Chapter 18

"Since it's in the past, it's not now, right?" Su Xing waved the *Nili Sutra* in his hand, pouted, and said indifferently.

Fish Sister's beautiful eyes immediately widened, and she lightly tapped Su Xing's forehead, angrily saying, "What? Don't you trust me? The *Nili Sutra* was once the top for a reason. Its eighteen plows correspond to the nine levels of ghost soldiers and the nine levels of ghost clerks."

As she spoke, Fish Sister reached out to grab back the *Nili Sutra*, but Su Xing slightly moved his body and circled behind her.

"Give it to me!" Fish Sister said angrily, almost fuming.

"Not giving it to you, I didn't say I wouldn't buy it," Su Xing rolled his eyes and said with a flattering face, "Fish Sister, tell me more about the levels of ghost soldiers and ghost clerks."

"Hmph!" Fish Sister snorted, her nose raised, and casually picked up a book to stuff into Su Xing's arms, "Read more, broaden your horizons."

Su Xing picked up the book in his arms, his eyes suddenly widening. It was as thick as a dictionary, with a very exquisite cover and binding.

"The *Sanjie Tongjian*?" Su Xing casually flipped through the book, his eyes brightening, and he immediately said to Fish Sister, "This is a good thing, thank you, Fish Sister!"

Fish Sister turned her head away, ignoring Su Xing, seemingly angry.

Su Xing chuckled, roughly wandered around the lower levels, not looking too much, not wanting to be overly ambitious.

Soon, Fish Sister took him to check out. Su Xing was so scared that his eyes almost fell out. Most of the ghost coins he had earned over several months were gone. If it weren't for Shi Feixue's "support," he would probably be penniless now.

"Isn't it just a few tens of thousands? The subsequent *Dadiyu Sutra* of the *Nili Sutra* can't be bought with ghost coins. In front of certain rare treasures or divine elixirs, a million ghost coins are just scraps of paper, only good for skipping stones," Fish Sister pouted, disdainfully said, seizing the opportunity to hit Su Xing.

To his surprise, Su Xing didn't care at all. As a businessman in his previous life, he was good at managing money, not being controlled by it. A million ghost coins sounded scary, but he didn't take it seriously.

As he put it, "If you run out of money, you can always earn more!"

Fish Sister looked at Su Xing with her bright, sparkling eyes, her eyes like autumn water, making one's heart flutter. She had been a receptionist at the Yin Tian Pavilion for many years, having seen many powerful and formidable ghosts, her eyes trained, but she couldn't see through Su Xing, as if there was a thin, translucent veil between them.

"What? Are you infatuated with me?" Su Xing, seeing Fish Sister staring at him, couldn't help but tease her. "Get lost, who's infatuated with you!" Fish Sister's face turned red, and she spat, reaching out to punish him.

"Once you're infatuated with me, it's hard to let go, be careful," Su Xing's body was as slippery as an eel, slipping away, his laughter echoing from a distance.

"Brat!" Fish Sister waved her hand, her face suddenly turning red, then she shook her head violently, "I'm infatuated with him, impossible, impossible!"

Su Xing walked on the main street of Fengdu, preparing to hail a taxi to go back and carefully read the *Nili Sutra* and the *Sanjie Tongjian*, truly understanding the mysteries of the three realms. As for the carriage, he never wanted to ride in one again.

As Su Xing walked, he noticed that the bustling area of the main street was crowded with little ghosts, seemingly looking at something. Around them, ghost soldiers in fierce armor stood in formation, solemn and dignified.

"What's happening up ahead?" Su Xing, curious, also walked forward, his body boneless, squeezing in.

"Move, move."

Su Xing, like a fish in water among the little ghosts, slipped in smoothly. When he couldn't get through, he would stomp on someone's foot and then shrink his head, pretending nothing happened and continuing to squeeze in.

Before long, Su Xing managed to squeeze to the front.

"Proclamation?" Su Xing's eyes brightened, reading carefully.

On the notice board, there were two proclamations. One was from the Imperial Prison Department, and the other, aligned with it, was from the City God's Mansion.

"Capture two escaped evil ghosts, reward: a hundred ghost qi pills, ten thousand ghost coins!"

The content of the Imperial Prison Department's proclamation was concise, in official hell script, with a blood-soaked, chilling, and ominous tone, making the onlookers feel solemn, not daring to take it lightly.

At the bottom right corner of the proclamation, there was the seal of the Imperial Prison Department, red like blood, resembling a bleeding mountain peak.

"Four servants needed, requiring sixth-level ghost soldiers, both literate and martial, passing the examination to become official ghost servants, enjoying the benefits of the City God's Mansion, monthly income: three ghost qi pills, three thousand ghost coins!"

This was the proclamation from the City God's Mansion, with grand and majestic handwriting, silver hooks and iron strokes, the work of a great calligrapher, a thick ghostly aura spreading, not inferior to the Imperial Prison Department's proclamation. At the bottom right corner of the City God's Mansion's proclamation, there was the seal of the City God's Mansion, with the three hell script characters "City God's Mansion."

The little ghosts surrounding the proclamations were discussing, but they didn't dare to say much, focusing on the City God's Mansion's proclamation.

"Three ghost qi pills, three thousand ghost coins! The City God's Mansion is indeed wealthy and generous!"

"Of course, the City God's Mansion requires both literate and martial skills for a ghost servant!"

"The benefits are truly tempting, but the requirement of sixth-level ghost soldier is too strict."

...

Sixth-level ghost soldiers could stop a large number of little ghosts. After all, there was a significant gap between the fifth and sixth levels, and without resources, it was difficult for ordinary little ghosts to break through.

Su Xing silently squeezed out of the crowd, hailed a taxi, and headed to the outskirts of Fengdu.

In Fengdu, the closer to the famous mountains, the denser and purer the yin energy, and the more expensive the land. Su Xing bought a simple courtyard in the outskirts of Fengdu to live in.

Originally, the boss suggested living together. The boss's adopted daughter worked in a noble ghost's mansion, earning a good income, so he bought a villa near Fengdu, large enough to accommodate several more ghosts.

However, Su Xing politely declined. He liked to keep secrets and didn't want to share his secrets, just as he had been in his previous life, living a solitary life.

"Beep"

The taxi stopped in front of an old, dilapidated small villa with old trees and crows. As soon as Su Xing got out, the driver hurriedly left, as the area had poor security.

Su Xing sighed, pushed open the creaking wooden door, and returned to his home in the underworld.

"Even a pile of corpses is better than this environment." Su Xing consoled himself, carefully checking the surroundings. Finding no danger, he locked the old house and began to read the books he had bought.

First, the *Sanjie Tongjian*, to understand the general situation of the three realms.

Opening the *Sanjie Tongjian*, the preface of the entire book, as thick as a dictionary, read: "The world is vast, but only one heart. If you can hone it, you can walk alone in the world!"

"Is this a science book or a cultivation manual? Is it really so domineering?" Su Xing muttered, his heart burning with the preface, unable to resist reading on.

The entire world is like a pyramid, divided into three parts, known as the three realms.

The base of the pyramid is the underworld, the Four Directions and Nine Provinces, the largest area; the middle is the human world, the Nine Provinces of the human world, the backbone of the three realms, maintaining balance; the tip of the pyramid is the heavenly realm, the Four Directions of the heavenly realm, high above.

There is much more about the three realms. The *Sanjie Tongjian* is divided into three parts: the underworld, the human world, and the heavenly realm, with detailed explanations at the beginning of each part.

"Yincao Difu, Wujian Hell, Sanjiao Jiuliu, Western World, Heavenly Realm Immortal Court, Great Demon Tribes, Yin Materials and Treasures, Heavenly Materials and Treasures... Wow, so many, just the table of contents of each part has thousands of entries, covering forces, cultivation methods, treasures... and more, hundreds of categories, thousands of subcategories!"

Su Xing's eyes widened, his mouth could fit an ostrich egg, he was stunned by a single book.

The *Sanjie Tongjian* seemed to be only as thick as a dictionary, but it was magical, the pages flipping endlessly, never reaching the end.

"How many pages are there!" Su Xing's scalp tingled, feeling like he had flipped through ten dictionaries, but the *Sanjie Tongjian* was still far from one-tenth of the way through.

At this moment, Su Xing suddenly thought of the legendary Book of Life and Death, which recorded the lives and deaths of all beings in the three realms. How many beings in the three realms? A hundred thousand or countless? But the Book of Life and Death recorded them all!

"Too scary, too scary!" Su Xing shook his head, not daring to think more, and first read the underworld part of the *Sanjie Tongjian*, finding the San Tu River in the geographical index.

The San Tu River, transformed from a world tree at the beginning of the universe, has existed since ancient times. It has countless branches and tributaries spread throughout the Four Directions and Nine Provinces of the heavenly and human realms. The main trunk splits into two, with three main streams, flowing through the three realms: one is the River of Forgetfulness in the underworld, the second is the Sea of Suffering in the human world, and the third is the Weak Water in the heavenly realm...

Su Xing read carefully, gradually understanding how souls travel from the human world to the underworld.

Generally, when a person dies, the soul is no longer bound by the body and will emerge, continuously sinking underground until it reaches a tributary of the San Tu River, then following the river to the main stream "Sea of Suffering," and from there to the underworld.

Later, Su Xing learned that countless little ghosts stood on the banks of the human world and heavenly realm rivers, using black iron nets to scoop up the souls and drive them into the Ghost Gate.

"I wonder if it's a coincidence that after death, the soul soaks in the San Tu River, and at birth, it soaks in the mother's amniotic fluid..." Su Xing's eyes brightened, his thoughts flowing, associating far and wide, sensing that all things in the world seem to have a subtle connection, impossible to be completely isolated.

"I wonder how the River of Forgetfulness is described."

Su Xing found the River of Forgetfulness in the San Tu River's sub-index, and when he turned to that page, he discovered that the *Sanjie Tongjian* had very little to say about the River of Forgetfulness, only a few brief mentions, indicating that it was one of the tributaries of the San Tu River.

"Indeed, what the ferryman of the River of Forgetfulness told me is a secret of the underworld, even the entire three realms, a significant matter, not even recorded in the *Sanjie Tongjian*. I must keep it to myself, never mentioning it to other ghosts."

After discovering the *Sanjie Tongjian*'s description of the River of Forgetfulness, Su Xing felt a chill, immediately becoming alert, deciding to keep the ferryman's words to himself.

What exactly is the River of Forgetfulness fish ball?

Su Xing suddenly had doubts. The ferryman of the River of Forgetfulness was so mysterious, what special effects could his fish ball have? The benefits he mentioned should be significant... right?