The shadow soldiers surged forward, their golden weapons clanging.
Liu Yingxue, who had been about to say more, immediately paled.
As the surrounding shadow soldiers charged toward her, she swiftly activated her divine skill—
“Soul Control!”
Instantly, all the wandering spirits in the street froze, then turned in unison like puppets pulled by invisible strings before madly rushing toward the shadow soldiers.
“Control Again!”
The spirits grew even more frenzied, as if stripped of reason, shrieking piercingly as they launched suicidal attacks at the shadow soldiers.
“Clang!”
The shadow soldiers drew their blades, instantly clashing with the spirits.
Their steel swords seemed imbued with some kind of power, cleaving through the ethereal forms of the spirits.
Upon contact, the spirits dissipated like mist.
In just a few breaths, the number of spirits had dwindled by a third.
Liu Yingxue’s face twisted in shock.
“H-How… How is this possible?!”
She had always assumed these shadow soldiers were merely equipped wandering spirits, but now that they were fighting, she realized how wrong she was!
The shadow soldiers seemed to be under some kind of divine enhancement-this was practically a dimensional downgrade in power!
What could she do?
Gritting her teeth, Liu Yingxue snarled, “Frenzy!”
If she couldn’t win, it meant her strength wasn’t enough.
In that case, she’d just have to amplify it!
The remaining spirits suddenly swelled, twisted, and surged with power, becoming grotesque and terrifying.
With this boost, they did exude a somewhat fearsome aura.
But-
Su Fu’s voice cut through coldly, “Invoke Lord Zhong Kui—”
“Annihilation of a Hundred Ghosts!”
Boom!
An overwhelming divine pressure descended from the heavens.
The shadow soldiers’ power skyrocketed, their blades flashing as the remaining spirits were utterly obliterated.
“This can’t be!” Liu Yingxue screamed, her voice raw with disbelief.
How could the gap between their divine powers be so vast?
Her divine skills were perfectly suited for this instance-while others’ abilities were weakened, hers had even received a slight boost.
So why, when facing Su Fu, did she feel no advantage at all?
Numbers?
Su Fu could summon an army of shadow soldiers!
Divine power?
The shadow of the deity behind her was utterly terrifying!
And its mere presence had doubled the shadow soldiers’ combat strength!
Su Fu didn’t respond.
A golden light flashed in her hand as the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod materialized.
One step.
Liu Yingxue retreated.
Two steps.
Liu Yingxue yanked her strongest spirit in front of her as a shield.
Three steps!
“Bang!”
The rod smashed through the spirit and sent Liu Yingxue flying, slamming her hard onto the ground.
At last, fear flickered across Liu Yingxue’s face.
All her divine skills revolved around controlling and empowering ghosts—but now, every ghost on the field had been annihilated, even the strongest spirit she had painstakingly collected!
Su Fu approached slowly, a mocking smile on her lips.
“The Janitor?”
“How’s the cleaning going?”
She was enjoying this.
From the start, this exam had forced her to rack her brains endlessly-now, she could finally stretch her limbs.
Thanks to Liu Yingxue, after this fight, she felt invigorated.
Liu Yingxue’s expression darkened instantly at the words and she shouted.
“Su Fu!”
This was outright humiliation!
Clenching her teeth, she hissed, “Don’t think you’ve won! Killing me won’t change anything!”
She lifted her chin, madness gleaming in her eyes.
“You’ll die sooner or later! Our leader will avenge me!”
“Oh?” Su Fu arched a brow, puzzled.
“You mean the Battle Royale in Paper B? He’ll avenge you?”
“Wait, forget whether you’re important enough for him to avenge you-how can you be so sure I can’t beat your Chief?”
She was genuinely curious.
How could Liu Yingxue be so confident in Elai?
Liu Yingxue actually laughed, as if she’d heard the funniest joke.
“Because the Chief was the first to enter Volume B!”
She lifted her chin, pride dripping from her words.
“That means a massive head start. With his intelligence, a latecomer like you could never catch up!”
“And…” Her smile turned cryptic.
“Do you really think you can still enter Volume B?”
“Why don’t you check the time?” She tilted her head toward the distant drum tower.
“The hour of Zi has passed. The entrance is closed. You -can’t get in!”
By the last few words, her voice was thick with vengeful satisfaction.
She even leaned back, completely relaxed, as if she no longer feared death.
“My mission is already complete.”
Whether she could defeat Su Fu or not no longer mattered.
This was the Chief-flawless in his calculations.
Su Fu was speechless.
“…Huh?”
She was almost amused by Liu Yingxue’s words.
“Seriously, girl.”
“The Zi hour requirement refers to the case-solving deadline, not the entry time for Volume B.”
And definitely not some ghostly gate nonsense!
She had meticulously read all the exam details-no skimming allowed.
How could she have missed something like that?
Liu Yingxue’s expression froze.
“You… you’re lying!”
“The ghost gate opens at Zi hour. If you miss it, souls can’t enter. I delayed you, you didn’t die, so you don’t have a ghost form. You can’t enter Volume B. Don’t try to trick me!”
Su Fu: “…..”
Wow.
Ignorance really is terrifying.
Su Fu sighed and kindly reminded her, “The Zi hour spans two hours from 11 PM to 1AM. It’s barely started. The ghost gate is still wide open.”
“But hey, you did remind me of something.”
At this, Liu Yingxue paled.
“No… that couldn’t be…”
The exam kept mentioning the Zi hour-was it not referring to a specific moment?
Impossible!
Watching her horrified expression, Su Fu tapped her chin thoughtfully.
“So this is the path your Chief and the others took? He and those already turned into spirits must’ve just entered the ghost gate?”
Then she suddenly paused.
“Wait a minute…” Her expression turned odd.
“Hold on. So you guys are basically sneaking into the underworld?”
“No wonder Volume B is a battle royale! If you’re breaking in like this, of course you’ll get hunted down!”
Su Fu couldn’t help but facepalm.
This wasn’t about high difficulty-it was a bunch of people making things harder for themselves!
The underworld has a proper procedure, you know.
Black and White Impermanence handle soul collection; Ox-Head and Horse-Face handle escorting.
Everything’s orderly and systematic.
But these people… seriously, just sneaked in.
And once inside, they probably didn’t even follow the rules-running from judges on duty, dodging soul collectors.
No wonder they got caught and processed properly!
She was at a loss for words.
So, the top scorer messed up, and everyone else followed suit?
Liu Yingxue was dumbfounded.
“What… what do you mean by sneaking in?!”
A vague suspicion began to form in her mind—illegal crossing… the underworld… battle royale…
“Impossible! That’s absolutely impossible……”
But halfway through her words, she suddenly stopped.
Yet why did this theory sound so damn… plausible?
If this were true…
Then what about all those things she’d just said?
Liu Yingxue’s vision darkened instantly.
No longer wanting to die, she jerked her head up and fixed Su Fu with a piercing stare, determined to get answers:
“How do you know all this?!”
But Su Fu wasn’t inclined to respond.
With a slightly infuriating smile, she said, “Sorry~ no question-answering service provided! See you!”
Liu Yingxue: “!!!”
How shameless!
You can’t just dangle information like that before me!
In an instant, golden light flashed Liu Yingxue was eliminated.
Jiang Qingyu looked at Su Fu and reminded her, “She was deliberately sent by Elai to delay us.”
“To buy time for her chief?” Lin Mingxi guessed.
Jiang Qingyu shook his head.
“More than that. She was willing to clear all obstacles for him.”
“There are many like her around Elai.”
They willingly serve as stepping stones for him.
Lin Mingxi fell silent for a moment-this topic was getting too heavy.
He turned to Su Fu.
“Boss, shouldn’t we hurry up and…”
He made a throat-slitting gesture, “die before midnight to enter as ghosts?”
Then another thought struck him, and his expression crumpled in dismay.
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense either! From what you said earlier, if we enter that way, wouldn’t our B-route become extremely difficult?”
Su Fu couldn’t help laughing at Lin Mingxi’s conflicted expression.
“Relax, we’re not taking their illegal crossing route.”
“These people overthink things and end up going the wrong way.”
“Following their approach, you’d become the lowest class of wandering spirits after death, and illegal immigrants at that!”
“Starting a battle royale in the underworld with that kind of ‘undocumented’ status?”
“Just imagine running from Ox-Head and Horse-Face, hiding from Black and White Impermanence, dodging all kinds of underworld officers. It’d be a disastrous start.”
Aside from that path, Su Fu knew of at least two legitimate ways to enter the underworld.
The first was the safe strategy-die and become a ghost, then wait for underworld officials to collect your soul.
Since you’re entering the underworld anyway, why not go through proper channels?
This way, you’d have official “residency” and wouldn’t be hunted down in the underworld.
Wouldn’t living peacefully until the exam ends be ideal?
As for the second path… that was the aggressive strategy.
But it required help from one department-the City God’s Office.
The City God’s Office bridged both realms; they definitely had ways into the underworld.
Couldn’t she just borrow their passage?
Moreover, with these connections, how bad could treatment in the underworld be?
At the very least, it’d be better than being a mere ghost.
Yet Su Fu frowned as she looked toward Vermilion Bird Avenue.
Why hadn’t the City God’s Office people arrived yet?
Hadn’t the Chief Astrologer delivered her visiting card for her?
Surely he’d specified the meeting location?
Just then, a vast expanse of eerie green light suddenly illuminated the eastern sky.
Judge Zhang arrived with several underworld officers, carrying three-zhang-tall “Silence” and “Make Way” placards.
Behind them, hundreds of spirit lanterns lit up one after another, their ghostly flames dyeing the sky a sickly green.
Su Fu gasped at the grand spectacle!
Before she could react, another howling sound came from the west.
A bone-white carriage raced toward them, leaving a trail of chilling cold in its wake.
Driving it was Judge Wang, who had been sent out on business by the Supervisor.
The two groups met at the street corner, and for a moment, everyone froze.
“Brother Zhang, what brings you here?” Judge Wang asked from his horse.
“Brother Wang, what are you doing here?” Judge Zhang also looked puzzled.
“I’m here on official business!”
“I’m here to greet Lord Zhong Kui!”
They spoke in unison, then both paused in surprise.
Judge Wang’s eyes lit up.
“Wait! Lord Zhong Kui is here?!”
He whipped his head around to look toward the end of Vermilion Bird Street.
There, an imposing formation of shadow soldiers stood in perfect order, and at the very end of the ranks, someone seemed to be standing!
Judge Wang sucked in a sharp breath.
“No wonder you made such a grand entrance!”
Judge Zhang stroked his beard smugly.
“Of course! With Lord Zhong Kui gracing us with his presence, how could our City God Temple show any neglect?”
Meanwhile, Su Fu was dumbfounded by the massive display before her.
Wait, what was going on?
Did the Supervisor really have this much influence?
She had only wanted to use his connections to pave the way, but now-
Two processions, ghostly lanterns stretching for miles, a three-zhang-long plaque, and a sky full of spirits…
Holy crap, this was way too over the top!
Lin Mingxi had already nervously drawn his divine artifact, the Jade Serpent Fang.
“Boss, something’s off! They don’t seem friendly!”
Jiang Qingyu also tightened his bowstring, ready to fire at any moment.
Su Fu quickly stopped them.
“It’s fine. I called them here.”
Lin Mingxi & Jiang Qingyu: “???”
What the hell?
Boss, since when did you have ties with an organization like this?!
This kind of presence… it didn’t seem any weaker than the Imperial Astronomical Bureau!