I didn't know where my courage came from, but I yelled at the paper figure, "Stop!"
Zheng Bingbing was startled by me, but the paper figure was fearless and continued to sway towards me. It stopped when it was about two meters away from me.
"...What do you want?" I asked nervously.
Bingbing and the deer demon, seeing me talking to the air, guessed what was happening and also became nervous. The tiger demon even threw a stone in the direction I was speaking. The stone passed through the paper figure's chest and landed beside the dry well in front of the house. However, there was no "wound" on the paper figure's chest, indicating that ordinary physical attacks were ineffective against her.
"Bingbing, go find Yaoyao!" I said in a low voice. It seemed the deer demon couldn't help me, but the shaman might be able to, as she knew "Qi-sensing techniques."
Bingbing sprinted towards the foot of the mountain, while the deer demon provided cover for Bingbing, blocking the "enemy" from pursuing her—even though she couldn't see where the enemy was.
The paper figure had no intention of chasing Bingbing. It merely glanced towards Jiuxian Cave, then turned back to me and said, "The money has been received. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Since the money has been received, can I understand this to mean you won't bother me anymore?" I asked coldly.
"Bother? Hehehe," the paper figure let out a strange laugh. "So many people wish they could be 'bothered' by me, yet they don't have the chance!"
Nonsense! Who would want to be bothered by a ghost for no reason? Are they tired of living!
"Who are you talking to?" the deer demon asked.
"Song Lei's cousin..." I thought for a moment and remembered. "Xie Bi'an?"
"Xie Bi'an?" The deer demon was startled and peered vaguely in the paper figure's direction. "My lady, is it truly you?"
My lady? The deer demon was definitely not calling me.
The paper figure ignored the deer demon and directly "passed through" her body to come to me. Because she was short, only about 1.5 meters tall, she seemed to "grow" by several tens of centimeters, reaching my usual height. I thought the craftsman who drew this paper figure had good skills, as the 2D flat drawing looked lifelike.
Just then, a cold wind swept in, accompanied by the cry of an eagle. I turned my head and saw Yaoyao riding an eagle demon, soaring in from low altitude.
The paper figure used the wind from the eagle's wings to fly backward into the air, leaving me with a parting message: "We'll meet again! You have the potential for this line of work!" httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
The paper figure drifted away and gradually disappeared.
Yaoyao dismounted from the eagle and looked up at the sky.
"You can see it?" I asked.
Yaoyao nodded. "I can see it, but not very clearly. Just a faint, ethereal white aura."
I nodded. One aura, that made sense. Yaoyao had said that humans had three auras, demons had two, and one aura was a ghost.
"Chengfeng said it was Xie Bi'an," the deer demon said from the side.
"Oh?" Yaoyao seemed slightly surprised. "Why would she approach Chengfeng?"
I told Yaoyao about my several "encounters" with Song Lei's cousin, including burning paper for her at the Taoist temple that morning. Yaoyao listened and murmured to herself, "She might be interested in you, wanting to recruit you as one of their ghost envoys."
"Ghost envoys? What do they do?" I asked.
"They escort wandering souls in the mortal world. It's nothing. Unless there's a grudge, Xie Bi'an wouldn't harm anyone, especially since she accepted your money," Yaoyao said with a smile.
"What does money have to do with it?" I asked again.
"Did you see her hat?" Yaoyao asked me.
I shook my head. The paper figure wasn't wearing a hat.
"If she were wearing an official hat, you would see the four large characters written on it: 'Lifetime Sees Wealth.' This person is ruthless towards ghosts but kind to humans. She likes small amounts of money and also likes to do good deeds, helping the poor."
It sounded like a high evaluation, but I didn't feel that way. I primarily trusted "facial features reflect the heart" when judging people. The paper figure's lifeless, pale face made it impossible for me to associate her with "kindness."
"Let's not worry about her for now. Shakespeare is arriving soon," Yaoyao said.
The group quickly traversed the deserted village and reached the foot of the mountain. Yaoyao said the formation was ready, but to me, there was no formation at all. It was just some broken walls and ruins that Yaoyao had moved and randomly placed on the open ground. It looked somewhat like Stonehenge.
"What's this formation called? How do you use it?" I asked.
Yaoyao pulled me behind a broken wall. "You don't need to worry about the formation. Just stand here, facing the wall, and stare at the top. If anyone comes up, push them down."