Treating the Guests and the Path of Cultivation

The consecrated arcade machine safely passed Harry Potter and Ron Weasley's violent testing. The results showed that it worked well in the high-magic environment around Hogwarts and could fully withstand all manner of abuse from young wizards.

Once Harry and Ron got carried away, they twisted the joystick and hammered the buttons with unprecedented force. Yet the consecrated magical arcade machine still stood up to the test. The facts proved that as long as no one waved a wand and cast the Severing Charm on it, these arcade machines could withstand all kinds of physical mistreatment.

"To thank you two for your help, dinner's on me tonight," Zhang San said generously.

Ron asked in confusion, "Where are you taking us to eat? Hogwarts students can only eat at school."

"Right here, of course." Zhang San pointed toward the doorway. "Headmaster Dumbledore was worried I wouldn't be used to British food, so he specially approved my right to order dishes. The house-elves have already started studying Chinese cooking. I can bring you two some simple dishes to try first."

What child did not love delicious food? Harry and Ron gladly accepted Zhang San's dinner invitation. They played games while waiting for the house-elves to bring the food, their hearts full of anticipation for Chinese cuisine.

They had long heard that China was a land of fine food. Having eaten British cooking for over a decade, the boys had long wanted a change of pace and an improvement in their meals.

If Zhang San wanted to order food, he had to make a trip to the kitchens himself. Fortunately, he was now a ghost and could ignore thick walls and doors, passing straight through them. That saved him a great deal of travel time.

The Hogwarts kitchens were at the end of a corridor near the Hufflepuff common room. A painting full of fruit hung on the wall there. To enter, one only needed to lightly tickle the pear in the painting. The pear would giggle, then turn into a green door handle.

If you tickled the pear too hard and hurt it, it might curse at you in magical slang, or even spit pear juice in your face—more or less the equivalent of spitting on you.

Passing through the wall into the kitchen, Zhang San found the foreman of Hogwarts' house-elves—Pudding.

"Tonight, I want hot pot. One kilogram each of sliced beef and sliced lamb. Pick out fresh greens. Chop fresh shrimp into a paste and make shrimp balls. For the broth, use mushrooms as the base. For dipping sauces, I need sesame paste, sesame oil with minced garlic, satay sauce, seafood soy sauce, aromatic vinegar, cilantro, chopped scallions, small chili peppers..." Zhang San rattled off dishes without pause while Pudding hurriedly took notes beside him.

Professional house-elves could meet all of their masters' demands, and Hogwarts' elves were willing to wholeheartedly help the students of Hogwarts.

Moreover, Zhang San was someone Headmaster Dumbledore had personally named for special care. The house-elves immediately got to work preparing food for him.

Fortunately, Hogwarts had everything Zhang San needed. Even Eastern sauces and seasonings were stocked in ample quantities. In any case, house-elves possessed superb magical preservation techniques, so ingredients stored in the kitchens had no risk of expiring or spoiling.

The oldest ingredient in the kitchens seemed to be the giant magical pumpkins Hagrid had planted fifty years ago. Back then, he had only just become Hogwarts' Keeper of Keys and Grounds, and in a burst of enthusiasm, he had planted far too many pumpkins.

The entire school had spent over fifty years trying and failing to finish those pumpkins from 1942—the yield of those things was far higher than that of an '82 Lafite.

Once the elves had prepared the food, they would use Apparition magic to bring the hot pot to Zhang San's little temple. Over the past few days, those hardworking little fellows had also been cleaning the temple.

China also had Daoist servant spirits similar to house-elves. Daoists called them Yellow Turban Strongmen. Driven by true qi, they could be summoned whenever needed and were exceedingly convenient.

The ghost cultivator and incense-and-faith divinity systems also had similar spells, but Zhang San's cultivation was still too shallow. He could not summon a single thing.

He had only just escaped the execution threshold of the soul-reaping envoys. His combat ability was not even as good as Peeves in Hogwarts Castle. Peeves was no ordinary ghost—he was a fierce fellow who could carry a cannon and trade fire with the caretaker.

(For details, see Hogwarts—A History of the School)

Zhang San was now a completely fresh level-one account. The cultivation he had accumulated in life had all turned into an illusion the moment he died. How could the word "miserable" possibly cover it?

Still, compared with those whose deaths meant the extinguishing of all hope, Zhang San was fortunate to be able to start over. Though everything had to begin anew, a wretched life was better than a good death.

The first realm of ghost cultivation was the Yin Gathering Realm, corresponding to a cultivator's Qi Refinement stage. At this stage, a ghost cultivator's soul body became solidified and no longer feared ordinary flames. They could cast low-level spells such as the Yin Wind Art, Ghostly Blindness, Ghost Wall, and Possession.

The second realm was the Night Roaming Realm, corresponding to a cultivator's Foundation Establishment stage. Ghost cultivators at this level could manipulate small physical objects, cultivate mid-level spells such as Netherworld Ghost Claws and Object Manipulation, and independently refine underworld artifacts.

The third realm was the Rakshasa Realm, corresponding to a cultivator's Golden Core stage. At this point, a ghost cultivator's soul body developed yin apertures that could store vast amounts of yin energy to resist the laws of the living world. Their appearance and body could also return to how they had looked in life. After opening their yin apertures, rakshasa ghosts could cultivate clones, form yin armor, and transform their surroundings into a small ghost domain.

Beyond the Rakshasa Realm lay the legendary Ghost King Realm. Rakshasa ghosts had to endure the calamities of the Nine Nether Gale, which scraped bone and scattered souls, and the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, which burned both soul and heart, before they could evolve into Ghost Kings.

The Ghost King Realm had already surpassed the limits of mortal cultivators. It was also the new realm that the great figures of the Daoist sect hoped Zhang San would bravely explore. The reason they had him cultivate both ghost cultivation and the incense-and-faith path to godhood was so that the power of incense and faith could help Zhang San overcome the trials of the Nine Nether Gale and the Red Lotus Karmic Fire.

The traditional path of ghost cultivation inevitably became tainted with karmic burden. But with incense and faith aiding his cultivation, Zhang San had a chance to pass the Ghost King Tribulation with an immaculate soul and become the first Ghost King of the current era to break through the world's limits.

When ghost cultivation reached its pinnacle, extreme yin could transform into yang, producing a thread of pure yang qi within the soul body. Then the Ninefold Yin-Yang Lightning Tribulation would descend from the heavens. The first five tribulations were yin lightning, while the final four transformed into yang lightning. Ghost cultivators had to withstand them with their soul bodies, making the risk extraordinarily high. Calling it nine deaths and one life was already optimistic.

After successfully passing the tribulation, a Ghost King could enter an entirely new realm—the Ghost Immortal. The corresponding realm for cultivators was the Earth Immortal. Even in an era when cultivation thrived, anyone at this realm would be respectfully addressed as a great master. Even immortals descending from heaven would have to treat them with courtesy.

The great figures of the Daoist sect did not expect Zhang San to become a Ghost Immortal. They would thank heaven and earth if he could simply pass the Ghost King Tribulation and become a Ghost King.

The incense-and-faith path to godhood, however, had no hierarchy of realms to speak of. That was because it was not a path of cultivation, but a career advancement system. The rise and fall of one's divine office had nothing to do with one's strength or realm. Promotions from above—the Heavenly Court—valued performance more than power.

What determined whether one's performance was good or bad? Naturally, incense and merit. If you did well as a god, your incense offerings would naturally flourish; if you were incompetent at your job, your incense offerings would certainly decline.

For Zhang San, minoring in the incense-and-faith path to godhood brought only benefits and no drawbacks. The ultimate pursuit of cultivation was immortality, but even after becoming immortal, one still had to get a job.

Starting work early meant accumulating more work experience. If a good opportunity came along, he might even receive an early promotion. Anyone could see what a wonderful thing that was.

If Zhang San had not died young at Hogwarts and had it counted as a workplace injury, this good fortune might not have fallen to him at all.