Chapter 19

Ke Xingzhou waited for a while but didn’t see Lu Li appear on his own, so he simply took out a talisman. With a slight pinch of his fingers underneath it, the talisman spontaneously ignited without any flame.

He tossed the talisman outward and then chanted softly, “Spirit of this land, divine and responsive. Ascend to the heavens, descend to the earth. From shadow to nether, hear my petition, delay not.”

Before the talisman even touched the ground, it was already completely burned up. Strangely, it left no ash behind, as if it had vanished into thin air.

A sudden gust of cold wind rose out of nowhere. An He Guang and Ke Yuanbai widened their eyes as they watched a thick cloud of black mist quickly form over the open space in front of them.

It was similar to the black mist that had appeared when the female ghost emerged, but without the bone-chilling sensation.

Under their unblinking gaze, the mist quickly took human form.

Lu Li appeared in a black robe, prompting An He Guang to suddenly exclaim, “Black Wuchang!”

Lu Li: “…”

He glanced up and down at An He Guang with some curiosity, then turned to Ke Xingzhou and said, “Isn’t this the rich young master who used to look down on you? How did you end up being friends with him?”

An He Guang immediately looked a bit awkward and hurriedly explained, “That was all a misunderstanding! I’ve changed for real now!”

Lu Li looked toward Ke Xingzhou, who gave a barely noticeable nod and made a money-counting gesture with his fingers.

So he used cash persuasion.

Lu Li instantly understood.

It seemed the same went for Ke Yuanbai, so he didn’t ask further. Instead, he lifted his work badge and waved it in front of them: “I’m not Black Wuchang. Black and White Wuchang are both desk workers now. They only show up when a special soul needs to be detained. Normally, they don’t come.”

His badge flashed quickly before their eyes. Ke Yuanbai and An He Guang didn’t get a good look at the text, but they clearly saw a big character: “Judge.”

Only then did they notice the thick book of life and death Lu Li was holding, and they immediately developed newfound respect for this young ghost official who looked no different from a regular bald programmer.

At the same time, their view of Ke Xingzhou’s abilities rose to a new level—

Being able to summon a Judge to handle things? That must be some powerful connection.

Lu Li didn’t say much to them and followed Ke Xingzhou to the side, curiously peeking at the female ghost in the cat carrier. “I just left for a bit and you already ran into trouble again. See? I told you you couldn’t live without me.”

“…” Ke Xingzhou ignored him and calmly recounted everything that had happened.

When he heard they needed to help this ghost find her family and resolve her resentment, Lu Li’s expression immediately collapsed.

“You really know how to boss ghosts around,” he muttered.Ke Xingzhou gave him a sideways glance. “You don’t want this achievement?”

“I do, I do!” Lu Li’s expression changed instantly, turning obsequious. “Lord Ke, you just rest, leave the rest to your humble servant! I promise, I’ll handle everything perfectly for you!”

Ke Xingzhou let out a soft scoff but didn’t insist.

After all, metaphysics dealt with the way of heaven, and even a small misstep could cost one their merit. His own merit was hard-earned and quite thin to begin with. He was supposed to avoid things like this anyway—handing it over to Lu Li was just right.

The two of them had a mutually beneficial relationship; neither was taking advantage of the other.

Once the arrangements for the female ghost were made, Lu Li’s gaze followed Ke Xingzhou’s words and landed on the male ghost in the corner.

The male ghost immediately shivered.

He had just watched Ke Xingzhou deal with the lead ghost so easily, and now he’d even summoned a Judge from the Underworld. He was terrified and immediately clutched his head, trembling like a leaf. “L-Lord, I’m innocent! I haven’t done anything, I don’t even have resentment! I was just following orders from the lead ghost to learn the new performance’s dance moves and theme song! I really haven’t hurt anyone!”

Lu Li looked him up and down. Indeed, there was no sign of resentment or karmic taint, so he only gave him a light scolding.

After a few words, Lu Li signaled that he was leaving and gestured to Ke Xingzhou: “You deal with the rest. I’ll come back and handle things when I have time.”

With that, he picked up the cat carrier and hurried off.

Ke Xingzhou was a bit surprised. Watching him disappear, he fell into thoughtful silence.

It seemed the Underworld was getting busier and busier.

As an intern Judge and not a basic soul-reaper, Lu Li normally wouldn’t have had much work. In the past, he would always come by to test the merit calculation system whenever he had free time.

But just now, even after interacting with him for so long, Lu Li hadn’t noticed that Ke Xingzhou had recently gained quite a bit of merit.

Something must be going on.

But Ke Xingzhou didn’t have time to think about it for long, because as soon as the female ghost left, the illusionary space she’d created began to waver.

Ke Yuanbai and An He Guang suddenly felt unsteady beneath their feet, nearly falling into cracks opening up in the ground. Their faces turned pale with fear. “What the—what’s happening? An earthquake?!”

“Ke Xingzhou?!”

“This space is about to collapse,” Ke Xingzhou said calmly. He stepped forward and grabbed both of their wrists. “Stay close.”

The two were tense, and followed Ke Xingzhou’s pull to step forward. A strange, indescribable sensation rushed over them, then their whole bodies felt a sudden warmth. When they opened their eyes again, the surroundings had returned to normal.

The moment Ke Xingzhou stepped out of the illusion, he let go of their hands. Ke Yuanbai and An He Guang didn’t even notice. Looking around at the ordinary scene and the staff walking past with confused expressions, a delayed wave of joy and relief washed over them.

While inside the illusion, it hadn’t felt too different. But now that they were out, they immediately sensed the contrast between the two worlds.

The most obvious difference was the sheer amount of sound outside.

The hum of central air conditioning filled the hallway. Music, chanting, and calls echoed from various practice rooms. There were also hurried footsteps and conversations from the staff passing by.

The whole world was noisy and full of life.

Their hearts pounded wildly, and for some reason, they suddenly felt the urge to cry.

The two young men’s eyes reddened uncontrollably.What surprised them the most was that, despite having spent what felt like a long time inside the illusion, only ten minutes had passed in the real world.

Ke Yuanbai looked at Ke Xingzhou with a complicated expression and was just about to say something when the door of the practice room suddenly opened.

Xie An came out and immediately walked over to them, noisily inserting himself between the group. He slung his arm over Ke Xingzhou’s shoulder and started pulling him back into the practice room.

With a tone of complaint, he said, “Why were you out so long? Did you already master the dance moves and come out to play? Hurry up and get back to practice with me!”

Only then did he seem to notice the other two, and he offered them an apologetic smile. “Our practice schedule is pretty tight, and there are still a lot of moves we haven’t learned yet. Can whatever it is wait till next time?”

Though he said that, he left no room for the other two to object. He directly dragged Ke Xingzhou back into the practice room and slammed the door shut behind them.

Ke Yuanbai: “…”

An Heguang: “…”

Ke Yuanbai might not have fully understood what was going on since he had just arrived, but An Heguang had seen it clearly: Ke Xingzhou had just been napping in there—there was no practicing at all.

They were being blocked on purpose!

Right now, this whole facility filled him with dread. Sure, the female ghost had been taken away, but there was still that male ghost.

And there was also that half-bodied ghost he encountered last night. He still didn’t know why that one had latched onto him!

He pushed the door open, about to argue with Xie An, but before he could even speak, Ke Xingzhou shot him a glance and subtly shook his head.

An Heguang: “…”

He deflated instantly and had no choice but to leave dejectedly.

Ke Yuanbai was even less confident.

They were all competitors after all, and with the program currently being filmed, pulling someone’s teammate away during practice wouldn’t look good no matter how you spun it.

Seeing An Heguang leave, he couldn’t justify staying either. He looked deeply at Ke Xingzhou through the glass, then turned and walked away.

Once they were gone, Xie An finally let out a sigh of relief and quickly started checking Ke Xingzhou up and down. “Bro, are you okay? I was watching the whole time from inside and saw the three of you suddenly freeze like statues, just staring at each other. The more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed. What were those two doing coming to find you in the middle of the day? Did they say something nasty to you?”

Ke Xingzhou couldn’t help laughing and crying at the same time. Skipping over the part about ghosts, he explained for a long while before finally convincing his worried little brother that he hadn’t been bullied.

But Xie An still insisted those two were up to no good. He leaned in close and whispered, “Next time they come around, I’ll stop them at the door and charge a consultation fee!”

Ke Xingzhou found the idea quite reasonable and gave him a thumbs-up. “Hold on for me. I’ll revise the price list tomorrow. You help me keep an eye on it then.”

“No problem!” Xie An patted his chest in assurance.

Ever since he learned that Ke Xingzhou could really tell fortunes—and was frighteningly accurate—he’d been trying to recommend him to everyone around him and bring in more business.

But Ke Xingzhou hadn’t been acting very reliable lately, and Xie An hadn’t had a proper excuse to promote him, so the idea had been shelved for a while.

Now that Ke Xingzhou agreed to let him help, he was overjoyed!

Ke Xingzhou was still preoccupied with the situation on Lu Li’s end. After calming down the overly excited Xie An, he grabbed the hungry, mewling black-and-white kitten and went out to feed it.Finding a place to get water, Ke Xingzhou first gave the little kitten a new protective talisman. He muttered to himself that he had used so many protective talismans for it that, if converted into money, it would amount to quite a sum. The little kitten couldn’t die halfway. Suddenly, someone appeared next to him.

Ke Xingzhou initially thought it was a contestant, so he moved aside with the milk bottle and the kitten. However, the person neither came forward to take the water nor made any move to leave.

He turned his head suspiciously. Before seeing the person's face, he first noticed the overwhelming aura of merit emanating from them.

Ke Xingzhou froze, standing still in place.