Chapter 38
Endless fields were blowing in the cold night wind.
After the old man said this sentence, a vague truth gradually appeared in Lian Xi’s heart. He gazed intently at the old man standing in the distance and his fingers pressed on the bronze bell, ready to attack.
Lian Xi’s voice was calm however. He asked: “You mean, you killed SuZhou City’s previous white reaper?”
The old man giggled and looked strangely at Lian Xi: “What do you think?”
The night hides endless evil, and the night also hides the dense mass of dark threads and makes it unable to be seen clearly.
One of the dark lines appeared in the moonlight, reflecting a dim glow.
Lian Xi’s heart tightened and he hurriedly said: “Be careful!” Lian Xi grabbed Lie Chen and pulled him over to his side.
The next moment, they saw endless black lines in all directions, every corner of the earth, all connected to the old man’s mouth!
“Hoo!”
The old man breathed in angrily and opened his mouth wide.
His mouth got bigger and bigger. Initially it was the size of a fist and then slowly it expanded until the size of a man’s skull. The black mouth was like a bottomless black hole and countless black lines connected from all sides of the earth into his mouth.
A burst of sound came to Lian Xi’s ear like the wings of a dragonfly.
Lie Chen frowned: “What’s that sound?”
Lian Xi was shocked: “Bugs!”
In the cold moonlight, hundreds of thousands, thousands of tiny black bugs followed the threads and crawled into the old man’s mouth!
The old man shut his mouth and swallowed tens of thousands of bugs in one bite. Even the bugs could be heard hitting each other in his mouth, creaking and numbing his scalp.
So disgusting!
The old man grinned: “Now, it’s your turn!”
As his voice fell, the old man opened his mouth sharply and countless black lines, like cobwebs, spewed out of his mouth. They flew towards Lian Xi and Lie Chen.
Without hesitation, Lian Xi rang the bell.
Omm!
The bells’ sound spread and the sound waves hit the black-wire spider web, shaking the web apart. But it didn’t end there. The little bugs on the black threads were shaken to the ground by the sound waves. They fell to the ground but then gathered together in the hundreds and attacked Lian Xi and Lie Chen again.
From the wide ground, countless black bugs flocked up.
This was goddamn way too disgusting!
Lian Xi kept ringing his bell, shaking away waves and waves of bugs. Lie Chen also used his golden album to kill the black bugs. But there were way too many bugs, after one wave was shocked and killed, there was a second wave. Once the number of dead bugs reached a certain amount, a thick vaporous gas was suspended in the air.
The air temperature plummeted and an air of yin and rot wrapped around the two people. At the same time, the old man opened his mouth and manipulated a black line in his mouth to drive the black bugs.
Gradually, Lian Xi felt the sepsis begin to cut away at his skin like sharp knives. At the same time, the waves of bugs got closer and closer. He turned his head and said to his colleague, “Lie Chen! We need to totally eradicate him, he is the real menace.”
Lie Chen glanced at him, his thin lips slightly moving.
The golden album obviously isn’t effective, so then…
The next second, the Black Reaper turned his palm over and a crystal clear white jade seal appeared on his palm.
As soon as this white jade seal appeared, in a flash and as if burned by the light from the sun’s rays, the approaching black insects whistled and burnt to a crisp. As for some of the far reaching black bugs in the back, they subconsciously wanted to turn and run away but they were controlled by the old man and couldn’t escape.
The old man opened his eyes: “What the hell is this?!” How could a Black Reaper’s magic weapon be so powerful!
This question had also been posed by WuXi’s little ghost official before. If WuXi’s ghost official was here right now, he would certainly pat the old man’s shoulder and say: Ghost officials have different levels. As for why SuZhou’s city’s Black Reaper’s magic weapon is so powerful, I also don’t know. But I’m jealous.
The old man knew the situation was bad.
SuZhou’s white reaper’s magic weapon, the bronze bell, was also strange. It seemed powerful and his bugs were unable to get close. However he couldn’t tell exactly how it worked. All this white reaper seemed to do was ring it continuously but he could see any special effect. However this Black Reaper’s weapon, as soon as it appeared, was fatal to the black bugs.
It was as though it had a special effect on these yin creatures.
The old man’s pupils turned.
Run!
The old man didn’t think about it and turned his head and ran. He ran so suddenly that Lian Xi and Lie Chen couldn’t even react. It wasn’t until the old man was a hundred metres away tht Lian Xi reacted: “Catch up with him!”
The old man ran away but he still used many black bugs to block the two men. It took them a few minutes to kill them. Then the two people got back into the car to chase him.
In the vast field, a shabby old beggar runs frantically in the front, followed by a black car chasing desperately.
However, two legs are destined to lose to four wheels.
The car turned and cut off the old beggar’s escape and completely blocked his way.
Lie Chen and Lian Xi got out of the car.
“You haven’t answered my question yet, ” Lian Xi said coldly.
Lie Chen said from one side: “How many jobs did you rob from me?”
It’s not this question!
Looking at his colleague, Lian Xi coughed and continued to look at the old man. “I asked you, was SuZhou’s previous white reaper killed by you?”
The old man squinted his eyes and glared at them. Moments later, he smiled and a hoarse voice rang out: “You two are more powerful than any of the previous ghost officials I’ve met. I didn’t think I’d encounter ghost officials like this in a small place like SuZhou. Hehe, it looks like tonight there’s no way of escaping…. You forced me!”
It was useless to escape.
The old man puffed angrily and suddenly violently pummeled himself in the stomach. He gagged violently and, as he kept gagging, tens of thousands of little black bugs were spat out. These black insects rushed towards the two people but they were not afraid. The bell rang, the seal flew and the bugs died.
When the last black bug was spit out of his mouth by the old man, there was a strange smouldering sound in his throat.
Lian Xi looked up.
He saw a giant black bug’s leg crawl out of the old man’s mouth. After the leg crawled out, the old man’s body suddenly dried up and his face became deathly white. His hair became white and turned to dead grass.
Old man: “Cough!
The black bug’s legs were completely revealed. Lian Xi opened his eyes wide.
This was a giant black bug with a man’s head!
……
Ten minutes later.
Lian: “Wash it ba.”
Lie Chen: “?”
Lian Xi: “Isn’t it disgusting? Wash it.”
Lie Chen: “Oh.”
Lian Xi: “….”
Don’t just “oh”, wash your seal ah!
Yes, just a few minutes ago, after the giant black bug had climbed out of the old man’s mouth. In the blink of an eye, it devoured all the little black bugs on the ground. Eating the same kind made its body shape more huge. It lifted its jagged mouth and rushed towards the two men.
After some time dodging and fighting with the giant black bug, Lie Chen found an opportunity to send the white jade seal into the black worm’s mouth.
In a second, the black bug turned into a puddle of black water. The old man was completely paralysed in the ground, without any more means of resistance.
The old man declared his intentions so flamboyantly and his loss was also very embarrassing.
Lian Xi drove the car and looked at the back seat of the car. The old man had been tied up with rope and thrown there.
SuZhou’s black and white reaper were halfway home. They don’t really know how to deal with this kind of XuanXiu so they could only tie him up and go back home to SuZhou City.
In the back seat of the car, the old man regained consciousness. He still couldn’t move but he opened his mouth and smiled with a mouthful of dirty black teeth. “I didn’t think that I’d live my whole life, and actually be defeated by two youngsters.”
Looking at the beautiful-looking SuZhou City’s black and white reapers in the rear-view mirror, the old man really wanted to take a bite.
Lian Xi: “If you dare to speak again, I will tell him to put a seal onto your face”
Lie Chen turned to look at him: “?”
The old man squinted his eyes but at last he didn’t dare speak anymore.
Lian Xi: “What do we do now?”
Lie CHen: “What do you mean?”
Lian Xi: “If we catch a ghost we can directly send them to the underworld to reincarnate. But if we catch a person…”
According to the education that Lian Xi has received from childhood, bad guys should be brought to justice and handed over to their policeman uncles. But now this situation is clearly inappropriate. After catching the old man, Lian Xi immediately called Su Jiao but for some reason Su Jiao didn’t answer the phone.
Thinking for a moment, Lian Xi seriously said: “I thought of someone. Let’s go look for him, he might know what to do.”
At this moment, the car was driving through a fork in the road. One side of the road pointed to SuZhou City, the other pointed to WuXi. Lian Xi didn’t think about it, turned the car and drove to WuXi.
WuXi City, a bustling commercial square.
Malls in big cities often close at 10 p.m but by 9:30 p.m., malls will be requesting guests to slowly begin to leave.
It’s half past ten late at night.
The mall has already closed its doors and some people are strolling along the streets, smiling and talking. No one noticed that on the inside of the road in a flowerbed, the small bushes concealed a little boy’s figure. If people saw this kind of child-like junior high school student wandering around outside in the middle of the night, they would certainly contact his parents. WuXi’s ghost official was huddled over, his body hidden in the long grass, holding his knees and squatting.
“Ai, look, why don’t you just go reincarnate?”
“En-wu…”
“I can see you have some kind of wish, but what type of wish can it be?” After all, you’re not human, the little ghost official muttered in his heart.
“En-wu-wu!”
“Haven’t you had enough? I told you to go, you should just go. Haven’t you heard of this saying, it’s often in TV dramas, if King Yama tells you to die at 12AM, how could you dare live till 3AM? Hurry up and go reincarnate… hey, where are you going?” {King Yama/YanLuo is the King of the Underworld overseeing the Ten Lords/Kings of Hell.}
“En-wu!”
The blood-soaked yellow puppy gave a sudden cry and turned and ran deep into the bushes.
WuXi’s little ghost official got up to go after it when suddenly an instinctive feeling rose in his heart. He looked in front of him and then…
“….”
WuXi’s ghost official immediately angrily scolded, “You guys don’t even want to let go of a dog! Are you still hunan!”
Lian Xi who was suddenly surrounded by a little dog hugging his feet.
The little puppy kept using his bloody head which had been hit by a car to rub against him. His claws still pressed on the legs and licked the trouser pockets. Lian Xi remembered something and took out a ham sausage from his trouser pocket. {This is a packaged kind sold in convenience stores, like ready to eat.}
“You want this?”
“En-wu!”
The dog ate the ham sausage in two or three bites and barked beside his feet.
Lian Xi looked up at the miserable face of WuXi’s little ghost official. He coughed two times and said calmly, “You see, it’s a misunderstanding. This dog wants to eat the ham sausage, that’s why it’s sticking to me.”
After Lian Xi spoke, he saw the Black Reaper bending down beside him and reaching out and gently touching the dog’s head. While touching, Lie Chen took out his own reaper record, looked up and asked Lian: “Should I collect this job?”
Lian Xi: “…..”
WuXi’s white reaper: “…..”
You two dogs, be human!
……
Finally, WuXi’s white reaper collected the little dog’s ghost, who had been in a car crash, and sent him into the underworld.
The little ghost official snorted coldly: “At least you have a tiny bit of conscience and didn’t rob me in my own territory.”
When he heard this, Lie Chen’s face was very long.
Lian Xi pulled his arm.
Lie Chen glanced at him: You don’t let me catch ghosts, you must have a problem.
Lian Xi: “…..”
Really, you need to learn to be a person!
After receiving the ghost of the puppy, WuXi’s white reaper put away his reaper record and gently humpphed. “Speak ba, what do you want with me? It’s impossible for you guys to just be passing by WuXi and just happen to bump into me. How did you find me?”
Lian Xi: “When ghost officials catch ghosts, they temporarily open the channel and guide ghosts to the underworld. At that moment, there would be yin energy in the air. The place with the heaviest yin energy in WuXi should be the place where the ghost official is catching ghosts. There’s a black and white reaper, so either is possible. However we bet right and found you.”
“It’s only possible to find me because that smelly Black Reaper hasn’t returned to WuXi for two months.” He complained a bit more in his heart. “Okay, what is it? Let me tell you, don’t beat around the bush and speak plainly. Today is the last day of September. I want to earn a few more points and maybe I can even raise my ranking.”
Hearing these words, Lian Xi sniled. He flipped open his white reaper record and handed it over: “A friendly reminder, right now you’re ranked last and we are second last. If you raise your ranking, you will be above us.”
WuXi’s little ghost official’s fur immediately stood up: “So what? I can’t beat you?”
Seeing his junior high face was clearly scared but was pretending not to be, and was showing a pretend high-minded look, Lian Xi couldn’t help laughing. “Have you heard this story before?”
“What story?”
“When you’re chased by a bear, it’s never the bear that you’re running, it’s your own teammates.”
“？”
Lian Xi touching his chin: “There is still an hour to close the list so right now perhaps I can tie you up so you can’t catch any more ghosts. Then our second to last place will be secure.”
WuXi’s little ghost official: “….”
You really are not human !!!
But it was just a joke and soon Lian Xi told him the real purpose of their coming here.
After hearing this story, WuXi’s little ghost official frowned and looked like a small child with an adult expression. “You mean, you captured a XuanXiu who has been creating havoc in SuZhou City and killed a lot of people?”
Lian Xi: “Yes. At first I thought he only killed one person but after finding him, me and my colleague…” He paused and looked at the Black Reaper who was showing an expression of “I don’t want to pay attention to you, don’t look at me”. He retracted his gaze and continued to say, “Me and him, when we found the old man, we found traces of the desire devil.”
“Oh, you’ve had desire devils appear in SuZhou City?”
Lian Xi was shocked, “You know what a desire devil is?” This little ghost official looked young but how come he knew everything? He knew even more than he and President Lie put together…
WuXi’s little ghost official: “What, I might look young and I haven’t been the white reaper for long. But can’t I know? I’m not scared to tell you, our WuXi’s Black Reaper has been the Black Reaper for a hundred years. She knows a lot of things. Desire devils are actually quite common, as long as people have desires, then desire devils will never disappear. They will exist within a crowd of humans. But desire devils are all very weak, they can only influence and amplify a person’s own desires. After fulfilling their desires, they will receive a small reward. For example you will get a cold, or have a fall, etc. If you say the desire devil has killed people and can even break the corpse apart, then it must have been specially developed and guided by that XuanXiu. It’s terrible.”
After a few seconds, the little ghost official suddenly started: “Seperated the corpse? Goddamn, turns out that SuZhou City Special Female University Murder Case was because of a desire devil ah.”
Lian Xi: “En. So we want to ask you, how should we deal with this XuanXiu?”
***
Lian Xi drove the car to a remote place. He looked around and there weren’t any cameras.
Although none of them are wanted and there shouldn’t be any policeman idle enough to look through the security cameras for them, but just in case, it was still better to find a place with no cameras. Just in case the ghost official weapons failed to block the electronic signal this time.
Lian Xi opened the door: “That’s him.”
The little ghost official stuck his head into the car then quickly hurried back out. “Oh, he’s so stinky ah.”
Lian Xi sighed. “So driving all the way to bring him here, it wasn’t easy.”
The little ghost official sympathized with him.
The old man saw the little ghost official and grinned. “What a tender little baby.”
The little ghost official tightened his neck. He looked at Lian Xi, “You just said, this old man killed SuZhou City’s previous white reaper, robbed him of his reaper record and his ghost hunting tokens?”
“Yes.”
“First of all, according to my colleague, WuXi’s Black Reaper, ghost hunting tokens should only be owned by ghost officials. This item is nothing in the underworld, but in the world of the living, it can be used to control ghosts and make them do your bidding. With money you can usually do anything but it’s illegal to use wild ghosts. However if you have ghost hunting tokens then it’s another matter, then it becomes legal.”
After a pause, the little ghost official continued, “So there’s definitely no mistake. This old man’s ghost hunting tokens were definitely snatched from the hands of a reaper. As for whether or not it was SuZhou City’s previous whtie reaper, then I don’t know. Give me the reaper record and let me have a look.”
Lian Xi handed over that torn and tattered reaper record.
The little ghost official flipped through it and suddenly his eyes froze. “No, look here!
Lian Xi immediately went over.
Lie Chen was too lazy to pay attention to them. He glanced at them briefly then looked around silently to see if there were any jobs on the streets of WuXi.
The little ghost official: “Look here. Although this reaper record is missing quite a few pages, there’s still a lot of information in it. There’s many names in it. This should be the previous white reaper of SuZhou’s record. The last name recorded on it lived from “1988-2004”, that means this white reaper was most likely killed by this old man in 2004.”
Lian Xi raised his eyebrow: “So?”
The little ghost official said, “My colleague told me that the previous black and white reapers in SuZhou were really powerful. They were in the top five all year round in the performance ranking. One time they rushed to the first place. But the black-and-white reapers of your city were gay and they were a couple. They were really territorial, and didn’t associate with other city’s ghost officials. And of course they wouldn’t let anyone go to their territory. But suddenly in 2004, your SuZhou City’s performance suddenly plummeted, all the way to the bottom ten. My colleague suspected at the time that something happened in SuZhou.”
Lian Xi subconsciously asked, “But no one went to check?”
“Check? Check what?” The little ghost official asked righteously. “Everyone is working for the underworld, what’s the point of real emotions? Do you think that just because we are the black and white reapers, and are ghost officials, that the underworld really cares about us? We are bottom tier low ranking contract workers, do you know what contract workers are? The kind that takes risk for money, if you die just die, the underworld can’t even be bothered to take a look at you.” The little host official’s voice became lower and he quietly pointed at the Black Reaper. “Just like your colleague there. There’s no one that can enter his eyes.”
Lian Xi agreed with this very much. He thought: Yes my colleague has no one in his eyes, only performance points.
Little ghost official: “Say, what’s wrong with your colleague? Why is he looking around everywhere?’
Of course he’s looking to see if there’s any jobs in your WuXi.
Lian Xi cleared his throat: “SuZhou’s previous white reaper indeed disappeared ten years ago, the timing is just right. However the Black Reaper said that the white reaper was seriously injured and went to the underworld to seek reincarnation.”
The little devil thought for a bit, “Reincarnation, reincarnation. It’s all for reincarnation. If it wasn’t because you want to reincarnate to a good fetus next life – such as surname Ma and have a bit of business in the family. Otherwise who would want to be a ghost official?” {I think it refers to billionaire Jack Ma.}
Lian Xi thought for a bit. He analyzed, “There’s one other possibility. We all know that the previous SuZhou’s white reaper, the gay one, he indeed went to underworld due to an unexpected situation. However the underworld would also have sent up a new white reaper. This book we have was left by the previous gay white reaper, but it is also possible that it was the new white reaper, who before being able to meet up with the Black Reaper, was murdered maliciously… by this old man.”
After speaking, the two people looked at the old man smiling lazily in the back of the car.
Lian Xi: “Which one is it?”
The old man: “Hehe, you guess ah.”
After snorting coldly, Lian Xi raised his eyes and looked at the little ghost official: “He also doesn’t know because he can’t differentiate between the two of them.”
The little ghost official spat out, “Whichever one it was, that guy is really pitiful. If it was that gay white reaper, then his lover right now should have gone down to the underworld and probably thought they would see each other again. However he didn’t know that he had already been eaten. If it’s the new white reaper, then he’s pitiful too. Because in the whole world no one knew he existed and he died just like that.”
The reality was too cruel. The two didn’t want to continue to discuss who the previous white reaper killed by the old man anymore.
The little ghost official thought of one thing, “Anyway, although I never received any good performance rewards, however, according to my colleague, Meng Po soup should solve your problems.
Lian Xi was surprised. “Meng Po soup?”
“Yes, only the top ten ranking ghost officials of the month receive the reward of Meng Po soup. The first place gets ten bowls, the second has nine bowls and so forth. Meng Po soup is not used for drinking, it’s used for giving out. Sprinkle a bowl of Meng Po soup on the right person and it will change his memories. Not all of them, but his yin or ghost related memories.”
Lian Xi frowned. He said carefully, “I don’t understand.”
Little ghost official: “Oh why are you so stupid?” WuXi’s Black Reaper only had to tell him five times before he understood. “Let me give you an example. Recently wasn’t there that high profile murder case in SuZhou City? But there’s no killer this time because the case is related to the yin world. Therefore you can choose a case-related police officer and give him a sprinkle of Meng Po soup. It’ll change his memories and at the same time, it can help the police officer ‘arrange’ a killer in a strange and coincidental way. Right now the old man is the murderer but the police won’t find any evidence related to him. However if you give them Meng Po soup, the police will suddenly find some kind of “evidence” to convict him.”
That is to say, Meng Po soup was like a causative prop. Although the principal was unknown, however, as long as you splashed some around, it can solve some yin-related and otherwise difficult to solve incidents?
Lian Xi said: “What if it’s a ghost and there’s no physical killer at all? What should I do then? Can it still find a killer?
The little boy official was irritated by this question. “You are really annoying! Right now there’s a killer so why do you care so much.”
Lian Xi nodded helplessly but in his heart a thought flashed by: Your underworld’s rules and regulations seem really imperfect ah, so messy…
WuXi’s little ghost official waved his arm. “Okay go look on him. Since he has so many ghost hunting orders, he must also have Meng Po soup. SuZhou’s previous ghost officials were awarded a lot of Meng Po soup. All right, since there’s nothing else and it’s almost twelve o’clock, I’m going to hurry and go look for more ghosts.” The little ghost official passed the tattered reaper record back to Lian Xi.
Lian Xi took it and was thinking about how to coax his colleague to search the smelly old man’s body for Meng Po soup. Anyway Lie Chen didn’t even wash that seal which had touched the old man’s body… how unhygienic.
Suddenly , his eye was attracted to a line of text in the previous white reaper’s record. “Wait!”
The little ghost official was just getting ready to go: “What’s the matter!”
“I found something. Come and see this reaper record.”
The little ghost official: “Well?”
The two bowed their heads together and stared at the tattered pages. Staring for half a minute, the little ghost official exclaimed with his eyes wide, “What’s this?!”
The last line of this dirty reaper record read, “Someone, 1988-2004, died from overwork.” After that there were no more names.
However if you look closely you’ll find that although there was no handwriting in the blank area, there was a vague trace of something, like hidden words.
It’s like words were written with a pencil but then erased. However, although the words were wiped off, there were still leftover marks. If you looked closely, you could still distinguish what was written.
They looked at the reaper record.
From 2004 onwards, a full sixteen years, all the way until 2020, there was a long list of names!
All kinds of names, all kinds of births and deaths, all kinds of causes of death.
Look at the last two names.
[Sun Yan, 2002-2020, desire devil claimed her life.]
[Zhu JianNian, 1998-2020, esophagus eaten by bugs.]
Lian Xi’s eyes narrowed and he looked at it for a long time. Then he calmly analyzed, “Does it mean that all the people this old man has killed, were counted as jobs and recorded in this reaper record?”
Suddenly his eyes lit up. “The reason these words were hidden and didn’t appear was because this old man is not the white reaper. He killed the previous white reaper and this record became masterless and did not recognize him as the master. Also the people that he killed were not sent to the underworld to reincarnate but instead eaten by the bugs and entered his stomach. So what’s going on with these performance points now?”
WuXi’s little ghost official exclaimed, “How many points are they worth? If you can assume these points…”
Not far away, the cold face looking around for jobs furrowed its brow. He found that things were not right.
What did you say? Jobs? Points?
Lian Xi: “Perhaps, these achievements can really count towards the real SuZhou City’s black and white reapers….” His voice stopped abruptly. The youth looked up, stunned to see his colleague. “Lie Chen, when did you get here?”
In the cold night, the handsome cold Black Reaper stretched out his hand: “Let me look.”
Lian Xi handed over his predecessor’s record;
The little WuXi ghost official humphed on the side and said, “You’re dreaming. How could this old man’s killings count towards your performance points? Forget it. How can you make these faded words re-emerge? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
The next second he saw the palm of the Black Reaper turn.
Lian Xi’s eyes lit up. Just like he didn’t really know how to use the bronze bell and each time could only shake it in a silly manner, he has long ago discovered his amnesiac colleague also did not know how to use his gold album or the white jade seal. Each time he would directly just wave it at people or say that plagiarized line, “Heaven and earth have a path but Hell hath no door”.
But now, Lian XI had an inexplicable thought – Lie Chen will definitely be able to make these points count towards them.
Don’t ask why, just because of his confidence in Lie Chen’s ability (career mind)!
The wind was blowing.
The black clothed reaper held a white jade seal and a flash of gold appeared in his eyes.
“Heaven and earth have a path, but Hell hath no door!”
Dong!
A stamp brutally slammed down on this dirty and tattered reaper record.
There was a moment of silence and the next moment, the wind blew, the air whistled and golden light leapt.
Countless black words appeared from the reaper record held in Lie Chen’s hand. They flew out, like dancing bees, and flew straight into the white reaper record held by Lian Xi!
At the same time in JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai’s other 23 cities.
23:59:30.
In the last half-minute, the ghost officials took a break and stopped hunting down ghosts.
They sat down somewhere, resting and turning over their reaper record.
“WenZhou is first again, how boring.”
“I wonder if ShangHai City can maintain its top 3 ranking this time. HangZhou is pretty fierce.”
“I’m sure I’ll get into the top 10 this time. Top 10, top 10!”
“Oh my, what’s this?”
All of the sudden the numbers of the reaper records… started changing.
Their eyes all slid down from the top of the performance leaderboard to the bottom. In the second last place, SuZhou City’s ghost official was sitting on a performance ranking of 8848 points.
This number… started soaring.
Not by a few hundred, but by a few thousand! It went up by one thousand and then in the blink of an eye, by three thousand!
In the last three seconds of the countdown, as the ghost officials stared, the performance points of SuZhou City exceeded the 50,000 mark and was about to surpass WenZhou….
***
The last second of September.
WenZhou’s performance points suddenly also jumped 10,000 points.
Finally the list was finished.
Ghost official’s performance rankings (Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai region)
1st Place, WenZhou, Zhejiang Province’s ghost official, 62,213 points.
2nd Place, SuZhou City, SuZhou Province’s ghost official, 53,256 points.
……
Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai’s ghost officials: “Dear Lord, even ghost officials have learned how to cheat!”
***
Chapter 38
Endless fields were blowing in the cold night wind.
After the old man said this sentence, a vague truth gradually appeared in Lian Xi’s heart. He gazed intently at the old man standing in the distance and his fingers pressed on the bronze bell, ready to attack.
Lian Xi’s voice was calm however. He asked: “You mean, you killed SuZhou City’s previous white reaper?”
The old man giggled and looked strangely at Lian Xi: “What do you think?”
The night hides endless evil, and the night also hides the dense mass of dark threads and makes it unable to be seen clearly.
One of the dark lines appeared in the moonlight, reflecting a dim glow.
Lian Xi’s heart tightened and he hurriedly said: “Be careful!” Lian Xi grabbed Lie Chen and pulled him over to his side.
The next moment, they saw endless black lines in all directions, every corner of the earth, all connected to the old man’s mouth!
“Hoo!”
The old man breathed in angrily and opened his mouth wide.
His mouth got bigger and bigger. Initially it was the size of a fist and then slowly it expanded until the size of a man’s skull. The black mouth was like a bottomless black hole and countless black lines connected from all sides of the earth into his mouth.
A burst of sound came to Lian Xi’s ear like the wings of a dragonfly.
Lie Chen frowned: “What’s that sound?”
Lian Xi was shocked: “Bugs!”
In the cold moonlight, hundreds of thousands, thousands of tiny black bugs followed the threads and crawled into the old man’s mouth!
The old man shut his mouth and swallowed tens of thousands of bugs in one bite. Even the bugs could be heard hitting each other in his mouth, creaking and numbing his scalp.
So disgusting!
The old man grinned: “Now, it’s your turn!”
As his voice fell, the old man opened his mouth sharply and countless black lines, like cobwebs, spewed out of his mouth. They flew towards Lian Xi and Lie Chen.
Without hesitation, Lian Xi rang the bell.
Omm!
The bells’ sound spread and the sound waves hit the black-wire spider web, shaking the web apart. But it didn’t end there. The little bugs on the black threads were shaken to the ground by the sound waves. They fell to the ground but then gathered together in the hundreds and attacked Lian Xi and Lie Chen again.
From the wide ground, countless black bugs flocked up.
This was goddamn way too disgusting!
Lian Xi kept ringing his bell, shaking away waves and waves of bugs. Lie Chen also used his golden album to kill the black bugs. But there were way too many bugs, after one wave was shocked and killed, there was a second wave. Once the number of dead bugs reached a certain amount, a thick vaporous gas was suspended in the air.
The air temperature plummeted and an air of yin and rot wrapped around the two people. At the same time, the old man opened his mouth and manipulated a black line in his mouth to drive the black bugs.
Gradually, Lian Xi felt the sepsis begin to cut away at his skin like sharp knives. At the same time, the waves of bugs got closer and closer. He turned his head and said to his colleague, “Lie Chen! We need to totally eradicate him, he is the real menace.”
Lie Chen glanced at him, his thin lips slightly moving.
The golden album obviously isn’t effective, so then…
The next second, the Black Reaper turned his palm over and a crystal clear white jade seal appeared on his palm.
As soon as this white jade seal appeared, in a flash and as if burned by the light from the sun’s rays, the approaching black insects whistled and burnt to a crisp. As for some of the far reaching black bugs in the back, they subconsciously wanted to turn and run away but they were controlled by the old man and couldn’t escape.
The old man opened his eyes: “What the hell is this?!” How could a Black Reaper’s magic weapon be so powerful!
This question had also been posed by WuXi’s little ghost official before. If WuXi’s ghost official was here right now, he would certainly pat the old man’s shoulder and say: Ghost officials have different levels. As for why SuZhou’s city’s Black Reaper’s magic weapon is so powerful, I also don’t know. But I’m jealous.
The old man knew the situation was bad.
SuZhou’s white reaper’s magic weapon, the bronze bell, was also strange. It seemed powerful and his bugs were unable to get close. However he couldn’t tell exactly how it worked. All this white reaper seemed to do was ring it continuously but he could see any special effect. However this Black Reaper’s weapon, as soon as it appeared, was fatal to the black bugs.
It was as though it had a special effect on these yin creatures.
The old man’s pupils turned.
Run!
The old man didn’t think about it and turned his head and ran. He ran so suddenly that Lian Xi and Lie Chen couldn’t even react. It wasn’t until the old man was a hundred metres away tht Lian Xi reacted: “Catch up with him!”
The old man ran away but he still used many black bugs to block the two men. It took them a few minutes to kill them. Then the two people got back into the car to chase him.
In the vast field, a shabby old beggar runs frantically in the front, followed by a black car chasing desperately.
However, two legs are destined to lose to four wheels.
The car turned and cut off the old beggar’s escape and completely blocked his way.
Lie Chen and Lian Xi got out of the car.
“You haven’t answered my question yet, ” Lian Xi said coldly.
Lie Chen said from one side: “How many jobs did you rob from me?”
It’s not this question!
Looking at his colleague, Lian Xi coughed and continued to look at the old man. “I asked you, was SuZhou’s previous white reaper killed by you?”
The old man squinted his eyes and glared at them. Moments later, he smiled and a hoarse voice rang out: “You two are more powerful than any of the previous ghost officials I’ve met. I didn’t think I’d encounter ghost officials like this in a small place like SuZhou. Hehe, it looks like tonight there’s no way of escaping…. You forced me!”
It was useless to escape.
The old man puffed angrily and suddenly violently pummeled himself in the stomach. He gagged violently and, as he kept gagging, tens of thousands of little black bugs were spat out. These black insects rushed towards the two people but they were not afraid. The bell rang, the seal flew and the bugs died.
When the last black bug was spit out of his mouth by the old man, there was a strange smouldering sound in his throat.
Lian Xi looked up.
He saw a giant black bug’s leg crawl out of the old man’s mouth. After the leg crawled out, the old man’s body suddenly dried up and his face became deathly white. His hair became white and turned to dead grass.
Old man: “Cough!
The black bug’s legs were completely revealed. Lian Xi opened his eyes wide.
This was a giant black bug with a man’s head!
……
Ten minutes later.
Lian: “Wash it ba.”
Lie Chen: “?”
Lian Xi: “Isn’t it disgusting? Wash it.”
Lie Chen: “Oh.”
Lian Xi: “….”
Don’t just “oh”, wash your seal ah!
Yes, just a few minutes ago, after the giant black bug had climbed out of the old man’s mouth. In the blink of an eye, it devoured all the little black bugs on the ground. Eating the same kind made its body shape more huge. It lifted its jagged mouth and rushed towards the two men.
After some time dodging and fighting with the giant black bug, Lie Chen found an opportunity to send the white jade seal into the black worm’s mouth.
In a second, the black bug turned into a puddle of black water. The old man was completely paralysed in the ground, without any more means of resistance.
The old man declared his intentions so flamboyantly and his loss was also very embarrassing.
Lian Xi drove the car and looked at the back seat of the car. The old man had been tied up with rope and thrown there.
SuZhou’s black and white reaper were halfway home. They don’t really know how to deal with this kind of XuanXiu so they could only tie him up and go back home to SuZhou City.
In the back seat of the car, the old man regained consciousness. He still couldn’t move but he opened his mouth and smiled with a mouthful of dirty black teeth. “I didn’t think that I’d live my whole life, and actually be defeated by two youngsters.”
Looking at the beautiful-looking SuZhou City’s black and white reapers in the rear-view mirror, the old man really wanted to take a bite.
Lian Xi: “If you dare to speak again, I will tell him to put a seal onto your face”
Lie Chen turned to look at him: “?”
The old man squinted his eyes but at last he didn’t dare speak anymore.
Lian Xi: “What do we do now?”
Lie CHen: “What do you mean?”
Lian Xi: “If we catch a ghost we can directly send them to the underworld to reincarnate. But if we catch a person…”
According to the education that Lian Xi has received from childhood, bad guys should be brought to justice and handed over to their policeman uncles. But now this situation is clearly inappropriate. After catching the old man, Lian Xi immediately called Su Jiao but for some reason Su Jiao didn’t answer the phone.
Thinking for a moment, Lian Xi seriously said: “I thought of someone. Let’s go look for him, he might know what to do.”
At this moment, the car was driving through a fork in the road. One side of the road pointed to SuZhou City, the other pointed to WuXi. Lian Xi didn’t think about it, turned the car and drove to WuXi.
WuXi City, a bustling commercial square.
Malls in big cities often close at 10 p.m but by 9:30 p.m., malls will be requesting guests to slowly begin to leave.
It’s half past ten late at night.
The mall has already closed its doors and some people are strolling along the streets, smiling and talking. No one noticed that on the inside of the road in a flowerbed, the small bushes concealed a little boy’s figure. If people saw this kind of child-like junior high school student wandering around outside in the middle of the night, they would certainly contact his parents. WuXi’s ghost official was huddled over, his body hidden in the long grass, holding his knees and squatting.
“Ai, look, why don’t you just go reincarnate?”
“En-wu…”
“I can see you have some kind of wish, but what type of wish can it be?” After all, you’re not human, the little ghost official muttered in his heart.
“En-wu-wu!”
“Haven’t you had enough? I told you to go, you should just go. Haven’t you heard of this saying, it’s often in TV dramas, if King Yama tells you to die at 12AM, how could you dare live till 3AM? Hurry up and go reincarnate… hey, where are you going?” {King Yama/YanLuo is the King of the Underworld overseeing the Ten Lords/Kings of Hell.}
“En-wu!”
The blood-soaked yellow puppy gave a sudden cry and turned and ran deep into the bushes.
WuXi’s little ghost official got up to go after it when suddenly an instinctive feeling rose in his heart. He looked in front of him and then…
“….”
WuXi’s ghost official immediately angrily scolded, “You guys don’t even want to let go of a dog! Are you still hunan!”
Lian Xi who was suddenly surrounded by a little dog hugging his feet.
The little puppy kept using his bloody head which had been hit by a car to rub against him. His claws still pressed on the legs and licked the trouser pockets. Lian Xi remembered something and took out a ham sausage from his trouser pocket. {This is a packaged kind sold in convenience stores, like ready to eat.}
“You want this?”
“En-wu!”
The dog ate the ham sausage in two or three bites and barked beside his feet.
Lian Xi looked up at the miserable face of WuXi’s little ghost official. He coughed two times and said calmly, “You see, it’s a misunderstanding. This dog wants to eat the ham sausage, that’s why it’s sticking to me.”
After Lian Xi spoke, he saw the Black Reaper bending down beside him and reaching out and gently touching the dog’s head. While touching, Lie Chen took out his own reaper record, looked up and asked Lian: “Should I collect this job?”
Lian Xi: “…..”
WuXi’s white reaper: “…..”
You two dogs, be human!
……
Finally, WuXi’s white reaper collected the little dog’s ghost, who had been in a car crash, and sent him into the underworld.
The little ghost official snorted coldly: “At least you have a tiny bit of conscience and didn’t rob me in my own territory.”
When he heard this, Lie Chen’s face was very long.
Lian Xi pulled his arm.
Lie Chen glanced at him: You don’t let me catch ghosts, you must have a problem.
Lian Xi: “…..”
Really, you need to learn to be a person!
After receiving the ghost of the puppy, WuXi’s white reaper put away his reaper record and gently humpphed. “Speak ba, what do you want with me? It’s impossible for you guys to just be passing by WuXi and just happen to bump into me. How did you find me?”
Lian Xi: “When ghost officials catch ghosts, they temporarily open the channel and guide ghosts to the underworld. At that moment, there would be yin energy in the air. The place with the heaviest yin energy in WuXi should be the place where the ghost official is catching ghosts. There’s a black and white reaper, so either is possible. However we bet right and found you.”
“It’s only possible to find me because that smelly Black Reaper hasn’t returned to WuXi for two months.” He complained a bit more in his heart. “Okay, what is it? Let me tell you, don’t beat around the bush and speak plainly. Today is the last day of September. I want to earn a few more points and maybe I can even raise my ranking.”
Hearing these words, Lian Xi sniled. He flipped open his white reaper record and handed it over: “A friendly reminder, right now you’re ranked last and we are second last. If you raise your ranking, you will be above us.”
WuXi’s little ghost official’s fur immediately stood up: “So what? I can’t beat you?”
Seeing his junior high face was clearly scared but was pretending not to be, and was showing a pretend high-minded look, Lian Xi couldn’t help laughing. “Have you heard this story before?”
“What story?”
“When you’re chased by a bear, it’s never the bear that you’re running, it’s your own teammates.”
“？”
Lian Xi touching his chin: “There is still an hour to close the list so right now perhaps I can tie you up so you can’t catch any more ghosts. Then our second to last place will be secure.”
WuXi’s little ghost official: “….”
You really are not human !!!
But it was just a joke and soon Lian Xi told him the real purpose of their coming here.
After hearing this story, WuXi’s little ghost official frowned and looked like a small child with an adult expression. “You mean, you captured a XuanXiu who has been creating havoc in SuZhou City and killed a lot of people?”
Lian Xi: “Yes. At first I thought he only killed one person but after finding him, me and my colleague…” He paused and looked at the Black Reaper who was showing an expression of “I don’t want to pay attention to you, don’t look at me”. He retracted his gaze and continued to say, “Me and him, when we found the old man, we found traces of the desire devil.”
“Oh, you’ve had desire devils appear in SuZhou City?”
Lian Xi was shocked, “You know what a desire devil is?” This little ghost official looked young but how come he knew everything? He knew even more than he and President Lie put together…
WuXi’s little ghost official: “What, I might look young and I haven’t been the white reaper for long. But can’t I know? I’m not scared to tell you, our WuXi’s Black Reaper has been the Black Reaper for a hundred years. She knows a lot of things. Desire devils are actually quite common, as long as people have desires, then desire devils will never disappear. They will exist within a crowd of humans. But desire devils are all very weak, they can only influence and amplify a person’s own desires. After fulfilling their desires, they will receive a small reward. For example you will get a cold, or have a fall, etc. If you say the desire devil has killed people and can even break the corpse apart, then it must have been specially developed and guided by that XuanXiu. It’s terrible.”
After a few seconds, the little ghost official suddenly started: “Seperated the corpse? Goddamn, turns out that SuZhou City Special Female University Murder Case was because of a desire devil ah.”
Lian Xi: “En. So we want to ask you, how should we deal with this XuanXiu?”
***
Lian Xi drove the car to a remote place. He looked around and there weren’t any cameras.
Although none of them are wanted and there shouldn’t be any policeman idle enough to look through the security cameras for them, but just in case, it was still better to find a place with no cameras. Just in case the ghost official weapons failed to block the electronic signal this time.
Lian Xi opened the door: “That’s him.”
The little ghost official stuck his head into the car then quickly hurried back out. “Oh, he’s so stinky ah.”
Lian Xi sighed. “So driving all the way to bring him here, it wasn’t easy.”
The little ghost official sympathized with him.
The old man saw the little ghost official and grinned. “What a tender little baby.”
The little ghost official tightened his neck. He looked at Lian Xi, “You just said, this old man killed SuZhou City’s previous white reaper, robbed him of his reaper record and his ghost hunting tokens?”
“Yes.”
“First of all, according to my colleague, WuXi’s Black Reaper, ghost hunting tokens should only be owned by ghost officials. This item is nothing in the underworld, but in the world of the living, it can be used to control ghosts and make them do your bidding. With money you can usually do anything but it’s illegal to use wild ghosts. However if you have ghost hunting tokens then it’s another matter, then it becomes legal.”
After a pause, the little ghost official continued, “So there’s definitely no mistake. This old man’s ghost hunting tokens were definitely snatched from the hands of a reaper. As for whether or not it was SuZhou City’s previous whtie reaper, then I don’t know. Give me the reaper record and let me have a look.”
Lian Xi handed over that torn and tattered reaper record.
The little ghost official flipped through it and suddenly his eyes froze. “No, look here!
Lian Xi immediately went over.
Lie Chen was too lazy to pay attention to them. He glanced at them briefly then looked around silently to see if there were any jobs on the streets of WuXi.
The little ghost official: “Look here. Although this reaper record is missing quite a few pages, there’s still a lot of information in it. There’s many names in it. This should be the previous white reaper of SuZhou’s record. The last name recorded on it lived from “1988-2004”, that means this white reaper was most likely killed by this old man in 2004.”
Lian Xi raised his eyebrow: “So?”
The little ghost official said, “My colleague told me that the previous black and white reapers in SuZhou were really powerful. They were in the top five all year round in the performance ranking. One time they rushed to the first place. But the black-and-white reapers of your city were gay and they were a couple. They were really territorial, and didn’t associate with other city’s ghost officials. And of course they wouldn’t let anyone go to their territory. But suddenly in 2004, your SuZhou City’s performance suddenly plummeted, all the way to the bottom ten. My colleague suspected at the time that something happened in SuZhou.”
Lian Xi subconsciously asked, “But no one went to check?”
“Check? Check what?” The little ghost official asked righteously. “Everyone is working for the underworld, what’s the point of real emotions? Do you think that just because we are the black and white reapers, and are ghost officials, that the underworld really cares about us? We are bottom tier low ranking contract workers, do you know what contract workers are? The kind that takes risk for money, if you die just die, the underworld can’t even be bothered to take a look at you.” The little host official’s voice became lower and he quietly pointed at the Black Reaper. “Just like your colleague there. There’s no one that can enter his eyes.”
Lian Xi agreed with this very much. He thought: Yes my colleague has no one in his eyes, only performance points.
Little ghost official: “Say, what’s wrong with your colleague? Why is he looking around everywhere?’
Of course he’s looking to see if there’s any jobs in your WuXi.
Lian Xi cleared his throat: “SuZhou’s previous white reaper indeed disappeared ten years ago, the timing is just right. However the Black Reaper said that the white reaper was seriously injured and went to the underworld to seek reincarnation.”
The little devil thought for a bit, “Reincarnation, reincarnation. It’s all for reincarnation. If it wasn’t because you want to reincarnate to a good fetus next life – such as surname Ma and have a bit of business in the family. Otherwise who would want to be a ghost official?” {I think it refers to billionaire Jack Ma.}
Lian Xi thought for a bit. He analyzed, “There’s one other possibility. We all know that the previous SuZhou’s white reaper, the gay one, he indeed went to underworld due to an unexpected situation. However the underworld would also have sent up a new white reaper. This book we have was left by the previous gay white reaper, but it is also possible that it was the new white reaper, who before being able to meet up with the Black Reaper, was murdered maliciously… by this old man.”
After speaking, the two people looked at the old man smiling lazily in the back of the car.
Lian Xi: “Which one is it?”
The old man: “Hehe, you guess ah.”
After snorting coldly, Lian Xi raised his eyes and looked at the little ghost official: “He also doesn’t know because he can’t differentiate between the two of them.”
The little ghost official spat out, “Whichever one it was, that guy is really pitiful. If it was that gay white reaper, then his lover right now should have gone down to the underworld and probably thought they would see each other again. However he didn’t know that he had already been eaten. If it’s the new white reaper, then he’s pitiful too. Because in the whole world no one knew he existed and he died just like that.”
The reality was too cruel. The two didn’t want to continue to discuss who the previous white reaper killed by the old man anymore.
The little ghost official thought of one thing, “Anyway, although I never received any good performance rewards, however, according to my colleague, Meng Po soup should solve your problems.
Lian Xi was surprised. “Meng Po soup?”
“Yes, only the top ten ranking ghost officials of the month receive the reward of Meng Po soup. The first place gets ten bowls, the second has nine bowls and so forth. Meng Po soup is not used for drinking, it’s used for giving out. Sprinkle a bowl of Meng Po soup on the right person and it will change his memories. Not all of them, but his yin or ghost related memories.”
Lian Xi frowned. He said carefully, “I don’t understand.”
Little ghost official: “Oh why are you so stupid?” WuXi’s Black Reaper only had to tell him five times before he understood. “Let me give you an example. Recently wasn’t there that high profile murder case in SuZhou City? But there’s no killer this time because the case is related to the yin world. Therefore you can choose a case-related police officer and give him a sprinkle of Meng Po soup. It’ll change his memories and at the same time, it can help the police officer ‘arrange’ a killer in a strange and coincidental way. Right now the old man is the murderer but the police won’t find any evidence related to him. However if you give them Meng Po soup, the police will suddenly find some kind of “evidence” to convict him.”
That is to say, Meng Po soup was like a causative prop. Although the principal was unknown, however, as long as you splashed some around, it can solve some yin-related and otherwise difficult to solve incidents?
Lian Xi said: “What if it’s a ghost and there’s no physical killer at all? What should I do then? Can it still find a killer?
The little boy official was irritated by this question. “You are really annoying! Right now there’s a killer so why do you care so much.”
Lian Xi nodded helplessly but in his heart a thought flashed by: Your underworld’s rules and regulations seem really imperfect ah, so messy…
WuXi’s little ghost official waved his arm. “Okay go look on him. Since he has so many ghost hunting orders, he must also have Meng Po soup. SuZhou’s previous ghost officials were awarded a lot of Meng Po soup. All right, since there’s nothing else and it’s almost twelve o’clock, I’m going to hurry and go look for more ghosts.” The little ghost official passed the tattered reaper record back to Lian Xi.
Lian Xi took it and was thinking about how to coax his colleague to search the smelly old man’s body for Meng Po soup. Anyway Lie Chen didn’t even wash that seal which had touched the old man’s body… how unhygienic.
Suddenly , his eye was attracted to a line of text in the previous white reaper’s record. “Wait!”
The little ghost official was just getting ready to go: “What’s the matter!”
“I found something. Come and see this reaper record.”
The little ghost official: “Well?”
The two bowed their heads together and stared at the tattered pages. Staring for half a minute, the little ghost official exclaimed with his eyes wide, “What’s this?!”
The last line of this dirty reaper record read, “Someone, 1988-2004, died from overwork.” After that there were no more names.
However if you look closely you’ll find that although there was no handwriting in the blank area, there was a vague trace of something, like hidden words.
It’s like words were written with a pencil but then erased. However, although the words were wiped off, there were still leftover marks. If you looked closely, you could still distinguish what was written.
They looked at the reaper record.
From 2004 onwards, a full sixteen years, all the way until 2020, there was a long list of names!
All kinds of names, all kinds of births and deaths, all kinds of causes of death.
Look at the last two names.
[Sun Yan, 2002-2020, desire devil claimed her life.]
[Zhu JianNian, 1998-2020, esophagus eaten by bugs.]
Lian Xi’s eyes narrowed and he looked at it for a long time. Then he calmly analyzed, “Does it mean that all the people this old man has killed, were counted as jobs and recorded in this reaper record?”
Suddenly his eyes lit up. “The reason these words were hidden and didn’t appear was because this old man is not the white reaper. He killed the previous white reaper and this record became masterless and did not recognize him as the master. Also the people that he killed were not sent to the underworld to reincarnate but instead eaten by the bugs and entered his stomach. So what’s going on with these performance points now?”
WuXi’s little ghost official exclaimed, “How many points are they worth? If you can assume these points…”
Not far away, the cold face looking around for jobs furrowed its brow. He found that things were not right.
What did you say? Jobs? Points?
Lian Xi: “Perhaps, these achievements can really count towards the real SuZhou City’s black and white reapers….” His voice stopped abruptly. The youth looked up, stunned to see his colleague. “Lie Chen, when did you get here?”
In the cold night, the handsome cold Black Reaper stretched out his hand: “Let me look.”
Lian Xi handed over his predecessor’s record;
The little WuXi ghost official humphed on the side and said, “You’re dreaming. How could this old man’s killings count towards your performance points? Forget it. How can you make these faded words re-emerge? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
The next second he saw the palm of the Black Reaper turn.
Lian Xi’s eyes lit up. Just like he didn’t really know how to use the bronze bell and each time could only shake it in a silly manner, he has long ago discovered his amnesiac colleague also did not know how to use his gold album or the white jade seal. Each time he would directly just wave it at people or say that plagiarized line, “Heaven and earth have a path but Hell hath no door”.
But now, Lian XI had an inexplicable thought – Lie Chen will definitely be able to make these points count towards them.
Don’t ask why, just because of his confidence in Lie Chen’s ability (career mind)!
The wind was blowing.
The black clothed reaper held a white jade seal and a flash of gold appeared in his eyes.
“Heaven and earth have a path, but Hell hath no door!”
Dong!
A stamp brutally slammed down on this dirty and tattered reaper record.
There was a moment of silence and the next moment, the wind blew, the air whistled and golden light leapt.
Countless black words appeared from the reaper record held in Lie Chen’s hand. They flew out, like dancing bees, and flew straight into the white reaper record held by Lian Xi!
At the same time in JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai’s other 23 cities.
23:59:30.
In the last half-minute, the ghost officials took a break and stopped hunting down ghosts.
They sat down somewhere, resting and turning over their reaper record.
“WenZhou is first again, how boring.”
“I wonder if ShangHai City can maintain its top 3 ranking this time. HangZhou is pretty fierce.”
“I’m sure I’ll get into the top 10 this time. Top 10, top 10!”
“Oh my, what’s this?”
All of the sudden the numbers of the reaper records… started changing.
Their eyes all slid down from the top of the performance leaderboard to the bottom. In the second last place, SuZhou City’s ghost official was sitting on a performance ranking of 8848 points.
This number… started soaring.
Not by a few hundred, but by a few thousand! It went up by one thousand and then in the blink of an eye, by three thousand!
In the last three seconds of the countdown, as the ghost officials stared, the performance points of SuZhou City exceeded the 50,000 mark and was about to surpass WenZhou….
***
The last second of September.
WenZhou’s performance points suddenly also jumped 10,000 points.
Finally the list was finished.
Ghost official’s performance rankings (Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai region)
1st Place, WenZhou, Zhejiang Province’s ghost official, 62,213 points.
2nd Place, SuZhou City, SuZhou Province’s ghost official, 53,256 points.
……
Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai’s ghost officials: “Dear Lord, even ghost officials have learned how to cheat!”
***
