"You've never heard my name?" Geng Qiushan said, smiling. "If you don't believe me, surely you have a dead friend you trust? I can let you claim a bit of your reward in advance. Ask them to visit you in a dream and tell you if my money works in the afterlife. Sometimes, death isn't the end, but the beginning."
The gang leader hesitated. He recalled rumors from the underworld about Geng Qiushan—some said the man could communicate with spirits. After a long pause, he finally gave a name.
Geng Qiushan waved for his men to handle it.
Meanwhile, Song Miaozhu searched online for more information on Geng Qiushan. Aside from the title "Guangcheng Intangible Cultural Heritage Paper Art Master," there wasn't much. What other reputation was he talking about?
In news photos, he looked no different from any other craftsman. But then—she paused at an old photo from several years ago. His eyes looked… off. No spiritual light, but they had a strange quality.
"I've seen that before," Song Miaozhu murmured. "He awakened his spiritual sight that early? No, that's not it. That's… Yin-Yang Vision?"
She had heard about it from Shopkeeper Liang and the others. Some people were born with Yin-Yang Vision, allowing them to see ghosts. She refocused on the footage sent by her little paper servants.
"The spiritual light between his brows is the brightest I've ever seen."
Of course, it still couldn't compare to hers.
To confirm, she pulled up recent footage of Master Zhang Yunxi, another paper crafting expert on par with Geng Qiushan. In comparison, Geng Qiushan's crimson spiritual light burned far stronger.
That confirmed it—his cultivation was much higher.
Probably because of his Yin-Yang Vision, which allowed him to learn early on from spirits about the spiritual energy resurgence.
"But why kidnap me?" she muttered.
Song Miaozhu was sure they had never met, let alone held a grudge. If not revenge, then it had to be for profit. But even with Yin-Yang Vision, how could he possibly know about the Heaven-tier Ghost Shop?
"Unless… it's my ability to enter the underworld?"
She thought about how Geng Qiushan had supplied the SEIU with "Grade-Four Yang Paper Clothes."
"Or maybe… my Secret Art of Paper Crafting?"
From the look of things, Geng Qiushan had long since used his Yin-Yang Vision to communicate with ghosts in dreams, spreading knowledge of the underworld and ghosts in secret among the public. If he truly knew about the underworld, then the value of crafted paper items would rise dramatically. That might explain his growing influence in Guangcheng.
And if he had Yin-Yang Vision, then even though the SEIU officially rated his Yang Paper Clothes as grade-four, he should know full well how they compared to the real thing. A man who had gained so much through Yin-Yang Vision and paper crafting might see a young girl mastering paper arts he couldn't learn himself and decide to kidnap her?
It sounded absurd, but it made a frightening kind of sense. Still, Song Miaozhu couldn't understand one thing: if he knew about the underworld and ghosts, how could he allow his people to commit murder so brazenly? Didn't he fear punishment in the afterlife?
From his calm demeanor, this clearly wasn't his first time. She gave up trying to figure it out. Whatever his reasons, he had tried to abduct her. That was enough.
"Geng Qiushan, was it?"
Song Miaozhu picked up a blank sheet of spirit paper, quickly cut it into a little paper servant, and wrote Geng Qiushan's name, birth date, and current location on it. She prepared a bowl of rooster blood and began the curse. Since he had some cultivation, she held back from going all out. For now, just a warning.
"First needle to the head, let the spiritual energy leak. Second to the throat, block the meridians. Third to the chest, let the body tremble…"
The process went smoothly—too smoothly. It felt like the curse hadn't taken hold. In the footage from her little paper servant hidden on the gang leader, Geng Qiushan still sat there smiling kindly, like a gentle grandfather. There wasn't a trace of pain or discomfort.
"Did the curse fail?" Song Miaozhu frowned. "That shouldn't be possible."
Even if he wasn't an ordinary man, his spiritual level was still far beneath hers. With a full name, birth date, and location, her current level of cursing should at least cause discomfort, even if not fatal.
Unless… the birthdate was fake.
Only false information could mislead the curse and cause it to land nowhere, leaving the real target completely unharmed. Looks like she'd need something physical—a personal item, a strand of hair, or a fingernail. Luckily, her paper servants were still infiltrating Guangcheng. There was hope.
However, those stationed there hadn't yet developed stealth capabilities, so sneaking around wasn't easy. After some thought, Song Miaozhu decided to send over her most stealthy little paper servant.
First, it traveled through the ghost market warehouse and joined the others near Geng Qiushan's location.
Just to be safe, she had the one hiding in the black-clothed men's car find a better hiding spot. It would remain inactive unless needed. If the others were compromised, it could serve as a backup anchor to bring new ones over.
Then she had the one hiding in the gang leader's clothes return to the ghost market warehouse, leaving only the stealthy servant and the one originally monitoring the gang leader behind.
Soon, one of Geng Qiushan's men entered the room with a copper basin and began burning hell coins on the balcony. Taking advantage of the distraction, the invisible paper servant crawled out of the gang leader's clothing and onto the carpet.
It darted quickly to the back of Geng Qiushan's chair, squeezing into a crevice in the bookshelf behind it. Its spiritual energy ran out, and it became visible. Another servant was sent from the ghost shop to replace it, refreshing its energy before switching it back.
Then it continued climbing the chair. This slow, careful tag-team process finally got it to the back of the chair. There was no hair on the carpet or around the seat, and the room had surveillance cameras. Taking any of his personal belongings would be too risky.
So it had to grab a hair directly.
Freshly plucked hair worked even better for curses than naturally shed ones. If Geng Qiushan suddenly felt a sharp pain at his scalp, with no one behind him, he would just assume it was some minor health issue or a weird sensation. By then, the little servant would already be gone.
But it had only one shot. If it failed, she'd have to come up with a new plan.