Starting from the folklore forum, making up town objects

Chapter 492 A Ghost Transforms into a Human
Chen Xin spent the entire day doing one thing...making tofu!

Chen Xin soaked the soybeans before nightfall last night, and the timing was just right when he started grinding the soybeans for soy milk this morning.

This was a tofu-making guide that Chen Xin had researched before successfully entering the game. Unexpectedly, he was given an ancient method of making tofu last night.

In this way, it's not so boring.

When grinding tofu, Chen Xin brought out the donkey. To make it work well, he fed it a small bowl of beans beforehand.

I must say, the donkey really does pull the millstone quite well.

For the next hour, Chen Xin stayed by the stone mill, watching the donkey pull the millstone and fill it with beans.

With one pound of soybeans and six pounds of water, Chen Xin was able to make a full one hundred pounds of soy milk.

With the soy milk in hand, Chen Xin went into the room to start a fire and began boiling the soy milk. Nearly an hour passed, and after skimming off the foam on the surface, he started filtering out the soy pulp!
The tofu-making process that Chen Xin found outside only mentioned tofu-related aspects, without specifying what to do with the filtered soybean residue.

But the voice last night filled in that gap.

The filtered soybean pulp can be used to feed livestock or made into soybean pulp cakes and other foods.

The main point is to make sure nothing is wasted.

After filtering out the soybean pulp and waiting for the soy milk to cool down slightly, Chen Xin began to add the coagulant.

The brine used for adding the brine should have been kept in the old man's room, but later the house was gone, and so was the brine.

Therefore, Chen Xin used braising liquid bought from outside this time.

When Chen Xin bought the brine, he was thinking about one thing: that the voice not only told him how to make tofu, but also told the other ghosts how to make the brine.

It's likely that the dishes made with tofu were also taught by that voice.

Even the planting of beans, the production of seasonings, the firing of porcelain bowls, etc., are probably all handled in one go.

Perhaps only these houses were built out of thin air.

In response, Chen Xin even wondered if the person behind that voice probably had a database in their head!
After adding the brine, let it sit for about half an hour before pressing it into shape. Soft tofu is pressed for half an hour, while firm tofu is pressed for two hours.

In this way, most of the day has passed.

In other words, this illusory body doesn't need to eat; otherwise, Chen Xin would have had to send it out for a stroll to see what to eat.

Before 5 p.m., Chen Xin put the prepared tofu on a cart and had a donkey pull it to the restaurant he had visited before.

I must say, looking at the tofu I made, I actually felt a sense of accomplishment!
On the way, Chen Xin simply stopped walking and sat in the front of the cart, letting the donkey pull him along.

Fortunately, the illusory body wasn't heavy; if it were Chen Xin himself, even a donkey might not be able to pull it.

Sitting in the car, watching the people coming and going around him, for a moment, Chen Xin really thought he had traveled to an ancient world and become one of its inhabitants.

But when Chen Xin thought about what these people would look like in seven or eight hours, he shook his head.

Soon, Chen Xin arrived at the restaurant. Following the old man's example, he spoke to the waiter in the lobby, and shortly after, the restaurant manager came out.

Chen Xin was taken aback by the appearance of the restaurant owner.

He felt that the shopkeeper looked somewhat familiar.

It wasn't the familiar sight I saw with the old man last time, but rather a vague, ambiguous kind of familiarity.

"Let me see... Hmm, the tofu is alright, so the price will remain the same!"

Chen Xin didn't pay attention to what the shopkeeper said. He nodded and followed the shopkeeper into the restaurant to get the money.

Eighty catties of tofu, three coins per catty, totaling two hundred and forty coins.

When I bought soybeans, I bought fifteen catties at nine coins per catty. Including the cost of fuel, the total cost of raw materials was one hundred and fifty coins.

Therefore, making tofu once can earn ninety coins.

A single candied hawthorn costs ten coins, so even after a whole day's work, Chen Xin still couldn't afford to buy ten candied hawthorns.

And that doesn't even include the cost of food. If you include the cost of food and the cost of feeding the donkey, you'd be lucky to have fifty coins left in the end.

This is just the most basic consumption. If you want to eat candied hawthorn, steamed buns, or meat, well, you've worked for nothing all day.

The ten taels of silver that Chen Xin brought, when converted into working time, amounted to... two hundred days!

He shook his head. Without the silver he brought in, there would be no donkey, and no way to make tofu!
Therefore, initial capital is very important, which is why the Xia family strictly controls initial capital.

With more initial capital, the snowball can grow much faster!
When they left the restaurant, the donkey was still there, which made Chen Xin very happy.

At this moment, he could finally understand the anger and panic the old man felt when he came out and found the donkey gone.

After getting on the donkey cart, Chen Xin headed towards the place where he bought beans.

As for the sense of familiarity he felt from the restaurant owner, Chen Xin also found the source.

Last night, during the night procession of a hundred ghosts, I was one of the dozens of 'people' in the first group.

This convinced Chen Xin that the more assets one possessed, the more leaves the Yin Virtue Tree would bestow.

The more leaves a tree has, the faster it can transform into a human.

There may be other factors at play, such as the 'business acumen' given by that voice, or some other kind of knowledge.

Thinking about it this way, Chen Xin suddenly realized that even in this ghost realm, it is very difficult for the lower-level ghosts to rise up, just like the rules in the mortal world!
However, here, it seems that as long as you work hard, you will eventually succeed.

But in the mortal world, as long as you work hard enough, there will always be work to be done!

After buying the beans and returning home, Chen Xin soaked them and fed them to the donkey before sitting in the yard to ponder everything in the ghost realm.

……

Time flies by in the blink of an eye.

Late at night.

This time, Chen Xin didn't wait for any other ghosts to come out before he opened the door.

As soon as he stepped outside, Chen Xin transformed back into his illusory form.

Having learned from the experience, Chen Xin got used to it.

As Chen Xin advanced, more and more ghosts joined the group.

Chen Xin's paper doll appearance was respected by other ghosts, so they would usually leave some space for him.

Only those ghosts and spirits that, like Chen Xin, possess partial human form, can approach him.

Unbeknownst to him, Chen Xin had become the leader of the "ghost" team, excluding the first group!
This left Chen Xin somewhat dumbfounded.

We followed the same route as yesterday, and by the time we reached the withered tree that had come back to life, it was already around three in the morning.

Chen Xin looked at the tree that had grown back with golden leaves, looking forward to the next foliage.

Soon, after the first group of 'people' had all obtained the leaves, the Yin De Tree once again shot out countless leaves, which went in all directions.

Chen Xin had already extended his hand, and he didn't have to wait long. Seven golden leaves slowly fell from the sky and landed in Chen Xin's palm.

"Only two more pieces?"

Chen Xin was surprised. Yesterday, he had five pieces of silver for less than ten taels of silver, but today, he only had two more pieces for ten more taels of silver.
Chen Xin looked at the first group of 'people' with a puzzled expression. Looking at the dozens of leaves in their hands, he suddenly had a guess.

Perhaps after obtaining a certain number of leaves, ten taels of silver might only be enough to add one more leaf.

Therefore, the difference between him and those first-tier wealthy households might not be ten or a hundred taels, but more than ten thousand taels!
Shaking his head, Chen Xin stopped thinking about it and swallowed the leaf. His special merit increased by seventy points, and with the fifty points from last night, his special merit had reached one hundred and ten points.

Chen Xin turned his head and looked at the ghosts on either side who hadn't yet put the leaves in their mouths, and suddenly had the urge to snatch them away.

But he soon gave up.

Yesterday, these guys were green with envy, but they still behaved themselves.

This clearly demonstrates the importance of rules here.

However, Chen Xin suddenly thought of something.

Other ghosts who eat the leaves will gradually transform into human form, but he ate the amount of other ordinary ghosts for ten days and there was no change. Will this attract attention?

Chen Xinke wanted to see what changes would occur after the top tier produced its own talent, and he couldn't afford any problems in that regard.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Xin turned his attention back to the 110 points of special Yin virtue.

"What would happen if I returned these special merits to the illusory body?"

Thinking this, Chen Xin transmitted his special merit to the illusory body.

Since the substitute paper-cutting advanced to the Yama level, Chen Xin has not felt any changes in it.

Not only the paper-cut substitutes, but all the other Yama-level protective objects are in a similar situation, except for the last time when Lei Zhenzi ate a candied hawthorn.

This means that if Chen Xin has enough special good karma, could he break through the limitation of the "Complete Collection of Suppressing Objects" that can only upgrade one suppressing object to above Yama?
Previously, Chen Xin had little special merit and had never thought about this matter, but now, it seems he can start to consider it.

Just then, the illusory body had absorbed all the special merit.

Chen Xin witnessed the changes in the illusion from a third-person perspective.

"Is it really possible?"

On the paper effigy of the phantom's head, among the facial features that were originally drawn, the eyes had changed.

It didn't become a real eye; it was more like a sketch that transformed from a simple line drawing into a drawing, making it more concrete, more expressive, and more... eerie!

Chen Xin believed that if it happened a few more times, the pair of eyes in the illusion would become real.

Other facial features, body parts, etc., can also be materialized through special good deeds, until finally, they truly become a person!

What surprised Chen Xin even more was that this change in the illusion was not an overall enhancement of the paper-cut substitute object.

This change seems to be an enhancement specifically targeting the Stand's Paper Cutting [Illusion] ability; other abilities remain unchanged.

"Specialized training, that's fine too."

Chen Xin didn't care. As long as he accumulated enough special merits later, wouldn't strengthening them all be a complete strengthening?

During the time Chen Xin was conducting his research, this 'feeding' session came to an end.

All the 'people' are heading back again.

Chen Xin took one last look at the tree, but ultimately decided against acting rashly.

Who knows how many layers of the underworld that tree is located in?

It would be awkward if we dug up the tree and he couldn't leave.

……

In the following days, Chen Xin focused most of his attention on the Ghost Realm, but also paid attention to the situation in the Underworld and the mortal world.

Because the cooperation between the underworld and the Xia family was reached, the Yaksha Society in the mortal world was left out in the cold.

The underworld yakshas continue to enlighten the yaksha statues, but the Bureau of Investigation takes no action.

This also fueled some ambitions among the higher-ups of the Yaksha Society.

But when they were preparing to expand the Yaksha Society beyond Akiha City, suddenly some were arrested and others were imprisoned.

They had already grown the Yaksha Society from a maximum of ten to twenty members in recent days, but this expansion took away a third of their top members.

That's not all. As long as a high-ranking official is arrested, all of their assets, funds, etc., will be confiscated and frozen.

This immediately terrified the higher-ups of the Yaksha Society, who then transferred all their assets to their closest relatives.

They were terrified that if they moved too late, they would be caught and have nothing left.

A week had passed since the arrest, and no one paid any attention to them, which made them realize why they had been arrested.

Crossing the line!

Anyone who dares to take the Yaksha Society out of Akiha City will be met with a severe blow!
This has left many people feeling resentful, but there's nothing they can do about it.

Some people who were originally just looking to stir up trouble lost interest as soon as they found that the Yaksha Society could only operate in Akiha City.

It's worth mentioning that three or four of the Yaksha Society's top executives ran into trouble when they tried to transfer the assets back to their own names.

They were betrayed by the people they considered their 'closest relatives'.

These betrayed people vented their anger on the higher-ups of the Yaksha Society. Unfortunately, they couldn't even defeat their own closest relatives, so how could they fight against the others?
In no time, the Yaksha Society disappeared without a trace, and its presence was only felt when a Yaksha appeared.

This is the mortal world; in the underworld, the population of Zhouzhuang Ancient Town has increased three times.

Each time, there are 108 people. Adding the initial 108 people, the number of underworld officials in Zhouzhuang Ancient Town directly accounts for four-fifths of the total number of underworld officials in the underworld!

The once deserted ancient town of Zhouzhuang gradually became lively again. Presumably, once the newly joined underworld messengers became familiar with the situation, they would earn merit points and bring their families back.

According to Chen Xin's idea, the number of Yin soldiers stationed in Zhouzhuang Ancient Town could reach a thousand. After that, they would have to start recruiting people to the Sanfeng Mountain station!
Chen Xin left all of this to Jiuri and the others to handle, while his own focus remained on the Ghost Realm.

Chen Xin always felt that the Yin Virtue Tree in the Ghost Realm would give him a surprise.

And this surprise didn't keep Chen Xin waiting for long.

On the fourteenth day of the second week after Chen Xin threw the illusionary body into the Ghost Realm.

The illusionary body has already condensed its facial features into the appearance of a real human.

On this day, when Chen Xin followed the group to the Yinde Tree again, he noticed something was wrong.

At the very front of the first group, there was an additional figure.

He was once a top-tier individual, the mayor of Qingshan Town, and the wealthiest person there.

At this moment, Chen Xin could no longer see any inhuman signs on him.

The fact that he had become a member of a separate team was also telling Chen Xin that what he was waiting for was about to happen.

Tonight, a ghost has taken human form.

……

(End of this chapter)