“Well, could it be that I guessed wrong?”

The dwarf elder tilted his head.

“My cultivation has regressed again, alas.”

The dwarf elder took out a cigarette and began to smoke it by himself, looking very melancholy.

Zhou Ze calmed down his emotions. He couldn't exactly say, "You seem to have a point"?

"Senior, I came to ask about the Ghost Messenger."

"Ghost Messenger?" The dwarf elder frowned. "I'm saying, kid, why are you asking about the Ghost Messenger for no reason? Those people aren't easy to deal with. If you encounter them, you'd better stay away.

"You have a physical body and can come back to life. That's a great opportunity. Just enjoy it quietly."

The elder said, sounding puzzled.

Zhou Ze frowned slightly. The elder in front of him couldn't see that he was a Ghost Messenger?

Even though he was just a temporary worker, judging from the elder's previous deduction methods, he was definitely not a half-baked amateur. Yet, he couldn't detect his Ghost Messenger status at all.

Did this mean that the little loli really did treat him as a temporary worker, and besides the so-called "Gates of Hell," she actually had other important things that she hadn't given him at all?

Xu Qinglang had said that the loli came and went in a hurry. She definitely didn't really want to hand over the job; she just had something she needed to do and temporarily grabbed him as a free laborer.

As for the reason for grabbing him as a laborer, it was simple: she valued the fact that he wouldn't actively cause trouble and wouldn't make trouble for her while he was filling in.

But Zhou Ze had to grasp this identity. He had already had one life ruined, and he had to completely control this one. The identity of the Ghost Messenger was the best amulet, ensuring that he wouldn't become an unregistered person, living in fear every day.

Zhou Ze spread out his palm towards the elder, letting the mark be displayed in front of him.

The elder's expression immediately froze, and then his breathing slowed down for a moment. At the same time, his eyes darted around before he suddenly realized:

"I understand. That long-tongued girl pulled you out to be a substitute."

The dwarf elder paced back and forth on the mound with his hands behind his back, as if he were thinking about something. Zhou Ze didn't interrupt him.

Finally, the elder asked again, "What do you intend to do by asking me about the Ghost Messenger?"

"For the harmony of Hell, for the peace of the Yang Realm, and to better contribute my strength."

"Oh." The elder shook his head and then nodded. "Heh, I know what you want to do. You want to replace that long-tongued girl?"

Zhou Ze didn't refute it.

No rebuttal meant tacit agreement.

"It's not like there's no way, and it's very simple." The dwarf elder pondered. "Since you brought me so many gifts tonight, I'll tell you."

"I'm all ears."

"The Confucius Temple is inhabited by sages. With the sages above, humans walk the path of the mortal realm, and ghosts go to the Naihe Bridge. The sages see everything clearly.

"Tell me, isn't that the truth?"

"It is." Zhou Ze nodded.

"The long-tongued girl gave you this key, which is equivalent to giving you half an identity, but she can take it away at any time." The dwarf elder pondered. "But as long as you enter the Confucius Temple and I personally pray to the sages, and then you express your attitude in front of the sages, make some guarantees, and show your determination.

"In other words, say those nice words you said earlier even more beautifully. As long as one of the sages nods, your identity will be confirmed.

"But one thing must be kept in mind: the sages' eyes are like torches, discerning everything. Once you harbor evil intentions or do anything out of line in the future, then besides the Yin Si regulations, there will be the wrath of the sages to punish you!"

The dwarf elder looked serious.

"It's that simple?" Zhou Ze asked.

"How difficult it is!" The dwarf elder sighed. "Wanting to gain the favor of the sages and be granted an identity is just one method, a method to try for the time being."

Zhou Ze nodded and said, "Then let's try it."

The dwarf elder walked to the entrance of the Confucius Temple and blew a breath at it. A "click" sound came from behind the door, probably the latch of the big red wooden door falling.

"You go in first and have a good talk in front of the statue of the sages. Next, I'll arrange things for you."

Zhou Ze reached out and pushed the door open. He looked at the dwarf elder beside him and found that he was standing there without moving, so he asked strangely:

"Senior, aren't you coming in with me?"

"You're laughing at me. I'm just a running dog under the sages' seat. How dare I casually wander in front of the sages? You have half an official position, so just go in."

Zhou Ze hesitated for a moment, but still took a step and walked in.

The elder gently put his hands together, and the wooden door closed again.

"Have a good talk with the sages!"

Then, the elder took out another cigarette and bit it in his mouth. Without needing to light it, the cigarette started burning on its own.

After finishing the cigarette, the elder smiled, took down his gong and drum, and struck it hard!

There was only a crisp sound.

The elder shouted in a falsetto:

"The weather is dry, be careful of fire!"

Immediately after,

there was another gong sound:

"The weather is dry, be careful of fire!"

The elder was knocking on the gong and dancing in front of the Confucius Temple, looking a bit like a shaman from Northeast China.

He was small and short, and his hopping made him look even more endearing.

"Kid, continue chatting with the statue of the sages and express your attitude more. I'll help you reach the heavens!"

The dwarf elder shouted towards the Confucius Temple.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Senior."

Zhou Ze's voice came from behind the wall.

"No trouble, no trouble. Just bring me a few packs of cigarettes from time to time and come visit me. I don't have any descendants, and my incense offerings have been cut off. Now, it's hard to even smoke a cigarette.

"The Confucius Temple doesn't lack food and drink, but I wouldn't dare to touch anything in front of the Sage."

The dwarf elder laughed "hahaha,"

and then continued to happily strike his gong.

"The weather is dry, be careful of fire!"

"Bang!" The gong sounded!

"The weather is dry, be careful of fire!"

"Bang!" The gong sounded.

The gong sounded lower and lower each time.

At the same time, the mallet originally wrapped in white cloth began to be soaked with blood.

At first,

the blood was only faint, like scattered stars, but with each gong strike, the blood began to spread.

It began to become thick and glaring,

until finally,

each time the dwarf elder struck, he could knock out a large amount of blood, staining his clothes and adding some hideousness to his originally endearing image!

"The weather is dry, be! care! ful! of! fire!"

"Bang!"

With the last gong sound,

the dwarf elder directly threw the red and bloody gong and drum into the Confucius Temple and shouted in a falsetto:

"The Sage has opened his eyes, and the evil spirits will be punished!"

After shouting this last sentence,

the elder was struck by lightning. His body became much more blurred than before, and even vaguely showed a trend of dissipating.

But he still laughed wildly and shouted inside:

"Is it comfortable? Are you comfortable now!"

"Not comfortable."

Zhou Ze's voice came from behind the wall.

"Not comfortable is right. Kid, let me teach you again today what the world is impermanent and people's hearts are unpredictable!

"People's hearts are separated by their bellies, let alone a ghost!

"I'm willing to give up a Jiazi (sixty years) of merit for serving to ask the Sage to suppress and kill you!"

"Do I... have a grudge against you?"

Zhou Ze's voice came from the other side of the wall, filled with confusion.

"Grudge? Of course, there's a grudge!" The dwarf elder's body swayed, but he continued to shout, "I won't reincarnate, I won't enter the cycle of rebirth, I won't go to the afterlife!

"I accompany this Confucius Temple day and night, serving these ancestors,

"all for,

"nothing more than to accumulate some Yin virtue for future generations, to bless my descendants!

"My lineage has committed evil deeds in the past, leading to a sparse population, so I have no choice but to stay here, just to ensure that the incense is continuous!

"But a year ago, my last generation of descendants, my only grandson, actually died!

"What's the point of me acting like a grandson for this Jiazi?"

The dwarf elder cried,

"Is it fun to accompany these clay statues every day?

"Hahaha, the heavens have eyes. That day, during the 'Washing the Gate' competition for the first incense, I just glanced at you and borrowed a cigarette from you.

"I didn't see anything at all.

"Just now, I had a good calculation. Go to hell with your Liuwei Dihuang Wan!

"You let me calculate that your death is inextricably linked to the premature death of my last descendant!

"This is the cause you created, and today you will bear the fruit!

"I'll use sixty years of merit for serving to exchange for your soul to be scattered,

"You're worth it! You're not at a loss!"

"Did your descendant die on the operating table?" Zhou Ze asked from behind the wall.

"No, he didn't die on the operating table, he died in a car accident."

The dwarf elder wiped away his tears. Although his figure was much more blurred, his tears seemed to be stained with red spots.

"I wasn't driving in my past life."

Zhou Ze wanted to say that he was also killed by a car in his past life.

"That drunk-driving bastard, he should have died, his lifespan should have been exhausted, but you insisted on saving him on the operating table, forcibly prolonging his life for half a month!

"In the end, when his time came, he died in a car accident from drunk driving, but he also implicated my lovely great-great-great-grandson, who also died in the car accident.

"Tell me,

"Isn't this your karma?

"Isn't this the sin you committed!

"Isn't this the debt you owe!"

"Your thought process is really powerful." Zhou Ze sighed.

The dwarf elder, who was slowly recovering from his initial state of revengeful excitement, suddenly discovered an extremely strange thing. Logically speaking, he had sacrificed a Jiazi of serving merit to ask one of the sages in the Confucius Temple to open his eyes once.

According to the usual lazy nature of those clay sages, they were extremely lazy on weekdays. As long as there was a ghost in front of them when they opened their eyes, even a genuine Ghost Messenger could be suppressed and killed, let alone Zhou Ze, who wasn't genuine?

Right now, shouldn't Zhou Ze be in immense pain, with his soul disintegrating and his spirit dissipating, under the Sage's gaze?

Why was his tone so relaxed every time he responded?

This isn't right,

this is not right!

"How can you be okay, how can you be okay!"

The dwarf elder suddenly roared,

He had recklessly sacrificed a Jiazi of serving merit!

Zhou Ze walked out from behind the other side of the wall,

and looked at the dwarf elder.

The Confucius Temple was surrounded by a rectangular wall. Zhou Ze was standing outside the wall on the other side when he spoke earlier, so it sounded to the dwarf elder standing at the main entrance as if Zhou Ze was standing in the temple replying to him.

The dwarf elder was struck by lightning, looking at Zhou Ze, who appeared outside the Confucius Temple, with an incredulous expression,

"How are you outside, how did you get out!"

Zhou Ze nodded towards the back and said:

"You've been working in this unit for so long,

"don't you know that there's actually a back door here?"