Hell Emperor.

Chapter 337 Yam - Candidate

After receiving the task from Ye Jie, Shan Yao returned to the hall and quickly posted a notice on the bulletin board where tasks were posted.

The ghosts gathered around, some of them were illiterate, and they discussed for a while:

"Can anyone tell me what is written on that notice?"

"The Palace Master wishes to recruit forty-eight soul-catching ghost messengers to capture beast-shaped ghosts. Those who join the mission, regardless of whether the mission is completed or not, will receive the Palace Master's initiation and be taught the Soul-Binding Rope. Those who are interested need to register with the ghost messenger Shan Yao..."

"Soul Binding Rope? That's a mid-level human-level technique. In the Document Hall, if you want to exchange for the Soul Binding Rope technique, you need at least 20,000 Yin De. Moreover, you have to spend a lot of energy and practice hard before you can master it. I didn't expect that in this mission, I could actually receive the initiation and teaching directly from the Hall Master!"

"The mission reward is so generous? Ghost Messenger Shan Yao, count me in on this mission!"

When they heard that they could learn the Soul-Binding Rope by joining the mission, the ghosts all became excited. They slowly accumulated good karma, which would take at least a few years to exchange for the Soul-Binding Rope technique. Moreover, they didn't know how long it would take to practice. Now, one mission could save them a lot of time, so they were determined to join in.

Some ghosts remained calm and keenly noticed the problem:
"The mission reward is so generous, doesn't it mean that this mission is quite difficult and may even put your life in danger?"

"Beast ghost? What is that? The Palace Master said that there are various kinds of strange walkers in this world, and beast ghosts might be one of them. If you are not careful, you will lose your life. No matter how good the reward is, you will still die."

However, the worries of these ghosts were soon drowned out by the louder discussions of the other ghosts:
"What is there to be afraid of? We have already died once, so why should we be afraid of death?"

"That's the Soul Binding Rope. If we miss this opportunity, there won't be such a good thing next time!"

The ghosts were very enthusiastic and soon approached Shan Yao to express their intention to participate in the mission.

Shan Yao sat in front of the long table and used a pen and ink to write down the names of the ghost officials who came to participate. The number soon exceeded forty-eight. The ghost officials who came to register still lined up in a long queue. There were at least several hundred of them. Even the ghost officials who were not responsible for summoning souls but for other tasks, when they heard that they could learn the soul-binding rope, also came to join in the fun, eager to be selected.

Looking at the series of names registered, Shan Yao's mouth twitched. The Palace Master only gave her one day, and she had to select the ghost messengers who would participate in the mission within this day, which undoubtedly made her a little embarrassed.

"There are so many ghosts, how can I choose? Otherwise, let's just go by registration time and only take the first 48 who registered..."

Shan Yao curled her lips. Did she have to evaluate the ghost messengers one by one to see if they were qualified? She might as well just go by the registration time!

Just as Shan Yao was thinking, the long table in front of her was suddenly slapped hard by someone. She looked up unhappily and felt even worse: "What are you doing here?"

It was her cousin Sheng Jiang who interrupted her thoughts. Sheng Jiang was not polite and said, "Have you not finished registering yet? It just so happens that I have a few partners. I heard that the rewards for this mission are generous, so I also want to participate."

Shan Yao was somewhat helpless: "Tell them that they are late. I will only select the first 48 ghost messengers who registered to participate in the mission."

Sheng Jiang looked at her in confusion. "Are you kidding? The Palace Master never said first come first served. He gave you the task of selecting the ghost messengers. It's up to you to decide who can participate."

Shan Yao curled his lips and said, "But this is not fair to those ghosts who registered early."

Sheng Jiang shrugged and said, "Are you serious? My partners are all conscientiously carrying out their soul-collecting missions, running back and forth in the human world, which delayed their arrival. On the contrary, some ghost messengers in the palace do nothing, chatting and joking all day long, passively slacking off. But because they stayed in the palace and registered first, they can enjoy such benefits. This is truly unfair to my partners!"

Yam was stunned, it seemed to be true.

Before Shan Yao could figure it out, Sheng Jiang spoke again: "Besides, my friends played with me when they were alive, and you have seen them every day. Now that you are in charge of the selection, of course you have to help your fellow countrymen. Are you going to hand over this good job to those outsiders? What about the Goguryeo people? Are you going to help them?"

At the end, Sheng Jiang glared at her and said, "You asked me for the secret method of seducing souls, and I told you without hesitation. Why did you hesitate like this when I asked you to choose a few fellow villagers? Are you still my sister?"

Shan Yao couldn't persuade him, so he had to agree: "Okay, okay, I promise you... write down their names, and they will be selected when the time comes."

Sheng Jiang was overjoyed when he heard this. He wrote down his companions' names and said with a smile, "That's right... With the Soul Binding Rope, when I leave the Golden Wheel Palace and go to the Witch God Palace one day, my companions will have enough self-protection capabilities, and at least they won't be bullied by other ghost messengers in the palace."

After completing the registration, Shan Yao quickly sent Sheng Jiang away, and at the same time looked around with some guilt, but happened to meet the eyes of another ghost.

"You are... the ghost catcher Xuan? Why are you here?" After recognizing the identity of the ghost catcher, Shan Yao was slightly stunned.

Zheng Xuan smiled faintly: "Miss Shan Yao, you are joking. I naturally followed the instructions on the signboard and came here to register."

Yam coughed dryly. It was all because of ginger that made her feel guilty and lacked confidence, so she forgot about the important things.

Shan Yao picked up the pen, wrote down Zheng Xuan's name, and said, "Okay, I have registered your name. Go to the notice board later to check the final result."

Shan Yao put down his pen, thinking that Zheng Xuan would leave with satisfaction, but he saw that he was still standing there, and seemed to have no intention of leaving. He couldn't help but wonder: "What's wrong? Do you have anything else to say?"

Zheng Xuan bowed and said, "Miss Shan Yao, when I was alive, I used to hang out with the village bully and turned a blind eye to his bullying of the villagers. Now that I have become a ghost, I deeply regret my past. I have prepared a small gift for you. I hope Miss Shan Yao will accept my apology."

As he spoke, Zheng Xuan reached into his arms and took out a bulging small bag. Shan Yao was a little confused. He took the bag, opened it and saw that it was filled with a bag of spirit stones.

The spirit stone is of mottled quality, slightly inferior to lower-grade spirit stones, and its spiritual power is somewhat impaired. However, for a first-rank ghost, this mottled spirit stone is still a rare and invaluable tonic. In the outside world, this bag of spirit stones would be worth at least several thousand merits.

"This... these spirit stones are too precious. I can't accept them." Shan Yao took a deep breath and quickly refused, wanting to hand the spirit stones back.

Zheng Xuan did not take it, but just said: "Miss Shan Yao, if you don't accept it, I'm afraid I won't be at peace. Besides, you and I are from the same hometown, and now you have become a celebrity beside the Palace Master, and you are the pride of our entire Chiyan Ridge. In the future, I'll have to trouble you to take care of the people of Chiyan Ridge, and don't let the past grudges affect our future relationship. Just accept it." Speaking of the Palace Master, Zheng Xuan's eyes also showed some reverence. The Palace Master suppressed the Earth Dragon King who caused the earthquake with his own strength, built tall buildings with a wave of his hand, and enlightened the other ghost officials with a thought, and taught them magical skills. It can be said that he has extraordinary skills and unpredictable strength.

Shan Yao laughed awkwardly after hearing such compliments. She didn't even know when she had become the pride of the villagers. Zheng Xuan also became pleasing to the eye, so she said:

"Okay... since you said so, I'll take it."

Zheng Xuan was overjoyed. Even Shan Yao was surprised by his happy expression. It seemed as if Shan Yao was the one who had to apologize and Zheng Xuan was the one who accepted the apology. No one knew why he was so happy.

After Zheng Xuan left, Shan Yao always felt embarrassed. She had never been persecuted by the village bully before. Besides, the people to whom Zheng Xuan should apologize were those who had been bullied by the village bully in the past. Why did he specifically come to her?

Before Shan Yao could think it through, someone else found her.

"You are... the clerical supervisor? What are you doing here? Don't tell me you want to join the mission too."

The one who came in front of Shan Yao was the ghost of an old man with gray hair and a bald head. Shan Yao recognized him as the clerical supervisor who was currently in charge of accounting.

The old man's name was Li Da. He was an accountant of a large pharmacy. He had an excellent memory for accounts and recorded them in an orderly and meticulous manner. As soon as he arrived, he greatly increased the administrative efficiency of the civil ghost messengers, and then became the head of the civil ghost messengers in the palace, responsible for integrating the accounts recorded by various civil ghost messengers.

Li Da's face is covered with wrinkles and he looks old. Unlike other ghosts, he did not die from a disaster, but died of old age, so he looks like an old man.

Li Da alone was as efficient as the other three civilian ghost messengers, often leaving the other civilian ghost messengers with nothing to do. Even Shan Yao often felt bored, so he sneaked out to collect souls, but unexpectedly ran into a beast-shaped ghost.

"Ms. Yam, I just had a bowl of spiritual porridge in the cafeteria. The porridge is light, and it may not suit the appetite of young and energetic ghosts, but for an old ghost like me, it can be said to be quite good..."

Li Da spoke slowly, not in a hurry at all, and turned to chat with Shan Yao.

Shan Yao felt helpless, now was not the time to talk about the taste of the spirit porridge as there were ghosts queuing up to register behind him. But he couldn't chase the clerical supervisor away, so he had to chat with him about random things.

As they chatted, Li Da said, "By the way, I had a few favorite collectibles when I was alive, and I wanted to bury them with me after I die. I recently asked the ghost to bring them here. Miss Shan Yao, can you help me take a look at this pearl and the quality of this walnut..."

Looking at the brightly colored beads that looked like the blood-shedding cuckoo, Shan Yao's eyes widened. The cultural relics collected by Li Da were indeed extraordinary and were rare treasures.

It was unknown how long it had been, until there were complaints from the back of the team, Li Da finally spoke: "Miss Shan Yao, my legs and feet are not handy after I died, and it is difficult for me to pick up things. If I can learn this soul-binding rope, it will be much easier to get things..."

Shan Yao was a little hesitant, and Li Da said, "I see that Miss Shan Yao particularly likes this pearl. If you don't mind, you can keep it."

Shan Yao opened his mouth wide: "How can this be... This bead is your treasured collection of antiques, how can I take it away?"

Li Da smiled and said, "If Miss Shan Yao really feels bad, just put my name on the account."

After hearing this, even though Shan Yao was slow-witted, he finally realized what was going on and couldn't help but open his mouth wide.

Now Shan Yao understood why Zheng Xuan had come to her to apologize. It turned out that the apology was fake, and the real one was to ask her to be registered. She thought Zheng Xuan really knew he was wrong, but it turned out that things were not what she imagined at all.

Yam blinked, and his eyes involuntarily glanced at the precious ornamental pulp beads. He couldn't move his eyes away for a moment. The delicate and beautiful pulp beads seemed to be waving to Yam.

Anyway, Sheng Jiang and Zheng Xuan have already been promised, so a few more places shouldn’t be a big deal, right?

Shan Yao was greatly excited. That was right, the Palace Master had originally asked her to select a suitable ghost messenger. She was only selecting the ghost messenger according to the mission requirements. What was there to feel guilty about?

Thinking of this, Shan Yao took the pulp bead without saying anything and said to Li Da: "Don't worry, when the quota is announced, you will definitely be selected."

Li Da left with satisfaction. Shan Yao sat at the table, looking much more excited than before. After understanding the ins and outs of this, golden light shone in his eyes. All those precious treasures, come here quickly!
Soon, it was time to announce the names. The ghosts looked at the list selected by Shan Yao. Some of them were dismayed and wailed, wondering why such a good thing did not happen to them. Others were complacent, as if they had expected this.

"Palace Master, I have already selected the ghost messengers who will participate in the mission!"

Ye Jie was reviewing the seven stitched pages in the main hall when he suddenly heard Shan Yao's cheerful laughter.

Following the sound, Ye Jie saw the appearance of Yam and was stunned for a moment.

But her black hair was dotted with blood-like beads, her fair arms were clasped with a string of golden bells, and around her neck was a string of pearls and silver chains. She exuded the vitality of a young girl and also exuded a sense of wealth.

"You seem to be in good spirits."

Ye Jie glanced at Shan Yao. After dressing up, Shan Yao looked much better than her initial shabby appearance.

Shan Yao smiled faintly, raised a finger and said: "This is all thanks to the merits of the Palace Master. Okay, Palace Master, the personnel have been selected. Please give them the initiation and teach them the Soul Binding Rope."

Ye Jie nodded, and saw Shan Yao took out a series of things from the cloth bag beside her, including pearls, jade, treasures, and even a few strings of colorful corals. She carefully decorated these things around the main hall, decorating the main hall which was originally empty. She was in a very happy mood and hummed happily. Even Ye Jie could not help but be infected by her joy.

(End of this chapter)