"Master, if you ask me, we should just challenge the Song faction directly. After the match, we leave immediately and let them deal with the aftermath," Hong Kun said, his words clearly lacking responsibility, which earned him a look of clear displeasure from Zhou Huan. Hong Kun then fell silent.

Zhou Huan stated, "Here is what we will do next: Dongzi will stay home with Sister Xiaoling. Hong Kun and I will go out to search the locations marked in the photographs. I estimate we don't have much time before the next incident occurs."

"Alright!" Dongzi replied with simple honesty. Zhou Huan and Hong Kun left, splitting up to search for the scenes depicted in the photos.

As if to prove his simple-minded approach, Dongzi procured a toad and caught several flies, placing them inside a cage covered with a plastic sheet. Dongzi watched the toad devour the flies with great enthusiasm, which instantly instilled in him a profound trust for this type of Lin Frog.

Xiaoling watched Dongzi engrossed in fiddling with the frog, utterly perplexed. She truly had no idea what the boy was up to, but she recognized that this young man possessed a certain naive ingenuity.

"Dongzi, do you dare tell Sister Ling what you are doing?"

Dongzi blinked and chuckled, "Hehe, this... I'm conducting an experiment. You'll know once it succeeds." Immediately after, Dongzi pulled out the internal textbook written by Zhou Huan, Essentials of Master Shou's Talismans, flipping through it more than a dozen times. Finally, he frowned in annoyance: "Why didn't my brother even write the talisman for Corpse Soul Mutation? Really, I've heard of this talisman; how could he not know it?"

"Corpse Soul Mutation? Where did you hear about that?" Xiaoling asked, displaying significant displeasure in her reaction to Dongzi.

Zhou Huan interjected, "Hmph, Sister Xiaoling, listen closely. Not only have I heard of this talisman, but I've actually seen it work."

"Where?"

"Last night, I dreamed I was bitten by a butterfly again, so I drew a talisman. Unexpectedly, it actually worked; the earthworms on the ground grew enormous, helping me eat the moths in the sky," Dongzi boasted proudly, yet Yang Xiaoling listened with profound helplessness.

Dongzi then pulled out a stack of talisman papers and began scribbling on them with a brush dipped in cinnabar and gold powder mixed with water. He drew haphazardly until he had produced no fewer than a hundred talismans. He then lit them all, grinding the ashes into a fine paste, which he smeared onto the Lin Frogs. However, the frogs showed absolutely no reaction.

"Hmm, no good. This frog isn't the right material. I need to find another one." With that, Dongzi dug out several hundred yuan from his bag and casually tossed a few sheets of Ghost-Warding Talismans—the ones he wrote most smoothly—onto the walls of the room. He then told Yang Xiaoling, "Sister Ling, I have to go out on a crucial errand. I’ll be back shortly; you stay inside and don't go anywhere."

Yang Xiaoling didn't know what Dongzi was setting out to do, so she could only nod in agreement.

Dongzi emptied the entire contents of his large travel pack, slung the empty bag over his shoulder, hailed a ride, and returned to the entrance of the former farm.

Upon arrival, Dongzi strode boldly toward the farm entrance. Just then, Dongzi sensed many people following him. He whipped his head around, and a line of a dozen or so people stood stiffly at the gate, staring intently at him.

"Slap! Slap!" At some unknown moment, someone appeared directly behind Dongzi and delivered two sharp slaps: "Kid, you really have guts. You robbed us of our goods today, and now you've come back looking for trouble?"

Dongzi turned to strike back but realized the fellow behind him had already retreated into the cluster of people at the gate. "Come on, kid! If you want to get frogs from my Third Uncle's farm today, you have to knock us down first. And if we manage to knock you down, hmph, your little life might be hard to save."

"You are quite arrogant. Come on, do we go one-on-one, or do you all rush me at once?" Dongzi dropped his bag and patted the back pocket of his trousers, narrowing his eyes.

The previous fellow laughed, "Haha, one-on-one or a free-for-all? I'll tell you, today you listen to us. Don't say we aren't fair: one-on-one means you fight all dozen of us. A free-for-all means a few of us gang up on you. Either way, you're getting a beating today." As soon as the words left his mouth, the dozen men behind the speaker drew iron bars and blades, charging menacingly toward Dongzi.

When it came to a fight, Dongzi was genuinely sharp. Seeing so many people, he naturally sought cover, spinning around and retreating into the corridor between the front hall and the rear farmyard. This space was only wide enough for two people to stand abreast, and in a brawl, two people might not even have enough room to swing their arms freely.

Seeing the dozen figures charge toward him, Dongzi grinned. He pulled a chipped brick from his back pocket and began laying into the incoming crowd with it. Before long, Dongzi had beaten down all but three or four of the attackers. Those remaining stared at Dongzi in astonishment, clutching their makeshift weapons, while the fallen men lacked the strength to even climb back up.

"Listen up, boys, I'm giving you time to call for backup. If no one shows up in five minutes, I'm going in myself to catch frogs. Aren't you supposed to be guarding the place? Well, today your grandpa is putting you on gate duty instead. Keep the entrance watched, understand?" Dongzi's words shattered their fighting spirit. They immediately threw down their weapons and pulled out their phones, dialing rapidly.

Soon, an ambulance arrived, and nearly ten injured men were loaded onto the vehicle. The remaining few smiled faintly. "We didn't know the hero was so skilled; we yield. Go ahead and pick your frogs. We'll handle that old man, your Third Uncle!"

Dongzi puffed up with satisfaction, laughing loudly, "Now that's more like it. You better guard that gate well for me. If one person gets in, I'll whack one of you. If a single frog escapes, I'll give you all a thrashing." After speaking, Dongzi entered the farm, carrying the bloodied brick. He wiped the brick clean with some dry grass, stuffed it back into his rear pocket, and swaggered off to hunt for frogs.

The perimeter of the farm was enclosed with plastic sheeting, primarily to prevent the Lin Frogs from escaping. The crops grown inside were Peruvian perilla, intended for export, as the farm owner—that toothless old man—claimed this herb was especially attractive to insects, hence his large toad population.

"Aha, this one looks quite spirited. Such a big belly and muscular legs. Today, I’m catching you!" Dongzi shouted, rushing forward a few steps toward a toad. But the toad didn't move. Dongzi stealthily reached out to grab it, but just as his hand was about to close around it, the toad coiled its legs and leaped high into the air, soaring a great distance before landing flat on the ground, croaking aggressively at Dongzi.

This croak instantly angered Dongzi. "Oh, so even you frogs are mocking me now? Watch me deal with you!" As he spoke, Dongzi stripped off his shirt, revealing his bare torso, and used the garment like a net. With a powerful thrust of his legs, Dongzi launched himself forward, swooping the clothes down over the toad.

"Croak! Croak!" The frog kept calling out even as it was trapped.

Dongzi slowly inserted his hand into the cloth cocoon, intending to seize the frog. However, through a tiny gap, the toad slowly crawled out, sprang clear, and hopped away again.

This time, Dongzi was genuinely stumped, but he knew he had a trick up his sleeve. After thinking things over, he pulled out another stack of talisman paper from his pocket, inscribed them all with his own invented talisman design, burned them, and mixed the resulting ashes into a basin of water. He then caught a fly, tied a small string around it, and dangled it over the basin, swinging it back and forth. Holding his shirt, he began driving the frogs around the entire farm. After about half an hour of driving them, nearly all the toads in the farm had gathered near the basin.

This time, Dongzi pulled out a plastic bag, blew it up, and suddenly slapped it, creating a muffled thump. The frogs edged a few steps closer to the basin. Dongzi, holding the small string from a distance, made the fly tied to the end swing back and forth. To his satisfaction, the toads were truly obedient; they all leaped high from the water in the basin to snatch the fly dangling above.

Repeating this process, in less than twenty minutes, Dongzi had soaked all the frogs on the farm in the talisman water. Next came the leisurely wait for the mutation to occur—this was Dongzi’s sudden realization: since he couldn't take them away easily, he would induce the mutation right here, then forcefully remove them afterward.

Suddenly, a great commotion erupted outside the farm, accompanied by the sound of several police cars stopping at the entrance.