Chapter 212.1: Underworld Officers
Pei Shouji was dead.
His death was an unremarkable one. He hadn’t encountered any demons or monsters, nor had he run into any ghosts or supernatural beings. He had simply grown old and frail, and one night, when he got up to drink some water, he failed to watch his step and took a fall.
But Pei Shouji hadn’t died instantly. He had spent another day lying in his sickbed. When the physician came to examine him, he, too, declared that Pei Shouji was beyond the reach of medicine.
Pei Shouji remembered how terribly weak he had felt, how his breathing had dwindled to a thread, and how he had forced words out of his throat to divide up his family property amid the weeping of his elderly wife and children.
In the final moment before he closed his eyes, Pei Shouji’s entire life flashed rapidly through his mind.
His family had been poor when he was young, and his parents had died early. He had left his hometown with an old peddler he had met for the first time that very day. The beginning of his journey had been full of hardship. Traveling overland, he had encountered ferocious beasts in the mountains. Traveling by water, he had come across water ghosts searching for substitutes to take their place in death.
That encounter with the water ghost had truly been a close call. Back then, Pei Shouji had heard plenty of tales about spirits, ghosts, and other supernatural beings, but he had never imagined that he would actually encounter one himself. He had very nearly lost his life.
Yet how fortunate he had been! A disciple of Mount Qingyuan happened to be passing by and rescued him.
He had wanted to offer all his worldly possessions in gratitude, but the young Daoist priest had refused his gold and silver.
She had said only, “We who cultivate the Dao have a duty to save people. If you truly wish to repay me, there’s no need to offer me any compensation. Simply do more good deeds in the future, and that will be enough. The Heavenly Dao is ever-watchful. Those who do good will naturally receive Heaven’s protection.”
From that day onward, Pei Shouji began doing good deeds.
At first, his motivation had been quite simple. He thought that the Daoist priest must be an extraordinary cultivator, and the words of such an accomplished person were certainly worth believing.
As he traveled far and wide, he found himself encountering danger all too easily. If doing more good deeds could earn him Heaven’s protection, then wasn’t doing good deeds essentially the same as protecting his own life?
But the more good deeds he performed, the more he saw the gratitude of those he had helped, and gradually, his outlook changed.
Pei Shouji’s thinking slowly evolved. He continued doing good deeds, but no longer for the sake of earning Heaven’s protection.
But whether it was true that those who did good deeds would naturally receive Heaven’s protection, Pei Shouji couldn’t say for sure. What he did know was that his business continued to grow.
He went from being a small-time merchant who had to travel around on his own, to having enough capital to hire assistants, and eventually to saving enough money to return to his hometown and establish his own shops.
He even hired a teacher to give him a new name, changing from Pei Daniu to Pei Shouji.
His business gradually expanded, growing larger and more prosperous with each passing year.
Now, in his twilight years, Pei Shouji owned the Pei Trading Company and had become a well-known wealthy merchant in Tianjiang Prefecture.
And the good deeds he performed had grown both more numerous and more substantial.
He funded the construction of bridges and roads, provided relief to disaster victims, aided the poor, and established schools offering free education. Every month, large quantities of grain were delivered to the orphanage.
Pei Shouji contentedly breathed his last.
He had never committed an evil deed in his entire life, and he had performed countless good ones. Looking back on his life, he had nothing to regret.
With a clear conscience, he wasn’t afraid of the world that awaited him after death, either. After all, people had always believed that good and evil would eventually be rewarded accordingly.
Thinking this, Pei Shouji felt his body growing lighter and lighter.
He heard people crying. It wasn’t just his family weeping. Those he had helped over the years were crying, too.
The great benefactor of Tianjiang Prefecture, Master Pei, had passed away. Of their own accord, countless people came to see him off along the road as his funeral procession made its way to the burial site.
Pei Shouji’s soul floated out of his coffin.
So the soul doesn’t immediately leave the body when a person dies. It only separates from the body during the burial process.
Before he could dwell on the matter any further, or marvel at how many people had come to see him off after his death, he noticed the winds and clouds shifting at the edge of the sky.
Black clouds of energy pressed down over the entirety of Tianjiang Prefecture, while countless smaller wisps of black energy darted through the streets.
Having died for the first time, Pei Shouji instinctively stared at the sight of black energy spreading everywhere, feeling a little afraid.
At the same time, he thought to himself:
So this is what the world looks like to a soul after death?
It seems fairly normal, actually. After all, the things people see when they’re alive must be different from what they see after they die.
“Master Pei! Master! Over here!”
As Pei Shouji was pondering this, he suddenly thought he heard someone calling his name from somewhere in the distance. The voice was faint and indistinct, and he couldn’t make out the words clearly.
Floating above his coffin, he looked around in every direction.
“Who’s calling me?!”
“Shh! Keep your voice down!”
A faint flash of white light suddenly appeared beside him, and a man dressed in official robes grabbed him.
In an instant, Pei Shouji was being pulled along through the air, floating lightly behind the man like a kite that had been let loose, covering a considerable distance in no time.
Pei Shouji instinctively looked down at the ground, which was at least four or five meters below him. He wanted to panic so badly that his heart nearly leaped out of his chest—but nothing happened. Only then did he abruptly realize that he was already a ghost. How could his heart possibly beat anymore?
The man gripping his arm had a square face and resolute features. As he hurried through the air with Pei Shouji in tow, he kept glancing anxiously over his shoulder, as though something were chasing them.
“Who are you? Where are we going?”
The man in official robes didn’t slow down. Every step he took through the air seemed to carry him a hundred paces forward.
“Don’t make a sound! I’m the City God of Tianjiang Prefecture. I’ve come to save you!”
Pei Shouji was startled. Looking closely, he realized that the man’s appearance was indeed identical to the City God’s statue in the City God Temple of Tianjiang Prefecture. The only difference was that the man looked a little more lively than the statue.
He had countless questions he wanted to ask. But Pei Shouji had built himself up from having absolutely nothing to becoming a major merchant, so he was certainly no fool. Seeing how anxious the City God was, and hearing him specifically warn him to stay quiet, Pei Shouji naturally kept his mouth shut and did as he was told.
They hurried onward for roughly the time it takes an incense stick to burn, racing through the air above Tianjiang Prefecture. They were nearly at the City God Temple when Pei Shouji suddenly heard a piercing shriek from behind them.
Unable to resist, he turned to look.
A massive cloud of black mist was pursuing them. It seemed large enough to cover half the sky, and within it, countless human heads emerged, their faces contorted in agony. They appeared to be struggling to break free, yet remained firmly stuck to the black mist, unable to escape.
“Damn it! It’s spotted you!”
The City God’s expression grew increasingly anxious. He formed a hand seal and sent a powerful blast of white light hurtling toward the rear. The black mist lost a corner, but continued pursuing them without being affected in the slightest.
As it drew closer, the shrieking grew louder and louder, as though tens of thousands of people were screaming together without pause.
Pei Shouji had no idea what the thing was, but his already ethereal soul grew increasingly faint under the assault of those shrieks, while his body seemed to grow heavier and heavier.
The City God of Tianjiang Prefecture shouted, “Focus your mind! Sink your qi into your dantian! Whatever you do, don’t let it suck you in! If it does, you’ll become that evil ghost’s appetizer!”
As he spoke, he continued forming hand seals, attacking the evil ghost behind them while his gaze darted across the ground below.
“We won’t make it back to the City God Temple in time. We need to find somewhere to hide!”
Pei Shouji looked down as well. He could see the streets of Tianjiang Prefecture, along with the pedestrians and shops lining them. He even spotted the teahouse he often visited. Inside, the owner was sighing to a customer, lamenting how such a good man as Master Pei could have passed away so young.
It was a rather peculiar feeling. He could see them, but they couldn’t see him.
If they hadn’t still been pursued by something, Pei Shouji would have loved to float around Tianjiang Prefecture and thoroughly experience this strange new life as a ghost.
The City God beside him suddenly spotted something, and his eyes lit up.
“Let’s go there! Follow me!”
Pei Shouji had been completely in the dark about what was happening the entire time. But between the City God, who could speak and lead him to safety, and the black mist, which looked like nothing good, he naturally chose the City God.
He instinctively let his body go along with the City God’s pull.
In the next instant, his soul suddenly sank, and his field of vision changed from its previous bird’s-eye view to one in which he could see only the ground directly in front of him.
Beside him lay a crooked little clay doll.
The doll was crudely made, without any facial features. It had only a head and a round, chubby body, and its outer layer was cracked and dry. At a glance, it was obvious that some child in the household had dug up some mud and made it for fun.
While Pei Shouji was still feeling rather dizzy and disoriented, he suddenly heard the clay doll opposite him speak.
“For now, we’ll have to borrow these clay dolls’ bodies to hide. Hopefully, that evil ghost’s cultivation isn’t high enough to detect us.”
Pei Shouji was startled. Only then did he realize that not only was the clay doll opposite him the City God, but he himself also seemed to be inside a clay doll’s body.
He asked in a low voice, “Lord City God, can I speak now?”
“It seems that evil ghost hasn’t caught up with us yet. We can talk for now.”
“What exactly is that black mist? Why is it chasing me? And you’re the City God of an entire prefecture, officially appointed by the imperial court. Why did you have to flee in such a panic when you encountered that thing?”
The City God of Tianjiang Prefecture let out a long sigh.
“Ah! That’s a long story. That black mist is an evil ghost that has devoured countless souls. It wants to eat you. As for why I was fleeing for my life… The world is in chaos! That evil ghost has devoured thousands upon thousands of souls. How could the City God of a single prefecture like me possibly defeat it? Right now, I’m barely able to protect myself!”
Pei Shouji stared at him in disbelief.
“How can that be? The government of the Li Kingdom is stable, peace reigns throughout the land, and taxes aren’t particularly heavy. There are no wars, no bandits. The old are cared for, and the young are raised. How can you say the world is in chaos?”
From inside the clay doll, the City God of Tianjiang Prefecture gave a bitter chuckle.
“The world I’m talking about isn’t the world of the living. It’s the world that you and I are seeing right now.”
Pei Shouji immediately thought of the black mist that had filled the entirety of Tianjiang Prefecture when he first opened his eyes as a soul.
The world of the living was still functioning as normal.
But had the world of the dead already descended into chaos?
The City God continued, “For some unknown reason, the Reincarnation Bureau collapsed, and countless evil ghosts escaped in all directions. The souls of the dead have nowhere to go. In the past, when great benefactors like you, Master Pei, passed away, golden light would flash around your souls. I would naturally come to guide you and escort you to the Reincarnation Bureau. With the good karma you’ve accumulated, you would certainly be reborn into a good family in your next life.”
“But now… Ah, our fortunes have truly turned against us. Benefactors like you, Master Pei, have accumulated good karma, so your souls are more substantial than those of ordinary ghosts. You also possess faith power of your own. In the eyes of those evil ghosts, you’re practically a nourishing tonic!”
The City God sighed again.
“When those evil ghosts see your golden light and realize that you were a good person throughout your life, they’ll stop at nothing to hunt you down and devour your soul.”
Pei Shouji felt utterly bewildered.
Ever since he was a child, all he had ever heard people say was that good people would be reborn into good families after death, while evil people would inevitably face punishment.
But how could it be that now he’d actually died, a good person’s soul had instead become a nourishing tonic?
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