“Eh? You’re… that Little Girl from before.”
Ling Xiaoyou bent down slightly, rubbed the Little Girl’s head, pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s you again. The kind-hearted Elder Sister.”
The Little Girl nuzzled Ling Xiaoyou’s palm like a kitten and spoke.
“Hey, I just happen to have a serving of Youquan Shaofan left. You can have it.”
Ling Xiaoyou led the Little Girl to a bench in the nearby park, sat down, then took a steaming hot takeout box from her Space Ring and handed it to the Little Girl.
“Wow, Elder Sister, you’re so nice!”
The Little Girl’s eyes sparkled with delight, and her small hands eagerly accepted the Youquan Shaofan from Ling Xiaoyou.
Immediately after, she quickly opened the takeout box, split the wooden chopsticks, and began devouring the Youquan Shaofan as if she were starving.
She really must have been hungry.
Watching the Little Girl eat heartily, Ling Xiaoyou thought so in her heart, but for some reason, she felt something was off.
After all, while the Underworld might not be as comfortable as the Human Realm, it shouldn’t be so bad that a Little Girl would be wandering the streets, looking for people to share food with, right?
Normally, young Spirits like this, if they’re not managed in the Human Realm, that’s one thing, but in the Underworld, they’re usually sent to places like Yujiyuan—similar to an orphanage.
This isn’t the Human Realm. When Spirits first enter the Underworld, they’re all reviewed.
There’s no such thing as a ‘slipped through the net’.
And for children in Yujiyuan, it’s simple to leave—just graduate from School or prove you can support yourself, and you’re free to go.
That’s right, the Underworld has Schools too!
And the Schools in the Underworld aren’t much different from those in the Human Realm.
After all, most of the Teachers there were Teachers during their lifetimes as Spirits, so their teaching is quite professional.
Back to the matter of the Little Girl. Even with Yujiyuan around, for her to be wandering the streets and going hungry is just too strange.
Unless… it’s just a quirky habit of hers—to go around looking for people to share food with?
Hiss, considering how many people let themselves go after becoming Ghosts, it’s not impossible!
Ling Xiaoyou fell into thought, while the Little Girl had already polished off the Youquan Shaofan in no time.
She put the last grain of rice from the takeout box into her mouth, chewed carefully, then looked at Ling Xiaoyou with sparkling eyes and spoke with gratitude:
“Thank you, Elder Sister. I’m full now!”
Ling Xiaoyou couldn’t help but feel uplifted at the Little Girl’s repeated calls of ‘Elder Sister’.
After all, because she looked so young, people often treated her like a little girl.
Now, being called ‘Elder Sister’ again made her feel a bit more like an ‘adult’.
Not bothering to ponder whether finding people to share food with was just the Little Girl’s unique quirk, Ling Xiaoyou ruffled her small head and said, “As long as you’re full. Then Elder Sister will leave now—I still have things to do.”
“Mm, mm! Goodbye, Elder Sister!”
The Little Girl nodded repeatedly, waving her small hand at Ling Xiaoyou’s receding figure.
Only when Ling Xiaoyou’s silhouette completely vanished into the crowd did the Little Girl lower her hand and reveal a mature smile entirely out of place with her appearance.
“What an interesting little one. She noticed something was off about me, but didn’t bother to dig deeper out of laziness. In that way, she’s unexpectedly similar to Hong Lingyan.”
As she spoke, the Little Girl’s form gradually faded, like a wisp of mist dissolving into the air.
“But since she noticed my strangeness, next time I won’t use this incarnation to approach her. Hmm, which one should I use then? Sigh, having too many incarnations is such a pain, it’s hard to choose…”
Her voice and form vanished from the park together, yet no one seemed to notice, as if they had never seen the scene at all.
***
“Hey, did you guys hear?”
Arriving at the Ghostly Grievance Department, Ling Xiaoyou was about to skillfully avoid the ‘crowd’ and head straight to Hong Lingyan’s office.
But the sound of the ‘crowd’ reached her, making her slow down and hide behind a cover, curious to listen in.
Usually, when a conversation starts like this, it’s bound to be an interesting piece of gossip, so she had to at least stop and listen.
If she got caught, the worst that could happen was they’d ruffle her head. It’s not like it hadn’t happened before.
Of course, ruffling the head is fine—but anything more intimate is absolutely forbidden!
Ling Xiaoyou perked up her ears, eavesdropping on her colleagues’ conversation.
Eavesdropping Storm.jpg
“Heard what? Don’t tell me it’s about you almost getting dunked by the Fox Lady and Snake Lady from the neighboring department yesterday?”
“Shut up, who said I wanted to talk about that—and how do you even know about it?!”
“Don’t mind the little details. Hurry up and spill—what is it?”
“Ahem, you all know the upcoming exchange match has been renamed to the Xuantian Martial Tournament, right?”
“Of course. You kept talking about wanting to participate in the Xuantian Martial Tournament before.”
“Is this about the Xuantian Martial Tournament?”
“Exactly. I heard from the grapevine that the champion of this Xuantian Martial Tournament will receive an incredibly powerful prize, so many outstanding heirs from major factions are joining! Like Hui Jue Monk from the Ghost Temple, the Young City Lord of Underworld Corpse City, and even the Little Princess of the Southern Prince’s Residence!”
“Whoa, it attracted so many geniuses? What kind of prize is it, anyway?”
“Who knows, but for it to attract so many heirs of great powers, it must be something valuable.”
“Indeed. Hey, do we have anyone from the Ghostly Grievance Department participating? We’re a major power too, right?”
“Not sure. Depends on the higher-ups. But I heard a few people from the Branch are joining, though they’re just average. Not sure who Headquarters will pick.”
“Hey, what if I volunteered to enter the Xuantian Martial Tournament?”
“If you did, the opponent would beg for mercy in less than a minute!”
“Admit defeat?”
“Beg you not to kill them!”
“Hey, you brat, just wait and see how I deal with you tonight!”
“I’m not scared—let’s see who deals with whom!”
Ling Xiaoyou didn’t know about these little side stories.
The moment she heard ‘Xuantian Martial Tournament’, she lost interest and left.
It didn’t sound fun, had nothing to do with her, and she wasn’t planning to participate anyway.
Instead, she’d rather go find Sister Ling to increase her cultivation!
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.