Mrs. Lei's whole body shuddered.

  She was still reeling from the shock.

  That woman—that beautiful vase without a trace of cultivation aura—had remained completely unaffected by her illusion?

  Not just "unaffected"… wait—what had she been doing just now?

  Mrs. Lei wondered if her memory was playing tricks.

  That figure had been weaving through the inferno… flipping the unconscious masters over… prying artifacts off them… then stuffing them into her mouth…

  Was that—

  Looting… during the fire?

  That was looting, right?!

  This bitch actually—

  Piggybacked on my illusion—

  To fucking loot?!!

  For a moment, Mrs. Lei couldn't tell which was more shocking.

  That an illusion capable of fooling even her own father had been easily seen through by some cultivation-less pretty face?

  Or that someone had the audacity to run a side hustle off her illusion?

  How can anyone in this world be so shameless?!

  She stared at Ling's face—beautiful enough to stop hearts—lips trembling, and finally managed:

  "You… what the hell are you…"

  Ling tilted her head, smile growing sweeter: "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

  "Mrs.—Lei—?"

  Just then—

  "BREAK!"

  Dax's thundering shout arrived fashionably late, like a cop in an action movie who always shows up at the last second.

  A burst of golden light exploded from his palm. The shockwave swept across the entire room. All the illusions receded like an ebbing tide, and the masters scattered across the floor began gasping for air one after another, as if jolting awake from a nightmare. But they could only curl up and croak hoarsely—their vocal cords clearly shredded from screaming. Some simply stayed unconscious, dead to the world.

  Would've been pretty impressive if he hadn't shown up so late.

  The last thing to fade was a row of neatly standing shadows—tall and short, pressed close together. They bowed slowly and deeply toward "Mrs. Lei," then dissolved into the air.

  Dax's eyelid twitched at the sight, unease stirring in his chest. He scanned the room, gaze finally settling on the doorway—

  He strode over and cupped his hands formally toward Mrs. Lei: "Miss… Mrs. Lei—might we have a word in private?"

  "Mrs. Lei" was silent for a moment.

  She knew she'd been exposed. But she didn't panic, didn't make excuses, didn't even show a hint of embarrassment.

  She simply straightened her posture elegantly, lifted that perfect jawline, and fixed Ling with a look of lofty condescension.

  "You've got some skill, I'll give you that."

  Her voice had returned to calm, even carrying a hint of languid arrogance.

  "You've earned the right to have tea with me."

  Hearing movement from inside, Teon pushed open the door.

  He first glanced at the man on the bed whose fate remained uncertain, then surveyed the chaos on the floor. His face was cold, his gaze detached—like he was watching a farce that had nothing to do with him. Only when he saw "Mrs. Lei" looking slightly winded did his expression soften, brow furrowing slightly with a touch of concern.

  "Mom—are you alright?"

  "Mrs. Lei" seemed caught off guard for a moment before coming back to herself.

  "Ah… I'm fine." Her tone was somewhat dismissive.

  "I'm taking these two to discuss something." She jerked her chin toward Dax. "You handle the aftermath here."

  Teon didn't move.

  His suspicious gaze swept undisguised over Dax, then landed on Ling, lingering for two seconds.

  That look was sharp. Scrutinizing.

  "Everyone stay where you are!"

  The door slammed shut as if pushed by an invisible force, then clicked locked.

  Master Bai had lost all trace of his earlier sage-like composure. In its place was a panicked, sinister expression:

  "This old man has lost several important items. Until they're found, no one leaves this room!"

  His previously pristine white robes were now a crumpled mess, one corner of the hem even tucked into his waistband—whether from Ling not stuffing it back properly when she raided his Pouch, or from his own frantic searching, who could say.

  Master Bai's announcement transformed the pitiful moaning into outraged accusations:

  "Hey! Where's my Auspicious Compass? That's from the Qing Dynasty!"

  "My Demon-Subduing Pestle! Who's seen my Demon-Subduing Pestle?"

  "My artifacts… my precious artifacts are gone!"

  Soon, every suspicious glare was lasering in on the only two people in the room who looked perfectly normal—and had seemed off from the start—Dax and Ling.

  Even Dax shot Ling a suspicious look, though he quickly dismissed the ridiculous notion and turned his gaze to Mrs. Lei instead.

  There's no way that body of hers could break through an illusion of this level. The fox must just be collecting debts.

  Mrs. Lei stood to the side, thoroughly annoyed. She was about to say something when she caught Dax's meaningful look and suddenly remembered her father's constant nagging—the Celestial Court never leaves a job empty-handed, and worldly wisdom dictated that one must never expose such things in public.

  She swallowed her words. Fine.

  Dax still had no idea what his plus-one had been up to. And now he'd been inexplicably dragged into this mess by Ling. Still thinking he was covering for that troublemaking fox, trying to smooth things over, he volunteered:

  "Everyone, everyone—in this line of work, accidents happen. Every profession has occupational hazards, right? Tools get worn out, you deal with it yourself. If you ask me, just ask the hosts for a bit more compensation. All this talk about losing things—you make it sound like someone robbed you. Let's not go there…"

  Hearing this, the fox was literally shaking with rage: Fuck, Dad was right all along. The Court are goddamn leeches. They took stuff AND they're making me pay to smooth it over?!

  This comment also set off the masters:

  "Easy for you to say! That treasure's been in my family for eight generations! Worth eighty million—don't think you can brush this off!"

  "Yeah! Check the security cameras! We demand an explanation!"

  The room erupted in righteous fury.

  The actual culprit, meanwhile, remained perfectly composed, secretly fiddling with the Pouch in her arms:

  Huh? This has a spirit-link function. Why didn't that old fart ever turn it on?… This is also VFS's? What the hell is going on…

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Whatever. Once she connected to the spirit-link, everything in the Pouch was laid out clear as day.

  Jackpot.

  This looked like the old man's emergency bug-out package.

  Several passports with fake identities, a few kilograms of gold bars, and a seed phrase plate—probably for that blockchain currency people talked about. The Pouch couldn't read it directly, so the value was unknown.

  The real prize was a stack of high-grade talismans that were way above Master Bai's meager cultivation level: Earth Escape Talismans ×5, Thunder Strike Talismans ×3.

  Ling also dug out several pills emanating strange fragrances from his "estate": Water Avoidance Pill ×1, Qi Restoration Pellet ×2, Bone-Mending Salve ×1, and Transformation Pill ×1.

  Ling sorted through these items in the Pouch like counting beans, mentally labeling Master Bai as a "walking delivery boy."

  Wait… 27 Seduction Pills and 21 Virility Pills?

  "…Gross."

  The rest was the decent artifacts and weapons she'd stuffed in herself. She'd been wondering what they all did, and now—conveniently—she could annotate them based on everyone's wailing:

  Oh? So that compass is for… got it. And this peachwood sword… mm-hm, next… Holy— that blunt dagger's really worth that much?? If only I hadn't swallowed it. Huge loss! Dammit!

  Teon cut off the increasingly outlandish damage reports, his tone cold enough to frost glass.

  "Everyone, if I heard correctly, your so-called 'treasures' didn't seem to do much of anything."

  He swept his gaze over this disheveled group of "experts," eyes full of threat: "If this continues, I'll call the police. Extortion and fraud charges—I'm sure none of you want to see your dharma names in tomorrow's tabloid headlines. Bad for everyone's 'reputation,' wouldn't you say?"

  Some still wanted to argue, but Teon had clearly lost patience. He raised his hand to cut them off. "Your appearance fee today was agreed at fifty thousand each. But my father hasn't woken up, so the Leis cannot honor the donation portion. "

  "Now—do you want to wait for my lawyer, or come downstairs with me to collect your labor fee?"

  The masters looked at each other, lost. Then all eyes turned to their leader, Master Bai.

  Master Bai took a deep breath and gestured for everyone to stay calm. He knew today's events were murky at best, and he didn't want to fight the Leis over material things. But his venomous gaze lingered on Dax for a long moment.

  "Young Master Lei is generous. This old man will get to the bottom of today's events."

  With that, he swept out. But as he passed Ling, he covertly formed a finger seal. A wisp of barely-perceptible energy flicked from his fingertip, landing unnoticed on Ling's shoulder.

  Ling turned her head to look. A blob of faintly glowing mist had settled on her right shoulder, even trailing a gossamer thread that stretched longer as Master Bai walked away—the other end "stuck" to the back of his head.

  Ling nearly laughed out loud—did this old fart think he hadn't been generous enough? How thoughtful, planting a tracking spell. This was basically a "delivery address with GPS."

  If he was carrying this many quality artifacts that even Dax couldn't detect, then his lair… how many fresh, juicy "snacks" must be waiting there?

  Ling suddenly turned to Dax: "Do you see anything weird on me?"

  Dax gave her a baffled look: "See what? You got pepper stuck on your face from that steak earlier?"

  Ling instinctively stuck out her tongue and lightly licked the corner of her mouth.

  Sure enough. A bit of undigested artifact residue.

  This confirmed it completely—Master Bai definitely had a big fish behind him. His cultivation was above average for a mortal, but in the real cultivation world he wouldn't even qualify as a temp worker. Yet his techniques and tools were absurdly high-level—spell patterns that even Dax, an official deity, couldn't see through were no ordinary goods.

  Ling's greedy eyes curved slightly. Ghost-Eye even seemed to tremble a little with excitement.

  With Master Bai's departure, the others lost their backbone and shuffled out one by one, heads hanging—apparently planning to collect their fee first and figure things out later.

  Only one person lingered at the very back, dazed and stumbling. It was the burly man who'd been wielding the peachwood sword.

  His eyes were vacant, his whole body trembling. He was mumbling: "It's over… can't pay it back… all over."

  Ling looked toward the voice. She saw black, blood-like mist slowly gathering above the man's crown, spiraling down into his body like garbage being poured into a bin—first filling his feet, then quickly rising to his waist.

  By the time it reached his chest, the man's breathing had grown noticeably labored. When it reached his head, his eyes had turned red, staring at Teon like a vulture that hadn't eaten in three days.

  And Teon—Ling examined him carefully for the first time using Ghost-Eye's newly upgraded scanner. In contrast to his extremely cold demeanor, his aura presented as warm orange-red, with purple qi emanating from his crown—the mark of someone blessed with noble fortune. But right now, that purple qi looked infected with mold, gradually being corroded by the black energy from the burly man.

  Dax and Mrs. Lei exchanged glances. Clearly they'd noticed something was wrong too.

  Looking pained, Dax fished out a talisman, walked over, and stuffed it into the red-eyed man's arms. He patted him gently and said softly: "It'll pass. Hold on. It'll all pass."

  The man seemed to snap awake. He looked around in confusion, nodded dully, then staggered out alongside Teon.

  But Ling saw that while the black energy around him had been temporarily suppressed by Dax's talisman, the "tentacles" it had latched onto Teon hadn't receded one bit…

  The door closed. The room now held only a deity, a ghost, and a fox staring at each other—plus the corpse-like Lei Eugene.

  "Wait… what's that smell… wait!!"

  "Mrs. Lei" suddenly slapped her thigh and rushed toward the bed: "Shit shit shit it's burning! It's all your fault for interrupting! It's overdone!"

  Anyone who didn't know better would think she'd left the kitchen and burned the pot dry.

  Actually, it was pretty much the same situation. Lei was already twitching faintly, having lost control of his bladder and bowels. He was clearly on his last legs.

  The fox paced frantically, her aloof noblewoman image completely shattered, voice even cracking:

  "Ah! What do I do! He's almost burned dry! What happens when the Soul Reapers come? Lei has a hundred-year calamity fate—if he dies this early, the karma replay fine alone will bankrupt me! My dad's gonna break my legs!"

  Ling and Dax exchanged looks.

  Got it. Sheltered rich Yao kid who's never faced real consequences.

  Ling craned her neck to look at Lei. Whoa—his core spirit was down to barely palm-sized, like a drained battery, almost unable to power even the basic pacemaker functions in his brain.

  Watching the fox panic helplessly, Ling silently fished a Qi Restoration Pellet from the Pouch. One hand gripped Lei's jaw, the other roughly shoved the pill in.

  Dax startled, but before he could ask anything, Ling was already negotiating with the fox:

  "Miss Su, don't panic. We can help you keep this half-dead soul on life support, and we can have someone take over Lei's body too. But you have to agree to one condition… Don't worry, just a small favor."

  The fox looked at Ling, hesitant. She thought: A person this shameless absolutely cannot be trusted. The Underworld would just shake me down for a big sum, but this one— she’d swallow me whole and pick my bones clean.

  Seeing her hesitation, Ling directly untied the suit jacket wrapped around her and dropped it. With a "thud," a barely-alive female ghost tumbled out from the folds.

  The fox went pale: "Why is she still here?! Didn't she reincarnate ages ago?!"

  The female ghost seemed extremely allergic to the fox's aura. Within moments she began heaving violently, that murderous resentment clearly about to reconsolidate.

  Ling bullshitted on the spot: "No idea. She said someone deliberately kept a piece of her behind, wanting to trade something with you. But she missed her son— Teon, I suppose— so badly she tore herself out, even at the risk of soul annihilation."

  The female ghost was confused: Did I say that?

  Ling laughed to herself: Hehe, little fox. Other than me, you've got no one you can trust.

  The fox finally snapped. She slammed her palm on Lei's chest: "Those bastards! Wasn't what they took enough? They deliberately left this resentment to threaten me?!"

  Her gaze cut like a knife toward Dax and Ling: "So… now you two want a piece too? If I'm not mistaken, you're the Earth God of Longjiang—Jiang Dax, right?"

  Dax quickly stepped between them, crouched down, picked up the suit jacket, and wrapped the ghost back up: "What are you talking about! Misunderstanding! Total misunderstanding!"

  He stood up, smiling apologetically: "Here's the thing. Normally, when our Temple catches a vengeful spirit like this, we either disperse it on the spot or guide it to the light—depends on whether we have time. Crossing over is more trouble, of course. Have to figure out cause and effect, do targeted counseling, then write up a mountain of reports…"

  He scratched his eyebrow with his index finger, looking troubled: "Once the trail led to you, Miss Su, things got awkward, you know? It's all on paper… You might not know this, but us local temples have annual KPIs for charitable crossings. We're still two short this year. Really puts me in a bind…"

  The fox ground her teeth: "So this is what you were waiting for! Even if I…"

  "Still flapping your gums? He’s fading again," Ling said, pointing at Lei, whose breath was growing shallower by the second. "Relax. We don't want your Merit, we're not after your treasures. We just want to make a friend."

  Ling shot Dax a look. The old hand paused for only a split second before smoothly picking up the cue:"…Right! Miss Su, you know your father once helped me and my brother. Otherwise, why would I come all this way… Look, to show sincerity, let's drop everything else and get through this crisis first. I'll be right back."

  Without waiting for a response, he vanished into the ground. Less than half a minute later, he returned.

  Ling muttered, "So his most powerful spell was Earth-Escape all along…"

  Before Dax had even steadied himself, he pulled a glowing wisp of smoke from his sleeve—it was Wynn's soul, curled in the air in a fetal position, trembling continuously.

  Dax formed a one-handed seal. The soul-mist was instantly drawn into Lei's brow. Lei's whole body shuddered. His previously blue-purple complexion visibly flushed with color, his rigid limbs began twitching slightly, and a low groan escaped his throat. His eyelids fluttered as if he might wake at any moment.

  Watching Wynn’s soul rapidly synchronize with Lei’s body under the powerful bonding of the Taiyi Essence, forged through the celestial meridian, Dax finally relaxed, secretly elated, Dax finally relaxed, secretly elated—

  Wynn's physical body was gone. Even with the Essence anchoring his soul, he couldn't reincarnate or cultivate. He desperately needed a yang-rich "greenhouse" to recuperate in. And this freshly, nearly "formatted" empty shell was practically a custom-built luxury suite. With a physical body, the Essence could finally do its real work…

  But aloud, he said with great reluctance: "Sigh, Miss Su, this is the only option. To keep you from bearing karmic debt, I have to bend the rules this once and let my poor little brother here fill in temporarily… This is an enormous risk, you know."

  The fox was completely blindsided by this sudden turn of events. Between their silver tongues and their mix of threats and coaxing, she found herself led by the nose, watching helplessly as Lei was openly "swapped out."

  But regardless, the immediate crisis was averted. The fox finally exhaled, the back of her qipao completely soaked with cold sweat. As if drained dry, her legs gave out and she collapsed into a nearby chair.

  "Scared me to death… As long as he's alive, that's all that matters. Um… thank you both for today. I'll definitely have my freebie son make a donation to the temple later."

  But Dax's expression turned serious: "Miss Su, this is no small matter. What exactly happened here? Please don't dodge the question—tell us everything from the beginning, so I know how to handle this."

  Ling smiled meaningfully: "Now the three of us are in the same boat.… Damaging a mortal's soul, pulling a switcheroo to fool the Court—if your father doesn't step in, relying solely on this useless deity's meager skills… well, there’s no telling how ugly this might get..."