Chapter 39
In the early hours of the morning, the moonlight was dim and a cool breeze was blowing.
It was the first day of October.
The social people of the world were happily ushering in the eight-day National Day holiday, and the social ghosts officials of the underworld finally saw the long awaited official performance rankings for the month of September.
Today was destined to have a unique ending.
In the twenty-five cities of JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai, other than SuZhou and WuXi, the forty-six pairs of eyes of the ghost officials of the other twenty-three cities stared blankly at the performance rankings in their hands.
In the end, WenZhou ranked first.
However, that was just the beginning. Because after twelve o’clock, the performance points of the SuZhou City ghost official was still soaring!
The names from the reaper record in Lie Chen’s hands continued to fly out, pouring into Lian Xi’s reaper record. It seems that the former White Reaper and the new White Reaper were doing a handover. The names of the old white reaper record appeared one by one on Lian Xi’s white reaper record.
The names continued to emerge and the performance points continued to rise.
As September passed, the performance ranking scores of last month became the past. The writing turned gray and gradually dimmed.
Starting in October, it was a new day with a new performance ranking list. All ghost officials have not had time to catch ghosts and earn achievements. The points behind all their names was 0, only SuZhou City was different. Yes, their old friend SuZhou City. The points of SuZhou City’s ghost official was still increasing wildly with incredible speed!
Ghost official’s monthly performance rankings (JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai)
1st, SuZhou City, JiangSu Province’s ghost official with 20111 points.
2nd, WenZhou, ZheJiang Province’s ghost official with 0 points.
3rd, YanCheng, JiangSu Province’s ghost official with 0 points.
4th….
Ghosts officials: “…”
Can you two cheaters have a little bit of face!
Lian Xi didn’t expect that after they caught the dirty old man that they would actually find the reaper record of the previous SuZhou City’s white reaper. The reaper record did not recognize the old man as its master, but it still recorded everyone that the old man had killed. The old man uses the souls of these people as food to feed the horrible black bugs.
The souls of these people were gnawed by black worms and riddled with holes. Some of the people’s three physical souls and seven spiritual souls were all gnawed until they were unrecognizable and some were even eaten to the extent that there was only one soul left.
When the names of these people finished flying from the old man’s white reaper record into Lian Xi’s reaper record, it was followed by a dazed soul which floated out of the notebook in the dark night.
Without consciousness, these souls emerged one by one, lined up and marched towards the underworld.
If anyone can see this scene, they would have been shocked.
In the dark and late night, in a remote and desolate corner of the city, hundreds of people bowed their heads and walked, step by step, into the golden light. That was the gate of the underworld connecting the world. Their bodies were swallowed by golden light. The person who walked in the front had the most injuries and the person who walked in the back had fewer injuries.
By the time the last person, the yellow-haired delinquent, appeared, there was almost no wound on his body. He also walked into the grouped golden light.
The ghosts all left for the underworld and Lian Xi sighed softly. He looked down at the reaper record in his hand, then looked at the older reaper record and asked: “Are there still names on the reaper record?”
Lie Chen glanced down at it: “Yes.”
The now useless reaper record was handed to Lian Xi.
Lian Xi took the reaper record. He saw that in this dirty and old reaper record, there were still many imprints of names that hadn’t flown into his reaper record. Some of them died in 2004 and some died in 2005. The last name that did not fly out died in 2015.
These people were really completely eaten up by the black worms and could no longer be reborn.
Lian Xi quickly scanned these names. There were a total of 32 names. Not all of them were killed by the old man. Some of the deaths were caused by car accidents and some were caused by illness. It’s just that the old man had noticed them a long time ago. At the moment of their death, before they had time to go to the underworld, their souls were intercepted by the old man and planted with black worms. From then on, they could no longer escape.
Lian Xi silently put away the reaper record.
“You guys, this is cheating!”
SuZhou City’s black and white reaper all turned around. They looked at the WuXi’s little ghost official who was filled with righteous indignation.
They saw the little boy with a height of less than 160 looking up at them, chanting stupidly as if to himself: “This doesn’t make sense, how could this be? You were obviously second to last, how can you suddenly turn into the second from the top? How can you? How can this be?”
They had clearly made a tacit agreement to be losers at the bottom of the class, how could you secretly study without telling me!
WuXi little ghost’s official felt aggrieved.
It’s just like how he sat at the same table at school with his study god. Every time after finishing the exam, WuXi little ghost official would pull his hair out frantically. Seeing his grief, his deskmate the study god would comfort him and say, “Don’t worry, I didn’t review this time and I did very poorly in the exam too. We’ll get scolded together, I will accompany you.” The little ghost official was moved and thinking about it, his deskmate seemed to spend every day playing with his mobile phone. He really was a great brother.
But when the test paper came the result wasn’t what he expected.
Little ghost official: 59 points.
Deskmate study god: “Oh, why did I get a point deducted?”
Little ghost official: “?”
Listen, are you human? I believed in your lies!
I never expected that I took you for a good brother who I would die for, then you actually killed me,
WuXi little ghost official suddenly smelled a strong sour smell tangling between his nose. He ate a lemon fiercely and humphed: “This is definitely cheating, I’m going to report you.”
As he spoke, the little ghost official opened his reaper record angrily.
Lian Xi frowned, just about to stop him.
Lie Chen caught the key words. He asked casually: “Can you really report us?”
WuXi little ghost official: “Of course I can! Your cheating is shameful. I have to report it.”
Lie Chen: “How do you make a report? “
The WuXi little ghost official asked disbelievingly,: “You actually don’t know how to contact the underworld?”
Lie Chen: “When I took office, the former Black Reaper in SuZhou was seriously injured. He went to the underworld without telling me.”
The little ghost official nodded: ” It turned out to be like this, no wonder you don’t understand anything. It’s very simple, you open the reaper record and press your hand on your own name on the performance rankings. For example, I’ll press on the six characters ‘WuXi, JiangSu Province Ghost Official’. If you speak again, you can contact the underworld. But this thing only works one way so it means you just leave a message. As for when they’ll reply to you, it’s unknown. The underworld doesn’t take us seriously so it might be half a year, or even later.”
Lie Chen: “Oh, thank you.”
Little ghost official: “You’re welcome…” His voice stopped abruptly and the little ghost official was furious: “Who needs your thanks!” He clearly was about to report these two cheating guys, how could he have been fooled into helping them.
Lian Xi thought: Actually, you’ve really been graced. It’s the first time he’d seen President Lie thank someone.
After listening to the instructions of the little ghost official, Lie Chen lowered his head and opened his own reaper record.
Lian Xi asked in surprise, “What are you doing?”
Lie Chen didn’t raise his head: “Making a report.”
Lian Xi: “?”
WuXi ghost official: “?”
There are ghosts officials in this world who report themselves?
In the evening breeze, they heard Black Reaper speak lightly with a low voice: “Reporting WenZhou’s ghost official for cheating. At the last minute their points soared by 10,000. It must be cheating. It is recommended to strip the ghost official of his position and send him into the eighteenth layer of hell. Report over.”
Lian Xi and the little ghost official said: “…”
Lie Chen: “Also, due to WenZhou’s cheating, which seriously affected the fairness of the September ghost performance rankings, it is recommended to compensate the ghost official who came second. Report over.”
Lian Xi and the little ghost official official: “…”
The little official turned his head to look at Lian Xi: Is your colleague still human?
Lian Xi shook his head: He is really not a human being.
The two looked at each other with sympathy and their friendship was cemented at this moment.
…
Although WuXi little ghost official ate a large basket of lemons and was furious, but in the end he didn’t actually do what he said he was going to do and didn’t actually report Lian Xi and Lie Chen. He said: “Although I didn’t report you, I’m sure there must be other ghost officials who will report you. There will definitely be more than one.” Let’s go back down to the bottom of the class, how could you fly up by yourself?
Lian Xi was not afraid of being reported and confidently said: “Our points are justified.” After a pause, his brows frowned, “It is true that there is something wrong with the WenZhou ghost official. They suddenly increased by 10,000 points.”
WuXi’s little ghost official screamed in his heart: You have increased by 80,000! Eighty thousand!
Yes, from September 30, 2020, to right now the next day on October 1, Lian Xi and Lie Chen have gained more than 80,000 points.
Because these 80,000 points were given around midnight, more than 40,000 points are counted as the performance of the previous month, and more than 40,000 points are counted as the performance of October.
Therefore, the current performance ranking of ghosts in JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai looks like-
1st, SuZhou City, JiangSu Province’s ghost official with 42143 points.
2nd, WenZhou, ZheJiang Province’s ghost official with 350 points.
3rd, NingBo, ZheJiang Province’s ghost official…
They were first!
Lian Xi touched his chin and sighed softly, “Unfortunately, there won’t be such a good thing again in the future.”
One time is not enough? It turns out that the faces of your black and white reaper in SuZhou are the same size, both so shameless! The little ghost official suddenly felt so tired.
Lian Xi: “Right, how do you get the rewards on the performance list?”
The little ghost said dispiritedly: “You use your finger to rub over the gray performance points written last month and once dawn breaks you will know how to receive the rewards.” Lian Xi heard the words and followed his instructions. This time, Lie Chen did not refuse to receive the award again either.
Ranked second, although this ranking is not totally satisfactory, is just good enough for President Lie. But when he thought about how he could have gotten first place, he felt more and more angry. A faint look flashed on Black Reaper’s handsome face and then he opened the reaper record to make another report. He said self-righteously: “Please punish WenZhou’s ghost official immediately. It is recommended that the punishment of the eighteenth hell can be carried out for two rounds. They should both be sent into the icy wilds of the BeiMo GuanTing {Translates to something like: Northern Wild Desert} and also one thousand years of being burned by fire. Over.” {I think these are different punishments in different layers of hell.}
Lian Xi and the little ghost official said: “…”
Please be human!
The Black Reaper’s shamelessness and ignorance caused Lian Xi and the little ghost official to overlook the unfamiliar term that Lie Chen mentioned. And Lie Chen himself also did not pay attention to this world. At this moment, there was only one thing in his mind: I was robbed of the number one place.
The sky and the earth were great but the performance points were the greatest.
If you don’t let me take the first place, then there’s a problem with your brain.
After working busily all night, they finally solved the problem of the old man with the black bugs. At the same time, they accidentally earned 80,000 points.
Lian Xi and Lie Chen were very satisfied with this result.
It wasn’t early, already 12:30 in the morning. Lian Xi and WuXi’s little ghost official bid farewell to each other. Before he left, WuXi’s ghost official took the initiative to take out his mobile phone and said charitably, “Let me add you on WeChat. It looks like other than catching ghosts, you’re pretty ignorant about everything. If you need to ask something you can directly message me.”
Sure enough, complaining together will lead to the establishment of a friendship. Lian Xi took out his cell phone, scanned the QR code and added him as a friend.
Lian Xi: “He just came out of the netherworld to take up the post of Black Reaper and he hasn’t bought a mobile phone. When he buys it, I will help him register a WeChat account and add you. By the way, what is your name?”
Little ghost Poor: “Tang Zi. How about you?”
“Lian Xi. His name is Lie Chen.”
“Lie Chen? What a weird name.”
Ha. Lie Chen glanced at him lightly and didn’t bother to pay attention to him.
After saying goodbye to the little ghost, the two got into the car and then they remembered one thing: “When we get home, we have to search the old man for Meng Po soup and then use the soup to solve Su Jiao’s university mate’s case. But there’s one thing that’s bothering me….” Lian Xi looked at his colleague: “Meng Po’s soup can lead the police to this old man but after all this old man is a XuanXiu practitioner with strong power. Even though his bugs have all been wiped out, what if he continues to cultivate new bugs in the future?”
Hearing this, the old man froze in the back seat of the car. His eyes darkened.
Lie Chen understood what he meant: “You want to ruin his cultivation?”
Lian Xi thought for a moment: “Yes. I can try the bell or you can try with your seal. Your seal turned the black bug into a pool of black water. Perhaps it would also be useful on this old man.”
Lie Chen gently nodded. His fingers moved slightly and a bright white seal instantly appeared on his fingertips.
After the seal appeared, there was a moment of silence in the carriage. The old man squeezed his fingers and his body trembled. He wanted to resist. He didn’t forget how this seal was casually put on the giant corpse worm he had worked so hard to raise with his soul for 40 years and then wiped it out just like that. A strong sense of crisis rushed into his heart. If this thing was stamped on him then perhaps his entire cultivation might be wiped out and he would never be able to refine insects in the future.
However, the old man was currently weak and had no chance to resist.
Lie Chen pushed with his palm and the white jade seal flashed golden light, aiming at the old man’s door of life. Seeing that the seal was about to cover his face, the old man finally showed panic. He said hoarsely: “No, I admit defeat. There are still many ghost hunting tokens and Meng Po soup where I live. As long as you let me go, I will give them all to you. I promise I will step foot in SuZhou again… no I will leave the entire JiangSu Province and go away from you!” The white jade seal was getting closer and closer. His words turned into a scream.
Lie Chen ignored his words at all. Can Ghost Hunting tokens and Meng Po soup be exchanged for performance points? No? Then, he didn’t care.
“Wait.” Lian Xi suddenly spoke. He grabbed the white jade seal that was flying towards the old man.
The white jade seal was suddenly snatched out of the air by someone. He was extremely surprised and dissatisfied and struggled a few times. Lian Xi glanced at the seal in his hands: Was this alive?
But thinking about how my own bronze bell also sometimes had temper tantrums, it wasn’t too surprising. Lian Xi tightened his fingers to prevent the seal from moving.
White jade seal: “…” So anyone can command me now, do I not have any face at all!
Lian Xi looked at the old man and his eyes narrowed: “Did you say that you still have a lot of ghost hunting tokens and Meng Po soup?”
The old man sweated profusely: “Yes!”
Lian Xi: “Okay, then take us to where you live.”
The old man’s eyes rolled: “What kind of promise can you give me that if I give it to you, you’ll spare me?”
Lian Xi sneered. “Do you really think you’re in a position to negotiate right now?”
The old man gritted his teeth: “If you don’t give me a guarantee then I won’t take you there even if I die.”
Lian Xi: “Okay then, I promise you.”
The old man asked, “But how can I guarantee you will keep your promise?”
Lian Xi smiled: “Believe it or not, I don’t care.”
The old man was silent for a moment. His little snake-like eyes swept across the faces of Lian Xi and Lie Chen as if he wanted to see into their hearts. He gritted his teeth and said every word: “I hope you can keep your promise. Otherwise even if I become a malicious ghost, I won’t let you go!”
…
The place where the old man lived was a shanty house in the old downtown of SuZhou City. There was a lot of garbage inside and it was dirty and dark. Even before entering the door, you could smell an indescribable disgusting smell.
The room was too dirty and smelly. Lie Chen refused to enter and just stood outside the door.
The old man was tied up, taken out of the car and pressed him into the house. Under his guidance, Lian Xi found more than 50 ghost hunting tokens and more than 20 bowls of Meng Po soup.
The Meng Po soup was placed in a small white porcelain bottle with the three characters “Meng Po Soup” engraved on the body of the bottle.
Old man: “These are all things I got after eating that White Reaper after first coming to SuZhou City. Now it’s your turn to keep your promise and let me go.”
Lian Xi: ” Did I say that I’d let you go?”
The old man’s round eyes bulged. “Shameless boy, if you dare breach our contract then this old man swears that after I die, I will never let you go! Even if my soul is dissipated, I will definitely retaliate with you and make you pay the debt with your blood!”
Lian Xi quietly sneered. He looked at the old man with cold eyes and pushed him out of the door.
“Affix the seal onto him.”
Lie Chen raised his eyes to look at him: “What he said just now seems unusual. It’s probably a curse and will most likely come to fruition.”
Lian Xi: “Is that so.”
Lie Chen looked at him calmly: “XuanXiu are different from regular mortals. You promised him but you broke your promise. He swears by his soul and it will be fulfilled.”
Lian Xi calmly said: “Then let it be fulfilled.”
After a while, Lie Chen said, “You’re doing this for those people who were killed and sacrificed by him to feed the bugs?”
“Perhaps.”
“It’s not necessary. Life and death are impermanent. This is their destiny and they will enter another reincarnation.”
Lian Xi: “What about the 32 people who will never be able to reincarnate anymore?”
Lie Chen looked at him again and said, “Even if you ruin his cultivation, then it doesn’t mean they can be reincarnated again.”
Lian Xi’s lips moved.
At this moment, under the bright moonlight, the Black Reaper’s cold and indifferent eyes stared at him without emotion. He was just like the gods in the world above the nine heavens.
There has never been a moment when Lian Xi realized so deeply that although ghost officials could be people, ghosts, or spirits….
That the black reaper of SuZhou City was definitely not a human being.
For a long time, he laughed and said: “My actions are probably just a human thing. Even if I know that it will have no effect and even if I know the people he has killed over the years and whose souls have been destroyed, will not come back to life because of my actions. However, I still have to do it.”
The old man roared sharply: “I swear, I will never kill people again. The method of raising bugs is not limited to human souls. I am already a hundred and two years old this year and it’s only because of my cultivation that I can survive. If you destroy my cultivation then it’s tantamount to killing me, I won’t be able to live long!”
“Really?” Under the same bright moonlight, the beautiful and elegant young man smiled slightly and even revealed a small tiger canine tooth: “Then die and pay for their lives with yours.”
“I curse you!”
Lian Xi looked at Lie Chen: “Seal him. If you don’t want him to curse you, I can ring the bell and maybe I can also ruin his cultivation. But it’s unlikely that he’ll let you go even if that is the case.”
Lie Chen took a deep look at him. Then with a finger movement, a white jade light flashed and the seal was stamped on the old man’s Door of Life.
“Heaven and earth has a pathway but hell hath no door!”
“Ahhh!!!”
The splitting cry echoed in the small courtyard but strangely did not reach the next door. Because it was not the old man screaming but his soul screaming. Mortals could not hear the voice of the three souls. Where the seal was covered, golden light flickered. Six gold seal characters were suspended in the air and bursts of black air rose up.
This black energy kept leaving the old man’s body and with every trace, the old man grew older.
By the end he had white hair. However, after all, he was still once a profound cultivator. After the black energy dissipated, except for his white hair, the old man still only looked like an old man in his sixties or seventies, which was completely inconsistent with his actual age.
His body languished and the old man collapsed to the ground. This time, he couldn’t even move his fingers.
At this time, there was no need to watch out for this old man anymore. Lian Xi untied the rope that bound him and let him lie on the ground just like that.
Lian Xi: “The police should come to arrest you soon so don’t worry, you won’t lie here for long.”
His cultivation was exhausted and the old man could not speak. He could only stare at Lian Xi with hate filled eyes.
Lian Xi stood up and said, “Let’s go.”
The narrow courtyard door creaked shut and the door closed. The old man who had fallen on the ground could no longer be seen.
The matter has come to an end and it can be regarded as a complete ending. The only loose threads left was waiting for the police to deal with the case with the help of Meng Po soup. Then a final solution can be obtained. And Lian Xi has already decided on a person to give the Meng Po soup to.
Getting into the car, Lian Xi fastened his seat belt and asked: “By the way, I asked you to wash your seal that touched with the corpse bugs before. You don’t seem to think it is dirty and refused to wash it. But just now you refused to go into the old man’s house because it wasn’t clean. How come?”
Lie Chen followed Lian Xi’s movements and fastened his seat belt as well. “Are corpse bugs dirty?”
Lian Xi said strangely: “Are they not?”
Lie Chen: “You hate that old man?”
“Don’t you hate him?”
Without answering this question, the Black Reaper posed another question: “After touching the corpse bug, you felt dirty. After touching the old man, why didn’t you ask me to clean the seal again? Touching bugs is unclean but touching people isn’t? Is that what you think?”
Lian Xi was stunned. He slowly raised his head and looked at his colleague.
In the silent carriage, the Black Reaper said indifferently: “What is the difference between humans and insects?”
In the silent carriage, the buzzing of the car’s engine echoed.
After a long time, Lian Xi smiled and said, “Perhaps you are right.”
Lie Chen glanced at him, retracted his gaze and lowered his head to continue to look at his reaper record.
Lian Xi said as he drove, “By the way, I will buy you a mobile phone when I get the reward.”
Lie Chen pricked up his ears: Mobile phone?
Lian Xi: “It’s more convenient to have a mobile phone. With a mobile phone, you should be able to integrate into modern society soon.” Also you can start paying your rent yourself.
“Oh.”
The car drove slowly and the black and white reaper travelled through the empty early morning streets.
At the same time, at the HengDian Film and Television City in JinHua, Zhejiang Province.
Sometimes people thought that being a star was very easy and they could make tens of millions at the drop of a hat. But in the hearts of fans, this money was earned with their idols’ sweat and blood.
The little fox demon’s idol was filming a drama that night. The fans were piled up against the fence set up by the crew and no one wanted to leave.
“Sisters, I won’t go if QiQi doesn’t leave. I will hammer a drum for QiQi all night!”
“Yes. sisters! QiQi hasn’t gotten off work yet so how could we leave?”
The little fox replied enthusiastically, “That’s right. That’s right!”
However, after waiting for a long time and seeing that the idol still hadn’t gotten off work, the fans became sleepy one by one. Some left to go back to the hotel on their own. Of course the little fox demon was not sleepy. Previously she once watched a TV drama continuously for three days and three nights without even blinking her eyes. But the boredom was really intolerable. While bored, the fox demon opened her own black reaper record and then…
“???”
The hell?!
The fox demon uttered a cry in her heart.
Finding a place where others couldn’t hear her, she quietly called her colleague: “Hey Fatty, Tang Zi, what’s going on with SuZhou? I remember yesterday morning they were still second last with only just over 8,000 performance points. Right now it’s only the first day of October at half past one in the morning. How did they get more than 40,000 performances in one and a half hours?”
The little ghost official had just returned home and said speechlessly, “Can you please be a little bit more professional?! It’s already been more than one and half hour, did you only find this out now? Did you know they came second in September?”
The little fox was so shocked her hair stood up on end: “Come again?!”
The little ghost official sighed: “It’s a long story.”
Then the little ghost official told his colleague what had happened that night.
The fox spirit started with horror: “Is there actually such a good thing? I have lived for more than a hundred years and been a reaper for more than a hundred years, how come I never encountered it?”
The little ghost official said with a feeling of heartache: “Who cares about them, look at us! We’re last! Don’t you feel humiliated, don’t you feel ashamed? When will you come back to WuXi?”
“Even if I go back, we won’t change from the last to the top ten. So since we’re bound to be in the bottom, what’s the difference between the rewards? Either ten drops of water from the River of Forgetfulness or one drop, either ten coins or one coin, it’s not a big difference. Didn’t we already research it? The drops of water from the River of Forgetfulness are useless. As for money, if you’re short, I can transfer you. Just take it as my fee for being absent.”
“Is this a problem of money?”
“I just transferred 500,000 yuan to you, go ahead and collect it. Tang Zi, don’t treat yourself badly. I, your sister, have lived for more than a hundred years. I haven’t done all that much but if it’s money, then I’ve definitely made a lot. Listen to your sister in the future okay.”
“….Oh, fine.”
“Ah , my family QiQi finally came out. I’ll talk to you later, I’m hanging up!”
After being hung up on, WuXi’s little ghost official looked at his mobile phone in a daze. After a while, he muttered: “As if QiQi came out. I think you just wanted to hang up the phone. Little fox, this is not a question of money. You have to come back next month, no matter how much money you give me it’s useless!”
As he was thinking this, he typed out a WeChat message to his colleague. However after halfway writing it, he read it over and then deleted it silently.
Ai, she really gave me too much money…
However the little ghost official wronged his rich woman colleague this time. It wasn’t because she wanted to hang up the phone, her idol actually really did come out.
Hu XiaoLi ran over excitedly and waved the LED light board: ” QiQi QiQi, look at mom!” {Her name actually means “Fox Little”.
“Ahhh Lin SiQi, you have to eat well!”
“QiQi, you have to go to bed early!”
“Lin SiQi ahhhhhhh!”
The light board was held high and the high-wattage lamps illuminated the darkness and turned night into day. The handsome and sunny looking top idol smiled and waved to his fans. Then he turned around and walked to the nanny car.
“Ah, I’m dead.”
“QiQi was looking at me just now.”
Hu XiaoLi curled her lips: Obviously, he was looking at me.
Being in the middle of the fans, Hu XiaoLi didn’t notice that after the top idol got into the nanny car, a trace of almost imperceptible black air penetrated through the crack of the door and went in with him.
The little fox demon who had lived for more than a hundred years, but who had spent most of the time eating, earning money and not cultivating, touched her chin and thought, “What drama scene will QiQi be filming tomorrow?”
***
Chapter 39
In the early hours of the morning, the moonlight was dim and a cool breeze was blowing.
It was the first day of October.
The social people of the world were happily ushering in the eight-day National Day holiday, and the social ghosts officials of the underworld finally saw the long awaited official performance rankings for the month of September.
Today was destined to have a unique ending.
In the twenty-five cities of JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai, other than SuZhou and WuXi, the forty-six pairs of eyes of the ghost officials of the other twenty-three cities stared blankly at the performance rankings in their hands.
In the end, WenZhou ranked first.
However, that was just the beginning. Because after twelve o’clock, the performance points of the SuZhou City ghost official was still soaring!
The names from the reaper record in Lie Chen’s hands continued to fly out, pouring into Lian Xi’s reaper record. It seems that the former White Reaper and the new White Reaper were doing a handover. The names of the old white reaper record appeared one by one on Lian Xi’s white reaper record.
The names continued to emerge and the performance points continued to rise.
As September passed, the performance ranking scores of last month became the past. The writing turned gray and gradually dimmed.
Starting in October, it was a new day with a new performance ranking list. All ghost officials have not had time to catch ghosts and earn achievements. The points behind all their names was 0, only SuZhou City was different. Yes, their old friend SuZhou City. The points of SuZhou City’s ghost official was still increasing wildly with incredible speed!
Ghost official’s monthly performance rankings (JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai)
1st, SuZhou City, JiangSu Province’s ghost official with 20111 points.
2nd, WenZhou, ZheJiang Province’s ghost official with 0 points.
3rd, YanCheng, JiangSu Province’s ghost official with 0 points.
4th….
Ghosts officials: “…”
Can you two cheaters have a little bit of face!
Lian Xi didn’t expect that after they caught the dirty old man that they would actually find the reaper record of the previous SuZhou City’s white reaper. The reaper record did not recognize the old man as its master, but it still recorded everyone that the old man had killed. The old man uses the souls of these people as food to feed the horrible black bugs.
The souls of these people were gnawed by black worms and riddled with holes. Some of the people’s three physical souls and seven spiritual souls were all gnawed until they were unrecognizable and some were even eaten to the extent that there was only one soul left.
When the names of these people finished flying from the old man’s white reaper record into Lian Xi’s reaper record, it was followed by a dazed soul which floated out of the notebook in the dark night.
Without consciousness, these souls emerged one by one, lined up and marched towards the underworld.
If anyone can see this scene, they would have been shocked.
In the dark and late night, in a remote and desolate corner of the city, hundreds of people bowed their heads and walked, step by step, into the golden light. That was the gate of the underworld connecting the world. Their bodies were swallowed by golden light. The person who walked in the front had the most injuries and the person who walked in the back had fewer injuries.
By the time the last person, the yellow-haired delinquent, appeared, there was almost no wound on his body. He also walked into the grouped golden light.
The ghosts all left for the underworld and Lian Xi sighed softly. He looked down at the reaper record in his hand, then looked at the older reaper record and asked: “Are there still names on the reaper record?”
Lie Chen glanced down at it: “Yes.”
The now useless reaper record was handed to Lian Xi.
Lian Xi took the reaper record. He saw that in this dirty and old reaper record, there were still many imprints of names that hadn’t flown into his reaper record. Some of them died in 2004 and some died in 2005. The last name that did not fly out died in 2015.
These people were really completely eaten up by the black worms and could no longer be reborn.
Lian Xi quickly scanned these names. There were a total of 32 names. Not all of them were killed by the old man. Some of the deaths were caused by car accidents and some were caused by illness. It’s just that the old man had noticed them a long time ago. At the moment of their death, before they had time to go to the underworld, their souls were intercepted by the old man and planted with black worms. From then on, they could no longer escape.
Lian Xi silently put away the reaper record.
“You guys, this is cheating!”
SuZhou City’s black and white reaper all turned around. They looked at the WuXi’s little ghost official who was filled with righteous indignation.
They saw the little boy with a height of less than 160 looking up at them, chanting stupidly as if to himself: “This doesn’t make sense, how could this be? You were obviously second to last, how can you suddenly turn into the second from the top? How can you? How can this be?”
They had clearly made a tacit agreement to be losers at the bottom of the class, how could you secretly study without telling me!
WuXi little ghost’s official felt aggrieved.
It’s just like how he sat at the same table at school with his study god. Every time after finishing the exam, WuXi little ghost official would pull his hair out frantically. Seeing his grief, his deskmate the study god would comfort him and say, “Don’t worry, I didn’t review this time and I did very poorly in the exam too. We’ll get scolded together, I will accompany you.” The little ghost official was moved and thinking about it, his deskmate seemed to spend every day playing with his mobile phone. He really was a great brother.
But when the test paper came the result wasn’t what he expected.
Little ghost official: 59 points.
Deskmate study god: “Oh, why did I get a point deducted?”
Little ghost official: “?”
Listen, are you human? I believed in your lies!
I never expected that I took you for a good brother who I would die for, then you actually killed me,
WuXi little ghost official suddenly smelled a strong sour smell tangling between his nose. He ate a lemon fiercely and humphed: “This is definitely cheating, I’m going to report you.”
As he spoke, the little ghost official opened his reaper record angrily.
Lian Xi frowned, just about to stop him.
Lie Chen caught the key words. He asked casually: “Can you really report us?”
WuXi little ghost official: “Of course I can! Your cheating is shameful. I have to report it.”
Lie Chen: “How do you make a report? “
The WuXi little ghost official asked disbelievingly,: “You actually don’t know how to contact the underworld?”
Lie Chen: “When I took office, the former Black Reaper in SuZhou was seriously injured. He went to the underworld without telling me.”
The little ghost official nodded: ” It turned out to be like this, no wonder you don’t understand anything. It’s very simple, you open the reaper record and press your hand on your own name on the performance rankings. For example, I’ll press on the six characters ‘WuXi, JiangSu Province Ghost Official’. If you speak again, you can contact the underworld. But this thing only works one way so it means you just leave a message. As for when they’ll reply to you, it’s unknown. The underworld doesn’t take us seriously so it might be half a year, or even later.”
Lie Chen: “Oh, thank you.”
Little ghost official: “You’re welcome…” His voice stopped abruptly and the little ghost official was furious: “Who needs your thanks!” He clearly was about to report these two cheating guys, how could he have been fooled into helping them.
Lian Xi thought: Actually, you’ve really been graced. It’s the first time he’d seen President Lie thank someone.
After listening to the instructions of the little ghost official, Lie Chen lowered his head and opened his own reaper record.
Lian Xi asked in surprise, “What are you doing?”
Lie Chen didn’t raise his head: “Making a report.”
Lian Xi: “?”
WuXi ghost official: “?”
There are ghosts officials in this world who report themselves?
In the evening breeze, they heard Black Reaper speak lightly with a low voice: “Reporting WenZhou’s ghost official for cheating. At the last minute their points soared by 10,000. It must be cheating. It is recommended to strip the ghost official of his position and send him into the eighteenth layer of hell. Report over.”
Lian Xi and the little ghost official said: “…”
Lie Chen: “Also, due to WenZhou’s cheating, which seriously affected the fairness of the September ghost performance rankings, it is recommended to compensate the ghost official who came second. Report over.”
Lian Xi and the little ghost official official: “…”
The little official turned his head to look at Lian Xi: Is your colleague still human?
Lian Xi shook his head: He is really not a human being.
The two looked at each other with sympathy and their friendship was cemented at this moment.
…
Although WuXi little ghost official ate a large basket of lemons and was furious, but in the end he didn’t actually do what he said he was going to do and didn’t actually report Lian Xi and Lie Chen. He said: “Although I didn’t report you, I’m sure there must be other ghost officials who will report you. There will definitely be more than one.” Let’s go back down to the bottom of the class, how could you fly up by yourself?
Lian Xi was not afraid of being reported and confidently said: “Our points are justified.” After a pause, his brows frowned, “It is true that there is something wrong with the WenZhou ghost official. They suddenly increased by 10,000 points.”
WuXi’s little ghost official screamed in his heart: You have increased by 80,000! Eighty thousand!
Yes, from September 30, 2020, to right now the next day on October 1, Lian Xi and Lie Chen have gained more than 80,000 points.
Because these 80,000 points were given around midnight, more than 40,000 points are counted as the performance of the previous month, and more than 40,000 points are counted as the performance of October.
Therefore, the current performance ranking of ghosts in JiangSu, ZheJiang and ShangHai looks like-
1st, SuZhou City, JiangSu Province’s ghost official with 42143 points.
2nd, WenZhou, ZheJiang Province’s ghost official with 350 points.
3rd, NingBo, ZheJiang Province’s ghost official…
They were first!
Lian Xi touched his chin and sighed softly, “Unfortunately, there won’t be such a good thing again in the future.”
One time is not enough? It turns out that the faces of your black and white reaper in SuZhou are the same size, both so shameless! The little ghost official suddenly felt so tired.
Lian Xi: “Right, how do you get the rewards on the performance list?”
The little ghost said dispiritedly: “You use your finger to rub over the gray performance points written last month and once dawn breaks you will know how to receive the rewards.” Lian Xi heard the words and followed his instructions. This time, Lie Chen did not refuse to receive the award again either.
Ranked second, although this ranking is not totally satisfactory, is just good enough for President Lie. But when he thought about how he could have gotten first place, he felt more and more angry. A faint look flashed on Black Reaper’s handsome face and then he opened the reaper record to make another report. He said self-righteously: “Please punish WenZhou’s ghost official immediately. It is recommended that the punishment of the eighteenth hell can be carried out for two rounds. They should both be sent into the icy wilds of the BeiMo GuanTing {Translates to something like: Northern Wild Desert} and also one thousand years of being burned by fire. Over.” {I think these are different punishments in different layers of hell.}
Lian Xi and the little ghost official said: “…”
Please be human!
The Black Reaper’s shamelessness and ignorance caused Lian Xi and the little ghost official to overlook the unfamiliar term that Lie Chen mentioned. And Lie Chen himself also did not pay attention to this world. At this moment, there was only one thing in his mind: I was robbed of the number one place.
The sky and the earth were great but the performance points were the greatest.
If you don’t let me take the first place, then there’s a problem with your brain.
After working busily all night, they finally solved the problem of the old man with the black bugs. At the same time, they accidentally earned 80,000 points.
Lian Xi and Lie Chen were very satisfied with this result.
It wasn’t early, already 12:30 in the morning. Lian Xi and WuXi’s little ghost official bid farewell to each other. Before he left, WuXi’s ghost official took the initiative to take out his mobile phone and said charitably, “Let me add you on WeChat. It looks like other than catching ghosts, you’re pretty ignorant about everything. If you need to ask something you can directly message me.”
Sure enough, complaining together will lead to the establishment of a friendship. Lian Xi took out his cell phone, scanned the QR code and added him as a friend.
Lian Xi: “He just came out of the netherworld to take up the post of Black Reaper and he hasn’t bought a mobile phone. When he buys it, I will help him register a WeChat account and add you. By the way, what is your name?”
Little ghost Poor: “Tang Zi. How about you?”
“Lian Xi. His name is Lie Chen.”
“Lie Chen? What a weird name.”
Ha. Lie Chen glanced at him lightly and didn’t bother to pay attention to him.
After saying goodbye to the little ghost, the two got into the car and then they remembered one thing: “When we get home, we have to search the old man for Meng Po soup and then use the soup to solve Su Jiao’s university mate’s case. But there’s one thing that’s bothering me….” Lian Xi looked at his colleague: “Meng Po’s soup can lead the police to this old man but after all this old man is a XuanXiu practitioner with strong power. Even though his bugs have all been wiped out, what if he continues to cultivate new bugs in the future?”
Hearing this, the old man froze in the back seat of the car. His eyes darkened.
Lie Chen understood what he meant: “You want to ruin his cultivation?”
Lian Xi thought for a moment: “Yes. I can try the bell or you can try with your seal. Your seal turned the black bug into a pool of black water. Perhaps it would also be useful on this old man.”
Lie Chen gently nodded. His fingers moved slightly and a bright white seal instantly appeared on his fingertips.
After the seal appeared, there was a moment of silence in the carriage. The old man squeezed his fingers and his body trembled. He wanted to resist. He didn’t forget how this seal was casually put on the giant corpse worm he had worked so hard to raise with his soul for 40 years and then wiped it out just like that. A strong sense of crisis rushed into his heart. If this thing was stamped on him then perhaps his entire cultivation might be wiped out and he would never be able to refine insects in the future.
However, the old man was currently weak and had no chance to resist.
Lie Chen pushed with his palm and the white jade seal flashed golden light, aiming at the old man’s door of life. Seeing that the seal was about to cover his face, the old man finally showed panic. He said hoarsely: “No, I admit defeat. There are still many ghost hunting tokens and Meng Po soup where I live. As long as you let me go, I will give them all to you. I promise I will step foot in SuZhou again… no I will leave the entire JiangSu Province and go away from you!” The white jade seal was getting closer and closer. His words turned into a scream.
Lie Chen ignored his words at all. Can Ghost Hunting tokens and Meng Po soup be exchanged for performance points? No? Then, he didn’t care.
“Wait.” Lian Xi suddenly spoke. He grabbed the white jade seal that was flying towards the old man.
The white jade seal was suddenly snatched out of the air by someone. He was extremely surprised and dissatisfied and struggled a few times. Lian Xi glanced at the seal in his hands: Was this alive?
But thinking about how my own bronze bell also sometimes had temper tantrums, it wasn’t too surprising. Lian Xi tightened his fingers to prevent the seal from moving.
White jade seal: “…” So anyone can command me now, do I not have any face at all!
Lian Xi looked at the old man and his eyes narrowed: “Did you say that you still have a lot of ghost hunting tokens and Meng Po soup?”
The old man sweated profusely: “Yes!”
Lian Xi: “Okay, then take us to where you live.”
The old man’s eyes rolled: “What kind of promise can you give me that if I give it to you, you’ll spare me?”
Lian Xi sneered. “Do you really think you’re in a position to negotiate right now?”
The old man gritted his teeth: “If you don’t give me a guarantee then I won’t take you there even if I die.”
Lian Xi: “Okay then, I promise you.”
The old man asked, “But how can I guarantee you will keep your promise?”
Lian Xi smiled: “Believe it or not, I don’t care.”
The old man was silent for a moment. His little snake-like eyes swept across the faces of Lian Xi and Lie Chen as if he wanted to see into their hearts. He gritted his teeth and said every word: “I hope you can keep your promise. Otherwise even if I become a malicious ghost, I won’t let you go!”
…
The place where the old man lived was a shanty house in the old downtown of SuZhou City. There was a lot of garbage inside and it was dirty and dark. Even before entering the door, you could smell an indescribable disgusting smell.
The room was too dirty and smelly. Lie Chen refused to enter and just stood outside the door.
The old man was tied up, taken out of the car and pressed him into the house. Under his guidance, Lian Xi found more than 50 ghost hunting tokens and more than 20 bowls of Meng Po soup.
The Meng Po soup was placed in a small white porcelain bottle with the three characters “Meng Po Soup” engraved on the body of the bottle.
Old man: “These are all things I got after eating that White Reaper after first coming to SuZhou City. Now it’s your turn to keep your promise and let me go.”
Lian Xi: ” Did I say that I’d let you go?”
The old man’s round eyes bulged. “Shameless boy, if you dare breach our contract then this old man swears that after I die, I will never let you go! Even if my soul is dissipated, I will definitely retaliate with you and make you pay the debt with your blood!”
Lian Xi quietly sneered. He looked at the old man with cold eyes and pushed him out of the door.
“Affix the seal onto him.”
Lie Chen raised his eyes to look at him: “What he said just now seems unusual. It’s probably a curse and will most likely come to fruition.”
Lian Xi: “Is that so.”
Lie Chen looked at him calmly: “XuanXiu are different from regular mortals. You promised him but you broke your promise. He swears by his soul and it will be fulfilled.”
Lian Xi calmly said: “Then let it be fulfilled.”
After a while, Lie Chen said, “You’re doing this for those people who were killed and sacrificed by him to feed the bugs?”
“Perhaps.”
“It’s not necessary. Life and death are impermanent. This is their destiny and they will enter another reincarnation.”
Lian Xi: “What about the 32 people who will never be able to reincarnate anymore?”
Lie Chen looked at him again and said, “Even if you ruin his cultivation, then it doesn’t mean they can be reincarnated again.”
Lian Xi’s lips moved.
At this moment, under the bright moonlight, the Black Reaper’s cold and indifferent eyes stared at him without emotion. He was just like the gods in the world above the nine heavens.
There has never been a moment when Lian Xi realized so deeply that although ghost officials could be people, ghosts, or spirits….
That the black reaper of SuZhou City was definitely not a human being.
For a long time, he laughed and said: “My actions are probably just a human thing. Even if I know that it will have no effect and even if I know the people he has killed over the years and whose souls have been destroyed, will not come back to life because of my actions. However, I still have to do it.”
The old man roared sharply: “I swear, I will never kill people again. The method of raising bugs is not limited to human souls. I am already a hundred and two years old this year and it’s only because of my cultivation that I can survive. If you destroy my cultivation then it’s tantamount to killing me, I won’t be able to live long!”
“Really?” Under the same bright moonlight, the beautiful and elegant young man smiled slightly and even revealed a small tiger canine tooth: “Then die and pay for their lives with yours.”
“I curse you!”
Lian Xi looked at Lie Chen: “Seal him. If you don’t want him to curse you, I can ring the bell and maybe I can also ruin his cultivation. But it’s unlikely that he’ll let you go even if that is the case.”
Lie Chen took a deep look at him. Then with a finger movement, a white jade light flashed and the seal was stamped on the old man’s Door of Life.
“Heaven and earth has a pathway but hell hath no door!”
“Ahhh!!!”
The splitting cry echoed in the small courtyard but strangely did not reach the next door. Because it was not the old man screaming but his soul screaming. Mortals could not hear the voice of the three souls. Where the seal was covered, golden light flickered. Six gold seal characters were suspended in the air and bursts of black air rose up.
This black energy kept leaving the old man’s body and with every trace, the old man grew older.
By the end he had white hair. However, after all, he was still once a profound cultivator. After the black energy dissipated, except for his white hair, the old man still only looked like an old man in his sixties or seventies, which was completely inconsistent with his actual age.
His body languished and the old man collapsed to the ground. This time, he couldn’t even move his fingers.
At this time, there was no need to watch out for this old man anymore. Lian Xi untied the rope that bound him and let him lie on the ground just like that.
Lian Xi: “The police should come to arrest you soon so don’t worry, you won’t lie here for long.”
His cultivation was exhausted and the old man could not speak. He could only stare at Lian Xi with hate filled eyes.
Lian Xi stood up and said, “Let’s go.”
The narrow courtyard door creaked shut and the door closed. The old man who had fallen on the ground could no longer be seen.
The matter has come to an end and it can be regarded as a complete ending. The only loose threads left was waiting for the police to deal with the case with the help of Meng Po soup. Then a final solution can be obtained. And Lian Xi has already decided on a person to give the Meng Po soup to.
Getting into the car, Lian Xi fastened his seat belt and asked: “By the way, I asked you to wash your seal that touched with the corpse bugs before. You don’t seem to think it is dirty and refused to wash it. But just now you refused to go into the old man’s house because it wasn’t clean. How come?”
Lie Chen followed Lian Xi’s movements and fastened his seat belt as well. “Are corpse bugs dirty?”
Lian Xi said strangely: “Are they not?”
Lie Chen: “You hate that old man?”
“Don’t you hate him?”
Without answering this question, the Black Reaper posed another question: “After touching the corpse bug, you felt dirty. After touching the old man, why didn’t you ask me to clean the seal again? Touching bugs is unclean but touching people isn’t? Is that what you think?”
Lian Xi was stunned. He slowly raised his head and looked at his colleague.
In the silent carriage, the Black Reaper said indifferently: “What is the difference between humans and insects?”
In the silent carriage, the buzzing of the car’s engine echoed.
After a long time, Lian Xi smiled and said, “Perhaps you are right.”
Lie Chen glanced at him, retracted his gaze and lowered his head to continue to look at his reaper record.
Lian Xi said as he drove, “By the way, I will buy you a mobile phone when I get the reward.”
Lie Chen pricked up his ears: Mobile phone?
Lian Xi: “It’s more convenient to have a mobile phone. With a mobile phone, you should be able to integrate into modern society soon.” Also you can start paying your rent yourself.
“Oh.”
The car drove slowly and the black and white reaper travelled through the empty early morning streets.
At the same time, at the HengDian Film and Television City in JinHua, Zhejiang Province.
Sometimes people thought that being a star was very easy and they could make tens of millions at the drop of a hat. But in the hearts of fans, this money was earned with their idols’ sweat and blood.
The little fox demon’s idol was filming a drama that night. The fans were piled up against the fence set up by the crew and no one wanted to leave.
“Sisters, I won’t go if QiQi doesn’t leave. I will hammer a drum for QiQi all night!”
“Yes. sisters! QiQi hasn’t gotten off work yet so how could we leave?”
The little fox replied enthusiastically, “That’s right. That’s right!”
However, after waiting for a long time and seeing that the idol still hadn’t gotten off work, the fans became sleepy one by one. Some left to go back to the hotel on their own. Of course the little fox demon was not sleepy. Previously she once watched a TV drama continuously for three days and three nights without even blinking her eyes. But the boredom was really intolerable. While bored, the fox demon opened her own black reaper record and then…
“???”
The hell?!
The fox demon uttered a cry in her heart.
Finding a place where others couldn’t hear her, she quietly called her colleague: “Hey Fatty, Tang Zi, what’s going on with SuZhou? I remember yesterday morning they were still second last with only just over 8,000 performance points. Right now it’s only the first day of October at half past one in the morning. How did they get more than 40,000 performances in one and a half hours?”
The little ghost official had just returned home and said speechlessly, “Can you please be a little bit more professional?! It’s already been more than one and half hour, did you only find this out now? Did you know they came second in September?”
The little fox was so shocked her hair stood up on end: “Come again?!”
The little ghost official sighed: “It’s a long story.”
Then the little ghost official told his colleague what had happened that night.
The fox spirit started with horror: “Is there actually such a good thing? I have lived for more than a hundred years and been a reaper for more than a hundred years, how come I never encountered it?”
The little ghost official said with a feeling of heartache: “Who cares about them, look at us! We’re last! Don’t you feel humiliated, don’t you feel ashamed? When will you come back to WuXi?”
“Even if I go back, we won’t change from the last to the top ten. So since we’re bound to be in the bottom, what’s the difference between the rewards? Either ten drops of water from the River of Forgetfulness or one drop, either ten coins or one coin, it’s not a big difference. Didn’t we already research it? The drops of water from the River of Forgetfulness are useless. As for money, if you’re short, I can transfer you. Just take it as my fee for being absent.”
“Is this a problem of money?”
“I just transferred 500,000 yuan to you, go ahead and collect it. Tang Zi, don’t treat yourself badly. I, your sister, have lived for more than a hundred years. I haven’t done all that much but if it’s money, then I’ve definitely made a lot. Listen to your sister in the future okay.”
“….Oh, fine.”
“Ah , my family QiQi finally came out. I’ll talk to you later, I’m hanging up!”
After being hung up on, WuXi’s little ghost official looked at his mobile phone in a daze. After a while, he muttered: “As if QiQi came out. I think you just wanted to hang up the phone. Little fox, this is not a question of money. You have to come back next month, no matter how much money you give me it’s useless!”
As he was thinking this, he typed out a WeChat message to his colleague. However after halfway writing it, he read it over and then deleted it silently.
Ai, she really gave me too much money…
However the little ghost official wronged his rich woman colleague this time. It wasn’t because she wanted to hang up the phone, her idol actually really did come out.
Hu XiaoLi ran over excitedly and waved the LED light board: ” QiQi QiQi, look at mom!” {Her name actually means “Fox Little”.
“Ahhh Lin SiQi, you have to eat well!”
“QiQi, you have to go to bed early!”
“Lin SiQi ahhhhhhh!”
The light board was held high and the high-wattage lamps illuminated the darkness and turned night into day. The handsome and sunny looking top idol smiled and waved to his fans. Then he turned around and walked to the nanny car.
“Ah, I’m dead.”
“QiQi was looking at me just now.”
Hu XiaoLi curled her lips: Obviously, he was looking at me.
Being in the middle of the fans, Hu XiaoLi didn’t notice that after the top idol got into the nanny car, a trace of almost imperceptible black air penetrated through the crack of the door and went in with him.
The little fox demon who had lived for more than a hundred years, but who had spent most of the time eating, earning money and not cultivating, touched her chin and thought, “What drama scene will QiQi be filming tomorrow?”
***
