"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
One Paper Figure darted into a corner of the shop, another slipped into a gap in the suspended ceiling, and the other seven darted beneath his clothes and into his trouser legs.
A sense of security welled up within him.
Power that belonged to him alone. More than twenty years after transmigrating and being reborn in this world, he had finally gained such power.
This power was his own. No outsider could strip it away, no external force could bankrupt it, and nothing could shake it. It gave Gu Zhe an even greater sense of security and accomplishment than the Gu Family had at its peak!
This was the greatest romance of all!
Seeing that he still had one Spirit Point left, he willed it into the Paper Effigy Technique.
Spirit Points -1, Basic Paper Effigy Technique (Beginner) → (Proficient)
A flood of memories emerged. Next time, his work would not have to be so crude.
He checked his panel again:
[Name: Gu Zhe] [Class: Mysterious Origami Craftsman] [Rank: Mortal] [Class talent: Ritual Transmutation] [Skills: Basic Paper Effigy Technique (Proficient), Basic Paper Figure Technique (Proficient), Basic Paper Artifact Technique (Beginner), Basic Paper Control Technique (Perfected)] [Spirit Points: 0.38] [Storage: Wooden Tumor Fruit ×8, nether spirit grass ×3, venomous demon vine ×1, octagonal mystic ice grass ×3, ghost tiger leg bone ×1, extreme cold stone ×2, inferior soul-nourishing black stone ×2, nether iron ore ×3, Low-Grade Talisman Coin ×1]
"If some ghosts weren't so reluctant to part with their spirituality, leaving my Apartment and hotel perpetually short of full occupancy, I could upgrade again."
"Nothing strange about that. Some ghosts long for a safe, comfortable place to stay, while others can't bear the cost. They'd rather risk their lives and save as much spirituality as possible to upgrade. Every ghost has its own ambitions!"
"After all, I'm in the world of the living. In the future, I'll need to build a team, research materials science, and gather all sorts of information. Even with supernatural abilities, I'll still need to recruit underlings-hounds at my beck and call-to sniff out traps so no one can deceive me...
"Those vacant rooms... As the Netherworld slowly draws closer, some ghosts will eventually be able to sense their blood descendants. In that case, I could..."
Qianzhou, Cloudflower Mountain, the main hall of Cloudflower Nunnery.
Another icy aura swept past, making the exhausted people inside the hall shudder.
Everyone watched with reverence, knowing that the master and her disciple had returned from the Netherworld once again.
Amid the chanting and ministrations of the many nuns, the incense smoke in the hall seemed to gather around the two women's physical bodies, easing their furrowed brows a little.
Abbess Xuanhui and Yun Qing opened their eyes once more.
There was no concealing the exhaustion in their eyes.
Yet mingled with that exhaustion were relief and a certain astonishment.
"Master, did you find anything this time?"
Abbess Xuanhui's gaze swept over the people inside the hall.
Her eyes passed over someone wearing a nervous expression.
Then she lowered her gaze.
"Amitabha!"
Had she not learned the truth, she would also have assumed that he was worried about whether she could find the person they sought, worried that the truth might never come to light.
Now, however, she knew better. Human hearts could be as sinister as ghosts, unfathomable enough to bring tragedy upon their own families.
Yun Qing was equally composed. There was no shortage of tragedy in this world, and with information so readily available, she had seen plenty.
Although she was a lay disciple of Cloudflower Nunnery, the tragedy had not befallen her own family or friends. It moved her, but did not fill her with any overwhelming grief or anger.
Besides, people now became ghosts after death rather than vanishing completely. Remembering what that old ghost had said, she felt even less sorrowful.
"Master, did you find my father in the Underworld?"
"Master, is my grandfather all right? Is life terribly hard in the Underworld? My grandfather isn't suffering the punishments of the eighteen levels of hell, is he?"
"What nonsense are you spouting, you little brat? Your grandfather always did good and sincerely revered the Buddha. Of course he won't suffer! He'll even have a good reincarnation."
Abbess Xuanhui listened to their words.
She gave a bitter smile.
"We were fortunate this time. By following the connection of his aura, we finally found Lay Buddhist Li. As for the others..."
"Amitabha. What we have seen of the Netherworld Land may be no more than a drop in the ocean. We have yet to encounter any Yama Gods and Buddhas. As for whether he is suffering, Lay Buddhist Li has been relatively fortunate. He found a hollow dead tree in the Netherworld Land and made some companions, taking shelter with other decent ghosts. Thanks to your offerings, he has barely managed to avoid the bone-eroding nether winds for now!"
"Amitabha. Lay Buddhist Li is not presently in danger of being devoured by ghosts or fading out of existence. For the moment, he is relatively safe!"
Everyone exchanged looks.
That was it?
Their father and grandfather was sheltering in a hollow tree? Had he really been reduced to that? Was the Underworld such a miserable place?
And that counted as relatively safe? Being devoured by ghosts, nether winds... None of that sounded good.
Had they not trusted Abbess Xuanhui, they might have suspected she was making everything up.
After a stretch of silence,
the middle-aged man leading the group spoke again.
"Master, did my father say who killed him?"
Xuanhui fell silent.
She recited Amitabha several times.
Only then did she look toward a man in his thirties.
Everyone's gaze followed hers.
"Why are you all looking at me? Master, what are you doing? Are you implying that I killed my father? I was his favorite youngest son! How could I possibly do that?"
"Big Brother, Big Sister, and the rest of you-what are you doing? Why are you staring at me...?"
Abbess Xuanhui lowered her eyes.
"According to Lay Buddhist Li, he died inside his old house, not in those woods."
"Nonsense! Nonsense! There are no ghosts! There's no Underworld! You're just putting on a mystical act! Even the police said my father..."
"Amitabha. Lay Buddhist Li said that he argued with you in the old house. You wanted the keys and hard drive for the cryptocurrency he had purchased, but he refused. During the argument, you strangled him with a rope. Yes, Amitabha—it was the rope once used to hang laundry at your old family home."
"Lay Buddhist Li also asked me to tell you to stop trying to start businesses. The future of real estate in the living world is bleak, and you lack the ability for it. You will only harm yourself and others!"
"Furthermore, Lay Buddhist Li has told me where the hard drive and keys are. He has also made arrangements for his inheritance—no, for his own property!"
Everyone looked at him.
That included the two police officers who had remained skeptical all along.
If this was really true,
there had to be traces, clues, fingerprints, or something else left in the old house.
Besides, if ghosts truly existed and retained their consciousness, the truth would eventually come to light.
"Thud!"
The man had realized this too. At the thought that his father's ghost might be watching him, terror overwhelmed him, and he collapsed limply onto the floor.
"How is this possible? How is this possible? How can ghosts really exist in this world? How can there really be an Underworld?!"
Despair and regret filled his face.
"Boohoo... I didn't mean to! I was just at the end of my rope. I only wanted to scare my father into giving my company some money to save it. I knew he had a huge stash of cryptocurrency hidden away... Boohoo... I didn't want to kill anyone! I didn't want to kill him! Why? Why wouldn't you give it to me...?"
"Hahahaha! I get it now! I get it! You said you loved your youngest son, but you really wanted to leave all that inheritance to your eldest son and your eldest grandson, didn't you? I knew it! I knew it..."
The others stood in silence.
The truth of this murder within their own family had shocked them beyond words.
But when Yun Qing heard his howls,
she cast him a contemptuous glance.
"The old gentleman didn't leave his property to them. He... He said he was keeping it for himself..."
After saying that, Yun Qing herself seemed to look somewhat incredulous.
The Gu Family? Could working in the funeral business really make them that powerful? Hadn't Qian Yao said it was beyond their ability to handle?
What?!
Keeping it for himself?
The dead couldn't come back to life... Ahem, presumably they couldn't!
Since the tragedy had already happened, despite their grief, anger, and shock, they had gradually come to accept the old gentleman's death over the past few days.
The living still had to go on with their lives.
Although Abbess Xuanhui's journey into the Underworld had exposed a truth they could hardly bear, at least she had identified the murderer and obtained clues from the old gentleman's ghost about the hard drive and keys, which ought to be worth a considerable sum.
In a certain sense, it was another misfortune amid their misfortune.
But now they had heard that beautiful woman say the old gentleman had "said" he was not leaving his property to them.
Everyone shifted their gaze away from the murderer they had been condemning.
What, if it wasn't going to them, was it going to her? Had these women gotten greedy?
And she claimed the old gentleman said he was keeping it for himself?
Did the Underworld have banks from Dragon Country too?
Did the Underworld also use currency from the living world?
Someone could not help frowning and asking a question.
"He's keeping it for himself? Does the Underworld use the same currency as the living world?"
"Heh, you're not trying to pocket the hard drive and keys yourselves, are you? It's not as if we heard my grandfather say any of this in person."
"Don't worry. We'll burn enough spirit money for the old gentleman so he won't have to squeeze into a hollow tree down there!"
"Wait, that's not right. We've already burned plenty of spirit money. Even if it wasn't trillions, it must have been hundreds of millions."
"Everyone, quiet! Let's hear what the abbess has to say! Could the Underworld really be the same as the living world? Is that why Father... Miss Yun wouldn't make things up. I trust them. Otherwise, the abbess wouldn't have needed to mention the clues to the keys and hard drive in front of everyone."