Chapter 30: Seeking Help at the Door!

The *Eighteen Hells Sutra* records that those in the world of the living who commit crimes, deceive their superiors and delude their subordinates, or attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of heaven, shall enter the Mirror of Retribution Hell after death. There, they must face the mirror that reveals their sins, and be sentenced according to their transgressions.

At noon, in the grand hall of the "Haunted House," Chu Tian, Chen Meng, Chu Meng'er, and Song Shiyun—one human, one fox, and two ghosts—were gathered around a table enjoying a hotpot.

In the bubbling red broth, slices of meat rose and fell.

Business at the haunted house was slow at midday. Although everyone knew that visiting a haunted house at night doubled the terror, there were always those who, knowing there were tigers on the mountain, insisted on heading straight toward them.

"Hey, that piece of tripe is mine!"

"Whoever grabs it first gets it!"

Under Song Shiyun’s indignant glare, Chu Tian popped the tripe directly into his mouth. Song Shiyun could only mutter under her breath about her stingy boss, who refused to pay her a salary, exploited her every day, and even stole the meat from her bowl.

Chu Meng'er was busy eating vegetables from her own little bowl, sipping cold water with a hiss whenever the spice hit, yet she remained utterly delighted. To this little ghost king, all of this was a novel life experience.

As for Chen Meng, she fished a cooked chicken leg out of the pot. After all, to a fox, everything in the world is meant to be stewed with chicken legs.

"By the way, you seem quite busy lately. Have you run into any troublesome wild ghosts?" Chen Meng asked, looking at Chu Tian while gnawing on her chicken leg.

"I haven't encountered any real trouble, but there is one thing that’s quite interesting," Chu Tian replied. "Speaking of which, I don't think I even know what you’ve been doing every day lately."

After all, Chu Tian spent his nights catching ghosts and his days catching up on sleep at the haunted house. Chen Meng also went out every day and returned at night; apart from dropping off and picking up Chu Meng'er from kindergarten, her whereabouts were a mystery.

"Working, of course," Chen Meng said to Chu Tian. "I am, after all, a prominent fox demon of the Fox Clan. I have to look after the juniors who come out into the world."

"Working? Doing what?" Chu Tian asked.

"Livestreaming!" Chen Meng said, pulling out her phone to show him a livestream. The young girl on the screen looked full of vitality, cosplaying as Ahri. Her expressions and gestures were charming, and the gifts kept pouring in. "She’s a young fox who just attained human form, having cultivated for only a little over a hundred years. She just joined my agency, and she’s our main focus lately!"

"Are you kidding?" Chu Tian looked at the beautiful girl and raised an eyebrow. "Those fox ears and the tail she’s cosplaying with..."

"They're real!" Chen Meng declared. "Do you think we need to use fakes to cosplay as foxes?"

"Hiss..." Chu Tian drew a breath and nodded in acknowledgment. "But still... she’s a fox demon who has cultivated for over a hundred years. Doesn't she feel like she's lowering her standards by jumping around in a livestream, acting cute just to please those people?"

"Lowering her standards?" Chen Meng glanced at Chu Tian and shook her head. "Big brother, do you know the saying that money can make a ghost grind grain? Do you think demons have always had it easy throughout history?"

"Is there some other side to the story?" Chu Tian asked, looking at Chen Meng with confusion.

"There’s a huge story behind it. Back in the feudal eras, there were plenty of demons, but there were also plenty of cultivators. Battles between righteousness and evil, between humans and demons, were commonplace," Chen Meng explained. "Many small demons lived in constant fear of losing their lives. If they ran into some righteous hero, it didn't matter if you were a good demon or a bad demon—you might just get cut down. Besides, no matter how powerful a demon is, unless you reach the level of a demon immortal and can ascend, you still need to eat and drink. Why do you think some demons in ancient legends ate humans? It was because they were hungry! If there were enough food, who would want to eat humans and incur karma and evil fate for nothing?"

"And so life is easier now?" Chu Tian asked skeptically.

"It’s incredibly easy," Chen Meng said while eating. "Although the state has regulations that supernatural powers cannot be known to ordinary people—the 'no demons allowed after the founding of the nation' policy—that doesn't just govern us demons; it governs those cultivators and supernatural beings as well. As long as you don't commit crimes, who would dare to kill us demons for no reason? If it weren't for that, how many hundred-year-old demons like little Duoduo would dare to show their faces in public? As for you worrying about her acting cute and jumping around? Big brother, that’s just a basic skill for us foxes. She only needs to act sweet and say 'Brother Wuji' a couple of times, and the gifts she receives in a day are enough to buy her fried chicken for half a year. Which dynasty's foxes have ever been as happy as we are now?"

Hearing this, Chu Tian was stunned. Damn it, he had assumed this was an age of末法 (the end of the Dharma/magic), yet here they were, treating this era as if it were a paradise.

And their logic was surprisingly sound.

"That makes sense!" Chu Tian said after a long pause.

Just then, a man and a woman pushed the door open and walked in. Looking at the group eating, they asked, "Excuse me—is Master Chu Tian here?"

Chu Tian, who had been sitting with his back to the door, turned around. He saw that the handsome man and beautiful woman had an unmistakable look of exhaustion, and their bodies were shrouded in ghostly aura.

"I am he," Chu Tian said, looking at the pair.

The ghostly aura on them was not unfamiliar to Chu Tian; it was the exact same aura as the ghost fox he had let go a couple of days ago!

"You are Master Chu?" Seeing Chu Tian's youthful appearance, the man’s face betrayed a hint of doubt. Chu Tian simply looked too young.

"I am," Chu Tian said. A faint blue light flickered in his eyes as his "Ghost-Catcher Pupils" seemed to want to peer right through the two of them.

Once his Ghost-Catcher Pupils reached a higher level of cultivation, they could evolve into the "Judge's Pupils," which could reveal a person's lifetime of merits and sins at a single glance. Although Chu Tian hadn't reached that level yet, he could still vaguely assess the merits and sins of these two.

However, after just one look, Chu Tian’s expression turned strange, and his gaze toward them became deeply meaningful.

The evils committed by people in the world of the living are all imprinted upon their souls. After death, when they enter the eighteen levels of hell, walk the Road of the Yellow Springs, pass the Stone of Three Lives, and enter the Hall of Yama, their merits and sins from their mortal life become clear to the eyes of the ghost officials.

After being judged by a judge, their fate—whether to be cast into the eighteen levels of hell or to be reincarnated—is decided.

But a human life, even a long one, spans only a century. For ordinary people, there is a limit to the good or evil they can commit. Even a serial killer who has taken countless lives would have a finite amount of sin recorded on their soul. Even a legendary "butcher general" whose killings far exceeded those of an ordinary person would have their merits and sins offset, ultimately leaving a manageable amount. But these two people before him... under Chu Tian's Ghost-Catcher Pupils, their sins were as thick as black ink, too numerous to record.

Looking at them, they seemed to be in their twenties. If they committed one evil act a day, it would take them twenty years to accomplish what a great villain usually takes a century to do!