Chapter 127: Before the Troops and Horses Move, Provisions and Forage Go First

A group of more than a hundred people stood before the grand hall. The three characters for "Ghost Gate Pass," written in bold and vigorous strokes like silver hooks and iron lines, watched everyone like a pair of the most impartial eyes through the ages.

Flanked by a pair of couplets, it seemed to tell them that here lay absolute justice!

The retribution for heinous crimes would never be spared in the netherworld; every single one must be repaid in full.

"This is the Ghost Gate Pass, the very first place every departed soul enters upon entering the netherworld," Qin Ye said in a deep voice, gazing at the three characters. "Aside from this place, the current netherworld has nothing. Everything... will be manifested through our hands."

"Manifesting a province, a country, and eventually, an entire realm."

He turned around, looked at everyone below the steps, and slowly said, "We are the founders of the new netherworld."

"Su Dongxue."

"This humble concubine is here." Su Dongxue knew that if she dared to act up now, Qin Ye would not hesitate for a second to execute her. She immediately half-knelt before the hall and answered in a low voice.

Just as Qin Ye was about to speak, he furrowed his brow.

How should he arrange the positions?

Those chairs... it seemed he hadn't fully figured them out yet.

"There are three colors of chairs here," at this moment, a cold female voice echoed from behind the main hall. "Black, white, and red."

Arthes?

Qin Ye raised his eyebrows in surprise, and immediately afterward, he saw Arthes reveal her true form, slowly walking out to the front of the hall.

With a cascade of pitch-black hair, breathtakingly beautiful features, and draped in multicolored silks, she held a red oiled-paper umbrella while her scarlet tongue dragged along the ground. Everyone below cast a single glance and immediately felt their breath catch in their throats.

Terrifying...

This monster disguised as a woman was countless times more terrifying than the psychopomps standing before them!

Thank goodness... Thank goodness he hadn't let his hot head lead him to defy the netherworld alongside those a few fools earlier. This monster... definitely had the ability to slaughter everyone present on the spot!

Arthes glanced at Qin Ye. "When you founded the netherworld, this palace was also present, so I possess certain clearance—though not very high, I can come and go as I please in a place like the Ghost Gate Pass."

She addressed the people below: "The black ones are probationary psychopomps, numbering two hundred and eighty. The white ones are official psychopomps, numbering eighteen. The red ones are in charge of the Ghost Gate Pass, two in total—one chief and one deputy."

"The black and white ones don't really matter, but whoever is in charge of the Ghost Gate Pass must be your trusted confidants, at least for now. Their authority follows a strict chain of command. Handle the specific arrangements however you see fit."

Qin Ye nodded. After pondering for a few seconds, he turned to Su Dongxue and said, "Now, take a seat in the white chair. Compile the names of those from the judicial system and the mortal military. Those without grave sins may take the black chairs. In my absence, you shall temporarily act as the chief supervisor."

"Yes."

Qin Ye turned around, his gaze sweeping across the crowd like lightning. "The eyes of the gods are like lightning; hidden sins in dark chambers are known beforehand to the divine. I shall issue one final warning: when registering your own crimes, you had better pray that I never find the Book of Life and Death, otherwise..."

He left the sentence unfinished. Amidst the silent crowd, standing right between the two couplets, he bowed deeply toward the incense burner.

"Now, I declare."

"The registration team for the Second Underworld, Bao'an City Entrance in Huichang Province, is officially established! Construction work on the new netherworld will officially commence within a month!"

"All employees from the real estate sector, gather in front of the hall in half an hour for a meeting."

***

With that, he walked behind the grand hall, preparing to have a chat with Arthes.

Walking inward from the Ghost Gate Pass, across the pitch-black floor, vermilion pillars stood like towering trees, supporting the entire palace. On both sides stood statues of Asuras and Rakshasas hidden within the shadows, draped in countless antique oil lamps. Ten statues, dozens of meters tall, were lined with lamps even along their clothing folds—numbering in the thousands.

Originally entirely devoid of a single spark, over a thousand lamps were now ignited. The horrifying statues cast in a shroud of eerie green fire made the area behind the Ghost Gate Pass look all the more hair-raising.

However, Qin Ye noticed something amiss.

Originally, this space was completely empty. But now, a colossal statue blocked the entrance like a folding screen, surrounded by countless woven cushions radiating outward like the sun. Only by bypassing it could one see the back door of the main hall.

This statue was also dozens of meters tall, bald, dressed in a cassock, and holding a khakkhara staff horizontally. The staff was covered with oil lamps, though not a single one was lit.

It possessed a compassionate expression; although carved from stone, a single glance revealed a boundless aura of benevolence. Underneath its feet trod a beastly carving with the body of a dragon, head of a tiger, ears of a dog, tail of a lion, and hooves of a qilin...

Diting!

"This is... the Statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?" Qin Ye asked in astonishment. "Why is it here?"

Arthes calmly replied, "What's so surprising about that? Have you ever played Heroes of Might and Magic? The Ghost Gate Pass is the starting capital city; other things need to be built piece by piece. But even the capital city isn't built all at once. After all, you only possess a single fragment of the Yama Seal, lacking the Yellow Springs. Even if you plundered all the nether energy of Lord Diting, it wouldn't be enough."

Qin Ye rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You mean the subsequent structures will gradually be completed over time?"

"Limited only to the Ghost Gate Pass," Arthes added. "In about three years, the netherworld will experience its next expansion. Within these three years, you must establish your Fengdu Village; otherwise... when the souls of an entire county pour in, you will be utterly overwhelmed. Do you have any ideas?"

Clearly, Arthes excelled at killing people, but she knew jack shit about building high-rises from the ground up.

Qin Ye furrowed his brows deeply as well, pondering for a long time before letting out a long sigh.

Only when truly tackling the task did he realize just how immense the difficulty was.

This was an information age; he had browsed forums on city construction and searched games for inspiration, but the more he searched, the more chaotic it became.

Did they need a monetary system?

True communism? Not even the old Fengdu City could achieve that!

Did they need a bureaucratic apparatus?

That depended entirely on the monetary system. Without ghost money and without incentives, how could you make others work for nothing?

High-pressure rule?

High pressure was possible, but the only outcome would be a riot. The number of souls wasn't too high yet, but what would happen as they grew more numerous? Relying solely on his bare hands and broke self to go hack people to death? And what would happen once everyone was hacked to pieces?

No bureaucratic system?

Are you kidding me? If Qin Ye worked himself to death, he'd probably manage to build a single village at best.

And then... the architectural system, the entertainment system, ghost resident communities... Counting them one by one, he had no idea where to even begin!

"Keep an eye on the People's Daily," Arthes said with a headache of her own. "If any academician of the Academy of Sciences dies somewhere, go and harvest their soul at the very first moment. The souls of such top-tier talents are extremely precious, along with the executives of major corporations... Tell me... couldn't you figure out a way to fleece some provincial governor out of a few hundred million? And then, after he gets executed by firing squad, you go harvest his soul?"

"That idea of yours is extremely dangerous... It violates the socialist core values... But I appreciate your mindset," Qin Ye said insincerely.

***

Silence.

A few seconds later, Qin Ye sighed. "We'll take it one step at a time. We're both newly appointed officials; frankly speaking, urban construction and urban soft facilities are things we wouldn't even know where to begin planning for. I plan to build the ghost resident community first. At the very least, we need to show them some tangible benefits. Dreams can fool them once, but can they fool them for two years? Three years?"

"And housing, under the current circumstances in the Hua-style system, is probably the best welfare for souls who still retain their mortal mindset... Besides, we have plenty of land right now."

The souls outside had absolutely no idea about their administrator's fiscal condition.

Calling it destitute was an understatement.

Arthes was silent for a few seconds before standing up in dissatisfaction. "Annoying. Whatever, I'm not thinking about this anymore. Take these."

She casually tossed over a stack of talismans bound with a rubber band. Qin Ye looked blankly at the wad of ghost-drawn talismans in his hand. "What are these?"

"The netherworld doesn't produce building materials. All your construction materials must be purchased in the mortal realm. Pack them into shipping containers, paste these talismans on them, and I guarantee they will be burned completely clean, passing right through the hands to arrive in the netherworld."

Qin Ye felt like crying without tears. "The cost of the shipping containers... the cost of renting the crematorium... Tell me, if I went and prostituted myself, would anyone buy? In this day and age, male hookers cost more than female ones."

"Rumble..." Thunder flashed outside. Qin Ye sighed heavily, and after a few seconds, suddenly reacted. "It's raining?"

Arthes stood up and slowly walked behind the Statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. Qin Ye followed behind her.

Behind it was a ten-meter-tall grand door, from which the sky of the netherworld could be seen. Crimson lightning rolled across the air, the pitch-black firmament interweaving with black and red. In less than a minute, a torrential downpour came crashing down.

"Indeed... it rains in the netherworld," Arthes muttered, gazing at the sky. "The netherworld belongs to one of the Three Realms—Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Since it is a realm, it naturally possesses its own plane climate. Rain, wind, hail, earthquakes, and even landslides or tsunamis are not unheard of. This palace remembers that the old netherworld used to allocate hundreds of millions every year just for various 'accidental maintenance funds.'"

She turned around and looked deeply at Qin Ye. "Little fellow, this is a true realm. Its future direction is entirely in your hands. Whether it decays or prospers, rises or falls, depends on the ruler's ability. The order of good and evil in the mortal world is entrusted to you."

With that, she drifted away.

"Wait... wait a second! What do you mean by 'entrusted to me'?! Aren't you going to help?! You're a judge, for crying out loud!!"

His voice echoed through the depths of the netherworld, but Arthes turned a deaf ear. A few seconds later, a final sentence drifted back:

"Oh right, Su Dongxue is an official psychopomps now. Remember to write her name in the Netherworld Registry and bestow an official title upon her. Only then will she have room for advancement and be recognized by the netherworld. Otherwise, she cannot mobilize even a shred of the netherworld's power. If you're not around and a rebellion breaks out, the consequences will be unimaginable."

"Also, there are ten red talismans inside. Burning them will allow you to contact this palace... Do not contact me between 8:00 AM and 11:30 AM, 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM, and 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM. Do not disturb me while I'm binge-watching shows."

"Damn it... she dropped the ball and ran." Qin Ye plucked a flower from the ground in dissatisfaction—specifically, the black Manjusaka flowers blooming around Diting—and twirled it casually in his hand. His voice rang out like thunder: "Souls from the real estate sector, gather behind the hall! Prepare for a meeting!"

The souls outside immediately sprang into action. Qin Ye reached out and caught some rainwater. The rainwater was piercingly cold; even he felt uncomfortable, let alone ordinary souls.

Since there were various weather conditions, this would definitely lead to "dissatisfaction" among the ghost citizens. Clothing, food, housing, and transportation—as ghost citizens, clothing and food didn't need to be considered, so the housing issue ranked as the top priority.

Since tackling the whole thing at once was impossible like trying to bite into the sky, he might as well start with the very first ghost resident community and come up with a plan first!

(End of Chapter)