting the Crematorium so late?” Sister Hanba asked, leaning back into her seat. “I didn’t see you bring any bodies this time.”
Lin Huai took a warming sip and gestured toward the hearse idling in the courtyard. “My vehicle is advancing to Level 7. It’s freezing out there on the road, so I came inside to keep you company.”
As she spoke, she reached into her bag, pulling out a neat stack of stylish dresses she had stockpiled and sliding them across the table. “Sister Hong won’t mind me dropping in uninvited, right?”
Sister Hanba’s eyes lit up. She scooped up the dresses with a broad smile, holding them against her shoulders to admire the colors. “Oh, how could I ever mind? Guarding this empty crematorium day in and day out gets terribly boring. Lin Lin, you’re welcome to drop by for tea anytime you like. You have no idea how happy it makes me!”
The advancement process required three full hours. As their conversation wandered, they naturally drifted toward the other figures in the Sudden Wealth Secret Group.
Ever since Wu Zhao had recovered her lost memories, Lin Huai had added the ancient general to the private registry.
Now, nearly every supernatural NPC Lin Huai had befriended—with the single exception of Old Man Ren from the Funeral Home—had agreed to join the syndicate. They formed an underworld network of her own, allowing everyone to trade favors, supplies, and information with ease.
Old Man Ren’s personality was simply too solitary. He kept a sharp distance from everyone, so Lin Huai had avoided bringing up the chat group around him.
Still, considering all their stations were tied to the afterlife and that Old Man Ren clearly knew Wu Zhao, Lin Huai figured Sister Hanba might know something about his past.
“Sister Hong,” Lin Huai asked casually, “do you know anything about Old Man Ren’s background?”
Sister Hanba nodded. “I know a little bit. Why do you ask?”
“Nothing in particular. I just find him quite mysterious, and I wondered if he had a story behind him.”
“A story? Let me think… it has been quite a few centuries…” Sister Hanba rested her chin in her hand, her brow creased in thought. Suddenly, her eyes widened. “Oh! Old Man Ren used to have a wife. Did you know that?”
Lin Huai blinked in surprise, shaking her head. “I had no idea. Tell me more!”
Finding a fresh listener, Sister Hanba’s gossip instincts flared to life. She leaned in closer over the steaming tea.
“From what I gathered, back when Old Man Ren walked among the living, he was a nobleman—a prince, even. He took a bride whose name escapes me, but by all accounts, she was an extraordinary beauty.”
“However, a bitter estrangement drove them apart. She refused to forgive whatever slight occurred between them, shutting him out entirely. So he abandoned his courtly life and took up a watch in the Underworld, waiting through the centuries for her soul to cross the threshold.”
“He guarded that gate for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until this survival game came along that he was assigned to manage the Funeral Home Station, continuing his endless wait.”
Sister Hanba didn’t know the exact details of the feud. Though she was eager to spill more, her knowledge ran dry, leaving her looking a bit unsatisfied.
Lin Huai, however, picked up on a completely different detail. Her eyes narrowed. “Wait… so before this game started, this realm was already… the Underworld?”
Sister Hanba froze mid-breath. Realizing what she had let slip, she slapped a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t say that! Lin Lin, pretend you never heard a single word of that, alright?”
Lin Huai understood immediately. High-tier station guardians were bound by strict non-disclosure rules, and breaking them meant severe system punishment. Seeing Sister Hanba’s genuine panic, Lin Huai nodded and smoothly steered the conversation back to harmless topics.
An hour slipped by in warm chatter. Outside, the vehicle’s progress bar crossed the one-third mark.
Lin Huai glanced toward the frosted glass doors, intending to inspect the chassis.
Buzz!
A low, resonant hum vibrated through the floorboards, followed by an explosion of wild energy radiating from the courtyard!
“Did something go wrong with the upgrade?” Lin Huai shot up from her chair.
Sister Hanba dropped her playful demeanor in an instant, her gaze snapping toward the glass doors with sharp authority. “What a vicious ghostly aura! What on earth did you drag inside your coffin?!”
The two sprinted to the entrance.
Out in the courtyard, the hearse was completely engulfed in a thick, churning cloud of ink-black Yin malice. The blood jade coffin mounted on the roof was violently thrashing against its mounts, the heavy stone rattling as though an ancient nightmare were clawing its way free!
Lin Huai’s stomach dropped. She remembered that during her frantic escape from the Blood Pool, she had used the coffin’s suction to swallow and trap several rampaging ghouls.
Perched on Lin Huai’s shoulder, Dong Xiaobao ignored her natural fear of the ancient drought demoness, piping up in an urgent squeak: “It’s the evil spirits from the Blood Pool!”
Lin Huai had assumed the coffin’s passive cleansing field would naturally dissolve them over time, but the malice of the deep pool far exceeded her expectations.
Panic set in. If the violent aura contaminated the catalytic materials, her vehicle upgrade would collapse into ash!
“I have to get that lid open!” Lin Huai stepped forward, reaching for her weapons.
“Stay back,” Sister Hanba ordered, stepping ahead of her. A wreath of blinding crimson fire erupted from the palm of her hand. An ancient, suffocating pressure radiated from her body, instantly freezing the wild black mist in place.
“How did you manage to drag entities out from the Blood Pool? Those creatures exist entirely outside the game’s designated framework—their power tier is far higher than ordinary trial monsters! Your coffin is only Level 6; it doesn’t have the strength to suppress them!”
With a flick of her wrist, Sister Hanba sent the crimson flames roaring outward. The holy fire expanded into a blazing dome, locking the hearse and the thrashing coffin in an airtight inferno.
The Blood Pool ghouls were ferocious, but the ancient drought demoness was leagues more terrifying. In less than two minutes, the frantic pounding inside the coffin went dead quiet.
Lin Huai exhaled a long breath, wiping cold sweat from her forehead. “Thank goodness I came to visit you tonight, Sister Hong. If I had tried running this upgrade out on the open road tomorrow, my vehicle would have been ripped to pieces.”
Sister Hanba maintained her crimson barrier over the vehicle for the remaining two hours, keeping the dark energies sealed until the upgrade process ran its course. Once the countdown hit zero, the flames contracted into a tiny ember, fluttering back to Sister Hanba’s outstretched palm.
Ding!
A crisp notification resonated through Lin Huai’s mind. At that exact second, the heavy vehicle in the snow burst with brilliant white light, its entire physical form melting and reconstructing before their eyes.
Lin Huai had known all along that Level 7 was the threshold where vehicles underwent a fundamental qualitative change.
Even so, she had never been able to picture what that new form would actually look like.
Standing beneath the falling snow, staring at the breathtaking machine that now occupied the courtyard, Lin Huai let out an involuntary gasp.
A shiver of realization ran down her spine, and she murmured under her breath:
“No wonder… they said ordinary survivors have no idea what this game truly becomes… No wonder Master Cloud Cliff possessed techniques that seemed to break all the rules…”
