Since all these rules and superstitions are outdated, what's wrong with me indulging in some me

The factory area was overgrown with weeds. Lu Changsheng walked straight towards a relatively intact warehouse deep inside the factory area, with Cheng Caijun following closely behind, feeling a chill run down his neck with every step.

The warehouse door was wide open, and it was pitch black inside.

Lu Changsheng took out a flashlight from his backpack, the beam cutting through the darkness and illuminating the floating dust and scattered industrial waste on the ground.

"This is it."

Lu Changsheng walked to a relatively open area in the center of the warehouse, put down his backpack, and began to set up.

He first drew a circle about two meters in diameter on the ground with cinnabar, then placed eight old copper coins around the circle according to the Bagua directions. Next, he took out three specially made black incense sticks, lit them, and inserted them in the center of the circle.

Wisps of smoke rose, but when they reached the height of a person, they strangely dispersed, spreading out in an umbrella shape and enveloping the two people.

"Get inside the circle."

Lu Changsheng waved to Cheng Caijun.

Cheng Caijun stepped into the cinnabar circle with trepidation. As soon as he stood still, he felt the temperature around him drop sharply. Although he was standing indoors, it felt like he had suddenly been put into an ice cellar.

Lu Changsheng took a knife and cut his fingertip.

"Don't move."

Crimson blood flowed out, and Lu Changsheng smeared it on Cheng Caijun's forehead, making it look like a bloody eye.

"Remember, once you're inside, stay close to me, don't talk, and don't look around."

Cheng Caijun was a little confused, but seeing Lu Changsheng's serious face, he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

Lu Changsheng took out two fist-sized pieces of jade from his backpack and placed them on the ground. Then, he formed a hand seal and chanted incantations.

Cheng Caijun couldn't understand a single word of those incantations, only that the syllables sounded strange, carrying a kind of primitive rhythm that made his scalp tingle.

The chanting grew faster and faster, the eight copper coins on the ground began to tremble slightly, and the three incense sticks in the center burned at a sudden speed.

"Heaven and earth reverse, yin and yang borrow the way—"

Lu Changsheng suddenly opened his eyes, put two fingers together and pointed them at the ground, "Gate of Hell, open!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the jade on the ground shattered, and the ground in the center of the warehouse began to twist and ripple.

The whole world seemed to have been muted and faded by an invisible giant hand.

"Buzz—"

A low-frequency tremor, reaching deep into the soul, swept over me.

The scene before Cheng Caijun's eyes underwent a bizarre change. Everything around him remained unchanged, but all colors were instantly stripped away, leaving only gray, white, and varying shades of black.

The sound disappeared.

It wasn't absolute silence, but rather all sounds seemed to be blurred and distant, as if filtered through frosted glass.

The bone-chilling cold penetrated his clothes and seeped straight into his marrow, making his teeth chatter uncontrollably.

"Walk."

Lu Changsheng's voice rang out, but it was as if it were covered with a layer of dust, low and indistinct.

Lu Changsheng took the first step, and Cheng Caijun remembered the instructions, keeping his eyes down and forcing himself to only stare at Lu Changsheng's back. However, his peripheral vision still involuntarily caught sight of something.

A semi-transparent, hunched gray figure was lying next to a rusty stamping machine, its hands futilely pressing down again and again.

A little further away, beneath a pile of tangled, abandoned cables, a child-sized silhouette was slowly rolling around.

Most of them are still or repeating monotonous movements, and when two people walk by, the movements of those gray shadows will freeze for a very short time.

However, when the two of them reached the corner of the passage ahead, they found a gray figure wearing tattered work clothes with its neck crooked at an odd angle, standing motionless in the middle of the road with its back to them, blocking most of their way.

"Living people... Hehehe, there are still living people in the ghost realm..."

"roll."

Lu Changsheng kept his eyes straight ahead, his lips barely moving as he uttered a single, cold word.

"Who do you think you are? Get out of here!"

The crooked-necked gray figure suddenly turned its head, revealing a face that was half collapsed and rotting to the bone, with two points of eerie green phosphorescence flickering in its eye sockets. Cheng Caijun was startled; this was clearly not one of the previous low-level ghosts that had been in a daze, but a fierce ghost with ferocity and consciousness.

Cheng Caijun felt the bloodstain on his forehead instantly become scalding hot, like a branding iron.

Lu Changsheng's reaction was unusually calm; a talisman had appeared in his hand without him even noticing.

"Where did these new wandering ghosts come from? They dare to block my way?!"

With a low shout, the yellow talisman shot out like lightning!

"Imperial Edict!"

"Varied……?!"

The venomous look on the crooked-necked ghost's face was instantly replaced by unbelievable terror, and the two points of phosphorescent light flickered wildly. Before it could even wail, its entire gray-black body rapidly melted, disintegrated, and vanished without a trace.

The entire warehouse was deathly silent.

The remaining gray figures had now completely huddled in a corner, wishing they could bury themselves in the ground.

"Let's go."

Lu Changsheng remained expressionless, turned around and led Cheng Caijun out of the factory gate.

"Brother Lu...those were all ghosts!"

Cheng Caijun's voice trembled.

"What else could you encounter in the ghost realm if not ghosts?"

Lu Changsheng glanced at the little mascot beside him. And it's true, ever since Cheng Caijun came to his side, he hasn't had any bad luck.

"Brother..." Cheng Caijun was about to cry, "I know you're incredibly powerful, but what are we doing in the Ghost Realm in the middle of the night?"

"Retrieving corpses."

"What?!"

Cheng Caijun's sobbing abruptly changed into a suppressed scream, his face clearly saying, "Are you crazy?"

"Retrieve...retrieve whose body?" His voice was extremely low and trembling.

"The corpse of a 'messenger'," Lu Changsheng said succinctly. "A 'messenger' is someone who runs errands between the human and ghost realms. However, this messenger was carrying something he shouldn't have, and died in a place he shouldn't have died. The employer offered a hefty price to take the item back."

Cheng Caijun's mind flashed through countless scenes of retrieving corpses underwater from horror movies, coupled with the appearance of the crooked-necked ghost from earlier, and he felt his calves start to cramp again.

"Brother Lu, is this job... really something we absolutely have to take? I don't feel ready yet..."

"The reward was a large amount of jade."

Cheng Caijun was taken aback.

"Haven't you always wanted to learn magic from me?" Lu Changsheng's tone was calm, but it hit Cheng Caijun's heart like a heavy hammer. "The spiritual energy on Earth is thin. If you want to learn magic, you can only rely on the spiritual energy of top-grade jade that has been nurtured for hundreds of years. These jades are priceless and rare treasures."

He paused, then continued:

"The employer offered a generous price. Moreover, I'm curious about what the messenger delivered that would lead to such a deadly predicament—according to the rules, even if there is conflict between the human and ghost realms, messengers should not be killed. This rule hasn't been broken for nearly a thousand years."

Cheng Caijun remained silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth and nodded heavily.

"Okay! Anyway, I trust you, Brother Lu!"

He quickly followed Lu Changsheng.

The rusted iron gate of the warehouse closed silently behind us, completely isolating us from that oppressive, deathly gray space.