The neighbor possessed by Jade also asked, “Which department and which prison of the underworld are you from?”

Ashley Grant replied with a face full of sincerity, “The kitchen unit.”

Chapter 5: Can You Be Even More Malicious?

The female ghosts didn’t understand the underworld; they were fierce spirits lingering in the human world, and had only heard rumors about the various departments, but no one ever mentioned what logistics departments the underworld had...

However.

She looked into this wuchang’s eyes and felt he was truly sincere.

Ashley Grant had already begun his performance: “The mask on my face is to prevent droplet splashes. Do you know the Luyuan Hotel in the capital? Before I died, I was the executive chef there. We mainly made Huaiyang cuisine, and also stewed medicinal dishes. Because of the higher-ups’ preferences, I even learned to make tea snacks. I usually don’t come out, but you know how things are in the underworld—sometimes a dish needs gold leaf as garnish, and they even made me provide the gold leaf myself. Does gold leaf actually affect the taste? Not at all, it just adds value. I died poor, so I’m always looking around to see if any ghost has gold I can... you know, borrow.”

Back in school, he was always good at improvisation. He’d even played a chef before, and with some inspiration from Old White’s greedy character, his performance was quite convincing.

At this moment, it didn’t matter that his audience was ghosts—the parking lot was his stage.

Ruby and Jade looked at Ashley Grant, feeling even more convinced he wasn’t lying.

Maybe his real intention was just that he smelled a ghost and wanted to extort a little?

With what little rationality they had left, they analyzed: since he wasn’t here to meddle, there was no need to make things difficult for him. Even if he was from the kitchen unit, he was still an underworld messenger.

“All right, this chef is so long-winded.” Jade, using the neighbor’s mouth, said impatiently, “Get lost. If we do anything to you, it’d be bullying with numbers.”

The neighbor had already lost the will to fight. There were two of them, and only one Ashley Grant—it wouldn’t be bullying.

Ashley Grant spread his hands. “See you around. Wish you a swift journey to the afterlife.”

He took a few steps back, then suddenly pulled a handful of paper oxen and horses from his coat and tossed them out.

“Oxen and horses know the way to the underworld city, forever leaving the mountains and caves of the mortal realm. Paper and ink can’t express what I’d say to King Yan, but even in darkness, my eyes are bright.”

The paper oxen and horses grew in the wind, and in the blink of an eye, herds of them came alive, swishing their heads and tails, separating Ruby from the possessed neighbor.

—The underworld and the mortal world overlap in some ways, but are invisible to each other. For a ghost to use paper effigies, someone from the other world must send (burn) them over. But since Ashley Grant brought them into the spirit world himself, he could skip that step and just activate them.

Ashley Grant lowered his right hand, and the chain wrapped around his wrist fell down as well.

Seeing the situation, Ruby and Jade immediately realized they’d been tricked. What kind of chef carries a soul-capturing chain?

Ruby was exposed, the red on her body growing even more vivid—like blood. But before she could react, there was a “moo” and a “neigh,” and the herd of oxen and horses charged, knocking her down and trampling her a dozen times over.

Bullying with numbers? Now this was bullying with numbers.

Meanwhile, Ashley Grant tossed the soul-capturing chain, looping it around the “neighbor.”

The “neighbor” was instantly jolted, screaming and falling to the ground, rolling several times, unwilling to leave the body.

Ashley Grant gripped the chain and stepped forward, seeing the body convulse and a green, overlapping figure appear.

Suddenly, the “neighbor” sprang up, both hands turning a dark green-black, trying to strangle Ashley Grant.

Ashley Grant tilted his head and punched the “neighbor” hard in the face.

He looked fair-skinned and even a bit thin, but he wasn’t frail—he worked out regularly. How else could he handle the long nights filming?

That punch was practically a physical soul-capture. The “neighbor”’s nose gushed blood as he fell backward, while the green ghostly shadow remained seated, unable to keep up with the body’s movements.

“Come on!” Ashley Grant yanked the chain, and Jade was completely pulled out of the neighbor’s body, dragged up by Ashley Grant, still struggling to punch and kick him.

The neighbor lay limp on the ground, unconscious.

Over there, the trampling was still fierce. Ruby was nearly flattened, struggling to her feet with a shrill scream.

The parking lot lights flickered in unison with her scream. Her fingernails grew long and sharp, furiously clawing at the oxen and horses. Since they were made of paper, a few were torn apart, letting out low moans before collapsing to the ground and turning to paper scraps.

Ashley Grant threw out the remaining paper oxen and horses. Now that his hands were free, he could have used the soul-capturing chain, but it was his first time seeing his own origami come to life, so he couldn’t help but watch a bit longer out of curiosity.

Ruby saw that Ashley Grant had already chained up Jade, and grew even more furious, tearing at everything in front of her in a frenzy.

The soul-capturing chain was the bane of evil spirits. Even though it was a knockoff of the chains used by the Black and White Impermanence, it was more than enough to subdue them.

Jade realized things were going badly and pleaded with Ashley Grant, “Sir, I have gold leaf! Someone burned me a whole handful when they wanted to harm someone. I’ll give it all to you—just take back those oxen and horses, she can’t take it anymore.”

Conditions down below weren’t great, and corruption among underworld messengers was rampant. But even so, the gold and silver that ghosts received was limited, and after discarding the fake coins, there wasn’t much left.

She figured that even if Ashley Grant wasn’t a chef, he wouldn’t turn down gold.