"Sir, this is..."
"I’m lost, almost couldn’t make it back, the dude didn’t charge because he’s a stand-up guy, can’t I just give him so money to show my appreciation? Mind your own business!"
Shen Zijun hung up the phone, only to find he couldn’t keep tipping the dude. He was so pissed he almost called custor service to complain.
He held himself back in the end, because he rembered—even he wasn’t human anymore, didn’t even have an ID card. Blowing this up was not a great idea. Whatever, he’d deal with it later.
He re-checked his location and realized he was twenty kiloters outside Virtue City. Getting back was another hassle. He didn’t dare take shortcuts anymore, had to find another way back.
...
When day broke at Lord Zhu’s manor, things quieted down. All the ghosts went ho to rest before the sun ca up.
Wen Yan was too bored to sleep, so he kept popping pills and practicing his martial arts, doing the Tiger Subduing Three Styles. Today, it felt like the little side effects from the drugs were gone, so he could happily keep using them to speed things up.
Of course, the other side effects from the pills probably weren’t going away that easily.
His energy was overflowing—he could skip a whole night’s sleep and not feel tired at all.
In the latter half of last night, he dragged Old Ghost Ji for a late-night chat, gave him a crash course on all kinds of new stuff, but unfortunately still didn’t learn that booze-blessing technique from him.
Old Ghost Ji himself wasn’t even sure how to do it. After he beca a ghost, he was just born with that ability.
Apparently, it was a Scorching Sun kind of power, so Wen Yan had to give up.
Now that it’s morning, he figured he’d stroll around Guanzhong County and maybe buy so stuff while he was at it.
Leaving Lord Zhu’s manor, he walked for over ten minutes and happened to find a subway station entrance, still surrounded by wild, empty land.
This place felt pretty familiar—he’d been here a few years back, right before he left Guanzhong County, when he took his first proper stroll through the county town.
Back then, he’d heard this area was sure to be developed. Who knew, two or three years later this might turn into a land of skyscrapers and busy traffic.
Too bad, six or seven years had passed and this spot was still pretty much the wilderness, with just a lone subway entrance standing here by itself.
Now Wen Yan knew why there was a subway station here. Most likely, it was for the convenience of ghosts.
Guanzhong County was pretty much the most harmonious place for the Scorching Sun Departnt and ghosts to get along. With so many ghosts here, the cri rate was actually lower than in other commanderies. Pretty hard to believe.
No doubt, a lot of people and ghosts must’ve worked hard together behind those numbers to get there.
Riding the subway out, Wen Yan just blessed his eyes with a dose of Yang Energy and saw that outside, it was like the train was sweeping through big chunks of residential areas. Tons of ghosts living underground—just that at this hour, not many of them were up and about.
Watching the scenery whip by, Wen Yan felt just like his first trip to Mountain City.
The light rail soared and ducked, sotis flying through the air, sotis diving underground, weaving right through apartnt buildings—what’s "upstairs" isn’t always above, ground floor isn’t always ground floor. That whimsical feeling—now you could experience it in Guanzhong County, too.
The subway sped along. Sotis you could spot so mischievous ghosts poking their heads out of windows and making faces at the passengers.
He even saw a few ghosts gaping in awe at the speeding train, all wide-eyed and amazed. A few of their buddies looked bored stiff, curled their lips, obviously old-tirs who lived here.
Wen Yan couldn’t help but laugh. Now he finally got why people said Guanzhong County’s subway was basically a scenic attraction.
Turns out, not only was he the tourist type—so of the ghosts here were tourists too.
Seeing it firsthand, Wen Yan finally understood exactly how dense the ghost population was here.
Thinking about it, from ancient tis till now, the people who died in Divine Land must number in the tens of billions.
Even if only one in ten thousand of them beca ghosts, that’s still hundreds of thousands.
Even if you knock out ninety percent who probably don’t exist anymore, that’s still several tens of thousands.
And those are just from before—nowadays with over a billion people, plus the Spiritual Qi Resurgence, odds are that ratio’s just getting higher.
Ghost numbers were bound to go up in the future, no wonder the Scorching Sun Departnt was worried.
Stepping out of the subway, seeing the crowds bustling down the street, Wen Yan took a light breath. Now that it was getting cold, the air quality really was a little rough.
If he ca any later, say a couple months, it’d be cold and dry—and odds were, he’d be running into smog days again.
Wen Yan strolled the streets, sampled so local snacks. He’d wanted to visit Brother Zheng’s figure shop, but then rembered that with the path he opened last ti using the Everbright Lamp, there was a good chance his presence had been marked, so he didn’t dare go.
After hanging around for a while, he picked up the two insulated bottles he’d pre-ordered, then bought over a dozen cases of Xifeng, poured them into the thermoses, and headed back to Lord Zhu’s manor.
When Old Ghost Ji finished a day’s rest and erged after dark, he saw Wen Yan lugging what looked like two giant water buckets—almost couldn’t resist darting back into his room again.
"Elder, I’ve co up with a plan. I’m just not very talented, even if you’re generous enough to teach , I probably still couldn’t learn your ways.
So I can only thicken my face and beg you to whip up a little more for to take ho and sip slowly.
Cultivation’s really no picnic. What else can I do? Please don’t mind , elder."
Old Ghost Ji’s eyelids were twitching like mad. Now he got it—Fuyu Mountain was still the sa Fuyu Mountain. The disciples weren’t as arrogant as before, didn’t go around looking for trouble, but this shaless streak? Yeah, that’s absolutely alive and well.
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