"Re... returning to work after passing away is also possible?" Tan Xiao looked at her with new respect. He never imagined that in this day and age, not only could one return to work after retirement, but even after death. It suddenly gave him a whole new perspective on the afterlife.

In life, why bother sleeping in? After death, there's no way to rest in peace either, haha.

"If the living can work part-time as death's messengers, of course ghosts can return to work after passing." Mu Fei calmly said, though in her heart she was terrified of dying. She feared that even after death, she would still have to write reports!

That thin man had already floated over. "You must be classmate Tan Xiao, I know of you. I am Liu Qingquan, a senior staff member of 404."

Senior indeed, very senior...

Tan Xiao couldn't help but look at him a few more times. This was only Tan Xiao's second time seeing a ghost. The first time was just earlier today, and it was only after Lin Yang's uncle disappeared that he realized that was a ghost. It was truly magical, he really wanted to know what they were made of.

"Hehe, this Jinjiang server is just a newly cultivated spirit of an object, not yet in human form. Even if it has some tricks, there's no need to worry." Liu Qingquan was indeed a senior staff member, looking like he had seen it all. "We'll split into three paths and catch it like a turtle in an urn."

When spirits and monsters cultivate, only after gaining a human body are they formidable. The imperial essence descended, this server had only just gained consciousness as an artifact spirit, barely growing two legs, not even having a human form yet, just innately possessing some tricks.

No wonder in those ancient records of strange tales, people could use various little tricks to scare household objects that had turned into spirits from age.

"Comrade Mu Fei will pursue from the front door, classmate Tan Xiao will block the back door, and I will intercept from the middle." Liu Qingquan arranged.

Tan Xiao was puzzled for a moment, "Middle?"

Liu Qingquan pointed at the ground, "Mm, I'll go from below."

Tan Xiao: "..."

Tan Xiao was speechless. He dryly said: "Below, there's a path, huh."

"There's more than just a path." Mu Fei sighed. "Sometimes we have to borrow those paths too. The roads below are built together with the ones above, so when I first joined our office, the first thing was to memorize by heart the main roads of the underworld."

After all, quite a few missions didn't even use living world addresses as coordinates, but rather the roads of the underworld.

Tan Xiao and Mu Fei had both looked at the map of this place, while Liu Qingquan didn't need to. His route was different from everyone else's. After the two humans and one ghost agreed on the plan, they split up and headed towards the cold storage.

The Nanchu Funeral Home stored remains in the refrigeration room and freezer room, each of which had individual compartments, but were all next to each other.

Mu Fei gripped the key and inserted it into the door of the refrigeration room. With a click, it unlocked.

This sound wasn't actually loud, but in the empty refrigeration room it was especially grating. She pushed the door open, and that heavy metal door let out another dull creak.

A gust of cold air hit her face.

In front of her were rows and rows of shelves, with bodies resting between them. A departed soul slumbered in each compartment.

Mu Fei held a talisman in her hand and slowly stepped into the refrigeration room, feeling goosebumps all over.

Her gaze swept around as she stepped forward, her whole body tensing up. Just as Liu Qingquan said, even if it had some tricks, this was just an artifact spirit that had just taken form. How powerful could it be?

It couldn't possibly be as formidable as a thousand-year-old monster like Xiong Hui, hahaha.

Mu Fei suppressed her pounding heart. The individual compartments of the refrigeration room were right in front of her. She took a step forward--

As her toes stepped on the floor, she saw the ground glow with blue light. The blue light spiraled upwards in streams. She focused her gaze and saw that between the blue light were countless "1"s and "0"s.

The blue data streams enveloped Mu Fei. In the blink of an eye, before her eyes was a pure black space!

Then, a mechanical and icy male voice spoke: "Dear player, welcome to being chosen for the 【Infinite Survival Game】. Please look forward to your thrilling journey!"

"The instance 【Slashing Ghosts for Divination】 is about to begin."

"Three, two, one--"

Mu Fei was dumbstruck, her pupils suddenly dilating as panic rose uncontrollably.

......

Tan Xiao arrived at the back door, unlocked it, and entered. It was indeed very cold.

Inside the refrigeration room, there was only dim lighting. He could see the outlines of bodies lined up on the shelves under white sheets, making him uneasy.

Last time he was completely unprepared. This time he was helping on the scene. Tan Xiao really wasn't used to this kind of situation.

Being at a funeral was already his limit, and there were many people present then.

It's fine, I'm just responsible for blocking the back. Maybe Liu Qingquan and Mu Fei have already caught the artifact spirit.

Tan Xiao stood at the back door for a while, but there was no movement, not even a sound. He felt something was off. Closing the door behind him, he walked inside.

"Sister Mu? Senior Liu?" Tan Xiao called out a few times but heard no response. His steps quickened.

There was a turn ahead. Tan Xiao rushed over and made a sharp turn. Before him was still an empty expanse. The lights even flickered a few times, turning a dark red, making the whole room look like it was smeared with blood.

Tan Xiao's footsteps halted. The feeling that something was wrong intensified.

Tan Xiao's gaze turned back, sliding over the bodies he had intentionally or unintentionally ignored before. These bodies were all covered, only vaguely revealing human-shaped outlines, with some feet exposed.

His line of sight slid over rows of bodies. Under the red light, Tan Xiao's gaze fell on a pair of feet wearing leather shoes.

He walked over, already trying to be as quiet as possible, but still ended up making tapping sounds on the floor, especially noticeable in the silent refrigeration room.

Flicker--

Tap tap--

Tan Xiao walked up to the pair of feet and took a deep breath.

Suddenly, that body slid out entirely, forcefully colliding with Tan Xiao. Tan Xiao was pushed back several steps, bumping into another body before stopping.

"Sorry, sorry." Tan Xiao quickly said. Raising his eyes, he saw that what was in front of him wasn't a human-shaped body at all, but clearly a black cabinet. Inside, rather than machinery, were countless intertwined blue data streams. Below the cabinet, shockingly, was a pair of legs, even wearing suit pants and leather shoes.

This cabinet had no eyes, but Tan Xiao clearly felt it was "making eye contact" with him. He could even sense it was a bit stunned.

"It" was indeed stunned, not understanding why its illusion only confused Tan Xiao for a few seconds.

Tan Xiao thought, this must be it, right? What should I do? Last time when encountering Xiong Hui, there was the Shaman figurine as an example. Without thinking, he used the same methods as the Shaman figurine.

Now what? In principle, exorcising ghosts and catching spirits to cure illnesses was a shaman's specialty.

Tan Xiao stepped forward, his hands ready to make a decisive move.

Spirit masters have mastered countless hand seals, each with its own purpose. In fact, they originated from the Chu shaman dance, a kind of sign language for communicating with ghosts and gods, which can also be used in combination.

The palm is yin, and the back of the hand is yang. Yin and yang are different. When performing rituals for the living, yang should be used, while for the deceased, yin should be used.

The ever-changing hand seals alone can replace many things. For example, making the "Golden Bridge" and "Immortal Crane" seals can be used to invite and send off gods and guide the way. The "Shackle Seal" can shackle ghosts, and different ghosts have different corresponding hand seals.

But what should be used to capture a server?

The theoretical knowledge Tan Xiao learned included how to deal with cat spirits, drowned ghosts, wronged ghosts... and what hand seals to use against each. But how to catch this server! My ancestors didn't research this!

The server took a step with both legs, looking like it was about to run.

Tan Xiao was anxious. Regardless of anything else, he directly made a Small Golden Blade Seal. The Small Golden Blade Seal is used to slay evil and naturally belongs to yin.

Tan Xiao pressed his thumbs on his bent middle and ring fingers, with his index and little fingers raised, much like the gesture rock music fans make, but with the back of his hands facing up, pointing directly at the spirit, with a hint of uncertainty: "The general prepares the horse, closes his eyes and points back to the distant palace?"

The server cursed inwardly, are you asking me here?

But the next moment, it flew out, with deep slash marks appearing on its back, almost denting the surface of the chassis, sparking with electricity.

Oh, it worked.

Tan Xiao was about to make a Big Golden Blade Seal. This Big Golden Blade Seal, as the name suggests, is even more fierce than the Small Golden Blade.

The server's feet rubbed against the floor a couple of times, but it didn't get up. Thinking that the person opposite still looked uncertain, it felt even more devastated, shouting in horror and anger: "Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, I belong to metal, and I'm also an electrical appliance, you could at least try drowning me with water!!"

"You directly slash me with a blade! Big brother, are you a psychopath?!!"

Tan Xiao: "..."

Damn, he really didn't expect the solution to be like this, and felt a bit embarrassed.

Tan Xiao continued to make the Golden Blade Seal, deciding to try slashing it again. He had only read in theoretical knowledge before that each hand seal could represent a real symbolic object, but he didn't expect it to be true.

The server retreated straight to the corner of the wall, its feet also curled up. "Don't slash, if you break it, the data will be lost!"

When it said that, Tan Xiao couldn't make a move. He took out his cell phone on the spot and called Mu Fei.

After a while, Mu Fei finally answered: "Hello?"

Tan Xiao could hear her voice not far away: "Sister Mu, where are you? I caught it."

"Hmm?!" Mu Fei sounded like she had just woken up, making Tan Xiao suspect that she had taken a nap somewhere.

Before long, Mu Fei was seen running over. Liu Qingquan also arrived unhurriedly, emerging from the ground. His grayish-green face looked even more unsightly as he stood with his hands behind his back: "We underestimated this fellow. It actually has extremely powerful illusion techniques. This new batch of spirits is really something."

The point was, he and Mu Fei were not novices, yet they were also entranced by this illusion.

This really didn't seem like an ability a newly formed spirit could have.

Mu Fei stepped on its suit pants with one foot: "You're quite capable."

Damn, she was so scared that she really thought she had been pulled into an infinite flow. When Tan Xiao called, she was still seriously playing a dungeon in the illusion!

So, the one with even greater ability was... Mu Fei glanced at Tan Xiao. Tan Xiao didn't seem to be affected at all and had pinned the server here.

She suddenly remembered that last time in the Chu emperor's tomb, the others also said they had encountered illusions. The Xiong Hui was a master at creating illusions, but she and Tan Xiao didn't encounter any dangerous illusions. At that time, she just thought they were lucky. It seemed that her little brother had exceptional talent and was immune to illusions.

Ugh, she felt sour.

The blue data stream surged inside the chassis. Although the server was well-versed in transformations, its own combat power was only that of a newly formed spirit. How dare it move? It only muttered: "I'm only so-so."

Liu Qingquan looked at its data stream and said thoughtfully: "It's a server for a novel website, right?"

"Yes."

"Usually, for spirits to cultivate and form a Dao body, they imitate humans to become an object. But this server was born with countless stories stored within its body. It can even be said that it is the data incarnation of these stories."

"These stories encompass all aspects of the world, depicting the myriad facets of life and the seven emotions and six desires."

"From the moment it was born, it had a worldly spirituality."

No wonder it had some unusual abilities. It was even able to escape for so long in this new world it encountered for the first time, under the pursuit of 404.

Liu Qingquan's explanation made sense not only to Tan Xiao and Mu Fei but even to the server itself. It also didn't know how it was born with so much knowledge.

"Don't mention it. This guy's hacking skills are not bad either. It even took out the human disaster backup." Mu Fei knew that from the server provider and technicians to the authors and readers, they were probably dying of anxiety.

She said to it, "Usually for new spirits like you, we provide free guidance on survival rules. Unfortunately, you guys always like to cause trouble. Now you've done it. You'll have to work like an ox and horse to make up for the losses - for both the living and the dead."

There was no way around it. New things always wanted to try and see what they could do and where they stood in this world.

This spirit had scammed the website and server provider and caused damage to the funeral home and Uncle Lin. It would have to compensate with money and incense.

"Let me take a photo first..." Mu Fei took out a camera and photographed the scene and the criminal one by one. "Do you have a name?"

The first step for spirits learning from humans was, of course, to give themselves a name. High-level spirits would all give themselves names.

The server instinctively said coldly: "Just call me Young Master Jin."

Mu Fei applied more force with her foot, stomping down hard again. "Young Master Jin, huh? You like to pretend to be a main character, don't you?"

The server humbly shouted: "Ah Jin, just call me Ah Jin!"

"Alright, first restore their backup. Otherwise, I'll take you to the capital and directly export your data." Mu Fei threatened, "I'm in a hurry to close the case here. Hurry up."

The data was now part of the server's original body. Ah Jin shrank back and said softly: "I don't know how to restore it. I just did it subconsciously at that time. I really don't know how to undo it. Really."

Mu Fei and Liu Qingquan exchanged glances.

This was a bit troublesome. It had no reason to lie at this point. It probably spoke the truth. Its abilities exceeded those of ordinary new spirits. It had unconsciously used its abilities without knowing the rules, but it hadn't even figured out how to reverse it.

"You really are..." Mu Fei pressed her head. Her specialty was runes, while Liu Qingquan excelled in actual combat. Glancing at Tan Xiao beside her, she tentatively asked, "Can you shamans break techniques?"

"Theoretically it's possible, but I don't know how to counter the server probably. I'll try summoning a god." Tan Xiao showed her his backpack, having even found time to go home and grab his gear.

Tan Xiao pulled out a wooden mask from inside, adorned with gold and red patterns and dangling with colorful tassels.

"A full-face mask this time, not using the peacock?" Mu Fei asked. She could tell at a glance this was the mask that had been hanging in the center of the wall at Tan Xiao's home.

Tan Xiao: "Mm-hmm, I figured if the peacock is so powerful, wouldn't summoning the phoenix be even more powerful."

This was the mask of the phoenix.

Liu Qingquan glanced at Tan Xiao, a hint of doubt in his voice: "Can you really summon the phoenix?"

No matter which sect, being able to summon higher ranks undoubtedly meant you were more powerful.

Liu Qingquan knew that the phoenix was equivalent to the top tier of shamans. Could it be summoned so casually?

Mu Fei had no doubts, but it was Liu Qingquan's first time meeting Tan Xiao after all.

"Don't know, let's try." Tan Xiao said nonchalantly. It wasn't embarrassing if he couldn't summon it anyway. His main profession was travel tourism; they weren't in the same lane.

Liu Qingquan called out, and saw that Tan Xiao had already set up a simple altar.

Due to insufficient conditions this time and no time to prepare food offerings, Tan Xiao chose to burn incense wood. It involved stuffing sandalwood into a pottery jar and smoldering it.

There was no open flame, only the fragrance of the wood and a wisp of blue smoke.

This could be said to be the shamans' bluff - using this to simulate the smoke from cooking - even shamans had times when they couldn't eat their fill. If they themselves couldn't eat enough, they could only use incense wood and hand seals when making offerings.

Tan Xiao was seen wearing the phoenix mask, making a few more seals to substitute for the offering items, and finally tapping the edge of the jar with "hunger-striking" knocks.

Ding, ding, ding--

After seven strikes, Tan Xiao chanted: "The sun bird cries before spring arrives, incense burns before the god is invited. Incense smoke curls around the misty hall, the heavenly gate opens and dark clouds gather..."

Inside the mask, Tan Xiao closed his eyes.

In a flash, he saw a pair of eyes again.

Then, these eyes actually gradually became clearer, expanding to reveal an entire face, male.

Just as Tan Xiao was in a daze, he felt his collar being grabbed. Opening his eyes, he found that face had truly appeared before him!

A spirit that seemed both real and illusory grabbed him, wearing a malachite-colored robe embroidered with gold thread, hair half-tied up adorned with feather gold pendants, incomparably luxurious, carrying an air of looking down on the world, feet slightly hovering off the ground. Combined with the insubstantial figure, it was immediately clear it was unlikely to be human, at least not a living person.

The "phoenix" descended, gaze holding a lofty disdain as it overlooked the mortal world, its ethereal voice carrying a clear echo, filled with fearsome anger: "Summoning me before the altar, you dare use incense smoke?!"

Beside them, Ah Jin who had just become a spirit, faced with the great god's presence, was already trembling all over, unable to move.

Liu Qingquan was also a creature of yin, slightly better off than Ah Jin, but also not daring to directly face the divine light's pressure, said in shock: "You summoned the true body of the phoenix?!"

What he had imagined was that even if the phoenix was summoned, it would be a spiritual response from the void, not this kind of physical manifestation.

Unexpectedly, hearing this, the god's anger grew even greater. "I am the son of the phoenix."

Huh, peacock?

Why call the phoenix and get the peacock.

Tan Xiao was surprised like the others, but in addition to pure surprise, Tan Xiao also felt a bit of joy.

He had previously asked the peacock for help twice, and the other party had given him a lot of face both times. So even though the wrong person had come, after his surprised confusion, Tan Xiao still immediately said warmly: "Is it the great god Peacock? Why is it you?"

The delight in Tan Xiao's tone was not hard to distinguish at all, causing the anger filling Kong Xuan to be slightly smoothed.

However, it was still too unacceptable.

Kong Xuan approached and leaned in close to Tan Xiao. For a moment, Tan Xiao felt a strange sensation surge in his heart, as if his pulse resonated with the other's. Could it be because gods and shamans had accompanied each other through the vicissitudes of a thousand years? He looked at the peacock in a daze.

Kong Xuan narrowed his phoenix eyes and said: "The Chu shaman and phoenix have a thousand-year incense pledge. I will take on my mother's role... You have already been passed on to me."

Author's note:

Kong Xuan: Bet you didn't expect both hotline calls would be answered by me.

Mu Fei: We've already started the dungeon run and you're telling me it's fake (manually waving goodbye)