Sure enough, the temporary luck from the fortune slip was a major success!
The old temple warden is truly her benefactor!
Nanzhi cheered inwardly, but her expression remained calm. She quickly agreed to the big-bellied ghost's words and promised to visit them often in the future.
She wasn't joking; she still had her daily check-in to perform!
Seeing Nanzhi's sincerity, the ghosts grew even more delighted. They patted their chests and guaranteed they would be her eyes and ears, ensuring they would know exactly how many mice and wild foxes were in Dingyuan County.
Just then, Chen Jingui called her from outside the hall. Nanzhi tidied up, picked up her bamboo basket, and hurried away.
...
The mud ghosts huddled together, watching her departing figure with longing, as if they had been abandoned.
A gust of wind blew through the hall, extinguishing the candles. The sound of the hanged ghost's weeping echoed eerily through the hall:
“Ying, ying, ying... It wasn't easy to run into a young lady who can see us. Big Belly, don't you even think about stopping me this time.”
As she spoke, there was no other expression on her face, but the other wandering souls in the hall didn't dare utter a sound, merely shrinking back and playing dead.
“Sigh...”
After a long silence, the big-bellied ghost let out a sigh:
“Wan'niang, why bother? You aren't like us; wouldn't it be better to go and be reincarnated early?”
Crack! Crash!!
Clatter—
The hanged ghost whipped her long hair, and the porcelain plates on the offering table shattered across the floor.
Pitch-black strands of hair continuously sprouted from the hanged ghost's head, growing at an incredible speed like slithering snakes.
In the blink of an eye, the entire hall was saturated by this ink-colored waterfall. Despite it being broad daylight, the hall became so dark one couldn't see their own hand in front of their face.
The woman's shrill laughter mixed with her sobs as cold, ghostly winds howled through the hall:
“Back when the City God was here, I endured it. Now that the presiding deity is gone from this temple, who else can stop me!”
The mud ghosts didn't dare show their heads at all, hiding wherever they could.
Wrapped in black hair, the big-bellied ghost shook its head, its face growing more indignant. Finally, it squeezed a sentence out from between the strands of hair:
“Fine, fine, have it your way! You crazy woman, you've grown more insane over the decades since you died!”
—It truly didn't know why the City God hadn't taken this ghost along when he was promoted, leaving such a major disaster behind instead!
“Hehehehe...”
Seeing the big-bellied ghost relent, the hanged ghost Wan'niang laughed. Her long hair receded like a tide, and after a while, a mournful singing voice echoed in the hall:
“Hehehehe... My dear husband, I have searched for you so bitterly. Just wait, just wait a little longer...
The moon in the sky looks like a mass of clouds from afar.
The night is deep, the watch is late, the wind grows tight,
Blowing away the clouds by the moon for me,
To shine upon the heartless man...”
Inside the hall, the song was full of resentment.
Outside the hall, the old temple warden glanced back.
His expression remained normal as he lowered his head and continued rubbing paper money.
...
...
“Ugh, it's freezing. Is the office air conditioning set too low?”
Nanzhi looked up from her work and heard a colleague nearby complaining loudly:
“Overtime again. They always call us for a meeting at 5:30 on Fridays, and as soon as the meeting starts, they assign tasks. Great, there goes the weekend.”
“Be grateful,” Zhang Qiuyu said as she walked by with her water cup, joining the conversation.
“Our company is considered quite decent; we only work overtime occasionally. I heard the game company on the twenty-seventh floor is truly miserable. Working until the early hours is a daily occurrence, okay?”
“The twenty-seventh floor? Isn't that the company where someone jumped off the building?”
Nanzhi suddenly remembered something and asked, “By the way, didn't they say the advertising agency downstairs was haunted? How was that handled in the end?”
“Hmm? Nanzhi, don't you usually disbelieve in all this ghost and god stuff the most?”
Zhang Qiuyu stirred her coffee, and a bitter aroma wafted out.
“How else could they handle it? They gave it the cold-shoulder treatment. They aren't allowed to discuss it in the WeChat group, but they privately found Daoist priests and monks to come and chant sutras.
Apparently, they've set a date—the fifth of next month. They say it's the birthday of some god, so the yang energy will be strong. Who knows if it'll work.
If you ask me, that advertising agency downstairs is just unlucky. It was the twenty-seventh floor that drove the person to death, but they're the ones paying the price.”
“Haha, I was just curious, just asking.”
Nanzhi closed her files, but she was secretly muttering to herself.
Technically, since she could cultivate, it was actually quite normal for ghosts to exist.
But a game is a game, and reality is reality.
The fact that she could talk and laugh with the ghosts in the City God Temple in the game didn't mean she was willing to see ghosts in real life.
Thinking of this, Nanzhi sped up her work.
Better hurry up and get back to cultivating.
...
...
The big-bellied ghost kept its word.
Early the next morning, Nanzhi logged on punctually.
After the rooster crowed three times, she opened her door and saw a fresh mulberry leaf lying on the ground. It was covered in dense drawings and countless tiny annotations.
Nanzhi picked up the mulberry leaf and looked around, but she didn't see any sign of the mud ghosts.
The characters on the leaf were as small as pearls, written with some unknown brush. Strangely, Nanzhi could see them clearly without even having to look closely.
【Map function enabled.】
【Current Location: Nan family courtyard, Lingbai Alley】
【Faction Favorability enabled.】
【Dingyuan City God Temple Faction: Dingyuan City God (Vacant), Day and Night Wandering Gods (Vacant), mud ghosts (8), wandering souls and wild ghosts (25), temple warden (1)】
【City God Temple Favorability: One Heart (Casual Acquaintance; the mud ghosts do not dislike you)】
【Special Bonus: Luck +5, Constitution +5 within the City God Temple range. Prayers have a certain chance of receiving a response from the presiding deity.】
【Nan Family Faction: Nan Dazhuang, Chen Jingui, Nan Yi, Nan Ye】
【Nan Family Favorability: Nine Hearts (Life and Death Bond; you are forever a part of this family)】
【Special Bonus: Constitution +15, Combat Power +15 within the Nan family courtyard. During combat, there is a certain chance to summon family members for assistance.】
In addition, Nanzhi noticed another name on the favorability panel: 【Wan'niang】
【You have gained the favor of a ghost, achieving the achievement “Friend of Ghosts (I).” You have received Heaven and Earth Treasure Tree Draw tickets ×5.】
Nanzhi thought for a long time before remembering that this was the name of the hanged ghost from the City God Temple.
“Two hearts of favorability? I don't think I did much.
Was it just from offering some wine and meat? Five draw tickets—this hanged ghost is quite generous.”
She muttered to herself, planning to save up ten tickets before drawing.
Praying for a gold drop in a ten-pull!
She said it!
Clicking on the map icon in the top left corner of the screen, she saw, as expected, a map of Dingyuan County.
On the map, countless small green dots representing “Friendly” and small yellow dots representing “Neutral” moved constantly, with only a few scattered small red dots remaining stationary.
—Red represented the “Hostile Faction.”
Nanzhi tried filtering out the unknown NPCs and zoomed in on the map. Sure enough, she saw the small green dot representing Nan Yi at the 【County Office】.
The green dots for Nan Dazhuang and Chen Jingui were at the meat shop, while Nan Ye was in her room, not moving.
The eight mud ghosts were still at the City God Temple, while the small yellow dot representing the Grey Rat Spirit was staying at a restaurant.
—Likely, it had moved its entire family to the restaurant.
Nanzhi verified it several times and found that these dots moved constantly, representing real-time positions.
“This way, wouldn't I be able to track the movements of other NPCs at any time? It's like real-time surveillance!”
She rubbed her hands together and couldn't help but start searching the map based on the information the big-bellied ghost had given her.
【Water Ghost Wang Wu】
【Grasshopper Spirit】
【Red Fox】
【Mountain Boar】
【Mountain Civet】
There were quite a few red names on the map.
This was all experience for leveling up!
Nanzhi noticed that the area surrounding Dingyuan County was covered in fog, and within that fog, a red name circling the outskirts of the county was particularly conspicuous.
Around that red name were countless smaller red names clustered together:
【Mountain Lord】
【Chang ghost Liu Sheng】
【Chang ghost Mei'niang】
【Chang ghost Ma Dalang】
【Chang ghost Mother Li】
She couldn't tell what kind of monster this 【Mountain Lord】 was from the map, but one look at the level made Nanzhi lean back in respect.
Whoa! A Level 49 big boss leading a pack of Level 15 small fry.
Can't touch that, can't touch that.
Forget it, she'd better find some soft targets to squeeze.
Rate on N.U.
