In the Ninefold Nether, there were ghosts and humans.
From the moment Xu Yuan had truly begun dealing with the Xu Residence, he had used a human body.
That made his earlier affairs on the First and Second Layers of the Nine Nether Prefecture easy to explain.
"A young master who ran away from home disguised himself as a Ghost Entity to train. Only when his Official Position advancement stalled did he finally see the light: in the Ninefold Nether, he had to rely on his Lineage after all." Everyone loved a story about a prodigal son coming home.
The Aristocratic Clans would welcome such a story too, because it meant he had "seen the light" and "returned to the proper path."
Now,
Zuo Lingjing was disguised as him, while he had taken the form of the real Xu Jingchen. That would explain everything!
Perfect!
"Let's go—hiss—"
Xu Yuan suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.
"My lord, what's wrong?" Zuo Lingjing asked in alarm.
"Nothing... Just a little dizzy. Give me a moment."
As Xu Yuan spoke, he silently called, "Shop." Layers of illusory light and shadow appeared around him, gathering into the shape of a Divine Temple.
At its center stood the altar bearing Xu Yuan's divine statue.
From atop the altar, he looked down. A haze of crimson light lingered below, swirling around the altar and shifting without cease. "What's going on...?"
Xu Yuan murmured.
The Paper Strip suddenly sprang out and spoke. "That's your Merit Fruit."
"Merit Fruit?" Xu Yuan asked.
"As a Divinity, you personally subdued a powerful and Evil Imago: the Heir-Offering Family Shrine."
"In an age long past, by the standards of the Three Realms at the time, that Imago would have been recognized as a Demon."
"In that distant antiquity, before the Three