GRMFBS CH41

Without any other keywords to search with, and only relying on the “Linyuan King” threads to scroll backward, Zhan Yan could only dig back about three years. But in those three years, not a single gossip thread had surfaced.

If the Linyuan King wasn’t dead, which Zhan Yan wasn’t even sure of how ghosts die, then even if he had been imprisoned, there should’ve been some daily gossip. The Chongming Demon King just preens his feathers and still ends up in the rumor mill.

Zhan Yan suddenly remembered seeing a gossip post titled “Former Ghost King” a while back. It was about that starving ghost who’d been sugar-shocked by one of his brother’s cakes. That “former ghost king” was apparently a hardcore savory-food lover.

If that “former ghost king” was actually the Linyuan King… Zhan Yan couldn’t help but wonder how many points he could earn if he sold this info to the Wanyan Ghost King.

But on second thought, he dropped the idea. He didn’t even know how the Linyuan King became a “former” ghost king, nor did he know the details. If he messed this up, he might end up offending a disgraced ghost king.

School was about to start, and Zhan Yan, still feeling the sense of urgency brought on by the appearance of Code Anomaly No. 2, decided not to save up for the premium talisman he had previously had his eye on. Instead, he checked what kind of protection he could afford right now with his points, just enough to give everyone in the family one.

Zhan Yan opened the forum’s points-exchange tab and started scrolling. He soon remembered seeing something before: the Danxiang Seal.

It was usually used to charge other talismans, but it had some metaphysical effects on its own—like boosting one’s ability to avoid misfortune and attract good luck.

Zhan Yan’s points weren’t enough to buy powerful talismans that were both suitable for regular people and effective against code anomalies or the entity creating them. So why not take another route?

A single Danxiang Seal was weak on its own, but it had a very popular trait: it could be stacked. The more you stacked, the stronger the effect. Theoretically, there was no limit. But no one went that far because after a certain point, the power gain diminished sharply while the energy drain increased rapidly.

Still, it was excellent as a charging reserve. Near that “curve inflection” point, a set of them could function as an energy bank.

Some powerful talismans were so domineering that they could automatically absorb energy from Danxiang Seals—like having a portable battery.

This way, when Zhan Yan eventually earned more points and upgraded to better talismans, the Danxiang Seals wouldn’t go to waste.

Best of all—they didn’t need to be worn physically. That was Zhan Yan’s favorite part. He hadn’t figured out how to convince his dad, mom, brother, and sister to keep wearing anything he gave them!

After deciding on what to buy, the next issue was how to get it.

The thing couldn’t be sent digitally. It needed physical delivery. But that also meant picking up the package himself, which risked him being tracked.

He needed an intermediary.

Zhan Yan opened his forum DMs. Since taking on missions, he’d made contact with quite a few people, but only a few were familiar enough.

“JustSavedTheWorld” was a no-go—he was on the run himself. The only other viable options were “Fang Pai” and “Hacker.”

But their situation was a little awkward. Zhan Yan wasn’t sure if they were still in a weird place with him. If so, it’d be uncomfortable to reach out—they might even be annoyed just seeing his name.

He checked the gossip system for updates.

Whoa! They’d started teaming up on missions again! It had only been half a month. The hacker had sorted it all out already?

Scroll up. Let’s see what happened.

Turns out, when the hacker went to talk to Fang Pai to come clean, he had already resolved half the issue.

He started by apologizing, then reminisced about their tightly knit past and the countless dangerous missions they’d survived together—how Fang Pai had saved him many times.

Fang Pai couldn’t get anything more out of him. Seeing how ominous his words sounded, he panicked and said, “You saved me many times too.”

The two of them had a heartfelt walk down memory lane. Then the hacker explained why he had been MIA recently and revealed the truth little by little.

Fang Pai finally remembered how many times the hacker had saved him. He was so stunned he couldn’t even get mad right away.

And once you don’t get mad right then, it’s hard to get mad later.

And then after that… Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Now that the two had reconciled, Zhan Yan no longer had to hesitate about asking for help.

He asked Fang Pai to be the intermediary. Fang Pai was especially good at sealing techniques—once the package passed through his hands, any tracking spells on it would be mostly disabled.

Then he asked Fang Pai to forward it to “Big Heart,” a place with high foot traffic. Zhan Yan could then check for tracking magic using his gossip system before picking it up.

Meanwhile, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau received a big order.

“Who the hell spent that many points on Danxiang Seals?!” someone from the Equipment Department yelled.

“How many?” someone else leaned over to look at the screen.

“Look—six full sets.”

“Must be to recharge talismans, right?”

“What kind of talisman needs that many Danxiang Seals? One set can charge three premium talismans!”

“Maybe it’s for a top-tier talisman?”

“Get outta here! If someone had a talisman like that, would they need Danxiang Seals to charge it? I’m sending a message to check—maybe the forum backend glitched.” The warehouse manager sent a message to Nie Yu.

Nie Yu checked the backend, then contacted Ning Xi. The buyer was Fang Pai, but looking at the point transfer history, it was obvious that “Approaching Science” was using him as a go-between.

Ning Xi was stumped. Did “Approaching Science” have a top-tier talisman or artifact that needed that much energy?

But why hadn’t he bought anything before? Did he just get it recently? From the Wan Yao Alliance, maybe? The Chongming Demon King had funded double-point missions before—he was totally capable of gifting a powerful artifact too.

Wait, no. If it was a gift, wouldn’t the Demon King have fully charged it before handing it over?

So…

While Ning Xi was still caught in a mental storm, Luo Wang—who had been monitoring “Approaching Science”—also noticed the huge point transaction and quickly figured it out.

??? Didn’t you say you were saving up to buy  Tianshi’s Thunder Talisman? Why are you buying so many Danxiang Seals?

Wait a minute… Could it be that the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau already gave him a Thunder Talisman to win him over?

It wasn’t impossible. Their Demon King would totally do something like that!

Top-tier talismans are notoriously power-hungry—was “Approaching Science” buying all those Danxiang Seals just to feed it?

That would make total sense!

No! I need to contact the Chongming Demon King ASAP—!

……

Lately, Zhan Yan felt that something was off—both the Lingyu and the Luo Wang seemed to be treating him much better than before.

But that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was his sister, Zhan Suiru.

She was ridiculously sharp and had been trying to probe him every day recently—trying to find out if he was dating someone.

Zhan Yan decided to redirect the trouble: “Brother’s been coming home way later than usual every day. Aren’t you curious about that?”

Zhan Jinli’s cake shop didn’t get much traffic. Normally, it closed pretty early—sometimes as early as 4 PM. But lately, he’d been coming back late, around 8 or 9 at night.

Zhan Suiru rubbed her chin. “That’s true. That does seem suspicious…”

Zhan Yan remained poker-faced. He had already scrolled through his brother’s gossip threads—there was nothing going on. Not even a visit to some secret love hotel. His brother was probably working on a new dessert idea again. But he couldn’t say that to his sister. Otherwise, who was he going to use to divert her attention?

Zhan Suiru muttered, “Still, with his personality, I doubt there’s really anything going on… Hey! Don’t run!”

As if! You think I’m going to stay here and get interrogated?

Zhan Yan bolted straight to his room.

—

Sweet Sweet Cake Shop.

Zhan Jinli looked out at the sky. The light was fading, yang energy slowly ebbing, and yin energy beginning to rise. It was the perfect time for ghostly beings to move about. He walked to the door to close the shop.

A pair of girl friends passed by on the street.

The short-haired girl was sobbing, “That bastard boss made me work an extra month before firing me!”

Her long-haired friend was trying to comfort her.

As they passed the shop entrance, a wave of irresistibly sweet aroma hit them, stopping both in their tracks. They swallowed hard.

They exchanged a glance.

“How about…”

“Let’s go eat cake!”

Zhan Jinli stood at the door: …

He lifted the Closed for the Day sign.

But the girls peered through the glass at the beautiful display of golden pastries, snowy white cream cakes, flaky layered tarts… nuts, cream, cheese, fruit… They both swallowed again and looked at Zhan Jinli with longing.

“Just one. It won’t take long.”

“Even if it’s past its best-by date, we’re okay with it.”

One girl’s eyes were still red from crying.

Zhan Jinli silently stepped aside.

The two girls entered while thanking him profusely, then noticed another sign inside. The masked shopkeeper pointed it out to them:
“Warning: Shop Owner Has a Faulty Sense of Taste – EXTREMELY SWEET!”

 The words “extremely sweet” were bolded and enlarged.

“No worries! We just want something really sweet right now!” The long-haired girl waved it off without fear.

Not wanting to delay his closing time, the long-haired girl quickly picked two elegant small cakes. “Forget that idiot boss—I’m treating you to dessert!”

After they paid, the long-haired girl held up a rainbow-colored mini cake to her friend. “Come on, make a wish! It’ll definitely come true!”

The short-haired girl sniffled, “You’re the best! I hope we get super rich—and that bastard boss loses everything!”

Zhan Jinli couldn’t stop her in time and froze as he heard the wish being made out loud.

The two girls left, carrying their cake. Zhan Jinli stood silent for a moment, then gave up—what’s done was done. At least the effect didn’t seem too serious.

He shut the store, returned to the kitchen, and summoned the hungry ghost.

He had been staying in the shop lately because his research—using the hungry ghost to analyze that special anomaly—had finally made a major breakthrough.

As a ghost cultivator… former ghost cultivator… walking the path of the dead, his methods were different from the living. What the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance couldn’t detect, he could sense in the traces left behind in the soul of the hungry ghost.

But the damage from his past life had been severe. Now that he had reincarnated, his abilities were greatly reduced—it had taken him this long to piece things together.

The ghostly soul bore residual traces of the anomaly. Once he fully mapped the pattern, he could trace it through the underworld, track down the thing behind it—regardless of who or what it was—and eliminate them in one go!

Zhan Jinli worked with cold, focused eyes. His movements were calm, but his gaze was deep and chilling. The five ghosts standing nearby were both elated and terrified. They exchanged looks:

“See? We knew our Ghost King wasn’t just living a mundane life! Look at that presence!”

“But… he’s kind of scary right now…”

“What are you afraid of? It’s not like he’s angry at us! Whoever pissed him off is the one who should be trembling. We’re the Ghost King’s loyal subordinates—we should share his anger!”

“Come on! Show some pride!”

The twenty-six-year cycle is complete—welcome back, Ghost King!

Zhan Jinli ignored the foolish chatter.

He was angry. That day when the hungry ghost broke into his cake shop, his younger brother had been nearby—and had even climbed into the back kitchen. That was far too close to danger!

His brother had a simple nature and often acted on impulse. If Zhan Jinli hadn’t been there that day… the thought made his blood run cold.

Four hours later, Zhan Jinli finally paused and handed the hungry ghost a piece of cake. “You gonna eat it, or should I stuff it in for you?”

The ghost swallowed painfully. “I-I-I’ll eat it…”

The cake landed on the ground and transformed into a small mountain. The rich, sweet aroma was utterly irresistible.

The five ghosts watched, green with envy.

That’s a handmade cake by the Ghost King himself! It nourishes the soul! That greedy ghost gets to eat it every day and still dares to complain!

The hungry ghost was practically in tears.

When transformed into spectral energy, the cake wasn’t quite as sweet—it was more bearable. But he’d once taken a full bite of the original flavor… It had scarred him for life.

Zhan Jinli ignored the silent drama between them, changed clothes, and prepared to head home.

He only had so many hours each day for research. Any longer, and the hungry ghost wouldn’t last.

Back home, he was immediately intercepted by Zhan Suiru.

She grinned at him suspiciously, phone clacking away as she typed. She shoved the screen in his face with a question: [Why are you coming back so late every day? Got someone new in your life?]

[If Yanyan hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t even have thought about it.]

Zhan Jinli stared blankly at the message.

His sweet, simple little brother… I should never have made that bread into slices!