The Village Chief's backyard wasn't decked out with lights and decorations like the ancestral hall. Instead, it was shrouded in a deathly gray-green fog.

  A crowd of trembling villagers had gathered here. The wedding was thoroughly ruined, and it was time for the midnight work shift.

  "Hurry up, hurry up! Time to work! What are you standing around for? Want your performance docked?"

  A withered-faced old ghost held a roster at the entrance, hollering.

  "When I call your name, come in. Wu Gang…"

  "Here!"

  "Li Cuihua…"

  "Here!"

  The villagers lined up in orderly fashion, filing through the pitch-black wooden door one by one.

  The Chief hunched over, holding a vermillion brush, checking off names one by one on the roster. His hand trembled, eyes constantly darting toward the door, as if fearing something.

  Until he checked off the last name—Zhu.

  The list was empty.

  "Still haven't found her?" A low, displeased voice suddenly sounded behind the Chief.

  He shuddered, dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowing frantically, forehead banging against the flagstones:

  "Br-Brother Zhang! I've already sent people to search the mountain! That woman must be hiding in some rat hole somewhere. Please give me a few more days…"

  The man facing him was tall and thin, wearing a well-tailored white dress shirt, pressed perfectly flat without a single crease. Hair slicked back in a meticulous oiled style, black-framed glasses perched on his nose. At first glance, he looked like an efficient insurance salesman, yet carried an unquestionable pressure.

  Zhang impatiently cut off the Chief's begging. He pushed up his glasses, a cold glint flashing across the lenses:

  "I've already given you plenty of extensions. I'm here today to collect. Time to settle up."

  He paused, voice taking on a mocking edge:

  "But before that—your little fellow came rushing to report that someone was wrecking the place? This better be real. If I catch you making up stories to delay delivery one more time… you know the consequences."

  The Chief sweated profusely: "Misunderstanding! Last time really was a misunderstanding! This time it's real! Some unknown character—seriously powerful! That thing you planted in me? Forget biting her—it didn't even dare look at her! Shrank right back in terror!"

  Zhang looked at him coldly, eyes without a ripple:

  "Is that so? Looks like this time you couldn't even be bothered to use your brain when making up stories."

  He completely ignored the Chief's explanation and cut straight to the point:

  "I'm only asking you this: did you meet this year's KPI? How many offspring? How many yin, how many yang? Beyond that, you don't need to worry about anything."

  The Chief opened his mouth, voice tiny as a mosquito:

  "Uh… this year… three yin, five yang, total eight offspring. A bit low, but the quality is all…"

  "You call that 'a bit low'?!"

  Zhang suddenly exploded, voice shooting up an octave. His refined face instantly turned vicious. He grabbed the kneeling old man by the collar and demanded:

  "Have you been doing anything at all?! Do you know how many resources we invest in this project every year?! Do you know how many major shareholders are threatening to pull out and demand I be replaced as regional manager?! I've been shouldering all of it! And you?! How do you repay me?! All you think about day and night is your own petty household crap!"

  He took a deep breath, calmed his emotions, straightened his collar, and dropped the old man to the ground:

  "Enough bullshit! Let's go in together! Today I'm rooting out all the slackers and using them as fuel. The Zhang Ranch does not feed idle ghosts!"

  The Chief wiped the cold sweat from his forehead but ultimately didn't dare mention Ling, that bizarre visitor, again. He shakily stood up and led Zhang inside.

  …

  And lurking in the darkness behind them were two figures.

  One was the Celestial Maiden who had successfully "returned to her body" and revived. She clutched her recovered Pouch tightly, finally feeling confident.

  The other was that unlucky young man Ling had temporarily conscripted—after possessing him twice, she'd only just learned the host's name was Jann. To compensate for his psychological trauma from being borrowed, Ling had generously given him a second-grade Qi Restoration Pill. After all, she might need his help later. The recovered Jann, though still a bit unsteady on his feet, was clearly in much better spirits.

  Both had yellow talisman papers stuck to their foreheads—"Background Auto-Fill Talismans" issued by Dax, what mortal Taoist priests desperately sought as "invisibility talismans."

  Ling silently complained to herself—that old fart, sitting on talismans that could sell for sky-high prices, yet insisting on living that austere life. Fortune truly favors the bold while the timid starve.

  The two crept along, quietly circling to a side window. Using the bushes for cover, two pairs of eyes—plus Ghost-Eye, six total—peered sneakily inside.

  Jann was still nervous. He instinctively hunched his shoulders and whispered:

  "Hey… does this thing really make us invisible? You sure you weren't scammed? Let me tell you, fake Taoist priests have so many tricks these days. I've been scammed who knows how many times. They all said they could keep ghosts from bothering me, but every time…"

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  "Shh!" Ling glared at him. "Why are you so chatty? Relax—your birth chart is more yin than a ghost's. I only smelled you because I was that close. As long as this talisman stays on, they absolutely won't notice."

  Ling carefully pushed open the window shutter. The old rusty hinges let out an unexpected shriek.

  Both of them flinched. Fortunately, the chaotic, eerie noise from inside instantly drowned out the sound.

  The scene before her made even the worldly Ling's eyes go wide.

  The spacious main hall was densely packed with dozens of old Eight Immortals tables. Each table held a pale green oil lamp, with a pallid-faced "operator" seated behind it.

  Some held telephone receivers made of paper offerings. Others frantically typed on invisible keyboards in the air. Still others posed and preened before bronze mirrors.

  "Hello, is this Ms. Liu? This is 'Peach Blossom Village' Dating Center. Feeling lonely, empty, and cold late at night? Let me enter your dreams and warm you with my body heat…" A hanged-ghost-looking male employee was pinching his throat, confessing passionately into the receiver with a magnetic radio voice.

  On the other side, a female ghost in red was throwing flirty glances at the reflection in her bronze mirror:

  "Mr. Li~ Aiyah, you haven't come looking for me in so long. How've you been lately? I miss you so much, let's meet up… Really?! Baby, you have to say you really want to see me—invite me from your heart—then I can come find you…"

  The female ghost suddenly grabbed her brush excitedly, rapidly scrawling a line of birth date characters on the yellow paper on her desk. Then she flipped the bronze mirror face-down, raised her hand high, and shouted excitedly:

  "Over here! Employee 023 here closed a deal! Obtained target's one hundred percent consent for invitation! Requesting field assignment clearance!"

  The moment she finished, a sharp, piercing eunuch-like voice rang out from somewhere above the roof, broadcast through some amplification array across the entire compound:

  "Employee 023, one deal… verification complete! Full consent documentation obtained! Field assignment approved—"

  The entire hall instantly erupted. The other ghost employees were like they'd been injected with adrenaline, howling, sobbing, and seducing into their receivers even more desperately, fighting for the next chance to go out.

  Jann watched slack-jawed, chin nearly hitting the floor:

  "T-this… this fucking works?! My goddamn wet dreams were all caused by these things…?! _Ugh!_ FUCK!"

  Ling narrowed her Ghost-Eye, data streams frantically refreshing across the lenses, analyzing this efficient operating system.

  "Not just that," Ling said coldly. "They're exploiting rule loopholes. These low-level minor ghosts can't easily harm living people unless they get the victim's 'invitation' or 'consent.' These bastards are using manipulation tactics to scam living people into signing authorization agreements."

  Inside, that unremarkable female ghost—thin as a hairless monkey—got her field clearance, smugly raised her head, transformed into a wisp of gray smoke, and vanished on the spot.

  The assembled ghosts immediately let out a chorus of envious sighs.

  "Oh my, that dead monkey again. Just because she squeezes her voice a bit tighter and sweet-talks better—how come she always closes deals first?"

  "Tsk tsk, probably worked herself into that shape from too many deals… Hmph, plowing the field is useless without seeds to bear fruit. With her shriveled looks, anything she births would probably be defective anyway. Nothing like that Miss Gao…"

  A burst of sour, lewd laughter echoed through the room, only to cut off like a severed power cord the instant Zhang and the Chief entered.

  Zhang's face was dark. He turned to question the Chief: "I don't visit for a while and this is your operational attitude?"

  He pointed at the big-bearded ghost who'd been leading the mockery—pot-bellied, face glistening with oil, nauseating to look at.

  "Every single one of you treating sales training like background noise? What's this 'wanna hook up' nonsense? Sleazy! Greasy! Zero understanding of user psychology! They hang up the moment they hear it—zero conversion rate! These are premium target profiles I bought at great cost from the Book of Life and Death backend—people currently in their child-bearing fortune windows—and you're wasting my traffic like this?"

  Zhang grew angrier as he spoke, pointing at the big beard: "And this one—what even is this thing? Why keep it around? Looking like that, even if he tricks someone into meeting—who'd want to mate with him?! Where's he going to produce yang offspring for me? Get rid of him! Pure waste of my formation energy."

  The Chief quickly pulled Zhang aside, wrinkles bunching up as he smiled ingratiatingly: "Brother! My good brother! That's Uncle Liang! Did you forget? He was the first one who found you and brought you back to the village… Don't worry, I'll definitely give him a complete image makeover! Uncle Liang actually has good foundations, it's just, just he's slightly… uh—"

  Trailing off, the Chief looked at Old Liang's greasy appearance and lost his own confidence.

  Zhang took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and barely controlled his temper. He patted the Chief's shoulder, tone becoming earnest, like painting a pie for a burnt-out old employee:

  "Huzi, I know you're a sentimental person. It's just that we have no turning back now. The fate of the entire village was your own choice back then. Now you don't want to do this anymore, but none of us can leave. Don't you think giving up halfway is a bit selfish?"

  The Chief nodded heavily, shoulders bowed as if carrying a mountain.

  Zhang softened his tone. "You don't need to look like that. What's so bad about our situation now? Things have been turbulent lately, demand is tight, and the ghost fetuses we produce here have received unanimous customer praise. You deserve credit for this too—you've managed this place so well, so bustling with activity, that those wandering ghosts don't even know if they're dead or alive, willingly working for us."

  He gestured at the busy ghost employees around them, face showing a hint of pride: "Our ghost fetuses are famous for high IQ and strong obedience. Everyone outside says only Zhang-brand products are the German Shepherds of the ghost fetus world—smart, obedient, and fierce."

  "Hang in there a bit longer. Our Ranch will be listed on Kunlun Market soon. When that happens, I'll definitely find a way to help your entire village wash clean and get out. Then—east, west, south, north—you can pick where to reincarnate. Want to become an official or get rich? Your big brother here will pave the road."

  The Chief nodded perfunctorily, eyes hollow. Clearly he'd had his fill of this particular pie.

  Outside the window, crouching by the wall, Jann listened with his scalp tingling. He weakly asked Ling: "Hey… ghost lady, these 'ghost fetuses' they're talking about… what exactly are those? Sounds super creepy."

  Ling explained quietly: "Basically off-the-books illegals. Yin-yang copulation can't summon new souls to reincarnate, but you can harvest parts of both parents' souls and fuse them. What's born this way isn't in the Book of Life and Death at all, doesn't enter the reincarnation cycle. If it commits crimes, you can't trace the karma lines back to whoever's behind it. Absolute pros at murder, robbery, and fortune-stealing. On the black market, anything 'traceless' is hard currency."

  Ling tilted her head, looking at the festive red wedding outfit on the young man, unable to resist teasing: "With your 'ultimate yin' constitution, what you'd produce would probably be ghost king level. You could ride your child's coattails to glory. What do you say—want me to return you so you can experience being a 'stud'?"

  The young man went deathly pale, glaring at Ling, rolling his eyes dramatically: "Thanks but no fucking thanks!"

  Ling ignored him, scanning through the window crack until she finally spotted Teon's figure in a corner.

  He was like a male mannequin in a store window, still frozen in the rigid pose from when the red silk had suddenly bound him. His eyes could move, but clearly his body was locked.

  Zhang inside also noticed this extra addition. He frowned, pointing at Teon: "This is…?"

  The Chief hurried to take credit: "Oh, that Jin you sent is really something—brought in three living people in just one night. Especially this one!"

  He walked over and slapped Teon's solid deltoids like patting livestock, making smacking sounds: "This one's prime stock. Earlier the Gao and Lin families nearly came to blows over breeding rights. Both are village backbone families—I really couldn't decide, so I called a halt first…"

  Zhang pushed up his glasses and leaned in to look at Teon's face.

  The next second, his efficient face showed an expression of horror.

  "What the fuck…"

  Zhang stepped back, voice going off-pitch: "Why the hell did you bring him here?! This is that Lei family…"

  The Chief looked completely confused: "Huh… is something wrong with this one?"

  Before Zhang could explain what level of hot potato this was, a fist suddenly connected solidly with his face…