Chapter 216: Midnight Banquet
Xiao Liu’s full name was Liu Ruoshu, and she was a local ghost.
When she heard that Lord Ghost King wanted her to go to the mortal world and bring back some food for the living to entertain their distinguished guests, she was even more shocked than the dozen or so guests themselves.
‘Me?’
‘You mean me?’
‘I only started this job yesterday!’
Fortunately, a colleague nearby who had been on the job longer took pity on her and explained why Lord Qian had specifically picked her for the task.
“Today is the seventh day since your death. You can use the Soul-Returning Passage to go back to the mortal world. It’s much faster than having us submit reports through the various levels of the bureaucracy. That’s why Lord Qian chose you. And since you’ll be going up there on official business, you’re allowed to stay a little longer than other ghosts. You can spend more time visiting your parents and other family members.”
Naturally, the person explaining all this to Liu Ruoshu was a resident of Blue Sea.
Although ninety percent of the yin deities and ghost officials in the Luofeng Youdu were now Blue Sea residents, they still took their work seriously. When it came to regulations that were intended to become permanent in the future, practically no one would break them.
This particular Blue Sea resident was exceptionally powerful, which had earned him the position of Squad Leader of the Ghost Soldiers Guarding the Ghost Gate.
He took out a piece of gold and handed it to Liu Ruoshu.
The Blue Sea residents in this world were all serving as gods, sustained by offerings from their believers. They might still be a little short on construction materials, but when it came to gold and silver, at least the public institutions had no shortage.
“Here, take this. Use it to buy some good food. Make sure you get plenty.”
Liu Ruoshu accepted the gold. It felt reassuringly heavy in her hand, and it contained not the slightest trace of yin energy.
Only then did the reality finally sink in, filling her with excitement.
‘I’m going back to the mortal world! I’m going home to see my parents!’
But after the initial excitement, she quickly realized there was a problem.
“But I’m a ghost. Living people can’t see me. How am I supposed to buy food?”
The squad leader waved his hand, indicating that it was no big deal.
“It’s nighttime in the mortal world right now. Just visit the dreams of a good cook and ask them to prepare something for you. Don’t worry. We’re yin deities, after all. Anyone who falls asleep and receives a dream from us will never forget it.”
The squad leader chuckled, making a pointed suggestion.
“Lord Qian only wants food for the living. All you have to do is bring some back. Where you get it from, though, is entirely up to you.”
Liu Ruoshu naturally understood the hint that she was free to arrange her other time as she pleased. Deeply grateful, she immediately bowed to the squad leader.
“Thank you, Captain. I will make sure to carry out my duties well.”
The squad leader escorted Liu Ruoshu to the Soul-Returning Passage. This place was also shrouded in thick fog, with only a narrow path stretching out ahead.
“Keep your official token safe. If any evil ghosts cause trouble, inject a trace of yin energy into it, and the Yin Marshal will naturally come to your aid.”
He gave her one final reminder. “Remember, you must return before dawn.”
Nervous yet excited, Liu Ruoshu immediately tensed up.
“What if I can’t make it back before dawn? Will my soul be scattered?”
“No, of course not. You’re a ghost official. At most, you’ll feel a little uncomfortable being active during the day. The sunlight won’t kill you.”
The squad leader explained, “I told you to return before dawn because living people need to eat every few hours. If you take too long to bring back the food for the living, our guests will end up going hungry.”
Liu Ruoshu: “…”
But it was almost midnight already. Wasn’t there still quite a long time before dawn?
Still, her superior was willing to let her spend extra time in the mortal world. Having died only recently, Liu Ruoshu had yet to develop any real sense of belonging to the underworld. Naturally, she was delighted to accept the arrangement.
In the end, clutching the gold, she drifted into the exceedingly narrow Soul-Returning Passage.
——
Liu Ruoshu had originally been a native of Mixian County, Guanglin Prefecture.
Her father was a juren, a scholar who had passed the provincial imperial examination, while her mother was the daughter of a wealthy merchant. The family was well-off, and her parents had not had their only daughter until middle age. As a result, she had been their cherished darling from childhood, raised with the utmost care and affection.
From an early age, Liu Ruoshu had been taught poetry, classical texts, and composition by her father, while her mother had instructed her in needlework and bookkeeping. She had spent sixteen years growing up in the inner quarters of the household, sheltered from the outside world and its storms.
That was until she caught a cold and fell ill.
At first, Liu Ruoshu had merely felt listless and reluctant to move around. Gradually, however, her condition grew more and more severe. Her parents summoned every physician in the county to treat her, and eventually even sought medical help in the prefectural city.
But her illness progressed with terrifying speed. Before the renowned physician from the prefectural city could even arrive, Liu Ruoshu had already died in her bedchamber.
After losing their only daughter, Liu Ruoshu’s father and mother were devastated. Day after day, they remained consumed by grief.
Mother Liu refused to let anyone tidy up her daughter’s bedchamber. The books, embroidery stand, and the beloved seven-stringed zither that her daughter had cherished most were all left exactly as they had been. Her clothes and jewelry, too, were taken out and carefully cleaned and arranged every day.
Father Liu, who had once been a cheerful, talkative man, had become silent and withdrawn. Seeing the masters of the household in such a state, the servants no longer dared to speak or laugh loudly. The enormous estate had fallen into an oppressive silence, with not a trace of life to be found anywhere.
That day was no different. The residence was quiet throughout the day, and at night, only the chirping of insects could be heard. The white mourning cloth hung at the entrance, fluttering gently in the night breeze.
In the images of the door gods hanging on either side of the Liu residence’s main gate, the two divine generals suddenly turned their heads in the darkness.
They could not speak, but their round, bulging eyes widened as they fixed a stern, intimidating gaze on the entrance.
Once they recognized who had arrived, the two divine generals slowly closed their eyes and turned their faces away.
The gatekeeper was dozing in the side room. With the two divine generals on the gate now showing only their profiles, the main gate of the Liu residence began to open slowly of its own accord, though there was no wind…
Father Liu was sitting in the ancestral hall, carefully wiping his daughter’s memorial tablet. Beside him, Mother Liu was bowing her head as she lit incense, tears streaming down her face.
“Shu’er, Mother asked around and learned that sandalwood and cypress incense are the best. This is some fine sandalwood. Its fragrance is gentle and elegant. You should like it. Mother will light it for you now…”
“And these are all the pastries you used to love. Before, I was afraid you’d eat too many and damage your teeth, but now there’s no need to worry about that anymore. Eat as much as you like, all right? When you finish these, Mother will buy you more.”
Just as she finished arranging the pastries, Mother Liu suddenly raised her head slightly and listened intently.
“Husband, do you hear the sound of a zither?”
Father Liu had been wiping the same memorial tablet over and over, unable to bring himself to look away. Only when he heard her words did he finally set down the cloth and listen carefully.
“It seems… I do.”
A soft, hazy melody drifted in from outside, but the notes came intermittently, making it difficult to hear clearly.
Mother Liu rose to her feet and pushed open the door of the ancestral hall. Outside, thick fog blanketed everything, but the moment she stepped out, the zither music became distinctly clearer.
She immediately grew angry.
“Who touched Shu’er’s zither? Didn’t I say that no one was allowed to touch it?!”
In her anger, she paid no attention to where she was going and headed straight outside, all the while muttering to herself.
“Shu’er loves her zither more than anything. If you go messing with it, she’ll be upset when she finds out!”
“Madam! Madam! It’s so cold outside. At least put on a coat!”
Father Liu grabbed a cloak and hurried after her.
The night was deep, and the moonlight hazy. The two walked one behind the other through the thick fog. For some reason, after taking only a few steps, they found themselves somewhere that should have been a small bridge—but in the blink of an eye, they had arrived in their daughter’s courtyard.
The stone table in the courtyard had somehow been replaced by a zither table. A young woman sat before it, her eyes lowered as she gently rested her fingers on the strings.
“Shu’er…”
Tears immediately streamed down Father Liu and mother’s faces. They hurried forward and embraced their daughter, who had risen to her feet just as quickly.
Liu Ruoshu was weeping uncontrollably, too. Seeing the streaks of white in her parents’ hair, her heart ached. Unable to hold back any longer, she buried herself in their arms like a little girl once more.
“Father, Mother, your daughter has been unfilial. I’ve caused you so much grief…”
With tears in her eyes, Mother Liu caressed her daughter’s cheeks, studying her complexion carefully.
“You’ve grown thin, so thin! Have you been suffering out there?”
At those words, Liu Ruoshu felt an even sharper sting in her nose, and her tears threatened to spill over again.
Suffering? That was putting it mildly.
She had been dead for exactly seven days, yet it was only yesterday that the Impermanence messengers had brought her back to Youdu.
During the first six days, an evil ghost had tried to devour her. Afraid of bringing trouble to her family, Liu Ruoshu had been forced to flee home and hide elsewhere.
After that, she endured the most difficult days of her entire life.
Only after becoming a ghost did Liu Ruoshu discover that the door gods depicted on door panels really could ward off ghosts. The reason she had not been harmed when she left her own home was simply that the door gods belonged to the Liu family and recognized her as a member of the household.
The door gods at other people’s homes, however, made no such exceptions. On several occasions, she had nearly been stabbed by them just for passing by.
Black dogs could really see her, too, and one had chased her relentlessly, trying to bite her. Liu Ruoshu had been pursued through three villages before finally managing to shake it off.
The City God was real as well. She had originally intended to ask him for help, but when she arrived at his temple, she discovered that he was fighting demons. The area in front of the temple was in utter chaos. When one of the ghost officials spotted her, he told her to run immediately, lest she be killed in passing by the demon.
Liu Ruoshu had been forced to hide and flee from place to place. She could clearly feel herself growing weaker and weaker. Not only did she have to escape the evil ghost hunting her, but every day, before sunrise, she also had to find a suitable dark building in which to hide from the sunlight. There had not been a single moment when she could stop and rest.
Eventually, she was rescued by the Impermanence messengers and brought back to Youdu.
Liu Ruoshu wiped away her tears, but she did not tell her parents about any of the hardships she had endured. Instead, she forced a smile.
“What hardships could I possibly have suffered? I was fortunate enough to have such loving parents. In the past, you did so many good deeds in my name, and naturally, I have reaped the rewards of that accumulated virtue.”
“After I died, because I had accumulated good karma and was educated and literate, I was recruited as a civil clerk by the Luofeng Youdu Office, which is specifically responsible for the affairs of the underworld. I’ve become a yin deity now.”
Father Liu and Mother Liu were thoroughly confused by her explanation. Still, they understood that the place people went after death was the underworld, and that their daughter had become a deity there. They were immediately overjoyed.
“Really? You’ve become a deity?”
Liu Ruoshu nodded.
“That’s right. Father, Mother, you don’t need to worry. I’m doing very well down there. Although I’m only a minor yin deity, I receive incense offerings and a salary every day, so I have enough to eat and warm clothes to wear. If I perform well in the future, I may even be promoted. My colleagues are kind, and my superiors look after me quite well.”
She took her parents by the hands and led them to sit on the stone stools that had somehow reappeared. Her eyes lingered on their faces, unable to get enough of looking at them, and her parents were no different.
Once all three were seated, Liu Ruoshu gently patted her parents’ hands to reassure them before speaking again.
“Your daughter’s return this time coincides with both the seventh-day soul-returning ritual and an assignment from my superior to entertain some living cultivators. My superior ordered me to go to the mortal world and bring back some food, and that’s how I was able to come home and reunite with you.”
“I’ve always eaten the meals prepared at home. How would I know which restaurants serve the best food? I’ll have to ask you both to help me with this.”
Mother Liu immediately patted her daughter’s hand in return, gazing at her with so much affection that she could hardly bear to look away.
“Don’t worry, Shu’er. Whatever you want, your father and I will get it for you. Husband, hurry and think of somewhere that serves the very best food!”
“Food… Tianfeng Restaurant’s dishes are the finest in our county.”
Before his daughter’s death, Father Liu had frequently attended banquets and social gatherings, so he immediately knew where to go.
“I’ll have someone invite Manager Wu of Tianfeng Restaurant right away… Steward Qian! Steward Qian!”
But Liu Ruoshu stopped her father from calling for the servants.
“We’re in a dream right now, Father. You won’t be able to summon Steward Qian.”
“How about this? I can stay at home until dawn, but I mustn’t delay my official duties. You and Mother should wake up first and give orders for the food to be prepared. Then, return to your rooms and fall asleep again. That way, our family can continue talking in the dream.”
As she spoke, the thick fog in the dream grew denser and denser. Although she was sitting right in front of her parents, her figure seemed to be growing more and more distant.
Father Liu suddenly jolted, abruptly realizing that this was only a dream—and that the dream was now coming to an end.
He hurriedly grabbed his daughter’s hand.
“Don’t go, Shu’er! Don’t go…”
Mother Liu was crying, too.
“My precious daughter! It took so much for me to dream of you just once! Stay a little longer and talk to us some more! Mother misses you so much!”
Liu Ruoshu’s face was also streaked with tears. But with official duties to attend to, all she could do was earnestly remind them of what needed to be done.
“Father, Mother, my superior gave me a piece of gold. Use it to hire Chef Wu to prepare the food.”
Her figure grew more and more distant.
“Remember, after inviting Chef Wu, go back to your rooms and fall asleep while he’s cooking. Then you can come and see me in your dreams again. There’s so much I want to tell you both, so please, you must remember…”
…
The Main Residence of the Liu Household—
“Shu’er!!!”
Father Liu jolted awake from his dream. Beside him, Mother Liu opened her eyes as well, only to discover that she had cried so much in her sleep that her eyes were swollen.
Her vision was blurry for a moment. Once she could see clearly, she realized that she was nowhere near her daughter’s courtyard. She was still lying in bed in the main residence.
Mother Liu sat up, only to see that Father Liu had also risen. He choked back sobs as he spoke.
“Madam, I dreamed of our Shu’er.”
Mother Liu began to sob, too.
“I dreamed of her as well. Shu’er was still playing the zither in the courtyard, wearing that moon-white dress she loved most when she was alive.”
Father Liu froze.
“Wait! You dreamed of Shu’er playing the zither in the courtyard, too? My dream was exactly the same!”
“I also dreamed that Shu’er told us she had become a yin deity in the underworld and had returned on official business. She needed a whole table of food suitable for the living to eat.”
Mother Liu immediately stopped wiping her tears. Her heart pounded like a drum as she hurriedly spoke.
“My dream was exactly the same, too! And you said you were going to invite Chef Wu from Tianfeng Restaurant!”
“That’s right! That’s right, right, right!!!”
Overcome with excitement, Father Liu pinched himself hard.
“It hurts! Madam, it hurts! We weren’t dreaming—that wasn’t just a dream! It was real! Shu’er sent us a dream! Shu’er really came back!!!”
Mother Liu began frantically feeling around on the bed.
“Shu’er also said… she said she gave us a piece of gold and told us to use it to buy the food. If the gold is here, then it really wasn’t a dream. Shu’er really came ba—”
Her voice suddenly stopped.
Father Liu hurriedly turned to look at her, only to see Mother Liu slowly pulling a piece of gold, roughly the size of a baby’s fist, from beneath her pillow.
——
Luofeng Youdu Office—
The thirteen disciples of Fenglu Mountain had been invited to take their seats at a banquet.
Sitting stiffly in their respective places, they stared at the food arranged before the assembled ghosts and gods. There was nothing but incense and ritual offerings.
This was just too bizarre.
They had been learning how to kill and fight ghosts since childhood, and yet here they were, sitting at a banquet and eating alongside a group of ghosts and gods.
Ming Moyu cleared her throat and glanced toward the outside, where the thick fog made it impossible to see the sky clearly.
“Judging by the time, isn’t it almost midnight?”
Qian Heng, seated at the head of the table, let out a hearty laugh.
“We’re almost there, yes. However, the ghost official I sent to the mortal world to buy food for you distinguished guests hasn’t returned yet, so I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you all to wait a little longer.”
Ming Moyu hesitated. “But… didn’t you say the gates for living people to enter and leave can only be opened at midnight?”
Qian Heng immediately assured her that this was no problem at all.
“No worries, no worries! We can just wait until the next midnight. Rest assured, distinguished guests, you have your identification plaques, so Youdu’s yin energy won’t affect you. You can even sleep here in Youdu and leave after you’ve had a good rest!”
“I can even give up my divine altar for you to sleep on.”
The cultivators of Fenglu Mountain, who had absolutely no desire to sleep on a divine altar: “…”
Qian Heng waved a hand, being exceptionally considerate.
“Your food hasn’t arrived yet, so we won’t start eating either. We’ll begin the banquet once your food for the living gets here. Why don’t we keep chatting while we wait? I’ve just finished telling you about Youdu, so now it’s your turn to share.”
“Fenglu Mountain has a thousand-year-old lineage. I’ve heard that every generation of your founding masters was a peerless prodigy in their time. Ever since I heard about them, I’ve been filled with admiration. Would you be so kind as to tell me some stories about their deeds?”
——
At the Foot of Fenglu Mountain—
Lu Luo, the third-generation master of Fenglu Mountain, had relied on his profound cultivation to become a ghost deity after death, one who was not bound by the constraints of merit and faith.
There were not many cultivators like him who had successfully cultivated themselves into ghost deities, but a few did exist.
Unlike his fellow ghost deities, who traveled far and wide in hopes of extending their yin lifespans by strengthening their cultivation, Lu Luo spent almost all his time within Fenglu City.
The main reason was that the first and second-generation masters had already reached the ends of their yin lifespans and could no longer protect their sect. This crucial responsibility had therefore fallen to the third-generation master, Lu Luo.
When his own yin lifespan was nearing its end, the yin deity of the fifth-generation master would be summoned back.
As for why they did not summon the fourth-generation master, it was because he had chosen to accept the worship of the common people and become a deity enshrined in a statue. Unfortunately, less than a hundred and fifty years later, the people forgot about him, and his soul vanished from the world.
Lu Luo had been meditating as usual, cultivating his yin power in the hope of extending his already meager yin lifespan by another year or two, when an unexpected pair of visitors suddenly showed up.
The third-generation master of Fenglu Mountain, now a yin deity, stared at the two ghostly figures standing before him, one dressed entirely in white and the other entirely in black. For a moment, he wondered if he had misheard them.
“What do you mean… cultivators from Fenglu Mountain trespassed through the Ghost Gate, and you can’t verify their identities? So you want me, their founding ancestor, to go and collect them?”
At that very moment.
——
Mixian County, Guanglin Prefecture—
After going through the entire ordeal of being awakened from a sound sleep by someone knocking on his door, cursing them out in irritation, and then being persuaded by the promise of money, Chef Wu now found himself bouncing around in a carriage hurtling along the road.
He tried to catch a little more sleep inside the carriage, but the constant jolting made it impossible.
In the end, the only sound in the carriage as it rattled through the dead of night was a timid, resentful mutter, whispered for fear that someone might overhear him—a complaint from a man who had learned to follow the money.
“What a strange world this has become. In the middle of the night, no less… someone wants a whole banquet!”
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