“Hehehehe... Living people wish to walk the Yin Yang Road, leave behind toll money!”
“Money makes the ghost turn the millstone; money lets you walk the road to the Yellow Springs! Hehehe, gigigigi...”
“The Yellow Springs of Yin and Yang open to the west; if you have a life but no money, stay away! Hehehehe...”
Those soft, grating voices drifted near and far, sharp and piercing, as if spoken through pinched throats.
Nan Zhi focused her gaze and saw that the originally bare wall was now pockmarked and uneven, as if kneaded from yellow mud, with countless hideous ghost faces emerging from its surface.
Men and women, young and old, joyful and angry, sorrowful and delighted, driven by greed, hatred, ignorance, and resentment—it was like a cross-section of all mortal beings, condensed onto this single earthen wall.
“The Ghost Festival is near. Are the doors to Ghost Buddha Temple open yet? Bring a few sharp little ghosts to guide us down the Yin Yang Road.”
Xu Zi, adept and experienced, pulled out a handful of paper money and burned it at the base of the wall. Though there was no wind, an eerie draft of ghostly energy materialized out of nowhere, swirling the paper ashes high into the air.
“If you have money, anything can be discussed! Anything can be discussed!”
The wall began to shift again as hundreds of giggling ghost faces receded into the clay. Suddenly, several silhouettes bulged out from the shadows on the ground, struggling as they tumbled out. They turned out to be over a dozen eerily lifelike paper figures.
The paper figures were exquisitely crafted. There were both men and women; the men wore red coats, while the women wore green robes. On their deathly white cheeks were pasted two round blobs of red paper.
Their bright red lips were tightly shut, with just two dots of red applied to the upper and lower lips.
What should have been a comical makeup look instead radiated an indefinable, chilling horror when set upon the faces of these paper figures.
“Are these... ghosts attached to paper figures?”
Nan Zhi narrowed her eyes, discerning that each paper figure carried one or two little ghosts attached to it. Every single one of them had a sharp-featured, monkey-like face—gaunt, thin, and shrewd.
“Hehehe, new faces! One look at this lady’s features and you can tell she’s destined for great wealth and immense good fortune!”
One of the paper figures shuffled closer upon hearing her question, swinging its bamboo-frame arms as it replied in a squeaky voice, “We’re all wandering spirits in the Underworld. We have no descendants to offer us sacrifices, nor temples or shrines to shelter us. During holidays like Qingming and the Ghost Festival, we can’t compare to family ghosts who enjoy incense and candles.
“That’s why every year during Qingming and the Ghost Festival, we wait along the Yin Yang Road to accommodate passersby, earning a little incense and paper money for ourselves.”
As it spoke, the paper figure’s face remained completely expressionless. Were it not for its eyes blinking from time to time, one would have taken it for an inanimate object.
Wandering spirits from the Underworld?
Nan Zhi was slightly taken aback, but she quickly understood.
The living had mortal lifespans; ghosts had Yin life.
When a living person died, their soul returned to the Underworld to be judged by the Underworld Judge and Yama. Apart from those who had to serve sentences in hell, ordinary spirits had to wait until their Yin life expired before they could be reincarnated.
And ghosts in the Underworld also needed food, drink, and necessities. Thus, the Netherworld wasn't much different from the mortal realm; both required money to live.
After death, aside from the protection of Yin merit accumulated during their lifetimes, spirits depended on the paper money burned by their living relatives to get by.
“Then if someone burns a lot of paper money for themselves while still alive, wouldn't they become a wealthy tycoon once their soul returns to the Underworld?”
Nan Zhi knew very little about the affairs of the Underworld, so she asked a few more questions. The paper figure shook its head repeatedly, saying with disdain:
“You don't know the half of it! There’s a secret to it all! If someone committed many evils and acted dishonestly in life, even if their descendants burned mountain-loads of paper money and ingots, they wouldn't be able to pick up the money, let alone spend it.
“On the other hand, if a family accumulated virtue and performed good deeds in life, a single piece of paper money burned for them would be worth a hundred or a thousand times more than that of an ordinary household!”
“I used to hear people say that wandering spirits in the Underworld are the most pitiable,” Xu Zi leaned in, letting out a heavy sigh. “They can’t eat their fill or stay warm, having no offerings, and they get bullied by Greater Ghosts on top of that.
“That’s why they often carry sedan chairs for people along the Yin Yang Road, serving under others' command. If they’re summoned to do terrible, villainous things, their end is truly tragic!
“This Ghost Market is located in a place that cannot be found in the mortal realm. If you want to go there, the Yin Yang Road is the only path.
“However, the Yin Yang Road is crawling with ghosts and spirits. One careless slip and your eyes will be clouded by ghosts, leaving you trapped there forever. That’s why you need paper figures to guide the way so you don't lose your direction.”
Nan Zhi listened attentively, but suddenly remembered the hundreds of paper ingots stored away in her inventory.
—Though she had never found a use for them, how could a gamer with hoarding habits ever casually throw away system items?
【Paper Ingot ×235: Folded from gold paper infused with magic.】
“I wonder if this money works in the Ghost Market?”
Nan Zhi pulled out a paper ingot and waved it in front of the paper figures. To her surprise, all dozen paper figures turned their heads a full one hundred and eighty degrees in unison, their pitch-black eye sockets glowing like starved wolves.
The paper figures began screaming hysterically. Gusts of ghostly wind seemed to whip up through the alley as over a hundred souls chatter-chattered in chaotic frenzy:
“What a huge ingot! It works, it works! A gold ingot so bright—forget the Ghost Market, it’d work in the Yama Palace itself!”
“Good heavens! A glittering golden ingot!”
“This lady is lavish beyond measure! A VIP, she’s a true VIP!”
“A VIP has arrived! A VIP has arrived! Hehehehe!”
“Lady, lady! Choose me! Choose me! I’m strong! I can carry the sedan chair nice and steady!”
One paper figure ripped off its companion's head and straddled the headless paper body, shrieking, “Choose me! Choose me! I run fast, and I can even take off my head to tell jokes for Lady!”
The paper figure whose head had been ripped off refused to be outdone. It snatched its head off the ground, reattached it, turned the back of its head toward the rival, and immediately unleashed a barrage of curses:
“Bullshit! You died by drowning! You’re dripping wet and leave puddles every three steps you take—how could you carry a noble guest’s sedan chair?!”
“Still better than you, swallowing chicken bones whole and choking to death!”
The drowned ghost delivered a sharp slap with a clack, but managed to snap its own arm in the process. It hung limply in front of its chest, looking utterly ridiculous:
“I’ve hated the sight of you for a long time! How dare you try to steal my business today? See if I don’t rip off that troublemaking mouth of yours and paste it on your ass to eat shit!”
The group of paper figures began kicking and punching one another. For a moment, paper scraps and bamboo frames flew everywhere, testifying to the irresistible allure of the paper ingot.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!”
Nan Zhi’s head throbbed from the noise. Seeing even more spirits on the wall growing restless and eager to join the brawl, she immediately pointed at several paper figures and called out loudly:
“All of you can stay to carry our sedan. However, along the way, make as much noise as possible! Play music, strike gongs and drums, and make sure it’s grand and lively!
“When we reach the Ghost Market, I want everyone to know that two wealthy, gullible suckers have arrived at the market today. Do you understand?”
As she spoke, she traded a glance with Xu Zi, whose face lit up with sudden realization.
—Since they wanted others to view them as “fat sheep,” they naturally had to put on a grand performance.
The paper figures were ecstatic beyond words. The leader of the paper figures slapped its chest repeatedly, guaranteeing:
“Consider it done! There are opera performers among us! We'll play music the whole way, guaranteeing nobody else's grand entrance can overshadow Lady’s!”
Before it could even finish speaking, several paper figures burrowed into the ground. When they emerged once more, they were already carrying a massive sedan chair on their shoulders.
Rate on N.U.
